deep peace: “… Deep peace of the running wave to you, of water flowing, … sometimes advancing, sometimes receding …”
Why prayers for deep peace? …
Well, despite the seeming increase of hatred and divisiveness, the underlying desire in all of us – regardless of beliefs, race, social or financial stature, nationality – is to be happy and peaceful … AND the fact that we all wish the same for family, friends, loved ones suggests that the divisiveness is likely because we don’t “see” beyond the “immediate circle” or forget the larger perspective that we are all part of “one big” earth family.
Remembering that we are indeed this one “earth (or human) family” might go a long ways towards deeper healing … leading to less hatred and divisiveness … and maybe even deeper peace. And such “remembering” is really a form of prayer … or an invocation or blessing.
Of course, our approach to navigating these turbulent times is to continue fostering the deepening of peace … and prayers seem to be eminently suitable to the task 🙂 … so we have also encouraged exploration of prayers from various teachers (or authors) of different traditions … PLUS encouraging of – and invocation for – peace seems to be an apt prayer as we approach the “sunset” of 2022! 🙂
One particular thread of such an exploration is the work of Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon which brings together prayers and poems from multiple traditions into a single book.
Interestingly, their work on prayers began with Elias’ impromptu suggestion “… we need to pray …” during one of their meditation sessions … which led them to create a book of prayers, Earth Prayers From Around The World: 365 Prayers, Poems, And Invocations For Honoring The Earth, during which they discovered that: “… the notion of prayer awakened in us a new desire—the desire for a communal liturgy directed toward healing human-Earth relations. We wanted to link our personal spiritual life with that of the entire biosphere …”
Of course, there are many many kinds of prayers … a particularly powerful form is blessings and invocations … as Elizabeth and Elias note that “Prayers of invocation and blessing … directly express our intention and are uttered in order that some effect may be achieved …” … and that … “… Through our blessings and invocations we acknowledge this network of forces that flows through the world, awakening the deeper levels of our consciousness to effect these patterns of change …” … See more on their prayers work at the bottom of this post (including attributions for this book).
So, today we offer one such blessing and invocation from this book … so … pause … read … reflect … pause … read again … reflect deeper … and see what is revealed … 🙂
Deep Peace …
Deep peace of the running wave to you,
of water flowing, rising and falling,
sometimes advancing, sometimes receding …
May the stream of your life flow unimpeded!
Deep peace of the running wave to you!
Deep peace of the flowing air to you,
which fans your face on a sultry day,
the air which you breathe deeply, rhythmically,
which imparts to you energy, consciousness, life.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you!
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,
who, herself unmoving, harbours the movements
and facilitates the life of the ten thousand creatures,
while resting contented, stable, tranquil.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you!
Deep peace of the shining stars to you,
which stay invisible till darkness falls
and discloses their pure and shining presence
beaming down in compassion on our turning world.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you!
Deep peace of the watching shepherds to you,
of unpretentious folk who, watching and waiting,
spend long hours out on the hillside,
expecting in simplicity some Coming of the Lord.
Deep peace of the watching shepherds to you!
Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you,
who, swift as the wave and pervasive as the air,
quiet as the earth and shining like a star,
breathes into us His Peace and His Spirit.
Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you!
~ Mary Rogers, Adapted from The Gaelic
We started exploring these prayers from Elizabeth Roberts’ and Elias Amidon’s book Prayers for a Thousand Years earlier this year: An Invitation to Peace & Unity … via Prayers … and How To Remember We Are One: Unity Prayers for a Thousand Years …
Turns out, this was their 3rd book on prayers … the other two books being Earth Prayers (the 1st one) and Life Prayers (the 2nd one) … and, as mentioned before, we hoped to explore all three books – in depth – in due course … so we offered a sampling of their second book on prayers: Life Prayers From Around The World with Living Moments of Grace? Life Prayers Amidon, Roberts … and this post, of course, is a glimpse into the genesis of their work.
All italicized text above (both poems and the text) is excerpted from Earth Prayers From Around The World: 365 Prayers, Poems, And Invocations For Honoring The Earth.
As we contemplate these prayers, let us honor our earth family and our unity … by helping our fellow family members in Ukraine … in whatever way we can … so here are some options:
1) NPR: Want to support the people in Ukraine? Here’s how you can help
2) Washington Post: Here’s how Americans can donate to help people in Ukraine.
3) Go Fund Me: How to Help: Donate to Ukraine Relief Efforts.
4) USA Today: Want to support the people of Ukraine? These apps and websites can help you send money.
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We are all facing financial challenges but IF your situation allows you to donate and help then please do so …
THANK YOU!
Images: (edited and logo added): Featured and 1) Sea sunrise and beautiful cloudscape over the beach and washing waves by valio84sl, 2) TBD by TBD, 3) River stone and tree with sky and cloud colorful, View water river tree, Stone river and tree leaf in forest by jimbophotoart, 4) An image of a space view to our planet earth from moon by markusgann, 5) Orion star constellation, Night sky, Cluster of stars, Deep space, Hunter constellation by allexxandar. All purchased from depositphotos or 123rtf. All are for use only on our website/social channels (these images are not permitted to be shared separate from this post).
