Holy Spirit, We're Calling You

Tears of Courage . . .

 Provided by: The Methodist Church

Change Our Hearts . . .

 

Litany of Repentance and Conversion

We ask God’s forgiveness for our complicity in the violence now unleashed in our world and we repent of the violence in our own hearts.

Response:  Deliver us, O God.

From the arrogance of power, deliver us, O God.

From the tyranny of greed . . . .

From the politics of hypocrisy . . . .

From the addiction of control . . . .

From the idolatry of national security . . . .

From the cancer of hatred . . . .

From the hysteria of nationalism . . . .

From the sin of racism . . . .

From the sin of sexism . . . .

From the sin of torture . . . .

From the sin of war . . . .

From the waste and preparation of war . . . .

From the madness of war . . . . .

In humility we ask, O God, hear our prayer.

(Adapted from CPT Litany of Resistance, by Jim Looney)

Response:  Forgive us, O God.

For our hardness of heart, forgive us, O God.

For wasting our gifts . . . .

For wanting too much . . . .

For wounding the earth . . . .

For ignoring the poor . . . .

For trusting in weapons . . . .

For refusing to listen . . . .

For exporting arms . . . .

For desiring dominance . . . .

For lacking humility . . . .

For failing to risk . . . .

For failing to trust . . . .

For failing to act . . . .

For failing to hope . . . .

For failing to love . . . .

For failing to negotiate . . . .

For our arrogance . . . .

For our impatience . . . .

For our pride . . . .

For our silence . . . .

Response:  Change our hearts, O God.

That we learn compassion, change our hearts, O God.

That we embrace nonviolence . . . .

That we act in justice . . . .

That we live in hope . . . .

That we do your will . . . .

That we love our enemies . . . .

That we strive to be peacemakers . . . .

That we live simply . . . .

That we practice sharing . . . .

That we protect the earth . . . .

That we cherish all life . . . .

Amen.

 

 

Pax Christi Metro D.C.-Baltimore - 2013

Purifying Fire . . .

 

Photo by Doris Klein, CSA

Blessing That Undoes Us

On the day you are wearing

your certainty like a cloak

and your sureness goes before you

like a shield or like a sword,

 

may the sound of God’s name

spill from your lips as you have never

heard it before.

 

May your knowing be undone.

May mystery confound your

understanding.

 

May the Divine rain downi

in strange syllables

yet with an ancient familiarity,

a knowing borne in the blood,

the ear, the tongue,

bringing the clarity that comes

not in stone

or in steel

but in fire, in flame.

 

May there come one searing word –

enough to bare you to the bone,

enough to set your heart ablaze,

enough to make you

whole again.

https://www.janrichardson.com/ By Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace

Crossing is a Spiritual Exercise . . .

 

TRASNA

The pilgrims paused on the ancient stones
In the mountain gap.

Behind them stretched the roadway they had travelled.
Ahead, mist hid the track.

Unspoken the question hovered:
Why go on? Is life not short enough?

Why seek to pierce its mystery?
Why venture further on strange paths, risking all?

Surely that is a gamble for fools - or lovers.
Why not return quietly to the known road?

Why be a pilgrim still?
A voice they knew called to them, saying:

This is Trasna, the crossing place.
Choose! Go back if you must,

You will find your way easily by yesterday's fires,
there may be life in the embers yet.

If that is not your deep desire,
Stand still. Lay down your load.

Take your life firmly in your two hands,
(Gently... you are trusted with something precious)

While you search your heart's yearnings:
What am I seeking? What is my quest?

When your star rises deep within,
Trust yourself to its leading.

You will have the light for first steps.
This is Trasna, the crossing place.

Choose!
This is Trasna, the crossing place

Come !

Raphael Consedine, PBVM

 

Melissa Cedillo Preaches for the First Sunday of Lent (03/06/2022)

We pray together in hope . . .

 

God of hope,
we pray to you when hope is scarce
as our world convulses with the horror of war.
You alone know the extent of the crimes committed in Ukraine:
the people murdered, the homes and infrastructure destroyed,
the way violence comes as a calamity,
cutting a swath through the world.
Why is power concentrated in the hands of so few?
How can we make this war stop?
You alone know a way out of this quagmire of evil.
Help us find it.
Awaken those who dismiss this as someone else’s problem.
Give world leaders wisdom as they impose sanctions,
looking for diplomatic and economic ways to end this aggression.
Raise up resistance to war in Russia itself.
Protect the people of Ukraine,
who are reeling from the trauma of invasion.
Open the arms of neighbouring countries
to take in refugees.
In times like these,
fill us with resolve rather than hatred.
Help us believe that justice will prevail,
that crimes will be prosecuted,
that peace can be found
even in the roar and rubble of war. Amen

“Copyright Carol Penner  www.leadinginworship.com.”