Tag Archive for "soul" | To Bend Light

Posts Tagged ‘soul’

The Language of Your Soul

Posted on: May 5th, 2021 by Alden

A short meditation inspired by Rav Abraham Isaac Ha-Cohen Kook‘s idea of the constant prayer of the soul, that our souls have a deep longing to be in constant prayer and that we can cultivate that yearning.

The Language of Your Soul
The language of your soul,
That fountain of blessings inside you,
Pouring forth in a river of love,
From you to G-d,
And G-d to you,
Sustaining life and creation itself,
Always seeking to sing goodness,
And beauty,
And truth,
Can only be summoned
From the secret chambers
Of your heart.

New here? Subscribe here to get my newest prayers by email.
Share the prayer! Email this to a friend.

Please check out my CCAR Press Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. The individual books are: This Joyous Soul , This Grateful Heart, and This Precious Life. Here’s a link to my ELItalk, “Falling in Love with Prayer..” 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: iBelieve.com

This Prayer is a Tree

Posted on: April 6th, 2020 by Alden

If a prayer is recited in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

This Prayer is a Tree
Could it be
That a prayer
Is like a tree
Falling in the woods?
No one needs to hear
Its thunderous crash,
For its nutrients to soak
Back into the earth.
For its hollows
To provide shelter.
For it to become
One with life itself.

Let your prayers
Pour out upon
The fertile ground
Of your heart.
Let your prayers
Feed your aching soul.

Could it be
That your prayer
Is like a tree
Falling in the woods?
No one needs to see it
Crack and tumble
For it to clear space
For new growth.
For it to open space,
Letting sunlight
Penetrate the deep.
For it to become
One with life itself.

New here? Subscribe here to get my newest prayers by email.
Share the prayer! Email this to a friend.

See also: “Tending Gardens,” “Life as a Garden” and “The Broken Sky.”

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

Passages

Posted on: July 7th, 2018 by Alden

A new prayer about prayer as the doorway to eternity. The prayer is structured as seven six-word meditations, followed by a prayer for a life of blessings.

Passages
Prayer is the doorway to compassion.
Compassion is the entry to humility.
Humility is the passage to love.
Love is the gateway to peace.
Peace is the guardian of life.
Life is the invitation to now.
Now is the essence of eternity.

Source of all,
Creator of time and space,
Guide me through these passages
So I may serve you with dedication, awe and wonder,
Living Your mitzvot with my words and deeds,
Lifting my heart closer to the radiance of being,
Lifting my soul to the living waters of Your blessings.

New here? Subscribe here to get my newest prayers by email.
Share the prayer! Email this to a friend.

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: National Park Service Photo Gallery

Tender End of Life Vidui

Posted on: May 21st, 2018 by Alden

A confessional prayer at the end of life, from This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. Here are more memorial and yizkor prayers, including meditations near the end of life.

Tender End of Life Vidui
I did the best I could,
At least some of the time,
And more often as I got wiser.
My best got better,
And my shortfalls became more obvious.
This I ask of You, my G-d,
And of you, my friends and family,
And of any creatures or persons whom I’ve harmed:
Forgive me.
Release me from guilt.
Release me from my transgression.
Release my from my mistakes.
In forgiving me,
You help me forgive myself,
So I may pass from this world
With a greater measure of comfort and reassurance.
It is too late for me to do more,
And I ask with a heart of sincerity.

G-d of our mothers and fathers,
G-d of generations,
M’kor chayim
Source of life,
May it be Your will that my passing be in peace.

!שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ יי אֶחָד
Sh’ma Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad!
Hear, O Israel! Adonai is our God! Adonai is One!

New here? Subscribe here to get my newest prayers by email.
Share the prayer! Email this to a friend.

Postscript: Vidui means ‘confession.’

Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

Seeking the One

Posted on: March 6th, 2018 by Alden

A meditation on seeking G-d and the flow of love, a song of the Spiritual Traveler. This piece appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press.

Seeking the One
Somewhere, in the middle of the ocean,
Unseen, unheard,
A white-capped wave breaks into one thousand seagulls soaring toward the sun, to become a ray of warmth sent back to earth.

Somewhere, inside your heart,
Unseen, unheard,
A golden prayer breaks into one thousand sparks soaring toward the Soul, to become a radiance of blessing sent back to earth.

You are the catalyst of holiness,
The alchemy of the divine,
The wisdom that flows from G-d’s river of light,
The hand that shares healing,
The heart that radiates love,
The seagull soaring toward the sun,
The spark soaring toward the Soul,
The one seeking the One,
Seeking the One,
Seeking the One.

Hello! New here? Want more? Subscribe here to receive my newest prayers by email.

Postscript: See also: “Prayer with Wings,” “Rise on Wings: A Prayer of Borrowing” and “Give Love Wings.”

Photo Source: Alden Solovy

Prayer of Joy

Posted on: March 19th, 2017 by Alden

This is a prayer of gratitude for joy, with a reminder to live joy as a daily spiritual practice. It’s a meditation for daily use when time is brief. It’s in my new book This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.

Prayer of Joy
G-d,
Thank You for joy and delight,
For wonder and awe,
For moments of gladness and celebration.
Grant me the ability to breathe gentleness
Into my hours and seasons,
So that I live awake to beauty,
To holiness,
To the radiance that surrounds us.
Grant me the wisdom to arrive each day
With passion and humor,
With song and dance,
With smiling eyes,
In service to myself,
In service to others,
In service to Your Holy Name.

Postscript: This piece originally appeared on March 29, 2013, this site as “Quick Prayer of Joy.” It appears in my new book This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.

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 Credit: ThyBlackMan.com

Metzora: Take Me Apart

Posted on: April 14th, 2016 by Alden

Parashat Metzora details a particular form of leprosy that afflicts the mortar of a home (Leviticus 14:33-53). The home itself gets a spiritual sickness. The mortar is removed and the stones scraped, with some discarded. This meditation imagines a human being as “the house,” that we can be afflicted with an internal spiritual sickness that can only be cured with an inner dismantling. This piece appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press.

Take Me Apart
Take me apart,
Bone by bone,
Sinew by sinew,
Organ by organ,
To reveal the lesions and strange bumps,
The fungus and the broken glass,
That blacken my veins,
That grind my joints,
That cloud my eyes.

I will take a knife and a wire brush
To scrape out the poison,
I will take rags and bleach
To wipe out the sludge,
Until my heart glows
And my soul shines
With the fruit of my own labor.

Only then,
Holy One,
When my flesh shimmers
And my spirit soars,
Reassemble me into
The man/woman/human
You intended
For me to become,
Clean and ready,
Holy and strong,
A sacred mirror,
Reflecting Your vastness
And Your glory.

Please check out These Words: Poetic Midrash on the Language of Torah and my other CCAR Press volumes: This Grateful Heart, This Joyous Soul, and This Precious Life, which can also be purchased as the Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. 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: SelfTalkSoulTalk

R’fuat HaNefesh: Healing the Soul (General)

Posted on: September 30th, 2015 by Alden

This brief healing prayer is for all those whose hearts ache, those with troubled souls. It is a general version of “R’fuat HaNefesh: Healing the Soul,” which is said for a specific person.

R’fuat HaNefesh (General)
G-d of the spirit,
G-d of the soul, the breath and the wind,
Look with kindness and favor on those
Whose hearts ache, crushed and fallow,
Whose hearts yearn, empty and broken.
G-d of the nefesh, ruach and neshama,
Guide their souls
Back to wonder and mystery,
Sacred moments and glorious days,
So that they know the power of Your love
And the wisdom of Your word.
May their souls shine,
With light and blessing
For our people Israel.

Postscript: Other prayers for healing include: “For Surgery,” “Upon Recover from Surgery,” “For a Critically Ill Mother,” “For a Critically Ill Child,” “For a Critically Ill Father” and “For Healing the Spirit.” All of them appear in Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

Photo Source: GenaLivings.com

Beha’alotcha 5775: Three Quick Prayers for Healing (Revised)

Posted on: June 3rd, 2015 by Alden

At the end of this week’s Torah portion, Moses says a quick five-word prayer for healing his sister Miriam: “Please G-d, heal her now.” (Numbers 12:13) Here are three revisions of my “Quick Prayers for Healing:” a general version, asking for healing for all in need; one that names a specific individual in need of healing; and a third for individuals to say for their own healing. The revisions each include a new line reflecting Moses’ prayer for Miriam. Note that optional lines appear in [brackets], gender choices are identified with a “/” slash and the place to insert a name is shown with a blank line. The original versions of these prayers appear in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

Quick Prayer for Healing – General (Revised)
G-d of love,
Cast the light of health and well-being
On the injured, the infirm and the insecure,
All who yearn for Your healing hand.
Bless them with healing of body
Healing of soul
And healing of spirit.
Please G-d, heal them now.
Grant all in need a full and complete recovery.

Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d, Source of Life.

Quick Prayer for Healing – Specific (Revised)
G-d of love,
Cast the light of health and well-being on
________________ (add name),
[His/her family]
And all who are injured, infirm or insecure,
Those who yearn for Your healing hand.
Bless them with healing of body
Healing of soul
And healing of spirit.
Please G-d, heal them now.
Grant all in need a full and complete recovery.

Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d, Source of Life.

Quick Prayer for My Healing (Revised)
G-d of love,
Cast the light of health and well-being on me [and on my family]
And all who are injured, infirm or insecure.
We yearn for Your healing hand.
Bless us with healing of body
Healing of soul
And healing of spirit.
Please G-d, heal us now.
Grant all in need a full and complete recovery.

Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d, Source of Life.

Postscript: Other prayers in my “Quick Prayers” series include: “Quick Meditation for Today,” “Quick Meditation at Noon,” “Your Name: Quick Prayer at Dusk” and “Quick Meditation at Night.” “Quick Prayer for Healing” was first posted on October 3, 2012. The other two prayers were originally posted together as “Quick Prayers for Healing” on January 29, 2013.

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 Credit: Jewish Medicine

Tazria-Metzora: Take Me Apart

Posted on: April 11th, 2015 by Alden

The combined portion of Tazria-Metzora deals with impurity, with reference to a form of leprosy that afflicts the mortar of a home (Leviticus 14:33-53). The home itself gets a spiritual sickness. In extreme cases the mortar is removed, the stones scraped and some discarded. This meditation imagines a human being as “the house,” that we can be afflicted with an internal spiritual sickness that can only be cured with an inner dismantling and, even then, only with the help of G-d. Word choices are designated with a slash (“/”).

I will take a knife and a wire brush
To scrape out the poison,
I will take rags and bleach
To wipe out the sludge,
Until my heart glows
And my soul shines
With the fruit of my own labor.

Postscript: The house-leprosy is a powerful and useful metaphor for family dysfunction.

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 Source: SelfTalkSoulTalk

Posts Tagged ‘soul’

The Language of Your Soul

This Prayer is a Tree

Passages

Tender End of Life Vidui

Seeking the One

Prayer of Joy

Metzora: Take Me Apart

R’fuat HaNefesh: Healing the Soul (General)

Beha’alotcha 5775: Three Quick Prayers for Healing (Revised)

Tazria-Metzora: Take Me Apart

“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

Your contribution helps support the creation of new prayers available to all on this site.