thank-you-for Archives - Prayer matters

Thank you. For making me me

Mural by Joy Yamusangie (Artist in residence), London St Pancras

Litany

(inspired by Genesis 1)

In the beginning God created all things
and God saw that they were good.

At our beginning, God created us
unique and irreplaceable
loved by God and wanted by God
known to God and treasured by God
even before he created us.

In all our new beginnings, God creates something new.
So we will seek God
in the freshness of morning
in the laughter of friends
in the colours of creation
and in the warmth of spring-time sunshine.

Lord God, King of Creation,
open our eyes to see your presence
our souls to sense your presence
and our hearts to love your presence
ever here in your creation
and ever beyond it in eternity.
Amen

source: wellsprings.org.uk

Thank you. For making me

As I was working on this post I discovered that a webpage featuring the lyrics to my song, “Thank you, thank you”, had some curious typos. Also, the verse I wanted to spotlight (“Thank you, Lord, for making me”) isn’t included in the recording.

Please overlook the oversight, and join in this simple song of thanks to the God who made us, loves us, saved us and blesses us in countless ways. Perhaps make it personal and add some verses of your own.

A prayer

O my God teach my heart where and how to seek you,
where and how to find you …

You are my God and you are my All
and I have never seen you.

You have made me and remade me,
You have bestowed on me all the good things I possess,
Still I do not know you …

I have not yet done that for which I was made …
Teach me to seek you …

I cannot seek you unless you teach me
or find you unless you show yourself to me.

Let me seek you in my desire,
let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you,
let me love you when I find you.

~ written by Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), posted on re:worship

From the blog
Theme: God makes all things new [prayer sheet]
First steps
I hear you

Thank you. For fruit-bearing trees

Apples ready for harvest (Photo: Irene Bom)

Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so.

Genesis 1:11

Thanksgiving Litany

For summer’s passing and harvest home —
we thank you!
For autumn’s splendor and winter’s chill —
we thank you!
For seed that has fallen, the promise of spring —
we thank you!

As a part of nature’s wondrous cycle
of new birth, growth, fruitfulness and death
we rejoice in the creation of new life.

May our lives blossom as the apple tree in Spring
May we become fruitful in thought and deed
And may the seed of love that falls to the ground
Linger beyond our time on this earth.

~ posted on Third Space blog (excerpt)

Thank you. For life

In the silence
I receive once more
this gift of my life
from you.
     Hold me in your stillness,
     simplify me,
     and take possession of me,
     my God.

by Angela Ashwin,
from The Book of a Thousand Prayers by Angela Ashwin, #613

From the blog
First love
Who do you work for?
Theme: Spurred on by prayer [prayer sheet]

Thank you. For the sunrise

Benediction

based on Luke 1:78-79

A new day is dawning!
Despite what we see and hear in the world around us,
the sunrise is coming.
When it comes, it will break through the darkness of our world —
darkness caused by violence and death and hunger and despair.
And all those who now sit huddled in the shadows
will be able to rise and walk with confidence in the light.
So go from here with courage and hope,
to love and serve the Lord. Amen.

source: re-worship

Thank you. For dust

(Photo: Albert Goedkoop)

Easter blessings to you all.

In light of the resurrection, here’s a different take on the word, “dust”.

A poem: Dusting

by Marilyn Nelson, 1946

Thank you for these tiny
particles of ocean salt,
pearl-necklace viruses,
winged protozoans:
for the infinite,
intricate shapes
of submicroscopic
living things.

For algae spores
and fungus spores,
bonded by vital
mutual genetic cooperation,
spreading their
inseparable lives
from equator to pole.

My hand, my arm,
make sweeping circles.
Dust climbs the ladder of light.
For this infernal, endless chore,
for these eternal seeds of rain:
Thank you. For dust.

source: www.poets.org

Extras
Article: The Science of dust, Picasso’s favourite phenomenon