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