sacred gesture
O Divine One who never slumbers, smile on me as I awake to greet this seventh day of the week. I arise from sleep united with all of the House of Israel who greet this dawn as a sacred day. Holy is this Saturday, holy have been each of the days of this week that concludes today. That I may live in that sense of holiness and fullness, I now enter into silent prayer. Wrap me in your Spirit as I enter the cave of my heart.
period of silent prayer or meditation
Splendorous is the song of silence, for how can words speak of you who are beyond all names, beyond the concepts of my mind yet nearer to me than I am to myself. I celebrate the wonder of your being as I pray.
a psalm, spiritual reading or personal prayer
As this earth spins around at thousands of miles an hour, my mind spins with plans for this day. At the same time as I use your gift of organizing, grant me also the gift of openness to what you, my God, may have in store for me on this new spring day. May I be open to sacred surprises. Grant me the readiness to set aside my plans when life proposes another agenda or the needs of others invite me to unexpected service. I present to you these my personal needs this day:_______, as well as the special needs of:_______.
Mindful this day of the great commandment that you gave to Moses, that we are to love you with all our heart, mind, soul and body, help me this Saturday to love in such a way. How easily do I live but half a life and love with but half a heart, but with your grace, this day will be different. May a zeal for life and for you consume me as it did your son Jesus and all the great saints of this earth.
May the new life of spring that fertilizes the earth be but a mirror of your ever-new life within my heart. I begin this day with joy and gratitude
in your Holy Name
and in the name of your Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
sacred gesture
sacred gesture
O Holy Father and Divine Mother, from whom all life and creation has come, I bow before you in wonder and adoration. As this seventh day of the week concludes, I marvel that within this week I have traveled seven million miles outward into the mystery of the night of space. Where is this cosmos, which you have shaped, traveling? Why have you placed me here at this place on this planet, at this precise moment in history? The only answer I hear is silence-and so only silence can be my response. With all my heart, I now enter into the prayer of stillness, one with you and all the earth.
period of silent prayer or meditation
How patient are you, my God, with my infant efforts to sit in silence before you. Pardon my restless mind and receive the gift of my desire to sit still. As this week concludes, while this planet once again looks outward at the great sea of stars and the beauty of the moon, I pray the following prayer.
a psalm, spiritual reading or personal prayer
May my ears and eyes be open to the marvel of green life pushing up through the skin of the earth and struggling free in buds on branches. This is the season of lovers, so let my heart freshly fall in love with you, my God. May the growing presence of ever-virgin Spring speak of the perennial possibilities for new beginnings in my life. And so I prepare to conclude a week now grown old. May this night be alive with springtime hope for the new week that will begin tomorrow.
I reach out to the web of life that binds all that you, my God, have created in a sacred unity. May I be united with all living beings on this planet, with the sun, planets and moons of our solar family and all the glittering colonies of night stars. May I sleep this night, and the hour of my death, in that sacred oneness.
Seal me this Saturday night with yourself, as I pray
in your Holy Name
and in the name of your son Jesus Christ
and in the Spirit of the Holy. Amen.
sacred gesture
