Tag Archive for "prayer of the soul"

Posts Tagged ‘prayer of the soul’

Inside the (Hanukkah) Light

Posted on: December 18th, 2022 by Alden

This meditation on light pluses with hope, carrying echoes of Hanukkah. It’s about seeing, feeling, and loving the light shining around us, and our yearning to be a source of light and hope for the world. I wrote it in 2012 on my Aliyah flight. My friend Cantor Brad Hyman set as a song in 2017. In 2021, CCAR Press published it my third solo volume with them, This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer. Here’s an article by Cantor Hyman on his inspiration for the music on Reform Judaism.org. I’m reposting this for Hanukkah 2022/5783.

Inside the Light
A rainbow shines
Inside the light.
If you could be the dew drop
You would always see it.

Stillness waits
Inside the light.
If you could be the sky
You would always feel it.

The sunrise dawns
Inside the light.
If you could be the horizon
You would always find it.

Freedom flows
Inside the light.
If you could be the wind
You would always ride it.

Beauty rises
Inside the light.
If you could be the sparrow
You would always reach it.

Mystery pulses
Inside the light.
If you could be the wonder
You would always know it.

Majesty reigns
Inside the light.
If you could be the wisdom
You would always hear it.

Faith rests
Inside the light.
If you could be the eagle
You would always hold it.

Your soul glows
Inside the light.
If you could be yourself
You would never leave it.

Postscript: Here’s another link to Cantor Hyman’s musical setting. My other Hanukkah prayers include: “Lamps Within” and “The Season of Dedication.”

Please check out my CCAR Press Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. The individual books are: This Grateful Heart, This Joyous Soul, and This Precious Life. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter. For a taste of my teaching, see my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer.”

Photo Source: Ron Almog

The Language of Your Soul

Posted on: May 5th, 2021 by Alden

A short meditation inspired by Rav Abraham Isaac Ha-Cohen Kook‘s idea of the constant prayer of the soul, that our souls have a deep longing to be in constant prayer and that we can cultivate that yearning.

The Language of Your Soul
The language of your soul,
That fountain of blessings inside you,
Pouring forth in a river of love,
From you to G-d,
And G-d to you,
Sustaining life and creation itself,
Always seeking to sing goodness,
And beauty,
And truth,
Can only be summoned
From the secret chambers
Of your heart.

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Please check out my CCAR Press Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. The individual books are: This Joyous Soul , This Grateful Heart, and This Precious Life. Here’s a link to my ELItalk, “Falling in Love with Prayer..” For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: iBelieve.com

This Prayer is a Tree

Posted on: April 6th, 2020 by Alden

If a prayer is recited in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

This Prayer is a Tree
Could it be
That a prayer
Is like a tree
Falling in the woods?
No one needs to hear
Its thunderous crash,
For its nutrients to soak
Back into the earth.
For its hollows
To provide shelter.
For it to become
One with life itself.

Let your prayers
Pour out upon
The fertile ground
Of your heart.
Let your prayers
Feed your aching soul.

Could it be
That your prayer
Is like a tree
Falling in the woods?
No one needs to see it
Crack and tumble
For it to clear space
For new growth.
For it to open space,
Letting sunlight
Penetrate the deep.
For it to become
One with life itself.

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See also: “Tending Gardens,” “Life as a Garden” and “The Broken Sky.”

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and my two CCAR Press books: This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

Passages

Posted on: July 7th, 2018 by Alden

A new prayer about prayer as the doorway to eternity. The prayer is structured as seven six-word meditations, followed by a prayer for a life of blessings.

Passages
Prayer is the doorway to compassion.
Compassion is the entry to humility.
Humility is the passage to love.
Love is the gateway to peace.
Peace is the guardian of life.
Life is the invitation to now.
Now is the essence of eternity.

Source of all,
Creator of time and space,
Guide me through these passages
So I may serve you with dedication, awe and wonder,
Living Your mitzvot with my words and deeds,
Lifting my heart closer to the radiance of being,
Lifting my soul to the living waters of Your blessings.

New here? Subscribe here to get my newest prayers by email.
Share the prayer! Email this to a friend.

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: National Park Service Photo Gallery

Being a Blessing

Posted on: November 1st, 2015 by Alden

What does it mean to be a blessing in the lives of the people around you? It means nothing less than listening – listening with your ears, your eyes, your heart and your soul – and responding to others with love and compassion. This is a meditation on becoming a blessing in the lives of others. This prayer will appear in my forthcoming book, This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.

Being a Blessing
If you ask for rest, I will sit with you.
If you ask for comfort, I will stay with you.

If you ask for hope, I will yearn with you.
If you ask for love, I will sing with you.

If you ask for stillness, I will breathe with you.
If you ask for peace, I will dream with you.

If you ask for joy, I will laugh with you.
If you ask for healing, I will pray with you.

If you ask for warmth, I will become a blanket.
If you ask for refuge, I will become a shelter.

If you ask for help, I will become a blessing.

Postscript: Other prayers about blessing and being blessed include: “Be the Blessing,” “These Blessings,” “Receiving Blessings” and “A Moment of Blessing.”

Please consider making a contribution to support this site and my writing. For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: Free Methodist Church in Canada

One Gift

Posted on: September 19th, 2014 by Alden

Each moment brings a new gift, the gift of now. Now is the source of all gifts. G-d is the Source of now. Here are three related meditations: “Leaving,” “Arriving” and “Now.”

One Gift
There is but one gift
That is the source of all blessings:
The gift of now.
Now is the source
Of you, my friend,
Of us, my love,
Of sky and rain,
Of thunder and light,
Of season and harvest,
Of mystery and adventure,
Of awe and wonder.
Now is the source of blessings.

There is but one Source
For this well of blessings
This flow of now:
You, G-d of All Being.
You are the Source
Of friendship and love,
Of tide and bounty,
Of endings and beginnings,
Of Torah and wisdom,
Of radiance and splendor,
Of holiness and healing.
You, Holy One, are the
Source of all gifts, the
Source of all blessings, the
Source of now.

Postscript: Consider using this prayer on Thanksgiving. Please take a look at my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

Photo Source: Alden Solovy

Inside the (Hanukkah) Light

Posted on: November 27th, 2013 by Alden

This meditation carries an echo of Hanukkah. It’s about seeing, feeling and loving the light shining around us, and our yearning to be a source of light and hope for the world. Here’s the meditation set as a song by my friend Cantor Brad Hyman, as well as the article he wrote about it for Reform Judaism.org. This piece appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press.