Wednesday Prayer

God to enfold me,
God to surround me,
God in my speaking,
God in my thinking.

God in my sleeping,
God in my waking,
God in my watching,
God in my hoping.

God in my life,
God in my lips,
God in my soul,
God in my heart.

God in my sufficing,
God in my slumber,
God in mine ever-living soul,
God in mine eternity.


~ancient celtic oral traditions - carmina gadelica


Here.

Tuesday Prayer

The problem is, it's easier to grumble than to pray. Jesus challenged our tendency toward negativity when he said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." God's asking us to turn every pessimistic or negative thought into a prayer for the opposite. When we pray for what God desires - peace, justice, kindness, truth, mercy, humility, repentance, reconciliation - we're asking (God) to restore order to a disordered world. We become part of the solution.

Closer Than Your Skin: Unwrapping the Mystery of Intimacy With God Susan D. Hill

Rest

Be still, and know that I am Godde.

Psalm 46:10

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. And you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is sweet and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30

Sunday prayer Salty edition

Lord,
Come be the salt in our life that we then can be the salt in other’s lives.
Lord, Teach us how to not be stumbling blocks in the little one’s lives.
Lord, teach us to accept each other even though we are different in our practices and our form of worship and church government.
Lord, Teach us to be the salt that this world needs.
Lord, help us in our walk to be your disciples.
Lord remind us it is for such a time as this that you have called us to be your disciples, to spread the salt of your grace and love in this world.
Lord remind us to spread your hope in a world that sometimes feels hopeless.
Amen

cross posted at revgalblogpals

A Prayer For Peace

O God, it is your will to hold both heaven and earth in a single peace. Let the design of your great love shine on the waste of our anger and sorrow, and give peace to your Church, peace among nations, peace in our homes, and peace in our hearts, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of Lament and Liberation

God of all nations, the suffering on this earth seems too great, the oppression of your people everywhere cries out for healing and hope. We do not understand how we have come to this sad place after so much opportunity and grace. We are not content, and we come to You with our complaints.

We are yearning for the freedom that You have always promised to the saints, the mystics, and the prophets. We desire freedom of heart and mind for ourselves, truth and justice for all peoples, all creatures on this earth, and for the earth itself. We desire to be useable instruments for the purposes of God.

May we not substitute our own darkness for anybody's light--nor too easy light for any necessary and needed darkness. Make us both humble and courageous at the same time, soft and strong together, properly bitter and properly sweet. We offer this prayer in deep trust that You are a Compassionate God who is listening and even answering our prayer. AMEN.

from Richard Rohr, OFM

Wednesday Prayer

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.

***

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 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 raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is you I have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

~ from Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye

Tuesday Prayer

God of the seasons, there is a time for everything; there is a time for dying and a time for rising. We need courage to enter into the transformation process.

God of autumn, the trees are saying goodbye to their green, letting go of what has been. We, too, have our moments of surrender, with all their insecurity and risk. Help us to let go when we need to do so.

God of fallen leaves lying in colored patterns on the ground, our lives have their own patterns. As we see the patterns of our own growth, may we learn from them.

God of misty days and harvest moon nights, there is always the dimension of mystery and wonder in our lives. We always need to recognize your power-filled presence. May we gain strength from this.

God of harvest wagons and fields of ripened grain, many gifts of growth lie within the season of our surrender. We must wait for harvest in faith and hope. Grant us patience when we do not see the blessings.

God of geese going south for another season, your wisdom enables us to know what needs to be left behind and what needs to be carried into the future. We yearn for insight and vision.

God of flowers touched with frost and windows wearing white designs, may your love keep our hearts from growing cold in the empty seasons.

God of life, you believe in us, you enrich us, you entrust us with the freedom to choose life. For all this, we are grateful.

- Author Unknown

Hosanna Soweto Gospel Choir

Prayer for Proper 20B

God ,
When we are hurting you welcome us as the hurting child.
When we are sad, you welcome us as the sad child.
When we are lonely, you welcome us as the lonely child.
When we have done wrong you welcome us as a forgiving God.

Lord you ask us to welcome the hurting, the sad, the lonely
and those who have done wrong just as you have welcomed us.
And so Lord teach us how to be welcoming as you are.
Teach us to love as you love.
Teach us to serve as you serve.
Lord we live in a world that demands greatnesses, demands perfection,
and demands being number one.
What a radical way of being you ask from us.
What a radical way of living you yourself lived.
And yet Lord you knew that this would change the world change people’s lives for the better.
Lord, keep changing our lives for the better.
Amen.

cross posted at revgalblogpals

A Prayer For Transition

Ever-present God, You call us on a journey to a place we do not know. We are not where we started. We have not reached our destination. We are not sure where we are or who we are. This is not a comfortable place. Be among us, we pray. Calm our fears, save us from discouragement, and help us to stay on course. Open our hearts to your guidance so that our journey to this unknown place continues as a journey of trust. Amen.

Thursday Prayer

Peace Planet: Light for Our World is a spiral book with short prayers written for each country of the world in alphabetical order. It was composed by Nan Merril (author of Psalms for Praying) and Barbara Taylor.

Here is the prayer for Bangladesh:

Prayer,
deeply rooted in silence,
with hearts open wide,
brings Light out of darkness
needed somewhere on Earth.

We are asking,
May
Light
flourish on Earth.

Wednesday Prayer

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.


And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.




~ Gerard Manley Hopkins

Tuesday Prayer

If you come

in certainty or confusion

in anger or in anguish

This time is for us.

If you come

in silent suffering or hidden sorrow

in pain or promise

This time is for us.

If you come

for your own or another's need

for a private wound or the wound of the world

This time is for us.

If you come

and do not know why,

to be here is enough

This time is for us.

Come now, Christ of the forgiving warmth.

Come now, Christ of the yearning tears.

Come now, Christ of the transforming touch.

This time is for you.

source

Strong Love, Wise Love, Sweet Love

Laudo te, o amor fortissime;
benedico te, o amor sapientissime;
glorifico te, o amor dulcissime;
magnifico te, o amor benignissime;
in omnibus et pro omnibus bonis quae tua gloriosissima divinitas et beatissima humanitas operata est in nobis per nobilissimum instrumentum Cordis tui; et operabitur in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

I praise you, O strongest love;
I bless you, O wisest love;
I glorify you, O sweetest love;
I magnify you, O kindest love;
in all and for all the good things which your most glorious divinity and your most blessed humanity have worked in us by the most noble instrument of your Heart; and will work for ever and ever. Amen.

Mechthild of Hackeborn, Book of Special Grace
(Prayer recommended by Jesus to her to be said during the post-communion prayer at mass).

prayer for Proper19B/Ordinary 24B/Pentecost 15

Lord, what a powerful time we have been going through recently.
It has been 8 years since 9/11 and we cannot forget.
We have watched the political goings on surrounding the Health Care bill.
We have listened to people express expressed hate and frustrations in ways that have crossed lines of civility.
We are overwhelmed by the increase of the jobless, the homeless,
and those living in poverty.
We are concerend about the increase of swine flu cases.
Lord sometimes it feels like it is too much.

Lord, we pray for the healing of our land
For the healing of the hearts broken from 9/11
For the healing of the divide in our country
For the healing of those filled with hate that overcomes them
For the healing of those who have lost jobs, lost their homes and now live in poverty
for the healing of the sick and those infected by swine flu
For the healing of our own hearts.

Lord, bring your healing down for all.
Lord use us to bring your healing to this land
That all may know that you are the Messiah. Amen


cross posted at revgalblogpals

An Autumn Prayer

God of the seasons, there is a time for everything; there is a time for dying and a time for rising. We need courage to enter into the transformation process.


God of autumn, the trees are saying goodbye to their green, letting go of what has been. We, too, have our moments of surrender, with all their insecurity and risk. Help us to let go when we need to do so.

God of fallen leaves lying in colored patterns on the ground, our lives have their own patterns. As we see the patterns of our own growth, may we learn from them.

God of misty days and harvest moon nights, there is always the dimension of mystery and wonder in our lives. We always need to recognize your power-filled presence. May we gain strength from this.

God of harvest wagons and fields of ripened grain, many gifts of growth lie within the season of our surrender. We must wait for harvest in faith and hope. Grant us patience when we do not see the blessings.

God of geese going south for another season, your wisdom enables us to know what needs to be left behind and what needs to be carried into the future. We yearn for insight and vision.

God of flowers touched with frost and windows wearing white designs, may your love keep our hearts from growing cold in the empty seasons.

God of life, you believe in us, you enrich us, you entrust us with the freedom to choose life. For all this, we are grateful.  Amen.  -- Sr. Joyce Rupp, OSM

Thursday Prayer

O God,
from whom to be turned is to fall,
to whom to be turned is to rise,
and in whom to stand is to abide for ever:
grant us in all our duties your help,
in all our perplexities your guidance,
in all our dangers your protection,
and in all our sorrows your peace.

Augustine of Hippo

Wednesday Prayer

Here.


(No luck with embedding today.)

Tuesday Prayer

Day by day
Day by day
Oh, dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day

Samaritan Prayer

Lord my God,
You may have missed me today,
since I did not have time to kneel and pray.

I did pray, my Lord,
but not the usual prayer of my day.
Instead I prayed the prayer of the Samaritan.

You see, my Lord,
my neighbor was in need.
In my neighbor's need I saw You in need.
In my neighbor's plea for help,
I heard a call to prayer and could not pass by.

May this helping-prayer truly be my prayer this day.
For in the midst of the difficulty,
I felt Your Sacred Presence.
I tasted the flavor of communion in all that happened between us.

Edward Hays, Prayers for the Domestic Church
(Forest of Peace Books, 1979)

Prayer for P 18B/O 23B/P 14/Labor day weekend

Lord of compassion, mercy and justice,
Many have come to you seeking compassion and you have graciously shown it to them.
We too come seeking your compassion
For our needs, our pains, our illnesses,
For our friends, families, and coworkers,
For our neighbors, our communities, and our world.
Lord we all need you to shower us with your compassion.

Lord many have sought you to receive mercy and you given them a multitude of mercies.
We too come seeking to receive your mercy
For our guilt, our shame, our sins,
For our family members, our neighbors,
For our churches, our communities and our world.
Lord we need you to renew us with your mercy.

cross posted at revgalblogpals

Lord many is the person who has come asking for justice and you have generously provided justice in their lives.
We too come asking for your justice
For ourselves when we have we been treated unjustly.
For those who have been treated with injustices.
For those whose countries show no justice.
Lord we need you to roll down your justice for all.

Lord, let us also remember the laborers of the world on this Labor Day weekend.
Let us remember those who retired well and those who retired poorly.
Let us remember those who labor in blue collar jobs, white collar jobs and no collar jobs.
Let us remember those who labor in jobs worthwhile, and those whose jobs have no meaning at all.
Let us remember those who labor in the fields, the factories, the government, the service industry, education, health-care and all manner of labor.
Lord let us remember those who labor in free enterprise and those who work in slave labor.
Let us not forget that your son’s labor in this world was not in vain, for he brought compassion, mercy and justice to the world. Amen

Thursday Prayer

Give us a heart for simple things:
Love and laughter
Bread and wine
Tales and dreams

Fill our lives with
Green and growing hope
Make us a people of justice
Whose song is Allelujah
and whose name
Breathes Love.

Amen.

by Walter Wink

Wednesday Prayer

Sermon on the Mount Window
St. Paul Lutheran Church
Sterling, Illinois

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

~ Matthew 5: 3-10

Tuesday