UniversalistPrayers

Evening Prayer November 1, 2011

Remember with gratitude the ancestors, spiritual and blood, those we remember as more perfect than they really were, those we remember as more fault-laden than they really were. Remember them and give thanks. Give thanks for the choices we have to live today. Give thanks for the ways we can accept the stories we’ve inherited, can wrestle them, can choose new ways, can honor the ones that yet give life. Give thanks: life handed the ancestors trouble too, misunderstandings and great grief, disappointments and pain. Give thanks: life presented reasons for hope, for joy, for love. How did our ancestors choose? How shall we? This is a path made possible by many unknown and known, by the ones who have come this way over holy ground. Let us travel with reverence, with care for one another, with gratitude, and with hope. Amen.

 

Morning Prayer November 1, 2011

Merciful Compassion, how easy it is for us in the midst of grief or pain, anger or despair to lose track of abiding love. How easy it is when we do not know how love sounds or feels, when day after day we are met with messages that others are somehow more worthy, somehow more deserving. Merciful Compassion our hearts are such tender flowers, able to bear rich fruit that can feed multitudes, but so easy blasted by harsh words, disdainful looks, cruelty and violence pressed down or the violence of isolation and abandonment, the withdrawing of love. We have these stories and these songs reminding us of our heart’s calling, to be this real presence of abiding love, to be bearers of mercy and compassion, and yet, how easy it is for us to drop away. Enhearten those who are suffering despair, and help those who have some measure of abiding love to share to come alongside, until hope may blossom once again. Amen.

Morning Prayer 31, 2011

Creative Compassion be everywhere today where people struggle with stuckness, find ourselves at loose and dead ends, don’t know where to turn or how to begin. Help us be helpmeets to one another to discover joy, to create the way where none before existed, to delight in the unique gifts of each and every one. Draw our creativity to ways that create more hope, offer healing, develop merciful justice, pass along wisdom, celebrate life, and nurture the ways of love. Creative Compassion, wherever you are resilience breaks out and thanks giving follows. Teach us to dance in your way, now and always. Amen.

Evening Prayer October 31, 2011

Everywhere around us, season after season, day after day we bear witness to the wonder of life, to the way of growth, of maturing, of aging, and of dying. How precious and how wonderful is this way! Each season is made more precious with the reality of it passing. The gifts of these flowers, the gifts of those birds, the gifts of these hearts are each unique in their offering, in their span of days and hours. Lover of Life you teach us to cherish life, to reverence these gifts, these moments we dance and live. We find you in this life; to you we continuously return as we dance and at our ends. Let our dreams be dreams of thankful generosity and dancing in reverence. Let our deed fulfill those dreams, as we bear witness to this wonderment. Amen.

Evening Prayer October 30, 2011

Pardon my rushing in today, Lover of Life, the laughter still crashing out of me as I tumble down, turning once again to give thanks. You know those moments, right, when in meeting we can do such good things, sparks and stories and songs and the other labors needed to make refuge, to build the way of merciful justice. What a gift those moments of YES are! What a blessing to have them, and anticipating more, to dance on filled with love, ready and offering what we have received to what’s needed and needful in this world! Thanks and joy for these and every blessing! Amen.

Morning Prayer October 30, 2011

Come into the quiet place of the heart and sit with the presence of love. Hold onto the beauty of the world; drink it in and give thanks. Let the sweet crash of surf or the shush of snow or the first sounds of the city waking make the quiet within you, calling you back to the presence of wonder. When wonder breaks out like stars in the dusk, then open your heart to give thanks, to say hello to the presence of joy, to set down and carry with you all day, no matter how much you give away, this splendid gift of abundant love, met at the first of day. Amen.

Morning Prayer October 29, 2011

Before each of us, the next tide, coming in, going out, changing, surging, rising. Lover of Life You are also a lover of change, of learning, of transformation in trial and in challenge, in resistance and in persistence. When we find ourselves approaching the next change, the next tide, may we prepare room for generosity and mercy, for wisdom and creativity to help us follow the better way. When we are in the midst of change, may we hold onto gratitude and kindness, onto hope and trust that we might turn again and again to the better way. When we are at the end of one surge of change and have a chance to catch our breath, may we sing sweet songs of thanksgiving, dance and rejoice with those we can meet, before we turn back to the next change waiting. Amen.

Evening Prayer October 29, 2011

We gather on the edge of day and the edge of night, counting out the moments of joy, the moments of generosity, the moments of wonder, the moments of healing so they sparkle, stars gathered from the day. We gather on the edge of night and at the end of day, taking time to set down the losses, gather up the loose fragments of failure that will teach, remembering when we did not do what was needed and when we did what was not needful, and we let these go into the night fires, ash to return to earth and nourish new life. We need both to sit here in the growing dark and meet the Holy, singing an old song that calls our hearts back to newness, birthing blessing once again, until we are ready again to dance. Alleluia. Amen.

Morning Prayer October 28, 2011

Blessed is the new day! How amazing it is to meet a new day, to wonder what this day will bring, to be able to give thanks, to choose that thanks giving! It is a blessing to love, to hope, to give, to receive, to dwell in the place of possibility! Make a joyful noise for this day and dare to risk love, kindness, caring, generosity, and gratitude in this day! Live into this blessing and be among the blessings others meet. Amen.

 

Evening Prayer October 28, 2011

What a wonderful blessing are these spiritual ancestors who struggled to enter the turbulent waters, who needed encouragement to bear up and be of good cheer, who had to be reminded, even while carrying the tabernacle that the Presence was still present, right there, in the midst of troubles! How wonderful, so when I tremble on the edge of these small shoals, not wanting to be broken upon the rocks or by the surf, I can remember them, and smile in recognition, adjust my shoulders, and bear up and bear on again. What a gift to have received these stories and hold them close! What a gift to turn again and trust enough to risk faithfully. Amen.