Sunday, November 30, 2014

Prayer 678- Advent Wreath Prayer 1

Advent Wreath Prayer
 

Come, Lord Jesus, and illuminate our hearts and minds with wisdom as we come before you to worship. 

Encircle us in your arms of mercy, for we know that your love has no end. 

Kindle a flame within us that never goes out, and join us together to be a beacon for your gospel. 

Preserve us from all folly and hardness of heart, and make us one people with song and rejoicing. 

Rescue us from our wandering in the dark, and open our eyes to behold your light. 

Come, O Savior, and bring light and hope to your people, especially those we now name.

Amen.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Prayer 677


My heart is firmly fixed, O God, for You have lifted me and restored me, and I will sing your praise forever! 

You have placed me in the cleft of the rock as the tumult tore against me. You have gathered me under your wing; You are my shelter against the heat of midday and the chill of the night watches. When I stumble in weariness or blindness, your hand is upon my shoulder to steady me. 

May my feet commit themselves to following your way, that I may stand upon the foundation of your mercy and love. May I reach out my hand to my brothers and sisters, remembering that in your grace, You tend me in my hour of need. May the cares and concerns of those who call upon You ascend to You like soaring birds.

Amen.

Friday, November 28, 2014

Prayer 676


Joy comes in the morning, as the Light of Christ illumines the world! Lead us, O Holy One, anointing us to your service for your Name's sake. Make us beacons of hope and trust in a world too often rent by division and faithlessness. Shape us as steadfast servants of your Truth, that we may give all of our selves-heart, mind, and soul- to You. Draw us into the holy mystery of your abiding grace and mercy, that our lives testify to your goodness. Spread the canopy of your protection and blessing over the hearts and minds of those who seek You.

Amen.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Prayer 675- Thanksgiving Day

A few of us lead the delegates in singing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" at the 175th Convention of the Diocese of Missouri. Those singing or performing are, from left, me, Bishop Wayne Smith, Eliza Lynn, Marshall Crossnoe, and Clay McKinney. Photo by Beth Felice.

For Thanksgiving Day
Almighty God, we lift our hearts to give thanks to You. Our cups overflow with all You have given us: we are blessed indeed! Happy are those who act with justice, and always seek what is good and right! 


Uphold us in your embrace, for You are the source of all good things, our Creator and Companion. Make us a blessing to our brothers and sisters, kith and kin, remembering the blessing of love in our lives. 

Thank You for the sure foundation of love and companionship that reminds us of Your unfailing love for us. Extend your hand of blessing over us, O Holy One, and make us a holy people, drawn together in harmony. 

Protect us, guide us, inspire us, and nurture us as we journey through this precious life You have given us. Shield, guard, and protect those for whom we pray this day.

Amen.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Prayer 674: for justice and mercy


Clergy, including seminarians, diocesan youth missioners, Deaconess Anne House interns, and seminary professors, march through the streets of Clayton, Missouri arm in arm at dawn on November 25 to protest the refusal to indict in the Mike Brown case. Photo from the New York Times.


In silence and humility we come before You, O God Most High. 

Merciful God, bring us all to repentance of the ways that we have failed to honor You and one another. Give us the strength to own our faults, and the courage to ask forgiveness and reconciliation from our brothers and sisters. 

From the deeps of our souls we cry out to You, and You are with us. Waves of pain and oppression may crash over us, O God, but the tide of your mercy is strong, and will bear us up. 

Help us kindle the light of your love to a world that reels in the darkness of despair and the blindness of pride and anger. Yet, in creating us, You have sealed us as your own, and called us to always act in empathy. 

Make us instruments of your peace, O God, and coax from us a tune of justice and holiness. Holy One, bend near your people, and let the light of your countenance shine upon those who call upon You.

Amen.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Prayer 673

Clergy march through Clayton, Missouri, the seat of county government, in protest of the failure of the grand jury to indict in the killing of Mike Brown.


Almighty God, we worship You and love You with all our heart, strength, and mind. Let us show our love for our neighbors who are rich and poor, friends and enemies, next door and across the world. Let us show our love for our neighbors, whatever their race or religion, as much as we love ourselves. Let us show our love for our neighbors, those in trouble who need us to care for them, for in loving them we love You. Bend to help these, our brothers and sisters, O Loving One, for whom we pray this day.

Amen.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Prayer 672



Creator God, we come before You in awe for the works of Your Hands which sustain us in each moment and breath. You set the stars in their courses- help us follow the paths of peace and justice this day. You clothe the lilies of the field in beauty-- help us to put on the raiment of righteousness and walk humbly with our companions. Your eye is on the sparrow- watch over those who are in need, sorrow, or pain, especially these we now name.

Amen.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Prayer 671


The Rev. Mike Angell and I sing during sabbath time at convention with some great friends!

Holy One, we bow before You, and come into your courts rejoicing in the power of your Spirit, singing praises to your Son. Let us tell out the wondrous story all creation sings: the love of God endures forever! 


Each gust of wind flutes through each blade of grass, singing a hymn of praise to the God who makes us one. The canopy of the sky spreads its azure testimony before us, revealing the handiwork of the Most High. 

Let us sing out before your altars, O God, placing our cares before You, that we may worship You night and day. 

We are God's beloved: what have we to fear? Our help comes from God, whose mercy endures forever! 

Loving one, extend the hand of your blessing upon us especially over those we now name.

Amen.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Jesus on the Border: A commentary on Matthew 25: 31-46

I wrote this back on July 16 for episcopalcafe.com's Speaking to the Soul on tomorrow's gospel; the link can be found here. Thought I'd repost it, especially in light of President Obama's executive order on immigration this week.



Today’s gospel starts with a discussion of separation. In the vision of judgment Jesus describes, one people will be separated from another, and he compares them to the sheep and the goats. Using symbolism that appears repeatedly throughout scripture, the sheep are those who are blessed and obedient to God’s will—in this case, God’s will of radical generosity and care for others: feeding the hungry and providing drink for the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and those in prison. Jesus’s vision makes it clear that he himself had been welcomed when the poor, the sick, and the outcast had been cared for.

Psychologically and sociologically speaking, the boundaries of our world usually progress from our own self, to our family, to our neighborhood, to our community, to our state, and to our nation. Some of us include other circles within this mental Venn diagram: our parish, our diocese, our denomination, and the Church overall, in the case of Episcopalians.  It is a common occurrence in our culture to see a sharp separation between ourselves and others. This is nothing new.

Throughout scripture, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, there are dozens of laws and reminders to treat the strangers and the aliens among us with hospitality and compassion. Closer to home, there is Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan, which he told in answer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” In short, the answer was, “Not whom you expect.”

We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves by being reminded that that neighborhood encompasses those we traditionally think of as rivals and enemies.  We are called to care for those who seek our help. Again and again, we are called to break down the barriers that separate us in response to the vision of the kingdom of heaven, as Matthew likes to phrase it--  a unified humanity in a unified creation bound together in love to God and each other.

We are commanded in our gospel reading today to welcome the stranger, with dire consequences if we fail. Yet we seem to have more than enough problem welcoming our neighbor, much less the stranger among us. It seems modern society is more fractured than ever, both in the United States and elsewhere in the world—even among our countrymen there is so much contempt and denigration directed at those we have deemed different from us. If we can’t love our neighbors, how can we respond to the stranger and the alien among us?

We are not seeing many good results regarding the increasing crisis along the US southern border, where, in just the last nine months, 52,000 unaccompanied minors have been placed in detention while seeking asylum from violence in their homelands.  We have read reflections on this crisis in just the last few weeks from our Presiding Bishop, the President of the House of Deputies of the General Convention, and the Chief Operating Officer of the Episcopal Church, to name but a few.

But the challenge of care for those who are outcast is certainly not limited to the United States. In Israel, we have the ongoing bloodshed between Hamas and the Israeli government in Gaza. Earlier this spring, anti-immigrant candidates in Europe received a shocking amount of support in European Union elections, buoyed by a backlash against a surge of refugees from Europe and Africa. In Africa, refugees flee Nigeria, the Central African Republic and South Sudan, to name but a few areas of turmoil.

The ancient Hebrews were commanded to provide for the orphaned and the alien among them, which was an act of remarkable generosity if one considers what a small people they were, often subject to displacement themselves. We Americans are blessed to have been largely immune as an entire people to displacement. Does that mean we can have no understanding for or humanitarian response to those who have been torn from their families and homes, and who have experienced warfare and bloodshed?

We are called to transform our vision of the “least of these” from nuisances who place demands upon our finite resources of money and compassion. Again and again, we are called to remember that Jesus was not, and is not, the one everyone expected. He was not born into the ruling classes, from a powerful family, from a cosmopolitan city in the center of the empire. He was not the warrior king who would restore the political fortunes of Israel.

For those of us who cling to Jesus’s teachings today, we are reminded that Jesus not just was but IS. This is why scripture still speaks to us. “As it was, is now, and ever shall be.” We read about the Jesus who was, and many of us try to appeal to the Jesus who will be, but we often forget about the Jesus who IS , right now. Can we understand that Jesus is among us now? The face of Jesus still is the face of our neighbor, the face of the poor, the sick, and the refugee.

In Jesus’s parable, the goats, those who did NOT respond with openheartedness to those who were vulnerable, protest that they did not turn away Jesus, because they did not recognize who Jesus was at the moments when compassion was called for. Jesus stands in solidarity with “the least of these”—those who cling to the margins of society, those who were easily spurned or shunned, those who are seeking to survive.  These are our neighbors. These are the faces of Jesus.

Repeatedly, we have to be reminded that the Jesus we claim to follow is not the Jesus we expect. Jesus was not really that well-groomed, handsome man who smiles at us from so many paintings, sculptures, and, lately movies. Jesus is, however, the one who calls us to open our hands and our hearts, to love as we have been loved, to give as well as receive. Jesus calls us to serve him, to see his face in those we could turn away.

Prayer 670


Moi and the newly Rev. Chester Hines after his ordination yesterday at the 175th Diocesan Convention of the Diocese of Missouri.

We raise our voices in praise and song to You, O God, our Creator and Light.
For our manifold blessings-- community, hope, faith, and love-- we give thanks to You, O Lord.
For all who are gathered as disciples, seeking to discern your will in our lives, we give thanks to You, O Lord.
For the Light of Christ, which uplifts our hearts and minds, bringing us into communion with You, we give thanks to You, O Lord.
For all who seek You, or a deeper knowledge of You, that your kingdom may be glorified on Earth as in heaven, we pray to You, O Lord.
For all who travel this day, for traveling mercies, that they be returned to their homes safely, we pray to You, O Lord.
For wisdom and justice to be strengthened and restored in our land, we pray to You, O Lord.
For all who are in danger, sorrow, or any kind of trouble, that the awning of your mercy shield and shade them, we pray to You, O Lord.
For those struggling against illness or pain, that your healing hand may uplift them, we pray to You O Lord.
Holy One, we pray especially for these, your servants we now name.


Amen.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Prayer for the 175th Diocesan Convention


We thank You, Loving One, for the gifts You have given us in your generosity and everlasting love for us.
For the blessing of this new day, that we use it to the glory and worship of your Name, we thank You, O God.
For the blessing of our talents and abilities, for we all can do something in service of You, we thank You, O God.
For the blessing of friends and loved ones, and for those we will meet today to see your face before us, we thank You, O God.
We lay our prayers and petitions before your altar, O Loving One, for You uphold us always.
For those who are to be ordained as deacons in your church: Kevin, Nancy, Jerre, Rebecca, Chester, and Deborah;
Grant us the wisdom to seek your will, not ours, in all we do.
Grant us the will to fight for the weak, the outcast, the poor, and the lowly.
Let us seek always to hear the better angels of our nature & fulfill your command to establish justice and peace.
Grant us the strength to meet our challenges and trials with grace and perseverance, and rejoice in our blessings always. Amen.

Prayer 669


O God, You are our refuge and our rock: we put our trust in You. Help us to work together in harmony in the work You have given us, and let our deeds bring honor to Your name. Let us make your Word and commandments our sure foundation, and seek always to forgive rather than condemn. Let us remember the generous love You have given us, and uphold each other in our trials. Break the chains of fear and enmity we carry, and help us lift up the banner of love and compassion. Extend the shelter of your mercy over those for whom we pray this day.

Amen.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Prayer 668- for justice, unity, and strength


God of Mercy, bend near to hear the whispered prayers of your people, who come humbly before you. Give strength, O Holy Spirit, to all who fight for the oppressed and downtrodden, and let us take our place beside them. Amplify the prophetic voice of the ones crying out in the wilderness: may their words and deeds cause a garden of justice to bloom. Direct us to self-examination of how well we love each other, that we honor each other, all made in the image of God. May we treasure those who love us and pray for and love those who hate us.  Strengthen us to fight against all that diminishes us as your children, starting with our own fears and faithlessness. Encourage those who press against fear, sorrow, or illness, Most Holy God, and envelop them in your mercy and care. We pray your grace be made abundantly manifest in the hearts of these, your children.

Amen. 

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Prayer 667


The sun gilds the clouds in the eastern sky, and praises for the Creator ring from our hearts! Holy One, we are blessed to be able to come before You, and to proclaim the wonders of your love. Heal us of our pride and our enmity; call us into remembrance that You, O Christ, are in the midst of us. Clothe us in your grace and mercy, that we may be renewed and energized, charged by your blessing. Hold our loved ones in the hollow of your hand, and shield them from every foe.

Amen.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Prayer 665


God is our shelter and our security: let us give thanks to God for all our blessings. Holy One, you set us within the lee side of the rock: protect us from the chill eddies of fear and uncertainty. Kindle our hearts with hope, and let us blaze anew with the fire of zeal for your good news. Place your hand beside us, behind us, and before us, that we may be enclosed within your holiness, knowing You as our Companion. Give refuge under your wing to those who are anxious or despairing, and refresh those with flagging spirits. Let us see your handiwork and claim your blessing upon us, trusting in your mercy and lovingkindness. Hear the cries of those we now name, and bear them up in your embrace.

Amen.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Prayer 664

The Trinity in a flower.

Holy One, we give thanks to you, and with joy gather around your altar, bonded through your love. Let us sit in the presence of God, the source and root of all our being.

Let us sing praises to the Light of Christ, who calls us into fellowship with one another and sustains us in all our journeys. Let us be lifted by the Spirit of God our Savior, who fills us with wisdom and joy.

Let us fasten upon the Word of God, and place ourselves under the sway of Love that never ends.

Let us give thanks for the mercy and forgiveness of God, and seek to go and do likewise. We bring our intercessions before You, O Loving One, and raise up the needs of those whose cry is to You.

Amen. 

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Prayer 663


Precious Savior, we turn our eyes, our hearts, and our minds to You, opening ourselves to your call in our lives. We kneel before You in love and humility, and ask that You send us to serve You and each other. Help us emerge from the valley of bitterness and doubt to trust in You as we seek to truly love each other. Tune our hearts to the song of the Spirit, and may our prayers ascend as joyful song. You, O Holy One, are the center of our being, and may all we are be drawn into the orbit of your grace and mercy. Reach out to the searching hearts of your children, O Loving One, and spread the balm of your love upon those we now name.

Amen.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Prayer 662


In silence, we wait upon the Lord, who abides with us and calls us to love and discipleship. Hear us, O Holy One, as we lift our prayers to You, for You are the God of truth and call us to holiness and humility. 

O God, let us not put our faith in our own power, but put our hope in walking in justice with our brothers and sisters. Let us ground all we do in the commandment to love You and our neighbor as we love ourselves. 

Heal us of our hardness of heart and our thirst for the cup of anger and bitterness. Guide us instead to drink deep of your mercy and compassion, and to remember all that we have been forgiven. 

Soothe the brow of all those who suffer, O Savior: strengthen and refresh their bodies and souls. Send your Spirit and pour out your peace as a balm on the troubled, that all may find their rest and home in You. Rest your healing hand upon those we now name.

Amen.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Prayer 661

Leaves on a tree in front of Press Hall at Eden Seminary. November, 2014.

O God, we give thanks to be able to come before You, O Source of all blessing, for You have claimed and redeemed us. 

All-Merciful One: we place ourselves within your hands today. Guide us into the ways of wisdom, lovingkindness, and grace. 


All-Loving One, let us place each other in our hearts today. Let us seek to convert our hearts with generosity and empathy, tenderly cherishing those around us. 


All-Beneficent One: help us align our wills within your call to us today. Guide us into true discipleship and service in openness to your reign in our hearts.


Most Holy God, accept our prayers and sacrifices, and bless and consecrate us, renewing our spiritual strength. Grant, we pray, your tenderness and favor to those we now name.


Amen.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Traveling Mercies: Speaking to the Soul


(Originally published on The Episcopal Cafe's Speaking to the Soul, Nov. 12, 2014)

The autumn gusts produced by an advancing cold front are literally turning the trees outside of my home into woodwinds. Flute and oboe tones rustle and entwine among the limbs of oaks who have dropped their leaves seemingly all at once, with what seemed like a resolute thud, like an overburdened shopper dropping bags of purchases. The more tenacious leaves of my neighbor’s sugar maple applaud and shimmer in tones of amber and gold, the river birch claps and rubs her diamond-shaped hands as if in preparation for the advancing chill, vibrating like a reed of a bassoon.  Living in Missouri, there are often times when I miss the wind I remember from growing up in Tulsa. But not this morning.

Although I spent most of my life as a child in what was known in Oklahoma as “Green Country,” almost all of our relatives lived in western Oklahoma, in places like Enid, Woodward, Crescent, Hobart, and Altus out on the prairie. Thus, this time of the year, when people all across America begin turning their thoughts to hearths and homes from which they have long since flown free, this wind makes me think of the times in my childhood when we would often be planning to travel west. Out there, the landscape undulating gently like the waves on the sea, the wind was a tangible presence, sending clouds scudding along like great ships, blowing tumbleweeds until they stacked along the fenceline or skidded across the highway in front of us, and setting dust devils to whirl like dervishes in Istanbul.

As kids, we would both anticipate the feasts that awaited us as well as dread the long car trips. After all, you can only torture your siblings for so long before parental wrath was loosed upon you like a thunderclap. Eventually we would lapse into a benumbed, sometimes sullen silence, which usually consisted of staring out the window at rolling, stubble-covered landscapes of harvested wheat fields under either startling blue or gunmetal grey skies. My father’s lead foot would propel us across the state in fits and starts as he would gun it past farm equipment and semis and the occasional station wagons of other grim parents clutching steering wheels ahead of kids who made pig-faces pressed against the rear windows. Thanks to my father’s unrelenting tobacco and coffee habits and my mother’s love of Vienna sausages, I would be often unable to read there in the back seat of some cast-off Lincoln or Oldsmobile my dad inevitably purchased every three or four years from one of our more well-off relatives. Roy Clark or Marty Robbins, or perhaps, if my little sister and mother won, Barry Manilow playing from the front seat, we’d slouch our unbuckled bodies in the back, three kids confined for hours in a space that had to be a violation of the Geneva Convention, and watch America roll by.

But always, the wind was our companion. In the Saint Helena Psalter, Psalm 135: 6-7 tells us how the wind reveals the power of God, a demonstration we could be witness to at any time as we approached the 100th meridian: 

You do whatever pleases you, in heaven and on earth,
  in the sea and all the deeps.
You bring up rainclouds from the ends of the earth;
  You send out lightnings with the rain;
  You bring the winds out of your storehouse.

In western Oklahoma, we knew that that storehouse had to be absolutely enormous.

In Hebrew the word often translated into English as “wind” is ruach. Ruach is one of those words that sounds like what it is, an onomatopoeia, like rustle or throb or ring. But besides that, ruach is also the word that is translated as “breath,” as well as “spirit” or “liveliness” in the Scriptures. I remember being told that at a Bible study as a child, and it has always amazed me. Leaning up against the chilly window with the Southern Plains whirling past on those November weekends, I would feel that wind buffet even a Lincoln Continental ever-so-slightly, and think of how it was the Breath of God, the same wind that was the Spirit moving over the waters at the dawn of time mentioned in Genesis 1: 1-2, the Breath of God that we sing about in our Hymn 508, that fills us with life anew and inspires us to love and act in response to the call of God in our lives. The wind that was propelling us toward our relatives’ homes, so ubiquitous, so common, was also sacred, a sign that pointed us toward the reality of a living creation, from which we were blessed with everything, and upon which we depended.

As the Gospel of John reminds us, the wind blows where it will, and so does the Spirit of God inspire us.  As a child of Oklahoma, the sound and feel of the wind propels my mind back to thoughts of home, and of the mercy of God in giving us all good things. Let it caress your face—and breathe deep a gift from God. Press your hand against the resistance of that wind—and settle deeper into the abundance of God. The wind picks up our prayers, our traveling mercies, and carries them into the ear of the Holy One. In this month of Thanksgiving, let the wind carry us back, not only into the embrace of our relatives and friends, but deeper, into the embrace of the abundant love of God.

Prayer 660


We thank You, Loving One, for the gifts You have given us in your generosity and everlasting love for us.
For the blessing of this new day, that we use it to the glory and worship of your Name, we thank You, O God.
For the blessing of our talents and abilities, for we all can do something in service of You, we thank You, O God.
For the blessing of friends and loved ones, and for those we will meet today to see your face before us, we thank You, O God.
We lay our prayers and petitions before your altar, O Loving One, for You uphold us always.
Grant us the wisdom to seek your will, not ours, in all we do.
Grant us the will to fight for the weak, the outcast, the poor, and the lowly, and fulfill your command to establish justice and peace.
Grant us the strength to meet our challenges and trials with grace and perseverance, especially for these we now name.

Amen.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Prayer 659 For peace and healing



Leaves blaze in the afternoon sun, Eden Seminary. November 2014.

Holy, holy Lord, source of all goodness, we place ourselves within your care today. Make us instruments of the peace for which the world longs and prays. 

We seek your wisdom, that we be better disciples and stewards of this one precious life you have given us. Refine and gentle our hearts, that we may seek to love each other with gratitude for the gifts that each person brings into our lives. Make us mindful and patient in choosing our words and actions, we pray, for your love's sake. 

May we embody your love in the world, as your Son embodied your love in a living sacrament of faithfulness. Through your abounding love, make us seekers of all that is good, all that is compassionate, all that is true. Help us work for healing and grace, filling up the broken places of the world and renewing the spirits of those clinging to hope. Give your kiss of benediction and blessing to those whose names we raise before You.

Amen.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Prayer 658


O Lord, You are our God, and we put all our trust in You. Bless us and keep us as we begin this week. Watch over those who travel, that they may safely arrive to the hearths of loved ones. Help us to be truly thankful for all we have received. Help us not to allow small things to make us forget the blessings we have been given by those in our lives. Help us to remember and open our hearts to those in need at this time and give generously that we all may be blessed. Hear the prayers of your people, O Light of Life, as we pray for these beloveds.

Amen.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Prayer 656


Holy One, we lift our eyes to you in prayer and thanksgiving: make your countenance to shine upon us. Hallow the works of our hands and of our hearts, that they may be fully dedicated to You. Consecrate us to your service, O Christ, and with loving and resolute spirits we may work together in building your kingdom on earth. You make us glad with abundant blessings: may we always lift up our thanks to You, the source of all goodness. Teach us to love each other generously, making each other's cares our own. Place your hand of blessing, we pray, upon those whom we lift up to you today.

Amen.

Friday, November 7, 2014

Prayer 655



Almighty One, You are the rock upon which all our hopes and lives are founded: hear the prayers of your people, we pray. Accept our offered hearts, minds, and souls, for You are the Creator and Caretaker of All. Merciful One, we give You thanks and praise for your abundant love and grace which binds up our wounds and heals our hearts. We call out to You, and You are at our side, like a child who calls out to her mother in the shadows of the night. Send your Spirit to inspire us to tend to those in need of help or comfort. Strengthen the weary and uplift the faltering, Lord Christ, and carry us when we wander afield from your goodness. Draw into your embrace, O God, all those we now name, who call upon you in hope.

Amen.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Prayer 654



Loving One, we kneel before You, meditating upon your word: heal us of our division and folly, we pray. The planet breathes and grows thanks to the Almighty Creator, Our God who charges us with tending the Earth. The Breath of God moves over the waters and the hills: may we also be shaped and molded by the loving hand of God. Accept the sacrifice of our hearts and minds, that they be wholly yours, and holy. Move within us, O God, as a mighty wind: may your Spirit fill our hearts and the spaces in between us. May your love propel us into new efforts for justice and peace. May we be humble servants of your Light and Truth, praising You in our work and our words. Shelter us within the branches of your Love, and may our prayers be carried to You on the rising breeze.

Amen.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Prayer 650



Yours is the night and yours is the day, O God Most High, and we raise our thanksgivings to You with the rising sun. Happy are those who act with justice, and always do what is right! We rejoice to do You homage, Lord, for You are the source of all our blessings. Let us preach peace to those far off and near, and live out peace in our own lives. Let us hasten the coming of your kingdom by being used to your glory and honor, loving each other as ourselves. Let us aid the weak, work for the common good, soothe the afflicted, and care for the vulnerable among us. Let us extend the hand of brotherhood to all, and love and live without fear. Grant your mercy and blessing to those we now lift up in our prayers.

Amen.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Prayer 649- All Saints' Day


Let us praise and bless the wonders done by God in this and every generation. We thank You God, for all your saints who have entered into glory, for their word and example in our lives. We remember those whom we love who have left us, and thank You for their love. Teach us to walk in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may draw every nearer to You this day. Give your comfort to all who worry or grieve this day, and place your hand of benediction on those who call upon You.

Amen.