The U-Pick 5
Blue Light Special!
I invite you to pick 5 people or issues to pray for or about over the course of a 9-day period – and use this poem as inspiration.
God has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes with which the world is viewed with compassion
Yours are the feet with which the world walks a path toward goodness
Yours are the hands with which the world is blessed.
Yours are the eyes, Yours are the feet, Yours are the hands,
Look kindly, Walk humbly, Touch gently,
for you are the embodiment of God’s essence.
I have adapted the poem to remove andro-centric and Christo-centric language. The original text is a poem attributed to Terese of Avila, a 16th Century Spanish mystic and “Doctor of the Church.” However, it is widely believed by historians that the mystic did not actually write the poem and authorship really makes no difference to the message it contains. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, recently quoted the poem in the Ascension Novena for 2026 which is the 9 days between the Ascension and Pentacost in Christian tradition. The Archbishop urged us to pray for 5 people or issues during this 9-day period.
So, to that end, I invite you to Pick 5 and let this poem, regardless of who wrote it, be an inspiration.
Remember – action without contemplation is impulse, contemplation without action is wasted time. Pick your 5, and then pray for the gift to look, walk and touch.