Prayers from Bishop Prior's Lenten Retreat on Grace & Gratitude:
Fast from judging others, feast on Christ dwelling in them. Fast from discontent feast on gratitude. Fast on hunger, feast on patience. Fast from bitterness, feast on forgiveness. Fast from self-concern, feast on compassion. Fast from suspicion, feast on truth. Fast from gossip, feast on silence. Fast from sorrow, feast from joy. Fast from worry, feast on faith. - William Arthur Ward
Blessing for Ash Wednesday —Jan Richardson
So let the ashes come as beginning and not as end;
the first sign but not the final.
Let them rest upon you as invocation and invitation,
and let them take you the way that ashes know to go.
May they mark you with the memory of fire
and of the life that came before the burning:
the life that rises and returns and finds its way again.
See what shimmers amid their darkness,
what endures within their dust.
See how they draw us toward the mystery
that will consume but not destroy,
that will blossom from the blazing,
that will scorch us with its joy.
Grace cannot be understood by any ledger of merits and demerits. It cannot be held to patterns of buying, losing, earning, achieving, or manipulating. Grace is, quite literally, “for the taking.” It is God eternally giving away God—for nothing—except the giving itself.—Richard Rohr
The movement of grace toward gratitude brings us from the package of self-obsessed madness to a spiritual awakening. Gratitude is peace.—Anne Lamott
I do not understand the mystery of Grace…only that it meets us where we are, but does not leave us where it found us – Ann LaMott
Love these words by Anne Lamott: The movement of grace is what changes us, heals us and heals our world. To summon grace, say, "Help," and then buckle up. Grace finds you exactly where you are, but it doesn't leave you where it found you. And grace won't look like Casper the Friendly Ghost, regrettably. But the phone will ring or the mail will come and then against all odds, you'll get your sense of humor about yourself back. Laughter really is carbonated holiness. It helps us breathe again and again and gives us back to ourselves, and this gives us faith in life and each other. And remember -- grace always bats last.
Grace cannot be understood by any ledger of merits and demerits. It cannot be held to patterns of buying, losing, earning, achieving, or manipulating, which is unfortunately where most of us live our lives. Grace is quite literally “for the taking.” It is God eternally giving away God—for nothing, except the giving itself. I believe grace is the life energy that makes flowers bloom, animals lovingly raise their young, babies smile, and planets remain in their orbits—for no good reason whatsoever except love alone. - Rohr
Unless and until we understand the biblical concept of God’s unmerited favor, God’s unaccountable love, most of the biblical text cannot be interpreted or tied together in any positive way. It is, without a doubt, the key and the code to everything transformative in the Bible. People who have not experienced the radical character of grace will always misinterpret the meaning and major direction of the Bible. The Bible will become a burden, obligation, and weapon more than a gift. Rohr
May God give you grace never to sell yourself short; grace to risk something big for something good; grace to remember that the world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love. - William Sloane Coffin
Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life.It strikes us when we feel our separation is deeper than usual, because we have violated another life, a life which we love, or from which we were estranged. It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure has become intolerable to us.It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: “You are accepted. You are accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know….”If that happens to us, we experience grace. After such an experience, we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed. - Paul Tillich 1886-1965
May the troubled waters of your life be calmed,
may the rising winds that surround you be stilled.
May you find the tine you need just to think,
may you dwell in a space that allows you to breathe.
May the voices you hear be hushed from any distraction,
may the sound of a single friend reach your waiting ear.
May love abide all around you,
may peace be your garment of grace.
May your steps be as sure as the direction you follow,
may the destination quicken your heart with the thought of homecoming.
May you be who you are,
may you find what you need. -Steve Charleston
To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer
And let faith be the bridge
You build to overcome evil
And welcome good