You are invited to begin this time with a breath prayer. As you enter into a stillness, use these words to align with your breath. Explore this breath prayer for this month as a way to center your body, mind and soul.
Breath Prayer
Inhale: Thank you
Exhale: For Your endless grace
THE CENTER PRAYER
Will you pray for the Center for Spiritual Formation?
Dear God:
We pray for the life and ministry of the Center:
May it become a healing stream
for those who would be sustained by prayer;
May it become an ever-flowing river
for those whose spirits have grown dry;
May it become a fountain of life,
for those who would practice their faith
in a dry and thirsty land;
And may it nourish the seed of your Word—
the Church,
yielding a bountiful harvest for your
Kingdom.
AMEN
Specific Prayer Needs of the Center
Please join in prayer for these specific needs of the work of the Center in this season. If you would like to help with provision for these needs, contact Rhonda Strouse at director.rhonda@centerformation.org
Opening Statement:
“We present these prayers to the Holy One to whom all praise and gratitude are given as we seek to travel the sacred pathway of the Center…
We come into this season of gratitude giving praises of thanksgiving for the community that is the Center…
That in our posture of humility, hospitality, and holy invitation, we are graced to share with one another at the table in Love’s gathering Spirit…
We say thank you for the generous gifts and rewards of holy blessing that forward the movement of the Center…
May we embrace the movement and stirring within our own minds and hearts in continuing to pour into the Center’s life giving presence that meets each of us where we are in our soul journey…
As we give thanks to our God, who is Love, know our Center community is bound in the full acceptance of one another in merciful grace and forgiveness for ourselves and others as we walk the path together…
May it be so, May it be so, May it be so.
Featured Prayer From Bernice Kirkland
Gracious and loving spirit of humanity and the world. We have been created for love, joy, peace, and goodness that results in a better, more vital world. Our experiences are often void of reflections of your image and your likeness. We are reminded each day by the media that there is extraordinarily little “good news.” Please forgive us. We have strayed from you like lost sheep. Fears far too long have held us hostage from unity, care, and your dream of a beloved community in your world. Power and pain have caused hatred that impedes the realization of a beloved community.
We err and fall short. People are angry, broken, careless, driven, and empty. We turn to fighting, greed, hatred, idleness, jealousy, killing, laziness, and madness. We have forsaken opportunities to nurture lives, mend hearts, offer goodness and last, but not least, purify the earth. Far too many of us have quit, rescinded, spent, taken and unwittingly missed the opportunity to live fully and deeply. Oh, I am one of them.
You remind us that it is not too late. Thank you for your goodness and your mercy. Thank you for life. Thank you for the fresh power of your spirit that revives and sets us upon the high places of living by faith with hope, through agape love. Eternal spirit, may we be yours and you ours, now and forever. May we love our neighbors as ourselves. May a new dawning of your earth be our gift to share with others, especially the last, the least and the lost.
May we freely forgive others because we have been freely forgiven. We are yours and you are ours. May we release, with serenity, those things we cannot change. May we harness and transform those things which we can enhance and even transform. May the truth of your deep love for each of us be realized. May the terrain of life be lifted as we intercede and care for your people everywhere. Thank you for the freedom realized through acceptance and forgiveness. May we pay it forward each day, for the rest of our lives. Thank you for life well- lived through your agape spirit.
Amen
~ Dr. Bernice Kirkland is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, where she has served in several capacities for 25 years. She is a former Critical Care Nurse. Spiritual leadership & the spiritual life are her calling and passion.
Prayer from the Center’s Archives
The Center for Spiritual Formation has a treasure trove of prayers collected over the years through our Ministry of Spiritual Direction training, retreats and workshops.
May I be no man’s enemy, and may I be the friend of that which is eternal and abides.
May I never quarrel with those nearest me: and if I do, may I be reconciled quickly.
May I love, seek and attain only that which is good.
May I wish for all men’s happiness and envy none.
May I never rejoice in the ill-fortune of one who has wronged me.
When I have done or said what is wrong, may I never wait for the rebuke of others, but always rebuke myself until I make amends.
May I win no victory that harms either me or my opponent.
May I reconcile friends who are angry with one another.
May I, to the extent of my power, give all needful help to my friends and all who are in want.
May I never fail a friend who is in danger.
When visiting those in grief may I be able by gentle and healing words to soften their pain.
May I respect myself.
May I always keep tame that which rages within me.
May I accustom myself to be gentle, and never be angry with people because of circumstances.
May I never discuss who is wicked and what wicked things he has done, but know good men and follow in their footsteps.
~Eusebius, 3 rd Century CE