Sunday Prayer: Easter

Gracious God, we give thanks
for all the gifts of this life,
especially in the One through whom
Your love poured out into the world.
For You, who breathes life through Word
and who, against all odds
 restores hope.

Welcome Happy Morning!
This Easter day when
love prevails
and all creation is made new.

You, Oh Holy One cannot be stopped!
And, for that, we give thanks!

Welcome Happy Morning!
May this Easter-tide reveal
to us, more signs of your prodigal peace,
filling our hearts with radiant grace.
May your grace and peace reflect through us
that we may proclaim with JOY the
Paschal Mystery of the resurrection -
of this Easter love divine.

God of Word and flesh
be with those for whom
on this Easter Day
 there lingers still
pain and suffering, and yes, even death.
 Restore all creation to wholeness
of health in mind, body, spirit.
Restore all in your resurrection love.

Welcome Happy Morning!
Welcome blessed Easter!
Rejoice and give thanks
for Jesus Christ is risen!

Thanks be to God.
Amen.

 

(This is my final prayer for Sunday prayers. It is has been a joy to offer these every other month for the last several years. I am grateful for sharing this with my colleague, RevAbi. Thank you for this opportunity.)

Prayer by Francis of Assisi

Therefore,
let us desire nothing else,
let us want nothing else,
let nothing else please us and cause us delight
except our Creator, Redeemer and Savior,
the only true God,
Who is the fullness of good,
all good, every good, the true and supreme good,
Who alone is good,
merciful, gentle, delightful, and sweet,
Who alone is holy,
just, true, holy, and upright,
Who alone is kind, innocent, clean,
from Whom, through Whom and in Whom
is all pardon, all grace, all glory
of all penitents and just ones,
of all the blessed rejoicing together in heaven.
Amen.

Prayer for Holy Monday: My Song is Love Unknown

My song is love unknown,
My Saviors love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take, frail flesh and die?

He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed for Christ would know:
But O! my Friend, my Friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then Crucify! is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they saved,
The Prince of life they slay,
Yet cheerful He to suffering goes,
That He His foes from thence might free.

Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.

- Samuel Crossman

Sunday Prayer: Palms of Passion

God of all hopefulness, God of my life
On this holy day of Palms and Passions 
and through this 
the holiest of weeks,
when our Lenten journey
finds its completion
through pain
sorrow
despair
illness
losses of all kinds,
through fear
anger
hatred
vitriol
and finger pointing.

As we come to recognize
the varied ways we work against you -

Oh God
against your hopes and dreams 
for creation
against your love poured out 
in flesh and blood -
we hang our heads and bow our hearts
seeking your forgiveness
yearning for your guidance
desiring your compassion.

Fill us we pray, with the ability to
turn to you, kneeling before you

may your grace
open our spirit that we may
let you in
receive you
take You in..

Into our hearts and minds and souls 
Let you in
that we might turn and
return to you, 
that we might be

transformed in you, 
through you, by you, 
for you.

Transformed 
once more,
this day, this week,
into a new self, 
me, you.

May we become a new people, 
a gentle people, 
a people of
love and compassion, 
born anew from our
deepest sorrow 
through the breadth of your 
forgiveness
and love.

And then, may we do likewise.
Forgive.
And, love.
Amen.

Prayer for Pope Francis (and all of us)

Tuesday Prayer

Breathing in,
I breathe in Your Love...
Breathing out,
I release the tension in my heart.
Breathing in,
I breathe in Your Love...
Breathing out,
I release my worry.
Breathing in,
I breathe in Your Love...

I hold that breath,
and let Your Love
fill my bones and muscles and belly and toes.

Breathing out,
I remember Whose I am.

Breathing in,
I breathe in Your Love...
Breathing out,
I release Your Love
to the universe.

Amen.

Sunday Prayer: Lent 5C

Gracious God
We come to you
broken
seeking 
to be made whole.

On this night/day
we pray for those
who weep,
who have died
who are struggling.

Compassionate God
We come to you
tired
yearning
for peace and harmony.

Loving God
We offer our
suffering
looking
for solace and comfort.

Holy God
Take our fears
tears
losses
and heal us.

In our darkness
be with us
hold us
contain
and sustain us.

Gentle God
anoint us
with your 
peace
and love.
Amen.

Thursday Prayer

Come Lord!
Do not smile and say
you are already with us.
Millions do not know you
and to us who do,
what is the difference?
What is the point
of your presence
if our lives do not alter?
Change our lives, shatter
our complacency.
Make your word
flesh of our flesh,
blood of our blood
and our life's purpose.
Take away the quietness
of a clear conscience.
Press us uncomfortably.
For only thus
that other peace is made,
your peace.

~ Dom Helder Camara

Wednesday - Thanks for Tears

Source of all blessings, you bless us with the blessing of tears -

tears of sorrow and tears of joy, 

tears of outrage and of overwhelming beauty. 

May i let them flow freely, especially the waters that rise up 

 when the ice of anger cracks and thaws in my heart,

 and the flood tides of an oceanic feeling deep in my heart 

that wash my eyes from within 

and make me gentle towards others.

Br. David Steindl-Rast

Tuesday Prayer

Thank you God...
for wrapping me up in your arms of love...
even when I am sick of myself,
even when You probably get sick of me.
Thank you.
Your uncondition
reminds me
that in this moment,
in this breath,
I am Beloved.
Amen.

Monday Prayer: For Unity of Faiths

O God, we are one with you. You have made us one with you. You have taught us that if we are open to one another, you dwell in us. Help us to preserve this openness and to fight for it with all out hearts. Help us to realize that there can be no understanding where there is mutual rejection. O God, in accepting one another wholeheartedly, fully, completely, we accept you, and we thank you, and we adore you, and we love you with out whole being, because out being is in your being, our spirit is rooted in your spirit. Fill us then with love, and let us be bound together with love as we go our diverse ways, united in this one spirit which makes you present in the world, and makes you witness to the ultimate reality that is love. Love has overcome. Love is victorious. 

- Thomas Merton

Sunday Prayer: Lent 4C, Prodigal Grace

 

Holy and Gracious God

You, the one of prodigal grace
We give you thanks for the gift of life
and for the blessings of this life,

for family and friends and

love abundant.

Lead us through the trials
the suffering and sorrow
the challenges and struggles
the tired time, despair and bleak places,

back to you, and

love abundant.

Be with those who weep
or cannot sleep
who have no peace
who seek release

and comfort them with

love abundant.

Fill us with hope, 

sustained in your mercy,
with patience and stamina

upheld by your Holy Spirit

in your prodigal grace.

Transform us and all our broken ways 

transforms us that we can be
made whole

And in wholeness
may we
be
the hands and heart of Christ.

Amen.

A Prayer for Tired Pastors

Come to me...Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11: 28-29

God, we have become proficient in religious planning and performance. We can say all the correct words, but sometimes we leave our hearts far behind. Have we practiced our worship to make it predictable and safe, becoming as bored as we are proud?  Where you find it, break through false religious pride. Surprise us with Your supremacy. Stun us with how dangerous You are!

We have sometimes kept ourselves busy. But for many, self-sufficiency has left exhaustion in its wake, and we are left anxious and bereft. We give up trying to get our act together! We come to you now, as you have summoned us. Show us your heart and train us in humility. We ask for insight to see and to seize opportunities for rest.  Thank you, gentle Savior.  Amen

Thursday Prayer

"Open wide the window of our spirits, O Lord, and fill us full of light;
Open wide the door of our hearts,
That we may receive and entertain thee with all our powers of adoration and love. Amen"

~ Christina Rossetti

Wednesday: Keeping Quiet

Keeping Quiet

Pablo Neruda

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,
let's not speak in any language;
let's stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

Now I'll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

Source: translated by Alistair Reid in Extravagaria

(from inwardoutward.org) 

Tuesday Prayer

O God,

Make us children of quietness

and heirs of peace.

Amen.

-Saint Clement

Monday Prayer: True Light

Come, true light.
Come, life eternal.
Come, hidden mystery.
Come, treasure without name.
Come, reality beyond all words.
Come, person beyond all understanding.
Come, rejoicing without end.
Come, unfailing expectation of the saved.
Come, raising of the fallen.
Come, resurrection of the dead.
Come, Alone to the alone.
Come, for you are yourself the desire that is within me.
Come, the consolation of my humble soul.
Come, my joy, my endless delight.

- Symeon the New Theologian

Sunday Prayer: Lent 3C

Gracious God, we give you thanks for all the blessings of this life -
for family, friends, 
for home and food, and work
for water that quenches thirst

and the ever abiding presence
of your son 
who leads us in this life.

Loving God, we offer up these prayers of concern this day -
for those struggling to rebuild lives
from natural disasters
from human disasters
from failed economies
from illness 
from_______________
may the power of your Holy Spirit
bring new life, new hope.

May your love nourish the barren soil

and replenish the drought of our hearts.

May we grow anew and give forth fresh

fruit, new life. 

Creator God, fill us with nourishment
the kind that only you can offer.
Fill us with hope
fill us with kindness
fill us with gentleness
fill us with your love.
May we be your living love.
Amen.

Prayer for Safety

All powerful and ever-living God,
Guard our churches, our homes, our schools,
our hospitals, our factories, and all the places where we gather.
Deliver us from harm and peril.
Protect our land and its peoples from enemies within and without.
Grant victorys founded upon justice.
Instill in the hearts and minds of men and women everywhere
a firm purpose to live in peace and good will toward all.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen