Immortality
We remember the joys our departed gave us which opened us up to the life shared which is now ours to steward.
The Complex Feelings of Father's Day
Sometimes it feels like Father’s Day is more about enshrining a myth than it is about facing the realities of fatherhood.
Meditation on Letting Go
In our experience of letting go, may we be open to the possibility that we need not pick our worries back up.
The Cradle is Empty–Again
Can I do it again? Do I even dare? Do I have the strength? Because the cradle might be empty—again.
It’s Mother’s Day Again: A Childless Mother’s Cry
It can be a lonely time for those of us whose arms are empty.
I Believe in Fathering
I believe in the radical idea that men have the full human capacity to nurture.
Meditation on the Four Directions
In the pagan tradition, which is grounded in a respect and reverence for the natural world, calling upon the four directions is the usual way to begin any ceremony. Each direction is associated with an element of the natural world, and represents some part of our human nature as well....
Every Moment Is One
Your first Christmas, your last Christmas, this Christmas, and the redemption of the whole world are all happening right now, forever.
Let this Be a Place of Silence
Let this be a place of warm and gentle silence: the silence that soothes and comforts the wounded, the silence that yields insights into heart and soul, the silence that calms, the silence the listens, the silence that speaks, the silence that renews. Let this be a place of warm and gentle silence.
Spending Time in Silence
Quiet yourself and listen to the rhythm of your breath, your heart . . .Listen to the silence . . .
The Communion Prayer
In the name of Providence, which implants in the seed the future of the tree and in the hearts of men [and women] the longing for people living in [human] love; in the name of the highest....
Fall Equinox Meditation
Like the sun moving toward the shortest day, each moment arises—and is gone before we know it.
In These Days of Fire
Let us pause, and breathe, and be in touch with the sacred presence that permeates all, including this room, now. Web of All... of life, death, and renewal: We open our hearts to those who suffer as a result of the wildfires.
When my mind is still and alone with the beating of my heart, I remember many things too easily forgotten:
When my mind is still and alone with the beating of my heart, I remember many things too easily forgotten: the purity of early love; the maturity of unselfish love that seeks nothing but another's good; the idealism that has persisted through all the tempest of life.
In the moments when Word is silence
In the moments when Word is silence give yourself to it in wholeness and wait. Let the knowing of this primal sound carry you into circles where sound itself— where silence itself—becomes new and the new a song you sing from your bones.
Let there be a quiet time among us
Let there be a quiet time among us. Spirit of life, in us and around us, here is our chance—once again—to live like we wish the world would live. May we find within ourselves the courage to be who we are. May we know when it is time to listen and when it is time to speak. May we trust ourselves...
O God, whom we know as love
O God, whom we know as love, we gather here this morning as seekers and finders, creators and destroyers, givers and receivers of love....
Oh Divine Spirit
Oh Divine Spirit, healer of my hurts, consoler of my sorrows, vibrant light of happiness, birther of all life and gentle way of death, hear my prayer. I raise my heart to you as do the ancient redwoods, rooted in the ground, swaying in the wind....
Prayer for Memorial Day
Spirit of Life,We enter into this season of Memorial Day surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses.We remember, first of all, the women and men who are currently serving in the armed forces and we pray for their safe return.We also acknowledge that there are women and men who will not return,as we...
Prayer for All Who Mother
We reflect in thanksgiving this day for all those whose lives have nurtured ours.The life-giving onesWho heal with their presenceWho listen in sympathyWho give wise advice ......
We gather to be together
We gather to be together,We gather to celebrate and to support our beloved communityWe gather to commune in body as well as in spirit.Let us share both the food and the fellowship we find here tonight.
Candle Lighting on Christmas Eve
This prayer was originally spoken while lighting candles in the following way: Begin with only the Chalice light in the sanctuary (no artificial lights). Light the first candle from the Chalice, and read the first part of the prayer....
Christmas Spirit
Fill your heart like a vessel with the Christmas spirit. Take the time to let your vision clear and your concern deepen. Allow your heart to overflow with all the authentic gifts that this season has to offer....
Here in this space we are gathered
Here in this space, we are gathered, called by our sense of urgency, or duty, or the longing for community, called to be together on this day...Here, in this space, we are gathered...called to hold ourselves accountable to our values...to remind ourselves of those hopes and dreams and possibiliti...
The Quiet and the Calm
Let us seek the quiet and the calm Let us lay aside our loud calling Let us lay aside our struggle Speak softly: let us listen to the melodies that recall other proportions Our moments tarry not with us Let us then seek the dimension that endures beyond all nowness and hereness beyond all...
Wise Woman Redwood
I lean against wise woman redwood, press my cheek to her scaly side and cry, whisper how I wish to be a tree, so I would no longer have to see what humans do to one another. Her wooden reedy voice replies, "Yes, but then you'd listen to earth lament what humans do to her."...
On Veterans Day
"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is 'Thank You,' it will be enough" —Meister Eckhart Today we have set aside time to publicly say thank you to our siblings who have served in the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Navy and Marines; to say 'Thank You' to all who served, whatev...
May All the Beings in the Worlds Be Happy
May all the beings in all the worlds be happy. May all the beings in all the worlds be happy. May all the beings in all the worlds be happy. Om Peace, Peace, Peace. One of the earliest and most important religious texts of ancient India, the Rig Veda is the oldest of the four collections of hymns...
Prayer of the War Atheist
My prayer today is that I learn to stay a war atheist— my prayer today for each of us, for everyone in this nation, in this world, is that we all learn to be war atheists. I don’t believe in war anymore. My prayer today is that I never again succumb to fear, fear which seduces me to believe that...
Christmas Eve Night
Like those shepherds who were on the hillsides with their flocks, like those wise ones in their observatories with their telescopes and astronomical charts, we find our daily work interrupted by these holidays. Like them, we can’t keep on working, we have to listen to singing angels, we have to...
Transcending Boundaries
When I was a child, I would stand and gaze at the starry firmament and contemplate infinity. As I stood there, the boundary that is time dissolved; I expanded my Spirit to fill the boundary that is space. My being stilled and all fear, anxiety, and anguish disappeared....
Prayer for Compassion
Spirit of Life, I give thanks for the opportunities to love that present themselves in the turmoil of life. Where the light catches the tears in another’s eyes, where hands are held and there are moments without words, let us be present then, and alive to the possibility of changing. Let us seek...
To Savor the World or Save It
“It’s hard to know when to respond to the seductiveness of the world and when to respond to its challenge. If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between the desire to improve the world and...
Unitarians (and UUs) at Christmas
They say a story can carry a truth far greater than the literal truth. We Unitarians* know the value of stories. We know they carry truth. We know they carry more truth than just the plain truth ever can. Maybe we can’t believe a virgin gave birth to the son of God: but we can believe that all...
At One
Imagine this. On the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, every fall, every year, the people make their peace with anyone they have wronged or slighted or injured or in any way neglected in the past twelve months....
Everyone Searches for Bethlehem
Tonight, everyone is displaced and homeless. Tonight, everyone searches for Bethlehem. On this night, when the darkness comes so close, We listen in the stillness for the songs of angels. Like shepherds, we aren't too sure of what is happening. We don't know why we are so expectant. We don't know...
How Many More Sundays?
How many more Sundays will the preacher in black robes and the solemn shuffle of papers Read the names of those whose light was extinguished for our right to bear arms? How many more Sundays will we try to believe that our hopes for justice are worth more than the lobbyists’ tailored suits and...
Meditation on Attention
Sit and rest for a minute. Take several deep breaths in and out again, calling your attention to this space. Attention. Pay attention. Pay attention to where you are right now. I mean where you are, Where you are, And where you are....
Where the self stops and the universe begins
Who can be certain where the self stops and the universe begins? When we breathe, it is the air from the passing wind that fills our lungs. To our nostrils drifts the fragrance of the woodland flower. When we taste, it is of the earth's flavors and its saltiness. When we eat, it is of the field's...
In this time of anticipated spring
In this time of anticipated spring let us allow ourselves to extend the anticipation—to value the time of budding before blooming, of seeding before sprouting. This is a time of revelation: the revealing of that which is eternal, which we see every year, but still need to be reminded to see it in...
Guided Meditation (For a Church Anniversary)
Let us be together in silence. Let our hearts listen. Let this house be quiet. For a moment, stretch back in memory to the first time you joined a meeting of this church. It may have been in this building or in a rented space or a home. What was happening then? Were you comfortable, anxious,...
The church is a body
The church is a body. May this body breathe and be together in the spirit of hope May it feel held by comfort. Those who seek consolation, may they find it in the solace of this moment. The church is a body. It is as strong as all the people who have ever gathered within its walls....
The Rainbow Prayer
Great Rainbow Arch your bright light your seven colours your cool dew link sky and earth above the Christmas stable. Hold us all in your encompassing arms. Forgive our exclusion of others earth and life and child. So may we too forgive those who have excluded us. Save us from the darkness of deep...
Oh, God of Many Moments
Oh God of many moments, of night gliding into day, and day seeping into night, of infant milky sleeping breaths and wrinkled, crinkled aging eyes, of the starting beauty of sunlight gazed upon a tree and mournful moonlit vistas, call us from days of doing into instances of being, remind us of the...
Prayer for Easter Sunday
Spirit of Life, How easy it is to speak your name and offer this prayer at this season of re-birth and renewal!! The spirit of life is everywhere, evident in each new bud and shoot. We pray that our lives may be blessed with that same renewal we see all around us in nature's annual celebration....
Now
You are the eternal, the timeless. You would have us dance and sing in celebration of the present moment, but we can't see your smile or hear your song. But how will we find you if we don't look where you are? We search the past -- through its dusty libraries, its darkened ruins, its bloodsoaked...
Meditation on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - for all ages
What can we say about Rudolph? So we have a classic story of the insiders excluding the newcomer and making fun of his special traits. It happens all of the time in schoolrooms, playing fields, classes, society. We say: "They just don't have it....