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Affirmations Benedictions Blessings Chalice Lightings Closings Invocations Litanies Meditations Openings Poetry Prayers Readings Responsive Readings Rituals Stories
A Blessing for Planned Parenthood

A Blessing for Planned Parenthood

God of many names and mystery beyond all our naming, Our time together today is a precious gift. We gather in the name of justice in love and service to a higher good. We gather in hope for a world where oppression of any kind is challenged. We gather to spark the fire of commitment lit in every...

D Daniel Chesney Kanter
Re-Creation

Re-Creation

Spirit of Life, God of Love, who are we to know how you moved over the waters when all was new? We were not there when you parted them and formed dry land. We didn't hear you cry with joy when earth gave birth to life, or when love began to grow in the human heart....

S Stephen M. Shick
History's Road

History's Road

The road of history is long, full of both hope and disappointment. In times past, there have been wars and rumors of wars, violence and exploitation, hunger and homelessness, and destruction of this earth, your creation....

M Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley and Clyde Grubbs
Lamentation (Lamentación)

Lamentation (Lamentación)

Today we gather with determination and commitment that is grounded in a profound sense of sorrow for those who have suffered and will suffer in the future because of climate change. As always, those who suffer most are the poor and marginalized....

P Peter Morales
Prayer in Winter

Prayer in Winter

Oh spirit of life and love, We pause for a moment on this snowy day to reflect on the changes one week can make in our lives. We celebrate the feast of Imbolc, the pagan holiday that heralds the coming of spring. Our hearts stir with the thought that lambs are being born, that the light is...

D Deborah Weiner
Entwined

Entwined

Spirit of Life, God of Love, I am entwined in your delicate web of mutuality. The life energy that makes me reach for the sun also moves me to become wrapped, like the strong bittersweet vine and the delicate sweet pea, around those I meet and love. Here in the tangle of my daily life I feel your...

S Stephen M. Shick
Prayer for Standing Rock

Prayer for Standing Rock

Spirit of Life, We hold in our hearts the peaceful protestors of all tribes and faiths who are gathered at Standing Rock, protecting sacred water and land. They ask for respect, they ask for our government to help protect their sacred lands and the water that sustains their lives....

D Diana Smith
Spirit and Body Joined Together

Spirit and Body Joined Together

Take a moment to breathe into the silence. Our breath is always with us. We can always come back to the breath, our anchor, our grounding, our freedom. Spirit of life and love, we are here not just minds and hearts, but bodies too. We human beings, spirit and body joined together. On this day we...

L Laura Horton-Ludwig
Prayer for Women Who Endured Abortions

Prayer for Women Who Endured Abortions

Sisters, I stand before you without homily or lecture or opinion. I stand here naked on the page. I stand here with my hands extended in helpless prayer. I will never know your pain. I will never know your agony of spirit. I will never know the dark nights of your souls. I will never know the...

B Brian Doyle
Prayer for a Complicated Father's Day

Prayer for a Complicated Father's Day

Holidays are complicated, especially the ones named after roles. Human relationships are messy, including relationships with people who are honored by holidays. For a lot of people, Father’s Day brings up feelings of grief for fathers who were lost, or who couldn’t be there, or who chose not to...

L Lyn Cox
Prayer of Co-Creation

Prayer of Co-Creation

Creative spirit, source of life and love: We give thanks for the beauty of this day and for the company of those assembled here. Thank you for the breezes of change, clearing our heads and bringing fresh ideas. May they cleanse our minds of the oppressions and isms that divide us....

L Lyn Cox
A Web of Holy Relationships

A Web of Holy Relationships

Spirit of Life, Who draws us together in a web of holy relationships, Make your presence known with us and in us and among us. Remind us that we are not alone in history, Ignite us with the courage of the living tradition. Remind us that we are not alone in entering the future, Anchor us with...

L Lyn Cox
Open to the Blessed Darkness

Open to the Blessed Darkness

Here in the quiet, may we lift up our hearts in gratitude for the gifts of our lives, pausing in thanksgiving.

L Linda Hart
The Spirit of Life Is Here

The Spirit of Life Is Here

We come together in this quiet moment to unify our hearts again towards the clarion call of our time: May justice and equity guide us to great connection, a greater truth.

R Rebekah Savage
We Are Still Grateful

We Are Still Grateful

And still, we are grateful.

C Connie Simon
The Richness of Our Differences

The Richness of Our Differences

Let our hearts be welcoming of multiple truths, not holding hard or fast to closed mindedness or judgmental thinking. What can we learn from each other in the richness of our differences?

J Julianne Lepp
The Tender Mercies of Our Lives

The Tender Mercies of Our Lives

We pray for those with power to create peace

L Lara Cowtan
A Prayer for 8th Grade Boys

A Prayer for 8th Grade Boys

Spirit of the divine masculine, grant us the strength to nurture in ourselves, and in every young person we have the privilege to know, the gifts of patience, curiosity, and compassion.

A AJ van Tine
Our Lifelong Work of Liberation

Our Lifelong Work of Liberation

Our faith also gives us hope. A faith that knows that transformation is a holy and sacred task, that affirms that the democratic process is a faithful act, that brings a generous heart and a lens of justice and liberation to all that we do, that values equality and equity and is centered in love.

D Dayna Edwards
Toward the Promise

Toward the Promise

Oh Spirit of Life and Love, fortify us with the wisdom and tenacity of our ancestors to continue toward the promise in the founding documents of our nation: a nation where all of us are created as equals and are endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

D Dayna Edwards
Nourished and Transformed

Nourished and Transformed

Ours is the work of creation. Ours is the work of inviting people into an irresistible movement, rooted in our belief that a new world is possible. And the center of our work is love, and joy, and the spirit of abundance.

L Lisa Garcia-Sampson
Let Love Lead

Let Love Lead

Lead us to the love that holds us all and is with us always; the love that can help us through the messy and necessary life-altering work of building movements across beliefs, across difference, for change that can endure.

D DL Helfer
Easter Prayer: Voice Still and Small

Easter Prayer: Voice Still and Small

Voice still and small, as we turn inward we listen for you. Deep inside all, this Easter morning, open our hearts to hear you in the figure of Jesus.

S Shari Woodbury
A Prayer Against Apathy

A Prayer Against Apathy

May we each model in our natures, the best in Nature. Eternally changing; knowing only movement, and an urge to create life.

N Nicholas D’Agosto
May We Be the Blessings

May We Be the Blessings

Spirit of Love, come alongside with all the holy nudges that we need, so we may live in such a way that we celebrate all the blessings that we have been given. So we may be the blessings in the world.

R Rebekah Savage
A Prayer for When Everything Crumbles to Dust

A Prayer for When Everything Crumbles to Dust

Spirit of Transformation, may our hearts break open and stretch out to join with the hearts of others who yearn for a freer world…

A AJ van Tine
Blanket Fort Prayer

Blanket Fort Prayer

Meet me in the heartbeat between what has been and what will be; meet me in the flicker of our eternal flame. We need not face this moment alone.

H Helen “HP” Rivers
Witnessing Prayer

Witnessing Prayer

May we become quiet enough and still enough to notice the call deep within us that lures us towards what matters most, this call that lures us towards freedom and purpose.

K Kate Steinberg
A Home and a Community

A Home and a Community

Beloved Child — May you know great love; may you feel deep joy; may you understand the work of justice and the light of truth.

K Karishma Gottfried
The Love We Pray

The Love We Pray

In the midst of the anger and frustration is hope—hope that we are here, hope that a loving world is indeed possible, hope in the faith that love can and will triumph over hate.

A Andrew Weber
Values Prayer, after Saint Francis

Values Prayer, after Saint Francis

Make us instruments of your peace with love at the center of everything we do.

C Christopher Buice
A lamentation for the first 100 days of this administration

A lamentation for the first 100 days of this administration

May we be a people who side with love.

The Human Spirit

The Human Spirit

The human spirit has enormous resilience. But it is pushed to the limit by grief following the tragedy we have witnessed: sudden and unexpected death, the loss of so many lives. These vicious attacks defy our understanding. It hurts. We grieve....

M Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley
Seeking That Which Unites Us

Seeking That Which Unites Us

May we remember we are a people of resilience. We have faced uncertainty before; we have weathered storms; we have been consumed by flames; we have risen like the phoenix from the ashes. And we will again.

S Sara Eileen LaWall
The Promise and the Practice: Pastoral Prayer #1

The Promise and the Practice: Pastoral Prayer #1

Spirit of Life and Love, God of Many Names, we gather in awareness of the opportunity before us as Unitarian Universalists. We have been given many chances before today to heal the wounds of the racism and oppression that have beset our denomination for many years...

C Connie Simon
Crossing Borders

Crossing Borders

Spirit of my longing and lonely heart, help me travel through the barren borderlands that separate me from others. Teach me to willingly explore relationships with those who frighten or threaten me, grant me the courage to risk confidently my own comforts, that I might make others more comfortable.

S Stephen M. Shick
A World of Beauty and Love Is Coming

A World of Beauty and Love Is Coming

Spirit of Life, love which holds us, We gather in reverence and thanks for You. We are grateful for the gift of another breath, and for each moment of connection, beauty, and truth. Cry with us in our pain for our world. Remind us that we are loved, just as we are. Remind us that we are connected...

E Elizabeth Bukey Saunter
In Mourning for the Children

In Mourning for the Children

We are broken, O God. We are broken. We gather in vigil again to mourn the death of school children and school teachers. Death and violence are the reasons that draw us together in sorrow, in anger, in anxious grief and loss....

D Douglas Taylor
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Gracious God, We are not supposed to talk about hearing voices in our head. That’s how rumors get started. But there’s a voice, a familiar stranger, that we can’t seem to turn down or turn off. One that says we’re a mess, a mistake, a fool, a fraud. That voice says everyone else has it...

L Lori Walke
Power Prayer

Power Prayer

Spirit of Life, I have witnessed a loud love, an out-loud love, that challenges me. I did not recognize it at first— the rumble of an ocean I had long been under. But here it is right now and it looks just like the whole world could be. It doesn’t play nice; why should it when nice has only ever...

B Becky Brooks
Blessing for Lay Leaders

Blessing for Lay Leaders

As we begin a new year together, let us offer our blessing to the lay leaders who invest their time and care in the well-being of this congregation. If you help lead a ministry here, I invite you to rise in body, in spirit, in all the ways that we do. And I invite all of us to enter a spirit of...

L Lindasusan Ulrich
Find Love, Be Love

Find Love, Be Love

May we find love in this place: love in our hearts, love for the broken-down, love for the lonely, love for those yet to feel whole, love for those in-between, love for those out of our reach. May we find love, add love, and be love in this world. Amen.

L Laura Riordan Berardi
Prayer of Turning at the New Year

Prayer of Turning at the New Year

Spirit of Life, Source of Love, you who know our struggles and failures as well as we know them ourselves, be with us as we enter into this time of reflection. Give us the courage to travel through a moral inventory of our lives, to notice the places where we have missed opportunities to live our...

L Lyn Cox
A Prayer for White People

A Prayer for White People

Sheltered in our homes, Or going to work, at risk, For week after week after week, We’re edgy, tired, a little raw. We are tender, vulnerable, Open. A little more open than usual. Those of us who are white, Who, before, might have been distracted Who, before, might have been too busy Who, before,...

E Ellen Quaadgras
Father's Day Prayer

Father's Day Prayer

On Father’s Day we honor those people who have been teachers, confidants, and friends. We acknowledge that it is not biology that makes a parent, But love and attention. For those of us that have lost a father, or a child, we hold their memories in our hearts....

C Carol Allman-Morton
Body Prayer, Version Two

Body Prayer, Version Two

Please join me for a body prayer of caring. We bring our hands over our hearts to express respect for ourselves. We expand our hands into a small circle to express respect for others. We expand our hands out wide to express our respect for our church. [repeat 3 times] Amen and may it be so.

A Annie Scott
Body Prayer, Version One

Body Prayer, Version One

It's important is to take time to be quiet, to be still, so we can be in touch with the deepest and best part of ourselves—our inner voice— often called prayer or meditation. I invite you to join in a body prayer. I will show you the motions— then invite you to move through it with me once,...

A Annie Scott
Father's Day Prayer

Father's Day Prayer

Ground of all being, Great Nurturing Spirit, This morning especially, we give thanks For beautiful days right in between spring and summer, For flowers and green trees and freshly cut grass and lazy lakeside afternoons, For the sound and sight and heart-swell of being together in this place made...

K Kristin Grassel Schmidt
Help us to hold the mystery

Help us to hold the mystery

Spirit of life and death, Thou who art as present to us in our suffering As in our wellbeing, Abide with us in this permeable time Between dusk and dark. Soothe the secret pains we carry. Bless us with the courage to move toward our grief And not away. When all is hidden— When we find ourselves...

C Celie Katovitch
A Prayer of New Beginning

A Prayer of New Beginning

In the spirit of community and a sense of purpose in our ministry: Let us commence the discovery of our strengths, our concerns, our grief and our joy. Let this journey be one of love, authenticity and reverence....

L Laurie Stuart