Prayer Cycle / Cultivating Seeds of Liberation / Day 5
Day 5: Peace
Video, Audio and Written Guides for Morning and Evening Prayer
Morning Prayer
Video podcast coming in 2026
Audio podcast coming in June 2025
OPENING PRAYER
Like the quiet and steady sunrise, let us contemplate our gentle and calm rising today. We give thanks to Life for our breath as we slowly flow with the waves this day will bring. Let us connect with our inner sanctuary where stillness and peace echo, where our soul finds true solace.
OPENING SONG: Arms of Love
Come now child, lay it down
Just breathe
Just be
Come be cradled in the arms of love
Just breathe, just be.
FIRST READING: Tyler Sit
Now is the time for us to rediscover practices that change us – not into an estranged ‘new’ self, but into a richer, more authentic, truer version of the self we’ve always been.
SUNG PSALM OPENING
O Peace, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)
PSALM 46
God is our refuge and our strength
a haven in times of trouble.
Therefore, we can be calm though the earth shakes,
though the nations change, and though the sea rises.
Our trust is in the Holy One
who is making the heavens in the earth
Who is with us in the midst of the city
and in our own hearts.
See the miracles that are a part of our lives!
and the longing for peace and justice in our hearts
and the way we can make our lives abundant
in nearly any circumstance.
God whispers to us, “Be still and know that I am God,
I am with you to the ends of the universe
and through all time.”
SUNG DOXOLOGY
Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.
SECOND READING: Howard Thurman
As we listen, floating up through all the jangling echoes of our turbulence, there is a sound of another kind – A deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear. It moves directly to the core of our being. Our questions are answered, our spirits refreshed.
SILENT CONTEMPLATION
PRAYERS OF CONCERN
O God, you never tire of offering me your loving arms as a place of refuge, comfort, and peace. Your embrace is a safe dwelling place where my weary heart finds rest and my troubled mind is calmed. Show me the way back to your arms, my home, when the waves crush my spirit and the current drowns my voice. Let me hear your gentle voice that seeps through my bones, keeping me safe amid the doubts and fears. Teach me to trust in your presence and lean on your grace.
SUNG RESPONSE
O God of Peace, receive the prayers we offer.
O Presence, you accompany me with every breath and in every step. In the stillness of my heart, your gentle invitation to rest in your boundless love echoes. Teach me to sail in your ocean of calm. Guide me with patience and tenderness as I journey toward homecoming, reconnecting with who I truly am. I surrender to you the heavy masks I wear as I receive your comforting cloak of belovedness. I immerse in the peace of being fully seen, fully known, and fully loved.
SUNG RESPONSE
O God of Peace, receive the prayers we offer.
O Peacemaker, your presence can calm my afflicted heart when pain and worries take hold. I desire to awaken to the stillness I carry within me, knowing full well you are there. Show me the place you have prepared for me in your grand symphony of peace, so I may lovingly play my part with humility and grace. May my life echo your harmony, and may every note I offer be a reflection of your love, healing, and hope for a world that longs to hear your song of peace.
SUNG RESPONSE
O God of Peace, receive the prayers we offer.
Please add the prayers you are longing to express.
SUNG RESPONSE
O God of Peace, receive the prayers we offer.
CLOSING SONG: Deep Peace
Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the gentle night to you
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you
Deep peace to you.
CLOSING BLESSING
God of Peace, bless our day as it unfolds through your grace. In a world of endless noise and distraction, be our guide and steady presence.
Invite us to savor the warmth of love’s tender embrace and let peace carry us as we move through the motions of today. Let calmness be our rhythm, a gentle current that carries us through winding paths.
Accompany us as we ride the waves of blessings flowing in abundance. Each moment is a gift, each breath a quiet miracle. Our hearts swell in gratitude like the sea’s rising tide, lifting us higher with the overflow of grace.
Grant us your peace and let this be our song. May the melody of your serenity echo in every face we encounter on this day’s journey. Let our eyes be open to wonder.
SUNG AMEN
Credits
All songs and texts used with permission. All rights reserved.
Opening Prayer written by Jo-ed Tome
Opening Song: Arms of Love by Alexa Sunshine Rose from the album Cultivating Sees of Liberation: Songs of Justice and Joy
First Reading: Tyler Sit, Staying Awake: The Gospel for Changemakers. Chalice Press (2021) page xli.
Sung Psalm Opening and Doxology: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan from the album Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living
Psalm 46: Interpretation by Christine Robinson, musical setting and sung by Simon de Voil
Second Reading: Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart. Beacon Press (2023) page 29.
Prayers of Concern written by Jo-ed Tome
Sung Response: Words by Abbey Dream Team. Music by Betsey Beckman. Arranged and performed by Alexa Sunshine Rose and Simon de Voil © 2025
Closing Song: Deep Peace by Bill Douglas, adapted by Simon de Voil
Closing Blessing written by Jo-ed Tome
Prayers, readings, and blessings voiced by Claudia Love Mair and Jo-ed Tome. Audio engineering by Simon de Voil.
Please note: All of the songs and prayer responses are published on albums in the Abbey of the Arts collection unless otherwise noted. In addition, these songs & responses have accompanying gesture prayers and/or dances created by Betsey Beckman that can be found on the corresponding video collections. Audio and video recordings of the Prayer Cycles are available at AbbeyoftheArts.com.
Evening Prayer
Video podcast coming in 2026
Audio podcast coming in June 2025
OPENING PRAYER
As the day draws to a close, we set aside our frenzied doing and enter into rest. We breathe in. We breathe out. Calm our nervous system. We breathe in. We breathe out. Guide us to the heart of peace. We breathe in. We breathe out.
OPENING SONG: May I Be Empty
May I be empty and open to receive the light,
May I be empty and open to receive.
May I be full and open to receive the light,
May I be full and open to receive.
SUNG PSALM OPENING
O Peace, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)
PSALM 84
The sparrow has a place in the rafters.
The swallow raises her young in the nest she has made.
They live and move easily in their places.
They flit and soar around your world altar.
They are home.
It is not so easy for me.
I long for that ease of being and pray
for the grace to live in the world as at your altar.
Happy are they who live in the Pilgrim way;
They walk through desolate landscapes and find your springs.
They toil through mountains and discover your peaks.
They set themselves to the tasks of love and service and know deep satisfaction
One day lived in this grace is better than a thousand spent at our own devices.
When we walk our appointed path in peace
We find our home and our way.
SUNG DOXOLOGY
Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.
READING OF THE NIGHT: Cynthia Bailey Manns
We will know we are going in the right direction by the signs we see along the way. Are there changes in our behaviour that lead to a deeper connection to God’s love for us? Does our behaviour reflect our love for others in a compassionate, forgiving way? Are we willing to embrace mystery in our relationships with God and others? Are we willing to be healed? Transformed? Do we have experiences of awe, wonder, or joy that cannot be described? Do we experience God’s presence in the depths of our deepest sorrows?
SILENT CONTEMPLATION
CLOSING SONG: Nairobi Women’s Peace Song
If every woman in the world had her mind set on freedom
If every woman in the world dreamed a sweet dream of peace
If every woman in every nation, young and old, each generation
held her arms out in the name of love, there would be no more war.
Repeat: Man, Children, People
Held their arms out in the name of love, let us all live in peace.
CLOSING BLESSING
This blessing arrives on the gentle rise and fall of breath.
Strife is ever-present and unending.
Peace be with you.
Anxiety resides in disturbance.
Peace be in you.
Nations rise and fall.
Neighbors and family divide.
Peace be around you.
Through it all there is a deeper presence.
You see it in sunlight shimmering on water,
and casting a benediction upon treetops.
You sense it in precious moments of
loving embrace and quiet solitude.
You know peace is not to be taken for granted;
peace is to be cultivated in stillness, in word, in deed.
You know peace is the birthright of creation.
Bless this world with your gifts.
Make yourself a safe space.
Peace begins with you.
SUNG AMEN
Credits
All songs and texts used with permission. All rights reserved.
Opening Prayer written by Melinda Thomas
Opening Song: May I Be Empty by Batya Levine (a queer Jewish artist) © 2020, from the album Karov
Sung Psalm Opening and Doxology: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan from the album Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living
Psalm 84: Interpretation by Christine Robinson, musical setting and sung by Simon de Voil
Reading of the Night: Cynthia Bailey Manns, Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color. Morehouse Publishing (2013) page 64.
Closing Song: Nairobi Women’s Peace Song by Karen MacKay and Nancy Nordlie, recorded by Lorraine Bayes from the album Cultivating Sees of Liberation: Songs of Justice and Joy
Closing Blessing written by Melinda Thomas
Prayers, readings, and blessings voiced by Claudia Love Mair and Jo-ed Tome. Audio engineering by Simon de Voil.
Please note: All of the songs and prayer responses are published on albums in the Abbey of the Arts collection unless otherwise noted. In addition, these songs & responses have accompanying gesture prayers and/or dances created by Betsey Beckman that can be found on the corresponding video collections. Audio and video recordings of the Prayer Cycles are available at AbbeyoftheArts.com.
