Modah Ani: Awakening to Gratefulness
Modah ani l’fanecha,
Ruach chai v’kayam
She’hechazarta bi nishmati b’chemla,
Raba Emunatecha
I gratefully acknowledge Your Face; Spirit lives and endures;
You return my soul to me with compassion; How great is your faith in me!
Each day I wake up with an intention that when I open my eyes I will see and recognize God’s Face in the details of the day I am about to encounter. I have many different melodies for the chant. I make up a new one almost every day that expresses my particular mood, inspiration, anticipation, attitude or flavor of my gratefulness. Sometime I just chant the first 3 words, as I come into gratefulness and the awareness of God’s Presence in my world. Sometimes I chant the first 6 words, as I acknowledge that although my whole world is in flux, there is a Great Spirit — eternal and enduring, moving through all of it. And sometimes I chant all 12 words, receiving consciousness from the Compassionate One and opening to the sense of being seen, known, loved and fully accepted by The Great Mystery that embraces me this very day.
Meister Eckart said that if the only prayer you ever say is, “Thank You,” that would be enough. Gratefulness connects us up to the great flow of receptivity and generosity. When we begin the day in gratefulness, we step on to the Path of Love.
Click to download the Flavors of Gratefulness PDF file for all the Modah Ani chants. For information about the app, see the Flavors of Gratefulness App page.
To listen to the various ‘flavors of gratefulness’, go to the following pages: