Prayer for the Sailor Upon the Sea

Emil Nolde (German, 1867–1956), Dark Red Sea, ca. 1938

Mon Dieu, protégez-moi,

mon navire est si petitet

votre mer si grande!

Lord, help me . . .

Because my boat is so small,

And your sea is so immense.

This anonymous prayer collected from a Breton sailor—or fisherman, as some anthologies cite—is found in Émile Souvestre, Les derniers Bretons (The Last Bretons), vol. 1 (Paris: Charpentier, 1836), p121. Though “boat” and “sea” were likely meant first and foremost literally, there is a long tradition of boats being used as metaphors for our fragile selves, afloat the vicissitudes of life, or carried about by the divine will. Living outside a maritime context, this prayer may thus be prayed in a metaphoric sense, as we called by God towards an uncertain but promising future.