November Prayers | For God's nearness in the coming dark
GREETINGS, FRIENDS!
As we settle deeper into fall, let's attend gently to our bodies and those around us and know that the Lord is near, especially in those places of fear and decay and increasing darkness.
“The Lord is near to those who call upon him: to all who call upon him faithfully.”
Strange God who made dying beautiful,
I abandon myself to your curious beauty this day.
Let me cherish the blood and bone of all the life you have given
when the fears of no-life creep in and I am cold.
May I befriend the dark with open eye at summer's end.
May I stoke the feisty fire of my desire as vibrant as the leaves I see.
May my creative impulses leap like the speckled salmon as I embrace the
fertility of winter.
May I love the ground on which I stand, as the leaf mould and decay of
summer mulches the soil and strengthens roots.
May I hunker down, curled up like a hedgehog, in dark peace of quiet.
May my wholesome table bulge with roasted earth fruits, steaming pies and
warming drink, fuelling my body for the wintry days.
Let me celebrate the sacred vigour of dying as I welcome this autumn day.
O Living One,
bring comfort in the warm damp drizzly days
when the copper glow of autumn is colourless and grey.
For it is summer’s end and all is put away,
hidden in the unknown darkness,
like our fears of womb and tomb that we do not willingly invite,
until they interrupt our day-to-day and reckon with our real time.
Be with all this day living in that slow moment-by-moment capsule
of birth and grief.
Protect our fragility when we are sealed in by shock,
and help us to honour the special gift of tenderness at that time.
Treasure of my soul, as the light glints with topaz and amber,
And you gild the season and crown the trees
bejewel my time with moments when your presence shines through.
Bless me with your precious love as I set out this day/lie down this night.
-Tess Ward
From The Celtic Wheel of the Year: Celtic and Christian Seasonal Prayers