What is a good christian mantra for gratefulness and opening to god? I've been looking for one! — Krista

Dear Krista,

Mantras are simple phrases that keep our heart, will, and mind attuned to that which is life-giving and eternal. They can be quietly spoken out loud during prayer time or repeated internally. Once they become established in our awareness, they can even become a steady background rhythm to all we do. They give us clarity, and they also allow for a quality of questioning that awakens dormant depths in us.

The only challenge in your question about a good Christian mantra is to limit the field! St. Julian of Norwich offers a confident expression of Divine grace which stirs the heart:

All shall be well, all shall be well,
and all manner of things shall be well.

Though Julian writes within her faith as a Christian, these words speak about gratefulness to people of any persuasion. Life, a gift to us from the Great Mystery, unfolds with unfailing guidance. As we open more and more to this help, our lives become expressions of profound joy and convey wellness to all who come within our orbit.

With this expansive view of gratitude as a finely honed awareness of life’s inherent wondrousness, many phrases from Christian writers come to light as possible mantras. Perhaps one of the ones below will resonate in your own heart. Whenever you read a book that you consider sacred, be on the lookout for lines that draw your attention as if Someone just spoke to you directly. This may well be the case! The words you discover may be for you a perfect mantra, an echo of God's own voice.

Blessings,
Patricia

Be assured, I am with you always, to the end of time.
- Matthew 28:20

There is no leaf that is not in Your care.
There is no cry that was not heard by You
before it was uttered.
- Thomas Merton, Sign of Jonas

Plunge my soul into the shoreless ocean of Your Love.
- Based on St. Terese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul

If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you,
ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
- John 15:7

O God, we believe you are here.
Flood our souls with Your spirit and life.
- Mother Teresa

I abandon myself into Your hands;
Do with me what You will.
- Brother Charles of Jesus