Tag Archive for "hope" | To Bend Light

Posts Tagged ‘hope’

The Largest Prayer

Posted on: October 28th, 2017 by Alden

This is a new meditation on prayer, written in three- and six-word lines and inspired by my new Facebook group, Six-Word Prayers. Please feel free to join the group and to contribute.

The Largest Prayer
How small is the largest prayer?
A breath. A word. A whisper.
How immense is the deepest yearning?
A world. A universe. An eternity.
Oh my soul,
Oh my longing,
Oh my heart,
Oh my being…
How dear is this glorious life?
How precious are your beautiful spirits?
G-d spoke, the world burst forth.
When you spoke, my life resounded.
Love and joy.
Hope and passion.
Wisdom and gratitude.
Mystery and adventure.
How small is the largest prayer?
A blink. A heartbeat. And forever.

Postscript: Here are more meditations on prayer: “Whispered Prayer,” “Prayer with Wings” and “Rise on Wings: A Prayer of Borrowing.”

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 by Alden Solovy

My Life in Yours

Posted on: October 23rd, 2017 by Alden

About four years ago I wrote a love song. As I strolled alone along Jerusalem’s old railway walking path, these words simply appeared. Strange. I wasn’t dating anyone, so why would a love song simply appear? Here are two versions of “My Life in Yours,” the first is a song of yearning for love; the second, which follows, is a wedding prayer recited by one partner to the other or said together in unison. The differences in the two are small, but key.

My Life in Yours – A Love Song
When my heart whispers for you,
When my breath calls your name,
When my eyes sparkle with your grace,
I will plant my life in yours.

When my hands yearn for your healing,
When my ears tune to your voice,
When my pulse beats with your footsteps,
I will plant my life in yours.

The sky, the sea, the horizon,
The moments, the days and the years.
The light, the hope, the glory,
The hours, the seasons, the tears.

When your heart whispers for me,
When your breath calls my name,
When your pulse beats with my footsteps,
I will plant my life in yours…
I will plant this life in yours.

My Life in Yours – A Wedding Prayer
My heart whispers for you,
And my breath calls your name,
As my eyes sparkle with your grace,
I plant my life in yours.

My hands yearn for your healing,
My ears tune to your voice,
As my pulse beats with your footsteps,
I plant my life in yours.

The sky, the sea, the horizon,
The moments, the days and the years.
The light, the hope, the glory,
The hours, the seasons, the tears.

Now your heart whispers for me,
And your breath calls my name,
As your pulse beats with my footsteps,
I plant my life in yours.
I plant this life in yours.

Postscript: I recorded myself singing the tune to this piece to share here, but I’m too shy — yes, I said shy — to post it. Here are links to my prayers about love: “Let Love,” “The Cut That Heals,” “For New Love,” “To Seek Your Love,” “A Heart of Love” and “A Moment of Love.” Several of these prayers appear in my 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: Alden Solovy

For Clergy

Posted on: September 24th, 2017 by Alden

This is a prayer for our clergy, first posted on ReformJudaism.org as “A Rosh Hashanah Prayer for Our Clergy.” It can be used by people of any faith in praise of our religious and spiritual leaders.

For Clergy
God of sacred callings,
Bless the work of our clergy,
Who carry us through our lives,
Our joys and our sorrows,
In holy service,
Carrying our broken hearts,
Our festive moments,
And our deepest yearnings.

May their dedication serve as shining lamp of love.
May the works of their hands bring merit in heaven.
Bless them with health and long life.
Guard them from taking our traumas into themselves.
Protect them from loneliness and isolation,
Shielding them from the spiritual and emotional pain
That can come with a life of service.
May they have find peace and comfort in their own moments of need.

Blessed are You,
God of All,
Who, with love, provides the world
Dedicated leaders of faith.

Photo Source: Catholic Online

Without a Sound

Posted on: September 19th, 2017 by Alden

For Rosh Hashanah, a new prayer of faith in God’s love, a deep level of trust that’s needed for me to do the hard and necessary work of t’shuva.

Without a Sound
I whispered a secret prayer to God,
Who whispered a secret answer to me,
So quietly
That it arrived
In the chambers of my soul
Without a sound.

Oh how I wish to hear Your voice.
Oh how I wish to know Your dreams for me.
Oh how I wish to let my heart run wild and free,
As light as a bird song,
As true as the call of the shofar,
As certain as an angel calling out holy, holy, holy…

I whispered a secret prayer to God,
Who whispered a secret answer to me,
To trust
That blessings arrive
In the chambers of my soul
Without a sound.

Postscript: Here are more prayers for the High Holidays. Thanks to my friend Shmuel Browns for allowing use of his photograph.

Photo Source: Israel Tours/Shmuel Browns

Before Morning

Posted on: August 27th, 2017 by Alden

In the dark and quiet night, a deep yearning sigh for a day of gentle kindness, blessings and peace. Half-awake, a yearning that arrives before morning…

Before Morning
Before morning breaks,
Before the birds begin to sing,
As dawn approaches from beyond the horizon,
And the deep quiet night prepares to depart,
Let the angels secretly bless me.
Let their song echo in my yearning soul.

Before morning breaks,
Before the traffic builds,
As light approaches from the waking day,
And responsibilities prepare to arrive,
Let the love of life surround me,
And joy flow from my grateful heart.

G-d who created light,
Holy One who renews creation,
Bless the coming day with Your majesty and love.
Bless the hours with Your kindness and grace.
Bless the moments with hope and healing.
Let our songs of praise rise before You,
And let peace descend from the highest heavens
To cover the earth.

Photo Source: National Park Service

Prayers for Shira and Pride

Posted on: August 2nd, 2017 by Alden

Here are two prayers posted for Jerusalem Pride. “Pride Wins” is in memory of 16-year-old Shira Banki, murdered at Jerusalem’s 2015 Pride Parade by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish extremist who stabbed six participants. “Love Wins” envisions a time when love celebrated by all.

Love Wins
One day, the words ‘coming out’ will sound strange,
Oppression based on gender or orientation will be a memory,
History to honor and remember,
The pain of hiding, repressing, denying,
Honoring the triumphs of those who fought to be free,
Remembering the violence and vitriol that cost lives.

When love wins,
When love wins at long last,
ואהבת לרעך כמוך,
‘Love your neighbor as yourself’
Will be as natural as breathing.
ואהבת לרעך כמוך!

One day, love will win every heart,
Love will win every soul,
Fear will vanish like smoke,
And tenderness for all will fill our hearts.
ואהבת לרעך כמוך!

Love wins. In the end,
Love wins.
Man for man,
Woman for woman,
Woman for man,
Man for women,
All genders,
All orientations,
All true expressions of heart.
ואהבת לרעך כמוך!

Let this come speedily,
In our day,
A tribute to the many
And the diverse
Gifts from heaven.
A tribute to love deep and true,
Each of us for one another.
ואהבת לרעך כמוך!

Shira Banki

Pride Wins: A Prayer after Homophobic Brutality
Pride will not be crushed by violence.
Pride will not be crushed by hatred.
Pride wins. Love wins.
Beauty and joy win.

G-d of healing,
Bless the LBGTQ community
With Your comfort and care
In the anguish and pain after yet another
Senseless and vicious attack against the innocent,
An act of calculated violence against Your children.
Bless the victims with healing and strength.
Bless their families with solace and support.
Bless the community with resolve and well-being.

Let the day be near when
Gender and sexual orientation
Are no longer used an excuse for brutality or cruelty.
Let the day be near when
Justice and righteousness prevail,
Guiding us all to delight fully in each other,
Our similarities and our differences,
A tribute to the vast wonder of Your creation.

Postscript: Thank you to my friend and fellow Jerusalem resident Cantor Evan Kent for his suggestions on “Love Wins.”

Photo Source: Tufts Hillel, JQUEST (Jewish Queer Students at Tufts), flag; Facebook, via JTA, Shira Banki

Remember My Heart

Posted on: April 29th, 2017 by Alden

This Yom HaZikaron offering imagines a prayer that might be said by the soldiers and terror victims who’ve lost their lives for the State of Israel. It’s meant to honor that raw spot of grief that exists in all of us, but that some live with daily as a result of simply living in Israel and serving this nation. The core metaphor is a ubiquitous image throughout Israel, the flower that survives by growing up through the cracks in stone, sometimes hewn stones placed by our ancestors, sometimes the very stone of the earth.

Remember My Heart
When you see a flower bloom
Between the cracks in stone,
Remember me.
Remember my heart and my hands.
The hands of sons and daughters,
Of dreamers and doers,
Soldiers by necessity,
Civilians targeted for terror,
Old hands, young hands, children’s hands,
Hands that yearned for life.

When you see a flower bloom
Between the cracks in stone,
Remember that we have shed both tears and blood
In our yearning for this land and this people.
Remember what cannot be stolen,
Our love, our hope,
Our history, our home.

Oh, to still be with you in this sacred land,
In this beauty and wonder,
In this place of my soul.

When you see a flower bloom
Between the cracks in stone,
Remember me.
Remember that beauty survives,
That our love is strong,
That our sacrifices are holy,
That our cause is just,
That our people will endure.

Blessed are you, my people,
Who remember those of us who’ve given our lives
To build, defend and live in this land.
May the Holy One
Shelter your heart in the wings of comfort
And bring peace, at last,
Peace at last.

Postscript: The last lines are intentionally vague implying both peace of mind for mourners and relatives of the deceased, as well as peace for the land of Israel. Here are three other prayer that are important for Yom HaZikaron: “Yizkor for a Lone Soldier,” “The Soldiers on this Mountain,” “To the Terrorist,” “For those Who Die Young” and “Memorial for a Child.”

Photo by Alden Solovy

Bind Our Hearts

Posted on: January 8th, 2017 by Alden

Mazal Tov to my daughter Nikki Braziel-Solovy and her man Prometheus Kevin Trotsky on their engagement. This wedding day prayer alludes to the sheva brachot – the set of seven prayers said under the chuppah, the wedding canopy. Each of the stanzas contains seven lines. The middle stanza is an interpretation of the sheva brachot, borrowing hints and ideas from each of the seven prayers. This piece appears in This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.

Bind Our Hearts
Hope and love,
Love and promise,
Promise and commitment,
Commitment and action,
A sacred pairing,
A holy union,
A celebration of life.

Let this cup of sweetness overflow
Into G-d’s glorious handiwork,
As we delight in creation,
Seeing the divine in each other,
Sharing this abundance with the generations
As loving companions and dedicated friends,
Rejoicing together, now and forever.

Bind our hearts with awe,
Bind our hearts with wonder,
Grant us wisdom and understanding,
Patience and forgiveness,
Days of radiance and light,
Nights of comfort and peace,
Lives of blessing, together.

Postscript: See also “A Moment of Love,” “For an Open Heart” and “Blessing for a Spouse/Partner.”

Photo Source: Family Snaps on iCloud

For Jewish Unity

Posted on: December 11th, 2016 by Alden

This prayer, by design, is naïve, which is the source of its simplicity and optimism. Contrast it with a prayer with a similar theme, “Jew against Jew,” which begins from a more realistic assessment of the animosities that exist – especially here in Israel – among the various branches of Jewish practice and halachic observance. Here’s a prayer clebrating Jewish diversity, “Be’chol Lashon: In every Tounge.”

For Jewish Unity
May it be Your will,
Adonai our G-d,
G-d of our mothers and fathers,
To restore the Jewish people to each other
In wholeness and love.
May our differences in understanding and practice
Never be a source of sinat chinam, chas v’shalom,
Nor physical violence, chas v’shalom.
May our love for Torah and each other shine forth
From Jerusalem to the four corners of the earth,
Speedily, in our days.

Postscript: See also “Cornerstone” and “Messengers among Us,” two prayers that celebrate the expanding roles of women in Jewish life.

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: Ottawa Jewish Bulletin

The Preacher Said

Posted on: November 9th, 2016 by Alden

Here’s a prayer for use in celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and written for my book, “This Grateful Heart.”

The Preacher Said
Let us pray,
The preacher said,
Let us pray in the name of hope,
In the name of justice,
In the name of truth.

Let us commit to each other,
The preacher said,
Commit in the name of equality,
In the name of righteousness,
And in the name of our children.

Let us take to the streets,
The preacher said,
Let us take to the streets
To make our space,
To claim a place,
For no one race
Can live in grace,
Until we face,
Together,
Oppression and hate.

Let us walk,
The preacher said,
Let us walk from Selma to Montgomery,
From oppression to the Promised Land,
From fear to courage,
From silence to action,
From today to the future,
To a place where all people
Will be judged by the content
Of their character,
The humanity of their words,
And the compassion of their deeds.

Stick with love,
The preacher said,
Stick with love
Because love is the only answer.

Stick with love.
Stick with love.

Let us pray,
The preacher said,
Let us pray in the name of hope,
In the name of justice,
In the name of truth.

Postscript: Here’s a link to a prayer “In Thanks for U.S. Democracy.”

Photo Source: Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub

Posts Tagged ‘hope’

The Largest Prayer

My Life in Yours

For Clergy

Without a Sound

Before Morning

Prayers for Shira and Pride

Remember My Heart

Bind Our Hearts

For Jewish Unity

The Preacher Said

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