Prayer for the Beginning of a Spiritual Journey All: Leader: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, The person next to you is one of the greatest miracles, a testament of the Word made Flesh, of God's coming continually into the world, into our midst. The person next to you is an inexhaustible reservoir of possibility, with potential that has not yet been touched. The person next to you is a unique universe of experience, filled with necessity and possibility, dread and desire, smiles and frowns, laughter and tears, hopes and fears, all struggling for expression. The person next to you believes in something, stands for something, lives for something, waits for something, runs from something, labors for something. The person next to you is insecure and self- assured, confident and afraid, is often undecided and disorganized, and yet finds peace in the chaos; this person is imbued with a great toughness in the face of adversity, able to survive difficulties and persecutions. The person next fo you can do some things better than anyone else in the whole world. There is something this one life is meant to do or be... The person next to you can never be