A short poem today, by Wendell Berry, that I read as a prayer in and of itself. The words are a studied contrast to the Lord’s Prayer, explored Tuesday, but I find the two to be of the same ilk.

I Go Among Trees and Sit Still

by Wendell Berry

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
Around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
Where I left them, asleep like cattle…

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
And the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

Source: “I Go Among Trees and Sit Still” by Wendell Berry from Sabbaths, 1987, North Point Press.

Blogger Peacebang recently reflected on the Lord’s Prayer, and I found the words coming into my own mind recently on a Sunday during the time of silence after the sermon, so I did some Googling on Unitarian Universalist approaches to this traditional prayer.

The Rev. Roger Fritts, senior minister at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland, preached this sermon on December 15, 2002, regarding his own personal interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer. I think his approach is extremely thoughtful, on both an intellectual and spiritual level.

An Interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer

by Rev. Roger Fritts

Our Father who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name;
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
And forgive us our trespasses (or debts)
As we forgive those who trespass against us;
(or: As we have forgiven our debtors)
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
(For thine is the kingdom
And the power
And the glory,
Forever.)

-Roman Catholic version with
Protestant changes or additions in italics

According to a 1992 study published in Newsweek, about eighty-eight percent of the people in the United States pray. According to a study of Unitarian Universalists conducted in 1987, fifty-seven percent of us say that we pray occasionally or often. I fall into this group of fifty-seven percent.

During difficult moments of my life I pray. I know that my silent, private prayer will not change the unchangeable. Nevertheless, in moments of doubt and fear my short, silent prayers give me comfort. They help me cope by calming me and soothing my emotions.

Some might say that my prayer is a form or regression. They might suggest that when I pray I am discarding my rational, logical side; I am setting aside what I have learned from science, and returning to my early childhood superstitious beliefs in God as a Santa Claus who will grant my prayer, if I say the right words in the right way.

(Read on … )

This lovely prayer was written by Elizabeth of “Elizabeth’s Little Blog.” It’s a great reminder that even in the little doings of our daily lives, there are beauties and miracles that can so easily pass us by.

Prayer by Elizabeth

all of all

love of all love, peace of all peace, depth of depth

so often, in the midst of all we do, as we are washing dishes… sending email… going to work… and doing all the things we do day in and day out,

we can forget that our time here on this earth is both a gift and a miracle.

do not let us forget.

because sooner than we think, a tomorrow will come and it will be our last tomorrow and we will have missed the miracle. we will have emailed, and worked, and complained, and watched tv through the miracle.

we will have let the sunrises, the fresh air, the warmth of a bed, the taste of our orange juice, the first snows, and the cricket chirping slip by as we go about doing all of our so important things.

we will have let our pain and struggles and our tasks and achievements and our accumulation of things obscure the enchantment and richness that can be life.

love of all love, peace of peace, depth of depth –

let us find the holy in all that makes up our life.

let us slow down. stop doing. and learn to simply be.

may we find the holy in our coffee, in the spider whose lovely eight legs carry her effortlessly over her web, in the kiss goodnight, in the hot meal, fuzzy blanket, and in the chill of the dark night air. may we be seekers and makers of the holy.

amen and blessed be.

Source: Prayer by Elizabeth of “Elizabeth’s Little Blog,” posted April 8, 2008.

Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894-September 3, 1962), better known as e.e. cummings, was raised Unitarian, and wrote what has become my favorite prayer, among many other wonderful poems.

i thank You God for most this amazing. . .

by e.e. cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Source: “i thank You God for most this amazing. . .” by e.e. cummings, as printed by plagiarist.com.

Rev. Sean posted this lovely poem back in February, and I saved it for this month’s “poetry-palooza.” Poet Ellen Bass, who writes and teaches in California, captures the necessity of seeing the sacred throughout our daily lives, an important concept for Unitarian Universalists.

Pray for Peace

by Ellen Bass

Pray to whoever you kneel down to:
Jesus nailed to his wooden or marble or plastic cross,
his suffering face bent to kiss you,
Buddha still under the Bo tree in scorching heat,
Adonai, Allah, raise your arms to Mary
that she may lay her palm on our brows,
to Shekinhah, Queen of Heaven and Earth,
to Inanna in her stripped descent.

(Read on … )

Two years ago today, Rev. John Cullinan led this meditation at the Christmas Eve service at Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Oak Park, Illinois, where he served as the ministerial intern. He now serves the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos, New Mexico, where we will happily celebrate Christmas Eve in story and song with family and friends.

Bright blessings on you and yours, and Merry Christmas.

Postings will continue in the New Year, so stay tuned!

Christmas Eve Meditation

by Rev. John A. Cullinan

Put away, for one moment, all the anxiety and obligation of this season.

It is another time, another country– a place shattered by violence, oppression, and poverty. Its people cry out for peace and for love.

On a silent night much like any other night, to a family much like any other family, a child was born who would answer that call.

Tonight, we come together in celebration of that one night. It is a different time, a different country, and yet so much now remains the same. Our world is still touched by violence and fear, still cursed with poverty and oppression.

Tonight, we still cry out for peace and for love.

(Read on … )

In anticipation of Thanksgiving, here is a lovely sermon by the Rev. Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, who serves Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden, Colorado as the Minister of Social Responsibility, about saying “grace,” on special occasions and as an every day practice.

For consideration: Do you say grace before meals? Is this a meaningful practice for you?

Saying Grace

Nathan Woodliff-Stanley

Have you ever had the experience of sitting down to a meal with relatives or friends or some other group of people, and without advance warning, being asked to say grace? It may be something you do routinely–not a big deal–or the very thought might strike terror in your heart. I can assure you that it happens more often to ministers, especially at times like Thanksgiving, and it pays to be prepared. But I’ve still had my share of stumbles, and it can be disconcerting for anyone to be put on the spot unexpectedly. There is real value in spontaneous prayer, but being asked to say grace without warning can be especially awkward if you are someone who doesn’t normally say grace before meals, if you don’t know what the group expects, or if all you can think of are childhood formulas for saying grace that no longer fit your beliefs. I can imagine someone who is agnostic trying to pray as honestly as possible:

“Dear God, if there is a God, we thank you for this food, to whatever extent you were responsible for it. We ask for your blessings upon us, if that isn’t too presumptuous and if you really do specially bless people, and all this we pray in your holy name, whatever that might be.”

(Read on … )

Approaching prayer as a language of faith in a religion that does not require belief in a god can be a tricky thing. Today’s prayer (PDF) by the Rev. Bill Neely, from his days as the ministerial intern at Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul, Minnesota, explores this unknowing.

Rev. Neely now serves Neshoba Unitarian Universalist Church in Cordova, Tennessee.

For consideration: What do you name Holy? What do you consider larger than yourself?

Minister’s Prayer

by Rev. Bill Neely

Let us pray,

What shall we name you today, how shall we call you forth, by what shall we know you?

Are you Love greater than feeling, are you Truth truer than reason? Shall we call you Hope fueling all life, or Source of all beginnings and endings? Are you the gentle Father? Are you the sustaining Mother? Today, will you be our Trusting Companion or our Loving Guide? Shall we name you All? Shall we call you One? Are you all of these? Are you Mystery?

In humility, may our hearts call you whatever they will call you, knowing that all are just fine for now, knowing that while our language may be limited, love is not. With openness and with courage, may we seek to know you, even though we can’t define you, may we experience you, even though your truest nature is a mystery to us.

May you be the seed of unknown origin growing in our hearts and minds, a seed whose creation we do not understand and whose destiny we cannot foretell, but whose growth nonetheless nourishes our minds and refreshes our hearts, regardless of whether we can express it or not. For it is in our moments of greatest joy and greatest sorrow, our times of great fear and great hope, or even when we are accompanying someone close to us as they move through those moments, that we often find ourselves wordless or our language lacking. And yet the experience may be, even with diminished verbosity, abundantly holy.

Let us continue to call you what we will with honesty and humility. And let us know you, in some form, in moments of great joy and great sorrow, and all times in between.

Amen.

Source: Minister’s Prayer (PDF) by the Rev. Bill Neely, while serving as ministerial intern at Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul, Minnesota, delivered November 14, 2004. Used with permission.

Today’s selection ties the ideas from Monday and Wednesday neatly together. Why, in a Unitarian Universalist setting, where people believe in “at most, one god,” is prayer an important part of so many congregations’ liturgy?

What is prayer if it is not talking to a god?

Rev. John Cullinan explored these very questions in this sermon, “Prayer,” preached at the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos, New Mexico this November 4th.

For consideration: Do you pray? Why or why not? Do you think prayer has a place in your congregation’s worship life? Why or why not?

Prayer

by Rev. John Cullinan

I.

I have had a rocky relationship with prayer. Even in my early life as a Roman Catholic, prayer was never a large part of my routine, outside of Sunday Mass. When I put aside the church in my early adulthood, I put aside all thought of prayer as well. And when I returned to the church through the doors of Unitarian Universalism, I returned to a congregation that did not, as a rule, pray. I assumed it was not a UU practice, and at the time, I didn’t feel as though I was missing anything.

My reconnection with prayer began during my time as a hospital chaplain. Prayer is, more often than not, the stock in trade of the chaplain. I assumed I was going to have deep theological conversations with the sick and the dying. I can’t begin to tell you why I assumed that. To say it was a false assumption is being kind.

No, what most folks wanted in the hospital, patients and families alike, was prayer. And I was going to have to find a way to be with them in they way they needed me. I didn’t trust myself to do it “right” in those days. I didn’t feel as though I had an authentic Unitarian Universalist vocabulary for prayer, and I was fearful of winging it. And, since most of the patients in the hospital were Catholic, it seemed logical to fall back on the familiar words of my past.

(Read on … )

This prayer was given exactly four years ago, for Veteran’s Day, by Rev. Kathleen Rolenz, who serves West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River, Ohio.

I choose it today because I feel it exemplifies the ideas in Monday’s post that “If there is a God who listens, then he or she is listening in the people gathered here.” Rev. Rolenz offers a timely message, four additional long years into the same war, and a reminder to all who hear it that we are, after all, in it together as a human family.

For consideration: What kind of public prayers speak most to you and your community? Is private prayer a meaningful practice for you?

Prayer for November 14, 2003

by Rev. Kathleen Rolenz

Let us join our hearts and minds together in the spirit of prayer:
O Holy One, that unites all who are estranged
and challenges all who preach division and exclusion,

We see that unity so often in the eyes of a child, who sees neither race or creed in any eyes that look back, but only whether those are smiling are crying.

(Read on … )