August 03, 2026

Welcome Everything That Comes

Welcome, welcome, welcome. I welcome everything that comes to me today because I know it is for my healing.

Cynthia Bourgeault first heard these words from her teacher and friend Mary Mrozowski, who developed the Welcoming Prayer as a lay contemplative practice growing out of the centering prayer movement. Bourgeault carried the prayer into her own teaching after sitting with people who were dying, watching them use these very words to meet pain and fear without flinching. She includes it in The Wisdom Way of Knowing as proof that the heart can be trained to receive difficulty instead of bracing against it. The prayer speaks to resilience today because it locates strength not in gritting your teeth but in loosening your grip.