Imagine 2008

O great and kind Spirit,

you have always been. And before you nothing has been.

There is no one to pray to but you.

The star nations all over the heavens are yours,

and yours are the grasses of the earth.

You are older than all need,

older than all pain and prayer.

O great and kind Spirit,

All over the world the faces of livings ones are alike.

With tenderness they have come out of the earth

from which you give us food.

Look upon your children,

With children in their arms, they face the wind

And walk the red road of the day of quiet.

O great and kind Spirit, fill us with light.

Give us strength to understand and eyes to see deeply.

Teach us to walk the soft earth as relatives to all that live.

Help us! Without you, we are nothing.

~ Convocation of Lower Sioux

Let us pray for those who weep,

and for those who cause their weeping;

For those who are without food, clothes, and a place of shelter;

For those who live without hope and meaning;

For those who live as the objects of the whims of others;

For those who are only fooling themselves;

For those who live with wars and rumors of wars;

For those who make gods of things and of themselves.

~ United Church of Christ Book of Worship

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,

to be understood as to understand,

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 are born to eternal life.

Amen.

~ St. Francis of Assisi