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Prayers which explore growing closer to God

Bountiful Tree

God
who 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

God have mercy

Holy God
holy and true
have mercy on me

Oh Thou eternal beauty
Oh thou love without limits
Oh thou breath of the endless universe
have mercy on me

Father God
Mother Spirit
Brother Christ
have mercy on me

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

God strengthen me

In the praising
In the raising
In the silence
And the heart flung open wide
In struggle
In anger
In the fierce face of injustice
Strong God strengthen me
Kind God kindle in me
The hope that will not die
The love that cannot lie

If

And if we were human,
Seeking only to be what we were made to be:
Neither rule-breakers
Nor rule-makers,
But God's children,
Naked and unafraid in the world.
If we were such people
What might we be?
What chasms leap?
What anguish heal?
How might we then untrammeled feel?

Tall proud people.
Bearing suffering with grace,
Humility with joy
Being earth-children
Singing with angels
Far beyond our solar day.

Live the free and simple life

Resist greed
do not let that devil catch you

In simplicity love the life of freedom
without care
without fear
everything now
everything new
like the raven on black wing
like the lily that does not spin

Live the free and simple life
Love good, be caught by the limbs of love's embrace

Thankfulness for my life

For my breath
For my life

For this body
For this flesh

For everything that has meshed
To make this life, this breath, this flesh

I thank the Creator
I thank the Maker
I thank the Spirit, the taker of ordinary things
who plots our path
and weaves our way
with the strange gifts
of love and freedom

For father
and mother

For lover
and friend

For bird on wing
For bells which ring

For the making of flesh
For birth and breath

I thank you, I thank you... I thank you!

The Strength of Love

God give me the strength not to defend myself
God give me the strength to let go of myself
God give me the love which is stronger than self

Defend me from the need to defend myself
Teach me the strength which is stronger than self
Love me with that love which makes me more than myself

My self needs anger to protect itself
but love is a fortress which needs no defence
Pride's castle defends the self
but love is stronger than the highest walls

God give me love more alive than life
God give me love more unique than self
God give me love which is strength beyond strength

God teach me to love