Academic Years. Prayer for the New Year Dear Lord, Thank you for all that you've allowed into our lives this past year. It's the freakin weekend baby. We pray for your Spirit to lead us each step of this New Year. We ask that you will guide our decisions, let us listen to the people and world around us and keep us mindful of our impact as leaders of the Xavier University. We ask for your wisdom and for your strength to be constantly present within us. We pray you would make us strong and courageous for the road ahead.
(a opening prayer for a worship meeting from www.lords-prayer-words.com) Opening Prayer for a Wedding Service Lord God Almighty, Creator of the heavens and earth. Thank you for the gift of marriage For all the joy and love that it brings us. We thank you for N. (bride) and N.
We pray for your protection over our families, friends and Xavier community. We pray that you would give us discernment and insight, to understand your will, hear your voice, and know your ways. Help us honor and see your grace in every person, plant and animal in this beautiful world you created. Forgive us for forgetting our need for you. Forgive us for letting fear and worry control our minds. Fill us with peace and patience, and help us to be faithful.
Help us enter the New Year joyfully with the anticipation of blessings to come. Help us to be generous and kind, help us to look to the needs of others.
Help us spread joy, kindness and goodness throughout our campus, homes and community this welcomed New Year. Adapted from a prayer written by Debbie McDaniel Offered by Jeff Coleman Excerpts from 'Gratitude is the heart's memory: A Thanksgiving Reflection' A Musical Reflection While “The Call, Ralph Vaughan Williams, is sung by Dr. Tom Merrill and played on the piano by Dr Polina Bespalko Attendees are invited to: Prepare for a brief period of meditation by sitting comfortably, closing your eyes, and breathing deeply for a moment or two. Allow any present concerns to move across your mind and wait off to the side for now.
In the quiet of the music, ask yourself this question: Who are the people who helped me walk towards God? Wait a moment, and then follow with these questions:. Who gave me a safe place to be?. Who listened to me with great care and attention?.
Who told me the truth, even when it was difficult? Now invite images of faces to emerge—faces of the people who have accompanied you in your faith journey. Listen for the memory of their voices.
Remain still as these images and voices come to you. When a face or a voice emerges, whisper a prayer of thanks for that person. Honor that person as he or she is now, whether living or dead. Conclude with the prayer- O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: come to teach us the path of knowledge! - Offered by Tom Merrill Thoughts in Solitude MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
By Thomas Merton Offered by Greg Christopher Excerpts from 'Gratitude is the heart's memory: A Thanksgiving Reflection' Thankfulness is much more than saying 'Thank you' because we have to. Thankfulness is a way to experience the world, a way to perceive, a way to be surprised. Thankfulness is having open eyes and a short distance between the eyes and the heart. Remembrance is the most precious feature of the virtue of gratitude. One of the most important qualities is the ability to say 'thank you' to others and to take no one and nothing for granted.
Those who possess the virtue of gratitude are truly rich. They not only know they have been blessed, but they continuously remember that all good things come from God. To acknowledge others, to say 'thank you', is a mark of greatness. If our colleagues and volunteers are dispirited and unmotivated, might it have something to do with the fact that we have never expressed our gratitude to them for who they are and what they do? The courage to thank – that is, the courage to see the gifts and experiences of this world all together as a gift – changes not only the person who gains this insight. It also changes the environment, the world, and those who surround that person.
Gratitude is creative. People bound together by gratitude are always discovering and awakening abundant sources of strength. The more thankful a person is, the richer he or she is within.
Thankful people store up in their grateful memory all the good experiences of the past, just as the French proverb states: 'Gratitude is the heart's memory.' As we move from Thanksgiving into Advent, may we find strength in our gratitude, and our 'open eyes' and the 'short distance between our eyes and heart' allow us to present in these coming weeks and not consumed by them, so that we may find the true jpy of the Christmas season. Written by Fr. Thomas Roscia CBS - CEO, Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation (Canada) Offered by Phil Chick The Gift of Morality I've had a lot of disparate things on my mind recently. I've been thinking of the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, and my German-speaking great-grandfather Calvin Sterner, the Pennsylvania Dutch grandson of immigrants, who awoke in 1918 among the dead on the battlefield of Belleau Wood, whose body and spirit were never the same, and whose encounter with death-he would later say-brought him to God. For that reason and others, I have been thinking of mortality.
Of the brevity and fragility of life, and its preciousness. I've been thinking of meaningful work, inspired by the dozens of former students who returned to campus yesterday to honor Gene Beaupre, who has retired after 44 years of service to the Xavier community-and at the same time I've been reflecting on a conversation with another recently retired person who is struggling a bit to find new ways to feel meaningful. And I've been thinking of migrants, fleeing war and violence and hunger around the world, who too often find themselves pawns in other people's politics. Disparate thoughts, unconnected. Mostly sober ones.
Unexpectedly this week, I was offered a connection between these different thoughts, in a book that some of our cabinet members are reading, a novel by Mohsin Hamad, called Exit West-a book about migrants and migration. Near the end of the book, Hamad asserted something that caught me off guard: 'We are all migrants,' he wrote, 'through time.' A simple thought, and the kind that instantly struck me as true. It offered me a new lens for reading those Hebrew Bible texts about migrants and life in exile, ones that had only very rarely resonated with own experiences.
I'm thinking on the one hand of the laments of those who feel disoriented and out of place. Like Psalm 137's song about weeping by the rivers of Babylon. Migrants have loss to mourn. On the other hand, consider the heroic, life-giving urgent action of the orphan queen, Esther, who stood in solidarity with the powerless Jewish exiles in ancient Persia. Migrants have meaningful contributions to make, not least for their fellow migrants. Mohsin Hamad, I think, is right: we are all migrants, some of us through space, and all of us through time.
Let me offer a prayer: God of life, we thank you for the gift of mortality. God of eternity, we marvel at what our minds cannot comprehend.
May both mortality and eternity inspire in each of us deep gratitude for the life we enjoy; may they help us to treasure the earth and the life-sustaining food that it yields; may they spark us to do good and meaningful work in the days allotted to us, work that engenders in us a solidarity with our fellow living beings-above all with those people who, like us, at one time or another find themselves migrants in space, or in time. Written and offered by David Mengel Patience. Teresa of Avila Offered by Kelly Leon Autumn Months O God of Creation, you have blessed us with the changing of the seasons. Aw we welcome the autumn months May the earlier setting of the sun remind us to take time to rest.
May the brilliant colors of the leaves remind us of the wonder of your creation. May the steam of our breath in the cool air remind us that it is you who give us the breath of life. May the harvest from the fields remind us of the abundance we have been given and bounty we are to share with others. May the dying of summer's spirit remind us of your great promise that death is temporary and life is eternal. We praise you for your goodness forever and ever. Offered by Aaron Meis; Author Unknown Prayer of Pope John Paul II to St.
Pio of Pietrelcina Teach us, we pray, humility of heart, so that we may be counted among the little ones of the Gospel to whom the Father promised to reveal the mysteries of His Kingdom. Help us to pray without ceasing, certain that God knows what we need even before we ask Him. Obtain for us the eyes of faith that will help us recognize in the poor and suffering, the very face of Jesus. Sustain us in the hour of trouble and trial and, if we fall, let us experience the joy of the sacrament of forgiveness. Grant us your tender devotion to Mary, mother of Jesus and our Mother. Accompany us on our earthly pilgrimage toward the blessed Homeland, where we too, hope to arrive to contemplate forever the Glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Pope John Paul II recited this prayer on the occasion of the canonization of Padre Pio, June 16, 2002 Offered by Gary Massa A Reflection of the Dalai Lama 'I wonder how appropriate it is for us to pray to God or to Buddha for peace when the problems and conflict were created by us. I wonder if we were to meet Jesus Christ, the Buddha, or Muhammad, if they might not ask, 'Who Created these problems you are seeking help to resolve?
Isn't it your responsibility to sort things out?' ' - Dalai Lama Offered by Joe Feldhaus Blessings Father, as we gather together we thank you for all of your blessings to us individually and to Xavier. Thank you for everyone that is part of this wonderful leadership team and for all of the skills and talents that you have given us. We pray that you would give us wisdom and insight as we make important decisions and help us to always keep in mind the impact our decisions may have on our Xavier family and surrounding community. May we always be mindful of the less fortunate, the marginalized, and those facing physical, mental, finaincial, and other challenges.
May our decisions always be true to our mission of promoting the common good and serving others. We open our hearts to you now and invite your Holy Spirit to be present amongst us. Written and offered by Jeff Coleman Slow Me Down. Slow me down, Lord!
Prayer For Public Meeting Opening
Ease the pounding of my heart By the quieting of my mind. Steady my harried pace With a vision of the eternal reach of time. Give me, Amidst the confusions of my day, The calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tensions of my nerves With the soothing music Of the singing streams That live in my memory. Help me to know The magical power of sleep, Teach me the art Of taking minute vacations Of slowing down To look at a flower; To chat with an old friend Or make a new one; To pet a dog; To watch a spider build a web; To smile at a child; Or to read a few lines from a good book. Remind me each day That the race is not always won by the swift; That there is more to life Than increasing its speed. Let me look upward Into the branches of the towering oak And know that it grew great and strong Because it grew slowly and well.
Slow me down, Lord, And inspire me to send my roots deep Into the soil of life's enduring values That I may grow toward the stars Of our greater destiny. Written by Orin L. Crain Offered by Dave Johnson and Kyra Shahid.
Do We Want To Be Part of a Movement? Do we want to be a part of a movement or a museum? Do we want to be part of something dynamic. That is growing and changing or something that has already died and is just relishing the glories of yesteryear? The minute we start to coast or cling to that which is predictable and safe we atrophy and die. You are either growing or dying.
There is no third option. So listen: Healthy things live, living things grow, and growing things change. Don't ever forget that.
Greg Christopher In Times of Transition God of Love, you are with us in every transition and change. As we enter into this new era with excitement and even some anxiety, we recall your deep compassion, presence, and abounding love. We thank you for the gifts, talents and skills with which you have blessed us.
We thank you for the experiences that have brought us to this moment. We thank you for the work of others that gives breadth and depth to our own work. Be with us as we move forward, rejoicing with you and supporting one another. We ask this in your holy name. Joe Shadle Offered by Phil Chick God Speaks to Each Of Us God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Flare up like flame and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me. Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness. Give me your hand. Rainer Maria Rilke as translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy, in Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God Offered by Steve Herbert The Prayer of Oscar Romero It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, It is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, Which is another way of saying that The Kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that should be said. No prayer fully expressed our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, Knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produced effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, And there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, A step along the way, An opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, But that is the difference Between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, Ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future that is not our own. Archbishop Oscar Romero Offered by Melissa Baumann Vally of Vision Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou has brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision. Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine; Let me find Thy light in my darkness, Thy life in my death, Thy joy in my sorrow, Thy grace in my sin, Thy riches in my poverty Thy glory in my valley.Author Unknown Offered by Janice Walker.
Here are five prayers for a staff meeting. Board Meeting Prayer Father God, You alone are sovereign over all things and I pray right now that Your will be done in this board meeting and that Your Son and His Name would be glorified in how we conduct our business matters for the church.
We seek to always do Your will and ask for Your Spirit to give us guidance in how to make decisions, the freedom to speak up when somethings on our mind, and to make sound and wise decisions that would be for the benefit of the church and for this I pray and in the most glorious name of all names, Jesus Christ, amen. Staff Meeting Prayer Righteous God, I ask for Your presence in this meeting today that You would bring to mind the things that are most important and that we would be unified in purpose and not take things personally when someone disagrees with me or someone else or when there are disagreements between others. Help us to focus on the issue and not the person and avoid personal attacks so that the meeting can be more productive and we can do things as You would have us do them. That means we must sometimes humble ourselves before others and acknowledge that someone else’s ideas are better than our own.
We must keep in mind what the desired outcome is and not what we think it should be, and so I ask for Your help in these areas and for the glorification of the name that is above all names I pray, and that Name is Jesus Christ, amen. Prayer before Meeting Father God in heaven, I ask You to fill us with Your Spirit and give us the courage to speak in the meeting if we have reason to and that the meeting would be in the best interests of everyone involved. The decisions we make can make huge impacts and so give us Your wisdom that is from above and not lean on our own human understanding. Open our minds to the ideas of others and open our ears to hear the words of others and to make fair assessments of what others might say and to treat with dignity and respect, everyone who is present.
We want to be godly in our actions with one another and this means we should be slow to speak and quick to listen and value the opinions of others, so with regards to this, I pray for Your help and in the mighty name of Jesus Christ I pray, amen. Prayer for Unity Great God in heaven, You are in perfect union with Your Son and Your Spirit and so please I pray that You would give us unity.
A unity of one mind, one purpose, and of one spirit so that we can be agreeing upon the one, true purpose for which we are meeting. I need You and everyone here needs You and so send us Your guidance through Your Spirit so that we can more easily be joined together in a common purpose and that all things would be done decently and in order as You would have them done and in a respectable manner that would bring You glory and in Jesus Christ’s beloved name I pray, amen. Prayer for Humility I ask You of Father God to help me focus on being humble in this meeting because I don’t want this to be about bringing my own personal agenda to the meeting. I want to esteem others and their opinions better than my own and want to humble myself before them and admit when I make mistakes and confess to everyone present when I was wrong. I desire to model the humility that Jesus Christ our Lord showed (Phil 2:4-9) but I also don’t want to be inhibited from speaking about what I think is best so please give me boldness to speak with I feel it is important but not because it’s my idea; but because I sincerely believe it is best and help me to keep my focus on You and Your will in making decisions in alignment with Your will.
Let that be the chief purpose in my soul and in Jesus Christ’s precious name I pray, amen. Conclusion Staff meetings can be tumultuous and sometimes confrontational but they are sometimes called “bored meetings” for very good reason; they’re not much fun. They are necessary but sometimes grueling. Consider praying before every board meeting, every staff meeting, or any meeting that you have and ask for God’s presence and His leading by His Spirit because that will be the best goal and it will bring more glory to God.
Article by Jack Wellman Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible.
You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.