Prayers for all occasions 5

MEETING MY OWN PAIN

Tender and loving God,

I know that you are with me.

Take my hand and stretch it

toward that which brings me hurt.

Lead me into my sufferings

and help me to be healed.

Together let us touch my woundedness.

Together let us meet my pain.

Teach me how to enter my suffering in a way

that brings me greater wisdom and growth.

Gift me with determination not to turn away.

Help me to meet myself with kindness and mercy.

Tender and loving God,

together let us walk the road to my healing.

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FOR SUFFERING

May you be blessed in the holy names of those

Who, without you knowing it,

Help to carry and lighten your pain.

May you know serenity

When you are called

To enter the house of suffering.

May a window of light always surprise you.

May you be granted the wisdom

To avoid false resistance;

When suffering knocks on the door of your life,

May you glimpse its eventual gifts.

May you be able to receive the fruits of suffering.

May memory bless and protect you

With the hard-earned light of past travail;

To remind you that you have survived before

And though the darkness now is deep,

You will soon see approaching light.

May the grace of time heal your wounds.

May you know that though the storm might rage,

Not a hair of your head will be harmed.

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REFLECTION

The disciples were sitting on

a bank of a river.

"If I fall off this bank will

I drown?" one of them asked.

"No," said the Master. "It isn't

falling in that causes you to

drown; it's staying in."

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I ARISE IN THE NEW YEAR

I arise with amazement at the presence of the Holy One.

I arise with gratitude for life.

I arise with hope that all shall be well.

I arise with courage to meet what will be difficult.

I arise with conviction to do what is life-giving.

I arise with eyes ever alert for beauty.

I arise with openness to greater truth.

I arise with desire for continued transformation.

I arise with compassion for the hurting ones in the cosmos.

I arise with grief still settled in my spirit.

I arise with a sense of kinship with all whom I love.

I arise with determination to make good choices in using my time.

I arise with willingness to help those who will need my care.

I arise with hesitation as I think about the pain that may come.

I arise with longing for ever greater inner freedom.

I arise with happiness, knowing that I am invited to live life more fully.

I arise with love for the Holy One, my Intimate Companion.

Compassionate God and faithful Friend,

thank you for the opportunity to walk into another year of life.

Help me to be faithful, to be generous, to be yours.

Holy One, you have given us the gift of story in our lives, ways of understanding who we are, ways of making sense of our world, of finding meaning and knowing how to respond to all that happens in our lives. Please show us where our stories fall short or are too narrow, where they exclude rather than include, where they divide rather than unite. Help us to see where a story we live out of may go amiss of what is real, where it allows us to escape becoming whole, where it lets us live comfortably in fear. Fill us with your story, the story of unity and compassion and love. Fill us with images that energise us and give us hope and lead us to the fundamental truth that you have tried to teach us all along: we are all one.

Amen.

AN OLD HEBREW PRAYER

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Birth is a beginning

And death a destination

And life a journey:

From childhood to maturity

And youth to age;

From innocence to awareness

And ignorance to knowing;

From foolishness to discretion and then,

Perhaps to Wisdom:

From weakness to strength

Or strength to weakness - and back, we pray.

To health again;

From offence to forgiveness,

From loneliness to love,

From joy to gratitude

From pain to compassion,

And grief to understanding - from fear to faith;

From defeat to defeat to defeat -

Until, looking backwards or ahead,

We see that victory lies

Not at some high place along the way,

But in having made the journey, stage by stage.

HOLY SPIRIT RENEW US

Come, Holy Spirit

Renew us with your gifts!

Heal our brokenness

Wash our guilt away;

Pour down your wisdom,

Guide us when we stray.

Instill your peace within us,

Watch over us in need,

Move our hearts to goodness,

Inspire our every deed.

AMEN

ONE WHO IS LONELY

Eternal Presence

you are with me on my journey.

You know the loneliness

that wraps around my heart

and leaves a void of sadness.

Comfort me on my dreary days

when emptiness is all I know.

Do not let me succumb

to isolated self-pity.

Let me experience your presence.

Fill my downcast spirit with your joy.

Keep me close to your abiding love

with every step I take.

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LOVE POEM TO GOD​

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,

then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear;

You, sent out beyond your recall,

go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

Flare up like a flame

and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Don't let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life,

You will know it by its seriousness .

Give me your hand.

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​BE PATIENT

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"Be patient in the absence of answers."

the wise person would say.

Stop harassing your heart and your spirit.

They are unable or unwilling to answer you.

They know that some of those answers

may be unbearable to you at this time.

For now, welcome those questions without trying to find answers. Let yourself experience the questions.

One day you will find yourself living the answers.

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To be calm in the wake of irritation,

to be gentle in the face of annoyance is to hand life over to the impulse of the Spirit.

It allows life to happen in such a way that we can be alive to the surprise in it.

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REAL SPIRITUALITY​

Real spirituality has something to do with not getting disturbed about anything that is not worth getting disturbed about. It is about the serenity that comes when the soul is so deepened that the spirit is naturally gentle.

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Real failure comes when we consider ourselves good enough at something

to be able to repeat it rather than to develop it.

"Success is dangerous," the painter Pablo Picasso said.

"One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others.

It leads to sterility".

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IN TIMES OF WORRY AND ANXIETY​

Source of tranquillity,

be a peaceful presence for me.

Calm and settle my anxious spirit.

Set me free from my turmoil and fear.

Give me a perspective on my life.

Help me to trust that all shall be well.

Loosen my grip on my need to control.

May I live in this moment, now,

instead of looking into the vast journey ahead.

You are here, Peaceful One, you are here.

I rest in you.

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IN DIFFICULT TIMES​

Consoling God,

be a source of serenity for me

when struggles and difficulties

threaten to overwhelm me.

God of hope,

assure me of your unconditional love

when I doubt myself

or question the worth of my life.

Truth-bringing God,

encourage me to embrace you

during those times when I get lost

in the lies of my weakness.

Compassionate God,

hold me to your heart

when I feel helpless

in the face of the world's pain.

Light-filled God,

keep me ever close to you

during those moments

when bleakness surrounds my life.

Comforting God,

shelter me under your wings

when I am engulfed in sadness

and overcome with distress.

God of peace,

you are the centre of my life,

a strong refuge of peace

in the whirlwind of my pain.

I look to you for strength

and a constant assurance of hope.

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There comes a time

when sea and land come to rest.

There comes a time

when even the heavens withdraw.

There comes a time

when weary travellers

need a rest from the journey.

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BLESSING PRAYER FOR HEALING

May you desire to be healed

May what is wounded in your life be restored to good health.

May you be receptive to the ways in which healing needs to happen.

May you take good care of yourself.

May you extend compassion to all that hurts within your body, mind, spirit.

May you be patient with the time it takes to heal.

May you be aware of the wonders of your body, mind, and spirit and their amazing capacity to heal.

May the skills of all those who are caring for you be used to the best of their ability in returning you to good health.

May you be open to receive from those who extend kindness, care, and compassion to you.

May you rest peacefully under the sheltering wings of divine love, trusting in this gracious presence.

May you find little moments of beauty and joy to sustain you.

May you keep hope in your heart.

Hold your hands over your own heart and remember the power of love within you. Then, extend your hands of love toward the one who needs healing. Give this healing love to the one being blessed. If blessing oneself, recognise and accept this power of love within you.

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AWAKEN ME​

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Risen One,

come, meet me

in the garden of my life.

Lure me into elation.

Revive my silent hope.

Coax my dormant dreams.

Raise up my neglected gratitude.

Entice my tired enthusiasm.

Give life to my faltering relationships.

Roll back the stone of my indifference.

Unwrap the deadness in my spiritual life.

Impart heartiness in my work.

Risen One,

send me forth as a disciple of your unwavering love,

a messenger of your unlimited joy.

Resurrected One,

may I become

ever more convinced

that your presence lives on,

and on, and on,

and on.

Awaken me!

Awaken me!

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COME HOLY SPIRIT

Come, Holy Spirit:

Replace the tension within us with a holy relaxation;

Replace the turbulence within us with a sacred calm;

Replace the anxiety within us with a quiet confidence;

Replace the fear within us with a strong faith.

Replace the bitterness within us with the sweetness of grace;

Replace the darkness within us with a gentle light;

Replace the coldness within us with a loving warmth;

Replace the night within us with the day;

Replace the winter within us with your spring.

Fill our emptiness;

Dull the edge of our pride;

Sharpen the edge of our humility;

Light the fires of our love;

Quench the flames of our lust.

Let us see ourselves as God sees us,

That we may see you as you have promised,

And be fortunate, according to your word:

'Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.'