Kate Braestrup - Beginners Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life

Thanks are in order for the many ways in which my ministry, my projects, and this book have been supported by my colleagues. In particular, Id like to thank Reverend Mark Glovins, Reverend Susan Stonestreet, Pastor James Weathersby, Marie Malin, Pastor Don Williams, and Reverend David Blanchard for assistance above and beyond the call of collegial duty. At the same time, I must make it clear that none of these gifted ministers is in any way responsible for the errors (whether of theology or of plain good sense) I may have committed in these pages.

Thanks are also due to friends and relatives who have generously served as sources for prayers and thoughts on prayer, especially: Natasha Belfiore, Jackie Morgan, Elizabeth Aldrich, Annie Kiermier, Alla Rene Bozarth, Alicia Carpenter, the Ballard family and the Gallogly family, and the brothers and sisters too numerous to name who form my extended law-enforcement family. Bless you all.

While she is not an ordained minister, Thea van der Ven has spent the better part of eighty years demonstrating the power of love in a very wide variety of ways, from her work as a therapist, her advocacy on behalf of those suffering with AIDS, and as a dancer and performer. Humbly, I can add to the list: She is a cheerful champion of her newest daughter-in-laws work, offering encouragement, affection, challenge, and good humor, not to mention an extraordinary example of how to live in this world. Thank you, Thea.

HOSPITAL PRAYER

O God, whose name is love

I offer the prayer of my yearning heart

I cant hold or heal my child.

Please, hold her for me.

Love moves in the skilled hands of those who would heal my baby

Love is in their learning and their care

God be in my understanding.

God be in my patience

God be in my arms, as she is returned to me.

May my child and all children be blessed

My family and all families blessed

May Gods love enfold us, dwell in us, give us comfort

And grant us peace.

Amen.

KB

PSALM 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside still waters;

He restores my soul

He leads me in right paths for his names sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil;

for you art with me;

your rod and your staff

they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil,

my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord

my whole life long.

DANISH PRAYER

Sing praises of the Lord with heart and soul

Singing heart, embrace the spirit

The notes play, like the stars that sparkle

Joyously around the name of the Lord.

N. F. S. Grunvig

FAMILY GRACE

We are thankful for the food

And for the hands that prepared it

And for our family and for our friends.

Amen.

TRADITIONAL GRACE

Bless us, O Lord and these thy gifts

Which we are about to receive from Thy bounty

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

GRACE

For the food before us

And the friends beside us

And the love that surrounds us

We are truly grateful.

FROM PSALM 147

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;

make melody to our God on the lyre.

He covers the heavens with clouds,

prepares rain for the earth,

makes grass grow on the hills.

He gives to the animals their food,

and to the young ravens when they cry.

TRADITIONAL GRACE SONG

Oh! The Lord is good to me

And so I thank the Lord

For giving me

The things I need

The sun and the moon and the apple tree

The Lord is good to meYIPPEE!

SWIFT GRACE

May the hungry be well fed. May the well fed hunger for justice. Amen.

FROM PSALM 118

This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

BLESSING

Blessed is the spot

And the house

And the temple

And the city street

And the human heart

And the clinic

And the sidewalk

And the bridge

And the riverbank

And the refuge

And the stony beach

And the flowering orchard

And the cliff top

And the ice floe

And the barley field

And the deep woods

Blessed is the place

Where mention of God has been made

Where Gods love has been offered and received

By human voices, by human ears, by blessed human hands.

Amen.

KB

TRADITIONAL CHILDRENS BEDTIME PRAYER

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

If I should die before I wake

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

CHILDRENS BEDTIME PRAYER (ADAPTED)

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray that love my soul will keep

My body rest, my love expand

To every soul in every land.

God bless

Amen.

AFRICAN PRAYER

God save us

God hide us.

When we sleep, God, do not sleep

If we sleep, God, do not get drowsy,

Tie us around Your arm, God,

Like a bracelet.

OLD CELTIC PRAYER

Lord and God of Power

Shield and sustain me this night.

Lord, God of Power

This night and every night.

FROM PSALM 108

Awake, my soul!

Awake, O harp and lyre!

I will awake the dawn.

ST. AUGUSTINES PRAYER

Watch, dear Lord, with those who wake

Or watch, or work or weep tonight,

And give your angels charge

Over those who sleep.

Tend your sick ones, O Lord God

Rest your weary ones.

Bless your dying ones.

Soothe Your suffering ones.

Pity your afflicted ones.

Shield your joyous ones.

All for your loves sake.

Amen.

ADULTS BEDTIME PRAYER I

O God, I offer the prayers of my heart

May I be held in your hands as I sleep

May I be blessed by your love. May I arise with joy in the morning.

For those I name aloud [names],

May they be held in your hands and blessed by your love.

May they arise with joy in the morning.

For those whose names I do not know but whose sufferings I know to be real to you,

Help me, that they might become real to me.

May they be held in your hands and blessed by your love.

May they arise with joy in the morning.

Amen.

MARRIAGE BLESSING

May these vows and this marriage be blessed.

May this marriage be delicious milk,

Like wine and halvah.

May it offer fruit and shade

Like the date palm.

May this marriage be full of laughter

Making every day a day in Paradise

May this marriage be a token of compassion

A seal of joy now and forever more.

May this marriage have a gracious face and a good name,

An omen as welcome

As the moon in a clear, daylight sky.

I have run out of words to describe

How spirit mingles in this marriage!

Jalal al-Din Rumi

FROM THE SONG OF SOLOMON

How fair and pleasant you are,

O loved one, delectable maiden!

You are stately as a palm tree,

and your breasts are like its clusters.

I say I will climb the palm tree

And lay hold of its branches.

Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,

And the scent of your breath like apples,

Your kisses like the best wine

That goes down smoothly

Gliding over lips and teeth

How graceful are your feet in sandals,

O queenly maiden!

Your rounded thighs are like jewels,

the work of a master hand.

Your navel is a rounded bowl

that never lacks mixed wine.