Prayers of the Community

By Peggy Muncaster
July 6, 2003

We will enjoy the Lord’s Prayer three times today –a translation from the Aramaic to open, our usual version together to close, and a sung offering from the gospel music workshop.

O birther! Father Mother of the Cosmos,
Focus your light within us,
Make it useful.
Create your reign of unity now.
Your one desire then acts with ours,
as in all light, so in all forms.
Grant what we need each day,
in bread and insight.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
As we release the strand we hold of others’ guilt.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back from our true purpose.
From you is born all ruling will,
the power and the life to do,
the song that beautifies all.
From age to age it renews.
Truly power to these statements,
May they be the ground from which all our actions grow.
Amen.

We wake up to the beauty of your creation, beloved Creator.

We recognize your voice in the full-throated chirpings of sparrows in the early dawn light, in the happy chatter and splashing of young children at a water park on a hot summers’ day, in the excited cheering of an enthusiastic crowd at a sporting or gala event, in voices raised in joyful songs of praise, and even in the joy or distress of hearing that we will host the 2010 Olympics.

Help us to see the world as you would see it, O Master Craftsman, with the benign and accepting eyes of the soul. Your handiwork is all encompassing, from the delicate perfection of a rose in glorious bloom, to the minute and perfect pattern on a moth’s wings. With your guidance and support, within the framework of your compassionate love, we can learn to see the pattern of our lives, the weave and woof of your handiwork as we act and interact with our own fragmented selves, with our loved ones, peers, and in the greater community.

Help us to be alive to our lives, opening to our feelings, using our senses to truly bring us into this now moment. As we awaken into our power, we can become better instruments of your will. Work through us to express your love. Help us to realize that your loved ones includes everyone.

Refine in us, O divine Miner, those myriad aspects of character that deepen and grow our connection with you: courage, patience, wisdom, compassion, joy, clarity, generosity of spirit. Help us to allow ourselves to be vulnerable, that we may recognize the sufficiency of your all-encompassing grace.

Great healer of body and soul, we pray for all who suffer the pain of sickness, loneliness, fear or loss, so that those whose names are in our hearts, or known to you alone, may be comforted. May your healing touch be made manifest through us, in accordance with your will.