Prayer for Peace

May it be your will, Eternal One, our God, God of our ancestors, that wars and bloodshed be abolished from the world, and bring into the world a great and wonderful and lasting peace. And let no nation lift a sword against a nation—let them learn no more the ways of war!

Let all who dwell on earth simply acknowledge the truth of truths: that we have not come into this world for the sake of quarreling and war, nor for the sake of hatred, jealousy, anger, or bloodshed; rather, we have come into this world only to know You—may You be blessed eternally!

Therefore, have mercy on us, and fulfill among us what is written in your Scripture: “I shall give peace upon the earth, and you shall lie down with none to make you afraid. I shall abolish from the earth the predatory beast. The sword shall never come upon your land. Justice shall roll down like the water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of The Omnipresent, as the waters fill the seas.”

-- From Siddur Kol Haneshama, Sabbath and Festivals from Reconstructionist Press

All Saints' Prayer

Heaven is here, and earth,
and the space is thin between them.
Distance may divide,
but Christ's promise unites those bounded by time,
those blessed by eternity.
Let heaven be glad, let the whole earth cry glory.
Heaven is here, and earth,
and we are encompassed all around by the communion of saints.

For all the saints who live beyond us,
who challenge us to change the world with them --
we give thanks.
Christ be with them, Christ within them,
Christ behind them, Christ before them.
Especially we give thanks for
those members of our Community far away:
encircle, embrace, and encompass those we name now.


For all the saints who live beside us,
whose weaknesses and strengths
are woven with our own --
we give thanks.
Christ beneath them, Christ above them,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger.
Encircle, embrace, ecompass all members of our Community,
and all the members of staff 
who offer hospitality and share the common life
with all who come.


For all the saints who went before us,
who have spoken to our hearts
and touched us with your fire --
we give thanks.
For the great company,
for Martin and Columba and Ninian
and Bridget and Hilda,
and for all the unnamed ones who are not forgotten
but held for all time in the memory of God,
and for our own most dearly beloved:
in the mystery of your love,
we are one with them now --
we give thanks....

(name the departed we are remembering)


-- adapted from the Iona Community, from In The Gift Of This New Day: Praying With the Iona Community, edited by Neil Paynter, 2015

The Weight of the World

You wanna take it off
It’s the weight of the world
You want to set it free
Just for today
Can’t always be the one
To heal everything
And the weight of the world
Was never yours to keep

You can spend so many days
Trying to make the darkness go away
But it’s the weight of the world
It’s the curse of the worldly ways
Can’t keep it inside
So go on just let it out
It’s the weight of the world
If you ever had a doubt

You wanna take it off
‘Cause it makes your body hurt
It’s the weight of the world
It was never really yours
Can’t keep it inside
Oh, you know you gotta set it free
‘Cause the weight of the world
Was never yours to keep

No, it don't belong to you,
It was never yours to keep,
It's the weight of the world,
And you've gotta set it free

--Kat Goldman, sung by Dar Williams

In honor of the 11 dead and the wounded at the Anti-Semitic  mass murder at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA, on October 27, 2018.

Autumn Song

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the heart feels a languid grief
Laid on it for a covering,
And how sleep seems a goodly thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

And how the swift beat of the brain
Falters because it is in vain,
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf
Knowest thou not? and how the chief
Of joys seems—not to suffer pain?

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the soul feels like a dried sheaf
Bound up at length for harvesting,
And how death seems a comely thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

--Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1828-1882) artist and poet, founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Bitter Fruit of the Tree

They said to my grandmother: "Please do not be bitter,"
When they sold her first-born and let the second die,
When they drove her husband till he took to the swamplands,
And brought him home bloody and beaten at last.
They told her, "It is better you should not be bitter,
Some must work and suffer so that we, who must, can live,
Forgiving is noble, you must not be heathen bitter;
These are your orders: you are not to be bitter."
And they left her shack for their porticoed house.

They said to my father: "Please do not be bitter,"
When he ploughed and planted a crop not his,
When he weatherstripped a house that he could not enter,
And stored away a harvest he could not enjoy.
They answered his questions: "It does not concern you,
It is not for you to know, it is past your understanding,
All you need know is: you must not be bitter."
And they laughed on their way to reckon the crop,
And my father walked over the wide garnered acres
Where a cutting wind warned him of the cold to come.

They said to my brother: "Please do not be bitter,
Is it not sad to see the old place go to ruin?
The eaves are sprung and the chimney tower is leaning,
The sills, joists, and columns are rotten in the core;
The blinds hang crazy and the shingles blow away,
The fields have gone back to broomsedge and pine,
And the soil washes down the red gulley scars.
With so much to be done, there's no time for being bitter.
Your father made it for us, it is up to you to save it,
What is past is over, and you should not be bitter."
But my brother is bitter, and he does not hear.

--Sterling A. Brown (1901-1989), African American poet

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art--
   Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
   Like Nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
   Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask
   Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No-- yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
   Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel forever its soft fall and swell,
   Awake forever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever-- or else swoon to death.

--John Keats (1795-1821), English Romantic poet

Anyway

People are often unreasonable, illogical,
and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, People may accuse you
of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends
and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see,
in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them

anyway

--written by Kent M. Keith in 1968; this is often mistakenly attributed to St. Teresa of Calcutta, because she kept a copy of it by her bed; musical setting from the album Zero Church, by Maggie and Suzzy Roche, 2001

Jeremiah

call me Jeremiah

Jeremiah said the Lord

call me and I'll show you

great and mighty

things you have not seen

--words from Jeremiah 33:3, from the album Zero Church by Maggie and Suzzy Roche, 2001

Psalm 71

1 In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
       let me never be ashamed.
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; 
       incline your ear to me and save me.
3 Be to me a rock of refuge, a scastle to keep me safe,
       for you are my crag and my stronghold.
4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
       from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope,
       my confidence, O Lord, since I was young.
6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
     it was you who took me from my mother’s womb;
       my praise is continually of you.
7 I have been like a portent to many,
       but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
       and with your glory all day long.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
       do not forsake me when my strength is spent.
10 For my enemies speak concerning me,
       and those who watch for my life consult together.
11 They say, “Pursue and seize that person
     whom God has forsaken,
       for there is no one to deliver.”
12 O God, do not be far from me;
       O my God, make haste to help me!
13 Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
       let those who seek to hurt me be covered with scorn and disgrace.
14 But I will hope continually,
       and will praise you yet more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all day long,
       though their number is past my knowledge.
16 I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord God,
       I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.
17 O God, from my youth you have taught me,
       and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18 So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, 
       until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come.Your power 
19 and your righteousness, O God, reach the high heavens. 
       You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?
20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
     will revive me again;
       from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.
21 You will increase my honor,
       and comfort me once again.
22 I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God;
       I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you;
       my soul also, which you have rescued.
24 All day long my tongue will talk of your righteous help,
       for those who tried to do me harm have been put to shame, and disgraced.

We put aside all we are

We put aside all that we are:
we cleave to all that Gos is:
we will bear all that troubles us, for His glory.

O God! help us to worship You
after Your mind and not after our own.
Help us to forget ourselves
and live only for your glory.
Help us to accept gratefully
our weaknesses and inadequacy
and forget them in adoring only You.

The Lord is in His holy temple:
let all the earth keep silence before Him.
We will enter into your gates with thanksgiving, O God,
and into your courts with praise.
We will lift up our souls in Your name
and bless You while we live.

O come, let us worship and bow down:
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For He is our God.
We are the people of His pasture
and the sheep of His hand.

It is a good thing to give thanks
to the Lord Most High,
to show forth Your loving-kindness in the morning
and Your faithfulness every night.

This is the day which the Lord has made:
we will rejoice and be glad in it:
we laid us down in peace and slept:
we awaked for the Lord sustained us.
Glory be to You, O Lord!

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who has made heaven and earth:
blessed be the name of the Lord,
from this time forth and for evermore.

--Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), in Evelyn Underhill's Prayer Book, ed. by Evelyn Underhill, English mystic and spiritual teacher

Prayer for Difficult Treatment Choices

Jesus, at Gethsemane you toiled with terrifying choices. Be with me now as i struggle with a fearful choice of treatments which promise much discomfort and offer no guarantee of long-term good. Help me know that you will bless my choice to me, and, Good Savior, be my companion on the way.

Amen.

-- From Enriching Our Worship 2: Ministry with the Sick or Dying; Burial of a Child 


Photo: Detail from a door on the Passion Side of La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

A Song of Jonah (Canticle I)

I called to you, O God, out of my distress, and you answered me;
     out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas,
     and the flood surrounded me;
          all your waves and billows passed over me.
Then I said, "I am driven away from your sight;
     how shall I ever look again upon your holy temple?"
The waters closed in over me, the deep was round about me;
     weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots
          of the mountains.
I went down to the land beneath the earth,
     yet you brought up my life from the depths, O God. 
As my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, O God,
     and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
With the voice of thanksgiving, I will sacrifice to you;
     what I have vowed I will pay, for deliverance belongs to the Lord!

-- Jonah 2:2-7, 9, from Enriching Our Worship 2: Ministry with the Sick or Dying; Burial of a Child

Confession and Pardon

Confession:
Lord Jesus, you come into our lives
when we are least prepared for you.
As you enfolded your betrayers,
so embrace us who struggle to love.
Reconcile us with our brothers and sisters,
and, for the sake of your love,
forgive us all our sins.
Amen.

Assurance of Pardon (from Psalm 103:11-13):
As far as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is your loving response to those who are humble;
so far does your enduring strength
uphold those who fear the darkness within.
As parents are concerned for their children,
so you come to those who reach out in faith.

-- from Daily Prayer for All Seasons, from Forward Movement

Power is Safest in the Poet's Hands

Power is safest in the poet's hands, thus for the poet

God will

pose.

The realms of thought, sublimely wild, the finest pigments of

ground suns, the violin's divine plea for a 

true friend;

what is all this world has seen from art: the shadow more true and

glorious there

than in the cage where there is often talk of right and wrong.

The reins of God say to his lover,

"Hold me in your mouth, dear,

as you toil with all your limbs and strength

to free the magnificence

in man."

The reins of the Sky sing,

"Grab hold, and you will know God

lowers His cup into you

to drink."

--Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz (ca 1320-1389), Persian mystic poet, from Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, Daniel Ladinsky, ed.

Collect for the Feast of Teresa of Avila

Merciful God,
who by your Spirit raised up your servant Teresa of Avila
to reveal to your Church the way of perfection:
grant that her teaching
may awaken in us a longing for holiness,
until we attain to the perfect union of love
in Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Amen.

-- Church of England Collect

Affirmation

As children of God, we affirm:
That God, who is Love, created all and called it good,
that God is present with all creation,
and that,
in darkness and in light,
God is faithful;
therefore we, too, seek to be faithful.

That Jesus came to show us Love with a human face,
that he taught justice and reconciliation
and suffered on our behalf,
and that through his faithful example,
he embodies hope;
therefore we, too, seek to be people
of justice, reconciliation, and hope.

That the Holy Spirit guides and accompanies us,
that this same Spirit offers wisdom and discernment,
and that, when we are open,
the Spirit can always find a way;
therefore we seek to be people filled with God's Spirit:
discerning, loving and transforming our world.

Amen.

-- from Daily Prayer For All Seasons, from Forward Movement

How Humble is God?

How humble is God?

God is the tree in the forest that

allows itself to die and will not defend itself in front of those

with the ax, not wanting to cause them

shame.

And God is the earth that will allow itself to

be deformed by man's hands, but He cries; yes, God cries,

but only in front of His closest ones.

And a beautiful animal is being beaten to death,

but nothing can make God break his silence

to the masses

and say,

"Stop, please stop, why are you doing this

to Me?"

How humble is God?

Kabir wept

when I

knew.

-- Kabir (ca 1440-1518), Indian poet and mystic, from Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, Daniel Ladinsky, ed.

Ma Tovu

How great are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!
As for me, through Your abundant grace, I enter your house to worship with awe in Your sacred place.
O Lord, I love the House where you dwell, and the place where your glory tabernacles.
I shall prostrate myself and bow; I shall kneel before the Lord my Maker.
To You, Eternal One, goes my prayer: may this be a time of your favor. In Your abundant love, O God, answer me with the Truth of Your salvation.

-- traditional Hebrew prayer, said in the morning upon entering the synogogue. Each line is taken from:
1) Numbers 24:5
2) Psalm 5:8
3) Psalm 26:8
4) Psalm 95:6, adapted
5) Psalm 69:14


Image: A man prays in Tehran Synagogue

Life, Light, and Strength

O God, who is the light of the minds that know You,
the life of the souls that love You
and the strength of the wills that serve You,
help us so to know You,
that we may truly love You,
so to love You,
that we may fully serve You,
whom to serve is perfect freedom,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.

--from the Gelasian Sacramentary, in Evelyn Underhill's Prayer Book, ed. by Evelyn Underhill, English mystic and spiritual teacher

Photo: Chapel of the Apostles, Sewanee.

Prayer of St. Augustine

O God,
who fills heaven and earth,
ever acting, ever at rest.
You who are everywhere and everywhere wholly present,
who are not absent even when far off,
who with Your whole being fill, yet transcend, all things.
Tou who teach the hearts of the faithful without the din of words,
teach us we pray,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

O God! our true and highest life,
by whom, through whom and in whom all things live
which live truly and blessedly;
by whom, through whom and in whom all good things
are good and lovely;
mercifully grant that Your life may be in ours for evermore,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We return unto You, O Lord,
that from their wanderings and weariness
our souls may rise towards You;
leaning on the things You have created
and passing on to Yourself, who has made them,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

-St. Augustine, in Evelyn Underhill's Prayer Book, ed. by Evelyn Underhill, English mystic and spiritual teacher


Photo: detail from a door at La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

O eternal light

O eternal light, shine into our hearts;
eternal goodness, deliver us from evil;
eternal power, be our support;
eternal wisdom, scatter our ignorance;
eternal pity, have mercy upon us.

Grant that with all our heart and mind and strength
we may evermore seek your face;
and finally bring us,
by Your infinite mercy,
to Your holy presence,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.


-- Alcuin (735-804), English priest, abbot, and scholar, in Evelyn Underhill's Prayer Book, ed. by Evelyn Underhill, English mystic and spiritual teacher

Sacrifice Prayer

O God, You have set us in the train of many martyrs and holy people: and given us, as author and finisher of our faith, one who offered Himself up a living and dying sacrifice.

We are not our own, but Yours.

Freely may we crucify our shrinking will, surrender ourselves to the uttermost claims of Your Spirit, and seek no peace but in harmony with You.

Amen.

--James Martineau, in Evelyn Underhill's Prayer Book, ed. by Evelyn Underhill, English mystic and spiritual teacher

Photo: The Passion side exterior of La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Mi Sheberakh

May the One who blessed our ancestors —
Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
Matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah —
bless and heal the one who is ill:
________________ daughter of ________________ .
May the Holy Blessed One
overflow with compassion upon him/her,
to restore her,
to heal her,
to strengthen her,
to enliven her.
The One will send her, speedily,
a complete healing —
healing of the soul and healing of the body —
along with all the ill,
among the people of Israel and all humankind,
soon,
speedily,
without delay,
and let us all say:
Amen!

--traditional Jewish prayer of healing

The Man in the Moon

He used to frighten me in the nights of childhood,
the wide adult face, enormous, stern, aloft.
I could not imagine such loneliness, such coldness.

But tonight as I drive home over these hilly roads
I see him sinking behind strands of winter trees
and rising again to show his familiar face.

And when he comes into full view over open fields
he looks like a young man who has fallen in love
with the dark earth,

a pale bachelor, well-groomed and full of melancholy,
his round mouth open
as if he had just broken into song.

--Billy Collins (1941- ), US Poet Laureate 2001-2003, from Questions About Angels, 1999

If I'm Lucky

If I'm lucky, I'll get more sleep tonight.
Possibly there's enough bread left
and I won't have to shop. I'm hoping I'll get
the chapter written and the poem will come out
right. If I am lucky, the phone won't ring
all day and the computer will obey me
and not go blank like my mind does.
If all goes well, the slugs will drown blissfully
in their saucers of beer. Maybe the deer
won't eat the tulips. Perhaps it will rain
enough for the dwindled creek to run
again, sibilant, and then may the rain
stop tomorrow, leaving only a pleasing
liquid bubble and blur to thread the ravine.
If seh is brave, my daughter will someday
find the self within herself. If I am blessed,
she will forgive me. If the meteorologist
is right, the dry muscle of cold wind will weaken
and again we'll swing the windows wide.

--Luci Shaw (1928- ), Christian poet, from What the Light Was Like, 2006

The Wild Geese

 

Horseback on Sunday morning,
harvest over, we taste persimmon
and wild grape, sharp sweet
of summer’s end. In time’s maze
over fall fields, we name names
that went west from here, names
that rest on graves. We open
a persimmon seed to find the tree
that stands in promise,
pale, in the seed’s marrow.
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear,
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye
clear. What we need is here.

--Wendell Berry (1934- ), American farmer, poet, essayist, and agrarian