Morning Prayer - adapted from the Book of Common Prayer

O God, who wonderfully created, 
And yet more wonderfully
Aestored, the dignity of human nature:
Help me remember that daily.
At Walmart or the filling station,
At work or at play,
At school or at church --
Help me remember that
Each and every one of us is made in Your image -
Each of us contain a spark of that Diving force within us.
Grant that I may
Share that divine love and life 
Of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, 
Your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen

Morning Prayer -- A New Covenant

God, you said you would make a new covenant.
My heart lies waiting.
Waiting.
And time passes.
Where is this new covenant?
You pulled us out of oppression,
But why? Nothing changed except
We have become the oppressors.

You said that you had taken my Father and Mother by the hand
And led them out of their bondage –
But God, they were in bondage again before they left the room.

You said you would be our lover, our husband, our closest kinsman –
Where are you?
Your mountain is lost to me --
What obscures my vision?
I cannot remember your face.
It is lost in the mist.

My eyes cannot remember your face,
My flesh cannot remember the last time I felt your embrace.
My spirit cannot remember the caress of your love,
My ears cannot remember the sound of your voice.

You said that you would incise your law on my heart with a diamond stylus.
My heart lies waiting.
Waiting.
And time passes.
I would welcome the pain of your brand on my flesh, if I then would know that
You are there.

You said you would forgive my iniquity and remember my sin no more.
Have you forgotten me as well?
Valleys of dead bodies await your command or condemnation.
We lay here and rot.
How long do we have to wait, longing for something to live for?
When will you gather the dry bones together and breath life into the gaping skulls?
When will you take my bruised heart and write upon it your love?
My heart lies waiting.
Waiting.
And time passes.
--Theresa Coleman

Morning Prayer - Celtic Prayer V

May you know that absence is full of tender presence and
that nothing is ever lost or forgotten.
May the absences in your life be full of eternal echo.
May you sense around you the secret Elsewhere which
holds the presence that have left your life.
May you be generous in your embrace of loss.
May the sore well of grief turn into a well of seamless presence.
May your compassion reach out to the ones we never hear
from and may you have the courage to speak out for the excluded ones.
May you become the gracious and passionate
subject of your own life.
May you not disrespect your mystery through brittle words
or false belonging.
May you be embraced by God in whom dawn and twilight
are one, and may your belonging inhabit its deepest
dreams within the shelter of the Great Belonging.


John O’Donohue’s book, Eternal Echoes.