I wrote the following prayer for the Ash Wednesday service at the church where I am doing my supervised field education. I incorporated a hymn called "Don't Be Afraid" from the hymnal More Voices, which I sang a capella. The Spirit moved in our midst as we prayed...
Compassionate God, lover of us all,
From scattered lives, we come to be reconnected…
With bruised or
broken hearts, we come to be healed…
Feeling isolated
and alone, we come to be loved…
We long to be reawakened to the melody of your presence that sings
through our lives…
Don’t be afraid. My
love is stronger; my love is stronger than your fear.
Don’t be afraid. My
love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.
In our times of distress,
when the pressures of life overwhelm us
We
sometimes worry others will not understand…and we become afraid to share our
burdens for fear of judgement…
When
we feel disconnected from our shared human experience…
When we no longer look into the faces of loved
one’s to see our own beauty mirrored there…
We can
lose sight of how wonderful we are as embodied expressions of your divine love,
We are numb to your Spirit moving in us and in the
spaces between us. Our relationships begin to unravel…
O God, draw us back into community when we wander too far alone in the wilderness
of life…
Don’t be afraid. My
love is stronger; my love is stronger than your fear.
Don’t be afraid. My
love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.
In the shadows of a lingering winter…
When cold temperatures and slippery roads
often mean we are housebound and cut off from the incredible glory of the earth
that sustains and shapes our being…
Our relationship
with Creation can become weakened and distorted…
Life-giving God, breather
of life and energy into every particle of the cosmos…knit us back together, as
one body, on Spirit, one strand in the great cosmic web of the universe…
Don’t be afraid. My
love is stronger; my love is stronger than your fear.
Don’t be afraid. My
love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.
God, your healing touch renews our souls…
You enliven our
life, our being, our relationships with one another…
Thankful for your eternal presence binding us together,
we tenderly offer the silent prayers of our hearts...
Don’t be afraid. My
love is stronger; my love is stronger than your fear.
Don’t be afraid. My
love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.
