A Unitarian Prayer

By Reverend Davidson Loehr

We pray not to something, but from something, to which we must give voice;
   not to escape from our life, but to focus it;
   not to relinquish our mind, but to replenish our soul.
We pray that we may live with honesty:
   that we can accept who we are,
   and admit who we are not;
   that we don't become so deafened by pride and fear
   that we ignore the still small voices within us,
   that could lead us out of darkness.
We pray that we can live with trust and openness:
   to those people, those experiences, and those transformations
   that can save us from narrowness and despair.
   And we pray on behalf of these hopes
   with an open heart, an honest soul,
   and a grateful reverence for the life which has been given to us.
We pray not to something, but from something, to which we must give voice.
      AMEN.

The Journey

By Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Readings of March 25, 2007