Prayers to be said on the four Sundays of Advent while lighting the Advent candle wreath.

Let this year be a clean slate for new beginnings.

Spirit of the divine masculine, grant us the strength to nurture in ourselves, and in every young person we have the privilege to know, the gifts of patience, curiosity, and compassion.

As we repent in full body and form, secure our names and the generations to come as you have done through time. God who blessed the womb of life, save us once again.

Turn toward the thaw, and turn toward the rebirth of spring with New Hope.

In this heartbreak what we carry forth is our humanity in newly revealed form—our hearts tender and delicate.

We pray for those with power to create peace

May you be tender and gentle with yourself

May we view each other as partners, comrades, friends on the journey

Let us be open to expression and be understood.

Let us set aside hate, and devote our lives to the ways of peace and justice.  

Remind us that resilience is in our bones, that peace will prevail on earth

We hold space for all that Father's Day may mean to us.

To live is to change. To change is to find our sacred purpose.

You have given us a day unique from any other.

Let us find ways to accept one another while preserving our hearts.

May our spirits be guided by our values.

We hold in our hearts those who aspire to move from age-ing to sage-ing.

May we open our hearts to the abundance of creation.

We are that, says a little acorn pointing toward an oak tree.

Hold us gently as we gather closer together, comforting each other, healing each other.

Help us feel at home with ourselves and with one another so there is no need to pretend.

May we reconnect to our life-giving, breath-freeing connection

Sing in our hearts all the stirrings of compassion for the oppressed, for those who are scared and hurting.

May we find the care in our community to keep grieving and keep loving and keep living.

We are leaving a space that has been made holy.

We are mourning the dead and fighting for the living. We're singing for joy and striving for meaning.

And still, we are grateful.

May we whisper thank you for all that is good in our lives. (Thank you) May we shout thank you! for the abundance of blessings. (Thank you) May we feel thank you, thank you, thank you, deep within our hearts and around us right now. May we be thankful, down to our bones, for this time together....

For all that we’ve learned; for all that we’ve lost; for the healing we need.

May we know that our interconnectedness is a miracle, and may it be a refuge for us.

We collectively share the sorrow of those individuals in the armed services who lost their lives in war.

Breathe in for caregivers of all kinds who give of themselves to make other people’s lives better, more whole.

Spirit of Life, spirit of earth, spirit of all that breathes and all that is: we love you.

We all honor the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Compassion, the Spirit of Justice, the Spirit of Love

This is a prayer for working parents zooming another meeting with a little face joining in; for new parents, waiting for new life without support; for the single parents, doing all this alone.

Spirit of light and love Spirit of resistance Spirit of generosity That which serves as our conscience in this work That we do to dismantle white supremacy To empower the marginalized To insist that black lives matter, matter We have been angered We have been saddened We have been pushed to the...

Spirit of Life, Spirit of Love, we come today carrying our grief, our memories, and our love. We gather around screens and devices, reaching out with our minds and hearts to join in this most ancient of human customs: honoring one whom we loved who has died....

Sheltered in our homes, Or going to work, at risk, For week after week after week, We’re edgy, tired, a little raw. We are tender, vulnerable, Open. A little more open than usual. Those of us who are white, Who, before, might have been distracted Who, before, might have been too busy Who, before,...

Deep in the shadow of night, down near the crossroads and cemetery gates, with bitter liquor and cigar smoke wafting, I greet you. Clad in white, upon the floor before shrines, following the names of the Ancestors being uttered, I greet you. You are the sacred and righteous rage of my people.

May the invitation of prayer and meditation embrace this holy house and each precious person, moving each and all to connect with a sense of affirmation— sound, movement, or silence— in whatever way your body knows to be true. [chime] Spirit of Life and Love, our hearts are overflowing with...

Let me find peace within So that I may be calm throughout. Let me find silence within So that I may find compassion throughout. Let me be reminded that some things Are worth waiting for. Let me be reminded that the journey Is more important than reaching the destination. Let me see that the...

Goddess, Make me an instrument of peace Where there is hatred, let me know love Where there is injury, healing Where there is doubt, reassurance Where there is challenge, compassion Where there is pain, rest O Divine Mother, Grant that I may Not so much seek to control as to co-create, To be...

As my body begins to loose its hold On this life, this earth, this entirety, May I lay my past to rest And face the unknowable With courage and curiosity. May those to whom I am connected gather. May they recall me as I am and have been....

Spirit of Life and Love, Holy God, Source Eternal, in our midst yet still ever so elusive: To breathe your sacred name is a blessing. Your world become, Your will be done here, on Earth, inspired by our aspirations to do and be better people. May we have all that we need to survive, live, and...

Spirit of Life, ancestor of the stars and the sun, you who embrace the vastness of space and us along with it, be with us today. Hold us in our worry, our exhaustion, our grief. Keep us close as we sit with our truth, whatever that may be....

Spirit of Life, Source of Love, you who know our struggles and failures as well as we know them ourselves, be with us as we enter into this time of reflection. Give us the courage to travel through a moral inventory of our lives, to notice the places where we have missed opportunities to live our...

God, teach us to consider also how others experience the world. To understand how my reality and their reality are different and yet they share qualities of the same core desire. Teach us to listen for shared feelings, for places of connection. Teach us to be curious and open to hearing differences.

May we find love in this place: love in our hearts, love for the broken-down, love for the lonely, love for those yet to feel whole, love for those in-between, love for those out of our reach. May we find love, add love, and be love in this world. Amen.

As we begin a new year together, let us offer our blessing to the lay leaders who invest their time and care in the well-being of this congregation. If you help lead a ministry here, I invite you to rise in body, in spirit, in all the ways that we do. And I invite all of us to enter a spirit of...