Tag Archive for "hope" | To Bend Light

Posts Tagged ‘hope’

Life as a Garden

Posted on: December 15th, 2010 by tobendlight

This is a metaphor with the intention of prayer, calling each of us to have a certain humility for ourselves and the world, tending even the most mundane details of our lives with a sense of awe and compassion. It’s from a set of prayers with a common structure, including: “Life as a Banquet,” “Life as a Ceremony” and “Life as a Symphony.” These prayers appear in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below.

Life as a Garden
G-d of majestic moments,
Source of splendor,
Creator of radiance,
Divine light of renewal and joy,
My knowledge has its limits,
My insights are fleeting,
My wisdom emanates from an ancient font of holiness and wonder.
What I witness and what I comprehend are blessings and gifts.

Heavenly hand of possibilities and potential,
Artist of all creation,
Grant me the dignity to live my life as a garden,
Planting moments of kindness and grace,
Gently removing the thorns and bramble,
Nourishing each new blessing with the light of love and peace.
You who bring awareness and understanding,
Guide me with purpose,
Teach me with patience,
Show me the gentle path,
So that I live a life of commitment and devotion,
In celebration of Your creation.

Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d,
G-d of life, Author of beauty and grandeur.

Postscript: I use this for the 19th day of counting the Omer, “Humility in Compassion.” For an overview of the structure of the prayers in this series, see “Life as a Ceremony.” See also: “Life as a Symphony” and “Life as a Banquet.”

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: The Way of Beauty

For a Critically Ill Child

Posted on: December 8th, 2010 by tobendlight

Writing this prayer was a struggle. Why do children face physical or mental illness, pain, abuse, injustice? Can a sad, confused or angry parent’s feelings find voice in prayer? As a result, this prayer includes several personal choices identified in [brackets]. Gender selections are noted with a slash. There are two places to name the child and one to name the medical condition, shown with blank lines. This prayer will appears in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

For a Critically Ill Child
G-d who made all things,
Source of blessing and healing,
Well of mystery and love,
I [understand that] [don’t understand why]
Children face the same perils as adults.
I [accept that] [don’t accept that]
This is my son’s/daughter’s journey.
I [surrender] [refuse to surrender]
My desires to Your will.
[Still, I pray.]

You who healed Miriam in the desert,
Bring Your healing power to [my son/daughter]
_______________ (child’s name in Hebrew or your native tongue)
So that she/he may know life and health,
Joy and love.

Bless all who face ______________ (name of disease or condition afflicting child)
With wholeness and peace.
Provide wisdom and insight to scientists and researchers
So that treatments and cures can be found for this
And all afflictions suffered by children,
Speedily in our days.

Grant our family and her/his caregivers fortitude and compassion.
[Grant me/us the skills and resources to help my/our other children as they struggle through this family trauma.]
[Give me the gentleness, awareness and presence of mind to care for my husband/wife/partner as we struggle together.]
And give me/us the strength to ask others to care for me/us in my/our pain and distress.

G-d of our people,
Ancient Source of majesty,
Bring healing to all in need,
Grant relief to all who suffer
And look with favor on [my son/daughter][name of child ________________]
In this hour of uncertainty.
Bless her/him with strength,
Remove her/his pain,
Relieve her/his distress,
And cure her/his body, mind and spirit.

Blessed are You, G-d of mystery,
May health and healing come speedily to those in need.

Postscript: Other healing prayers include: “For a Critically Ill Mother,” “For Surgery,” “Upon Recovery from Surgery” and “For Healing the Spirit.”

For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. Connect with To Bend Light on Facebook and on Twitter.

In Praise

Posted on: December 6th, 2010 by tobendlight

No matter what, “Hallelujah.” This prayer appears in This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.

In Praise
Hallelujah at sunset.
Hallelujah at daybreak.
Hallelujah at dusk.
Hallelujah at dawn.
Hallelujah with pauper and prince,
With beggar and king.
Hallelujah with all G-d’s works.

This is my prayer, G-d of Sarah,
To declare Your glory in all things.

Hallelujah in sunshine,
Hallelujah in shadow.
Hallelujah in calm.
Hallelujah in storm.
Hallelujah in peace.
Hallelujah at war.
Hallelujah in shelter.
Hallelujah when all comfort and protection
Appear lost.

This is our prayer, G-d of Abraham,
To praise You every moment.

To praise You,
To sing to You,
To dance for You,
To declare Hallelujah with our lives.

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.

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

Photo by Alden Solovy

For Creation

Posted on: November 28th, 2010 by tobendlight

This is a simple prayer to remember the majesty of G-d’s creation. It appears in This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press. Thank you to the Jennie Cohen, editor and publisher of the Jewish Post & Opinion, who matched the prayer with artist Jackie Olenick to produce a beautiful cover using the prayer, slightly modifying the name to “Praise for Creation.”

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.

Postscript: Other prayers about creation include: “To Know Your Word” and “About the Rainbow.”

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.

River

Posted on: November 19th, 2010 by tobendlight

This simple prayer/poem is an extended metaphor for the interior landscape of challenge and change. It will appear in my forthcoming book, Song of the Spiritual Traveler. To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

River
River and free.
River and free.
Current and rapid.
River and free.

Ocean and gone.
Ocean and gone.
Storm and gale.
Ocean and gone.

Tide and return.
Tide and return.
Whitecap and wave.
Tide and return.

Eddy and flow.
Eddy and flow.
Headwater. Backwater.
Eddy and flow.

River and free.
River and free.
Boat and paddle.
River and me.

Postscript: Please click here to read other prayer/poems from the voice 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 Credit: U.S. Forest Service / John Hutmacher

On Spiritual Service

Posted on: November 14th, 2010 by tobendlight

Congratulations to Rabbi Andrea London on her installation as senior rabbi of Beth Emet: The Free Synagogue. Our worship was awesome, the study was lead by rabbi/scholars from around the world and the party was rockin’ with music from Shakshuka. It was an honor to be asked to write a prayer for this event.

Please listen along as you read. (Click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.)

On Spiritual Service
A Prayer for Andrea London’s Installation as Senior Rabbi at Beth Emet

With profound gratitude
We give thanks for the men and women
Who dedicate themselves to spiritual service,
Offering their lives to a higher power,
A higher wisdom,
A higher calling.

In Your Divine wisdom,
Adonai our G-d,
You have blessed Beth Emet with a legacy of powerful leadership,
Boundless love and steadfast devotion from our rabbis.
Among these many gifts,
You have brought Andrea London
To lead and to serve our sacred community,
A woman of compassion, awareness and learning,
With the heart and soul of a witness on Sinai,
A teacher, a scholar and a friend.

G-d of our mothers and fathers,
You delivered Andrea, Danny, Yonah and Liora to our community
To show us lives of beauty and grace, compassion and joy.
Continue to bless Rabbi London
With insight and wit, energy and zeal, wisdom and humor,
So that her work summons holiness into our lives and the world.
Bless her home and her family with thanksgiving, gentleness and peace.
Bring her awe and wonder as she strives to enrich our lives,
And ease her burdens and sorrows in her moments of need.
Lend her Your boundless strength and Your abiding love.

Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d,
Who has provided wise, passionate leaders for this congregation.
Guide Rabbi London to build on this foundation in Your Holy Name,
With clarity, vision and purpose.
Let Torah shine its light upon her path.
Let justice and righteousness be her destination.

Please use these prayers. See “Share the Prayer!” in the right hand column.

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To Seek Your Love

Posted on: November 11th, 2010 by tobendlight

Does G-d pray for us? This is a prayer about the Divine dialogue that is prayer, our yearning for G-d and G-d’s yearning for us. I’ve selected this prayer for the seventh day of Counting the Omer, Nobility in Lovingkindness. It’s from a series of prayers that includes: “To Hear Your Voice,” “To Seek Your Glory” and “To Know Your Word.” To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

To Seek Your Love
Divine Creator of beauty and light,
In wisdom You wait,
In love You hope,
In service You pray,
You pray for us to seek the radiance and splendor
Of the seen and unseen glories hidden in Your creation.
You pray for us to yearn for You,
As You yearn for us.

Holy One,
Ancient One,
Rock of Life,
Let my thirst for You lead me on a righteous path,
On a path of joy and surrender,
A path of generous love.
Make me a witness to the constant flow of Divine gifts,
So that I remember to seek You in joy.

Blessed are You, delighting in Your people’s love.

Postscript: Please read the related prayers: “To Hear Your Voice,” “To Seek Your Glory” and “To Know Your Word.”

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: Photo Bucket

We Share the Same Pain

Posted on: November 9th, 2010 by tobendlight

This is an invitation, an invitation to men to bond as equals, as brothers, as friends, sharing our deepest pain and our deepest fear. It’s posted today to honor the men of the November 2010 New Warrior Training Adventure held by Chicago Community of The ManKind Project at Camp Ronora, Mich.

Please listen along as you read. (Click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.)

We Share the Same Pain
Brother,
You do not know me…
And you know me.
I do not know you…
And I know you.
We have travelled different roads,
But they are paths across the same landscape,
Trails across the same terrain.
Joy and anger,
Pride and shame,
Fear and love.
Our fathers and their fathers
Faced the journey of the heart alone,
Without the guidance of their brothers,
Without the wisdom of the generations.

Brother, we share the same legacy and
We share the same pain.
That is all I need to know
To love you today
For who you are and for who you can become.
Hurt, but not broken.
Still able to find the deep root of majesty within,
The gift of passion and power,
Radiance and joy,
Directed toward a life of service.
You know me.
I know you.
Let us share the challenge,
The journey,
And the victory.

Postscript: Check out these prayers for men: “My Work Remains,” “For the Lost,” “We Share the Same Pain”and “My Heart Knows What It Needs,” as well as a list of other prayers for and about men.

Please use these prayers. See “Share the Prayer!” in the right hand column.

Being Lost

Posted on: October 24th, 2010 by tobendlight

Here’s a simple prayer for safety.

Please listen along as you read. (Click on the triangle in the slider bar below. The entire text follows.)

Being Lost
The trail has narrowed,
The path has faded,
And You, G-d of Old,
Are my trusted Guide.

I am not lost, but I’ve lost my way.
I am not gone, but I’ve gone astray.
Help me to find the way back to
Safety and shelter,
Family and friends.
Protect me,
Strengthen me,
And give me endurance,
So that I may return to a life
Of service and love.

Postscript: My other traveler’s prayers include: “On the Road,” “On the Trail” and “For Travel.” “On the Trail” is one of my favorites.

Please use these prayers. See “Share the Prayer!” in the right hand column.

These Blessings

Posted on: October 21st, 2010 by tobendlight

This prayer celebrates the blessings in my life, in our lives. To listen along as you read, please click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

These Blessings
For the blessings in our lives,
The blessings of our lives,
And the blessings of the people who are part of our lives,
We give thanks.

These gifts heal:
Silence, stillness, enthusiasm and joyful noise.
Awareness, insight, energy and resources.
The gifts of parents and children,
Of students and teachers.

These blessings nurture:
Joy, gratitude, freedom and bravery.
Trust, strength, humor and sweetness.
The blessings of honesty and kindness,
Of faith and love.

For the gifts and blessings of our lives
We sing and dance,
We shout and laugh,
And we pledge our lives in service to each other,
In celebration, in wonder and in awe.

Praised are You, G-d our Maker,
Source of gifts and blessings.

Postscript: Here’s another prayer with a similar theme: “An Amazing Life.”

Posts Tagged ‘hope’

Life as a Garden

For a Critically Ill Child

In Praise

For Creation

River

On Spiritual Service

To Seek Your Love

We Share the Same Pain

Being Lost

These Blessings

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