Beauty and holiness are everywhere. Here. Now. This prayer dreams of messianic times, while making the bold assertion that holiness is already here, that holiness is already waiting and that holiness has been here since the moment of creation, making it a prayer for Shabbat Breisheit. I’ve also selected it to represent Malchut sh’b’Malchut, the Nobility in Nobility, the last night of Counting the Omer. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

 

This is the Place
This is the place where the beginning and the ending meet,
Where the vast sky greets the firmament of heaven,
Where the finite and the infinite touch,
Where the breathing in becomes the breathing out.

This is the place where darkness meets the light,
Where mourning surrenders to rejoicing,
Where what we are summons what we may become,
Where all hearts beat together in joy.

Oh to see so clearly.
Oh to live so gently.
Oh to be so simply.
Oh to love so sweetly.

This is the place where holiness can be held,
Where mystery shimmers and eternity shines,
Where the core of the earth burns with the fire of starlight,
Where majesty rises like the sun
In radiant brilliant luminous wonder.

© 2011 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Here’s a link to “For Creation,” another prayer for Shabbat Breisheit. Click here for more prayers of praise, many of which appear in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing. This prayer first appeared on December 14, 2011.

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 Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Tags: holiness, joy, mystery, prayers of praise