Prayer Cycle / The Love of Thousands / Day 3
Day 3: Embodied Love & Saints and Pilgrimage
Video, Audio and Written Guides for Morning and Evening Prayer
Morning Prayer: Embodied Love
OPENING PRAYER
We call upon the saints to bless this day ahead with patient anticipation as they witnessed to in their own lives. Let nothing disturb or frighten us, knowing that in the midst of life’s unending tides of change, the Holy One endures and always holds us in love. We ask that this love help us to discern how to spend our precious moments today and all days.
OPENING SONG: Bookmark Prayer (Teresa of Avila)
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you.
Everything changes,
I alone remain.
Hold patience, for nothing is wasted.
Presence in all things
I’m with you in all things.
FIRST READING: Joseph Whelan, SJ
Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.
SUNG PSALM OPENING
O Peace, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)
PSALM 146: Hallelujah
Hallelujah, I will praise the Lord as long as I live
I will sing praise to God with all of my being
I will trust not in rulers, they will pass into dust
But I will hope in the Lord our God, the one who will help
Hallelujah, I will praise the Lord as long as I live
I will sing praise to God with all of my being
Happy are those who hope in the God who redeems
The heavens, earth and seas belong to the Maker of all things
Hallelujah, I will praise the Lord as long as I live
I will sing praise to God with all of my being
To the poor God brings justice, to the hungry, a feast
Sets the prisoners free, meets the refugee, sing praise to the Lord
Hallelujah, I will praise the Lord as long as I live
I will sing praise to God with all of my being
The Lord lifts the lowly, to the stranger shows care
The widow and the orphan, God will never forsake
Hallelujah, I will praise the Lord as long as I live
I will sing praise to God with all of my being
God’s goodness and mercy never come to an end
Our God will reign forever, hallelujah, Amen
Hallelujah, I will praise the Lord
Hallelujah, I will praise the Lord
Hallelujah, I will praise the Lord, Hallelujah, Amen
SUNG DOXOLOGY
Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.
SECOND READING: Revelation 8:2-4
And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.
SILENT CONTEMPLATION
PRAYERS OF CONCERN
All Love, thank you for the witness of the saints. Though they embodied love, like us they were in bodies, subject to the same hungers, longings, and wounds that we are. We ask for the intercessions of these Spirit lovers gone before us, especially Saint Benedict. When we believe that we have failed, St. Benedict, pray for us, help us to remember that always we begin again. New day; new mercy. We give thanks always.
Sung Response O God of Love, we witness to your presence.
Gracious Healer, sometimes we hurt and hurt. Our pain can become so normalized that we stop praying for relief, we stop asking for or seeking help. In times when our suffering is prolonged, keep us mindful of the saints whose lives were dedicated to the healing arts. Saint Hildegard was a woman of prayer, an artist, musician, mystic, and medicine woman. When we need healing, guide us to ask for her prayers, and even look into her healing remedies that remain for our benefit to this day. St. Hildegard, pray for us, send us relief for our ills. For this we give our gratitude.
Sung Response O God of Love, we witness to your presence.
Lover of our soul, how often we get in a frenzy doing too much. We take on more than is necessary, and fail to rest and replenish our bodies, minds, and spirits. Sometimes we act as if everything is all on us. When we show up in this way, bring to mind Sister Thea Bowman, who was content to do her little bit. She said that if each one would light a candle, we’d have a tremendous light. Remind us that all we need to do is light our candle. Sister Thea, pray for us. Help us to understand that doing our little bit is an act of humility, and to give thanks for it.
Sung Response O God of Love, we witness to your presence.
Please add the prayers you are longing to express.
Sung Response O God of Love, we witness to your presence.
CLOSING SONG: Christ is the Mirror (Clare of Assisi)
Christ is the Mirror; Christ is the Light.
Gaze on that Mirror and see yourself within.
All things are holy, all things are one.
Gaze on creation and see your soul within.
CLOSING BLESSING
Blessing of the Saints
May the communion of saints
shower you with blessings,
may you seek their guidance
in moments of illness, confusion, gratitude.
We remember their own struggles,
living their humanity, enfleshed and tender.
We ask those across the threshold to pray for us
knowing what it is to be wounded.
Call on the canonized saints,
Benedict, Francis, Ignatius, Hildegard,
Thea Bowman, Oscar Romero,
and the saints of spirit,
Howard Thurman, Dorothy Day,
and thousands of others
who witnessed to another way of being,
who helped to build a community of love.
Let them tether us to their earthiness,
and remind us of the holiness
of bone and blood, the grace of our bodies
in bringing love to the world
and the presence of heaven here and now.
Feel them stretching themselves
back across the veil toward us,
in sacred friendship
eyes shining, hearts radiant,
wisdom pouring like rainfall,
after months of drought,
coming with a reminder
that you are never alone,
never forsaken
and you dance in those life-giving
showers, celebrate Love as a visible
and invisible force, animating the world.
SUNG AMEN
Credits
Credits: All songs and texts used with permission
Opening Prayer: Written by Christine Valters Paintner
Opening Song: The Bookmark Prayer (St. Teresa) by Simon de Voil from the album The Love of Thousands: Singing with Angels, Saints, and Ancestors
First Reading: Joseph Whelan, SJ: https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/prayers-by-st-ignatius-and-others/fall-in-love/
Sung Psalm Opening and Doxology: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan from the album Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living
Psalm Version: Tune: Here’s a Health, Words: Kiran Young Wimberly © 2018, from the album Celtic Psams: Rest in the Shelter
Second Reading: Revelation 8:2-4 (NRSV)
Prayers of Concern: Written by Claudia Love Mair
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: Christ is the Mirror (Clare of Assisi) by Laura Ash 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.
Evening Prayer: Saints and Pilgrimage
OPENING PRAYER
We delight in the journey we have been called to travel, accompanied by the saints, those wise and well ones who reflect God’s highest love. We travel in our imaginations to the sacred landscapes which shaped and formed these holy ones and see the world around us as pregnant with God.
OPENING SONG: You Are Sweet (Mechtild of Magdeburg)
You are sweet, sweet as the grape,
fragrant, fragrant as balsam,
as radiant, as radiant as the sun.
You are sweet, sweet as the grape,
fragrant, fragrant as balsam,
as radiant, as radiant as the sun.
You reflect my highest love.
SUNG PSALM OPENING
O Peace, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)
PSALM 65: You’re the Hope
You’re the hope of the farthest oceans
And the hope of the ends of earth
You redeem us from all our sorrows
You bring hope when a new day comes
Will you listen and will you answer
When our sorrows overwhelm
When the dark clouds gather round us
You bring light when the morning comes
You’re the hope of the farthest oceans
And the hope of the ends of earth
You redeem us from all our sorrows
You bring hope when a new day comes
By your strength you have formed the mountains
And you silence the stormy sea
When our hearts are in roaring tumult
You bring peace when the evening comes
Great redeemer of all creation
Great salvation of all that lives
When our spirits are filled with sadness
You bring joy when tomorrow comes
You’re the hope of the farthest oceans
And the hope of the ends of earth
You redeem us from all our sorrows
You bring hope when a new day comes
SUNG DOXOLOGY
Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.
READING OF THE NIGHT: Barbara Holmes
Spiritual transience is the story of biblical call. Inevitably you find yourself in places you never expected to be. The willingness to wander at the bidding of the Spirit is settled long before the journeys begin. . .
There are no linear paths when you follow the contemplative way.
SILENT CONTEMPLATION
CLOSING SONG: This World is Pregnant with God (Angela of Foligno)
Refrain: This world is pregnant with God.
This world is pregnant with God.
How is it that everything I see, everything I see is of God?
How is it that everyone I meet, everyone I meet is family?
Beneath the soil in the empty fields swells the song of life sounding hope.
Do you not feel pangs of labor pain for emerging life all around?
CLOSING BLESSING
Blessing the Journey
May you see all of life as a pilgrimage,
walking a sacred path toward intimacy
with all the invisible ones
who journey alongside us.
Ask that your steps each be blessed
with guidance and humility,
that you release the need to know
where you are headed
and trust the path itself.
May you be blessed with an open heart
to receive the stranger along the way
as well as deep within.
Call on the great communion of pilgrims
throughout time who wandered
for love of the great Journeyer.
Remember Jesus who walked dusty roads
healing others and feasting with outcasts,
the desert mothers and fathers
traveling to wild solitary places
for radical communion with God.
Remember Francis and Ignatius
journeying to Rome for study and guidance,
Teresa setting up her monasteries,
Hildegard preaching Sophia’s wisdom,
the Celtic monks seeking to dwell on the edges,
making a sanctuary upon islands in the sea.
Know their impulse to seek a new horizon
as one that calls you onward as well.
Feel their love lightening your burden,
drawing you closer to the One
who shaped you, who shows you
you are always both in exile and at home,
who reminds you that love
is all you need to carry.
SUNG AMEN
Credits
Credits: All songs and texts used with permission
Opening Prayer: Written by Christine Valters Paintner
Opening Song: You Are Sweet (Mechtild of Magdeburg) by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan 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: Rathlin Island (Brian Connors), Words: Kiran Young Wimberly © 2022. From the album Celtic Psalms: May We Rise.
Reading of the Night: Barbara Holmes, Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church, Augsburg Fortress Publishers (2004), page 130.
Closing Song: This World Is Pregnant with God (Angela of Foligno) by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan 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.
