Great Spirit Prayer (Prayer of Yellow Lark)

O Great Spirit,

Whose voice I hear in the winds
and whose breath gives life to all the world.
Hear me! I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes
ever hold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.

Help me remain calm and strong in the
face of all that comes towards me.
Help me find compassion without
empathy overwhelming me.
I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy: myself.
Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes.
So when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my spirit may come to you without shame.

--Yellow Lark, Lakota leader, 1887 (pictured above)

Great Spirit Prayer

Oh, Great Spirit, 
Whose voice I hear in the winds 
and whose breath gives life to all the world. 
Hear me! I need your strength and wisdom. 
Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes 
ever hold the red and purple sunset. 
Make my hands respect the things you have made 
and my ears sharp to hear your voice. 
Make me wise so that I may understand 
the things you have taught my people. 
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden 
in every leaf and rock. 

Help me remain calm and strong in the 
face of all that comes towards me. 
Help me find compassion without 
empathy overwhelming me. 
I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, 
but to fight my greatest enemy: myself. 
Make me always ready to come to you 
with clean hands and straight eyes. 
So when life fades, as the fading sunset, 
my spirit may come to you without shame. 

- Lakota, translated by Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark in 1887

A Dakota Prayer

Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have been always, and before you nothing has been, there is no one to pray to but you. The star nations all over the heavens are yours, and yours are the grasses of the earth. You are older than all need, older than all pain and prayer.

Grandfather, Great Spirit, look upon your children, [the Spirit Lake Oyate,] that they may face the winds and walk the good road to the day of quiet.

Grandfather, Great Spirit, fill us with the light, give us with the light. Give us the strength to understand and eyes to see. Teach us to walk the soft earth, as relatives, to all that live.

Help us, for without you we are nothing.

-- from the Spirit Lake Tribe, found on dailyoffice.wordpress.com, posted by my friend Josh Thomas this morning.

Lakota Annunciation

Both of these are the work of modern iconographer Father John Giuliani.