Daily Prayer/Meditation

[Green Gaia]

A Prayer of Comfort


I drop my fears into your ocean
and watch them sink from sight.
I place my fears on your broad Earth
and see them rot away.
I put my fears into your hands
and they are no more.
When you offer your arms to me,
Great Mother,
your hands hold nothing but love.


- Ceisiwr Serith
source: "A Book of Pagan Prayer"

 

[Green Gaia]

Prayer for Peace

O Great Spirit of our Ancestors, I raise my pipe to you. To your messengers the four winds, and to Mother Earth who provides for your children. Give us the wisdom to teach our children to love, to respect, and to be kind to each other so that they may grow with peace in mind. Let us learn to share all the good things that you provide for us on this Earth.

Native American

 

[Green Gaia]

The Four Immeasurables


May all living beings have happiness and the causes of happiness;
May all living beings be free from misery and the causes of misery;
May all living beings never be separated from happiness, devoid of misery;
May all living beings abide in equanimity free from prejudicial attachments and aversions.


- The Buddha

 

[Green Gaia]

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace


Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console,
not so much to be understood as to understand,
not so much to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we awake to eternal life.


- St. Francis of Assisi

Christian, Catholic

 

[Green Gaia]

Prayer for Hurricane Season


O God, Master of this passing world, hear the humble voices of your children. The Sea of Galilee obeyed your order and returned to its former quietude; you are still the Master of land and sea. We live in the shadow of a danger over which we have no control. The Gulf, like a provoked and angry giant, can awake from its seeming lethargy, overstep its conventional boundaries, invade our land and spread chaos and disaster. During this hurricane season, we turn to You, O loving Father. Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal with the passing of time. O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our Beloved Mother, we ask you to plead with your Son in our behalf, so that spared from the calamities common to this area and animated with a true spirit of gratitude, we will walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son to reach the heavenly Jerusalem where a storm-less eternity awaits us. Amen.

Christian, Catholic

 

[Green Gaia]

Oh God, You are Peace


Oh God,
You are Peace.
From You comes Peace,
To You returns Peace.
Revive us with a salutation of peace,
And lead us to your abode of Peace.


- Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)

Muslim

 

[Green Gaia]

Prayer for Pardon

O! Goddess earth, I bow to thee, who is clothed by all the oceans and whose area of breasts are the mountains, who is the consort of Lord Visnu. Please pardon me for touching you with my feet.

Hindu

 

[Green Gaia]

Prayer for Guidance

The spirits of the mountain exist in strength.
Their roots are deep in the Earth,
their heads pierce the air and mount to the sky above.
They dance from flat to peak
and, spiraling, descend again.
Good Ones, when I come under your trees and upon your stones,
guide me.

-Ceisiwr Serith

Pagan

 

[Green Gaia]

Prayer for God's Light and Peace


O eternal Lord God, who holdest all souls in life: Give, we beseech thee, to thy whole Church in paradise and on earth thy light and thy peace; and grant that we, following the good examples of those who have served you here and are now at rest, may at the last enter with them into thine unending joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.


Christian
source: Book of Common Prayer 1979

 

[Green Gaia]

Meditations Before Entering Mikveh


Now, as I immerse myself. I begin a new cycle,
a cycle of rebirth and renewal
of Your world and Your people Israel.
I prepare for my new life
and for the sanctification of that life
through the ritual of immersion.

Our mothers Rebecca and Rachel were betrothed and began new lives
at the gently flowing water of the well.
Our mother Yocheved gave life to her child Moses
in the ever-flowing waters of the Nile.
Our sister Miriam danced for the saving of lives
beside the overflowing water of the Sea of Reeds.

Water is God's gift to living souls,
to cleanse us, to purify us,
to sustain and renew us.

As Moses and Aaron and the priests of Israel
washed with cleansing waters before attending to God's service at the altar,
so I now cleanse myself -- before your altar of sanctification.

I am now prepared to link my life with the life of the people of Israel,
and with the God of Israel,
to become a partner in sharing the joys of Jewish living,
to learn and to celebrate the rhythms of a Jewish life.

Jewish
source: RitualWell.org

 

[Green Gaia]

Prayer of Gratitude for God's Gifts


For this new morning and its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For every gift His goodness sends
We thank you, gracious Lord. Amen.

 

[Green Gaia]

The Blessing of Unanswered Prayers


I asked for strength that I might achieve;
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy;
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I had asked for,
but eveything that I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered;
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.


- Unknown Confederate soldier

Appropriate for many faiths

 

[Green Gaia]

While Bathing

In this water, I invoke the presence of holy waters from the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu, and Kaveri.

Hindu

 

[Green Gaia]

Daily Prayer

With every breath I take today,
I vow to be awake;

And every step I take,
I vow to take with a grateful heart--

So I may see with eyes of love
into the hearts of all I meet,

To ease their burden when I can
And touch them with a smile of peace.


Buddhist

 

[Green Gaia]

Athlete's Prayer


God, let me play well but fairly.
Help me to learn something that matters
once the game is over.
Let competition make me strong but never hostile.
Always let me help my opponent up.
Never catch me rejoicing in the adversity of others.
If I know victory, allow me to be happy; if I am denied, keep me from envy.
Remind me that sports are just games.
If through athletics I set an example,
let it be a good one.


- Gregg Easterbook

Appropriate for many faiths

 

[Green Gaia]

Prayer for the Home


May the house wherein I dwell be blessed;
My good thoughts here possess me;
May my path of life be straight and true;
My dreams as here I lie be joyous;
All above, below, about me
May the house I love be hallowed.

Omaha

 

[Green Gaia]

A Prayer to Start the Day

Mother of All, Father of All:
as I go through the day,
keep my eyes open wide.
May I not miss beauty.
May I not miss joy.
May I not miss wonder.
Keep me awake and aware of the world.

Ceisiwr Serith
Source: "A Book of Pagan Prayer"

 

[Green Gaia]

Prayer for Forgiveness

I grant forgiveness to all living beings
May all the living beings please forgive me.
I have friendship with all the living beings.
I have no hostility towards anyone.

Jain

 

[Green Gaia]

A Coming Out Prayer

O God of truth and justice, the evasions and deceits we practice upon others and ourselves are many.

We long only to speak out and to hear the truth, yet time and again, from fear of loss or hope of gain, from dull habit or from cruel deliberation, we speak half-truths, we twist facts, we are silent when others lie, and we lie to ourselves.

Whether we are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning, family or friends, we sometimes feel forced to pretend to be that which we are not, to present ourselves in ways which are not truthful, and sometimes with outright lies.

But as we stand before You, our words and our thoughts speed to One who knows them before we utter them. We do not have to tell untruths to You as we are often forced to do in the world. We know we cannot lie in your presence.

May our worship help us to practice truth in speech and in thought before You, to ourselves, and before one another; and may we finally complete our liberation so that we no longer feel the need to practice evasions and deceits.

Jewish
Source: Adapted from the siddur of Congregation Sha'ar Zahav

 

[Green Gaia]

I Am a Point of Light

I am a point of light within a greater Light.
I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial fire focused within the fiery Will of God.
And thus I stand.

I am a way by which men may achieve.
I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand.
I am a beam of light, shining upon their way.
And thus I stand.

And standing thus, revolve.
And tread this way the ways of men,
And know the ways of God.
And thus I stand.

New Age