Veni Veni Emmanuel

Prayer for First Sunday in Advent

To you Lord, we lift up our heads, hearts and hands in prayer.
We put our trust in you, believing that your word is true.
We lift up to you our longing for hope in a despairing world.
We lift up to you our need for hope in a time of deep hopelessness in our world.
We lift up to you our deep desire for hope in a bleak and sometimes depressing world.

You promised hope to Israelites and you kept your promise.
You promised hope in the coming of your son and he was hope for the world.
You promised hope to the early church and that hope was not denied.
You promise hope to us and we pray for your continued faithfulness.

Lord, we pray for strength when our faith falters.
We pray for you to pour on your love so it fills our lives
and splashes over on everyone around you.
Fill us with confidence in your presence in our lives.
Fill us with your joy and peace as we go through this busy time of year.

Keep our minds focused on you, our hearts filled with you and ours outstretched for you.

Still Giving Thanks on Friday

Give thanks to the Lord who is good.

God's love is everlasting.
Come, let us praise God joyfully.
Let us come to God with thanksgiving.

For the good world;
for things great and small, beautiful and awesome;
for seen and unseen splendors;
Thank you, God.

For human life;
for talking and moving and thinking together;
for common hopes and hardships shared from birth
until our dying;
Thank you, God.

For work to do and strength to work;
for the comradeship of labor;
for exchanges of good humor and encouragement;
Thank you, God.

For committed relationships;
for the mystery and joy of love;
for mutual forgiveness and burdens shared;
for secrets kept in love;
Thank you, God.

For family;
for living together and eating together;
for family amusements and family pleasures;
Thank you, God.

For children; for their energy and curiosity;
for their brave play and startling frankness;
for their sudden sympathies;
Thank you, God.

For the young;
for their high hopes;
for their irreverence toward worn-out values;
for their search for freedom;
for their solemn vows;
Thank you, God.

For growing up and growing old;
for wisdom deepened by experience;
for rest in leisure;
and for time made precious by its passing;
Thank you, God.

For your help in times of doubt and sorrow;
for healing our diseases;
for preserving us in temptation and danger;
Thank you, God.

For the church into which we have been called;
for the good news we receive by Word and Sacrament;
for our life together in the Lord;
We praise you, God.

For your Holy Spirit,
who guides our steps and
brings us gifts of faith and love;
who prays in us and prompts our grateful worship;
We praise you, God.

Above all, O God, for your Son Jesus Christ,
who lived and died and lives again for our salvation;
for our hope in him;
and for the joy of serving him;
We thank and praise you, Eternal God,
for all your goodness to us.
Give thanks to the Lord, who is good.
God's love is everlasting.

Almighty and gracious Father,
we give you thanks
for the fruits of the earth in their season
and for the labors of those who harvest them.
Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty,
for the provision of our necessities
and the relief of all who are in need,
to the glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Thanksgiving

Gratefulness – the simple response of our heart to this life in all its fullness – goes beyond boundaries of creed, age, vocation, gender, and nation. J. Robert Moskin, former foreign editor for Look magazine and senior editor for Collier's, writes that “thanksgiving comes to us out of the prehistoric dimness, universal to all ages and all faiths. At whatever straws we must grasp, there is always a time for gratitude and new beginnings.”

The following diverse array of quotes comes from Gratefulness.org.

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Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.
– Hausa proverb from Nigeria

The happy heart gives away the best. To know how to receive is also a most important gift, which cultivates generosity in others and keeps strong the cycle of life.
– Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo, speaker, author, musician and spiritual leader in the Eastern Tsalagi (Cherokee) tradition

Whenever feeling downcast, each person should vitally remember, "For my sake, the entire world was created."
– Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer, Baal Shem Tov,
founder of Hasidic Judaism

Under affliction in the very depths, stop and contemplate what you have to be grateful for.
– Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science

A thankful person is thankful under all circumstances. A complaining soul complains even in paradise.
– Baha'u'llah, founder of the Baha'i Faith

There's a self-expansive aspect of gratitude. Very possibly it's a little known law of nature: the more gratitude you have, the more you have to be grateful for.
– Elaine St. James, author, leader of the simplicity movement

Do all you can with what you have, in the time you have, in the place you are.
– Nkosi Johnson, twelve-year-old Zulu boy, living with AIDS

Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.
– Yoko Ono, Japanese-American artist and musician

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.
– Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Roman stoic

As life becomes harder and more threatening, it also
becomes richer, because the fewer expectations we have,
the more good things of life become unexpected gifts
that we accept with gratitude.
– Etty Hillesum, Dutch Jewish writer known for her diaries and correspondence from Westerbork concentration camp
Grateful living: an alchemic operation
of converting "disgraceful" things into grateful events.
– Raimundo Panikkar, Roman Catholic priest from Spain specializing in comparative philosophy of religion

Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
– Native American prayer

Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art....It is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.
– Joanna Macy, eco-philosopher and scholar of Buddhism

Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
– G.K. Chesterton, writer and Christian apologist

I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable...but through it all I still know quite certainly
that just to be alive is a grand thing.
– Agatha Christi, crime-fiction writer

Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.
– Jacques Maritain, French philosopher and political thinker

Thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.
– Jalaluddin Rumi, Persian Sufi poet, from Camille and Kabir Helminski's Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance

Gratitude is so close to the bone of life, pure and true, that it instantly stops the rational mind, and all its planning and plotting. That kind of let go is fiercely threatening. I mean, where might such gratitude end?
– Regina Sara Ryan, former Roman Catholic nun now aligned with the Bauls of Bengal, India

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The words for "thank you" inspersed between quotes above are in these languages respectively: Balinese, Cree, Danish, Malayam, Maori, Mongolian, Ngoni, and Quechua.

Tuesday Prayer

Dancing Light,

shed light in the corners of our souls

where aches linger

and anger builds like mold

where memories ferment

and self-pity licks its wounds.

Dancing Light,

shine upon the windows of our hearts,

where love should live

and forgiveness be always ready

where hope is bright

and praise ever lifts our tongues.

by Rachel Hackenberg

image by Jeff Brownell

words from Prayer for Healing, page 221

Before the Amen by Maren C Tirabassi and Maria I Tirabassi

Reign of Christ

Crown him the Son of God, before the worlds began,
And you who tread where he hath trod, crown him the Son of man;
Who every grief hath known that wrings the human breast,
And takes and bears them for his own, that all in him may rest.

Christ the King Sunday Prayer

Oh Jesus,
You are the King of Glory,
You are the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings.
And we pray that your Kingdom will reign forever in our hearts and in this world.

Lord, we pray for your Kingdom to come here now,
bringing a kingdom of justice, righteousness, hope, love,
peace, mercy and grace for all.
Lord, we ask that you rule in our hearts,
lead in this world and govern over your kingdom.

But Lord honestly,
We often have our own plans and agendas
And we want to be rulers of our world.
Forgive us for those times.
And Lord we live in a time that would rather idolize the King of Pop
Than worship you.
Help us to know how to live as your Kingdom People in these times.
And Lord there are a lot of Kings in this world who terrorize, over tax, humiliate,
Over exploit, and abuse those they are to lead.
Help us to spread the good news of the different kind of King you are.

Lord, thank you for being a different kind of King.
Thank you for your goodness and kindness in our lives.
Thank you for your generosity.
Thank you for loving us.
Thank you for your Kingdom that is unlike any
Kingdom in this world.

A Song of Thanks

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,


Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;

Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,

With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;

And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;

And free us from all ills, in this world and the next! -- Martin Rikart



All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;

The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;

The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;

For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Today Is God

In the beginning was God,
Today is God,
Tomorrow will be God.
Who can make an image of God?
He has no body.
He is the word which comes out of your mouth.
That word! It is no more,
It is past, and still it lives!
So is God.

~~Pygmy

Tutu, Desmond. An African Prayer Book. NY: Doubleday, 1995. 8.

Wednesday Prayer

MY ALL-IN-ALL

Great light, mover of all that is moving and at rest,
be my journey and my destination, be my want and
my fulfilling, be my sowing and my reaping, be my
glad song and my stark silence. Be my sword and my
strong shield, be my lantern and my dark night, be
my everlasting strength and my piteous weakness.
Be my greeting and my parting prayer, be my bright
vision and my blindness, be my joy and my sharp
grief, be my sad death and my sure resurrection!

~Stephen Lawhead, Merlin

~ Finan Reading for November 19 (tomorrow, actually)
in the Northumbria Community's Celtic Daily Prayer (2002)

(Image: Glasgow Necropolis, 2006)

Tuesday Prayer

In Your presence, O God, we make our Sacrament of Thanksgiving.
We begin with the simple things of our days:
Fresh air to breathe,
Cool water to drink,
The taste of food,
The protection of houses and clothes,
The comforts of home.
For all these we make an act of Thanksgiving this day!

We bring to mind all the warmth of humankind that we have known:
Our mothers' arms,
The strength of our fathers,
The playmates of our childhood,
The wonderful stories brought to us from the lives of many who talked of days gone by when fairies and giants and diverse kinds of magic held sway;
The tears we have shed, the tears we have seen;
The excitement of laughter and the twinkle in the eye with its reminder that life is good.
For all these we make an act of Thanksgiving this day.

We finger one by one the messages of hope that await us at the crossroads:
The smile of approval from those who held in their
hands the reins of our security,
The tightening of the grip of a single handshake when we feared the step before us in the darkness,
The whisper in our heart when the temptation was fiercest and the claims of appetite were not to be denied,
The crucial word said, the simple sentence from an open page when our decision hung in the balance.

For all these we make an act of Thanksgiving this day.

We passed before us the mainsprings of our heritage:
The fruits of the labors of countless generations who lived before us, without whom our own lives would have no meaning,
The seers who saw visions and dreamed dreams;
The prophets who sensed a truth greater than the mind could grasp, and whose words could only find fulfillment in the years which they would never see,
The workers whose sweat has watered the trees, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations,
The pilgrims who set their sails for lands beyond all horizons, whose courage made paths into new worlds and far-off places,
The savior whose blood was shed with the recklessness that only a dream could inspire and God could command.

For all these we make an act of Thanksgiving this day.

We linger over the meaning of our own life and commitment to which we give the loyalty of our heart and mind:
The little purposes in which we have shared with our loves, our desires, our gifts,
The restlessness which bottoms all we do with its stark insistence that we have never done our best, we have never reached for the highest,
The big hope that never quite deserts us, that we and our kind will study war no more, that love and tenderness and all the inner graces of Almighty affection will cover the life of the children of God as the waters cover the sea.

All these and more than mind can think and heart can feel, we make as our sacrament of Thanksgiving to Thee, Our Father, in humbleness of mind and simplicity of heart.

Thanksgiving Litany by Howard Thurman.

Feast of St. Gertrud of Helfta

Oh, if my wish were granted that, with Jesus, the best beloved, you captured and bound me and treated me, a little woman, as your own heir! By consorting and discoursing with this divine hostage, from a sinner I would be made into a saint; from one useless into a truly spiritual human being; from an enemy into a true friend of God; from one lukewarm into someone truly thirsting for God; from one barren and unfruitful into one sprouting the perfection of all virtues and the holiness of all religion.

There, my dear Jesus, may the bosom of your mercy be the bowels of my captivity. There, let the chain of your divine heart be my bond in such a way that, in the violence of living love, I may become your prisoner forever, indivisibly glued to you, living entirely for you and clinging to you so that, for eternity, I may never be capable of being separated from you. Amen.

Spiritual Exercises VII:57-69
Tr. Gertrud Jaron Lewis and Jack Lewis
Cistercian Publications, 1989.

prayer for Proper 28B/Ordinary 33B/Pentecost 24

Lord,
We long for your simple gifts for our lives.
We long for your peace.
We long for your joy.
We long for your hope.
We long for your love.
We long for your touch.
We long for your grace.
We long for your healing.
We long for your touch.
O Lord, open a spring in our lives that daily refreshes us with your simple gifts.

cross posted at revgalblogpals

In Anxious Times

"Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." -- Philippians 4:6

Be Grateful!

Brother David Steindl-Rast tells us about the gift of today:

Wednesday Prayer

"A fish cannot drown in water,

A bird does not fall in air.

In the fire of creation,

God doesn't vanish:

The fire brightens.

Each creature God made

must live in its own true nature;

How could I resist my nature,

That lives for oneness with God?"

~ Mechthild of Magdeburg (Meditations from Mechthild of Magdeburg)

Tuesday Prayer

Beannacht

("Blessing")

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

~ John O'Donohue ~

(Echoes of Memory)

Blessing and photo of Sybil Dingle Head Peninsula, Ireland, found here.

His Banner Over Me is Love

I am my Beloved's and he is mine, his banner over me is love;
I am my Beloved's and he is mine, his banner over me is love;
I am my Beloved's and he is mine, his banner over me is love;
his banner over me is love.

He leads me to his banqueting table, his banner over me is love...

He fills me full of holy joy, his banner over me is love...

Peter built the church on the rock of our faith, his banner over me is love...

The one way to peace is the power of the cross, his banner over me is love...

He is the Vine and we are the branches, his banner over me is love...

He is the Shepherd and we are the sheep, his banner over me is love...

He is the Light and we are the candles, his banner over me is love;
He is the Light and we are the candles, his banner over me is love;
He is the Light and we are the candles, his banner over me is love;
His banner over me is love.

Prayer for Sunday Pentecost 23

Lord of us all,
Who loves with an everlasting love,
We bring our prayers to you now for
The concerns and needs of those near and those from afar.

First Lord, we pray for the shooting victims at Ford Hood and Orlando.
We pray for their families and loved ones who grieve and those who await their recovery.
We pray for the shooters who were tormented in some way to choose to take the lives of their fellow humans.
We pray for these communities and ourselves that there not be blame placed on those of another belief system.
We pray for healing, understanding, and also safety.
We pray for those who may feel the heat of rage and/or harmful thoughts that they would seek help and support for themselves that no more shootings like these will occur again.
And we praise you Lord for those who bravely stopped the shooting and for those who are counseling and leading the people now.

We pray for those among us who are the widows and widowers,
We pray for those who live lonely lives with families who live far away.
We pray for those whose incomes have stagnated or depleted to put them in difficult financial situations.
We pray for those whose health has faded with age.
We praise you for those whose love for you and faithfulness to you and the church has remained strong.

Lord we pray for those whose countries and lives already have so little have been devastated by the recent typhoons, tropical storms, tsunamis and earthquakes.
We pray for those whose countries have been torn by war and acts of terrorism.
We pray for those whose countries and lives are in the midst of poverty, and famine.
We praise you Lord for those who have helped make changes for the better in these situations, and for those who have continued to give and donate to help in the midst of these crisis.

Lord, we pray for our friends and families who may be suffering from acute, chronic, or terminal illnesses.
We pray for those who have may lost jobs, lost income, lost savings, lost their homes, lost their families in the recession and financial crisis.
We pray for those who have been searching for jobs and have had trouble finding one.
We praise you Lord for those who have taken time to help these in their need, who have been advocates for, supporters of and stood by them.

Lord, all these needs and more sometimes overwhelm us and we often feel helpless, and powerless to help.
We don’t think we have enough to give.
Lord remind us that you took the widow’s mite and saw it as something good.
Lord remind us that when we all give together we can do so much more.
Lord remind us that we have not just money to give.
And Lord remind us that you are the God of all the resources and there is much in your storehouse to be used for good in the world.
Lord remind us that in our giving we are witnesses to your great generosity and love for all.

God the Bountiful

God we thank you for your harvest which feeds us so many times each day.

We are nourished with your forgiveness and hope

We are sustained with your strength and patience

We are filled with your grace and compassion

God we thank you for feeding us with a harvest of plenty

We are restored through your generosity and healing

We are replenished with your abundance and joy

We are reminded of your selfless abandon

God we thank you for feeding us with the bread of heaven

Your gift of Christ sustains our lives

His presence restores the promise of your love

His life fills our hearts with your everlasting light

God we thank you too for filling us with the water of life

May we drink deeply that our thirst may be quenched

May your river continue to flow

Over us, in us, through us

And out into the world you love. -- adapted by Christine Sine

Prayer according to Rohr

"Prayer is actually setting out a tuning fork. All you can really do in the spiritual life is get tuned to receive the always present message. Once you are tuned, you will receive, and it has nothing to do with worthiness or the group you belong to, but only inner resonance and a capacity for mutuality (Matthew 7:7-11). The Sender is absolutely and always present and broadcasting; the only change is with the receiver station."

Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2009. 101-102.

Wednesday Prayer

Anglican Collect for All Saints

Almighty God,
who hast knit together thine elect
in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of Your Son, Christ our Lord:
Give us grace so to follow Your blessed saints
in all virtuous and godly living,
that we may come
to those ineffable joys
that thou hast prepared for those
who unfeignedly love thee;
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord,
who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth,
one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.



Book of Common Prayer, 1979

Tuesday Prayer

I am certain it was the voice of God because it was accompanied by such a strong epiphany like a movement in a symphony or something. The sentiment was simple: Love your neighbor as yourself...(God) was saying I would never talk to my neighbor the way I talked to myself, and that somehow I had come to believe it was wrong to kick other people around but it was okay to do it to myself. It was as if God had put me in a plane and flown me over myself so I could see how I was connected, all the neighborhoods falling apart because I would not let myself receive love from myself, from others, or from God.

excerpt from "Love: How To Truly Love Yourself" by Don Miller in Blue Like Jazz

Here I Am

You have refused sacrifice and oblation,
but you have opened your ears to me.
You have refused burnt-offerings, even for sin –
so I said “I am coming.
The books of scripture have written of me.
It is your will, my God, that I wish to perform:
your law is next to my heart.”

From Psalm 40

(Please imagine a lovely music video of the St. Louis Jesuits "Here I Am, Lord"--will try to link later but my work computer speaker isn't working so I don't want to get a clunker!)

Prayer for All Saints Sunday

Almighty God,
we thank you for those who have gone on before us,
pioneers in faith and ministry, thought, word and deed.
We thank you for their example of living a Christ like life
We know that they were no more perfect than you and I,
but we all are your children.

Help us to remember when we are running the race of life,
that all these people stand by us, cheering us on, praying for us, and loving us.

Also, Lord in your compassion,
comfort those who are grieving the loss of their saint(s).
Comfort the churches.
Comfort the Pastors.
Comfort your people.
Amen.

(Forgive me, for not doing this this morning, I substituted for the Senior Pastor who is ill with the flu.)