Morning Prayer - Celtic Prayer IV

May you be blessed in the Holy Names of those who carry
our pain up the mountain of transfiguration.
May you know tender shelther and healing blessing when
you are called to stand in the place of pain.
May the places of darkness within you be turned towards the light.
May you be granted the wisdom to avoid false resistance
and when suffering knocks on the door of your life,
may you be able to glimpse its hidden gift.
May you be able to see the fruits of suffering.
May memory bless and shelter you with the hard-earned
light of past travail, may this give you confidence and trust.
May a window of light always surprise you.
May the grace of transfiguration heal your wounds.
May you know that even though the storm might rage yet
not a hair of your head will be harmed.


John O’Donohue’s book, Eternal Echoes. 

Morning Prayer - Celtic Prayer III

May you listen to your longing to be free.
May the frames of your belonging be large enough
for the dreams of your soul.
May you arise each day with a voice of blessing
whispering in your heart that something good is going to happen to you.
May you find a harmony between your soul and your life.
May the mansion of your soul never become a haunted place.
May you know the eternal longing which lives at the heart of time.
May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within.
May you never place walls between the light and yourself.
May your angel free you from the prisons of guilt,
fear, disappointment, and despair.
May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to
gather you, mind you, and embrace you in belonging…


John O’Donohue’s book, Eternal Echoes. 

Morning Prayer - Celtic Prayer II

Blessed be the longing that brought you here and that
quickens your soul with wonder.
May you have the courage to befriend your eternal longing.
May you enjoy the critical and creative companionship of
the question “Who am I?” and may it brighten your longing.
May a secret Providence guide your thought and shelter your feeling.
May your mind inhabit your life with the same sureness
with which your body belongs to the world.
May the sense of something absent enlarge your life.
May your soul be as free as the ever-new waves of the sea.
May you succumb to the danger of growth.
May you live in the neighbourhood of wonder.
May you belong to love with the wildness of Dance.
May you know that you are ever embraced in the kind circle of God.


From John O’Donohue’s book, Eternal Echoes. 

Morning Prayer - Celtic Prayer I

May you awaken to the mystery of being here and enter
the quiet immensity of your own presence.
May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
May you respond to the call of your gifts and find the
courage to follow its path.
May the flame of anger free you from falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame and may
anxiety never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles
that seek no attention.
May you be consoled in the secret sympathy of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven
around the heart of wonder.


From John O’Donohue’s book, Eternal Echoes. 

Morning Prayer -- St. John of the Cross and Mother Teresa

O blessed Jesus,
give me stillness of soul in You.
Let Your mighty calmness reign in me.
Rule me, O King of Gentleness,
King of Peace.

When asked what she says when she prays to God she said,
Mother Teresa is often quoted: "I don't say anything; I listen."

Trying right now to listen rather than talk.

Morning Prayer -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank Thee for this place in which we dwell;
for the love that unites us;
for the peace accorded us this day;
for the hope with which we expect the morrow;
for the health, the work, the food, and the
bright skies that make our lives delightful;
for our friends in all parts of the earth, and our friendly helpers in this foreign isle [Samoa]...
Give us courage, gaiety, and the quiet mind.
Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.

Bless us,
if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors.
If it may not be,
give us the strength to encounter that which is to come,
that we be brave in peril,
constant in tribulation,
temperate in wrath,
and in all changes of fortune and down to the gates of death,
loyal and loving to one another.

... Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

Morning Prayer -- Frederick Buechner, Theology of Space

“Pay mind to your own life, your own health, and wholeness. A bleeding heart is of no help to anyone if it bleeds to death.”

"Holistic medicine is not a new concept. Socrates knew that it was important to treat the body as a whole when he wrote, “For the part can never be well unless the whole is well.” An old Indian saying states that the body is like a house with four rooms: a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual room. To be a whole person, one must spend at least a little bit of time in each of these four rooms every day. For example, food and rest satisfy our physical needs; learning about the world and using what we learn enriches our minds; and validating and coping with our feelings meets our emotional needs. Our spiritual needs must also be addressed."
From here.

Morning Prayer -- Frederick Buechner -- The Odd Silence

Everybody prays whether he thinks of it as praying or not. The odd silence you fall into when something very beautiful is happening or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h-h! that sometimes floats up out of you as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the sky-rocket bursts over the water. The stammer of pain at somebody else’s pain. The stammer of joy at somebody else’s joy. Whatever words or sounds you use for sighing with over your own life. These are all prayers in their way. These are all spoken not just to yourself but to something even more familiar than yourself and even more strange than the world.

Morning Prayer -- Frederick Buechner -- When you remember me

“When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.
For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost. When I'm feeling most ghost-like, it is your remembering me that helps remind me that I actually exist. When I'm feeling sad, it's my consolation. When I'm feeling happy, it's part of why I feel that way.

If you forget me, one of the ways I remember who I am will be gone. If you forget, part of who I am will be gone. "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." the good thief said from his cross (Luke 23:42). There are perhaps no more human words in all of Scripture, no prayer we can pray so well. ”

Morning Prayer -- From Augustine

I have learned to love You late,
Beauty at once so ancient and so new.
I have learned to love You late.
You were with me/ within me,
and I was in the world

outside myself.

I searched for You outside myself and,
disfigured as I was,
I fell upon the lovely things of Your creation.

You were with me but ...

I was not with You.

The beautiful things of this world
kept me from You and yet,
if they had not been in You,
they would have no being at all.

You called me;
You cried aloud to me;
You broke the barrier of my deafness.
I tasted You and now
I hunger and thirst for You.

You touched me and I am inflamed,
inflamed with love of Your peace.

Augustine, Confessions X, 27

Morning Prayer -- St. Clement

May Almighty God,
who sees all things,
and who is the Ruler of all spirits
and who is the Lord of all flesh

who chose our Lord Jesus Christ
and us through Him to be
a peculiar people -

grant to every soul that
calls upon His glorious and holy Name,

faith,
fear,
peace,
patience,
long-suffering,
self-control,
purity,
and sobriety,

to the pleasure of His Name,
through our High Priest and Protector, Jesus Christ,
by whom be to Him glory, and majesty, and power, and honor,
both now and forevermore.
Amen.

From the end of Clement's letter to the Corinthians, adapted.

Morning Prayer

The sun that bids us rest is waking
our family members far away
Who, while we sleep are gladly taking
their turn to worship you and pray.

So be it, God, your reign shall never
like earth's proud empires, fade and fall.
Your reign endures, and grows forever
till all your creatures heed your call.

Most merciful God, I confess that I have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what I have done, and by what I have left undone. I have not loved you with my whole heart; I have not loved my neighbors as myselves. I am truly sorry and humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on me and forgive me; that I may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

You sent a gracious rain, O God, upon your inheritance;
you refreshed the land when it was weary.
Your people found their home in it;
in your goodness, O God, you have made provision for the poor.
The Lord gave the word;
great was the company of women who bore the tidings:
"Kings with their armies are fleeing away;
the women at home are dividing the spoils."
Though you lingered among the sheepfolds,
you shall be like a dove whose wings are covered with silver,
whose feathers are like green gold.
-- Psalm 68:9-13

O God,
Your glory is your mercy:
Your mercy is glorious.
We wander away -- and your mercy follows.

Draw my heart to you.
Guide my mind so that I might guide,
fill my imagination so completely that I cannot imagine,
control my will so that I will be yours,
make me utterly dedicated to you;
Then and only then use me,
as you will,
use me to your glory
use me to the welfare of your people.
I have found my home in you.
Help me return and rest in you,
Help me be still and know that
You alone are God.
Amen.