Prayers for Endings & Beginnings | Graduation
This month finds many of us in some kind of transition whether it be a graduation or the opening up of our country. These are welcome transitions, but they aren't without their share of fears and concerns. Be gentle with yourself and others and and remember as the author of Ecclesiastes says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the sun.”
Savor and share these blessings as you step into a new season! We begin with a Theological Horizons favorite…
May the Lord Christ go with you
wherever he may send you.
May he guide you through the wilderness
protect you through the storm.
May he bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders he has shown you.
May he bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.
May Jesus who is the living Bread feed you, and give you strength to do his work.
The Light of the World shine on you and shine through you.
The Good Shepherd guide you safely through the green pastures
and through the dark valleys.
The Resurrection and the Life raise you up to newness of life.
The Way, Truth and the Life lead you in His Way, feed you with His Truth,
heal you with His Life.
The True Vine bear fruit through your living as you abide in Him.
The Alpha and Omega Be your be-all,
your end-all
your glory now
and through all eternity. Amen.
from ‘A Book of Blessings’ by Ruth Burgess
Each year we send off our Fellows with this prayer honoring Archbishop Oscar Romero:
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a 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 a way of
saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses 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 produces 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 not our own.Amen.
A Blessing for a New Beginning
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure,
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
— John O'Donohue
Horizons Fellows’ final time of reflection and blessing, Bonhoeffer House garden, May 12, 2021