Tag Archive for "meditations for men"

Posts Tagged ‘meditations for men’

Ordinary Men

Posted on: June 3rd, 2018 by Alden

This is a meditation for men on the power of being ordinary… together. My other prayers for men include: “For the Lost,” “Fire Within,” “We Share the Same Pain” and “The Descent.”

Ordinary Men
We are ordinary men,
Who go to work and come home to rest,
Who earn, support and provide.

We are ordinary men,
Who stand with our families and friends,
Teaching our children
To work with their hands,
To use their minds and their eyes,
To make music and sport,
Laughing together in moments of fun.

We are ordinary men,
Whose eyes twinkle and hearts smile with delight
At the sight of our partners,
With our days full of small pleasures.

Let us make a secret pact
To be ordinary men,
Each one,
Being ourselves.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
Not a hero. Not a superman.
Not a legend in shining armor.

Let our stories be simple.
Love. Work. Play. Rest.
No one will write the ballads of our lives,
But our dreams will live on for generations,
And war will vanish from the earth.

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Postscript: This is another prayer for men inspired by The ManKind Project.

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: MKPUSA

Wild Broken Heart

Posted on: April 18th, 2016 by Alden

This is meditation on the healing that comes from a certain wildness in each of us. It was inspired at the April 2016 New Warrior Training Adventure hosted by ManKind Project Chicago. I was honored to serve on staff. Thanks to Warrior brothers Jeff Robins and George Rounds for your influence on this piece. Special thanks to Warrior brother Mark Davids who said the words that inspired it, “wild broken heart.” This piece appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press.

Wild Broken Heart
My heart is free,
Cracked open by fire,
Pouring radiance and music into the night,
Lifting prayers to the heavens.

This wild broken heart fears nothing,
Embracing stars and secrets.
What more can be done
To rubble and ash?
To dust and whispers?
My feet touch the hot core of the earth.
My hands reach the cold edge of the universe.
I am the hollow bone
That brings medicine and light
From the Soul of Eternity
To this world, to this life.

Take this wild broken heart,
Place it next to yours,
The wildness of your dreams,
The wildness of your laughter,
The wildness of your joy and love,
The truth that pulses through your veins,
And we will shine
Magnificent visions into the darkness,
Summoning the battered, the bruised, the wounded,
Summoning hearts split and torn,
Calling out to the thirst for healing
And the hunger to heal,
Calling wild broken hearts to the center,
To the place within where we all dwell.

Our wild broken hearts sing.
Our wild broken hearts bless.
Our wild broken hearts sparkle and shine.
Together,
Our wild broken hearts
Are whole.

Postscript: Other prayers and meditations inspired by MKP and NWTA weekends include: “My Work Remains,” “For the Lost,” “The Descent” and “Fire Within.”

Please check out my CCAR Press Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. The individual books are: This Joyous Soul , This Grateful Heart, and This Precious Life. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines, 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. For a taste of my teaching, see my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer.”

Photo Source: Youth Worker Movement

Vayeira: Fire Within

Posted on: November 7th, 2014 by Alden

Bound to an altar, saved at the last minute, neither blade nor sacrificial fire touched Isaac. Not physically, but he comes off the altar a different man and never speaks to his father again. This prayer is about the wounds we carry inside, the wounds no one else can see. This piece appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press.

Fire Within
My burns
Cannot be seen on my flesh.
They are in my lungs
And in my eyes.
What medicine will halt the smoldering,
The smoke that suffocates from within?

My cuts
Cannot be seen on my skin.
They are in my heart
And in my throat.
What medicine will heal the bleeding,
The tide that floods from within?

Ancient One,
Release me from the fire and the knife:
The flame that consumes hope and joy,
The blade that destroys time and seasons.

Holy One,
Rock and Shelter,
Your medicine is love.
Your salve is holiness.
Your balm is life.

,בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי
אֵל רְפוּאָה וּמַרְפֵּא
.מְקוֹר חַיִּים וְאַהֲבָה

Baruch atah, Adonai,
El r’fuah umarpei
M’kor chayim v’ahavah.

Blessed are You, Adonai,
God of health and healing,
Source of life and love.

Postscript: I originally conceived this as a prayer for men. Many men experience our internal struggles – fears, losses, shames, angers – as fire and knife. Although I don’t know if the metaphor holds for women, this piece seems more universally a prayer for healing than my other prayers for men. It first appeared on this site on Nov. 12, 2012.

Photo credit: zoeyryanthoughts.com

Vayishlach: The Descent

Posted on: November 28th, 2012 by tobendlight

“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” – Genesis 32:25

Sooner or later every man faces the trial of his life. This meditation is a metaphor for the inner journey, the inner struggle, the battle to find holiness and a new name. It’s another in my series of prayers and meditations for men.

The Descent
When your time comes
And you hear the call
To become a man of power and wisdom,
A warrior and a king,
You will descend beyond the shadows
Into the black cliffs of your soul,
Where fear stalks the hours,
And rage laughs at the abyss,
Where shame waltzes with pride,
And grief howls, unrestrained, with pleasure.

You will reach a narrow ridge
Above the hollows where other men were lost.
You will crawl on scree,
Cutting your hands and knees,
As you press hard
Against the trail,
Against the wind.

You will enter a cavern of darkness,
The unseen color of nothingness,
Where your voice echoes with dread,
And your heart beats with longing,
Where your breath smells of remorse
And your ears ring with lies and deceit.

When you reach bottom
Your enemy will attack,
With skill and cunning,
For you have set free the torment within,
The power of your anguish and your guilt.
The night will last beyond the rhythm of natural time
Until you forget if you are the holiness or the profane.
Only then the grip of unrighteous fury will weaken
And succumb to your strength.
Wounded but victorious,
You will be blessed by fire from the torch of heaven.
Its light will blend with the coming dawn.
In that moment you will finally see
The face of the man you fought.
You will know in your bones
That you must take him back with you into the light,
For it was you who invited him on the journey.

Postscript: Here are three more prayers and meditations for men: “My Work Remains,” “For the Lost” and “My Heart Knows What It Needs,” as well as a link to a list of all of my prayers for and about men.

Photo Credit: Artable

Powerful Men

Posted on: May 6th, 2012 by tobendlight

Here’s another prayer in my series for men. It’s a brief call to action — inspired by the men of ManKind Project around the world — summoning men to use their power in service of humanity. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

Powerful Men
Men of honor,
Men of strength,
The world yearns for you.
Your wisdom, your courage, your vitality.
The call has come.

Men of conscience,
Men of understanding,
Summon the energy that is deep in your belly,
Steeped into your bones,
That heats your blood and fires your eyes,
And hold it as rod and staff,
Guide and compass,
To build, to heal,
To honor, to bless.

G-d of Majesty,
Teach me to use this power
In service to others
In the name of holiness and love,
So that I become a source of compassion and grace,
A light of awe and wonder.

Postscript: Click here for a list of prayer and meditations for men. Two of my favorites are: “My Courage” and “My Work Remains.”

Please check out my Meet the Author video 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: Photo is © Gregory Tapler Photograpy; poster designed by Boysen Hodgson for MKP

Fire Within

Posted on: January 21st, 2012 by tobendlight

The collective Jewish response to grief is joy, to attempt to live in joy no matter what. Not always an easy path, but it leads to a deep healing that allows the full spectrum of emotion into our lives. Joy and grief are welcome, because they are part of accepting G-d’s world as it is. Living in joy, with all our strength and energy, is part of claiming a stake in G-d’s future world, a world of complete happiness and peace, a world that is yet to come. This piece will appear in my forthcoming book, Song of the Spiritual Traveler. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

Fire Within
My burns
Cannot be seen on my flesh.
They are in my lungs
And in my eyes.
What medicine will halt the smoldering,
The smoke that suffocates from within?

My cuts
Cannot be seen on my skin.
They are in my heart
And in my throat.
What medicine will heal the bleeding,
The tide that floods from within?

Ancient One,
Release me from the fire and the knife:
The flame that consumes hope and joy,
The blade that destroys time and seasons.

Holy One,
Rock and Shelter,
Your medicine is love.
Your salve is holiness.
Your balm is life.

Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d,
Eternal Source of wholeness and healing.

Postscript: I originally conceived this as a prayer for men. Many of us experience our internal struggles – fears, losses, shames, angers – as fire and knife. Although I don’t know if the metaphor holds for women, this piece seems more universally prayer for healing than other of my prayers for men.

If you like this prayer, post a link to your Facebook page, your blog or as part of a tweet. 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: zoeyryanthoughts.com

My Courage

Posted on: December 26th, 2011 by tobendlight

Men, here’s an amazing truth. You have a deep well of courage, power and majesty inside of you. The challenge: tapping that power in ways that heal ourselves and the world. The Mankind Project is dedicated to leading men into that adventure. With their help, I’ve found all the resources needed for me to live bravely and freely, following my dream and my path, wherever it leads.

This prayer celebrates my community of men, Warriors who teach each other the art and the responsibility of being men. Thank you for these gifts. To listen as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

My Courage
My courage is in my heartbeat
And my open arms,
In my wisdom and my pulsing veins,
In trusting my vision and speaking my truth,
Gifts from you,
Dear brother,
Who taught me to use fear as a sword
To guide me,
Uplift me,
To set me free.

My power is in surrender
To the unknown,
In travelling the long road out
And finding the long road home,
In my embrace of joyous adventure,
Gifts from you,
Dear brother,
Who taught me to use courage as a shield
To protect me,
Support me,
To set me free.

My majesty is in my deeds
My word and my mission,
In a breath of crisp morning air,
And the shimmering sky at twilight,
Robes of humility and service,
Gifts from you,
Dear brother,
Who taught me to claim honor as my staff
And wisdom as my crown,
The integrity and compassion,
The vision and blessing,
That set me free.

Postscript: January 2012 will mark the second anniversary of my participation in the New Warrior Training Adventure. I’ll also leave for three months in Israel, part of a journey and a dream that might have gone unfulfilled without the support and wisdom of the Chicago community of MKP. Here’s a link to more prayers for and about men. One of my favorites is “My Work Remains.”

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.

Becoming

Posted on: December 9th, 2011 by tobendlight

This meditation is meant to be used in private contemplation as a simple reminder that it takes work to become the men of love and action G-d intends for each of us to be. I use it. I hope that other men will use it, as well. To listen along while you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows. Here is a list of more prayers for and about men.

Becoming
I have not achieved the man I am meant to be.
This, G-d of Old, is a blessing.
There is so much more I can become.

I have not achieved the heart I am meant to have.
There is so much more love to behold.

I have not achieved the sight I am meant to use.
There is so much more glory to perceive.

I have not achieved the strength I am meant to hold.
There is so much more work to complete.

I have not achieved the man I am meant to be.
Thank you, G-d of Old, for the challenge and the struggle,
For the will and the desire,
For the fortitude and the purpose.
There is so much more You want me to become.

Postscript: Here are related prayers for men: “My Work Remains,” “For the Lost” and “My Heart Knows What It Needs.” And here is a list of more prayers for and about men.

If you use this prayer, please click “like” on this page and subscribe. Please take a moment to post a link to your Facebook page, your blog or mention it in a tweet. Thanks. For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!”

Photo Source: Ellen Simon’s Employee Rights Post

Posts Tagged ‘meditations for men’

Ordinary Men

Wild Broken Heart

Vayeira: Fire Within

Vayishlach: The Descent

Powerful Men

Fire Within

My Courage

Becoming

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