The words of the Serra Prayer formed me in ways I was totally oblivious of, taking it for granted as I did, night after night over the table. Most of all, that first line: “Oh God, who wills not the death of a sinner, but rather he be converted and live.” It’s a missionary line from a missionary prayer by a missionary society named after a missionary – but the first frontier of conversion is one’s own heart. Night after night, I absorbed the idea that this is who God is – God, who wills not the death of the sinner, but rather he be converted and live – this, after all is said and done, and whatever else may be true, is who God is to you.

How a prayer I said before each meal as a child shaped me.