Prayer for Pentecost Sunday

Holy Spirit,

you poured yourself out on the people of the early church, pour yourself out on us now.
Holy Spirit you set their tongues on fire with languages so as to speak to one another in ways that could be understood.
Set our tongues on fire to speak in different languages and ways so others may hear the good news about Jesus.

Jesus,

you said you had to go away so that the Holy Spirit, the advocate, the counselor would come and it was so.
Come once again Holy Spirit as the advocate that we all need, as the counselor we all need, and as the helper we all need.

Come Holy Spirit, fan your flames of love and empowerment, set us on fire for you once again. Bring life to each of our dry bones.
Amen.

Thursday Prayer

Spirit of companionship and caring, we express our heartfelt gratitude for the company of our friends and family, through whom we experience your gift of love. Help us to burst the bonds of self-concern, and to extend to all those with whom we come in contact the priceless riches of compassion and empathy, so that in our time we may truly experience the heaven on earth that you have offered to us, through the power of the Christ within us. Amen.

John McQuiston II. A Prayer Book for the 21st Century. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2004. 90.

Wednesday Prayer

Mount Angel Abbey, Oregon

Tuesday Prayer

Trust
which is a virtue
is also a habit
like prayer.

It requires
exercise.


By Sue Helpern and found in
Minister's Annual Manual, 2008-2009
p. 390

Wisdom from St. Francis

Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received--only what you gave given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.

On Memorial Day, let us pray to the Prince of Peace:

-- for the repose of the souls of all soldiers and civilians who have died in wars

--for the consolation of their loved ones

--for healing and justice for veterans and others who have been physically and emotionally wounded in war

-- for the just and peaceful resolution of all present and future conflicts

Holy Godde,
Holy and Mighty,
Holy Immortal One,
Have mercy upon us.

THE ARAMAIC PRAYER OF JESUS

THE ARAMAIC PRAYER OF JESUS (The Lord's Prayer)
~ as translated from the Aramaic by Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz of the Sufi Order of the West ~

O, Birther of the Cosmos, focus your light within us -- make it useful
Create your reign of unity now
Your one desire then acts with ours,
As in all light,
So in all forms,
Grant us what we need each day in bread and insight:
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
As we release the strands we hold of other's guilt.
Don't let surface things delude us, B
ut free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
The power and the life to do,
The song that beautifies all,
From age to age it renews.
I affirm this with my whole being.

Garage Sale Prayer

The campers who bought my mother's vintage pots and pans
The shy Amish boy who smiled when I told him the old ball glove was free,
and his father, who said his wife will love her new glassware
The poor family who bought an old colander because they needed it
and a singing-bird clock because it made them smile
May God the giver of all good things
bless all those who find a blessing
in these things of ours.

Thursday Prayer Practice

"About twenty times a day, I want you to stop what you’re doing, and empty yourself completely. Let go of everything inside you that is not of God, that is not the Holy Spirit, that is not loving and peaceful. Then, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you from head to toe. Do that twenty times a day and you will be filled with peace and joy."

Jose Hobday told this to John Dear in their last conversation. Read about Jose Hobday here.

Wednesday Prayer

Primary Wonder

Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; caps and bells.

And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng's clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed One, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.

~ Denise Levertov

Tuesday prayer

When I am most sickened by the things that are done by the country that surrounds this place, I will take out the prophets and sing them in loud Latin across the hills and send their fiery words sailing south over the mountains to the place where they split atoms for bombs in Tennessee.
A Year With Thomas Merton, May 18

indicabo tibi o homo quid sit bonum et quid Dominus quaerat a te utique facere iudicium et diligere misericordiam et sollicitum ambulare cum Deo tuo
Micah 6:8 in Latin

Sh'ma

Sh'ma Yisrael YHVH Eleheynu YHVH Echad! (Deut. 6:4)

Listen, God-wrestlers, Is/Was/Will-Be is our Divine Source, Is/Was/Will-Be One!

These words are from the Torah, the words of tradition that the Jewish people have placed at the core of prayer--service of the heart--for millennia. We are meant to meditate on these words every day upon rising and laying our bodies down to rest. These words accompany the final exhale of life-giving breath as our existence rides the exhalation back into the Source of All Breath. We are being asked to listen to the syllables of Sh'ma itself:

Shhhhhhhhhhh-mmmmmmmmm-aaaaahhhhhhhhh

Shhh ... the sounds of silence, of quieting the inner marketplace of thoughts and feelings so we can hear the still, silent voice.

mmm ... the sound of satiation, gratitude and abundance, of being enough, no matter what our circumstance.

ahhh ... the release into wonder, the unknown, the known, pressing out all we hold dear to be filled once again with life-giving oxygen.

We are being asked to listen to each other--to the God we claim, whose name is pure being, whose Glory shines majestic beyond time and space, and cannot be contained in any one dimension....

Listen.....what do you hear?

Prayer for Easter 6B

Lord,
Loving God,
We come before you humbly thanking you for your love,
We pray for those in this world who don’t know your love who have not experienced your love, who are in loveless relationships, loveless families, loveless jobs, and loveless lives.

We thank you for your joy, we also pray for those who live joyless lives, whose joy has been taken from them, and who long for a just a little bit of joy in their lives.

We thank you for your friendship, we pray for those who lost their friends or are in need of a friend, or who don’t know how to be friendly.

Lord you put your song in our lives of love, joy and friendship may we sing that song to those in this world who have forgotten the song and how to sing it. Lord may your song fill all our lives, all our communities, all our churches, and our entire world so that the entire universe resounds with your song. Amen

Commencement Prayer

"A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God" (Ecclesiastes 2: 24-25a).

Dear Savior, bless all those who begin a new stage in their lives. Teach them to know you as the true wisdom of God that has come down from heaven. Lead them to find fulfillment in their daily walks with you, rather than in worldly success. And increase in them the understanding that, because we are pilgrims and strangers on this earth, the things of this world are not an end in themselves, but are a means of preparing for the commencement of the life to come. Amen.

Wisconsin Eastern Lutheran Synod (WELS) prayer for commencement.

I pray today for my friends Amy (Elastigirl) and Mary, and their classmates at SMU's Perkins School of Theology; and for all seminary students who are graduating at this time of year, including RevGal Mibi52.

May each and every one of them find useful and satisfying work in the service of God's people in the world, and may the world's blindnesses (sexism, ageism, discrimination against GLBT persons and others) be healed.

--If you know of other seminary students preparing for graduation, please share their names/pseudonyms in the comments.

Thursday Prayer

Gracious God,

Send us anywhere in this world You would have us go
Only go thou with us.

Place upon us any burden You desire
Only stand by us to sustain us.

Break any tie that binds us
Except the tie that binds us to thee.

Amen.

Source: John Shelby Spong

Wednesday Prayer

Since we will have a new graduate in our lives on Sunday and so will many other families in the next few weeks, I thought that this was a good find:


A Prayer for Graduates

Loving God, we pray for the wisdom to discern your call in our lives.
Hear our prayer, O God.

We pray for the wisdom to make healthy choices in the face of endless and confusing options.
Hear our prayer, O God.

We pray for the wisdom to redefine our relationships with our parents and our friends as our lives change.
Hear our prayer, O God.

We pray for the grace to form new relationships with new friends as we move from this place.
Hear our prayer, O God.

We pray for the courage to swim against the current of society as we seek to follow where you lead.
Hear our prayer, God.

We pray with the courage to take a stand with you for justice and peace in this world in this time.
Hear our prayer, O God.

(Origin and copyright information here -- too small for me to read!)

Tuesday Prayer

Gracious God,
always faithful
in your love for us,
we rejoice in your presence.
You create love.
You unite us
in one human family.
You offer your word
and lead us in light.
You open your loving arms
and embrace us
with strength.


from the Marriage Liturgy
UCC Book of Worship

Teach Me To Listen

Teach me to listen, O God, to those nearest me, my family, my friends, my co-workers.

Help me to be aware that no matter what words I hear, the message is "Accept the person I am. Listen to me."

Teach me to listen, My Caring God, to those far from me--the whisper of the hopeless, the plea of the forgotten, the cry of the anguished.

Teach me to listen, O God my Mother, to myself. Help me to be less afraid, to trust the voice inside--in the deepest part of me.

Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit, for your voice--in busyness and boredom, in certainty and in doubt, in noise and in silence.

Teach me, O God, to listen.

John Veltri, SJ
Orientations

Prayer for Easter 5B/Mother's day

Oh God you are so like a mothering hen to us,
You cry over us, protect us, and care for us;
God we thank you for mothering us
And we thank you for the mothers of the world.

Oh God you are the Vine dresser,
you make sure the vine is healthy,
and strong,
we thank you for making sure
we are healthy, and strong.

Oh God you are like a loving mother,
You nourish us with your love and grace every day. Oh God we thank you loving us like a mother.

Lord, we pray now for those
who need your healing, and caring touch.
We pray for those who are the ones among us
whose mothers have died or are dying.
We pray for those who children have died
We pray for those who have had the disappointment
of not being a mother or
who are going through some kind of infertility treatment
or looking to adopt.

Lord in your mercy put your arms around each one
and hold them in thy tender embrace of love.

O God we thank you for tending to us,
We thank you for your wise counsel,
We thank you for pruning those things
that suck the very life out of us
and keep us from abiding in you.

Amen

cross posted at revgalblogpals.

Celebrating a Woman of Faith

About Julian of Norwich

Lord God, who in your compassion granted to the Lady Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all things, for in giving us yourself you give us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Life smooths us

Life smooths us, rounds, perfects,

as does the river the stone,

and there is no place

our Beloved is not flowing

though the current’s force you

may not always like.

-Teresa of Avila

Wednesday Prayer

Prayer is not asking.

Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God,

at God's disposition,

and listening to God's voice in the depths of our hearts.

~ Mother Theresa

tuesday prayer

God Went To Beauty School

He went there to learn how
to give a good perm
and ended up just crazy
about nails
so He opened up His own shop.
"Nails by Jim" He called it.
He was afraid to call it
Nails by God.
He was sure people would
think He was being
disrespectful and using
His own name in vain
and nobody would tip.
He got into nails, of course,
because he'd always loved
hands -
hands were some of the best things
He'd ever done
and this way He could just
hold one in His
and admire those delicate
bones just above the knuckles,
delicate as a birds' wings,
and after He'd done that
awhile,
He could paint all the nails
any color He wanted,
and then say
"Beautiful"
and mean it.


From the book God Went to Beauty School
by Cynthia Rylant

Love Astounding, Love Confounding

Love astounding, love confounding limits fearful minds impose.
Love renewing, love pursuing every heart until it knows
love's transforming, healing goodness, love's abiding, gentle grace,
love's endurance, love's assurance, love's consoling, strong embrace.

Love receiving, love believing, we rejoice with thanks and song,
faith regaining, hope proclaiming; love has taught us, we belong
safe within love's tender keeping, safe from fear's persistent call.
Love defending, love unending, love of God enfolding all.

Text: Jeannette Lindholm
Tune: Holy Manna (Southern Harmony)

Sunday prayer for Easter 4B/ Good Shepherd Sunday

O Lord, our Shepherding God,
come close to us now
Come near us in our time of need.

Shepherding God,
we need you in our time of anxiety.
We need you in our time of economic uncertainty.
We need you in a time of a globe trotting disease.
We need you to bind our wounds, pour your healing ointment on our heads .
We need the briars, and brambles, and burrs pulled out of our fleece and skin.

Shepherding God.
you guide us with your voice,
Help us to listen and follow no matter where your voice leads.
Help us to trust you.

Shepherding God,
protect us from the hired hands, that do not really care for us and have in the past neglected or abused us

Shepherding God,
thank you for your son who did lay down his life for hose who follow him and for those who are not in the fold yet..Lord we pray for those who don’t know the shepherd, whose life circumstances kept them from knowing the good shepherd. We pray that by our actions, our behavior, and our reaching out into the community, they may come to know you

Shepherding God,
Renew us, Guide us with your love and renew us with your peace. Amen

Image from the Christian Catacombs in Rome.

Cross posted at revgalblogpals and rev abi's long and winding road.

Gardeners' Collect

Gracious Lord, who revealed yourself in a garden, touch our eyes that we may see you in power, wonder, majesty and glory in every growing plant. Attune our ears to your whisperings among the trees. May your Holy Spirit prune, purify and nurture our souls, that fragrant deeds shall bloom in our lives with you through eternity in the garden of your household. Amen.