Celebrate the flowers of the spirit that bear goodness in the world, the generous gifts of selflessness and kindness, the gifts of thankfulness and welcome, the gifts of wisdom and of playing, the gifts of wonder and of reverence. Give thanks with all our heart, all we are, adding our dance to the wonderment, our song to the holy chorus, our all to the all that is and will be, bearing goodness and mercy in night and in day. Amen.
Welcome the new day, o my heart, awaken and prepare room for the world. So many hurting today, Mercy and Compassion, guide us in gently reaching one another, in finding ways of hope and healing, accountability and abundant generosity. So many troubled today, Wisdom and Justice, guide us in creating a way that bears good fruit for all, a way of restoration and reconciliation, a way of full appreciation for the diversity of gifts in this world. So many wondering today, Love and Mystery, invite us again into the great dance, the turning that abets goodness, the turning that laughs kindly and discovers awe in every day. Amen
We shout with joy and celebrate the wonderful abundance of life. Yes, Giver, you know all that abundant busyness and all that abundant sorrow is part and parcel of this way. But also what amazing generosity there is, and what more there can be, when we open our hearts, when we take each other not as strangers but as kin, when we honor the astounding diversity of life upon this earth and marvel at the awe of the heavens. Receivers all, receivers of life and love and nourishment and yearning, of gifts and of hopes, of dreams and of learning, let us give thanks. Creators all, creators of merciful justice, generous compassion and gracious forgiveness, creators of loving ways and counteracting iniquity, let us give thanks for this choice to add to the cornucopia of goodness. Receivers and Creators, we are thankful, thankful for the graciousness of this present possibility, opening into the greater dance of love. Amen.
Sound the trumpets of joy and give thanks for the turning of the earth to a new day, a new beginning, a new page of the story to which we belong! Let every word and every deed contribute to glad news and goodness growing in this world. When challenged and perplexed, may we rely upon the abundance of gifts and cultivate creativity to answer with a way of merciful justice, with a cornucopia of generous kindness and blessing. Sound the trumpets and give thanks: there is more than sorrow here, much more, and we are part of bringing in that healing hope and joy. Amen.
Wash my heart in the waters of compassion, ceasing from bustle and noise to stop and pray for those in need of encouragement and of care. I give thanks for the many others who care deeply, who are finding and growing and gleaning for the hungry, who are making way and making home for those in need of refuge, who are working day and night to create a merciful justice and leave no one behind. I am awed and brought to tears of joy to know there is so much loving care in the world, and yet, so much more we can do. Beloved, encourage us yet more in these labors of spirit and heart, these labors that change the world and change each of us for the better. Amen.
Lover of Life we sing our thanks and dance our praises for the love we have known and that to which we are called, day by day. We give thanks for the lessons we have learned in living more fully into love. We give thanks for the lessons of love in difficult times and sullen moods and unreasonable demands and tantrums and yet also knows change, amends, forgiveness. We give thanks for the lessons love in denial, resistance, and turns away feeling unsafe and unloveable, and the patience learned, the resilience learned from turning and discovering unexpected wonder again. We give thanks for the love that liberates, breaking the chains of oppression, resisting the forces that wish to wash all into sameness instead of celebrating our holy gift of diversity, and that dances, morning and night, claiming the streets and the frightening places back to make them once again whole and holy, one blessing. Amen
Bearer of Mercy, as we welcome night and the blessing of all things new, as we give thanks for what is sweet and what is good, help us also open doors to those seeking refuge, open hearts to those seeking loving acceptance, open hands to generous actions in each and every day. Grant us the wisdom of responsibility, joy of being of use, and delight in the multitude of good perfectly imperfect gifts and the people bearing them that make a holy community. May we be bearers of love, growers of peace, and builders of merciful justice with the holy, now and evermore. Amen.
Bearer of Mercy turn our hearts and our hands into this new day to live faithfully in ways that really matter. If we struggle to find tortilla or for bread, may we meet the generous blessing of enoughness that we may carry on the other labors of raising children, of restoring the desecrated earth, of bringing peace and justice with you into every land. If we struggle with distractions from what really matters, may we meet the generous blessing of community calling us back to attend to others suffering, to creating refuge for every dispossessed and displaced one, to the healing of broken hearts and burned earth. Bearer of Mercy, in our struggles may me give thanks for those who are alongside, and find in each and every day new blessing turning places marked by tears into places marked with thanksgiving. Amen.
What joy overflows the cups of those who find gratitude in every thing! Breath of Life I fill my lungs with hope, willing to change, to be transformed by finding thankfulness in the muddle, to focus on what I can do and trust in others to tend the rest, to live in breathing gratitude for so many blessings. How easy it is for me to turn aside and travel the same life I travel now, but to experience it was trial, as sewer, as empty! And how easy it is to turn, and to keep turning, after that first most difficult turn, that first fumbling grasping for thanks and finding life to be a generous wonder after all, emerging, growing, filling cup after cup with a pure gratitude while learning a profligate generosity of love. Amen.
Turn my attention again, Merciful Justice, to what it is I do, what I have failed to attend that is needful, and what I choose that is good. When I pause and count over the troubles I’ve caused and the pain and suffering I’ve created, may I also find myself counting what I’ve been able to contribute to the greater goodness, to the small and intermediate mercies, to what was within my abilities and power to do. Let me not sit in judgment over my neighbor; turn my heart back to trusting the Holy, to contributing to what human accountability I can, and to condemning none. Mercy, you know I know what it is to be hurt as well as to hurt; teach me to heal what I can, to avoid hurting others, and to give thanks for community of compassion we weave with Holy help. Amen.
Unitarian Universalist preacher, pirate, knitter, and lover of life!
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