Prayer or meditation
Fond words
Jan Struther wrote:
Hard words will break no bones:
But more than bones are broken
By the inescapable stones
Of fond words left unspoken.
And so let us pray:
So let us in the quiet of our minds speak fond words:
for those to whom we are close and who are close to us;
for those whose presence
Heavy Baggage
Words of the Muslim Sufi Mystic Jelaluddin Rumi
“We worship devoutly when we’re with others . . . as minerals in the ground rise inside trees and become a tree, as a plant faces an animal and enters the animal, so a human can put down the heavy body baggage and be light”
Let us pray
In these
Oh source of all beauty
May we see the beauty in the humble and unexpected:
the patient spider and the wayside flower,
the daisy and the buttercup;
the wheeling of silver birds against a leaden sky.
May we manifest the sacred art of love
in all our words and deeds,
and to forgive ourselves and begin again when we fail.
We come together this morning
We come together this morning, seeking a reality beyond our narrow selves; that binds us in compassion, love, and understanding to other human beings, and to the interdependent web of all living things.
May our hearts and minds be opened this hour, to the power and the insight that weaves together the scattered threads of our
Spark of the divine, a meditation
I invite you to take one breath for the earth beneath our feet, one for the sky above us, and one for the sea that surrounds us. Be aware of your body, and release any tension in your feet … legs … belly … chest … arms … neck … and head. Now look within
Willing to try new things, a meditation
I invite you to close your eyes, and think of a time that you tried something new. Maybe the first time you rode a bike, or your first kiss, or the first time you tried a type of food that you were convinced you didn’t like. Maybe it was the first time you tried a
The sacred, a meditation
I invite you to close your eyes, and to choose something – a place, a concept, an object, a person – that you regard as sacred. What is the quality in it that evokes the sacred for you? What values or virtues does it represent? Are they values or virtues that find an echo within
Loving kindness, a meditation
Focus on your breathing, just noticing the soft rising and falling of your belly, or the breath as it comes in at your nostrils. Now be aware of yourself, and cultivate loving kindness towards yourself [pause]. Now extend loving kindness to someone you love [pause]. Now extend loving kindness to your particular group of friends