Prayers of the People: Livin', Movin' & Bein', 6th Sunday of Easter

for Sunday, May 25, 2014, Readings: Acts 17:22-31, Ps 66:7-18, 1 Peter 3:13-22, Jn 14:15-21

Whether or not a person knows, it is God who created all of us. At the tiniest moment of wondering what is this all about, God is present.  And when the world is dark and empty and filled with grief, God embraces us even if we are unaware. In all Creation is the circle of life with all its drear and drudge,  fullness   and hope, doubt and wonder, that brings us from earthly breath to eternal peace and salvation.  


Let Us, God’s People, Pray

LEADER:  ~ Lord of Heaven and Earth, as Your offspring, we live and move and have our being in You who gave us breath. You have overlooked our ignorance and accepted our prayers; never withholding Your love from us. We pledge our obedience to Your commandments with humble hearts and love in our souls.

                                 Spirit of Truth

RESPONSE:      We live to praise our Loving God

~ Lord of Heaven and Earth, grant us strength and courage to demand, in gentleness and reverence, an accounting of the righteous and unrighteous actions from the political leaders of our world, our country, and our state.  We pray especially for: add your own petitions

                            Spirit of Truth

                           We live to praise our Loving God

~ Lord of Heaven and Earth, help us to bring the comfort and hope of You to those who are sick, anxious, or fearful, and to those who worry and attend to their needs. Let them feel Your presence through every breath and Your love in every moment.  We pray especially for:  add your own petitions

                            Spirit of Truth

                           We live to praise our Loving God

~ Lord of Heaven and Earth, we weep with those whose loved ones have gone from our sight, and commend to Your embrace those who have left this mortal life for Your life everlasting. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

                            Spirit of Truth

                           We live to praise our Loving God

~ Lord of Heaven and Earth, please guide those who we have called to lead us in Your church, to a place of refreshment and renewal in Your Word and Sacraments. As You have revealed Yourself to them, we are blessed to have them walk with us on The Way to You.  We pray especially for:  add your own petitions

                            Spirit of Truth

                           We live to praise our Loving God

The Celebrant adds:  Loving and Living God, who holds our souls in life, our human hands reach out to You that we also may be made alive in Your Spirit. Grant us the peace that passes all understanding until we abide with You in eternal life. We ask this through our Savior Jesus Christ and our Holy Sanctifier, who live and reign with You, our One God, forever and eternally.  Amen. 

Please feel free to request a prayer to be composed for a particular concern or topic for posting in this space. You may leave your request in the comments section or contact me directly at Leeosophy@gmail.com All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. Requestors will remain anonymous.

Prayers in Easter: Love is Everything

Dearest Jesus, 
     You are the definition of perfect love and teach us by Your example. We try very hard to remember that all of us are loved by You even in times when we feel abandoned and unloved. Help us in those terrible moments when the ones we love in our earthly lives leave us to join Your eternal life. Whisper into our hearts the knowing that giving love is never in vain, that even in our darkest deepest sorrow the love we have known stays within us, and, that true love never ever fails even if we fail to remember. amen.

for my love who has passed, on May 20 when the bliss is especially remembered

Please feel free to request a prayer to be composed for a particular concern or topic for posting in this space. You may leave your request in the comments section or contact me directly at Leeosophy@gmail.com All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. Requestors will remain anonymous.

Prayers in Easter: For Scott's Mom & Dad

And now we lay him down to sleep,
his struggle done, no more to keep
    him fighting hard to overcome
all his battles lost and won.

And now we hold you close and weep
For all your shock and pain so deep
That if we could we'd take away
But we will hold you close and pray.


Dearest Lord in Heaven,
       How many times in a second do You hear the plaintive cry of sorrow rising for the loss of one so loved?  I know there are no answers, no magic words to soothe and patch the wounded hearts of those left behind in the awful moment of and for a long time after. 
      God help us yet again, to breathe in the hope of the Resurrection.  Our heads know and we want our hearts and souls to know, too. 
       Be with all those in the midst of grief; surround them with Your love, fill them with extra grace to bear it all.  Guide us to give comfort in the ways that are needed and wanted and to stay out of the way when that is needed and wanted. Let us be present, help us to listen, and to care more about the needs of others than our own.  God help us all.  amen.












Please feel free to request a prayer to be composed for a particular concern or topic for posting in this space. You may leave your request in the comments section or contact me directly at Leeosophy@gmail.com All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. Requestors will remain anonymous.

Prayers in Easter: Twistin' and Turnin'

     The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love. 
                                      ― Parker J. Palmer* [1939- ]


Dear God - It seems counter-intuitive to me that the deeper my faith and hope and love becomes the crazier life can get.  But that has been my experience. Things can get all tangled up so that the dark nights can burn through the bright sunlight but then the bright sunlight can also shine through the darkness. I've tried to hide in a quiet space away from fear, and pain, and hopelessness and then discovered my quiet space was just empty. Guide me, my Lord, with all of my trepidation.  When I remember that You are always here, I can handle the twists and the turns, the light and the dark, the highs and the lows of all that the life You have given me has to offer. amen.



*Parker J. Palmer is an educator, activist, poet, and prolific author on issues in education, community, social change, and spirituality.  A member of the Religious Society of Friends, he has said that doubt is not the opposite of faith, but it is fear; we are afraid to be disillusioned.  He also says that "before you can have a spiritual life, you must have a life."  It is in a blending of our active and contemplative life that our sense of spirituality finds a balance.  The recipient of many distinguished awards, Dr. Palmer lives with his wife in Madison, Wisconsin.






Please feel free to request a prayer to be composed for a particular concern or topic for posting in this space. You may leave your request in the comments section or contact me directly at Leeosophy@gmail.com All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. Requestors will remain anonymous.

Prayers in Easter: If only

   It is the very
pursuit 

of happiness 

that 

   thwarts happiness. 

― Viktor E. Frankl* [1905-1997]

Well, God,

        where did some of us get the idea that happiness is our birthright? We spend so very much of our lives chasing after it and even worrying about how to get it. How many of us have said: If I can just have that car, if we can live in that neighborhood, if that promotion comes through, if I can win the big lottery, then I'll be happy. We waste life looking back crying about "if only ___ had been different" and looking ahead thinking "if only ___ that can happen" that we completely miss today. I want to stop missing now by spending my time trying to change the past and imagine the future.  Please, Lord, help me see the moment I'm in as the place to fully be and live with whatever is happening. 

         As the child who finds magic in blowing the seeds of a dandelion into the breeze, let me experience the present as the fruit of the past and the seeds of the future, completely grounded in You and completely in right now. amen.    

*Viktor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, was interned in the Nazi Holocaust of concentration camps for three years losing his wife, his mother, and his brother.  His seminal work, Man's Search for Meaning, chronicles his imprisonment.  The translated German title is Saying Yes to Life in Spite of Everything: A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp. It was through this unimaginable time he realized the importance of finding meaning in all forms of existence even under the most difficult and even horrible experiences and find reasons to continue to live.  His work has inspired the psychological community from that time forward and just everyday people.




Please feel free to request a prayer to be composed for a particular concern or topic for posting in this space. You may leave your request in the comments section or contact me directly at Leeosophy@gmail.com All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. Requestors will remain anonymous.

Prayers in Easter: Hand out?

       Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.
          ― Helen Keller* [1880-1968]




Dear God ~ Straight up, I need Your help! I do my best to be a helpful person to family, friends, and even strangers (unless their driving is driving me nuts - I'll keep working on that). But the part that is hard is remembering to remember others when I'm feeling down and sometimes even when I'm on top of the world.  Please help me find a way to look outside of myself regardless of what is happening in my life. In the ordinary moments of life, reaching out my hand to another is easy.  It is in the difficult times that I want to be thoughtlessly thoughtful, to hold my hand out to someone who needs me more than I need to think about myself.  How can You help?  Well, maybe if You just take me by the hand...  amen.
    

*Helen Keller was born a healthy girl in Tuscumbria, Alabama and at 19 months old she contracted an illness that left her deaf and blind.  The story of her extraordinary journey and that of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, has been depicted in the play and film "The Miracle Worker." An internationally known author, political activist, and lecturer, she was  the recipient of numerous honors including the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Lyndon Johnson, elections to the National Women's Hall of Fame and the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame.  She was the first deaf/blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree upon graduation from Radcliffe.  Her life and work are iconic in framing the concept of overcoming obstacles and as an ardent advocate on behalf of others. 









Please feel free to request a prayer to be composed for a particular concern or topic for posting in this space. You may leave your request in the comments section or contact me directly at Leeosophy@gmail.com All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. Requestors will remain anonymous.

Prayers in Easter: Looking Through My Mind

― Gibran Khalil Gibran* [1883-1931]


Dear Creator of Darkness and Light:
              A positive spin on life has never come easily to me.  It's so much easier to feel victimized, to wallow in the drama, to point the finger of blame and fault at others when life has failed to meet my desires.  I've lived in the THEY-can't-possibly-understand-or-take-the-time-to-care-about-what-I'VE-endured- self-involvement. And it wasn't until I was so depleted emotionally, that with nowhere else to go, I finally and desperately turned to YOU. When that happened I heard the Voice that had always been there.  I felt the Touch that reached for me. And as I came into the Love that never leaves, I started to feel the warmth fill my heart and my eyes opened to see all that has been there all along, for me. The dark days became suddenly brighter, the clouds lifted, and all that I need for life itself in good moments and terrible, in the ordinary and the amazing, from the depths of despair to the heights of heaven is an open heart to You. Thank You for being here for all the time it has taken for me to turn my mind around.  Thank You for the Free Will that allows me to choose my own path.  And although I may slip again, I now know the gift and glory of  being lifted up into the light and no longer will I want to drown in the darkness of my own making.  amen.




*Gibran Kahlil Gibran, the third best-selling poet of all time after Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu, was born in Lebanon and emigrated to the US as a young man settling in Boston's South End.  Also an artist and a writer - most famous is his fictional but inspiring The Prophet written in 1923 and which gained a tremendous resurgence of popularity during the 1960s counterculture turbulence and took new root within the New Age movement.  Raised a Maronite Catholic, Gibran was also influenced by Islam, particularly Sufi mysticism and had strong connections with the Baha'i faith. His request to be buried in his native Lebanon was fulfilled by his close friend and his sister.

Please feel free to request a prayer to be composed for a particular concern or topic for posting in this space. You may leave your request in the comments section or contact me directly at Leeosophy@gmail.com All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. Requestors will remain anonymous.