Posts Tagged ‘prayer for travel’

 

Traveler’s Prayer in a Time of Pandemic

Posted on: March 4th, 2020 by Alden

This is a new prayer for safe travel, incorporating the perils of modern life with classic language of t’filat haderech, the traveler’s prayer. It’s my third prayer related to the outbreak of coronavirus. The first,”Coronavirus: A Prayer for Medical Scientists,” was included in a Central Conference of American Rabbis rapid response liturgy packet, which got me thinking about prayers that might be missing from the packet. I then wrote “Healing from Coronavirus” which was subsequently added. This morning, the idea of a revised traveler’s woke me. This is what I wrote.

Traveler’s Prayer in a Time of Pandemic
May it be Your will,
Our G-d,
G-d of our fathers and mothers,
That we journey in peace
And return in peace,
Safe from the ancient hazards of travel –
Enemies, thieves, ambushes and wild beasts –
And safe from modern perils –
Plane crashes and traffic wrecks,
Scammers and con artists,
Infectious disease and quarantine –
So that our travel serves it highest purpose,
And we reach our destination and return home
In joy, life and health.
Grant us grace in Your eyes
And in the eyes of all whom we meet.

.ברוך אתה ה’, שומע תפלה
Baruch atah Adonai, sho’me’a t’fila.
Blessed are You Adonai, Who hears prayer.

© 2020 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com.

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Postscript: My other prayers for healing include: “For Surgery,” “On Waiting for An Organ Transplant,” “Upon Recovery from Surgery,” “For Healing the Spirit” and “For a Critically Ill Child.”

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: Wikimedia Commons

New Adventures

Posted on: June 7th, 2015 by Alden

IMG_4466This prayer is about reaching the end of a trail. It’s my second hiking prayer, again using the hike as a metaphor for life. Here’s to seeing you all “On the Trail.”

New Adventures
Every new adventure
Begins at the end of a trail,
Seen or unseen,
Physical, spiritual,
The place where going on
Makes no more sense,
The place where one more step
Would be a betrayal
Of every lesson learned along the way.

Every new adventure
Begins with a choice to enter the unknown,
To explore the wild and the majestic,
The wilderness and the mundane,
To invite new moments
Of holiness and challenge
Into our days,
To invite struggle and triumph
To walk beside us.

Every new adventure
Begins with faith in the journey,
Discovering faith in ourselves,
Finding faith in the daily blessings that
Surround us,
Guide us,
Carry us to
New vistas,
New horizons,
New landscapes,
Wonders beyond imagination.

© 2015 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: See also: “On the Trail,” “On the Road,” “For Travel” and “Being Lost.”

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Photo Source: Alden Solovy

Your Light

Posted on: November 4th, 2011 by tobendlight

This prayer/poem resonates with the love, hope and yearning of the one who is summoned to travel, to leave, to roam. It’s intentionally ambiguous on several levels, like the journey itself. To listen, click on the triangle in the bar below (website only). The text follows.

Your Light
Your light
Shines to greet me.
Generous and warm.
Precious and true.
When I leave
Your light follows,
A gentle glow of
Heart and home.

This journey of awe and mystery,
Radiance and wonder,
Summons me across land and sea,
To listen, to look, to feel, to be.
G-d’s wisdom and grace carry me
Across earth and sky
To song and splendor.

Shine brighter, my loves!
So that when my journey ends
I will remember
The way home.

© 2011 Alden Solovy and www.tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: See also “To Find Home,” “The Way Home” and “On the Trail.”

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