Prayer by Elie Wiesel
Originally from One Generation After
I no longer ask you either happiness or paradise: all I ask of You is to listen and let me be aware of Your listening.
I no longer ask You to resolve my questions, only to receive them and make them part of You.
I no longer ask You for either rest or wisdom, I only ask You not to close me to gratitude, be it of the most trivial kind, or to surprise and friendship. Love? Love is not Yours to give.
As for my enemies, I do not ask You to punish them or even to enlighten them; I only ask You not to lend them Your mask and Your powers. If You must relinguish one or the other, give Your powers. But not Your contenance.
They are modet, by requests, and humble. I ask You what I might ask a stranger met by chant at twilight in a barren land.
I ask you, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to enable me to pronounce these words without betraying the child that transmitted them to me: God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, enable me to forgive You and enable the child I once was to forgive me too.
I no longer ask You for the life of that child, nore even his faith. I only beg You to listen to him and act in such a way that You and I can listen to him together.
