Prayer Cycle / The Love of Thousands / Day 4
Day 4: Blessings of Our Ancestors & Healing the Wounds of Generations
Video, Audio and Written Guides for Morning and Evening Prayer
Morning Prayer: Blessings of Our Ancestors
OPENING PRAYER
This morning, let the great cloud of witnesses be as near to us as our breathing, help us to feel the presence of our wise and well ancestors pulsing within us. Help us to feel their abundant blessing on our lives as they grieve with us and celebrate our joys. We ask them to bless our feet and guide us on our path ahead.
OPENING SONG: Ancestor Song
Will you bless this path I walk?
Ancestor, bless this path I walk.
Will you walk, will you walk beside me?
Will you walk, will you walk beside?
Will you guide, will you guide my feet?
Ancestor guide, will you guide my feet?
FIRST READING: Cole Arthur Riley
I believe in a spiritual realm that is so enmeshed with the physical that it is imperceptible. I believe in the mysterious nearness of my ancestors, but I believe they are located at the site of my own blood and bone.
SUNG PSALM OPENING
O Wisdom, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)
PSALM 98-99-100: Sing to the Lord
Refrain: Sing to the Lord, to the Lord a new song, Sing to the Lord, sing all the earth
Make a joyful noise to God
Earth and heaven break into song
Singing praise to God on high
With voice and whistle and fiddle’s sound
Refrain
Let the sea and all that fills it
People that on earth do dwell
Hills and valleys sing together
In the presence of God on high
Refrain
God is King; the people tremble
We will praise your holy name
Mighty King of peace and justice
Great and marvelous are your ways
Refrain
Moses and his brother Aaron
Called unto your holy name
Crying to the Lord our God, who
Answered them in a pillar of cloud
Refrain
The Lord our God gave answer to them
And forgave them all their wrongs
We’ll extol your holy name
And worship you on a mountain high
Refrain
Make a joyful noise to God
With thanksgiving, bless your name
For the Lord is gracious and your
Steadfast love will always remain
Refrain
SUNG DOXOLOGY
Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.
SECOND READING: Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.
SILENT CONTEMPLATION
PRAYERS OF CONCERN
Spirit of All that Was, and Is, and Is to Come, open our hearts to the presence of wise and well ancestors. Their stories may be forgotten, their names unknown, yet still we know they are with us just as surely as our blood and bone. Help us listen across the ages to the experience of those who have come before, whose very lives led to our own. We ask to feel and receive their wisdom knowing it comes from love.
Sung Response O God of Love, shower us with blessing.
Sacred Ancestors, you know living can be so difficult. Confusion and pain, times of joy and times of sorrow weave in and out of our days. Companion us on this path. Walk with us, guide us as we make choices and respond to all that is placed at our feet. So much is beyond our control and yet there is so much we can do. Bless us as we work to create more beauty and love in this world for ourselves and all who share in this life – our human kin, animal companions, and the living Earth.
Sung Response O God of Love, shower us with blessing.
Cycle of Sacred Life, we know that one day we will die. From dust we are born and to dust we will return just as our ancestors who came before us. Let us offer blessings of celebration for their lives and gratitude for the life we have been given. On the day of our death receive us with joy into the great cloud of witnesses so we too will become wise and well ancestors, supporting and blessing generations to come.
Sung Response O God of Love, shower us with blessing.
Please add the prayers you are longing to express.
Sung Response O God of Love, shower us with blessing.
CLOSING SONG: Blessing to the World
You are the heart. You are the hands.
You are the voice of Spirit on Earth.
And who you are and all you do
Is a blessing to the world.
We are the heart, we are the hands.
We are the voice of Spirit on Earth.
And who we are, and all we do
Is a blessing to the world.
We’re a blessing to the world.
We’re a blessing to the world.
We are the heart, we are the hands.
CLOSING BLESSING
The Blessings of Our Ancestors
This blessing calls you home again
to your collective inheritance of blood and bone,
calls you to dance with generations
who shimmer beyond the veil.
We call on the great cloud of witnesses,
the ones who inspire our courage,
support our endurance,
kindle our joy, whisper words of hope.
May the wise and well ones,
who are vibrant and radiant with healing,
who have stepped into the expanse of love
without hesitation, whose hearts are open wide,
shower you with their blessing
so you know your ancient inheritance.
Stand at a threshold
and whisper some of their names,
grandmothers and grandfathers,
back through hundreds and thousands of years,
prayers and supplications
for all that helps you navigate this world with ease.
May they form a circle of protection around you
to guard from anything that would wish you harm.
Open the eyes of your heart to see
they are already here, already dancing
through your feet, your hips, your hands,
the embrace of your arms,
the undulations of your spine, the smile on your lips.
This blessing dances in the threshold space with you,
at the turning of dawn or dusk,
helping your heart stay open, attuned,
to the wisdom pouring forth.
Sing aloud of gratitude, ask them to surround you,
knowing they are already present,
it is only your vision that must change to see.
SUNG AMEN
Credits
Credits: All songs and texts used with permission
Opening Prayer: Written by Christine Valters Paintner
Opening Song: Ancestor Song by Te Martin from the album The Love of Thousands: Singing with Angels, Saints, and Ancestors
First Reading: Cole Arthur Riley, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us. Convergent Books, 2022, (pg 60)
Sung Psalm Opening and Doxology: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan from the album Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living
Psalm Version: Tune: Willy Taylor, Words: Kiran Young Wimberly © 2013, from the album Celtic Psalms Vol 1.
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:1 (NRSV)
Prayers of Concern: Written by Melinda Thomas
Sung Response: Words by Abbey Dream Team. Music by Betsey Beckman. Arranged and performed by Alexa Sunshine Rose and Simon de Voil © 2023
Closing Song: Blessing to the World by Karen Drucker from the album Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living
Closing Blessing: Written by Christine Valters Paintner to companion her book The Love of Thousands : How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Toward Holiness (Ave Maria Press)
Please note: All of the songs and prayer responses are published on CDs in the Abbey of the Arts collection. In addition, these songs & responses have accompanying gesture prayers and/or dances created by Betsey Beckman that can be found on the corresponding DVD (each album has a DVD companion). Audio and video recordings of the Prayer Cycles are available at AbbeyoftheArts.com.
Evening Prayer: Healing the Wounds of Generations
OPENING PRAYER
This evening let us remember those ancestors who carry the wounds and deep scars of unhealed trauma, we know these places of binding also dwell within us. Sometimes a grief erupts in our hearts bigger than us, extending back generations. We ask the great Healer and the wise and well ones to be with us as we send light to bring them out of the shadows and shower them with love.
OPENING SONG: Go in Peace
Go in peace, you are loved, you are loved.
Go in peace, you are loved.
SUNG PSALM OPENING
O Wisdom, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)
PSALM 22: My God My God
My God, my God; my God, my God
Why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me
from the groaning words I speak?
O God I cry by day, by night,
but Lord, you do not hear
My God, my God; my God, my God
Why have you forsaken me?
I am scorned by all, despised by all
Their insults hurled at me
“Oh let the Lord in whom he trusts
deliver him from this!”
Yet from the womb you brought me out
and made me trust in you
My God, my God; my God, my God
Do not be far from me.
Poured out like water from a sieve
Heart melted away within
My strength is dry, like shards of clay
I am in the dust of death
But you O Lord, be not far off
Oh strength, come quick to help
My God, my God; My God, my God
Deliver me, I pray
Your name, O Lord, I will declare
for you have heard my cry
For you have heard the suffering one: you have not hid your face
The poor will share a feast with you
And they’ll be satisfied
My God, my God, My God, my God
Your name I will declare
SUNG DOXOLOGY
Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.
READING OF THE NIGHT: Numbers 14:18
(The Holy One) is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But (God) does not excuse the guilty. (God) lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.
SILENT CONTEMPLATION
CLOSING SONG: Sending You Light
I am sending you Light, to heal you, to hold you.
I am sending you Light, to hold you in Love.
No matter where you go,
No matter where you’ve been,;
You’ll never walk alone
I feel you deep within.
So, I am sending you Light, to heal you, to hold you.
I am sending you Light, to hold you in Love.
No matter what you feel or what you choose to show,
I’m always there for you
And so I want you to know –
That I am sending you Light, to heal you, to hold you,
I am sending you Light, to hold you in Love.
I walk the path with you;
Go slow, dear one, don’t hurry.
I’ll go just like you need to go;
There is no need to worry.
‘Cause I am sending you Light, to heal you, to hold you
I am sending you Light, to hold you in Love.
CLOSING BLESSING
A Blessing for Healing
You know there are still ruptures
across the generations,
the wounds of loss, betrayal, violence.
Ask the Beloved
and the ancient ones to bring healing.
Whisper with them to the wounded ones:
May you find yourselves
dancing among trees and swimming
in a vast sea of love.
May you be healed
from the painful wounds of your earthly life.
May you encounter
the deep peace of your dreams
and may the joy hidden in your
blood and bones be released
to ripple across time.
Blessed be your memory
and in my act of remembering
may I help to untangle the knotted threads
allowing them to dissolve
release the secrets and shame,
let them be transmuted through grace.
May you dance in your birthright,
may the joy remain, fill the hollow spaces within
may you be set free from the binding of your struggles,
may you receive the gifts of your wisdom,
and may you be woven together
into a vast community of love.
SUNG AMEN
Credits
Credits: All songs and texts used with permission
Opening Prayer: Written by Christine Valters Paintner
Opening Song: Go in Peace by Katarina Stenstedt from the album The Love of Thousands: Singing with Angels, Saints, and Ancestors
Sung Psalm Opening and Doxology: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan from the album Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living
Psalm Version: Tune: Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore, Words: Kiran Young Wimberly © 2013, from the album Celtic Psalms Vol 1.
Reading of the Night: Numbers 14:18 (The New Living Translation) (Adapted)
Closing Song: Sending You Light by Melanie DeMore from the album The Love of Thousands: Singing with Angels, Saints, and Ancestors
Closing Blessing: Written by Christine Valters Paintner to companion her book The Love of Thousands : How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Toward Holiness (Ave Maria Press)
Please note: All of the songs and prayer responses are published on CDs in the Abbey of the Arts collection. In addition, these songs & responses have accompanying gesture prayers and/or dances created by Betsey Beckman that can be found on the corresponding DVD (each album has a DVD companion). Audio and video recordings of the Prayer Cycles are available at AbbeyoftheArts.com.
