UniversalistPrayers

Evening Prayer September 1, 2011

Tonight let my weariness and my resentments settle down, molder, turn back to dust, back to those elements of love and care that were catalyzed with salty grief and turned into a hardness of heart. Hurt already, why should I carry it day in and day out, especially when I know well how that hurt slips into my tongue and my hands to cut someone else? No, accept this offering, Mercy and Compassion, and permit me to leave these worrisome biting flies of rage right here, right now. Permit me to open my heart to a gentle breeze of hopeful dreams and of loving thoughts, so I might be kind when I need to be, so I might tend the great work for justice, so I might be truly generous without reserve, because I am not always splitting my attention between this bitterness and what is truly needful. Open my heart to greening possibility and to vibrant joy, to the wonderful surprise that could be in the next moment, and to a continuously singing gratitude for so much that is good, so many to love, so much I might yet do, so wonderful a life there is to live. Amen.

 

Morning Prayer September 1, 2011

Lover of Life how much more evidence of love than this ability to endure, this wonderful yearning to teach what we know, to care even after abandonment, to love and to keep loving even after wounded! We have these choices before us: hope and discover dancing, risk vulnerability again and meet wonderful joy, create merciful justice green and vibrant. We have these choices, in the little ways we show love, in bearing hurt for greater goodness, in making amends for our own harmful troubles, and in letting go the bitterness in forgiveness so we are free to fly in love. How beautiful and wonderful resilience! What mercy there is in these choices, in these decisions for healing, for hope, and for a generous way. Amen.

Evening Prayer August 31, 2011

Beloved you know well how easy it is for us to sustain grudges and self-righteousness that once had real cause and hurt, but that has hardened into the only safety we know, bitter and hurtful rusty sharp. Love, you know, is terrifying then, admitting the way we can be hurt anew. And yet there you are, waiting, a quiet distance that we have demanded, and now, can we choose to cross? Fearfulness flakes off with each movement toward losing that wire form of hatred. Anger swirls and eddies in dusty shedding as we turn, turn again to be vulnerable, to risk hurt, yet, and also to risk mercy and laughter, thankfulness and praise, and living with kindness and with joy. Worthy it is, yet difficult the distance. Beloved, can we get there? And what reassurance to hear within the now-rabbit heart, “yes, yes, yes” as the bitter distance falls behind. Amen.

Morning Prayer August 31, 2011

Bend my heart and my hands to service, Generous Compassion, to what I can offer in celebration and with gratitude for this day. Let me leave behind the unworthy that snarls and hinders me in living with joyful humility. Untangle myself from self-regard, from satisfied comfort, from the irritants and wires that can form the frame upon which I distort my soul. Merciful Justice there is more than enough if we sweat it so, with hearts full of love and forbearance. Bend my heart and my hands to service for holy goodness, giving thanks, singing praises, for the chance to be of use, to find a way these unwarranted gifts may lovingly support the whole. Amen.

Evening Prayer August 30, 2011

I turn away from the onslaught of news that is the same old story of greed and jealousy and revenge smashing and refusing and grabbing, never able to truly get what is wanted, what is good, what is needful, what is the work of heart. I turn prayerfully so I can tend this work of heart, this life that demands so much and that we marvelously distort into demanding so little. Beloved, turn me to center. Turn me once again to the tasks at heart, to the finding of kindness even when I am sieved by the bitterness I’ve met. Turn me once again to the work at heart, to choosing not to respond with caustic anger or with fearful violence, but to seek a story of hopeful connection. Turn me once again to the work at heart, to giving thanks we can change, to giving thanks for the generosity of those who give so much for goodness, to giving thanks for sharp sorrows that turn me back to what is good, what is needful, what is this work of heart. When I leave this piece of praying, may my life pray in deeds this work of heart. Amen.

Morning Prayer August 30, 2011

Send me with courage, Beloved, into this day, for well I will need the courage to go with love, with humility, and with hope. I need the courage of roses and lilies, with their brief moments of radiant joy and their long laboring of strong roots and climbing vines, of outstretched leaves and stocky corms. From such homely and steady stuff we meet moments of Eden again, borne on the breeze for memory and drawing us onward in wonder and joy. Today might be a root day or a new leaf day or a tenacious clinging day, but all of those days are needed to bear love more fully into this world. May I hold onto that, as surely as the rose reaches toward the sun. Amen.

 

Evening Prayer August 29, 2011

Give thanks, fingering that long scar that you most hate, for both transformation and healing have their own beauty. Give thanks for the gifts that have been found through and after trouble and pain, worry and grief, the hard shells of bitterness cracked and the vulnerable possibility of new growth and amazing joy peeping through. Give thanks for the chance to live, not maybe as once imagined let alone as fantasized, but to live a good life, offering love and sharing your gifts, and meeting true friends, good stories, and shining songs along the way. Amen.

Morning Prayer August 29, 2011

Where are the words for reverence? Blessing. Yes. Wow. The clouds are dancing the prayers carried by the wind. The bees seek at the altar of each blossom what is needful and what is good. Cats vie with lizards for the most wonderful patch of radiance in which they give thanks. Amazing Is that Is and Was and Will Be, I am overfull of awe for this astounding life, this splendid world, the complexity of being. I give thanks and in that thanksgiving, in reverence, may I go into this day sharing that reverent wonder in my thoughts, words, and deeds. Amen.

Evening prayer August 28, 2011

This night let awe slip gently into my heart, open wide the shutters of my spirit, and sweep out the little misgivings, the close fears, the hurt that has grown comfortable. Yes, that hurt, remember, the one that’s frayed from wear and embarrassing in public, but without it, there is….what? not shameful bare soul? Breathe in wonder and unravel that hurt knit tight and pocked with holes and splits. Knotty and close, once, but here, breath by breath wondering at the majesty of the whole, at how trees – TREES! – germinate and grow stout and steady from tiny seeds. Breath by breath I marvel at the sounds of bats and moths, so different, yet both seeking nightly nourishment. Breath by breath I feel the stars dancing with my spirit, as I would love to dance. This night let awe slip gently into my heart performing mundane miracles that bring me prostrate and grateful with reverence. Amen.

 

Morning Prayer August 28, 2011

Sing Alleluia and rejoice for this gift of life, for love that makes a difference, for stories shared that give us wings. Rejoice in the gift and turn out heart pockets to empty out the lingering weariness, the noisy resentments, the slights and hurts endured this week that threaten to congeal, grab your keys, and run your life. Rejoice in the gift of life, in the turning away from what diminishes and wears away at the vital hopes and the needed efforts. Rejoice in the gift of being able to turn away into letting wonder air out your fussy and irritable spirit, letting lapping waves of thanks for this flower, this breath, this hope leaping from branch to branch, eager to be off. Rejoice in these and so many other gifts that give us change for the better change for  fullness in love, in mercy, and in reverence. Amen.