Posts Tagged ‘healing prayer’

 

Guest Writers: Avi Dell and Ze’eva Berman

Posted on: March 16th, 2018 by Alden

This is a mash-up of two prayers written in my “Introduction to Creative Liturgy” class at HUC-JIR in Jerusalem. Ze’eva Berman (cantorial) and Avi Dell (rabbinical) are first-year students there. The first in-class assignment was to write a prayer for a moment of personal challenge. After hearing the prayers separately, I asked them to read the prayers together, alternating between them line-by-line. It fit. Afterward, Avi and Ze’eva reworked the combined prayer slightly, using it in student-led t’fillah. To capture in print the feeling of hearing it out loud, the alternative verses are in standard type (Ze’eva) and italics (Avi). This post is part of new addition to this space: occasionally featuring guest writers.

Untitled
I feel shaken and I feel scared.
Spiritual awakening is at your door.

I don’t know what will happen
And I don’t know how it will feel.
Cling not to whom you were before.

Stay with me through my grief, my joy, my emptiness.
Steady me with your constant presence of love.

Knowing that in your final scene,
You deserve to be anywhere but in-between.

© Ze’eva Berman and Avi Dell. All rights reserved.

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Postscript: Read the prayer of my first Guest Writer, Eliza Scheffler, also an HUC-JIR student, by clicking here, and my second guest writers, pupils at Temple Beth Jacob, Concord, NH, by clicking here.

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: DevPolicyBlog

Choosing to Heal

Posted on: February 23rd, 2015 by Alden

filling-the-holeSometimes, healing from pain and trauma is a matter of making a choice. Not an easy choice, by any means, but a simple one: to walk with courage and to invite healing to come. It’s a matter of surrender to the possibility of relief from grief and sorrow. And it takes time. May you find the healing you need.

Choosing to Heal
To heal from grief and loss,
Breathe gently into the morning
And walk with courage
Into the new day.
If you want to heal
Choose it, claim it,
Invite healing into your heart.

G-d of our Ancestors,
Rock of Ages,
You have witnessed our sorrows,
You have seen our struggles,
For generations, for millennia,
Since Avraham and Sarah
First headed Your call.
And You have witnessed
Our joys and celebrations
As we wandered the earth,
And when we returned home.

Bring us back.
Bring us back, G-d of Old,
Bring us back to gladness.
Bring us back to love.

© 2015 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Here are other prayers about spiritual healing, including: “R’fuat HaNefesh: Healing the Soul,” “Inviting Healing” and “The Cut that Heals.”

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: The Grief Recovery Kit

Simple Prayer for Healing

Posted on: June 24th, 2014 by Alden

582749main_sunrise_from_iss-4x3_946-710This prayer is basic, direct, to the point. Please G-d, heal and comfort those in need. It’s a prayer for moments when less is more. This will appear in my forthcoming book, Prayers for Healing the World.

Simple Prayer for Healing
G-d, grant Your healing power
To all in need,
Those whom I know,
______________ [list names],
And those unknown to me.

G-d, grant Your comfort and consolation
To all who grieve,
Those whom I know,
______________ [list names],
And those unknown to me.

Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d,
Ruler of the universe,
Who lifts up the fallen.

© 2014 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Please check out my new book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

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: NASA

Complications after My Surgery

Posted on: January 30th, 2014 by Alden

Surgery Prep NurseI wrote this yesterday after receiving news that a friend is now dealing with a post-surgical infection. There are seven prayers about surgery in my new book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing, including: “For Surgery” and “Upon Recovery from Surgery.” This prayer will appear in a future book, most likely Prayers for Healing the World.

Complications after My Surgery
G-d of Old,
My [surgery/recovery] has not proceeded as planned.
As I endure unanticipated complications, treatments and setbacks,
I face a new [and difficult] set of decisions
On my journey toward wholeness and healing.
The path [which once seemed so clear,]
Is suddenly more dangerous,
And my fears have returned.

Bless my doctors with wisdom and skill,
With compassion, focus and dedication,
As we work to overcome this challenge [these challenges].
Bless my family with ease and comfort.
Give us energy and endurance, tranquility and peace.
Remind them to care for themselves and each other,
Even as their hearts and prayers turn to me.

Source of life,
Bless my body with strength,
My spirit with courage,
My thoughts with hope,
And let me return to a full life with renewed purpose.
Grant me a full and speedy recovery.

Blessed are You, G-d of mystery,
Source of health and healing.

© 2014 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: My other healing prayers include: “For a Critically-Ill Child,” “For a Critically-Ill Mother,” “For a Critically Ill Father,” “For Cancer Treatment,” “Cancer Remission” and two Hospice Prayers. Most of these prayers appear in new book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

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

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