Tag Archive for "love and surrender"

Posts Tagged ‘love and surrender’

Give Love Wings

Posted on: February 14th, 2018 by Alden

A new prayer about the holiness of love.

Give Love Wings
Give your love wings
To soar with the music and the prayers
That dance between us,
That sing around us,
That rise shimmering
To the heavens
In radiance and glory.

Give your heart freedom
To float breathless
In the vastness of the universe,
To become one with the Soul of all Being,
To enter the majesty of light
Pulsing from the ancient yearnings of our hearts.

Give your love wings, to soar.
And when you reach G-d’s holy place,
Opens your hands in blessing.

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Postscript: My other prayers about love include: Groucy: A Love Prayer, For New Love and Quick Blessing for a Past Love.

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: Stormhoek.com

The Pulse of Holiness

Posted on: December 28th, 2017 by Alden

Yesterday, in the early morning, two ideas drifted in and out of my consciousness as I drifted in and out of sleep. Love, and holiness. After waking, this is what I wrote.

The Pulse of Holiness
The love
That echoes love
That whispers love
That breathes love
In the quiet stillness of morning
Is leading you toward light,
Toward understanding,
Toward G-d.
For love is the pulse of holiness,
The beating heart of radiance and wonder,
The rhythm of creation,
The energy of blessing,
The starburst of the divine.

The love
That echoes in your heart
Resonates eternal
With all beings,
With all souls,
With the wisdom of the ages,
And the wisdom of the earth.

Yes, love is the pulse of holiness.
Let it flow through you.
Let your countenance shine majesty
From the core of your being
To the edge of the universe,
To fill the world
With splendor.

Postscript: See also, “Evidence of Holiness.”

Photo Source: NASA

A New Year Begins

Posted on: December 30th, 2013 by Alden

This prayer for the New Year is about seeing the joy and grief in life and deciding that kindness and love are the only answers. This prayer stands in marked contrast to the one I wrote for 2013, brimming with hope. Maybe, in the end, they’re just different sides of the same coin. “In This Turning: A New Year’s Day Meditation” appears in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

A New Year Begins
Every moment a new year begins.
Something lost.
Something gained.
Every day, a new challenge.
Every hour, a new choice.
Every second, a new chance.

God of Old,
In this moment, a baby will be born,
And a child will die.
In this moment, lovers will marry,
And others will split.
In this moment, someone will hear
That their medical treatments succeeded,
And others will be told
To prepare to die.

Every moment a new year begins.
Something lost.
Something gained.
Let me love gently in the morning
And ferociously at night.
Let me dance wildly at dawn
And slowly at dusk.
At midnight, let me sing quietly,
And at midday I will croon, full voice.
I will breathe in a soul of compassion
And breathe out a soul of peace.

Creator of All,
Every moment a new year begins.
The flow of fresh light from heaven
Touches our hearts.
Something lost.
Something gained.
Let it be for blessing.
Let it be for healing.
Let it be for shelter.
Let it be for wisdom and strength.
Let us be, in this moment,
Your messengers of kindness on earth.

Postscript: Here’s another prayer “For the New Year,” a meditation called “Another Year: An Introspection” and another called “The Last Moment.” Please consider purchasing my new book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

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Photo Source: Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science

The Last Moment

Posted on: May 16th, 2013 by tobendlight

This is a meditation on time, a meditation on living in this moment with the spiritual understanding that beauty and holiness remain. They remain even when one of us departs this existence. The meditation was inspired by the music of Randall Williams whom I heard recently in Jerusalem; in particular, his song “Suppose Time” and reading of “The World Will End” from the album Einstein’s Dreams, which was based on the best-selling novel by Alan Lightman. Special thanks to another musician friend of mine, Tracy Friend, for her ideas and suggestions on the word choice and flow of this meditation. This piece appears in This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.

The Last Moment
What if this is the last moment of creation?
The last moment we have to share
Our joy, our hope, our love.

What if this is the last moment
With you on earth?
The last chance to feel
Your breath, your heart, your surrender.
When you depart
The world will remain,
Full of mystery and wonder.

What if this is the last moment
With me on earth?
The last chance to offer
My hand, my smile, my strength.
When I depart
The world will remain,
Full of glory and holiness.

What if this is the last moment
We have together?
The only chance we have to share
Our awe, our power, our peace.
When we say goodbye
The world will remain.
The sky will continue to fill with radiance.
The core of the earth will still burn
Molten hot with passion for living.
And light, light from the edge of the universe,
Light from the day when G-d spoke
And the world came to be,
Will reach my face
And will warm your heart.

Postscript: Related meditations include a three-part series written to be read in this order: “Leaving,” “Arriving” and “Now.” Be sure to check out the music of Randall Williams and Tracy Friend. Also check out Tracy’s latest collaboration with my Andy Dennen, “G-d is Near.”

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: Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science

In This Turning: A New Year’s Day Meditation

Posted on: December 30th, 2012 by tobendlight

This is a New Year prayer about love. Why? Those of us who are alone yearn for a partner. Those of us in relationships need to nurture them with joy and love. To adapt this prayer for singles or couples, use either “me” or “us,” shown in [brackets]. This prayer appears in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

In This Turning: A New Year’s Day Meditation
Darkness and grace
Mourning and thunder
Light and rejoicing
Daybreak and open sky

Here I surrender
To the chance for love
Your warm breath
Your loving hands
The fire in your eyes
The hope in your heart

What gifts wait in this turning
To you
To myself
This joy
This adventure

What gifts wait in this turning
And this yearning
This new year
This new wonder

Let blessings rain down
Upon [me/us] from heaven
And let hope settle softly
Upon this open heart

Let this be the time to sing
To dance
To play
And to delight in another
Glorious
Day

Postscript: Here’s another prayer “For the New Year” and a meditation called “Another Year: An Introspection.” Please consider purchasing my new book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

Photo Credit: Melaleuca Freedom Celebration

Posts Tagged ‘love and surrender’

Give Love Wings

The Pulse of Holiness

A New Year Begins

The Last Moment

In This Turning: A New Year’s Day Meditation

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