Archive for category Prayer
A Prayer for Mothers’ Day, 2012
Posted by revjudegeiger in Prayer on May 13, 2012
Source of Life, Mother of Hope, and God of Many Names,
We pause this morning in our annual day of remembrance,
For all the parents in our lives who have helped us to grow to be
The people we have strived to be.
We know that within this room,
And within each of our hearts,
There’s a complicated mixture of joy, sadness, heartache and love,
When we think of the word “Mother.”
Where we have known moments of laughter and lightness,
We give thanks.
Where we have felt grief, and pain,
We offer up our silence…
…
Knowing that words can rarely help us along those difficult roads;
Only friendship, care, and honesty can.
May we remember the times in our childhood,
The small moments,
That shown beyond themselves.
May they offer peace, where there is conflict.
Remind us that every moment,
Holds within it the opportunity for motherhood,
For mentoring, for parenting,
for caring for the children around us,
and the child that is within every one of us,
no matter how old we may be.
We hold especially in our hearts this morning,
The families inNorth Carolina, who have been hurt by the hateful passage of Amendment 1, denying same-gendered couples their right to marry.
As a religious community, we stand in solidarity with Love;
That sacred embodiment of value, worth, and compassion,
That any two people would be blessed to every feel for one another.
May our communities come to mature,
to grow into a deeper sense of the spirit,
one filled generosity for those that are different than themselves,
so that all within our nation may come to feel respected,
and live lives of peace as they feel so called.
I invite the gathering to lift up aloud the names of people you wish to have held in prayer.
Prayer for Times of Change
Posted by revjudegeiger in Prayer on April 29, 2012
Spirit of Life, God of Many Names, and One Transforming and Abundant Love,
We pause this morning to take a breath before the great change that is before us,
for the changes that are stunning, that are obvious,
that bring us excitement, and joy,
and those that stagger us, that carry with them fear, and trembling.
We pause before those changes that come to us unbidden, and unknown.
In every moment the world grows into new directions
that are both clear and hazy.
We recognize that our vision helps us only so far,
that our expectations have but limited relevance,
and that our dreams only frame what is possible.
Gather this community together this hour,
May every candle lit, hold witness to our hopes and silences;
hold witness to the love that is before us,
and the stories that have brought us this far.
Our community is beginning its next step along the path of ministry.
May the walking be for gladness, and possibility;
May our ministry together be for healing and transformation;
And may we have the strength to continue down this road together,
with Your Spirit of Peace.
Easter Prayer 2012
Posted by revjudegeiger in Prayer on April 8, 2012
Spirit of Life, God of Many Names and One Transforming and Abundant Love,
Quicken our spirits to possibility this Easter morning.
May the hope of this season stir our hearts to compassion and forbearance,
Humbled before this great story of life in the face of suffering,
We remember all those lives who have been taught to endure.
All those people who suffer under adversity.
May we never become complacent to the grief of our neighbor,
May we come to understand the role we have in the strife of this world,
And find the courage of our convictions to transform our lives and our ways.
For those who struggle in silence – we pray:
May we not become consumed in self-doubt,
May we lift up the burden of self-blame,
and find a path forward in love.
We hold up the challenges of this family holiday,
Celebrating with those of us surrounded by loving family,
Mourning with those who are grieving the loss of someone dear,
And honoring the reality that many of us struggle with love and frustration over awkward family meals,
Knowing that sometimes the meal is not even to be had.
God of Love, may we this Easter, come back to our center,
And find in our lives a sense of abundance,
Where we feel broken,
A sense of compassion where we were cold,
And know a message of hope when we are lost.
Prayer for Black History Month
Posted by revjudegeiger in Prayer on February 19, 2012
Prayer for Black History Month – 2/19/12
Spirit of Abundance, God of Grace, Mother of Hope,
We pause now to remember those stories that are all around us,
But so often passed over,
Those stories that when told are shared because
Of what someone is, not who they are.
This month in our nation’s character
Is Black History month.
Help us to realize that Black history is
All our histories.
May the day come when these stories
Are so wildly taught that no month need
Be separately divided.
We know this day will not come until we as a people
Make different choices.
We pray now for those new choices.
May we come to see a day where the prison system
Becomes redemptive, not punitive.
A day where the legal system learns to focus more squarely on the facts,
And the not colors of our skin.
A day where our schools are as well funded, as the needs demand.
May our role models be allowed to excel when they thrive,
And not be taken down for their rich heritage.
We know this will require a shift in power.
And this can be scary for some.
Give those full of fear – hope.
May we come to know grace,
So that our hearts will not be hardened to the pain around us.
There are so many beautiful stories needing to be told.
And we need to get the chance to hear them.
Widen our vision so that the history that is shared this month,
And every month,
Come to be known as our history too.
We are most human when we see the humanity in others.
Like this:
MLK 2012
Posted by revjudegeiger in Prayer on January 18, 2012
Spirit of Hope, God of Striving, That which stirs our compassion,
in our race toward equality, help us to pick up the baton from those who have come before.
Let our dreams of a more just world be born anew in this age,
may the everyday stories of prejudice and discrimination,
enter into the light of day and be known for what they are -
– stories of fear and hatred bringing harm to the health of our communities.
May all amongst us come to hear demagogues, spouting racism, homophobia or sexism, for the clanging noise that it is;
And let us not stumble by following them down their divisive pathways.
God of Love, may your message be written upon the tablets of our hearts,
so that our quest for a compassionate world will be at our core.
Teach us to celebrate the everyday stories of success, of gratitude, of neighborly living as well.
Remind us that the world is not only stark, but vivid.
To celebrate the contemporary notion that diversity is a value to be sought after,
To celebrate most of our children living in peace with those who come from different cultures and religions.
To celebrate the glass ceiling beginning to show its cracks,
and the Redlining beginning to blur at the edges,
and marriage finally being properly honored in our state.
Knowing that we have a far way to go.
May we never be lost to dread from all that is ailing in this world,
And never forget the successes before us.
May we hold the bitter and the sweet in hand,
so that in our actions we remember where we have come from,
what is before us, and that the work of the world is ever for us to do,
and in our doing – may we share freely that work with those around us.
Like this:
New Year’s Day 2012
Posted by revjudegeiger in Prayer on January 4, 2012
Spirit of New Beginnings, God of Endings,
and Mother of Transforming and Abundant Love,
Gift us with a broader view.
Grant us the courage to learn from the mistakes of the year past,
To honor our travails,
and love ourselves despite what we could not let go of.
Help us to find a new sense of possibility in the coming year.
May we come to understand our journey as the series of changes that they are,
and not as a cascade of doors banging closed.
Not as limit and barrier,
but as impermanence,
openings, and hope.
Remind us to take the time, in these longer nights, and shorter days
to reflect on matters of the heart.
Stir in us intuitions of the spirit,
and quiet our busy minds,
So that we find more room,
to live into our lives,
and not our thoughts.
Let us not dwell overlong in the musings of fear and worry,
May we not fixate in the hells of “what if” and “if only.”
Mother of Hope,
help us to focus on the Heaven in this world,
that is within our power to create.
May we give gifts of service and care,
compassion and forgiveness,
and material things are needed, clothing and food when it is in our power to help.
May we make of this year a new year,
not a return to the repetitions of the old.
And may it be for gladness.
Like this:
Christmas Eve – The Ordinary Miracle
Posted by revjudegeiger in Prayer on December 25, 2011
God of Grace, Spirit of Hope Abounding, Source of Love,
Surprise us when we least expect it.
Enter our lives as the shining star in the night,
Sudden, unexpected, clear.
Remind us that there is a depth to life,
an urgency in being.
That we are not merely actors dimly reading our parts,
but creative souls, crucial to the story at hand.
Living is a practice of bringing our full selves to bear:
In the questing times, when we’re uncertain of our purpose, or our place;
In the times of epiphany, when newfound clarity must be brought to action.
In the times of loss, when hope flies from our grasp.
Help us to remember the lessons of Christmas.
New possibilities are ever abundant.
What we’re seeking may take a turn for the unexpected.
Hope, grace and love are central to our lives – not power, or privilege, or fear.
Dear God – help us to realize these lessons in our lived experience.
Take our hand and lead us away from cynicism and dismissal;
from contention and despair.
Grant us a renewal of vision.
And when the choirs of angels cease their singing,
and the shepherds return to their flocks,
and the stablehands come to replenish the hay,
May we have found the respite we needed amidst the glory of the night;
May our hearts remain opened for another turning of the year;
And may we have the courage to spread this message of possibility, of compassion over indifference, of the ordinary miracle.
Hanukkah
Posted by revjudegeiger in Prayer on December 20, 2011
This prayer was originally given at the First UU congregation of Brooklyn for our annual Winter Festival of Peace and Lights service on 12/18/11.
Spirit of Hope, God of Grace, Source of What Might Be, We remember the miracle of the festival of lights this morning, We hear the story of enduring in the dark, of a time when brute power sought to rule in the face of a people of faith. May we learn that we too can last, that we too can find light and possibility from the remnants of the oil we carry in our hardest times. That when exhausted, or dispirited, or just plain down, we come to know that within ourselves, within our souls, is a place of potential, a spot of warmth and hope and permanence.
Like the heroes of the story of Hanukkah, teach us to find comfort in one another, to know that sometimes the world throws too much at us to ever do it alone. And in that time, help us to learn that there is no need to do it alone. May this holiday remind us that we can let go of the doing, and the struggle, and the fighting. That there comes a time when we can rest, we can breathe, we can be with the people around us, and find all the fire in the world we need to kindle our souls and enliven our spirits.
Spirit of compassion remind us of the story of the temple. When we find the alien statue of Zeus in our Holy of Holies, May we find a way not to goto war. For all the country is ruined for it.Whether the statue be of a God foreign to us, or an idea we simply don’t agree with, a tradition held so dear, or a style or culture or orientation that differs from our own.
Teach us to brighten our candles without sharpening our swords. For every struggle need not be glorified in battle, every disagreement need not be held to the bitter end, and our differing faiths can find a common home, as they have in our own chapel.
Meditation on Post N17 Protests
Posted by revjudegeiger in Meditation, Prayer on November 20, 2011
Spirit of Solidarity, Compassion and Understanding, God of all these names, rooted in Love, Enter our lives.
Our city is wrestling with democracy, protest, witness and every day living. As always, we will not all agree about the path forward. Help us to remember the matters that trouble our core, To focus and reflect on the injustices of the world, To heal and make amends – the definition of Beloved Community. May we not fall in the traps of seeing the world as Them, or Us; May we support each others’ call to action, even should our actions be in contradiction. So long as love enters reason, we will find a way.
Help our individuals, and our leaders, and our media to speak the truth in times of conflict, crisis and anxiety. Help our communities to find ways to allow the public dialogue to continue in peace. Help our public servants to feel they can contribute rather than be ostracized, Our radicals to lift a hand to cross the hurdles of habit and inertia, And our traditionalists to remind us of the practicalities of the world before us.
Spirit of Life, we know that where there is pain we are called to extend compassion. For those who see the immediacy of need, help us to find long term solutions; For those who understand how our society functions, help us to handle the immediacy before us. May our desire for change, or our wish for stability, not create a divide in our search for meaning, substance, and care. For in the messy work of living, community can never happen with any one of us alone. May the joys of connection, the hopes birthed from relation, and the dreams of a world united help to steer us toward the common good.
We pause to feel gratitude for the abundance in our own lives, especially when it is hard to find. May we come to know a fullness in life that emboldens us to live generously with one another. To pause, and break bread with friend and stranger alike. Knowing that rarely are we alone the baker, and the farmer, and the deliverer of the food before us; Yet still we eat and live this day.
It is in our relations that we are able to appreciate the awe of this living breathing world. It is in our reliance upon one another that our civilization is possible. May religion continue to inspire us to appreciate the everyday, and the great horizons before us.It is in this inspiration that we come to know what it is to be human, to be alive.
Conflict and Congregational Meetings
Posted by revjudegeiger in Prayer on November 6, 2011
Spirit of Life, God of Many Names, and One Transforming and Abundant Love, we seek a way forward this day.
We know how easy it is in life to fall into patterns of speaking that see sides all around us;
To fall into patterns of thinking that place us in this camp or that one.
May we not fall into the traps of separateness, of discord, of animosity.
Remind us of the community that we are; a community rooted in hope and love;
A community whose rich history has sought to teach people how to speak the truth in love, to build bridges between divides, and brings us closer to the dream of the Beloved Community.
May we find a way to speak our own difficult truths this afternoon with that spirit of compassion, of kindness and connection.
May our words honor the legacy of community for which this church is named, the legacy of peace our forebears nurtured, and that legacy that has brought us forward to this day.
As we honor the difficult conversations that will come before us, may we also honor the stories of hope and renewal that were, and continue to be, lived by so many around us.
May we allow complexity and difference to speak with one another with forbearance and insight,
ever knowing that our truth is never the only truth to be had.
