Tag Archive for "love" | To Bend Light

Posts Tagged ‘love’

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

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.”

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For the Family Historian

Posted on: October 14th, 2010 by tobendlight

This is a prayer for the one who holds the flame of family history. I wrote it in honor of our family historian, Irwin Keller. Irwin posted this prayer on a Jewish genealogy website and it was subsequently published in the spring 2010 edition of Morasha, the newsletter of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois. It’s part of my series of prayers for family, including “For the Patriarch,” “For the Matriarch,” “For Our Brothers” and “For Our Sisters.”

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

For the Family Historian
For the family historian,
A song of thanksgiving.

Guardian of the family tree,
Keeper of our history,
We are blessed with your love and devotion,
Your tireless efforts to know our heritage,
Your work to keep us united,
Your joy in rediscovering brothers and sisters
Once separated, apart no more.
Your work reminds us to love and cherish the living,
To honor and praise the dead,
To embrace the lost,
To welcome each other home.

G-d of mystery and wonder,
Bless our family with strength and peace,
Wholeness and love,
Health and prosperity.
May sons and daughters find joy under the chupah.
May our parents be given long lives and easy deaths.
Bless us with children, grandchildren and great grandchildren,
So that the generations expand,
A wondrous celebration of Your gifts.

Blessed are You, G-d of our mothers and fathers,
Who delights in family wholeness and love.

Postscript: Other prayers for family members include: “For the Patriarch,” “For the Matriarch,” “For Our Brothers” and “For Our Sisters.”

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For Our Brothers

Posted on: October 2nd, 2010 by tobendlight

This is a prayer to honor our brothers. It’s part of a series of prayers about rejoicing in family relationships, including: “For Our Sisters,” “For the Patriarch,” “For the Matriarch” and a favorite of mine called “For the Family Historian.” This will appear in my forthcoming book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing. To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

For Our Brothers
For our brothers,
A chant of honor.

Brother, to have you is a blessing,
A gift of endurance and strength.
Your courage is my shield,
Your humor, my cloak,
Your humility, my guide,
Your vigor, my hope.
Your victories witness your confidence,
Your devotion
And your zeal.

You are my brother by birth
My brother by choice,
My brother through pain
And my brother in thanksgiving.

G-d of brotherly dignity and grace,
Bless our family with gratitude
And our brothers with enthusiasm, vitality and wonder.
May their devotion inspire us to justice and mercy.
Bless our lives with energy and prosperity
So that we become a source of healing in our lives
And in the world.

Blessed are You, G-d of brothers,
Who delights in brotherly love.

Postscript: See also: For Our Sisters,” “For the Patriarch,” “For the Matriarch” and “For the Family Historian.” Note that this prayer is written to be used by both men and women to honor their brothers. As such, it’s not part of the body of prayers that I’ve written specifically for men.

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Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

Dwelling Place

Posted on: September 24th, 2010 by tobendlight

A prayer/poem about the meaning of home, posted for Sukkot.

To listen while you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The entire text follows.

Dwelling Place
This is my dwelling-place.
The place of my bounty and sustenance,
Study and reflection.

This is my living-place.
The place of my comfort and rest,
Quiet and peace.

This is my working-place.
The place of my dedication and strength,
Pride and honor.

This is my loving-place.
The place of my family and heart,
Warmth and shelter.

This is my memory-place.
The place of my seasons and sensations,
Traditions and transitions.

This is my hoping-place.
The place of my dreams and desires,
Visions and wonder.

This is my mourning-place.
The place of endings and beginnings,
Grief and renewal.

This is my dying-place.
The place of my release and surrender,
Letting go and passing on.

This is my dwelling-place.
The place of my moments and years,
Blessings and gifts,
Sabbaths of the heart,
Sabbaths of the soul.

Postscript: Other songs and prayers of the Spiritual Traveler include: “Come Walk,” “Bird is Bird,” “River,” “Soarbird” and “I am Breathing.” Click here for the entire list of songs of the Spiritual Traveler.

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For An Open Heart

Posted on: July 11th, 2010 by tobendlight

This is a prayer about love, not for love. The hope inside this prayer is remember how to love. Good for any season, it also fits for the first week of Counting the Omer, Chesed: love, lovingkindness, benevolence. I read it on the first day of the Omer when the focus is on the love aspect of love.

For An Open Heart
G-d, give me an open heart,
A generous heart,
A humble heart.
Give me a heart so free,
So fearless,
That I offer love without requirement,
To love as You love,
Holding my beloved precious,
Loving her/him in this moment exactly as she/he is,
Praying that she/he follows her/his true path
Regardless of where it takes her/him.

Give me a heart gentle and willing to love her/him
As she/he would beloved, with honor and respect,
Kindness and humor,
Joy and friendship.
Give me a love so pure and vast,
So simple and strong,
That it cherishes the love and the loving,
Asking nothing in return.

Postscript: Here are two more prayers about love, “Let Love” and “Blessing for a Spouse/Partner.”

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Image Source: Unity Healing Temple

Tears of Crystal, Tears of Broken Glass

Posted on: April 7th, 2010 by tobendlight

This prayer is about the power of tears, both to hurt and to heal, and is appropriate for use commemorating Kristallnacht, Yom HaShoah and Tisha b’Av. Click here for a six-prayer Yom HaShoah liturgy.

To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

Tears of Crystal, Tears of Broken Glass
My tears are crystal and broken glass.
They sparkle, they cut.
They heal, they wound.
They are daybreak and midnight,
Hymn and dirge,
Joyous celebration and lonely mourning.
My tears catch Your Divine Light,
Prisms casting colors across my days
And on my hands.
I pray to hold them gently,
With dignity,
With honor.

I am one of Your children,
One of those You love,
Comforted knowing that I, too,
Am one for whom You cry
Tears of crystal,
Tears of broken glass.

Postscript: Please see the related prayer, “After the Horror.”

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Photo Credit: Highland Park Conservative Temple

Posts Tagged ‘love’

To Seek Your Love

These Blessings

For the Family Historian

For Our Brothers

Dwelling Place

For An Open Heart

Tears of Crystal, Tears of Broken Glass

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