Prayers and Poems

All materials on this page may be used for worship, in formal or informal settings, as long as the author is credited.

A Litany of Gratitude

Some came here looking for solace.
Some came here and gave it to them.

Some came here seeking music.
Some came here and gave it, joyfully.

Some came here seeking laughter.
Some came here and created it.

Some came here seeking learning, growth.
Some came here and provided it.

Some came here looking for a sense of security, a safe haven.
Some came here and provided that.

Some came here seeking an escape from hectic lives.
Some came here and enabled them to have it.

Some came here seeking the joy of community.
Some came here and created that.

Some came here wanting to serve.
Some came here and made it possible for them.

We thank them all

— Mel Harkrader Pine

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Adult’s Bedtime Prayer:

No part of my body is excluded from God’s compassion
And none can be withdrawn from God’s service.
No part of your body is excluded from God’s compassion
And none can be withdrawn from God’s service.
The great commandment holds no matter where we are.
I love God.
I love my neighbor—-you.
I love with my body and beyond my body:
Oh God
May whatever is done by, with, to and through this body
Be done in love.
Amen.

— Rev. Kate Braestrup

First appeared in Beginner’s Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life c.2010 Free Press/Simon and Schuster

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Prayer for a Glass Heart

Blessed is the breath of the glassblower, who
With skilled and steady exhalation
Heats the gritty solid of the heart
And with his breath expands
My heart until a wider vessel is created;
Until my heart’s capacity is such
The whole world can be embraced in love. Blessed be!
Even though a heart’s walls ache as they expand
Even if glass must, of necessity, grow fragile
To encompass
As it shines.
Allowing light, more light, more light,
May the glassblower breathe and breathe until
With the slightest tap my heart
Flies and shatters into sand.
Blessed is the breath of the glassblower
Craftsman of fragility
Artist of the shatter and the shine.

— Rev. Kate Braestrup

First appeared in Beginner’s Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life c.2010 Free Press/Simon and Schuster

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My Dzogchen Buddhist teacher, Lama Surya Das, called this his New Millennium Prayer, but it still is needed today and every moment we live. — MHP

Copyright 1999 © Lama Surya Das

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A PRAYER

Stretch my heart Lord, like a tree
shading the water.
Its roots holding banks and
tunnels for voles, rabbits
garter snakes and worms;
with roots for kingfishers and young boys to grip with toes and perch
waiting for sunfish to glisten the water.

Stretch my heart Lord, like a river
bending its way through the earth,
Gracious and bountiful,
With places for children to run and jump, calling with joy
as water quickens their blood,
and banks for lovers, caressing with their eyes,
and old women remembering their men.

Stretch my heart Lord, like the sun,
unveiling your work as it draws back the darkness,
lighting the dance of children in playgrounds,
Sand Hill Cranes, and teenagers bobbing as they court,
lighting the path of miners and playwrights
soda jerks and florists
and women bending to hang wet sheets.

Stretch my heart, Lord
until it encompasses with love
even itself.

— Barbara Kent Lawrence

Copyright 2006 © Barbara Kent Lawrence

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Praying at the Altar

I like pagodas.
There’s something—I don’t know—
secretive about them,
soul-soothing, mind-easing.
Inside, if only for a moment,
life’s clutter disappears.

Once, long ago, we destroyed one:
collapsed the walls
‘til the roof caved in.
Just a small one, all by itself
in the middle of nowhere,
and we were young. And bored.
Armed to the teeth.
And too much time on our hands.

Now whenever I see a pagoda,
I always go in.
I’m not a religious man,
but I light three joss sticks,
bow three times to the Buddha,
pray for my wife and daughter.
I place the burning sticks
in the vase before the altar.

In Vung Tau, I was praying
at the Temple of the Sleeping Buddha
when an old monk appeared.
He struck a large bronze bell
with a wooden mallet.
He was waking up the spirits
to receive my prayers.

— W. D. Ehrhart

Reprinted from Praying at the Altar by W. D. Ehrhart, Adastra Press, 2017.

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