Performed by Rebecca Bouc and Stefan Cwik
Composed by Stefan Cwik (www.stefancwik.com)

A close family friend, Leticia Villasenor, commissioned Prayer for the Pilgrim. It was commissioned for the 57th birthday celebration of the Most Reverend Gustavo Garcia-Siller, M.Sp.S., Archbishop of San Antonio, Texas. Most Reverend Garcia-Siller wrote a prayer book entitled "Transforming Prayer for Pilgrims". This, a book of meditation, outlined the experiences he had with the writings of the Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida, a Roman Catholic Mystic writer and missionary. As a mystic she claimed to have heard the voice of Christ through meditation and wrote a multitude of reflections on her experiences and what she considered them to mean to our existence. Her writings and meditations total over 60,000 handwritten pages, approaching that of Saint Thomas Aquinas. The Catholic Church looked favorably upon her writings and although she died in 1937, Pope Saint John Paul II declared upon her the Catholic title "Venerable" in 1999.

Below is the text of Prayer for the Pilgrim:

I surrender to the Spirit, the spirit of truth
The Spirit comes to the aid of my weakness
I call the Holy Spirit with penance and tears, with ardent desire
My heart is one with the Lord, through prayer

I contemplate, my hands empty to you,
I contemplate the mystery of salvation.
I follow the way of love and truth,
I no longer live, but love lives in me.

I embrace the whole of the universe,
My prayer is one with the heart of all,
I am transformed by suffering, by love,
I raise heavenward this cry, this cry of my soul
This is my body...This is my blood!
This is my body...This is my blood!
Jesus! Savior of all people, save them, save them, save them!

In union with all, with intentions of love, with intentions of love,
Salvation with all that is, and all that ever will be

I present my soul to God
Receive me now with all my soul and heart,
My dreams and my past, my present,
My agony, and my death
So God may convert them to life
Jesus, Savior of all people, save them, save them, save them,
so that we may find...peace.

-Stefan Cwik

Prayer for the Pilgrim

Composer, Guitarist, and Pianist living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Follow me for news on concerts, events, and updates including new recordings. Contact Stefan at stcwik@gmail.com
