The Mystery of God's Touch

The mystery of God touches us

-- or does not -- in the smallest details:

giving a strawberry, with love;

receiving a touch, with love;

sharing the snapdragon red of an autumn sunset, with love.

Marion Woodman

Coming Home to Myself

A New Life

New ideals and new attitudes bring a new life.

Elder's Meditation -- Listening

Sometimes my mind is talking so fast about so many different things that I can't slow it down.
All day long I am judging and making assumptions about everything.

Great Spirit, help me this day to slow down.

Help me to listen - quietly.

Help me to watch carefully.

Help me to listen to my inner voice.

Let me listen and watch only the thing

You would have me observe.

Guide my eyes and my ears to be focused on You.

Grandfather, love me today and teach me to be quiet.

Elder's Meditation -- Balance

The Elders have taught us to balance our lives emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually.
If I am out of control emotionally, I get angry, doubtful or erratic, I am out of balance.
If I trigger bad mental pictures of my brothers and sisters, I am out of balance.
If I get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, I am out of balance physically.
If I don't pray and talk to the Creator daily, I am out of balance spiritually.
To be centered, I must be in balance.
The Creator talks to me in the quiet and still place.
So if I get angry, what I should do first is to pause and get still so I can hear the guidance of the Grandfathers.

Oh Great Spirit whose voice I hear in the winds,

protect and keep me safe today

- hear my prayers.

Gratitude

Gratitude is so close to the bone of life, pure and true,

that it instantly stops the rational mind,

and all its planning and plotting.

Regina Sara Ryan

Praying Dangerously

Forgiving Myself

The most difficult part of ongoing recovery is admitting that I really am a sinner and allowing God to see and forgive me as I am, with all my faults unmended and all my flaws showing, especially the ones over which I seem to have no control.

Have mercy, My Creator, in your kindness:

When I am reluctant to own my sins as sins.

When I am afraid, in my sinfulness, to pray.

When I feel hopeless about the sinful patterns in which we are trapped.

When I refuse to forgive others because I cannot forgive myself.

Forgive what I cannot forgive;

heal what I dare not face;

grant humility where I take refuge in false pride.

Grant me singleness of heart and a stead fast spirit.

Building Bridges

If my Creator rescues me from the snare of my faults, should I not extend the same hand of rescue to my neighbor?
Resentment, grudges, retaliation do not help the one who offends me.
They merely confirm the breach between us.
Bridge-building is costly but the people stranded on both banks are all freed by the bridge.

Lord, hear my prayer:

For peace among warring nations and people,
For reconciliation among friends and relatives
divided by old resentments, and
For freedom from the desire for revenge.