Tag Archive for "blessing" | To Bend Light

Posts Tagged ‘blessing’

Quick Prayer for Healing

Posted on: October 3rd, 2012 by tobendlight

Once in a while I need a simple prayer to say on the spot. This one can be used when hearing about a sudden illness, thinking about someone who is injured or chronically ill or when you hear the sound of an ambulance. It’s another in my series of “Quick Prayers.” Because this is a general prayer, I have also created two adaptations: “Quick Prayer for My Healing” and “Quick Prayer for Healing (Specific).” This prayer appears in my book, “Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.”

Quick Prayer for Healing
G-d of love,
Cast the light of health and well-being
On the injured, the infirm and the insecure,
All who yearn for Your healing hand.
Bless them with healing of body
Healing of soul
And healing of spirit.
Grant all in need a full and complete recovery.
Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d, Source of Life.

Postscript: Other prayers in this series include: “Quick Meditation for Today,” “Quick Meditation at Noon,” “Your Name: Quick Prayer at Dusk” and “Quick Meditation at Night.”

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. Please take a moment to explore my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

Cry, No More

Posted on: September 26th, 2012 by tobendlight

This prayer is about having compassion for ourselves while repairing the damage we’ve done to self and others. I wrote it after my first Yom Kippur in Jerusalem, my first in Israel as an oleh chadash. I use it on Yom Kippur and during the Counting the Omer, day 10, “compassion in discipline.” It appears in my book This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.

Cry, No More
Cry no more for the sins of the past.
Rejoice in your repentance and your return.
For this is the day that G-d made
To lift you up from your sorrow and shame,
To deliver you to the gates of righteousness.

Remember this:
Love is the crown of your life
And wisdom the rock on which you stand.
Charity is your staff
And justice your shield.
Your deeds declare your kindness
And your works declare your devotion.

Cry no more for your fears and your dread.
Rejoice in your blessings and your healing.
For this is the day that G-d made
To raise your countenance and hope,
To deliver you to the gates of holiness.

Postscript: “This is the day that G-d made” (Psalms 118:24) is used in our liturgy, including the service of praises, Hallel. Here are links to prayers for Elul, prayers for Rosh Hashana, prayers for Yom Kippur and prayers for Sukkot. Here’s a link to yizkor and memorial prayers.

Please check out my Meet the Author video 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: Gospel Newsroom

Awake You Slumberers!

Posted on: September 22nd, 2012 by tobendlight

“Awake, ye sleepers from your slumber, and rouse you from you from your lethargy. Scrutinize your deeds and return in repentance.” – רמב”ם

Are you awake? Are you listening? Are you fully present in this moment? Are you fully present in your life? Are you fully present in G-d’s world? When you hear the call of the Shofar on Yom Kippur, when the great Tekiah sounds, will you be ready to rise up and live a life in service to G-d’s holy word?

Here are links to five meditations about waking up to some of G-d’s gifts – truth, joy, holiness, love and Torah – posted now in anticipation of Yom Kippur. They follow the same rhythm and structure: an introduction of three short stanzas; the assertion that G-d’s gifts are present in the universe; a call to reengage with purpose (“Awake you slumberers!”); a reminder of what we may have forgotten; and a call to action.

Here is a taste of “Let Joy:”

“…joy is in the dawn and the dusk,
The silence and the great expanse,
The flow of light from G-d’s grace,
Divine wonder and awe,
Calling out to you dear sisters and brothers:
‘Awake you slumberers!
Awake you who sleepwalk through…”

Are you ready to “Let Truth,” “Let Joy,” “Let Holiness,” “Let Love” and “Let Torah” guide your life? Each of these meditations is aimed at helping us back to G-d’s gifts. And each of these links also includes audio of the meditation.

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Prayer for You, Prayer for Me

Posted on: September 2nd, 2012 by tobendlight

The secret to prayer is no secret at all. To pray for yourself, pray for someone else. And the secret to compassion is no secret, either. Pray for everyone. I use this prayer for the 17th day of counting the Omer. It appears in This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.

Prayer for You, Prayer for Me
What brilliance is this?
What divine secret of blessing,
That my prayer for you
Is a prayer for me?

Can love be so simple
Or holiness so close,
Can joy be as near
Or awe and wonder as ready
To blossom in the glow of faith?

May you know peace.
May you know health and healing.
May you know hope.
May you know laughter and delight.

What majestic gift,
G-d of Old,
Have You hidden
Inside our prayers,
That my prayers for others
Resound with joy
And echo in my being?

Ancient One,
Master of Blessings,
You call upon us
To summon
the light of holiness
Into the world with our prayers.

Postscript: This is another offering in my series of prayers about prayer, including: “For Prayer,” “Prayer Released,” “Prayers of My Heart,” “Whispered Prayer” and “To Pray.”

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: חאן רוח גלילית

Rhythms, Revised for Elul 5772

Posted on: August 17th, 2012 by tobendlight

This meditation is about contrasting rhythms of life, time moving in a straight line and holiness moving in circles. Although it can be said at any time of the year, it has particular relevance during the Hebrew month of Elul and on Rosh Hashana. I’ve changed a few key words to soften the language. Here’s a link to the orginial prayer, posted in July, 2010, and a list of more prayers for Elul.

Rhythms (Revised for Elul 5772)
Gracious and compassionate One,
G-d of time and seasons,
You’ve made a world of mystery and wonder,
A world of moments and millennia,
Clarity and confusion,
Illness and health,
Life and death.
Time moves forward,
Steadily into the unknown,
Steadily from the seen into the yet-to-be.
In Your wisdom, G-d of All Being,
Time also moves in cycles and seasons,
Carrying us from the holy to the mundane back to the holy,
A loving pattern of power and grace, comfort and hope.

Protector and Redeemer of Israel,
Grant me wisdom as my life moves forward through the flow of time.
Grant me strength as it turns through the circles of holiness.

Blessed are You, Holy One, who creates and sustains
The rhythms of our lives.

Postscript: Here’s a list of prayers for Elul, another one of prayers for Rosh Hashana, a list of prayers for Yom Kippur and one more for Sukkot. And here’s a link to yizkor and memorial prayers.

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Unlock Your Heart

Posted on: August 5th, 2012 by tobendlight

This 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.

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.

Photo credit: Pieces to a Complicated Heart

Freedom and Liberation

Posted on: July 3rd, 2012 by tobendlight

As the U.S. celebration of the 4th of July kicks into gear, here’s a prayer for freedom and liberation for people of all nations. It comes from my series of prayers For A Better World, including: “Against Human Trafficking,” “Against Poverty” and “Against Worker Exploitation.” Here are links to prayers written for Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

To listen while you read, click on the triangle in the bar above below.

Against Tyranny
G-d of the oppressed,
G-d of the subjugated and exploited,
The voice of freedom echoes across the land,
A hunger for liberation
And an end to the reign of tyrants.
Our brothers,
Beaten and abused,
Our sisters,
Dominated and forgotten,
Rise up to face the despot
Risking life and limb
In the name of the future,
With the dream of emancipation.

Source of mercy,
Rock of generations,
You have led people to deliverance in every age.
Bless those who struggle against cruelty and oppression.
Grant them courage and fortitude,
Safety and strength.
May their purpose remain righteous
And their vision focused on peace.

Bring an end to the rule of dictators in every land.
Release the hand of cruelty and evil.
Thwart the hand of brutality and slaughter.
Grant a swift end to violence,
So that renewal and rebuilding can begin
And hope renewed.

Bless a new government with wisdom and compassion
To give meaning to the uprising and suffering.
Let honorable nations lend skill and resources
To the leaders who emerge from this struggle.

Blessed are You, G-d of All,
Who summons us to free the captive,
Pursue justice
And oppose the reign of tyrants.

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.

Planting Seeds

Posted on: June 13th, 2012 by tobendlight

This prayer recognizes that everything we do has the potential to heal or to harm. So we ask for G-d’s help to plant seeds of holiness with each word, each act, each deed.

Planting Seeds
Every act is a seed:
Every laugh, every smile.
Every song, every dance.
Every outstretched arm
And every open heart.
A seed of holiness.
A seed of redemption.
A seed of grace.

Every act is a seed:
Every frown, every angry word.
Every dislike, every distain.
Every closed fist,
And every hardened heart.
A seed of loneliness.
A seed of isolation.
A seed of despair.

How many seeds have I planted,
G-d of Old,
Seeds that hurt,
Seeds that heal?
How many seeds have I yet to plant,
Seeds that hurt,
Seeds that heal?

Ancient One,
Grant me the discernment
And the skill
To plant seeds of wonder and awe
In my life and the world.
Let me be a source of wholeness,
Let me be a source of thanksgiving,
So that my life yields
A garden of blessings
In service to Your Holy Name.

Postscript: Here are several other prayers that use the ‘seeds’ metaphor: “Messengers,” “For New Love” and “I Am a King: A Meditation for Men.” Here are prayers that employ a ‘garden’ metaphor: “Life as a Garden,” “Garden of Blessings,” “For Spring,” “Meditation on a Child’s First Torah Reading” and “For Rain.”

Garden of Blessings

Posted on: June 6th, 2012 by tobendlight

We live in G-d’s garden, G-d’s world, G-d’s universe. It is a garden of blessings.

Garden of Blessings
Holy One,
G-d of Creation,
Source of Light,
Fountain of Wonder,
Life is a garden of blessings,
Alive with beauty,
Nourished by the holiness of Your Word,
Fed by the love of Your People.

Ancient One,
Your garden blooms with joys and sorrows,
With hopes and yearnings,
In the warmth of mercy,
In the breath of faith.

As for me,
G-d of Old,
Grant me the wisdom
To walk these paths gently,
With awe and thanksgiving,
In times of rejoicing
And in moments of despair.
Let me see Your glory in all that is,
All that was
And all that will be.
Then I will be like a flower
That always blooms,
Fresh and new,
In service to Your Holy Name.

Postscript: Here are other prayers that employ a ‘garden’ metaphor: “For Spring,” “Meditation on a Child’s First Torah Reading,” “For Rain” and “Life as a Garden.” Here are prayers that use a ‘seeds’ metaphor: “Messengers,” “For New Love” and “I Am a King: A Meditation for Men.”

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: USDA NRSA Photo Gallery

Being Present

Posted on: May 30th, 2012 by tobendlight

Here’s a prayer about living fully, being present in the moment. This piece appears in This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.

Being Present
G-d, help me live this day
In a way that draws Your favor,
That summons
Your gifts and Your blessings,
That attracts holiness and light.

Give me courage and strength,
Hope and understanding.

Help me to be present in my life.
Help me be present in my day.
Help me be present for others.
Help me be present for myself.

Let me live awake and aware,
Vital and energetic,
Casting off the chains of doubt and fear.

G-d of hidden worlds,
G-d of secret realms,
G-d of trial and triumph,
You have given me moments and choices,
Hours and opportunities,
Days to build
And days to renew.
Let me live this day with wisdom,
Awake to the moments of healing,
Dedicating my hands and my heart
To the work of creation.

And Your gifts will appear quietly,
Gently,
Sweet like morning dew
To refresh my heart.

Postscript: This prayer echoes the themes of my three-part meditation about the rhythm and flow of life. These meditations are written to be recited in order: “Leaving,” “Arriving” and “Now.”

Photo credit: Vionnaswatching

Posts Tagged ‘blessing’

Quick Prayer for Healing

Cry, No More

Awake You Slumberers!

Prayer for You, Prayer for Me

Rhythms, Revised for Elul 5772

Unlock Your Heart

Freedom and Liberation

Planting Seeds

Garden of Blessings

Being Present

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