Monday Meditation

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Gentle Spirit of gracious love,
fill us with your presence.
 
We open our hearts
to receive your infinite love.
We open our minds to
learn your timeless wisdom.
We give you our bodies
as holy temples,
the place we discover
at-one-ment
with you,
our precious God
who dwells
with and within us,
mind, body and soul.
 
[pause to feel at-one-ment with God]
 

We ask to be filled
with strength and courage
because walking the spiritual path
is treacherous.
As we walk toward the light
that lights us from within,
we meet resistance.

New ideas,
inspired by you
and about your presence
in the world
are met with violent fear.

Often, the inspirations
we are given
are discounted.
We are called heretics and liars,
our faith and the Bible
are thrown in our faces.
Our love for you
is refuted by religions
for too long
comfortable
in the vacuum
of their own dogma.

Our new understandings of you
are called into question
because they require
new ways of thinking—
new ways of thinking
that are, ironically,
exactly the way Jesus
has taught us to think
from the beginning.
We are all one:
with each other,
and with you,
our ever-present God
of unconditional and infinite love.
 
[pause to feel at-one-ment with God]
 
Fill us with
the fiery presence
of your loving spirit.
Warm our cold hearts
and make us see
past our fears and prejudices.
Help us recognize
there are neither strangers
nor enemies in this world,
but that we make it so.
Give us an understanding
beyond intellect.
Give us holy understanding
to see into each other’s souls
and transcend
our physical prejudices
as we ascend into
universal consciousness.
Support us
as we work together,
all the diverse people
of this gloriously gorgeous world.
 
[pause to feel at-one-ment with God]
 
God of peace,
calm us throughout
our busy days.
Give us pause
to stop and smell
the ocean breeze;
to feel the crisp winds
on the mountains;
to stare in awe at the
endless expanse of a desert.
 
Compel us to share our ideas,
our wealth,
and our compassion
with every human being on the planet,
so that inspired constantly
by our eternal and intimate
connection with you,
we might one day
live in Shangri-La
here and now,
a world of peace,
love, and understanding.
 
Through each of us
make it so.
Amen.

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