Prayer for Pilgrimage

By revjudegeiger

Spirit of Hope, God of Many Names, and One Transforming and Abundant Love,

Be with us as we call an end to a ministry here,

May we pause to reflect on a congregational year passing by.

We remember a year of classrooms; days of service;

Prayer vigils for the tenth anniversary of 9/11;

We remember the tragic shootings of too many young men

– both within our community and within our country.

We remember the suicides of gay teens in our nation.

An end to the Iraq War.

The right to marry for Same-Gendered couples in NY State.

Every year holds within it loss and renewal.

May we too come to know a real sense of renewal in our lives.

May we not fixate on the moments of pain,

Beyond the need for healthy grief.

May our vision not narrow,

Taking in only the loss in this world.

Spirit of Life, broaden our view to accept the expanse of possibility that is ever before us,

hidden between or beyond the barriers.

May we learn to rely on what can be healed, what can be mended,

What may still yet come.

Teach us to loosen our grasping, empty our hands, and drop our load,

When what we carry becomes too much to bare.

Knowing that another set of hands, seen or unseen, will be there for what is truly needed.

Help us to clear before us a path to a new life,

Honoring what is precious, what is holy in our lives,

Energized to seek what is new, what may come,

And present to celebrate the joy of new beginnings.