UniversalistPrayers

Morning Prayer May 24, 2012

Mercy of Mercies today open my heart to the joyful humility of listening more than speaking, to rejoicing in being part of this splendid life but not having to be in charge, to take up my responsibilities happily and gratefully, and to do what I can for good to the very best of my abilities. Let me keep learning, keep teaching, keep striving for the good and serving with grace, so that when this day is done, I know I have done my part as part of this community filled with so many different people and so many different gifts. Amen.  

 

Evening Prayer May 24, 2012

Mercy of Mercies in this night receive the prayers of all those seeking courage for the long night ahead, help for the journey that lies before them, and loving hearts and hands to join them in making it safely home. Mercy of Mercies so many have no place to lay their heads or cannot imagine what a safe home is. Guide all of us in reaching out and making welcome, in holding each other with loving accountability to create safe and loving homes, and in building the peaceful world we dream of. Mercy of Mercies, inspire us in our dreaming and in our doing, this night and every night. Amen.

 

Morning Prayer May 23, 2012

Heart of Compassion lead us in the way of living mercifully, justly, and generously. Help us understand one another better, encourage one another more heartily and kindly, and strive together to tend what is good and needful in this day. May we learn from one another and respect and rejoice in how each of us knows the power of compassion, the strength of mercy, and the courage of love to transform us and this world hour by hour and day by day. Amen.

Evening Prayer May 23, 2012

Blessed Life let my heart open to the spirit of love. May the breath of life bear me where I may be of use, where I may serve a cup of mercy and love courageously. May the song of hope bear seeds of kindness and encouragement where they are most needed and may I be among the singers. Blessed Life lead us in trusting more wisely, in giving more generously, and in living more boldly into what is good, gracious, and merciful. Amen.

Evening Prayer May 22, 2012

Beloved, you know us in our easy day and in our difficult ones, in the seasons of springing renewal and the ones of brittle weakness. If we meet suffering tonight, let us keep on faithfully. If that suffering is our own, may we take heart and find the way through. If that suffering is another’s may we be of good heart and bring a blessing by keeping that one company through the long night. Hope keep us dreaming well, remembering how we are called to love and bear mercy in each and every day, how we already belong to this wondrous whole and have our gifts to share, how we might serve gracefully and well when we are needed. Hope shine from our hearts and be a boon to those we meet, to those whose lives we share and reach further, connecting us one to another, no longer strangers, but one heart loving mightily in this and every night, in this and every day. Amen.

 

Morning Prayer May 22, 2012

Heart of Wonder open anew to those of us who are struggling with the place where our dreams seem so very far away, the places where losses seem to far outnumber moments of grace. Water our dry and dusty spirits with a little song of hope, a little care and encouragement that we may go forth into this day bearing our very best, caring our very best, and giving our all to this day. When we face the dreaded tasks that hold numbness, humiliation, or grief, help us find the way of endurance, of carrying on well, drawing up from the well greater love, turning on to our greater worth than some may wish to grant us, and holding on through our sorrows to the next moment when joy will surprise us and wonder sweep us into laughter and hope. Amen.

Evening Prayer May 21, 2012

Most Merciful and Most Compassionate turn us in this night and every night, in this day and every day, to tending those needful dreams that sustain, the dreams of merciful justice and courageous love, the dreams that restore the broken communities to health and build refuges for those who flee for their lives. Let our lives be beacons of hope, burning with the stars to guide those who are running safely home, to bring those in need to what will help and heal, to bear up and bear on with love greater than we imagine ourselves capable and find easy. Most Merciful and Most Compassionate, let us turn to the good dreams that have been cruelly deferred and bear a merciful justice there, opening our hearts and opening a way that flowers in hope and bears good fruit. Amen.

Morning Prayer May 21, 2012

Blessed indeed are the bearers of hope, those who will not keep the stars for themselves, who will not hold back today’s love for fear of what tomorrow will bring. Most Merciful and Most Compassionate you show us that hope is not for ourselves alone, a thing we can store up and trust for our own personal sustenance and support. You show us through kindness to strangers, through sacrifices for love, through living mercifully and generously how hope grows stronger in the giving, in the loving, in the kind living for and with others, for and with this world. Blessed indeed are the bearers of hope; may I learn from them and travel always among their number. Amen.

Morning Prayer May 20, 2012

Mercy of Mercies let us not pray to never know fear or sorrow or suffering, for then we would never know abiding love or real generosity or the truth of this one heart we share with the world. Rather, let us pray that in our hour of fear we remember our calling of steadfast love, and in our days of sorrow we have the courage to receive and to give generously and faithfully, and in the sweating suffering we will have that we meet and dwell in the heart of compassion. Mercy of Mercies we need not seek out fear or sorrow or suffering, for they will come, if we but live in courageous love and faithful generosity and work for merciful justice in each and all of our days. And when fear and sorrow and suffering come, let us have ready companions who know the duty of steadfast love and pursue that calling in their faithful promises. Amen.

 

Evening Prayer May 20, 2012

Mercy of Mercies you know we want to trust, but find that difficult. You know we want to live generously, but are easily silenced by bluster and bullies. You know we are imperfect in how we live our faithful promises, and yet our hearts pursue you in all our nights and all our days. Mercy of Mercies teach us new songs of courage and grant us companions who may also struggle with what it is to be steadfast, but also have good hearts and good cheer. Bear with us as we learn to trust, as we risk faithfully to live generously, as we pursue the way of mercy and the way of peace in every day and every night. And when we find ourselves loving well and laughing kindly, when we are amazed and celebrating, hear our thanksgiving for this life that is so sweet, so good, and so true. Amen.