Sketch Prayers

As we celebrate our American birthday, oh God,
We ask what your vision for this time and place is.

On this day
May we pause to remember
The beloved community you call us to be.

Fill the spaces between us with your holy imagination.

May we listen and speak a bit more gently, and boldly.
May we pause to heal each other's wounds.
May we discover together how to be
The people
The nation
The neighborhoods
That you dream we can be.

Let it be so, Oh loving God,
Let it be so on this day
And in the months ahead.
Let it be so for us all.

Amen

Oh God,

We pray that
Earth and heaven may indeed
Ring with the harmonies of true liberty!

Stir hands and hearts in this election year.
Join the hopes and dreams of all your people
That we may become the beloved community that you dream we can be.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

On this solar eclipse day, I lift again my 2017 sketch and prayer for light to shine in our darkness.

O God,
May moments of darkness
Reveal the power and beauty
Of your brilliant light.
Amen

Oh God of love
Of love in our midst
Of love incarnate
Open us in these holy days
That we may take time and space
To bask in the glow and flow of your grace
And to generously share your love
Your intimate, messy and magical love
That love that never ever ceases
Love overflowing
That love that is you.
Amen


Image from: Gerondelis, A. (2018). Open our Hearts: Daily prayers for Lent and Holy Week. Glasgow: Wild Goose Publications.

Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love
Joel 2:13 (NRSV)

O God,
You call out to us in many ways.
As we step into this Lenten season,
May we hear you,
See you
And know you are near,
Saying "Come to me. All of you. Come."

Amen

From: Gerondelis, A. (2018). Open our hearts: Daily prayers for lent and holy week. Wild Goose Publications.

And an animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK4UX0xJ6SE

The light shines in the darkness
And the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1: 5

On this day of the Epiphany,
We celebrate God's light breaking through the darkness,
And shining so brilliantly in our midst.

May love and light be seen and heard
In the hands and hearts of all of God's children.
Light in our communities.
Light in our lives.
Love beyond measure.
Enough for every one.

Amen


Image is from Open Our Eyes: Daily Prayers for Advent by Ann Gerondelis

How I love the season of Advent! Want to enjoy daily devotions with me this year? Follow along in the book Open Our Eyes to walk with me and discover God's love being born anew in 2023/2024. The book is available in print or ebook via this link:

Open Our Eyes - Daily prayers for Advent - Ann Gerondelis - ISBN 9781849525022 Open Our Eyes - Daily prayers for Advent - Ann Gerondelis - ISBN 9781849525022

A Sketch and a Prayer for Indigenous People's Day

Oh God
Creator of all peoples
All lands
And all histories

We pray on this day
That you open our hearts
Give us curious minds
Eager to see our histories with a clear vision
Those of our past, our present and those of our futures

Give us courage to see the harms of our hands
Give us empathy to understand their impact
Give us hearts generous in compassion and sacrificial love

Empower us all
Our bodies, minds and spirits
To work together
To build the future that we know You long for
A Beloved Community
Built for wholeness, healing and love

Even when it seems hard
Let it be so, oh Great Spirit of Love
Let it be so.

Amen

Oh God,

We pray that
Earth and heaven may indeed
Ring with the harmonies of true liberty!

Join the hopes and dreams of all your people
That we may become the beloved community that you dream we can be.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Then God said, “I’ve given you
every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
given them to you for food.
To all animals and all birds,
everything that moves and breathes,
I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.”
And there it was.

God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good!

Very, very good indeed!
Amen


Excerpt from Genesis 1: 29-31 The Message

May the power of Easter's radiant light
Continue to pe*****te the corners of our lives,
Transforming hearts and minds
Near and far
For love -
Love incarnate
Love that changes everything
For love alone.
Amen


Image from: Gerondelis, A. (2018). Open our Hearts: Daily prayers for Lent and Holy Week. Glasgow: Wild Goose Publications

In these days ...
it's so easy...
to lose sight of hope, of love.
Today we hear again the story of Golgotha.
Oh, what a time. Oh what a place.
But here, tangible hope. Here, love reimagined.
Oh dear God,
who claims people and places again and again,
claim us now.
Claim our streets, our communities,
our countries, our planet and more.
For love...
May our hands and feet
be part of love's unfolding story where we are.
Now. Today.
May love happen here.
Because of you.

Amen

Excerpt from: Gerondelis, A. (2018). Open our Hearts: Daily prayers for Lent and Holy Week. Glasgow: Wild Goose Publications.

Oh God of love,
Of love in our midst,
Of love incarnate,
Open us in these holy days
That we may take time and space
To bask in the glow and flow of your grace
And to generously share your love,
Your intimate, messy and magical love,
That love that never ever ceases,
Love overflowing,
That love that is you.
Amen


Image from: Gerondelis, A. (2018). Open our Hearts: Daily prayers for Lent and Holy Week. Glasgow: Wild Goose Publications.

Know that you are dust.
God's beautiful dust.

O dazzling God,
You are constantly transfiguring the world around us.
May we stop to listen,
to bear witness to your light in our midst -
Your love breaking through
Where we least expect it,
Hands extended
Learning to trust.
Radiant love changing the world
Transfiguring us all.
Amen

Beloved, let us love one another.
Yes.
Let's do it together.
Amen

Yes, Emmanuel.
Come.
Come here.
Come now.
Oh come.

Photos
Those powerful ones that connect us,
They build bridges to lives of pain and suffering
And loss
Such loss.
May our morning tears
And broken hearts
Give way to a pause in the violence.
May hearts open to empathy
And just a bit of understanding
That can somehow
Some way
Restore peace to your people.
It seems impossible
In this unbelievable landscape of power and greed,
But God of love
With hearts breaking
We call on you.
May one broken heart
Heal another
And another
And another.
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Amen

"Ann's images are icon-like in their depth and focus; her prayers are poetic and prophetic."

"The artwork is beautiful, the colors vivid and entrancing... This is a gorgeous book to sit with and meditate."

Join me on a Lenten journey through the pages of "Open Our Hearts: Daily Prayers for Lent and Holy Week." Let images and words speak to you in these holy days beginning with Ash Wednesday on March 2nd. You can order your book here at https://www.ionabooks.com/.../open-our-hearts.../ Paperback or digital.

Open Our Hearts - Daily prayers for Lent and Holy Week - Ann Gerondelis - ISBN 9781849526197 Open Our Hearts - Daily prayers for Lent and Holy Week - Ann Gerondelis - ISBN 9781849526197

In this New Year of the Tiger
We ask Oh God that you help us
Find courage enough to be vulnerable.
May we be
Fierce and courageous
Passionate and powerful
Strong and self-assured
May this New Year find us
Peering into the unknown,
Letting go of what’s been holding us back and
Trying those new things You are calling us to.
May we act swiftly and confidently
Asking forgiveness when we fail boldly
And may our voices join in a collective roar
With all your saints and prophets
Ferociously guarding the lives of all God's people
And rocking the world around us with love.
May we be bold enough this year
To believe that together we are becoming
That Beloved Community that you dream we can be.
O God of might
Let it be so.
Amen

“In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be... This is the inter-related structure of reality.”

Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

O God
We are hard to catch
We have reason upon reason for going it on our own
It’s just easier if I do it by myself
I have the right to choose for me
I know what’s best after all
They had their turn, now its mine
Yes, it’s my time to shine
Slow us down dear God
And open our eyes to the gifts around us
Inspire us with the vision of our communities that you see
Me and she and we
Becoming more than we can imagine
Catch us, O God
Catch us all
And weave us together into the Beloved Community that you dream we can be
One people of God
Hearts and hands filled with awe and wonder
Becoming a new thing
Together.
Amen

Magnificent

In the darkness
A light emerges
Matter taking shape
Resisting the norm
Empowering the weak
Turning the tables
Singing of liberty and justice
Bearing a child.

As we light the fourth candle
We pray O God
That your powerful spirit grow in us
A spirit that shouts that love is here
Love that resists authority and wealth
Love that empowers all on the margins
An unstoppable love that begets love upon love
A fierce love that will not cower in the shadows
But sparkles and cracks and makes itself know
A loud and gracious love
Born in the hearts of all of God’s people
A gift
What a gift.
An unstoppable love.
Amen