We enter this place of peace in a sometimes violent world.
We come bearing our burdens, confessing our limitations,
Binding up our wounds, healing our sometimes broken hearts.
We come, somehow dissatisfied with life, always seeking more.
There is in us a yearning for something else,
Something we do not now possess.
Here we look into the deep places of the heart to find the not-yet,
To discover what is missing in our lives.
As we gaze within, struggling with our finitude,
May we also celebrate the plenitude that is ours.
Always in our lives there are those who inspire and uplift us;
Always there are those who care for us and guide us;
Always there is a natural world of bounty for our sustenance;
Always there is goodness and beauty and truth for our souls;
Always there are the simple pleasures of nature and community
For us to enjoy when we are mindful of their presence.
The glory of earth and sky and field is always ours to savor;
The blessings of home and church and nation and world
Are there for us - quite beyond our deserving.
When we are down, when we are discouraged,
May we count the riches of the spirit that are ours,
Then we may find life better than it has seemed,
Somehow richer, lovelier, better than we had imagined.
What more can we ask than this moment together?
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