Gathering Prayer - New Beginnings
GATHERING PRAYER
Blessing for a New Start
Face the future
for the past is over and gone.
Live with the memories.
Learn from Experiences.
Let go of grievances.
Resolve differences.
Live in the sight of God,
in the way of God.
Be strong,
God has seen us through
good times and bad.
God will bless our future
as God had held our past.
Reading One: From Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Brothers, (and Sisters,)
above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are, quite naturally, impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We are impatient of being
on the way to somewhere unknown,
something new!
And yet, it is the law of all progress
that is made by passing through
some stages of instability -
and that may take a very long time!
And so, I think it is with us
our ideas mature gradually -
let them grow,
let them shape themselves
without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today
what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on their own good will)
will make you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give God the benefit of believing
that God’s hand is leading you
and accept the anxiety of
feeling yourself in suspense
and incomplete!
Reading Two: Isaiah 42: 16-19
Thus says Yahweh,
who made a way through the sea,
a path in the great waters;
who put chariots and horse in the field
and a powerful army,
which lay there never to rise again,
snuffed out, put out like a wick:
No need to recall the past,
no need to think about what was done before.
See, I am doing a new deed,
even now it comes to light; can you not see it?
Yes, I am making a road in the wilderness,
paths in the wilds.
Final Blessing:
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers,
half-truths, superficial relationships,
so that you will live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice,
oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that you will work for justice, equity, and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain,
rejection, starvation, and war,
so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and change their pain to joy.
And may God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world,
so that you will do things which others tell you cannot be done.
Article posted on 29th of October 2010
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