Opening Light Meditation
Picture the quality of a clear, warm sunlight in your mind’s eye…then imagine that same quality of sunlight as pinpoint of light in the middle of your body slowly expanding over the course of the next minuet until it fills the body, surrounds the body, fills the room and extends beyond as far as you care to imagine.
The Sarum Prayer
God be in my head—and in my understanding
God be in my eyes—and in my looking
God be in my mouth—and in my speaking
God be in my heart—and in my thinking
God be at my end—and at my departing
Psalm Portion
Psalm 31: 24
So be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord!
Psalm 31 is the prayer of a person in deep distress. Jesus invoked one of its lines, “into your hands I commit my spirit” on the cross. When times are difficult our hope can seem fragile, tenuous, vulnerable. Yet we need them more than ever. And so this last verse, “Be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord” is something we might take quite literally—picturing our hope, whatever it is, almost as though it were a newborn puppy or kitten, a newborn bird we’ve found alive but out of its nest—and placing our hope in the hands of God for safekeeping.
If any of these images of a fragile-seeming hope works for you, you could picture yourself picking up your hope and placing it in the hands of God for safekeeping. Or simply sit with this verse: “So be strong and courageous, all who put their hope in the Lord”
Prayer for Divine Perception
O Divine Wisdom, who dwells within the holy of holies, and whose light shines through all things created, fill our hearts, O blessed One, with the hope of a blessed future. Amen.
Prayer for Loved Ones
Take in and release a few deep breaths, as you name your loved ones, not seeking to change any of them with this form of prayer, but simply holding them in the light of God, for God’s blessing.
Serenity Prayer
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
Gratitude Practice
Allow yourself to feel gratitude, appreciation, or delight, for three things, small or big, whatever comes to mind.
Prayer of Praise
Come, Holy Spirit, ever one
With God the Father and the Son,
Send forth your overflowing grace
And with your love our souls embrace.
With all our strength and mind and voice,
We sing your praises and rejoice!
Inflame our hearts with love anew,
May all the world have love for you!
To God the Mother and the Son,
To Holy Spirit, three in one.
May praise and honor, glory be
To you eternal Trinity. Amen
Benediction
So have a blessed day: go in peace, wash your hands, love your neighbor—you are not alone!