| Prayer | Thank you for sunshine, For energy and ambition. Thank you for blue skies, For clarity of thought and vision. Thank you for the green earth, For the promise of living, the promise of growing. And thank you for the music Which keeps it all flowing.Morning Glory by Larry Kuester |
| Meditation | It Felt Love How Did the rose Ever open its heart And give to this world All its Beauty? It felt the encouragement of light Against its Being, Otherwise, We all remain Too Frightened. |
| Affirmation | One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice— though the whole hose began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. “ Mend my life!” but you didn’t stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations— though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice, which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do— determined to save the only life you could save.The Journey by Mary Oliver |
| Prayer | May I be fearless in facing my danger; Heartful in conquering my pain, Tireless in addressing my challenges… And, patient as I seek liberation and love.by Maureen Kenney |
| Meditation | ONE WHO IS YOU ARE THE DANCING FLAME BURNING IN LOVE ENFOLDING IN PEACEby Barb Hargrave |
| Affirmation | You have created us to hear your Word, to do your will and to be fulfilled in your love. It is right to thank you.From: A New Zealand Prayer Book, 1989 Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. Harper Collins Publishers, p.486 |
| Prayer | I have tasted the fruit of the earth, O God. I have seen autumn trees hang heavily with heaven’s gifts. I have known people pregnant with your spirit of generosity. Let these be guides to me this day. And may Mary who knew her womb filled with your goodness teach me the wisdom that is born amidst pain. May I know that deeper than any fallowness in me is the seed planted in the womb of my soul. May I know that greater than any barrenness in the world is the harvest to be justly shared. |
| Meditation | Too late I loved you, O Beauty so ancient yet ever new! Too late I loved you! And, behold, you were within me, and I out of myself, and there I searched for you.Novenas by Augustine 354-430, North Africa |
| Affirmation | Joy has to do with seeing how big, how completely unobstructed, and how precious things are. Resenting what happens to you and complaining about your life are like refusing to smell the wild roses when you go for a morning walk, or like being so blind that you don‘t see a huge black raven when it lands in the tree that you’re sitting under. We can get so caught up in our own personal pain or worries that we don’t notice that the wind has come up or that somebody has put flowers on the dining room table or that when we walked out in the morning, the flags weren’t up, and that when we came back, they were flying. Resentment, bitterness, and holding a grudge prevent us from seeing and hearing and tasting and delighting. There is a story of a woman running away from tigers. She runs and runs and the tigers are getting closer and closer. When she comes to the edge of a cliff, she sees some vines there, so she climbs down and holds on to the vines. Looking down, she sees that there are tigers below her as well. She then notices that a mouse is gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging. She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries close to her, growing out of a clump of grass. She looks up and she looks down. She looks at the mouse. Then she just takes a strawberry, puts it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly. Tigers above, tigers below. This is actually the predicament that we are always in, in terms of our birth and death. Each moment is just what it is. It might be the only moment of our life, it might be the only strawberry we’ll ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could finally appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of every single moment of our life.from The Wisdom of No Escape by Pema Chödrön |