A Prayer for the New Year

Bless us, O Lord, and bless the time and seasons yet to come. Teach us to number our days aright,that we may gain wisdom of heart. And fill this new year with your kindness so that we may be glad and rejoice all the days of our life. God of times and seasons, we know that our calendar is not like yours--yet it seems the new year, like a new born child, is placed in our hands as the old year passes away. The days and weeks to come are Your gift. May they carry your blessing. As a blessing, we welcome them. Our prayer as the year closes is that all that was good in it remain with us into the new year--and all that was harmful be left behind. Amen

Based partially on a prayer by Fr. Victor Hougland, CP

Every moment is a prayer

It’s really quite simple. When we look at a tree, God is there. When we look at a flower, God is there. When we look at the sky, God is there. When we look at the earth, God is there. We can see God in the faces of people on the street, in the faces of our children, our friends, our partners, our colleagues, and our bosses. When we see God shining through the faces of all those around us—those like us and those unlike us—every moment
becomes a prayer and the world becomes a different place to live in.

~~Anne Wilson Schaef

With thanks to Ellie at The Anchorhold.

Sunday Prayer: Christmas I

Holy One
Growing in wisdom
Teach us your ways
That we may love as you

Eternal One
Bless leaders of every
city, nation, world
with your wisdom and grace

Gracious One
Heal those who suffer
Mend the broken
Fill the empty, tend the ill

Lover of Souls
forgive our weaknesses
Bring forth your strength
in us, through you, with us

Holy Teacher
help us to know your ways
may all we say -
all we do - be for you
Amen.

Cross posted on RevGalBlogPals (link in sidebar) and SeekingAuthenticVoice

The Christmas Silence

Hushed are the pigeons cooing low

On dusty rafters of the loft;

And mild-eyed oxen, breathing soft,

Sleep on the fragrant hay below.

Dim shadows in the corner hide;

The glimmering lantern's rays are shed

Where one young lamb just lifts his head,

Then huddles 'gainst his mother's side.

Strange silence tingles in the air;

Through the half-open door a bar

Of light from one low-hanging star

Touches a baby's radiant hair.

No sound: the mother, kneeling, lays

Her cheek against the little face.

Oh human love! Oh heavenly grace!

'Tis yet in silence that she prays!

Ages of silence end to-night;

Then to the long-expectant earth

Glad angels come to greet His birth

In burst of music, love, and light!

~ Margaret Deland ~

Poem from here and Photo from flickr photos

Blessing Our Cities on Christmas Eve

Another prayer for "Presence"...

I pray for Lutheran Chick's friends, for Questing Parson, for friends in California, for a dear retired missionary and former professor who just lost his wife. As I type this I am deeply mindful of many who are grieving, waiting by bedsides, without homes, worshipping in silent and hidden places, wondering about employment...and on it goes. In the long period of time when God was "silent" (about 400 years) until the Angel spoke to Mary, the longing for Messiah's coming must have been intense. Thinking of these things, we pray together for our cities, towns, homes, as well as the world.

Psalm 72:6-7 May God come down like rain upon the mown grass, like showers that water the earth, in these days may the rightwoud flourish and may there be an abundance of peace till the moon is no more...

Prince of Peace, as we finish preparing for Christmas Eve services and other gatherings, we are deeply aware of how much we need you. As we each seek to welcome the flame of your holy presence, may those who walk in darkness see a great Light. Bring your wisdom, plant your joy, infuse your jubilant loveliness, add your mighty righteousness. Live in us and move and speak and love through us so that Your presence will become true peace, peace that "passes understanding." Amen

Advent Prayer

Dear God, the troubles of our world have left many of us speechless. We don’t know how, in the numbness around jobs lost, illnesses we don’t have the resources to cure, a planet imperiled by the accumulated effects of our greed, and the seemingly endless presence of war and violence, to say our prayers. We are lighting candles, though – in our Advent wreaths, quietly, in side chapels of our churches, in our rooms where no one else but You can see. The candle flame is our prayer, wordless but filled with meaning, with petition, hope, and faith. And the candle flame is your answer to our prayer. You lighten our darkness, O Lord. Amen.

-- Marc Andrus, Bishop of California

With thanks to Ellie at The Anchorhold.

Sunday Prayer: Advent 4

Holy and gracious God,
the giver of light and life,
we thank you for this gift of life.
We thank you for those who come into our lives as prophets,
pointing us toward that most precious gift,
your Son.

We thank you for those we travel with us
as we seek to know more fully who we are
as your people.

Come to us this day
and every day.

Come to us in the trials and tribulations.

Be with us in through the storms of life,
weather
and otherwise.

Come to us in our birthings
and in our dyings.

Come to us
and comfort us.
Come to us
and give us your peace.
Come to us
that we might see the way.

Come to us
that we can be
Your hands and heart.

Come to us
that we might be
the source
of healing
and reconciliation
in this broken world.

O Come, Emmanuel.
Come.
Amen.

Crossposted on RevGalBlogPals

Blessing Our Cities Presence in Worship

The true Light that gives light to all was coming into the world! John 1:9

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. Rev. 21:20-21

Hossanah! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! John 12:13

This is how some of the people welcomed you, Lord Jesus, recognizing You as the very one who comes in God's name. We pray that you will visit this citiy. How long till you return? We yearn for your coming. We anticipate that you will bring to completion all that the Almight God has purposed. Amen

How beautiful it is to live!

©2010 Susan Elliott and Jay Sidebotham;
Courtesy of Church Publishing, Inc.

Go and look at the
Advent daily calendar on Explore Faith.Org.

a tuesday prayer...

Dog Walking Prayer...
For the middle school children streaming into the building at 7:45...all of those souls, growing, lonely, tough, cool, scared, earnest, sweet...
may they know they are Loved. Somehow, someway.

For the swans, heads tucked under wing feathers, floating in the Mystic River, oh Thanks Be to God for their chilled beauty.

For M., whom we will never see again, who loved the dogs but couldn't love herself...addicted to heroin and suffering from bulemia, oh dear M., rest well, be at peace.  May you know now that you are Loved.

For all of those we will meet today,
cashiers at grocery stores,
colleagues that we don't care for,
neighbors whose names we don't know,
people in cars rushing by...
may your Grace surround them. 
Even if they don't know what Grace is.

For ourselves, we pray.
For the places in our hearts that hurt.
For the ways in which we feel dissappointed.
For the longings we hold...to be your Lovers of life and of creation...
Oh Holy One...
Strengthen us, forgive us, renew us...
hold us...
Lead us.
Amen.

Sunday Prayer: Advent 3A, Sixteen Days of Prayer Advocating for the End of Domestic Violence

For the speechless tongues of those oppressed
For weak hands, feeble knees, widowed, spirits
Made lame, we pray

For those orphaned from war, violence, fear
Parentless children, silent, stifled cries. For the
hungry, we pray

For wives, beaten, abused, trampled, shot
Spirits abandoned, imprisoned by fear. For
Women, we pray

In the dry land of desert wilderness, parched
Stranded spirit, a deer that cannot leap. For the
Broken, we pray

Blessed are those whose help is God
Happy are those whose hope is God, for the
Good News, we pray

For the Good News of God, born human, who
Comes to live and love us, as us, be glad, rejoice,
Singing, we pray

For hope, like blooming flowers in a dusty desert
For hope, compassion bursting forth, be strong!
God is with us.
Amen.

Crossposted on RevGalBlogPals and SeekingAuthenticVoice.
More on Sixteen Days of Prayer to End Domestic Violence HERE This prayer was originally written for and is published here

Blessing Our Cities -- Presence

The last of the types of blessing prayer (which have included hope, peace, increase, family fulness, abundant life, provision and transformation) is for presence.

May the God of Heaven and Earth protect you as if holding you in cradling arms. May God's presence be real, and may provision and favor rest upon you as if you were seeing a loving face smiling into yours. May the Lord find you and draw you so that you encounter Christ in all of his relational splendor. May the Lord's love and power and beauty be real to you, lifting your life up into the life of God and giving you Heaven's peace. Then, full of new life, may you bless the people of your city in whatever way God grants to you this season. Amen

Advent Longing

In the darkness of the season, in the silence of Mary's womb,
new life waits and grow.
Hope is shaped in hidden places,
on the edges, in the depths
far from the blinding lights and deafening sounds of consumer frenzy.

In the darkness and silence of my own life,
I wait,
listening for the whisper of angel wings,
longing for a genuine experience of mystery,
hoping for a rekindling of joy and the establishment of peace.

I lean into the darkness
and silence.
Expectant.

~~Larry J. Peacock

(Larry James Peacock is pastor of Malibu United Methodist Church, Malibu, California. For over 20 years he has visited monasteries and retreat centers to chant the Psalms and learn a daily rhythm of prayer. Among the places he has traveled are the Taize Community in France and the Iona Community in Scotland. A spiritual director since 1988, Larry has served on the faculty for both the Five-Day and Two-Year Academy for Spiritual Formation (sponsored by Upper Room Ministries) and has led numerous retreats. Beyond college and seminary, Larry's continuing education includes a sabbatical at Pendle Hill, a Quaker center for study and contemplation; the Two-Year Academy for Spiritual Formation; and the Institute for Spiritual Direction and Retreat Leadership. Larry is married to author Anne Broyles; they have two children. He is a part-time potter and an occasional juggler.)

a prayer of longing and praise

Praise to you Ground of my Longing.  You see my restless heart and offer rest.
You see my sense of incompleteness and offer wholeness.
You see my prayers for a better world and offer redemption.
You see my waiting and know the terror of dreams that never come true,
but still you wait with me.
For you embrace my deepest desire
Ground of my Longing,
praise to you.

--Tess Ward, The Celtic Wheel of the Year:Celtic and Christian Seasonal Prayers, p. 264

Sunday Prayer: Advent 2A and Sixteen Days of Prayer Advocating for the End of Domestic Violence

Advent 2

Let us pray for the Spirit of Wisdom to rest upon us

A spirit of understanding and knowledge

Grant us to live in harmony

God’s mercy prevail

Let us pray for God’s steadfastness to gird our spirit

May peace prevail like lamb and wolf

Grant us to live in harmony

God’s mercy prevail

Let us pray, for voices crying out in the wilderness

Women living in fear, children hiding

Grant all a place of harmony

God’s mercy prevail

Let us pray, repent of harm done to the innocent

Clear the chaff of abuse and hurt

Bear the Spirit of harmony

God’s mercy prevail

Let us pray for the God of hope, joy and peace to fill

All hearts, one voice glorify

God, prepare the way

God’s mercy prevail

Crossposted on RevGalBlogPals and SeekingAuthenticVoice

More on Sixteen Days of Prayer to End Domestic Violence HERE This prayer was originally written for and is published here

Blessing Our Cities--Transformation Part 2

Rev. 21:5 "Behold, I am making all things new..."

As we look out upon our cities and towns, those places where we live, work and minister, help us to dare to believe that You, transforming Lord, are making things new. Ultimately, all will be changed. Choose our cities for present-day displays of renewing grace. Take these very placs as they are today--the people, the sorrow, the splendors--and transform them so that the life of Heaven will be known on earth. You, God, are faithful. May the people of our cities have eyes to behold you and ears to hear you, and may this be especially true as Jesus' birth is proclaimed this Christmas season. May the people around us fix their hopes on you.

Advent Prayer

Father in heaven, you came to earth in the person of your Son, Jesus Christ. As the coming of your Spirit upon Mary inspired her to welcome the One who is her child and her lord, so also open our eyes to the gift already given. Forgive us our restless searching for your presence according to our expectations. Direct our searching according to your gift. May we, like the star-led sages of old, be ever guided to the appointed meeting place in the Child of Bethlehem.

In him and by him, let us be found by you. With your apostle Paul we would put on the Lord Jesus Christ, wearing his humility as our robe of splendor. Forbid that we seek any glory that is not his. In his childhood, we become as little children. In his teaching, we are trained to delight you by our service. In his miracles, we are changed, like water into wine, our vain ambitions transformed into obedience to your call. In his suffering and death, we share in his victory over every wrong within us and without.

Fill, we pray you, our every moment with his threefold advent. As then he came and now he comes and will one day come again, awaken us to the then and now and one day of his presence in this present moment. As we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, may all our time be clothed by eternity until we find ourselves at last in the home you have prepared for seekers and searchers who, in our seeking and searching, were hopelessly lost. Give us, we pray, the grace to surrender to being found.

This we ask in the name above every name, the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Let it be.

~~Richard John Neuhaus

Neuhaus, Richard John. "Prayer." God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas. Ed. Greg Pennoyer and Gregory Wolfe. Brewster, Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2007. 20.

Sunrise Thanksgiving

Watching the Sunrise During Dark, Mornings of Advent

Thank you. What a gift this morning from you as I watched the blazing sunrise through a cloudy winter sky. It is hard getting up these dark mornings, Lord, and yet you gift me with a sight that I miss at other times of year, when the weather is warmer and the sun rises before I get up. I stared out the window at the red and purple light, gloriously framed by the gold of the rising sun. "Be still, and know that I am God" was the only thing that came to me. I watched in silence, filled with a sense of your presence in my life.

I am filled with gratitude this day for such a treasure and could feel it and see it as a gift from you. Thank you for your love. Today, let me carry a sense of how much you love me to send me such a gift. Let that awareness of your love change the way I treat others today. Let me be more reverent in the irritations of the day. I ask your help to move through my errands and holiday preparations today with peace and a sense of your sunrise in my heart. Your glory fills my spirit and I want only to give thanks with my life this day.

From the wonderful resource at Creighton University: Online Ministries.