Thursday Prayer

"Divine Hope, who is found both beyond and within us,
As we begin this season of preparation, we admit how often we fear silence, fight stillness and resist the unknown. Move us beyond the exterior material in our

lives toward the inner rooms of our hearts. As we explore in these depths, adjust our seeing toward each new reality that arises out of shadow and darkness. Through our sense of relief, stir us to passion for others, leading us beyond mere survival to fullness of joy. Amen."
 

~ Janet Salbert

Where Service is Rare

Lord, just as your love knows no bounds and finds endless ways to reveal itself, so help us to express a gratitude too deep for words.  Help us to learn to reveal our thanksgiving in the countless ways there are to love others, to provide for those in need, to serve where service is rare.  Amen. 

- Common Prayer, November 28

Tuesday Prayer

In the great quiet of God,

     my troubles are but pebbles on the road,

My joys are like the everlasting hills.

So it is when I step through the gate of prayer

     from time into eternity.

When I am in the consciousness of God,

     my brothers and sisters are not far-off and forgotten,

     but close and strangely dear.

They shine, as if a light were glowing within them.

Even those who frown on me

     and love me not

     seem part of the great scheme of God. 

                    -Walter Rauschenbusch, 20th century pioneer of Social Gospel movement. 

Monday Prayer: Daring to Dance

Lord God,
Dancer of the universe,
Take my hand
And dare me
To dance with you
Until I am
Out of breath
And rejoicing.


- Kathy Keay

Christ the King Sunday Prayer

O Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come,

We live in a world that is constantly in change and flux.

It is hard for us to go through all of life’s many changes.

We look for someone who is constant, for something that is secure.

It is comforting that you are that one sure thing.

And so we put our trust in you to guide us and to walk beside us.

For some the changes in our neighborhoods and cities are cause for distress.

Some hate the aging process for what it does to our bodies and minds.

Some struggle with work related layoffs, job losses, higher demand on the ones left working.

Some are lost with divorces, losses, breakdown in communications in their relationships.

Some such as those in the Mideast are in shock over the civil unrest, terrorism, wars.

And we have all be effected by climate change whether its drought, flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires.

In all this we look to you for our rock, our place we can go to for sanctuary and peace.

And in your love and grace we find that which we look for the peace we need.

Oh Lord God, you are the one who is and who was and who is to come.

In you we put our faith in trust to hear and answer our prayers and the cry of the needy.

Amen

cross posted at revgalblogpals

In Thanksgiving

Thank You

For the wide sky and the blessed sun,

For the salt sea and the running water,

For the everlasting hills

And the never-resting winds,

For trees and the common grass underfoot.

We thank you for our senses…

~Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) excerpt from Thanksgiving Day Prayer

Monday Prayer: The Prayer of the Chalice

Father, to You I raise my whole being, 

a vessel emptied of self. Accept, Lord, 

this my emptiness, and so fill me with

Yourself - Your light, Your love, Your

Life - that these Your Precious Gifts

May radiate through me and over-

Flow the chalice of my heart into

The hearts of all with whom I

Come into contact this day

Revealing unto them

The beauty of

Your joy

And Wholeness

And 

The 

Serenity

Of Your Peace. 

- The International Order of St. Luke the Physician

Sunday Prayer: 28B

From the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer page 836
1. A General Thanksgiving

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have
done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole
creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for
the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best
efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy
and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the
truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast
obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,
through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life
again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and
make him known; and through him, at all times and in all
places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

Prayer for Autumn Days (for those that haz it)

Prayer for Autumn Days

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.

From Beliefnet

A Prayer for Tuesday

PREFERENCE

 

Stuck with another day,

how should we

pass

it?

 

If anything worked for you before

--I'd give that

 

preference.

 

-Mirabai, late 15th-early 16th century Indian poet

Love Poems from God, ed. and translated by David Ladinsky



Monday Prayer: Such Love

How can I tell of such love to me? You made me in your image

and hold me in the 

palm of your hand, your cords of love, strong and fragile as silk

bind me and hold me. 

Rich cords, to family and friends, 

music and laughter echoing in memories, 

light dancing on the water, hills rejoicing. 

Cords that found me hiding behind carefully built walls and let me out, 

love that heard my heartbreak and despair and rescued me, 

love that overcame my fears and doubts and released me. 

The questions and burdens I carry you take, 

to leave my hands free- to hold yours and others, 

free to follow your cords as they move and swirl in the breeze, 

free to be caught up in the dance of your love, 

finding myself in surrendering to you. 

How can I tell of such love? How can I give to such love? 

I am, here am I. 

- Catherine Hooper

Sunday Prayer: Proper 25B

Gracious God we bring to you our worries and concerns 

Hold them tenderly, like a mother, close to heart.

Transform our fears and still our rapid heart

fill us with your peace. Let there be hope.

God of love, be with those who are ill, suffering

in mind, body, or spirit. Be with those struggling

to recover from the hurricane, those without 

power, food, heat - the basic necessities of life-

Restore them to wholeness,

 as only you can in your grace.

Fill us with your peace. 

Let there be hope.

Dear God, we lift up to you our Veterans

and those who have served or do serve

in harms way. Protect them, and this world, too.

Fill us with your peace, that there may be hope.

God of all, we give you thanks 

for all the blessings of this life.

For the morning sun and rays of light.

For the moon and stars and gentle rain

For fresh fallen snow and birds that sing

For all our blessings. 

For hope.

May there be peace.

Amen. 

Storms

Willow

To understand
A little of how a shaken love
May be sustained

Consider
The giant stillness
Of a willow

After a storm.
This morning it is more than peaceful
But last night that great form

Was tossed and hit
By what seemed to me
A kind of cosmic hate,

An infernal desire
 To harass and confuse,
Mangle and bewilder

Each leaf and limb
With every vicious
Stratagem

So that now I cannot grasp
The death of nightmare.
How it has passed away

Or changed to this
Stillness,
This clean peace

That seems so unshakable
A branch beyond my reach says
"It is well

"For me to feel
The transfiguring breath
Of evil

"Because yesterday
The roots by which I live
Lodged in apathetic clay.

"But for that fury
How should I be rid of the slow death?
How should I know

"That what a storm can do
Is to terrify my roots
And make me new?"

~ Brendan Kennelly ~

(A Time for Voices)

Wednesday Prayer

Today, as we walk into a new world:
the first day of the rest of our lives
we pray to remember the important things:
You, and the love and peace you promise.

When we are with you, we have our Good Shepherd, who holds us close in arms.

If we leave you for fighting and arguing, your arms wait for us, the perfect space to fill the "God-shaped hole" in each one.  




Today, may we return to you, and to the care you ask us to maintain for others. 
Today, may our focus be our place in your arms, bringing others to your loving embrace, and caring for each one in this imperfect world.

Amen.

Tuesday Prayer

On this day,
We pray for the beauty of the earth,
and the wonder of this world
to infuse our hearts with blessing and love
in the midst
of division,
in the midst
of destruction,
in the midst
of the prattle and pounding of the news, the commercials, the strife that surrounds us.

May the quiet center of your heart
find the quiet center of our hearts,
and may it stretch and open
to encompass
all that you love,
with compasssion,
with breath,
with kindness.

O hear our prayer,
and lead our thoughts,
Amen.

Monday Prayer: Recessional

Recessional

God of our fathers, known of old,   

   Lord of our far-flung battle-line,   

Beneath whose awful Hand we hold

   Dominion over palm and pine—

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,   

Lest we forget—lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;

   The Captains and the Kings depart:   

Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,

   An humble and a contrite heart.

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,   

Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;

   On dune and headland sinks the fire:   

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday

   Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!   

Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,   

Lest we forget—lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose   

   Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,   

Such boastings as the Gentiles use,

   Or lesser breeds without the Law—

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget—lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust   

   In reeking tube and iron shard,

All valiant dust that builds on dust,

   And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,   

For frantic boast and foolish word—

Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!

Rudyard Kipling, 1897

Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)

Sunday Prayer: All Saints' Day - Grace Unbound

Holy One, God of all that was and is and ever will be

Bless all the saints with the light of your love

Bless those who have gone before us and

those who are with us still and

those who will be 

Holy One, God of all that was and is and ever will be

Set the clock of our hearts for the days ahead

Set our hearts on gratitude and hope

Set our hearts on love, you

and all that will be

Holy One, God of all that was and is and ever will be

Help us in our time of tribulation and anxiety

those who are weary from the storms

hurricanes and life, politics and elections

and all that will be

Holy One, God of all that was and is and ever will be

Guide us with your compassion, teach us

to rise and follow you, even when bound

by fear and constrained by stuff

- all that is and will be

Holy One, God of all that was and is and ever will be

Fill our anxious hearts with peace, let us hear

Jesus' words, "Come" and "unbind him"

Unbind her, unbind us. Let us all reach out

in love unbound for what is and ever will be.

Amen.

In God's Beauty

In beauty may I walk.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.

Beautifully will I possess again.
Beautifully birds . . .
Beautifully joyful birds

On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.

With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.

It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.

A Navajo Indian Prayer of the Second Day of the Night Chant (anonymous)

Found here.