Tag: light

Thanksgiving Prayer

Spirit of Life, source of all love,
Holy mystery containing all that is:

As the nights grow longer and longer,
help us know you as that radiant darkness
in which our deepest dreams come:
those dreams of love, of healing, of peace,
of our world created anew.

Help us not fear the darkness
but welcome it,
and rest in it.

Help us also know you as the flame
of candles and hearths
around whose warming light we gather
to tell each other stories:

giving thanks for all we have,
remembering those who have gone before,
gathering strength to make justice.

May those among us who have much
be granted vision to see and invite in
those who are lonely,
and may the lonely ones
be granted strength
to accept the invitation.

Blessed be.

Light the Fuse

Great Spirit of Life, Infinite Love,

You wanted all to shine:
every being with their own light
weaving together in a tapestry
luminescent with love;
but some stamped out the light of others
or took it for their own
and a roiling darkness
has come over our land.

Light us up now.

Light the fuse in our souls
so we can rise like fireworks through the sky
and burst into stars of love
that illuminate this dark, dark night.

We will blaze
We’ll be incandescent
We will flare and glow and glisten

We will erupt into song in the streets
We will explode into word and dance
We will liberate all who are captive
We will not take no for an answer

All will be radiant
All will be glorious
All will glitter and sparkle and shine

Light us up now.
Light the fuse.
It is time.
It is time.
It is time.

Blessed be.

Sunlight After Long Rain

For Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Truth-Teller and Bringer of Light

Spirit of Life, Source of all Love:

In this place the sun has come out
after months of rain
and the trees are showing off their finest jewels:
droplets sparkling in rainbow colors.

Steam rises from the ground
and from the trunks of the giant cedars
and the forest looks like Life begun anew
Creation just set in motion.

There is nothing in this world
like the feeling of sunlight on our faces
just when we thought it would never come
and darkness and gloom
would prevail forever.

Yet the sunlight does always return.

There are parts of our lives
in which we have little power
and this is good
for it keeps us humble.
We cannot make the sun come and go
on our preferred schedule.

But there are other parts
where we do have power
and if we want the sun to come out
we have to work for it.

Help us know the difference
and do the work.

Help us shine the bright light of truth
through the obscuring clouds of lies
so we can bask in its warmth.

Help us set Creation in motion anew.

Blessed be.  Amen.

Let It Shine

Sometimes despair creeps in during the night and I wake to a world from which all hope and possibility have vanished.  It feels as if the sky is roiling with clouds that blot out all light.  At those times I long to pray to the God of my childhood, that omnipotent deity who could make everything better if only He chose, if only enough of us prayed hard enough to move His heart.  I long to say, “Dear God in Heaven, help us.  Won’t you help us, please, our world is coming apart.  The people in power have something wrong with them and they are destroying everything.”

I long for a ray of light to suddenly come down through the clouds in response, moving across the face of the earth and healing and repairing everything it touches: the burned hills, the war zones, the polluted waters, the dying animals, the shriveled hearts of the people who have brought us to this pass, the broken hearts and bodies of the people whom they have harmed.  In its wake the light would leave green meadows and trees and whole mountains, clear rushing streams and lakes and rivers, plentiful singing whales and smiling turtles and giraffes and polar bears, laughing children with their loving parents, leaders of all genders who nurture and protect life, humans of all shapes and sizes and colors dancing together and singing.

Oh, how I long for this with every fiber of my being.  Yet the only way such repair can occur is if we ourselves take charge of it.  We are the ones whose hearts must be moved.  We ourselves must be God’s hands; we ourselves must beam God’s light out into the world to heal it.

This is a lot to ask of people who are weary and sad and afraid.  It is a lot to ask of people who can see how very many things are wrong and how very little each one of us can do.

But we are not alone, because God is not somewhere far away.  God is not an omnipotent being who is separate from us. God is the force of life that moves in and through us and in all beings, which we feel in our hearts as love, and which calls us, always, toward healing.

The force of life is so powerful that a tiny seed can sprout into a shoot that grows right through pavement and becomes a plant that breaks the pavement as if it were nothing at all. Love is so powerful that it can survive anything, even death.  All we need do is align ourselves with life and with love.  All we need do is let God move in us and through us, and God’s light will shine from us, and we will indeed heal the world.

Ourselves, Growing

Spirit of Life, source of all love:

How wonderful it is that true spring
finally, finally arrives.

Rain is followed by glorious sun
followed by rain again.

New blades of grass poke through
cold soil and old leaves,
reaching for the light.

May we too reach for the light.

May we stretch our hearts and minds and souls
as high and wide as we can reach
and then stretch a little more—
becoming—
ever becoming—
who we always knew we could be:

ourselves,
growing in the light.

Blessed be.

A Healing Meditation

Healing Meditation 1

(To be read by a caregiver to the person who is ill or injured. Read with pauses between each line. Other instructions to the reader are in parentheses.)

Sit comfortably or lie down.

Close your eyes.

Now, yawn five times, sighing as you exhale. (The first time, say something like: “If you have to fake it, that’s fine; usually a real yawn will arise after a couple of fake ones.”)

Now, take 10 belly breaths: Slowly inhale air down into your belly, pushing your abdominal muscles out as you inhale, the way a baby breathes. Slowly exhale. (Help count ten breaths.)

Now, breathe normally.

Pay attention to how the air feels as it enters your body…

and how it feels as it exits.

As you breathe,

imagine you are floating

on an infinite ocean of love

All the love of your family, and friends,

all the love there is

and ever has been:

an infinite ocean of love.

As you breathe in, imagine the light of this love entering your body.

It is the force of life, and healing, made visible.

It is a bright…warm…light.

It swirls into your lungs…

your bloodstream…

and every cell.

The bright…warm…healing light

bathes…and cleanses…

every cell of your body.

It flows in…

and washes all the fear…and pain…

away.

All the things you don’t need.

Let them go.

Let everything you don’t need

be flushed away.

Breathe them out.

Breathe in healing light…

Breathe out all you don’t need.

Breathe in healing light…

Breathe out all you don’t need.

Let the healing light

and your breath

do their work.

Breathe in healing light…

Breathe out all you don’t need.

As the warm, tender force of life and love

swirls through your body,

washing,

cleansing,

and healing

every cell,

whisper “Thank you.”

Thank you for this life

Thank you for this beauty

Thank you for this love.

Thank you.

And now breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Now…as you float

on the ocean of

infinite love

let your consciousness gather.

Breathe in

Breathe out

Breathe in

Breathe out

Return slowly to this place

and this time.

Take your time.

Be gentle with yourself.

Breathe in

Breathe out

Breathe in

Breathe out.

Blessed be.

1 This meditation is particularly suitable for humanists and atheists, but can be used for anyone.