An Age Old Prayer - Valerie Peyton Kingsbury

Today, I invite you to spend some time with this old age prayer. Think about its meaning and then re-write it for yourself.

This morning, as I began my day, for some reason I began to think about the prayer we know as “The Lord’s Prayer”. It is based on the words of Jesus recorded in our story. Over the years it was crafted into a prayer that has become common among most Christian communities. It is one that we can say from memory and we say it often.

Sometimes, when we simply say a certain thing over and over again by rote I think we loose some of its meaning and so it is good to stop and think about what exactly we are praying. For some people, to play with these words, to reimagine them, is sacrilege. However, I think that the opposite is true. When we take the time to live with the words, think about what they actually mean and play with ways to say it differently, new understandings open up and it comes alive in a whole new way.

An Age Old Prayer Re-Imagined and Re-written

Here are a couple of examples of how this prayer has been re-imagined and re-written:

In the Beginning…
by: Sudharshana Coomarasamy

Our mother, source of all life,
hallowed be your sweet name.
May your kingdom of love prevail.
Your will to nurture and enrich
be done on earth, as in other planets
and in the heavens around them.
Give us each day our sustenance and
help us to sustain each other in love.
Give us strength to abstain from violence.
Forgive us our excesses and our acts without love.
We beg you to never deny the security
and warmth of your womb.
Like infants we see and suckle nourishment;
do not deny us your breasts.
Our navels, eternal reminders of our origin,
remind us of our pledge to respect all living things.
Yours is the kingdom of compassion
now and evermore.

The Prayer of Jesus

The Prayer of Jesus
by Valerie Kingsbury

Surrounded by the holy,
we hallow all that is sacred.
May we be co-creators

of a world where love is
lived

in this world and the next.

May there be bread to feed all people
and forgiveness that covers all in grace.
May we be empowered to choose good
instead of evil,
and return to right relationship with all creation.

May it be so.

The Meaning of an Age Old Prayer

I invite you today to spend some time with this age old prayer. Think about its meaning for you and then re-write it for yourself. Perhaps you will find, as I did, that this familiar prayer begins again to speak to your soul.

Blessings
Valerie