Advent 1 Benediction adapted from 1 Thessalonians 3

May our God and Father Godself
and our Lord Jesus Christ direct you on your way;
And may the Lord make you increase
and abound in love for one another and for all,
just as God abounds in love for you.
And may God so strengthen your hearts in holiness
that you may be blameless before our God
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

And the Blessing of God Almighty,
Father Son, and Holy Spirit,
abide with you and remain with you always.

Amen.

-- from 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

Advent Benediction (for Advent 1 C)

Go now and let the Lord steer you in the way of truth
Be on your guard so that you will not be caught up
in the trivialities and anxieties of the world.
Be alert at all times and pray for strength
to escape the traps that would keep you from God.

And may God make you increase in love for one another;
May Christ Jesus teach you how to live in God’s ways;
and may the Holy Spirit strengthen your hearts in holiness,
as you ready yourselves for the coming of the Lord.

We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
...In the name of Christ. Amen.

--Nathan Nettleton, from www.laughingbird.net, inspired by the Psalm,epistle, and gospel for the First Sunday in Advent, Year C.

Most compassionate Life-giver (alternative Lord's Prayer)

Most Compassionate Life-giver,

may we honour and praise you:

may we work with you

to establish your new order

of justice, peace and love.

Give us what we need for growth,

and help us,

through forgiving others,

to accept forgiveness.

Strengthen us

in the time of testing,

that we may resist all evil.

For all the tenderness,

strength and love are yours,

now and forever.

Amen.

--W. Wallace

Beloved, Our Father and Mother (alternative Lord's Prayer)

Beloved,
our Father and Mother,
in whom is heaven,
hallowed be your name,
followed be your royal way,
done be your will and rule,
throughout the whole creation.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
Now and forever.
Amen.

--from Human Rites, compiled by Ward and Wild

The Coming of Our Lord is Near (Advent gathering prayer)

The coming of our Lord is near,
And we wait in joyful expectation:
Draw close, Lord Jesus Christ,
Shed your light on all that is filled with darkness.

The coming of our Lord is near,
And we wait with hope filled hearts:
Draw close, God’s beloved son,
Teach us the wonder of your all-embracing love.

The coming of our Lord is near,
And we wait for God’s redeeming presence:
Draw close, Saviour of all creation,
Our hearts ache for justice,
our minds long for holiness,
our spirits seek for unity.

The coming of our Lord is near,
And we wait for the fulfillment of God’s promises:
Draw close, reconciler and transformer of all things,
Renew our world,
restore your peace,
display your righteousness.

The coming of our Lord is near,
And we wait for God’s light to shine over all the earth:
Draw close, Pain bearer, Life giver, Love sharer,
Shine through us,
in us,
around us,
shine for the world to see.

The coming of our Lord is near,
And we wait attentive to the signs of his coming:
Draw close, Lord Jesus Christ, 
God beyond imagining,
fully God yet truly human,
draw close.

Amen.

--Christine Sine, from Godspace

Gathering Prayer for Advent

From places deeply rooted,
we gather to light our advent candles.

From places yet undiscovered,
we gather to sing our advent songs.

From places still hidden in plain sight,
we gather to read our advent texts.

From places tangled with disappointment,
we gather to share our advent prayers.

-- From Re:Worship

Bread of Heaven (based on John 6)

O Bread of heaven,
come down.
Come down and fill us with your Spirit—
for your Spirit satisfies like no other.
We hunger and thirst for you this morning
and long to be nurtured
in your love and forgiveness.
So we come to this sacred time and place,
where our hungers are finally and fully satisfied
as only your bread can do.
We will wait and listen
for your leading in this hour.

Amen.

--Adapted from The Abingdon Worship Annual 2009, © 2008 Abingdon Press.

Light of the World, Come (Advent Gathering Prayer)

In this Advent season we await the coming of Christ.
Light of the World, come.
Come to the oppressed and exploited,
Come to the despised and rejected,
Come to all in whom the divine image is distorted.

We wait in joyful expectation.
Come not as a man of power, but in love and compassion,
Come to the outcast – like the shepherds in the fields,
Come to foreigners – like Magi watching from afar,
Come to rich and poor, young and old, male and female,

We wait in hopeful anticipation.
Come to bless all creation with your love,
Come to bring salvation on the earth,
Come to rule with justice and in peace.
Come Light of the World, illuminate our path.

We wait with all the peoples of the earth,
Light of the World, we welcome your coming.

--From the Third Space website

Grant us peace

Grant us peace.
Your most precious gift, O Eternal Source of Peace,
and give us the will to proclaim its message
to all the peoples of the earth.
Bless our country,
that it may always be a stronghold of peace,
and its advocate among the nations.
May contentment reign within its borders,
health and happiness within its homes.
Strengthen the bonds of friendship
among the inhabitants of all lands.
And may the love of Your name
hallow every home and every heart.
Blessed is the Eternal God, the source of Peace.

- From The Gates of Prayer: The New Union Prayer Book, by the Central Conferences of American Rabbis

The Lord's Prayer

Eternal Spirit, Life-Giver, Pain-Bearer, Love-Maker,
Source of all that is and shall be, Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven
The Hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your Justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your Commonwealth of Peace and Freedom sustain our hope and come on earth!
With the bread that we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and for ever.

Amen.

-- The Rev. Jim Cotter (1942-2014),  English priest, poet, and contributor to the New Zealand Prayer Book

Holy Sonnet 17

Since she whom I lov'd hath paid her last debt
To nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,
And her soul early into heaven ravished,
Wholly in heavenly things my mind is set.
Here the admiring her my mind did whet
To seek thee, God; so streams do show the head;
But though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed,
A holy thirsty dropsy melts me yet.
But why should I beg more love, whenas thou
Dost woo my soul, for hers off'ring all thine,
And dost not only fear lest I allow
My love to saints and angels, things divine,
But in thy tender jealousy dost doubt
Lest the world, flesh, yea devil put thee out.

-- John Donne (1572-1631), English poet, preacher, and priest, written after his wife's death

Prayer In My Boot

For the boy who does not know the answer

For the graceful handle I found in a field
attached to nothing
pray it is universally applicable

For our tracks which disappear
the moment we leave them

For the face peering through the cafe window
as we sip our soup

For cheerful American classrooms sparkling
with crisp colored alphabets
happy cat posters
the cage of the guinea pig
the dog with division flying out of his tail
and the classrooms of our cousins
on the other side of the earth
how solemn they are
how gray or green or plain
how there is nothing dangling
nothing striped or polka-dotted or cheery

no self-portaits or visions of cupids
and in these rooms the students raise their hands
and learn the stories of the world

For library books in alphabetical order
and family businesses that failed
and the house with the boarded windows
and the gap in the middle of a sentence
and the envelope we keep mailing ourselves

For every hopeful morning given and given
and every future rough edge
and every afternoon
turning over in its sleep

--Naomi Shihab Nye (1952- ), Palestinian-Amiercan poet, writer, and anthologist, from 19 Varieties of Gazelle:Poems of the Middle East, 1994

In Flanders Fields

This installation contains one ceramic poppy for every soldier from the UK or the Commonwealth who was killed in World War 1 and was completed for Remembrance Day in 2014.
The artist is the second from the right. The story can be found here.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

--John McCrae (1872-1918), Canadian physician, poet, and soldier, from In Flanders Fields and Other Poems, 1919 (published posthumously)

Installation of Poppies from the World War 1 Museum, Kansas City

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywher
 like a shadow or a friend.

-- Naomi Shihab Nye (1952- ), Palestinian-American poet and author, from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems, 1995

Related Scripture: Micah 6:1-8, Epiphany 4A

Pray Yourself in Me

Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace.
Help me in all things to rely on your holy will.
In every hour of the day reveal your will to me.

Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul, and with firm conviction that your will governs everything. In all my deeds and words guide my thoughts and feelings. In unforeseen events let me not forget that all are sent by you. Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing others. Give me the strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring.

Direct my will.
Teach me to pray.
Pray yourself in me.

-- The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold (1937- ), 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, 1998-2006

Breath of Life (alternative Lord's Prayer)

Breath of Life,
   In whom we live and move and have our being,
   Your presence fills all of Creation.
May justice and mercy reign,
   In our lives and in our world.
Today may our bellies be full,
   Our hearts warm,
   And our fellowship open.
May we reconcile with the people we’ve hurt,
   Just as we reconcile with the people who’ve hurt us.
Lead us not into a time of trial,
   But deliver us from evil.
For wherever grace and community abide,
   There you are with us;
   W e are not alone.

Blessed be.

-- Chance Hunter (Qohelet) at Times and Seasons.

The Good-Morrow

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

--John Donne (1572-1631), English poet, essayist, preacher,  and priest

Peace Prayer

Let the rain come and wash away the ancient grudges,
     the bitter hatreds held and nurtured over generations.
Let the rain wash away the memory of the hurt, the neglect.
Then let the sun come out and fill the sky with rainbows.
Let the warmth of the sun heal us wherever we are broken.
Let it burn away the fog so that we can see each other clearly.
So that we can see beyond labels,
    beyond accents, gender or skin color.
Let the warmth and brightness of the sun melt our selfishness.
So that we can share the joys and feel the sorrows of our neighbors.
And let the light of the sun be so strong
     that we will see all people as our neighbors.
Let the earth, nourished by rain,
     bring forth flowers to surround us with beauty.
And let the mountains teach our hearts to reach upward to heaven.

- Rabbi Harold Kushner (1935- ), American Conservative rabbi and Spiritual Teacher

A RoshHaShana Prayer for Clergy

God of sacred callings,
Bless the work of our clergy,
Who carry us through our lives,
Our joys and our sorrows,
In holy service,
Our broken hearts,
Our festive moments,
And our deepest yearnings.

May their dedication serve as shining lamp of love.
May the works of their hands bring merit in heaven.
Bless them with health and long life.
Guard them from taking our traumas into themselves.
Protect them from loneliness and isolation,
Shielding them from the spiritual and emotional pain
That can come with a life of service.
May they have find peace and comfort in their own moments of need.

Blessed are You,
God of All,
Who, with love, provides the world
Dedicated leaders of faith.

-- Alden Solovy, Reform Jewish author, liturgist, prayer composer, and teacher. Found at Reform Judaism.org.


As our Jewish neighbors prepare for their first shabbat service since the massacre at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, we offer our prayers for them, and stand in solidarity with them.

November for Beginners

Snow would be the easy
way out—that softening
sky like a sigh of relief
at finally being allowed
to yield. No dice.
We stack twigs for burning
in glistening patches
but the rain won’t give.

So we wait, breeding
mood, making music
of decline. We sit down
in the smell of the past
and rise in a light
that is already leaving.
We ache in secret,
memorizing

a gloomy line
or two of German.
When spring comes
we promise to act
the fool. Pour,
rain! Sail, wind, 
with your cargo of zithers!

Rita Dove (1952- ), poet laureate of the United States 1993, written November 1981