Daily Prayer/Meditation

[Green Gaia]

Parents' Prayer for Their Children


O Lord, omnipotent Father, we give you thanks for having given us children. They are our joy, and we accept with serenity the worries, fears, and labors which bring us pain. Help us to love them sincerely. Through us you gave life to them; from eternity you knew them and loved them. Give us the wisdom to guide them, patience to teach them, vigilance to accustom them to the good through our example.

Support our love so that we may receive them back when they have strayed and make them good. It is often so difficult to understand them, to be as they would want us to be, to help them go on their way. Grant that they may always see our home as a haven in their time of need. Teach us and help us, O good Father, through the merits of Jesus, your Son and our Lord.

Amen.



Christian, Catholic

 

[Green Gaia]

Prayer of Despair


I have been rejected and despised;
I am hurting and destroyed by the pain.
I am angry with others and with you, O God,
for there is no comfort, none anywhere.
I call your name and you are absent.
I wonder why you let me suffer so.
My cries echo in the universe
and ring in my ears
and I am weary of the taste of my tears.
Hear my plea, O God of love.
Let me not be destroyed
by this agony on the brink of death.
I am like a broken reed,
fragile and crushed.
Hear my plea, O God of love.
Let me not be destroyed.
Amen.


- Vienna Cobb Anderson

Appropriate for many faiths
source: Adapted from "Prayers of Our Hearts" 1991

 

[Green Gaia]

For Calm and Comfort



With your soothing fingers,
wipe away the lines that worries have etched on our faces.
Surround us with calm,
let us rest in the glow of peace,
as if we were encircled with the Moon’s own light.
Let our concerns and tensions drain away from us,
pouring as water into your Earth.


Ceisiwr Serith | Source: "A Book of Pagan Prayer"

 

[Green Gaia]

Prayer for Peace

May there be peace in the higher realms;
may there be peace in the firmament;
may there be peace on earth.

May the waters flow peacefully;
may the herbs and plants grow peacefully;
may all the divine powers bring unto us peace.

The Supreme Lord is peace.
May we all be in peace, peace, and only peace;
and may that peace come unto each of us

Hindu

 

[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

 

[Green Gaia]

Traditional Blessing and Healing Chant


Just as the soft rains fill the streams,
pour into the rivers and join together in the oceans,
so may the power of every moment of your goodness
flow forth to awaken and heal all beings,
Those here now, those gone before, those yet to come.
By the power of every moment of your goodness
May your heart's wishes be soon fulfilled
as completely shining as the bright full moon,
as magically as by a wish-fulfilling gem.

By the power of every moment of your goodness
May all dangers be averted and all disease be gone.
May no obstacle come across your way.
May you enjoy fulfillment and long life.

For all in whose heart dwells respect,
who follow the wisdom and compassion, of the Way,
May your life prosper in the four blessings
of old age, beauty, happiness and strength.



Buddhist

 

[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]

Guide Us to Our Truest Selves

Boundless Sea of Love and Energy, our God,
may all your dreams for us come true:
your motherly imaginings, and your fatherly hopes,
your creative purposes everywhere in nature.
Guide us to our truest selves, co-creators of this environment.
Make us worthy inheritors
of the astonishing evolutionary reality in which we live.
May it be so.


William Cleary | Source: From "Prayers to an Evolutionary God"

 

[Green Gaia]

Prayer for Forgiveness


In the beginning, as a result of my own deeds in past lives, I arrive in the womb of my mother, and stay there in all helplessness and discomfort. Forgive me, O Lord. Forgive my sinful past deeds.


- Translated by Swami Chidananda

Hindu

 

[Green Gaia]

I Wait for HaShem


Out of the depths have I called Thee, O HaShem.
Lord, hearken unto my voice; let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
If Thou, HaShem, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
For with Thee there is forgiveness, that Thou mayest be feared.

I wait for HaShem, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope.
My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning; yea, more than watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, hope in HaShem; for with HaShem there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.
And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.


- Psalms 130: 1-8

Jewish

 

[Peace]

"Oh Allah, I seek Protection in Your Pleasure from Your Anger, and I seek Protection in Your Forgiveness from Your Punishment. I Seek Protection in You from You. I cannot count Your Praises. You are as You have Praised Yourself."
Peace

 

[Peace]

"Oh Allah Forgive me, have Mercy on me, Guide me, Support me Protect me, provide for me and elevate me"

 

[Green Gaia]

A Collect for Peace

O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom: Defend us, thy humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Christian
source: Book of Common Prayer 1979

 

[Green Gaia]

We Rise With Gratitude


God, Creator of Mystery,
in the growing revelation of reality evolving around us,
we rise with gratitude into an ever larger and larger world.
Our personal life has its meaning,
and is dovetailed in all its co-evolutionary ups and downs
into the larger meaning that encompasses us.
None of us can go it alone: each has innate energies needed by all.
We give thanks to be conscious of the awesome narrative of which we are a part,
paradoxical and baffling as it is and must be.
Amen.


- William Cleary

Appropriate for many faiths

 

[Green Gaia]

Free at Last


Free at last, free at last,
Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last.

The very time I thought I was lost,
Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last;
My dungeon shook and my chains fell off,
Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last,
This is religion, I do know,
Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last;
For I never felt such a love before,
Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last.



African-American Spiritual

 

[Green Gaia]

Prayer for the Dead


May we walk upon this earth once again,
Once again beneath the same blue sky.
Then may our lives again entertwine,
And may we remember, you and I.



Appropriate for many faiths

 

[Green Gaia]

Praise God


Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament!

Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp!

Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!

Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals!

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!


- Psalms 150: 1-6

Christian

 

[Peace]

"Oh Allah, we seek Your Protection from miserliness, we seek Your Protection from cowardice, and we seek Your Protection from being returned to feeble old age. we seek Your Protection from the trials/troubles of this world and from the torment of the grave" Ameen!

 

[Peace]

"Oh Allah, I ask, Oh Allah, You are the One, The Only, Self-Sufficient Master, Who was
not Begotten and Begets not, And none is equal to Him, Forgive us our sins, surely You are Forgiving, Merciful"
Ameen

 

[Peace]

"Oh Allah!, I ask You for doing good, and abandoning evils, and to love the poor. And when You wish to try Your servants, so draw me to Your presence without trial. By Your Mercy, Oh the Most Merciful of all that is Merciful"