West Hill Podcast: Prayer

Prayer - June 21, 2009

David Barker — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:50:00 -0500

Long before the night is over,
long before th pain is gone,
long before we see our future,
long before we share our song.

Long before we make it better,
long before we sign a deal,
long before we stand together,
long before our wounds can heal.

Long before our children suffered,
long before our nations cried,
long before the fires dwindled,
long before the spirit died …

Ours was the world and all that’s in it,
ours was the song that rose on high,
ours was the hope that fueled the spirit,
ours is the truth that cannot hide.

Amen

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Prayer - June 14, 2009

David Barker — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:59:00 -0500

Distant horizons wait silently,
the terrain between us mixed
with beauty’s constant company.
And at our feet,
a profusion of animated miracles,
alive in the soil we press our toes upon.
As our eyes consume the world around us,
it is hard not to stand
in constant, mesmerized amazement.
So, too, as we set our gaze
upon the inner seascape of our”selves”,
are we at risk of being moored in the stillness of awe,
captivated by the wonder of how we are made,
what we think, feel, dream, and why we do.
But the horizons of the deep are not
so passive as their exterior counterparts.
They raise us up on the crests of our being
or plunge us to our depths,
as we, who ride these restless waves,
cling fervently to the truths that lie within.
As those who swim and sink and swim again,
we pray,
Amen

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Prayer - June 07, 2009

David Barker — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:30:00 -0500

As we gather to celebrate,
we place at the centre of our hearts,
those things we hold in common,
that call us to a higher, nobler purpose
than we might find
were we alone.
In this place,
grounded in this pursuit,
we share experience and wisdom,
develop relationships,
fold ourselves into the tension of love.
May we know in our time together this day,
through music, word, silence, and song,
the blessing and challenge community places before us
and within these two things,
might we live into wholeness
both the gifts we have to offer
and the gifts we have received.
In light, we pray,
Amen.

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Prayer - May 31, 2009

David Barker — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:12:00 -0500

No road takes us to a sure place.
If we have been there before,
what we remember if it may have changed,
people moved away, buildings altered.
What we remember
holds us in the moment of time
we last experienced the reality of this place.
But even should the walls remain in place,
the trees around be strong and yet as broad,
the people unchanged from when we last arrived – the places of our hearts know new terrain
and we, who carry it within us, will see with different eyes.
May we be open to what our eyes tell us of our lives
not just of places well-known and loved,
But of new land, new discoveries, new places of the heart.
This we pray, as those who walk a common road,
Amen

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Prayer - May 17, 2009

David Barker — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:48:00 -0500

With a deep sense of awe, reverence, and joy,
we acknowledge the wonder of life
in all its dimension.
Touched by that wonder,
we explore it both deep within
and far beyond ourselves,
linked, as we are,
with the beauty of all that is.
As we explore our interconnectedness,
may we find goodness being lived out,
kindness offered,
and truth revealed
both in each other’s needs
and in each other’s eyes.
May that truth bind us as one,
and call us beyond what we know
into the full experience of what we are.
As light into light,
we pray,
Amen.

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Prayer - April 26, 2009

David Barker — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:37:00 -0500

We work, sweat,
put our shoulders to the talk
and our bodies respond.
Slowly at first,
grudgingly,
they ease into the movement,
warming up as the challenge unfolds
until we believe
we were designed for this very motion,
perfectly balanced to achieve its perfection.
Until that next day
when muscles cry out in lament –
strained, bruised, stretched in unfamiliar ways – and we, who stood upon the victor’s podium
mere hours before,
bend in stiffened distress,
brought low by our realities,
As we feel the results of our labours
lingering messages deep, close to our bones
may we remember, too,
the joy of service,
and the surge of strength that lifted us to offer it,
And may we,
A complexity fo interwoven dreams,
celebrate the gifts poured out
to make us so.
As light into light, we pray,
Amen.

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Prayer - April 19, 2009

David Barker — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:39:00 -0500

Twisting inside us,
doubt is a deconstructionist.
It presses past the solid foundations
upon which we have built
our faith, our relationships,
our understanding of the world,
our image of ourselves.
Against its power,
none nor any thing
is sacred.
We feel its pull – here in this gathering,
and all those sacred places of our lives
where we would choose to build a trust – we feel its pull.
Magnetically drawn,
we seek our own truths
and, should we find ourselves
amidst doubt’s razed ruins,
the remnants of what was,
we seek the strength to build of that
the truths and loves that yet may be.
As those who build the world to be,
we pray, Amen.

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Prayer - April 05, 2009

David Barker — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:03:00 -0500

Are we led to the truth of who we are or is it something that unfolds within us?

Are we bound to come to know it or might it elude us through the whole of our lives?

If found, are we able to turn our backs, ignore the penetrating light it spills upon our every moment or must we grapple with the realities it lays bare?

We do not know.

Yet we are compelled to seek life’s meaning. Some look outwards – the stars, the natural world, and their own place in it lending them a sense of place. Some look inwards – states of consciousness opening in meditative repose, spilling into the greatness of wonder.

Some look and look and ever look.

As we step into the moments that are ours, might we be aware of the deep mysteries within and beyond us.

May we be captivated by the drama of the holy – the great unfolding of what life might become and we its current players.

And as we give ourselves to these passing moments, might we imbue them with our own holy touch that we leave them as sparkling dust, memories of beauty to light a future day.

As those who dream, and dream, and dream,

We pray,

Amen

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Prayer - March 22, 2009

David Barker — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 15:56:00 -0500

In the play between light and dark,
too often the dark will overcome
and we stumble, fall, slide into caverns,
lose the sense of who we are
and curl up, afraid and lost.
Moments, hours, days are stolen
from the universe of our existence
as we struggle in the confines
of the dark.
Yet come this moment
a streak of light so bold
‘twould sear the retina of our cave
crease whatever stones
we place before it
and bid us forth.
And we, uncrumpling, sore, stiff,
unused to freedom,
venture forth,
returned,
and home again
as through a darkness come,
we pray.
Amen

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Prayer - March 15, 2009

David Barker — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:04:00 -0500

No matter the rules,
we all, from time to time,
got to take a good hard look
at what the heck we’re doing
and why.
How’d we get here?

What caused us to do that last thing we just done?
Were it the way our mammas taught us?
Was that it?
And is that good enough any more?
Did she tell us straight?
Or should we rethink a thing or two
this side of the day after tomorrow?
Goodness knows
there’s enough
just following after what came before
to do us all in if we don’t look where we’re going
from time to time.
So heads up today!
Eyes sharp!
We’re taking a look at what it is we do
and all the “just becauses”
are going to have to give up
their “whys and wherefores”
because we’re the people
who got to know
and today’s the day
we got to know it!
Amen

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Prayer - March 08, 2009

David Barker — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:46:00 -0500

Born into a fragile world,
we are quickly wrapped
in simple, easy to grasp understandings
of who we are and who we might be
and so protected
from the struggle
of constant explanation
and definition of ourselves.
We fit the labels, the stereotypes, and the norms
and, for the most part, it is a good thing.

Until it isn’t.

On this day,
as we recognize and celebrate
the infinite variety and permutation
this is ‘woman’,
may we see the challenges that have beset her
and the ones she, in turn, presents the world
and may we move beyond the norms
and into a world where surprise
can be a very good thing.
This we pray,
as those open to being opened up.
Amen.

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Prayer - March 01, 2009

David Barker — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:54:00 -0600

Caught in the demands of the twenty-first century
we worry over whether we’re doing enough,
making enough,
being enough,
pulling our weight.
The world is cracked and creviced
with so many deep and ruined realities
and we, who have so much to offer,
stand helpless,
or exhausted,
in the face of what must be done.
Yet, turning, each can see another,
and next to her or him, another still,
until a length of human promise,
extending long and strong against
whatever impossibility
may have been placed before us,
is acknowledged.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.

Welcome to the strength of numbers.
Welcome home.

As those who would sing as we journey,
we pray.
Amen

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Prayer - February 22, 2009

David Barker — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:17:00 -0600

Is it a good thing or bad
that our brains are smarter than are we,
calculating our happiness
on the pasts we barely remember
and the moment’s sensory filters
against which we assess them?
We are tricked at almost every moment
to build into our worldview
an assumption about this,
a decision about that,
a preference for one thing,
a decided dislike for another,
and all of it based on processes
of which we are not aware
and do not understand.
Yet every once in a while,
we find ourselves
shaken with an intense happiness,
smitten by a shard of reality
so clear it slices past anything
our brains have conjured to distract us
and we find ourselves lost in the rapture of our own truths
and tossed in the impossibility of every lasting there
beyond the next breath.
And so we whisper to one another,
Be with me in this.
Be true to me in this.
Do not deny me this.
Do not deny me.
(Silence)
We pray as those who, though the dream be beautiful,
live to be awake.
Amen

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Prayer - February 15, 2009

David Barker — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:51:00 -0600

As we lower our eyes,
bow our heads,
unfold our lips to offer these words,
we celebrate the millions of mutant miracles
that have made us who we are.
From the lightning flash that ignited wonder
to amazements yet to be discerned,
the possibility that was and will be life
has woven itself into the crevices of the cosmos
and we are now caught in its beautiful web.
May we honour the span that is ours.
May we see our place in the spectrum of the whole.
May we find in the future
a place for diversity to bloom
out of what is into what will be needed.
And may we chart a course to that future
and then move –
frail and hearty,
fearful and brave,
hesitant and compulsive –

together,
marking a path with our footsteps
so that those who would follow
will know the way.
This we pray as those who
would leave none behind.
Amen

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Prayer - February 01, 2009

David Barker — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:40:00 -0600

Thrown into the confines of human existence
we make do with what we have –
bodies evolved over millennia
to catch

light, translating it as vision and beauty; waves of pulsing air from which we conjure words; pressure on our fingertips, the subtle messages of touch;
and the myriad complexities of our raveled reality.
We find ourselves bound
by much of who we are,
struggling often, to reach beyond it
to something bigger,
something beyond,
something better than we think we could possibly be.
Yet in community,
in the experience of a shared quest,
we can feel a sense of worth, of purpose
flow into the hollowness of that self-image,
animating it, giving it life,
filling it for its divinely human task.
As we share this gathering today,
may we be inspired by who we are.
As those who walk in light together.
Amen

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Prayer - December 07, 2008

David Barker — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:15:00 -0600

As this season of “sparkle and bright”
unfolds around us,
the silent prayers of peace
lie like stars hidden in a clouded night.
May we inspire the world with peace.
May we touch it to our lives
that in every place of stress, frustration, or fear,
we might feel the presence of peace
easing our hearts
and transforming our lives.
And may we share the its healing power
with our children,
that they might become the inspiration
through which peace makes its way
to a new yet-dreamt-of world.
(the lighting of the candle)
May Peace light the world this Christmas.

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Liturgy for All Saints

David Barker — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:15:00 -0600

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Prayer - October 26, 2008

David Barker — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:31:00 -0500

There is no greater service
that we offer
than to heal the sick, to clothe the naked,
to find water for those who thirst,
to bind up the broken-hearted-
Much is asked of us
only because we know, in our depths,
that we are capable.
As we fill ourselves
with the gifts of peace and hope in this hour,
may we fill our hearts to overflowing
with an urgent need
to do the work to which we are called.
May we overflow in our zeal
for a realm of justice and peace,
of equity for all.
Amen

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Prayer - October 19, 2008

David Barker — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:32:00 -0500

The world surrounds us with its beauty—
leaves floating to their resting places;
gardens dancing in a final colour spree;
waves crashing a loud resistance
against the crystal cold
into which they too soon will settle.
We celebrate what lies around us—
what we touch and smell—
those things that sing our heart strings
into rapture.
Were our eyes but tuned to a single focal length,
our ears to a single wavelength of sound—
could we but resonate with one small fragment
of the world's vast collection of textures, wet or soft—
if we could only catch the scent of one small atom
and live ignorant of all the rest—
how poor our hearts would be,
how silent our songs,
how bleak our landscapes.
As we share the wonders of community,
may we open ourselves to their richness.
May this community lift, inspire, and hold us.
And may we be ever captivated
by the beauty with which it calls us to be free.
Amen

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Prayer - October 12, 2008

David Barker — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:27:00 -0500

Encased in the stuff of “who we are”—
labels, collections, memories, things –
our movements are sluggish, laboured.
We believe we move with fluid sweeps through space
but we are deceived
for we bump and jostle our way through life
encumbered by our extremes
unwittingly disturbing, destroying, and dehumanizing
as we beat our way along the path of prosperity.
As we seek to express gratitude
on this day of thanksgiving,
may we recognize the burdens
we have nestled in beside our blessings
and commit ourselves to lifting our hearts free
of those things that lessen all of us.
In the light of beauty we walk.
May it be for us the light of truth.
Amen

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