The purple WorshipWeb logo

To search for resources that support March's Soul Matter theme of Transformation, toggle the red arrow below and search for Spiritual Themes of: Transformation, Change, Endings, Beginnings, Searching.

Changing a filter will refresh results (and remaining options) immediately. Searching by keyword or changing the number of items per page requires use of the "Search" button.

Displaying 1901 - 1950 of 3078

  • Breakfast on kosher macaroons and Diet Pepsi in the car on the way to Price Chopper for lamb. Peel five pounds of onions and let the Cuisinart shred them while you push them down and weep....
    Poetry | By Rabbi Rachel Barenblat | March 24, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Direct Experience, Food, Freedom, Generations, Judaism, Passover (Pesach), Prophetic Words & Deeds, Spirituality, Tradition
  • Unitarian Universalism is a grand vision of a world filled with peace and justice, love and joy. That vision is embodied in a few large congregations, numerous mid-sized congregations, and many, many small congregations....
    Offering | By Heather Christensen | March 24, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 6th Principle (World Community), Interdependence, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Stewardship, Unitarian Universalism, Vision, WorshipWeb
  • In gatherings we are stirred like the leaves of the fall season rustling around sacred trees, tossed hither and yon until we come to rest together, quietly, softly . . . We come to gather strength from each other. We come to give strength to each other....
    Poetry | By Marta I. Valentín | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Community, Covenant, Direct Experience, Gratitude, Power, Strength, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness
  • I got off work at 7 pm and did the thing where you chase the bus a ­little bit but then realize you won’t make it and walk sheepishly back to the bus stop. I’m already an hour late to Sunday night singing at the Lucy Stone Cooperative, a UU affordable housing co-op in Boston. I’m still...
    Reading | By Elizabeth Nguyen | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Commitment, Community, Conflict, Direct Experience, Relationships, Unitarian Universalism, Vulnerability
  • I’ve always had a tough time falling asleep. As a child, I was skeptical about the whole idea of sleep. I thought, “Who needs it anyway? Can’t we just be awake all the time? Isn’t that what life is all about?” So it is not surprising that, when my now mother-in-law asked me a few years ago...
    Reading | By Nic Cable | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Choice, Direct Experience, Growth, Identity, Unitarian Universalism, Vision, Youth/Teens
  • We are all dying, our lives always moving ­toward completion. We need to learn to live with death, and to understand that death is not the worst of all events. We need to fear not death, but life— empty lives, loveless lives, lives that do not build upon the gifts that each of us has been given,...
    Poetry | By Mark D. Morrison-Reed | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Commitment, Death, Direct Experience, Fear, Living Our Faith, Playfulness
  • We float on a sea hidden beneath dry surfaces covered by stones. Isn’t this why we drink and dive so deeply go down to the sea in ships risk drowning, again and again? Isn’t this why Moses parted the waters to begin his journey? Why Jesus crossed the waters to comfort and challenge us? We were...
    Poetry | By Stephen M. Shick | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Abundance, Awe, Nature, Reverence, Sacred
  • Joy
    I have been wondering what the morning glories know. Is it envy that compels these vines to strangle other flowers arising in their path? Or perhaps self-preservation, to climb these walls, forsaking humbler beings, winding greedy stems around the trellis in their hungry pursuit of light. Still,...
    Poetry | By Terri Pahucki | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Connections, Earth-Centered, Joy, Nature, Reverence
  • Why did I listen to Your calling, O God? Why did I step out on faith, O Love? Why did I lift my feet, ignore my fear, and run ­toward the unknown? Now I am far from home. My heart aches for my familiar land, for ­people who greeted me with kisses. I can’t see the way back—it doesn’t exist. I...
    Poetry | By Angela Herrera | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Despair, Direct Experience, Fear, Home, Listening, Searching
  • Fill me with anxiety, O Life! Electrify me, make me nervous Beyond any staid concern For those things which challenge Placid, flaccid ways, anachronisms of being. Keep me tense, a-tiptoe, Blinking at the novel, Reaching out for those things Just beyond my fingertips; So that I may make patterns,...
    Poetry | By Arthur Graham | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Awe, Change, Choice, Transformation, Wonder
  • A good anger swallowed clots the blood to slime —Marge Piercy But what is to be done with it, this anger that dare not be swallowed? Should it be diluted with denial, cooled with indifference? Should it be sweetened with good intentions, softened with lies? Should it be spewed out red hot over...
    Poetry | By Stephen M. Shick | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Anger, Direct Experience, Salvation
  • Walk the maze within your heart: guide your steps into its questioning curves. This labyrinth is a puzzle leading you deeper into your own truths. Listen in the twists and turns. Listen in the openness within all searching. Listen: a wisdom within you calls to a wisdom beyond you and in that...
    Poetry | By Leslie Takahashi | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Direct Experience, Listening, Searching, Truth, Unitarian Universalism, Wisdom
  • “So...what do you want to do with your life???” There was a time when this question haunted me like an existential crisis. Some might call it being in my twenties, but I certainly didn’t feel that such pain was just “to be expected.” I remember pouring over inspirational books. I found few...
    Reading | By David Ruffin | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Challenge, Character, Direct Experience, Identity, Purpose, Searching, Unitarian Universalism, Youth/Teens
  • Lay Leader: Our church family is constantly changing. People come and go. Babies are born. Children grow up. People commit themselves to one another. Loved ones and friend among us come to the end of their lives. Individuals move into our community and church life. Others leave us, moving away to...
    Ritual | By Chip Roush | March 19, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Community, Ending, Leadership, Letting Go, Ministerial Transition, Service, Unitarian Universalism
  • Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land to a good and broad land, a land...
    Meditation | By John Nichols | March 19, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Freedom, God, Integrity, Judaism, Passover (Pesach)
  • When the escape from Egypt was certain, when the last furious wave had closed over their enemies' heads and the dangerous waters lay smooth again, when the Israelites could finally turn toward the future without fear that the past would snatch them back--what did they see before them? Not the...
    Meditation | By Kathleen McTigue | March 19, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Fear, Judaism, Passover (Pesach), Searching, Tradition, Transformation
  • They had no idea where they were going, when they left that night, in the dark, without lights, without shoes, without bread, their children smothered against them so they would make no noise....
    Meditation | By Victoria Safford | March 19, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Courage, Faith, Freedom, Identity, Journey, Judaism, Passover (Pesach), Purpose, Searching, Tradition
  • Committed to respond to the call of a wounded world… We join together this day with loving hearts, hands and minds. Embracing the interconnected web of water, air and earth… We light a fire of sustaining hope, ever bright with love and justice. May we bring forth this day new wisdom, strength...
    Opening | By Lynn Harrison | March 18, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Climate Justice, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Home, Nature, Responsibility, Unitarian Universalism
  • During the hot Nebraska summers of my childhood, I spent hours, high in my treehouse, devouring the books I found in the small collection my parents had acquired from the estates of various relatives. One of my favorites was A Wonder Book, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s retelling of classical myths. My...
    Reading | By Barbara Rohde | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Climate Justice, Commitment, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Interdependence, Nature, Responsibility, Unitarian Universalism
  • Of course truth is hard. It is a rock. Yet I do not think it will fall upon me And crush me. I do not think they can hammer it to bits And stone me. Help me place the rock in the strong current Of these rushing waters. I must climb upon it. I must know how truth feels....
    Poetry | By Barbara Rohde | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Climate Justice, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Nature, Strength, Truth, Water Communion
  • Nature provides ready metaphors for peace and justice. Jesus' peaceful kingdom is described as a mustard seed that grows into a large bush, providing shelter to all. the Hebrew prophet Amos cried for justice to roll down like water, and we sing, "I've got peace like a river" and "strength like a...
    Reading | By Stephen M. Shick | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Climate Justice, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Justice, Nature, Peace, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Vision
  • The road of history is long, full of both hope and disappointment. In times past, there have been wars and rumors of wars, violence and exploitation, hunger and homelessness, and destruction of this earth, your creation....
    Prayer | By Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley, Clyde Grubbs | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Climate Justice, Courage, Generations, Justice, Leadership, Progress
  • I understand history as possibility...that could also stop being a possibility. —Paulo Freire The winds of extinction sing a mournful song in the rustling grass, where the bobwhite drums and the meadowlark's melody is vanishing. The winds of extinction sing a mournful song in the dark forest...
    Poetry | By Stephen M. Shick | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Climate Justice, Despair, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Interdependence, Nature, Unitarian Universalism
  • Spirit of Life, God of Love, who are we to know how you moved over the waters when all was new? We were not there when you parted them and formed dry land. We didn't hear you cry with joy when earth gave birth to life, or when love began to grow in the human heart....
    Prayer | By Stephen M. Shick | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Climate Justice, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Humility, Nature, Responsibility, Stewardship
  • Suppose you scrub your ethical skin until it shines, but inside there is no music, then what? —Kabir Suppose you cried a thousand years for a child who died when she drank bad water. Suppose you organized a great movement to clean the water. Suppose you carried the first filled glass to the...
    Poetry | By Stephen M. Shick | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Climate Justice, Earth, Earth Day, Interdependence, International, Relationships, Service, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion
  • (Ahmedabad, India, 2001) Mother Earth is shouting but we do not hear. She is filled with anguish, for all we understand is death. And in her agony she suffers too over the fact that she must kill her own to get our attentionn...
    Poetry | By Marta I. Valentín | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Climate Justice, Death, Disaster, Earth, Earth-Centered, Nature, Unitarian Universalism
  • The earth. One planet. Round, global, so that when you trace its shape with your finger, you end up where you started. It's one. It's whole. All the dotted lines we draw on our maps of this globe are just that, dotted lines. They smear easily. Oceans can be crossed. Even the desert can be crossed.
    Poetry | By Mark Belletini | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Climate Justice, Earth, Earth Day, Interdependence, International, Nature, Wholeness
  • This is our earth. It falls through heaven like a pearl in a glass of plum wine. There are no other earths that I know of. There are no other skies that we have mapped. This is our earth. The Oneness who gave birth to it remains nameless. There was no midwife then to bring us word of the birth-cry.
    Poetry | By Mark Belletini | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Climate Justice, Connections, Earth, Earth Day, Interdependence, Nature, Worship
  • Holy Unnamable One, Wholly Unknowable One, Again we have read the story. Again we have sung the tale. Again we wonder at our place in it. Is it ours to tell? How can it beours to live?...
    Prayer | By Lisa Doege | March 16, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Birth, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Direct Experience, Hope, Listening, Mystery, Peace, Privilege
  • This image was created by Ellen Rockett, a Unitarian Universalist (UU) young adult, to accompany the seven separate images/smartphone wallpapers also found on WorshipWeb....
    Image | By Ellen Rockett | March 13, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Caring, Democracy, Interdependence, Justice, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalism, Worth
  • Spirit of Life, God of Love, grant me the courage to love boldly in the face of my greatest fears. Grow me in your wisdom and let my actions speak when silence threatens justice and indifference disturbs peace....
    Prayer | By Stephen M. Shick | March 12, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Courage, Fear, Humility, Justice, Love, Peace, Unitarian Universalism, Wisdom
  • Into the dwelling place of togetherness, we come to collect remnants of hope.
    Responsive Reading | By Stephen M. Shick | March 12, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Hope, Justice, Peace, Solidarity, Strength, Unitarian Universalism, Vision
  • Spirit of Life, God of Love, I am entwined in your delicate web of mutuality. The life energy that makes me reach for the sun also moves me to become wrapped, like the strong bittersweet vine and the delicate sweet pea, around those I meet and love. Here in the tangle of my daily life I feel your...
    Prayer | By Stephen M. Shick | March 12, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Acceptance, Beauty, Climate Justice, Connections, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Interdependence, Intimacy, Love, Nature
  • Here, I will be discovered and lost: Here, I will, perhaps, be stone and silence. —Pablo Neruda Someday, out there, on a day like this in a place I will never see, where the clearing winds always come after the storm, I will arrive nameless on a distant memory carrying with me all the best I gave...
    Poetry | By Stephen M. Shick | March 12, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Identity, Love, Meaning, Purpose, Truth
  • Spirit of my longing and lonely heart, help me travel through the barren borderlands that separate me from others. Teach me to willingly explore relationships with those who frighten or threaten me, grant me the courage to risk confidently my own comforts, that I might make others more comfortable.
    Prayer | By Stephen M. Shick | March 12, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Choice, Compassion, Connections, Courage, Empathy, Unitarian Universalism, Vulnerability
  • In a worship service, the congregation presented farewell gifts to the outgoing Director of Religious Education/Exploration (DRE) before the following: MINISTER: In (season, year), this congregation and NAME entered into a formal/unspoken covenant with one another. NAME agreed to step out of her...
    Ritual | By Tess Baumberger | March 11, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Change, Children, Gratitude, Leadership, Letting Go, Power, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Service, Teacher Recognition, Unitarian Universalism
  • I am one of those people who love to make New Year’s resolutions. Why not create a vital, remodeled persona, new and improved? Just write down all the things you want to accomplish, all the projects you want to complete, all the character improvements you want to make, and all the skills you want...
    Meditation | By Barbara Merritt | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Challenge, Change, Grace, Love, Progress, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism
  • When my youngest child was a baby, the sweetest part of my day was putting David to sleep. At fifteen months he had a demanding schedule. There were toilet paper rolls to unravel, dressers to empty, bookshelves to clear, trash baskets to dump on the floor, papers to tear, pans to bang, books to...
    Meditation | By Barbara Merritt | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Buddhism, Children, Direct Experience, Love, Mothers, Peace, Self-Care, Trust, Unitarian Universalism, Weakness, Wisdom
  • My husband, the physics teacher, receives a weekly magazine called Science News. A recent cover story, in bold letters, riveted my attention and I snatched it: “Controlling Chaos.” Now, that’s a practical theology! My hopes soared. Here, in concise scientific prose, was the potential solution...
    Meditation | By Barbara Merritt | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Change, Peace, Science, Stress, Unitarian Universalism, Work
  • Please note: this ritual was preceded by the departing minister's homily, in which she looked back at the installation service and the promises they had made to each other as minister and congregation. She then continued as follows....
    Ritual | By Tess Baumberger | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Ending, Leadership, Letting Go, Ministerial Transition, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Unitarian Universalism
  • Life does not call us merely to do over and over again what we have already done; nor does it call us to act out, as puppets, parts already assigned to us. No. In the midst of a situation which is itself ever changing, we are free to bring into realization new relationships of understanding and...
    Quote | By Frank O. Holmes | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Change, Character, Choice, Courage, Freedom, Growth, Integrity
  • To repent means to turn in a new direction—not just to admit what we have done wrong, but to resolve to be a better person.
    Quote | By Jeanne Harrison Nieuwejaar | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Character, Choice, Growth, Integrity, Psychology, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism
  • This short, personal essay from Raziq Brown speaks to failure, loss and personal growth.
    Reading | By Raziq Brown | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Aging, Direct Experience, Failure, Generations, Men, Unitarian Universalism, Youth/Teens
  • Go forth Because we are always going forth from somewhere Going from our homes, our childhoods Going from our cities and countries Going from innocence to experience to enlightenment Going into mystery and questions Going into the desert Getting to the other side....
    Poetry | By Rick Hoyt | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Aging, Change, Home, Letting Go, Mystery, Sacred, Unitarian Universalism, Wisdom
  • Despair is my private pain Born from what I have failed to say failed to do failed to overcome. Be still my inner self let me rise to you let me reach down into your pain and soothe you....
    Poetry | By Thandeka | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Caring, Compassion, Despair, Direct Experience, Healing, Hope, Pain, Transformation
  • To outgrow the past but not extinguish it; To be progressive but not raw, Free but not mad, critical but not sterile, expectant but not deluded; To be scientific but not to live on formulas that cut us off from life; To hear amidst clamor the pure, deep tones of the spirit; To seek the wisdom tha...
    Poetry | By William Laurence Sullivan | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Aging, Change, Character, Growth, Meaning, Peace, Secular, Wisdom
  • Leader 1: It takes a Unitarian Universalist Village to raise a Unitarian Universalist Child. We will read what we believe important for our children to learn, to know, and to experience. We invite you to respond by saying “It takes a village to raise a child.” Leader 2: It is important for our...
    Litany | By Tess Baumberger | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Caring, Child Dedication, Children, Children's / Religious Education Sunday, Children's Sabbath, Community, Generations, Growth, New Child, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Unitarian Universalism
  • A cold grey sky, a cold grey sea And a cold grey mist that is chilling me; A light that burns on the harbor bar With the dull dim glow of a distant star....
    Poetry | By Lewis H. Latimer | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Earth, Earth-Centered, Home, Letting Go, Mystery
  • Who cast a spell over my world? Who opened the doors, stirred the crowd of possibilities, put gold dust in my dreams causing my life to turn? O Fate, O Love, O Spirit, O God: is it true that all good things must end? Or have you set me on a path of meaning Not luck Of clarity Not magic And this...
    Poetry | By Angela Herrera | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Change, Direct Experience, God, Grace, Letting Go, Meaning, Unitarian Universalism, Wonder
  • This body is not what it was I got shin splints from running today Ten years ago all I’d get was smelly feet My back aches just from sitting these days In my youth, all my pain came from climbing trees This body is not what it was Not some alien thing thrust upon me So clumsy, always in the way I...
    Poetry | By Kayla Parker | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Aging, Body, Change, Direct Experience

Search Options

  • worship component, like chalice lighting or prayer
  • tags include spiritual themes (like hope, winter, anti-oppression or trust), UU Principle, and holiday, holy day, or other occasion: (holiday pages)
  • keyword searches the title, page text, tags, and author names
  • author: list of authors

Using the Site Search Box

You can also use the search box in the upper right corner of any page.

Give Credit to Authors

Our authors and artists have granted permission for use by Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) member congregations for any worship service, including printing materials, projecting onto screens, or including in audio/video podcasts. Thank you for crediting the author or artist.

WorshipWeb's Origin Story

Conceived in 1999, WorshipWeb was implemented in late 2000 and 2001 through funding from the Unitarian Universalist Association's successful 1997 "Handing on the Future" capital fund campaign.

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association and its members in the development of WorshipWeb.