Posts Tagged ‘beauty’

 

Breisheit: For Creation

Posted on: October 8th, 2012 by tobendlight

Park TimnaThis is a simple prayer to remember the majesty of G-d’s creation. It’s the first of a series of prayers and poems tied to the parasha of the week. Some, like this one, will be repostings because the particular piece fits with the Torah reading. Others will be new pieces. To listen as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows. This piece appears in This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.

 

For Creation
Author of life,
Architect of creation,
Artist of earth,
Your works declare Your Holy Name.

Mighty rivers,
Turbulent seas,
Towering mountains,
Rolling hills,
Vast spaces of brilliance and grandeur.

You created pallet and paint,
Color and hue,
Shape and form,
Abundant and beautiful,
Glorious and majestic,
Full of mystery and wonder.

Blessed are You,
With divine love You created a world of splendor.

© 2017 CCAR Press from This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day

Postscript: Other prayers about creation include: “To Know Your Word” and “About the Rainbow.” This piece was originally posted November 28, 2010.

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: Alden Solovy

Unlock Your Heart

Posted on: August 5th, 2012 by tobendlight

heart lockThis is part prayer, part insight, part inspiration. It’s about the yearning for a certain kind of nobility that comes from allowing G-d’s gifts to enter our hearts, the kind of nobility that requires self-confidence, self-care and self-discipline. I use this prayer for the 14th night of the counting of the Omer, Nobility in Discipline.

Unlock Your Heart
Come,
Unlock your heart,
Open the gates
So your soul may enter.

Splendor.

Radiance.

Awe.

Let the spark of holiness
And the gift of humanity
Meet in the core of your being.

Wisdom.

Glory.

Truth.

Let the echo of the ages
And the yearning for tomorrow
Sing a duet of eternity.

Mystery.

Majesty.

Wonder.

Then, dear sisters and brothers,
Your hands will become a fountain of blessings,
And your eyes will become wells of love.
Your words will resonate with Torah,
And your deeds will glorify G-d’s Holy Name.

© 2012 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Other songs and prayers of the Spiritual Traveler include: “Come Walk,” “Bird is Bird,” “River,” “Soarbird” and “I am Breathing.” Click here for more songs of the Spiritual Traveler.

Please check out my ELItalk “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: Pieces to a Complicated Heart

All is Well

Posted on: July 10th, 2012 by tobendlight

Evening Sun and GrassThis was inspired by the following quote from Fr. Anthony DeMello: “Spirituality means waking up… All mystics — Catholic, Christian, non-Christian — they’re all unanimous, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion, they’re all unanimous on one thing. That one thing is: All is well. All is well. Everything’s in a mess. And all is well. Strange paradox. But tragically most people never get to see that. They never get to see that all is well because they’re asleep…”

All is Well
In the hills and in the valleys,
In the wind and in the clouds,
In the rivers and in the oceans,
All is well.

In the rain and in the rapids,
In the storm and in the gale,
In the tempest and in the squall,
All is well.

Oh, to live in this music.
All is well.
Oh, to live in this song.
This loveliness. This beauty.
This knowing.
This dance.
The chill at dawn and
The breeze at dusk.
These endings. These beginnings.
All is well.

In my courage and in my fear,
In my honor and in my shame,
In my silence and in my thunder.
The hawk and the owl,
The egret and the crane.
The updraft and the horizon.
The downdraft and the breaking sea.
Soaring, soaring.
All is well.

© 2012 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Anthony “Tony” de Mello (Sept. 4, 1931 – June 2, 1987) was a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist who became widely known for his books on spirituality. If you like this piece, be sure to check out “Come Walk.” Other songs and prayers of the Spiritual Traveler include: “Come Walk,” “Bird is Bird,” “River,” “Soarbird” and “I am Breathing.” Click here for the entire list of songs of the Spiritual Traveler.

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. Please consider making a contribution to support this site and my writing.

Photo Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library


Inside the Light

Posted on: May 22nd, 2012 by tobendlight

600px-Sextans_B_Hubble_WikiSkyAnother song of the spiritual traveler, whose secret hope is for you to feel the light, to hear the light, to know the light, to become the light. This piece appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press.

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.

© 2021 CCAR Press from This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer

Postscript: I wrote this on the airplane from Chicago to Newark on my way to Israel to make aliyah in 2012. Other songs of the spiritual traveler include: “Come Walk,” “Bird is Bird,” “River,” “Soarbird” and “I am Breathing.”

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. If you like this prayer, please post a link to Facebook, your blog or mention it in a tweet.

Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

Beauty Dances

Posted on: October 9th, 2011 by tobendlight

sukkotThis is a Sukkot prayer about the beauty that arrives with this festival of joy, and the call to bring that beauty into the world. This piece appears in This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.

Beauty Dances
Beauty dances
With us
Whenever we build
A tabernacle
To God’s holy Name.

Love sings
With us
Whenever we rejoice
In gladness
On God’s festive days.

Peace cries
With us
Whenever we yearn
In prayer
For God’s holy shelter.

Come,
Let us build this place,
This tabernacle where we praise,
With all of our hearts,
God’s pardon and promise.
Let us build this place,
Where we delight,
With thanksgiving and wonder,
In God’s bounty and gifts.

Come,
Let us build this place,
This sukkat shalom,
This shelter of peace,
Where beauty dances
And love sings.
Where peace cries out:
Build, build,
You Children of Israel,
A tent of holiness,
Strong and true.
Build it in your heart,
In your home,
In your life,
In God’s world.

© 2017 CCAR Press from This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day

Postscript: This appears in This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press. Click here for the full list of prayers for the Yamim Noraim.

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: The Toronto Centre

Small Moments

Posted on: July 28th, 2011 by tobendlight

compassion-2This prayer is about seeking the smallest moments of beauty and compassion. When we seek compassion, our souls bonds with the idea that it is an essential human quality. The prayer was written, in part, as an antidote to another of my prayers, a challenging piece called “Witnessing: A Meditation.” To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

 

Small Moments
Have you seen the secret nod of understanding between old friends?
Or the first wobbly steps of a child?
Have you heard an old man sigh as he sits down in a chair?
Have you captured, from the corner of your eye,
An act of gentle sweetness,
A fleeting gesture nearly missed as you rushed by?

Listen and hear.
Look and see.
Touch and feel.
Breath and smell.
Taste and remember.

Do you recall the radiance of sunrise?
Or the brilliance of the full moon?
Do you savor the small moments
Of joy and wonder bursting forth around you?
Do you notice the gifts of friendship, kindness and love?
If you do, bless you.
If you don’t, these blessings await you.

Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d,
Source of daily splendor,
You gave us vision and understanding
So that we can witness and celebrate
Acts of generous spirit,
Expressions of compassion and healing,
The tiniest gestures of holiness and love.
Open our hearts to the precious glories of our days.

Blessed are You, Holy One of Old,
Beauty abounds.

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

Postscript: I use this prayer for the 20th day of counting the Omer: “Bonding in Compassion.”

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: Good Life Zen

Shavuot Prayers and Stories

Posted on: June 2nd, 2011 by tobendlight

ShavuotPrayers and stories for Shavuot. To read them, click on the name of the prayer.

Learning and Loving Torah

Holiness and Our Relationship with G-d

Short stories about the love of Torah

And a  prayer about Counting the Omer: “The Season of Counting.”

During the seven weeks from Passover to Shavuot, the period from the exodus to revelation on Sinai, Jews count the days and the weeks. And so we remember the journey from the depths of slavery to the heights of G-d’s Holy Presence. According to mystical practice, each week has a theme (and each day a sub-theme) that leads us to revelation. Here are links to prayers and meditations for each week of Counting the Omer:

  • Week One: Chesed (Lovingkindness, Love, Benevolence)
  • Week Two: Gevurah (Discipline, Justice, Restraint, Awe)
  • Week Three: Tiferet (Beauty, Harmony, Compassion, Truth)
  • Week Four: Netzach (Eternity, Endurance, Fortitude, Ambition)
  • Week Five: Hod (Humility, Splendor)
  • Week Six: Yesod  (Foundation, Bonding)
  • Week Seven: Malchut – Nobility, Sovereignty, Leadership)

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: Congregation Or Chadash

Omer, Week Seven: Malchut

Posted on: May 30th, 2011 by tobendlight

malkhut1Here’s a list of prayers for the themes of week seven of Counting the Omer: Malchut– Nobility, sovereignty, leadership. They’re listed in my suggested order, from day 43 at the top of the list to day 49 at the bottom. To read them, click on the name of the prayer.

And a prayer about Counting the Omer: “The Season of Counting.”

During the seven weeks from Passover to Shavuot, the period from the exodus to revelation on Sinai, Jews count the days and the weeks. And so we remember the journey from the depths of slavery to the heights of G-d’s Holy Presence. According to mystical practice, each week has a theme (and each day a sub-theme) that leads us toward revelation. Here are links to prayers and meditations for each week of counting the Omer and Shavuot:

  • Week One: Chesed (Lovingkindness, Love, Benevolence)
  • Week Two: Gevurah (Discipline, Justice, Restraint, Awe)
  • Week Three: Tiferet (Beauty, Harmony, Compassion, Truth)
  • Week Four: Netzach (Eternity, Endurance, Fortitude, Ambition)
  • Week Five: Hod (Humility, Splendor)
  • Week Six: Yesod  (Foundation, Bonding)
  • Week Seven: Malchut (Nobility, Sovereignty, Leadership)
  • Shavuot

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 Credit: Kabbalah Names

Omer, Week Six: Yesod

Posted on: May 23rd, 2011 by tobendlight

yesod1Here’s a list of prayers for the themes of week six of Counting the Omer: Yesod– Foundation, bonding. They’re listed in my suggested order, from day 36 at the top of the list to day 42 at the bottom. To read them, please click on the name of the prayer.

And a prayer about Counting the Omer: “The Season of Counting.”

During the seven weeks from Passover to Shavuot, the period from the exodus to revelation on Sinai, Jews count the days and the weeks. And so we remember the journey from the depths of slavery to the heights of G-d’s Holy Presence. According to mystical practice, each week has a theme (and each day a sub-theme) that leads us toward revelation. Here are links to prayers and meditations for each week of counting the Omer and Shavuot:

  • Week One: Chesed (Lovingkindness, Love, Benevolence)
  • Week Two: Gevurah (Discipline, Justice, Restraint, Awe)
  • Week Three: Tiferet (Beauty, Harmony, Compassion, Truth)
  • Week Four: Netzach (Eternity, Endurance, Fortitude, Ambition)
  • Week Five: Hod (Humility, Splendor)
  • Week Six: Yesod  (Foundation, Bonding)
  • Week Seven: Malchut (Nobility, Sovereignty, Leadership)
  • Shavuot

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 Credit: Kabbalah Names

Omer, Week Three: Tiferet

Posted on: May 3rd, 2011 by tobendlight

tiferethPrayers for week three of Counting the Omer: Tiferet– Beauty, harmony, compassion, truth. They’re listed in my suggested order, from day 15 at the top of the list to day 21 at the bottom. To read them, please click on the name of the prayer.

  • And a prayer about Counting the Omer: “The Season of Counting.”During the seven weeks from Passover to Shavuot, the period from the exodus to revelation on Sinai, Jews count the days and the weeks. And so we remember the journey from the depths of slavery to the heights of G-d’s Holy Presence. According to mystical practice, each week has a theme (and each day a sub-theme) that leads us toward revelation. Here are links to prayers and meditations for each week of counting the Omer and Shavuot:
    • Week One: Chesed (Lovingkindness, Love, Benevolence)
    • Week Two: Gevurah (Discipline, Justice, Restraint, Awe)
    • Week Three: Tiferet (Beauty, Harmony, Compassion, Truth)
    • Week Four: Netzach (Eternity, Endurance, Fortitude, Ambition)
    • Week Five: Hod (Humility, Splendor)
    • Week Six: Yesod  (Foundation, Bonding)
    • Week Seven: Malchut (Nobility, Sovereignty, Leadership)
    • Shavuot

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 Credit: Kabbalah Names

“Alden has become one of Reform Judaism’s master poet-liturgists…" - Religion News Service, Dec. 23, 2020

“Mesmerizing, spiritual, provocative, and thoughtful, Alden was everything you would want in a guest scholar and teacher.” – Rabbi Denise L. Eger, Congregation Kol Ami, Los Angeles, and Past President, CCAR

"Alden Solovy has become one of the most revered liturgists of the last decade…" - Jewish Post & Opinion, March 29, 2023

“Alden left everyone feeling inspired.” – Cantor Jeri Robins, Shabbat Chair, NewCAJE6