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Praise and WorshipA Universal PrayerI am of the whole world one partMy body, soul and heart One sigh One cry Of the Master’s universal art A Hymn of PraisePraise! Do not stintLove! Do not limit Worship of the Gorgeous Spirit! By dint of joy Never cease to celebrate The day which brings the light to play! Come holy creatures dance with me In adoration be made free! Celebrate and PraiseTo celebrateTo praise To celebrate a personality behind the universe To praise the exact, extravagant, exotic wonder of that universe To celebrate a purposeful creation To praise the beauty of that unfolding To celebrate the divine origin of humankind To praise the excellent diversity of that humanity To celebrate a Holy Word which speaks a Holy Way To praise the excessive love that guides our steps To celebrate a God who becomes a man To praise the compassionate life of that Jesus who liberates and saves To celebrate a cruel death? To praise that love! To celebrate the defeat of death by love To celebrate the rebirth of hope To celebrate the Spirit's wild irruption To praise a God extravagant and excellent To praise a God and far beyond To praise a God the writ of human words The Rhythm of GodRhyming God, you are the eternal WordThe lover The singer The being of everything that can be heard The song which created beast and bird The maker The shaper The poet of life and living Word Remake me in your song Rhyme me Verse me Return me to the rhythm where I belong And write me in your world: A seed curled, a song hurled WorshipTo our words, God of the prophets, give fireTo our music, God of the singing, give beauty To our prayers, God of the wisdom, give love To our silence, God of the listening , give stillness ThanksgivingWide-eyed joyGod of this gorgeous, wondrous worldI thank you Teach me to celebrate her beauty to dance her wonder to embrace her challenge And so live within her that I become a human being full of thankfulness and wide-eyed joy A Thanksgiving for my LifeGod of lifeGod of death God of flesh God of breath I thank you for my life the weight of it the breath of it the flesh of it. Sometimes it is too heavy too burdened too bodied with being that I feel unable to carry it and death seems preferable but it is life and you are in it and you breathe it and you flesh it and it is good A Thanksgiving for HomeLoving GodThank you for my home For its roof keeping rain outside For its light keeping night bright For its kitchen keeping my stomach full and happy Generous God Thank you for my home Where I can be safe and still and silent Where I can be loud and proud and angry Where I can learn the meaning of being me Heavenly God Who came to earth and made it your home Protect my home when I feel fragile Shield my heart when I’m invaded And make my home no castle but a temple for your Spirit A Thanksgiving for the WorldFor the glory of this worldFor its beauty all unfurled For swallows in the air For bodies stripped and bare For the kindness of tender care For the spark to risk and dare For life that's free and full and fair For the sun in bright and dazzling glare For gracefulness of field-run hare For mighty grizzly in his lair For leaping stallion and mare For juice of autumn pear For all things hidden, secret, rare For new-weave cloth without a tear For everything and everywhere For the beauty For the glory Oh God, a humble, thankful prayer ConfessionA Long ConfessionEternal Godyou are light you are life your love Your mystery is beyond my comprehension Your strangeness is dark to me You are always beyond my grasp but I love you but I need you but I am drawn irresistibly toward you hungering for your goodness exulting in your beauty thirsting for your love but often I forget often I deny and mistake and diminish your goodness often I damage and spoil and bruise your beauty often I ignore and twist and profane your love and for this I am sorry I repent and ask your forgiveness for I know you are quick to forgive all who turn to you all who trust in you all who reach out to you through the darkness for this is your nature and your essence: a forgiving God full of mercy, abundant in love and longing for your children to return home A Short ConfessionEternal Godwho is beyond my grasp I love you and am drawn irresistibly to your beauty but often I forget, often I deny this very beauty that I love For this I am sorry and ask forgiveness knowing that your nature is to be merciful and welcome all your children into your loving arms A Very Short ConfessionGodbeautiful and strange I love you but deceitfully Forgive me rescue my calloused heart A Prayer for ForgivenessForgive me Holy GodFor Love I have forsaken Save me Holy Love For God I have forgotten Chosen not Love but my hurt Living not free but in dirt Forgive me Loving One Remake my crumbled heart Prayers through the DayMorningOn WakingIn stillness of morning, stayAt breaking of light, pray Heart open Thought stilled Let day with life be filled A KyrieHoly Godholy and true have mercy on me (x2) Oh Thou eternal beauty Oh thou love without limits Oh thou breath of the spacious universe have mercy on me Father God Mother Spirit Brother Christ have mercy on me (x2) Oh thou strength of the morning Oh thou heat of the sun Oh thou cool of the evening rain have mercy on me have mercy on me have mercy on me a sinner Blessing the dayThis day, I lift before the Holy OneAll that will pass beneath the sun All deeds done All seeds sown The contemplation The relaxation The births, the deaths, the paths trod And races run Today, may time teach me May these hours that I live allow learning And these years that I thirst upon earth Be for wisdom desiring and for truth yearning The way of Jesus may I walk in it The light of Jesus may I love in it The life of Jesus may I grow and bloom and root in it MiddayAt day's centerAt day's heart Let God enter deep into every part TwilightNow day fades towards its endingLight stutters Night hovers And we draw closer to the final sending EveningIn the evening when dayHangs between life and death Come gentle Spirit And fill it With what words can never say ExamenWho am I now?What is it that I love and what is it that I long for? How feels the flesh? What has the body done and what the mind wrought? Those that I love: Where are their bodies and what thing is it that they have thought? And the world? How does the world turn? What terror What love What twist has time brought? NightA prayer for the end of the dayTo God I now give up the dayRelease its weight Forgive its fate That passing through night's quiet gate I rise to the light of tomorrow's way A prayer for sleepless nightsIn silenceI wait In stillness I watch Through the long slow hours of night Through the darkness which dwells between the light PetitionPrayers of Struggle
A prayer for hard timesHeart sorrow growsSoul joy fades Pray God carry me Through the heavy sea Another prayer for hard timesOut of selfand into God Out of ruminating on my feeling into wonder at world's being Out of gnawing on the bone into joy at beauty grown Out of self despising thought into love and worship wrought A Prayer for AnxietyI pray for my fearfulnessI pray for my anxiousness I pray for terror and dread I pray for panic and helplessness I pray against terror and dread and despair I pray for hope and courage to dare I pray in Christ's might I pray with God's light A prayer for my fearfulness A prayer for my fear A Prayer for Resurrection LifeGod of lifewhen the weight is heavy lift the burdens and ease the fears God of life when the way is dark clear the path and shine the light God of life when despair is near whisper hope and kindle love For you are the life that never dies the light that never dims the love which is always near to your broken ones A Prayer for Someone with Chronic IllnessLoving GodI am broken and I come before you in need of love that love which would lift me up into your internal arms and make everything better but it is not so sometimes you bring healing sometimes illness is just a passing storm… but it is not so for me So loving God I pray for these three gifts: Thankfulness in the midst of sorrow Openness to healing however it might come And, in due time, release into your loving arms Be Not Afraid (in the Storm)Be not afraidBe not afraid On the unsteady seas On the rolling waters On the tormented deep Hear the word of the God-man Be not afraid (Love yourself Make friends with your flesh Be acquainted with your pain) Be not afraid On the unsteady seas God I need youGod, today, I need youI do not have sufficient strength I do not have that peace from which all good things proceed I do not have enough love Today I struggle to love this tumultuous, selfish, slovenly world My thoughts turn to anger too quickly Fear stalks me And I feel anxiety breathing on my bare neck I need an intervention of new ways of seeing things I need the emergence of a new manner of being I need hope God. I wish to walk in the way of Jesus: Resilient but generous Expectant but precisely vigilant for truth Entirely committed to love Today, this is my heart's deep desire In my FearLoving Godin my fear be close to me Loving God in my anxiety be near to me Loving God when the world is dark and I can see nothing but fear everything, come close to me Loving God hold me for I am small and full of dread… draw near to me Psalm for Someone in TroubleO Loving mystery, how many are my troublesMany confront me and rise up against me Many are saying to me "Love will not help you, God is not real" But you Loving Mystery But you Divine Presence But you Holy Mother But you Dancing Sister Are a warm blanket wrapped around me My hope and my joy Who lifts me tenderly out of despair So I shout aloud to Love And from the mountains wreathed in cloud she answers me! Exhausted I lie down to sleep But Love is with me in my dreams And with tender gentleness she summons me to life once more So although I am beset by fears So although I am surrounded by anxieties So although the demands multiply I will not be afraid For in love I was made a brave and beautiful woman And by the strength of tenderness And by the gentleness of truth Love will overcome On my own I can do nothing But in the trust of friendship But in the solidarity of love The blessing shall come to all people A Prayer for times of sorrowHeart sorrow growsSoul joy fades Pray God carry me Through the heavy sea Prayers of Longing
DeeperDeeper into the wisdomDeeper into the worship Deeper into the darkness O loving God Take me deeper into the wonder of your ways Hurt: a prayer for mercyFor the hurts which still weigh in meFor the thorns which still catch in me Lord! Have mercy! For what has twisted me For what resists in me Lord! Have mercy! For what inveigles my mind For what invades my heart Lord! Have mercy! For what I cannot forget For what I always regret Lord! Have mercy! For the anger undying For the fear unsleeping Lord! Have mercy! For all that was not as it could be For all that is not as it should be Lord! Have mercy! For my heart in its raging For my soul in its caging Oh Lord, have mercy, have mercy and grant me one drop of that tender forgiveness which falls from your lips on the cross Passionate GodPassionate GodI find my desires so troublesome: that grumbling of hunger that keening for justice that tug of sex That I find it hard to accept the depths of my longings the desires of my heart or even (in the tumult of this world full of the swirling search of other people’s longings) to know quite what they measure is O Passionate God whose desire is as hot as the sevenfold fire liquefy my longings melt my desires that they might be poured out in the liquid gleam of love Root meEarth me loving God in this living world:root me in its soil wash me in its waters release me into its wild winds And in this flesh may I know the brightness of spring and the lightness of summer; the ripeness of autumn and the slow sleep of winter Yes return us dirt-God to the weight of the earth Free us from the illusions of control Join us together as one people: Serving, celebrating, enjoying the feast of your creation WisdomMay I learn wisdommay I listen may I probe may I delve Wisdom For she is your soulmate loving God your beloved daughter your breath your word in the wide wide world May I yearn wisdom May I eagerly May I utterly May I lovingly Yes, may I love Wisdom Bountiful TreeGodwho is the scene of light and the breathing of breath and the touching of truth Come in your strangeness Come in your strongness Come in your closeness And plant in my anxious heart your quiet your stillness your loving kindness And cause it to grow a tough and bountiful tree branch-spread root-thick bark-bound twig-sprung leaf-deep fruit-rich bird-nested insect-hummed: A permanent investment in my soul Prayers for Help and Guidance
A prayer before any activityFor this deed, a blessingFor this endeavor, a grace May it do well and be done well And bring joy to heaven's face A Prayer for PoetsGod of imaginationGod of beauty Grant me insight into the nature of things May my religion be shaped by the truth of poetry rhythmical elusive reaching beyond the boundaries of language into the words which tell a wiser truth May my poetry be shaped by the wisdom of religion patient gracious rooted in an earthy love and seeking the divine GenerosityGenerous God. Teach Me to GiveWholeheartedly Joyfully with a Warm and Gentle Heart Generous God. Make Me a Good Steward Careful and Compassionate with Loving and Patient Thought Generous God. Turn Me Hospitable Kindly and Friendly with an Open Mind and a Generous Soul PilgrimageLoving Godas we travel through the wilderness of this world be with me in all our transitions and changes strengthen me for the journey hold me and never let me stray far from your purposes. Comfort me in times of stress and panic Inspire me in times of opportunity and challenge Embrace me in the flow of your Spirit and enable me at all times to move in harmony with your deep love St.
Guthlac Prayer
St.
Guthlac pray for meHoly Melangell pray for me Pega, Godric, Cuthbert pray for me All holy hermits pray for me All holy men All holy women Saints of the Saxons Saints of the Welsh pray for me For I am alone and I need the help of the Holy One Be with me in my distress Oh holy saints of God Oh holy hermits of swamp and fen, forest and mountain, sea and islands, be with me Help me, comfort me Lift me to the throne of God that I may see him face to face and receive His love, His grace, His healing touch St. Guthlac pray for me Holy Melangell pray for me Pega, Godric, Cuthbert pray for me Teach me to HoldLoving GodTeach me to hold the pain, the hurt, the anger Teach me to celebrate the life, the living, the love Teach me patience Teach me and trust Teach me and peacefulness O Loving One! Teach me forgiveness and the flesh shared and the heart open The Art of ListeningTeach me Godthe art of listening The attentiveness to words spoken and signs given The empathy for things felt and thoughts shy The ability to interpret without hearing what I have already decided I am going to hear Teach me O God to listen as an act of love for the world and your breathing in it The Simple Way (the way of the desert)Lord of life, teach me the simple wayLike Poemen who did not judge but rested the sleeping heads of his brothers on his lap Like Arsenius who laid aside his learning an sought wisdom from the wild men of the desert Like Anthony who seeking to overcome the demons learned the simple way of love The Spirit in the WorldInspire me, holy Godto listen attentively for your Spirit in art, music, literature and drama Teach me to catch the echoes of your wisdom in dark notes of tragedy in jig of holy laughter in insight sharp and kind Protect me from the cynicism that forgets love the sensation that exploits pain From everything that demeans and degrades our holy world O God of beauty make me sensitive to the whispers of your grace and truth The Way of JusticeLord Godteach me the way of justice lead me in the paths of peace not vengeance: using the sinner to placate the anger in my soul not envy: judging my neighbour for my own ill mannered greed not hatred: bathing in the warmth of my own self-righteousness but working always for the harmonious land where injury is healed relationship mended and love is the precious coin of our humanity For letting goLet go of strivingLet go of straining Let go of worry Let go of work Rest in God Rest in peace IntercessionA Prayer for IndividualsI remember NI hold N in my thoughts and in my heart and I let our spirits touch God’s blessing upon you God’s healing within you God’s Spirit alight in your heart today A Prayer for the ChurchGod of community. I pray for my churchGod of the church. I pray for my community May we be loving May we be kind May we speak of You and live as if we meant it Sweeten any bitterness Mend any divisions Heal our wounded hearts and fractious thoughts Draw us deeper down into your mysteries Earth us in your compassion Open our hearts to each other that we might see your glory glowing in each forgiven heart A Prayer for the WorldA prayer for justiceA prayer for peace for good government and the rule of law politics uncorrupted civil society strong and active community groups, activists and volunteers A prayer for an end to unjust rule the overthrow of oppressive regimes the extinction of bribery, torture and ethnic cleansing A prayer for international organizations and nation states and the good ordering of our global life A prayer for the unjustly imprisoned for the ignored and forgotten for the little people who slip between the fingers of justice who have never known the shalom of God who hunger for life with thirsty strength May they know, deep in their bones, the goodness of love May we build together the new creation Meditation and contemplationA body prayerI breathe lifeI listen to the life in my body and in my body I wait on God A moment of contemplationOut of the day I slideInto the soul: open wide StillnessStillnessSimplicity Simplicity Stillness Stillness Stillness Simplicity Simplicity Simplicity Love Prayers from and about the BibleA Prayer before reading ScriptureTo the Word I am sentTo the words I am bent That I might drink deep of the ancient ways To walk wise in the present days Holy WordsFor the rumbustious energy of the BibleFor its flagrant, contrary diversity For its beauty For its passion For its unsettling intensity Or, to be exact, For the sweeping myths of Genesis For the exhilarating liberation of Exodus For the legal inventiveness of Leviticus For the careful numbering... of Numbers For the dutiful retelling of Deuteronomy For Joshua, I suppose, and his uncomfortably ethnic cleansing For the wild archetypes of Judges For the steely commitment of Ruth For the pained wisdom of Samuel For the tragic sadness of Saul For the canny passion of David For the cosmopolitan sagacity of Solomon For the reckless awkwardness of Elijah For the stumbling faithfulness of Josiah, Jehosaphat and Hezekiah For the anguished faithfulness of Amos, Hosea and Jeremiah For the scholarly persistence of Ezra For the political nous of Nehemiah For the terrifying depths of Job For the joyous, raging, overwhelming singing of the Psalms For the calm confidence of Proverbs For the knowing chuckles of Ecclesiastes For the sensual extravagance of the Song of Songs For the serenity of Daniel For the style of Esther For the extravagant optimism of Isaiah For the keening of Lamentations For the apocalyptic imagination of Ezekiel For the serious pantomime of Jonah For the brief shard of Obadiah (and all those other so-called minor Prophets) For the final exclamation of Malachi Then For Mark exploding Jesus across the page For Matthew weaving the old with the new For Luke stretching the story from Bethlehem to Rome For the eloquent meditations of John For the universal gospel of Romans For the serious, passionate letters to Thessalonica, Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, Colossae and Philemon For passionate, serious Paul For the unfurling theology of Ephesians and Hebrews For the stiff earnestness of Timothy and Titus For the tough kindness of James For the suffering church of One Peter For the deified church of Two Peter For the brief contribution of Jude For the majestic, eye-popping, fantastical myth-making of the Apocalypse We thank you, living Word of God, made flesh PaternosterOur Father, unlimited by human conceptsOur Mother, the power beyond human thought Our Creator, beyond, yet always present to your children We respect, love and honour you for you are the energising presence that inhabits all life We desire that your love and goodness be made known to all humanity, that the powers of evil be overthrown and that the new creation be revealed here in the midst of us Help us every day so that we might have the food, shelter and companionship we need We acknowledge our failings, our greed, our self-righteousness, and as we receive your generous forgiveness may we be generous to those who frustrate or mistreat us God of all life we need your protection. We fail often and the world can be a frightening place. Guard us, we pray, in your expansive love. Mary's Song of LiberationI am ecstaticshocked, awed... joyful I'm shaking with every emotion God has created! I was a poor woman of no significance but God reached down, down into chaos of human history and said "You Mary. You are to be the vessel of my liberation" How...? Why...? My words fail... But why am I surprised? This is always the way God works The mask of celebrity is shown to be worthless But the labour of the poor never loses its value Pure-blooded superiority is toppled And the oppressed prisoner becomes the ruler of the nation The empire of the tycoon falters and fails But the work of the unknown craftsman lasts for years And now by the turbulent Spirit I will be a symbol of hope, A sign across the years Of God's upside down story: The Liberation of All Humanity Simeon’s Song of ResignationI have seen the world in its terrible beauty and ever changing painI grow tired of its wars and its anger And I am ready for silence and stillness For I have caught a glimpse of the final liberation which is offered to all people I have been dazzled by the shining of the light And I have been caught by the Glory which covers all And I cry out to God who made everything I reach out to the one who is love without measure And I let go of all my strivings and all my plans General PrayersPrayer of a DiscipleFor God so loved the worldThat his One Son he gave That all who trust the Son Should never die But live eternally. For God did not his One Son send To judge and End the world But to save it from all bitterness And see new life unfurled. Jesus is the image of the invisible God The first born over all creation For by him all things were created: Thrones and Powers Rulers and authorities All things were created by him and for him He is before all things and in him all things hold together I know O Lord that a man's life is not his own it is not for a man to direct his path Instruct me O lord in the way of your Kingdom guide me to the cradle of your love I offer you my life I offer you my fears I offer you my hopes We offer you our lives We offer you our fears We offer you our hopes For together we can be one, As we offer up to you our love. Open my heart, Open my heart Open my heart O Lord! To the heavenly realms, to the spiritual blessing Open my heart O Lord! Show me your way, loving God, Show me your way, Show me your way, loving God, Show me your way, Open up the way into your Kingdom, Stop me from going wrong And lead me down your ressurection road. That I may add to faith; goodness And to goodness; knowledge And to knowledge; self-control And to self-control; perserverance And to perserverance; Godliness And to Godliness; love That I may share in your divine love: That love which makes all things heals all things transfigures all things That love which created all and shall end all. To Cross ComeTo cross comewith limp, with limb dragging with heart heavy, hard with sorrow with memory mumbling, moaning To cross come sad soul, sore that you are flesh flaky, skin raw come To the clawed cross to the Christ beaten battered, abused come in your gentle humanity loved, delightful one brimming with beauty come through rabble deaf through bigots through prejudice, poverty of thought, imaginations puny and pusillanimous come to the cross to the shining cross flush with forgiveness effulgent miracle of mercy come To cross come clean in the coming cauterized A new babe bright in the burning God of EternityGod of Eternityyou have placed us in the close embrace of time that each morning we might praise you and each night rest in your love As the seasons pass we enjoy the diversity of the earth As the year turns we follow the circulations of the sun and mark the holy passage of time through birth, death and resurrection And so, loving God, as we continue our journey towards death as we live the rhythm of birth may we return each minute, each second, each day into your everlasting goodness and your deathless love |