Prayer

Prayer by Reverend Douglas Taylor

9/11 vigil (15th anniversary)

September 11, 2016; at the Islamic Organization of the Southern Tier

Eternal Spirit

From whom all things come

and to whom all things return

We gather today as religious people from various traditions;

We gather as people reaching across our difference

Sharing our commitment to compassion and truth

Together despite the record of violence and distrust in society around us

In this silent moment let us give thanks for the blessings in our lives.

For home and family, for faith and meaningful work, we give thanks.

For our ability to gather in this way as people of peace, we give thanks.

In this silent moment we lift up those places in our own lives

and in our own hearts where burdens reside.

May there be peace, may there be grace, may there be support

In this silent moment let us cry out for the suffering of our world.

For refugees fleeing oppression and children haunted by cruelty.

For the wars across the waters far away from us,

and for battlegrounds created in nearby cities

For brutality and corruption, violence and distrust

Oh, Spirit of life and of love, hear our cry.

Hear our cry, of spirit, and help us to become instruments of thy love.

Let us speak up for the disempowered,

and be the voices of compassion and reason

for a world gone mad with cruelty and greed.

Let us set aside hate, and devote our lives to the ways of peace and justice.

Let us, O Spirit, encourage peace to grow in any garden it can find.

Let us remember the tragedies of our days

and commit to building a better world.

Let us be emissaries of justice

ambassadors of compassion

agents of thee, O Spirit

In the name of all that is holy

may it be so

Prayer for Community

Rev. Douglas Taylor

Eternal Spirit,

From whom all things come

And to whom all things return,

We gather this hour as individual seekers in a community of shared faith.

Each one searching along different paths,

Each one longing for familiar answers to intimate questions,

Each one yearning for deeper meaning amid private struggles,

We gather together as separate persons in search of understanding, of wholeness, of peace.

We are a people of faith, joined together by a bond of shared search and shared commitment.

We are a community of individual seekers, with a common story.

For hardship and suffering, we seek comfort, perspective, and a change to better days

For blessings and abundant goodness, we remind ourselves to notice these good things and lift them up with thanksgiving and wonder.

And may we always count as a blessing the faith community which now is, has been, and shall continue to be a community of hope and promise.

Here may the deep presence of the holy touch each one of us in a way that carries us closer to the life-giving power found through out the ages in community.

May it be here, may it be now.

In the name of all that is holy,

May it be so.