There is so much to grieve in 2020 on multiple levels including Covid. This is for all who have been touched by loss and are grieving.
Grieving
Grieving
Heart- break-ing
Sobbing
Wailing
Yearning
Longing
Searching
Stretching
Releasing
Reaching
Being
Reached
Reassured
Loved
Held
Comforted
By the Divine One
whose heart and arms
holds it all.
By Rev. Eva Sullivan-Knoff
© Nov 2020
This has been such a stressful year on many fronts. May this poem by Jan Richardson, “Blessing in the Chaos” bring peace to you.
Oh God,
During this Thanksgiving season,
our hearts are immensely heavy, and so we lament.
Covid has taken so many lives and has isolated us one from another,
racism and white supremacy have claimed too many lives
as they invoke evil on the black community.
A stressful political environment has us on edge.
It has been a year of pandemics.
And if that isn’t enough,
other heartbreaks that have pushed in on us,
the loss of work, relationship, community, and storms of every kind.
And we wonder as we cry out,
How Long Oh God?
This year has been so murky,
And yet, knowing
You are a God who invites lament
is a gift beyond itself.
We not only have the freedom to lament,
but you beckon us to draw close
and to pour out our hearts to you.
You invite us to share our tears of sorrow,
to speak our sadness,
and to give you the burdens
that weigh too heavy upon us.
We are reminded in the midst of all else,
that you care about us,
that you are Emmanuel God with us.
Even when we can’t see, you remain near.
Your presence is made known through simple acts of kindness,
Through those who embody you and your compassion,
Through simple things like sunshine and wind chimes
And a warm greeting from a friend or neighbor.
So though we come with heavy hearts,
We are grateful that we can do so
and to name it all to you,
who holds us when we can’t stand anymore
and when there are no tears left.
Thank you compassionate God for the ways
You reveal yourself to us.
Open our eyes that we may recognize more.
We offer this our pandemic Thanksgiving
knowing you hurt with us
And you never leave our side. Amen.
If you are in need of support and would like to talk to someone, we have spiritual directors who would love to meet with you. Or if you would like to be a part of an online support group, please contact us and we can connect you with one.
Opening Prayer
Oh Holy One,
We come as we are in so many different ways.
How grateful we are that you welcome us completely,
however we come.
Quiet our hearts before you now.
Meet us in the stillness
And awaken us to your care for us.
Lectio Divina or Divine Reading
Read this scripture through a few times.
The first time you read it simply take in the words.
The second time, notice to what word or phrase your heart is drawn.
Prayerfully sit with it.
The third time you read it offer the prayer of your heart to God.
The last time you read it, simply rest in God.
Scripture Reading Isaiah 46:3,4
Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from your birth,
carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, even when you turn gray I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.
Closing Prayer
Compassionate One, in the midst of this pandemic,
When the days linger on, and uncertainty has become the norm,
Our awareness of your presence ebbs and flows,
And yet we know you will not leave us.
We lean on your promises, on your faithfulness
which are new every morning.
How we long for these words of scripture,
to enter us deeply.
We ache for the awareness of your love and presence
which gave birth to us,
Your arms which hold and carry us
Your heart which watches over us.
O God to whom we belong, we entrust ourselves to you this day, relying on you to meet us where we are, and to carry us when we are too weary to stand.
We lean our heads against your heart,
drawing in strength from your loving embrace.
May it fill us with your peace and anchor us in you.
We love you God.
Thank you for reminding us yet again
of the way in which you love and carry us.
Amen.
Copyright 2020 Rev. Eva Sullivan-Knoff
Raise Me Up by Josh Grobin
Beth Miller, using the spiritual practice of the Examen, helps us to prayerfully look back over our time in quarantine.
Beth Miller, MA, is a trained spiritual director.
May the gift of your imagination present new ways of experiencing the love of God in this time, on Good Friday, and every time.
Created by Jess Hansen, Journey Center of Chicago intern.
Dear friends,
Here is a guided meditation of Welcoming Prayer is for anyone needing or desiring a meditation or prayer practice to help become more aware of your inner world and find a way to welcome and accept what is in the present time. Grace, peace, and love to all.
This guided prayer was created by Journey Center of Chicago’s intern, Jess Hansen.
Psalm 63
A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.
1 You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.
9 Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
10 They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
11 But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God will glory in him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.
