heartsteps

Lord I sing your praise
the whole day through, until the night.
Dad’s nets are filled; I have helped him.
We have drawn them in, stamping the rhythm with
our feet,
the muscles tense.
We have sung your praise.

On the beach there were our mammies,
who brought the blessings out of the nets,
out of the nets and into their basins.
They rushed to the market, returned and bought again.
Lord, what a blessing is the sea, with fish in plenty.
Lord, that is the story of your grace:
nets tear, and we succumb because we can not hold
them.

Lord, with your praise we drop off to sleep.
Carry us through the night.
Make us fresh for the morning.
Hallelujah for the day!
And blessing for the night!
Amen

Ghana traditional prayer

Great Spirit,
give us hearts to understand;
never to take
from creation’s beauty more than we give;
never to destroy wantonly for the furtherance of
greed;
never to deny to give our hands for the building of
earth’s beauty;
never to take from her what we cannot use.
Give us hearts to understand that to destroy earth’s
music is to create confusion;
that to wreck her appearance is to blind us to beauty;
that to callously pollute her fragrance is to make a
house of stench;
that as we care for her she will care for us.
Amen.

U.N. Environmental Sabbath program

Oh God, when I have food,
help me to remember the hungry.
When I have work,
help me to remember the jobless.
When I have a home,
help me to remember those
who have no home and all.
When I am without pain,
help me to remember those who suffer.
And remembering,
help me destroy my complacency.
Bestir my compassion,
and be concerned enough to help.
By word and deed,
those who cry out
for what we take for granted.
Amen.

Samuel Pugh

Takers and just talkers
Lone Rangers
Excuse makers
Fair weather workers
Braggers
Magic bullet seekers and sellers and
Quitters.
God, send us and help us to be
Righteous warriors
Moral guerrillas
Scut workers
Nitty-gritty doers
Detail tenders
Long-distance runners
Energetic tryers
Risk takers
Sharers
Team players
Organizers and mobilizers and
Servant leaders,
to save our children.

Marian Wright Edelman

O God, you have prepared in peace the path I must follow today. Help me to walk on that path. If I speak, remove lies from my lips. If I am hungry, take away from me all complaint. If I have plenty, destroy pride in me. May I go through the day, calling on you, you, O Lord, who know no other Lord.

Galla, Ethiopia

Gentle me,
Holy One, into an unclenched moment,
a deep breath,
a letting go
of heavy experiences,
of shriveling anxieties,
of dead certainties,
that, softened by the silence,
surrounded by the light,
and open to the mystery,
I may be found by wholeness,
upheld by the unfathomable,
entranced by the simple,
and filled with the joy
that is you.

Ted Loder

The hardest part is people.
So Lord, help me face them
without rancor or disappointment.
Help me see the pain behind their actions
rather than the malice;
the suffering rather than the rage.

And in myself, as I struggle
with the vise of my own desire -
give me strength to quiet my heart,
to quicken my empathy, to act
in gratitude rather than need.

Remind me that the peace I find
in the slow track of seasons
or an uncurling fern frond,
is married to the despair I feel
in the face of nuclear war.

Remind me that each small bird shares atoms
with anthrax, with tetanus, with acid rain,
that each time I close my heart
to another, I add to the darkness;
Help me always follow kindness.

Let this be my prayer.

Karen Holden

Oh Great Spirit

Whose voice I hear the winds,
And whose breath gives life to all the world,
hear me! I am small and weak, I need your strength
and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy – myself.

Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes.

So when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my spirit may come to you without shame.

Anonymous

Dear God,
I have been betrayed.
Take me away from this pain.
Let me not be tempted to wrong those who have
wronged me, or hate those who hate me.
But rather, dear God, please use Your power on
my behalf,
That through Your love I might invoke the light,
That through Your forgiveness I might speed
resurrection,
That through Your grace the spirit of the Lord
might enter and make all things right.
Let me not be tempted by darkness, even
though it is all around me.
Let me continue to see the good in others,
Even when they have turned the arrows of their
fear at me.
Be my shield, dear Lord.
And please be my protector.
Awaken in others the truth in their hearts.
And awaken the same in me.
I have faith in You, dear God to right all
wrongs, to make all things clear, to bring
light out of apparent darkness.
I hold to You.
I bless those who have not blessed me.
I forgive them and I forgive myself.
Or so do I wish to do.
I ask for Your help.
I pray for comfort.
Thank You very much.
Amen.

Marianne Williamson

O Great life-giving Spirit
whose commanding voice I hear the winds
and whose warm breath gives life to all the world.
Hear me
one seven-billionth of the humans on planet earth.
I am a natural part of the universe -
as natural and necessary as the rocks,
the trees, the birds and the mice
no more important – nor any less.

Let me walk in beauty
let my spirit see the dynamic spirit of life in all that exists
with no prejudice or malice toward any creation.
May I begin to remember who I am in the natural order of things
as I stand in my own shallow pool of time
May I come to know what time it is
in my life and in all life.

Great Spirit of Love,
Connect my heart to my head.
Make me wise
that I may understand the things you have taught all people.
in every heart close or far from my own.
Make me courageous when the cold winds of life fall upon me.
Give me strength and endurance for everything that is harsh
everything that hurts
everything that makes me squint and wince.

I seek strength not to be greater or lesser than my brother or sister
but to remove the tough and slimy obstacles to equality
that has made their home inside myself.
Prepare me to move through life ready to take what comes.
Comfort me and caressed me when I am tired and old.
Unfold me
the way your gentle breezes unfold the leaves on trees.

O Spirit of Creation
make me always ready to come to you with clean hands
and straight eyes
so that when life fades as the fading sunset
my spirit may come to you without shame.
Let me remember every day that the moment will come
when my sun will go down
my river will join the vast ocean
and this rock which is bounced along so many bumps
will finally come to rest.
Give me a great sky for setting into
a crystal-clean ocean for flowing into
and an unpolluted earth for my final resting place.
And when it is time for me to join the earth again
May I come steadily and with glory.

Fran Peavey