UniversalistPrayers

Morning Prayer March 1, 2012

Merciful Wisdom grant us understanding of our own brokenness, that it may be like the seed consumed so the plant may thrive, that we grow strong and rooted in our faith. May our brokenness welcome the kinds of generous transformation in love that becomes evident when the butterfly breaks open its cocoon and flutters into blessing. May our brokenness be a space to grow generous in our humility, like the cracked pavement where a beautiful flower rises to nourish that butterfly and carry on life’s blessings. Amen.

Evening Prayer March 1, 2012

Mercy and Compassion let our own sorrows strengthen our ability to be kind, encourage us to greater generosity, and keep us steadfast in loving our neighbors, strangers, family, and friends through every time and season. Let us remember  that before the flowers come the buds and before the buds the seeds must break apart and grow strong roots and leaves. Let us remember and take heart in the changing seasons, the fallow ones and the fruitful ones, the seasons of struggle and challenge and the seasons of ease and happiness.  When we are in one season, let us not forget the other, or that the mercies of warmth in winter help us wait until spring and that the storms of summer let us remember that challenge comes with every life and every season. Mercy and Compassion, let us give thanks for this and for each day, with whatever goodness we can cherish and with the challenges we are in while we seek out their blessings. Amen.

Evening Prayer February 29, 2012

Rock and Refuge teach us the ways of hospitality, of welcoming all, the easy to welcome and the difficult alike. Grant us the inspiration of the stories of radical care for strangers You have shared through the ages, and help us live into new stories for ages to come. When such hospitality frightens us show us the refuge of steadfast love. When such hospitality wears us show us the way of sharing responsibility with those who seek and those who welcome, so that we grow generously together. When such hospitality challenges our cherished self-regard, our ways and our comfort, grant us courage to and strength to love the diversity of being as You do, to choose neighborliness and kindness, and to meet new blessings in our differences. Rock and Refuge You ever welcome us, even when we have turned away and turned aside. Teach us the way of steadfast love, now and ever. Amen.

 

Morning Prayer February 29, 2012

Lover of Life open our hearts that we may better welcome You and every person, knowing they breathe with Your breath, are touched with Your hand. We choose to attend in steadfast love, to attend You and to attend creation; as we choose each minute of each day to attend or to return our attention, help us know what is needful and good, what is right and holy, what is the way of compassion and the way of hope. Lover of Love guide us in loving life with you, in this and in every day. Amen.

Morning Prayer February 28, 2012

Lover of Life as we dance into today, may we share what we have both burdens and joys, care more fully for one another and this earth, give thanks for the blessings known and unknown that sustain our neighbors and our selves. When we are puzzled and confused, may we have the patience to breathe and to wait, to welcome others alongside who can sit with us and help us to together find a way. When we are called in this great dance to be the ones who come alongside, may we do so with grace and with generosity. However we are, wherever we find our selves in this dance, may we love boldly, laugh heartily, and live generously in all our days. Amen.

 

Evening Prayer February 28, 2012

Lover of Life welcome with us the night and the blessings night bears. Grant to all who seek it a restful and healthful sleep, to all who are restless kind companions to help them bear it. When it is our turn to heed the call of restlessness or restfulness, may we do so gracefully and graciously, telling the good story that winds into hopeful dreams and fully attending to the cares that keep the nights full for the restless. Lover of Life guide us always in compassion and grant us courage to be kind, to do what is right especially when it is unpopular, and to love boldly so that our love shines like the stars on a cloudless night. Amen.

Evening Prayer February 27, 2012

Mercy and Wonder guide our hearts and hands, our words and works in the ways of steadfast love. Root us strongly in generosity, in thankfulness, and in humble wonderment. Strengthen us with courage for what is good and yet frightens us or travels with trouble. Draw us together in our diverse ways of being and our varied gifts, and teach us to care for one another, for this earth, and for You in every hour, in trial and in celebration, in night and in day. Let us rejoice in You and your gifts, the way of steadfast love, now and ever more. Amen.

Morning Prayer February 27, 2012

Blessed Wonder each day I give thanks for this life in all its amazing ways, thanks for the challenges that teach me, thanks for the chances to aid the good, thanks for the blessings I know and thanks for the blessings I cannot yet name. Grant me courage for the day ahead to do what is right and good, to forgive fully and well and to make my own amends when wrong, and to live humbly and generously in every hour of the day. Amen.

Evening Prayer Febraury 26, 2012

Lover of Life we give thanks for all the ways we met you today. We give thanks for all the ways we will dance in dreaming with You tonight, the ways your mercy sparkles, more numerous than the stars, illuminating our lives. When we are weary, may we recount Your wonders and the ways we have known them, and when even that seems too far distant, may we remember Your blessings through stories and songs. May we emulate You and pass Your blessings on in the needles knitting generously, the bowl of soup passed to another, the welcome we can make like the welcome we seek in this night. Lover of Life You grant us so many blessings; may you see them shining back to You in gratitude and in our changed hearts. Amen.

 

Morning Prayer February 26, 2012

Lover of Life turn us toward one another, to meet in each other Your image and our promises to You. How shall we live into those promises today? If we choose to pursue them, may we find courage, and when we falter, lean upon those others in our community, strangers, neighbors, and friends, so that we might carry on together. Hear our songs of hope and of thanksgiving and attend our dances of resilience and of praise. We give thanks for the choice, thanks for the journey, thanks for these loved ones, these friends, these neighbors, these strangers who teach us in unceasing song of You. Amen.