Posts Tagged ‘love’

 

Shavua Tov Live! with Trisha, Devon and Alden

Posted on: March 21st, 2020 by Alden

This is your personal invitation to an online reading of prayer and poetry, with song and meditation, to uplift your week. Ritualwell is hosting a half-hour event featuring Devon Spier, Trisha Arlin and me on Sunday, March 22, at 1:00 p.m. eastern time on Zoom. Register in advance here. We’ll each read from our work. Devon will lead a chant and I’ll lead a Six-Word Prayer moment. Here’s a taste of the event. Remember to register.

Trisha Arlin’s “Instead of: A Prayer for Peace“

Blessed Yah, Creator, Created, Creating…
We pray for peace,
For ourselves and the world,
Even if only for one day:

Instead of anger, we choose kindness.
Instead of revenge, we choose justice.
Instead of resentment, we choose empathy.
Instead of work, we choose rest.
Instead of ideology, we choose compromise.
Instead of destruction, we choose community.
Instead of fear, we choose endurance.
Instead of invective, we choose prayer.
Instead of violence, we choose peace.

Blessed Yah, Creator, Created, Creating…
We give thanks for this day of peace.
May it change us, may it change the world,
And let us say, Amen.

“Instead of: A Prayer for Peace” is © 2014 Trisha Arlin. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Chant to be led by Devon Spier

From the head on my shoulders
To the soles of my shoes
Somebody someone comin’ through

From the soul ‘bove my shoulders
To the soles of my shoes
Somebody someone comin’ through

La da da da da da da da da!
Da da da da la la la la da da (x2)

לֹא בָאֵשׁ יְהוָה; וְאַחַר הָאֵשׁ, קוֹל דְּמָמָה דַקָּה
But Adonai was not in the fire
And after the fire a still small voice (1 Kings 19:12)

“Spiritual Vandals” by Alden Solovy
At the gates of an ancient city
A spiritual vandal cracked into my heart.
Stunned,
Expecting the blood of my grief and shame
To sizzle on the hot stone,
Ready to shout,
‘How dare you touch that sacred place,’
I saw a river of light flowing through me.
Starlight. Moonlight. Sunlight. Your light. My light.
Light from the moment of creation.
So much radiance and glory.
Suddenly on my knees,
My forehead on the pilgrim’s path,
I wept.

Now I wait at the gates
For you.
To invite you close,
To let me see the fissure in your heart
Ready to burst,
To touch it with love,
To crack you open
So that you can see the majesty and the beauty
That flows through us all.

Listen,
Dear sisters, dear brothers:
Do not fear the vandals who guard
The gates of mercy.
For mercy is love,
And love is light,
And light seeks light,
And these angels only want to show
That it’s been inside you
All along.

“Spiritual Vandals” is © 2017 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

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Postscript: Remember to register in advance here. You’re also invited to join my Six-Word Prayer Facebook page, and my daily gratitude Facebook page called “Grateful Heart, Joyous Soul, Precious Life.” Thanks again to Ritualwell.

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and my two CCAR Press books: This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings 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. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Pervasive Peace

Posted on: March 13th, 2020 by Alden

In these difficult times, this one line captures my simplest yet deepest prayer for us all. With so much healing needed, our prayers must rattle the gates of heaven. But sometimes, one line, recited from the heart, is enough.

Pervasive Peace

May it be Your will, G-d of our fathers and mothers,
That the year ahead brings a pervasive and complete peace
On all inhabitants of the earth,
Beyond all dreams of humanity.

,יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶֽיךָ, אֱלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ וְאִמּוֹתֵֽינוּ
שֶׁהַשָּׁנָה הַבָּאָה תָּבִיא שָׁלוֹם מֻחְלָט וְשָׁלֵם
,עַל כָּל־יוֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל
.מֵעֵֽבֶר לְכָל־חֲלֹמוֹת־הָאֱנוֹשׁוּת

Y’hi ratzon mil’fanecha, Elohei avoteinu v’imoteinu,
Shehashanah haba-ah tavi shalom muchlat v’shaleim
Al kol yosh’vei teiveil,
Mei-ever l’chol chalomot ha-enoshut.

© 2019 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com

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Postscript: I originally wrote this as a prayer for 5780, but I’m reposting it now in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and my two CCAR Press books: This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings 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

Unfinished Business

Posted on: January 26th, 2020 by Alden

This is a meditation on the unfinished business in my life. Loving more deeply. Being more present. Showing more gratitude. Living the life that G-d wants for me. A life of courage, joy and faith. There are places I’ve yet to see. There are songs and poems and prayers that I’ve yet to write. This is the unfinished business of my life.

Unfinished Business
There is so much unfinished business in my life.
So much I have left undone.
Have I shown you my heart,
The well of love and sorrow,
Of fear and joy,
That I keep deep within?
Have I given you my hands,
The source of power and support,
Of gentleness and compassion,
As a gift of devotion?
Have I held you with my eyes,
The river of blessings
That flow as grace
From my core to yours?

There is so much unfinished business in my life,
To attend with joy and dancing,
Sending love from my soul to yours,
Now and forever.

© 2020 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com.

New here? Subscribe here to get my newest prayers by email.
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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: NASA

In My Distress

Posted on: November 25th, 2019 by Alden

A new prayer of healing, recognizing that some of my dearest, simplest prayers appear to be unanswered. How do I maintain faith in prayer? My faith is in G-d’s promise, reflected in our liturgy, is to hear our prayers, not to answer them, or to answer them with my desired result. This prayer combines a piece I wrote about a year ago with one penned recently at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies while leading the Pardes Paytanim / Liturgical Writing Group.

In My Distress
I called out in my distress,
To You,
Holy One,
Who heals and loves,
And sometimes
Refrains.

What, then, is this prayer?
What, then, is my open heart?
I lay bare before You,
And You hold space for my grief,
For my sorrow and love,
For my confusion and wonder.

This life is a journey,
An uneven road,
Paved in light and shadow,
In darkness and daybreak,
So that when my footsteps falter,
I am drawn back to You.

I called out in my distress
To find the glory of holiness
I could not see.
The holiness that abandoned me.
The love I could no longer find.

You who hears prayer,
Accept my tears as expiation,
As incense on the altar of life,
As a guilt offering to the ones I love.

Let my trust in You never fail,
Nor my hopes fade,
For You are the source of healing.
The source of hope.
The source of faith.

I called out in my distress.
And my heart,
Still yearning,
Prays for rest.

.ברוך אתה ה’, שומע תפלה
Blessed are You Adonai, who hears prayer.
Baruch ata Adonai, shomeah t’fillah.

© 2021 CCAR Press from This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer

New here? Subscribe here to get my newest prayers by email.
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Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and my two CCAR Press books: This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings 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: Hawai’i Pacific Health

Pervasive Peace: A 5780 Prayer

Posted on: September 27th, 2019 by Alden

In these difficult times, perhaps less is more. On this last Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah 5780, I’m offering a simple, one-line prayer to set a tone and intention for the year. Use it tonight. Use it on Rosh Hashanah. With so much healing needed — healing of self, others, families, societies, governments, the planet — our prayers must rattle the gates of heaven. Yet, this one line captures my deepest prayer for us all.

Pervasive Peace: A 5780 Prayer

May it be Your will, G-d of our fathers and mothers,
That the year ahead brings a pervasive and complete peace
On all inhabitants of the earth,
Beyond all dreams of humanity.

,יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶֽיךָ, אֱלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ וְאִמּוֹתֵֽינוּ
שֶׁהַשָּׁנָה הַבָּאָה תָּבִיא שָׁלוֹם מֻחְלָט וְשָׁלֵם
,עַל כָּל־יוֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל
.מֵעֵֽבֶר לְכָל־חֲלֹמוֹת־הָאֱנוֹשׁוּת

Y’hi ratzon mil’fanecha, Elohei avoteinu v’imoteinu,
Shehashanah haba-ah tavi shalom muchlat v’shaleim
Al kol yosh’vei teiveil,
Mei-ever l’chol chalomot ha-enoshut.

© 2019 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com

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Postscript: Click here for a annotated, topical list of additional prayers for Rosh Hashanah.

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and my two CCAR Press books: This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings 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: musselmanlake.ca

This Day, Revised

Posted on: August 7th, 2019 by Alden

Here’s a meditation about living a life of love and honor in service to G-d and the world. It is offered now as a balm in the face of a difficult week of mass shootings in the U.S. The first two stanzas pose questions: “What do I ask of this day?” and “What does this day ask of me?” This revised version adds a final stanza, in the tradition of Jewish prayer, restating and strengthening the core message.

This Day, Revised
What do I ask of this day?

Joy and laughter.
Kindness and grace.
To live with dignity and compassion,
Humility and strength.
Work. Honest Labor.
A job. A livelihood.
Food. Clothing. Shelter.
Gratitude and hope.
Love and contentment.

What does this day ask of me?

Humor and wonder.
Forgiveness and surrender.
To act with reverence and respect.
To be awake and alive
With passion and commitment.
Justice. Righteousness. Charity.
Integrity and honor.
Gratitude and hope.
Love and contentment.

G-d of blessings,
Let me be a source of peace,
A beacon of comfort,
And a well of blessings,
This day,
And every day,
In service to Your world.

© 2019 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com

Postscript: The original version of this prayer was first posted here on Nov. 27, 2011. Here are more brief prayers for the day: “Quick Meditation for Today,” “Quick Meditation at Noon,” “Your Name: Quick Prayer at Dusk” and “Quick Meditation at Night.”

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and my two CCAR Press books: This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings 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.

Image Source: WikiMedia Commons

Before Writing a Prayer

Posted on: June 17th, 2019 by Alden

Here’s a prayer to be said before writing a prayer. The intention of the prayer is to achieve the kavanah, the spiritual mindset, necessary to serve G-d by writing a prayer. Join me this summer for a five-week online workshop, “Ingredients of Prayer: Writing Contemporary Liturgy” hosted by Ritualwell.

Before Writing a Prayer
Ancient One,
Rock of Israel,
With joy and with gratitude,
With humility and love,
I approach the sacred work
Of putting voice to Your people’s prayers.

Only You know the depth of our love,
The sound of our yearning,
The music of longing,
The song of our hope,
And the thunder in our grief.

G-d of Old,
Give me the words that will open
Your People’s hearts to You,
The words that will open
Our hearts to each other,
The words that will open
Our hearts to healing the world.
And give me the words,
Holy One,
That will open Your heart
To us.

© 2012 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com

New here? Subscribe here to get my newest prayers by email.
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Postscript: Please consider joining me for my online workshop, “Ingredients of Prayer: Writing Contemporary Liturgy” Here’s a prayer to be said “After Writing a Prayer.”

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: Living a Life of Writing

 

The Broken Sky

Posted on: April 27th, 2019 by Alden

Another song of the Spiritual Traveler, hinting that if we look beyond that which appears to be broken we will see that everything is holy. This piece appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press.

The Broken Sky
Look beyond the broken sky,
Cracked by a blaze of sorrow,
To the edge of the universe,
Where stars dance in endless spirals.

There is nothing as small as an angry mind,
And nothing so large as forgiveness.
There is nothing as wild as breathless love,
And nothing as free as your soul.

Look beyond the life you know,
Yearning for signs of truth,
To the shimmering edge of faith itself,
Where holiness sings to the willing heart.

© 2021 CCAR Press from This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer

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Postscript: If you resonate with this prayer, you will likely enjoy “Come Walk” and “Spiritual Vandals.” Other songs of the Spiritual Traveler include: “Light, Overflowing,” “Dance in the Madness” and “Dance in the Sky.”

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: TrendinTech

Wedding Blessing for Nikki and Pro

Posted on: March 29th, 2019 by Alden

This is the prayer I wrote for my daughter and her husband, reading it at their wedding last weekend. Here’s a link to the prayer that I wrote for their engagement, called “Bind Our Hearts.” Here are three more related prayers: “A Moment of Love,” “For an Open Heart” and “Blessing for a Spouse/Partner.”

Wedding Blessing for Nikki and Pro
Love.
A gift. A blessing.
A legacy. An inheritance.

Eternal One,
Source and Shelter,
Light and Truth,
Bless Nikki and Pro
With the simplicity and the splendor
Of the love that binds
Two together,
The gentleness and the grandeur,
The hope and the faith,
The trust and the forgiveness
They will need as they
Build and grow
Their lives together.
Bless them with abundance,
With health, with joy,
With good fortune,
And with children, healthy and strong,
So that they establish a Jewish home
Filled with the blessings of Torah
And the beauty of mitzvot.

Love.
A gift. A blessing.
A legacy. An inheritance.
Let it shine throughout your days.
Let it radiate throughout your years.
Let it guide you and shelter you
With the brilliance and the blessings
From G-d’s Sukkat Shalom,
G-d’s Tabernacle of Peace,
All the days of your lives.

© 2019 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com.

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Postscript: Special thanks to our dear friend Rabbi Joe Black for officiating.

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: Family photo

Receiving Blessings

Posted on: December 29th, 2018 by Alden

This prayer is my blessing for you for 2019. It’s about opening our hearts to receiving blessings. In this New Year, may we bless each other and be open to being blessed. This prayer appears in my new book, This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.

Receiving Blessings
Ancient One,
Open my heart to receive
The blessings around me,
Kindness and wisdom,
Friendship and understanding,
Tenderness and compassion,
Moments of holiness,
Messages from heaven.

Source and Shelter,
Why can’t I bless others
With the fullness of my being
With joy and thanksgiving,
From a hope for healing
And a pulse of love,
To fill the world with benedictions?

Rock and Redeemer,
Grant me the ability to see and to hear
The blessings around me,
A fountain of love
To fill my soul
With gratitude and courage,
With joy and peace.

© 2019 CCAR Press from This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings

New here? Subscribe here to get my newest prayers by email.
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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: The Poached Egg

“Alden has become one of Reform Judaism’s master poet-liturgists…" - Religion News Service, Dec. 23, 2020

“Mesmerizing, spiritual, provocative, and thoughtful, Alden was everything you would want in a guest scholar and teacher.” – Rabbi Denise L. Eger, Congregation Kol Ami, Los Angeles, and Past President, CCAR

"Alden Solovy has become one of the most revered liturgists of the last decade…" - Jewish Post & Opinion, March 29, 2023

“Alden left everyone feeling inspired.” – Cantor Jeri Robins, Shabbat Chair, NewCAJE6