Hello Friends, Thank you for your interest in seeing our weekly Newsletter Closing quotes and prayers all in one place so that you can view them at leisure. Over time, I’m planning to “jazz” them up a bit with images that I have taken over the years that will relate in some way with some of the offerings. My plan is to update this page monthly, so feel free to call me on it if I fall behind!
Newsletter Closings
Have you ever tried to enter the long black branches
of other lives—
tried to imagine what the crisp fringes, full of honey,
hanging from the branches of the young locust trees,
in early summer, feel like? …
Who can open the door who does not reach for the latch?
Who can travel the miles who does not put one foot
in front of the other, all attentive to what presents itself continually?
Who will behold the inner chamber who has not observed
with admiration, even with rapture, the outer stone?
Well, there is time left —
fields everywhere invite you into them.
__________
Reflections for Meeting Newsletter
We are so brief. A one-day dandelion.
A seedpod skittering across the ice.
We are a feather falling from the wing of a bird.
I don’t know why it is given to us to
be so mortal and to feel so much.
It is a cruel trick, and glorious.
– Louise Erdrich
__________
First, silence makes us pilgrims.
Secondly, silence guards the fire within.
Thirdly, silence teaches us to speak.
– Henry J.M. Nouwen
_________________
Blessed are those who can give without remembering
and take without forgetting.
– Elizabeth Bibesco
________
Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.
– L.R. Knost
________
In a time of destruction, create something. A poem. A parade. A community. A school. A vow. A moral principle. One peaceful moment.
– Maxine Hong Kingston
________
May you live all the days of your life.
– Jonathan Swift
________
There must be always remaining in every life,
some place for the singing of angels,
some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful.
– Howard Thurman
________
Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day,
there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty
of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.
Howard Thurman
In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen,
we can hear the whisper in the heart
giving strength to weakness,
courage to fear,
hope to despair.
Howard Thurman
The greatness of a community is most accurately
measured by the compassionate actions of its members,
a heart of grace, and a soul generated by love.
Coretta Scott King
________
Go now with God.
Be not tempted to stay in the safety of know places.
Be not tempted to go only in your own time.
Elect to go with God.
Go in faith that
there is no valley so low,
no wilderness so vast,
no passage so crooked,
that God is not already there,
waiting to be with you.
(Source unknown)
________
There must be always remaining in every life,
some place for the singing of angels,
some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful.
__________
– Howard Thurman
We make a pause
amid many voices—
Some innocent and some seductive,
Some violent and some coercive,
Some forgiven and some genuine,
And some not.
Amid this cacophony that pulls us
In many directions,
We have these old voices of your prophets;
These voices attest to
your fierce self,
your severe summons,
Your generous promise,
Your abiding presence.
Give us good ears,
Perchance you have a word for us tonight;
Give us grace and courage to listen,
to answer,
to care,
and to rejoice,
That we may be more fully your people.
From Hearing Better Voices, “Prayers for a Privileged People”
by Walter Brueggemann
________
Our Real Work, by Wendell Berry
It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.
__________
Lord, make us masters of
ourselves that we may be
the servants of others.
Take our minds and think
through them, our mouths
and speak through them,
and take our hearts, and
set them on fire.
– Theodore P. Ferris
__________
Give Me the Wild Children
Give me the wild children with their bare feet and sparkling eyes. The restless, churning climbers. The wild ones using their outside voices, singing all the way home. Give me the wonder-filled, glorious mess makers dreaming of mountains and mud, aching to run through a field of stars.
– Nicolette Sowder
__________
Art thou in the darkness?
Mind it not for if thou dost it will feed thee more.
But stand still, and act not and wait in patience,
Till Light arises out of darkness and leads thee.
From James Nayler, 1659
Chant from Paulette Meier cd, “Timeless Quaker Wisdom”
_________________
To watch the spirit of children,
to nurture them in Gospel Love,
and labour to help them against
that which would mar the beauty
of their minds,
is a debt we owe them.
– John Woolman, 1758
__________
Breath in the quiet purpose of this place;
Through outward stillness, seek a calm within.
Here we can find forgiveness and forgive;
Here feel the healing miracle begin.
Breathe our busy world, the teeming mind,
the follies, fears and failures of the week;
Breathe out contention, pettiness and pride,
and wait in trust for that of God to speak.
Breathe in communion, friend with quiet friend,
each drawing closer in this timeless hour,
As all our different needs and gifts are drawn
to the one source of comfort, love and power.
Breath out at last, to God, the hearts full thanks
that we have seen this vision, known this grace;
Renewed through love, let us that love extend
through all our daily life beyond this place.
– Geoffrey Weeden
________
Does God keep you up at night?
– Poster: Andover Newton Theological School, 1993
___________
The temple bell stops
but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.
– Basho
____________
When you pray,
Move your feet.
– African Proverb
___________
“I hope that no American…will waste his franchise and throw away his vote by voting either for me or against me solely on account of my religious affiliation. It is not relevant.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy
The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.
– Dwight D.Eisenhower
Voting is a civic sacrament.
– Theodore Hesburgh
Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and heart to this vote.
– Daniel Webster
It’s not the hand that signs the laws that holds the destiny of America. It’s the hand that casts the
– Harry S. Truman
__________
Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness;
and bearing one with another,
and forgiving one another,
and not laying accusations one against another;
but praying one for another,
and helping one another up with a tender hand.
– Isaac Penington
__________
What we are, what we have, even our salvation, all is gift, all is grace, not to be achieved but to be received as a gift freely given.
– Archbishop Desmond Tutu, (Oct 7, 1931 – Dec 26, 2021)
__________
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.
– Archbishop Desmond Tutu, (Oct 7, 1931 – Dec 26, 2021)
__________
Mind that which is eternal
Which gathers your hearts together
Up to the Lord
And lets you see that ye are written
in one another’s hearts.
– From George Fox, 1653
(Chant from Paulette Meier cd, “Timeless Wisdom”)
___________
________
If someone comes to you asking for help, do not say in refusal, “Trust in God. He will help.” Rather, act as if there were no God, and no one to help, except you.
– Hassidic teaching
In Praise of Hands
Blessed be the works of your hands,
O Holy One.
Blessed be these hands that have touched life.
Blessed be these hands that have nurtured creativity.
Blessed be this hands that have held pain.
Blessed be these hands that have embraced with passion.
Blessed be these hands that have tended gardens.
Blessed be these hands that have closed in anger.
Blessed be these hands that have planted new seeds.
Blessed be these hands that have harvested ripe fields.
Blessed be these hands that have washed, mopped, scrubbed.
Blessed be these hands that have become knotty with age.
Blessed are these hands that are wrinkled and scared from doing justice.
Blessed are these hands that have reached out and been received.
Blessed be these hands that hold the promise of the future.
Belled be the works of your hands,
O Holy One.
– Diann L. Neu
If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is “Thank You,” it will be enough.
– Mesiter Eckhart
The Truth is one and the same always; and though ages and generations pass away, and one generation goes, and another comes, yet the Word, and Power, and the Spirit of the living God endures forever, and is the same, and never changes.
– Margaret Fell
Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.
– Oscar Romero
All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope. Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, and Dorothy Day all lived with a promise in their hearts that guided them toward the future without the need to know exactly what it would look like. Let’s live with hope.
– Henri Nouwen
The grace of God is in my mind shaped like a key, that comes from time to time to unlock the heavy doors.
– Donald Swan
There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky;
there is one spectacle grander than the sky,
that is the interior of the soul.
– Victor Hugo
Grief is the price we pay for love.
-Queen Elizabeth II, ( 1926-2022)
TODAY
Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all of the voodoos of ambition
sleep.
The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.
But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m traveling
a terrific distance.
Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.
– Mary Oliver
Tis God gives skill, but not without men’s hands:
He could not make Antonio Stradivari’s violins without Antonio.
– George Eliot
We and God have business with each other;
and in opening ourselves to his influence
our deepest destiny is fulfilled.
– William James
Any forms for the cultivation of the religious life
are in themselves always subject to change … they
are scaffolding to be torn down and re-erected in new
forms in accordance with the stage of growth of the
life they seek to aid. To take them as an end in
themselves is idolatry and blasphemy.
Without practice, without discipline, without continuous
devotion, without failure, correction, re-dedication,
re-orientation, there is no growth in the religious life
which is not an episode, or an event, but
a life.
Douglas V. Steere, in Prayer and Worship, 1938)
Self-care is never a selfish act—it is simply good
stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was
put on earth to offer to others.
– Parker Palmer
Mama exhorted her children
at every opportunity to “jump at de sun.”
We might not land on the sun,
but at least we would get off the ground.
– Zora Neale Hurston
Day by day
Day by day
Oh dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see Thee more clearly
Love Thee more dearly
Follow Thee more nearly
Day by day.
– Godspell (Off-Broadway musical, 1971)
The most simple things in life are the most difficult things.
Just getting through the day is not easy.
The most difficult thing in life, I think, is living. I mean, really living.
A lot of the time I’m in the present, and I’m thinking about the past
or scheming about the future and missing every present moment,
instead of actually partaking of the sacrament of every present moment.
– R. D. Laing
There must be always remaining in every life,
some place for the singing of angels,
some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful.
– Howard Thurman
Call out to the whole divine night
for what you love. What you stand for.
Earn your name.
Be kind, and wild, and disciplined,
and absolutely generous.
– DR. Martin Shaw
Hold on to what is good, even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe, even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do,
even if it is a long way from here.
Hold on to life, even when it is easier letting go.
– Nancy Wood
We need movements rooted in love right now,
movements powered not by difference and exclusion and punishment,
but by common ground, compassion, humility, healthy boundaries, patience and healing.
– Adrienne Marie Brown
Just to be is a blessing.
Just to live is holy.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind,
which in different places and ages hath had different names.
It is, however, pure and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward,
confined to no form of religion nor excluded from any where the heart stands
in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, of what nation soever,
they become brethren in the best sense of the expression.
– John Woolman, 1774
Too many well-intentioned people are so preoccupied with the clatter
of effort to do something for God that they don’t hear Him asking that
He might do something through them. … For the Eternal is urgently,
actively breaking into time, working through those who are willing to
be laid hold upon, to surrender self-confidence and self-centered
effort, that is, self-originated effort, and let the Eternal be the dynamic
guide in recreating, through us, our time-world.
– Thomas Kelly, “The Eternal Now and Social Concern”
Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break.
And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention.
So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.
The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.
– L.R. Knost
Dearly Beloved Friends, These things we do not lay upon you
as a form or rule to walk by, but that all, with the measure of light
which is pure and holy, may be guided; and so in the light walking and abiding,
these may be fulfilled in the Spirit, not in the letter,
for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.
– Letter from the Meeting of Elders at Balby, 1656
Be gentle
when you touch bread.
Let it not lie
uncared for, unwanted.
So often bread
is taken for granted.
There is so much beauty
in bread-
beauty of sun and soil,
beauty of patient toil.
Winds and rain have
caressed it,
Christ often blessed it.
be gentle
when you touch bread.
-Author unknown
Hold on to what is good, even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe, even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do, even if it is a long way from here.
Hold on to life, even when it is easier letting go.
Hold on to my hand, even when I have gone away from you.
– Pueblo Blessing
Abundantly sufficient for our help
is the grace afforded us!
Let all but keep to it, and then safe are their steppings
and sure their preservation;
for, however severe their trials,
the Lord will be near them.
– Job Scott, Quaker Minister, (1751-1793)
A church that doesn’t provoke any crisis,
a gospel that doesn’t unsettle,
a word of God that doesn’t get
under anyone’s skin,
what gospel is that?
Very nice, pious considerations
that don’t bother anyone,
that’s the way many would like preaching to be.
Those preachers who avoid every thorny matter
so as not to be harassed,
so as not to have conflicts and difficulties,
do not light up the world they live in.
– Archbishop Oscar Romero (1917-1980)
(Canonized in 2018 as Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez)
Dear God of all time and all creatures, help me to live fully within this cycle of infinity that is your gift to me.
Make me less fearful of the measure of time, and more fully alive in the time that simply is.
Help me to live time, not just to use it; to breathe it in, and return it in acts of love and presence.
– Avis Crowe
What we are, what we have, even our salvation,
all is gift, all is grace,
not to be achieved but to be received
as a gift freely given.
– Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Oct 7, 1931 – Dec 26, 2021)
God needs nothing, asks nothing, and demands nothing, like the stars. …
You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars,
you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.
– Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk
Hold Fast the Hope
Hold fast the hope
That anchors the Soul,
Which is sure and steadfast,
That you may float above
The world’s sea.
– From George Fox, 1658
Chant from Paulette Meier cd, “Wellsprings of Life”
Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone’s face?
Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment?
Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions.
I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits,
here in this world and the life to come.
– Henri Nouwen
What does a life with God require?
God does not demand that we give up our personal dignity,
that we throw in our lot with random people, that we lose ourselves
and turn from all that is not him. God needs nothing, asks nothing,
and demands nothing, like the stars. It is a life with God that demands
these things. … You do not have to sit outside in the dark.
If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness
is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.
– Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk
Our Real Work
It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.
– Wendell Berry
Lord, take my lips and speak through them,
take my mind and think through it,
take my heart, and set it on fire.
– W. H. Atkin
What we are, what we have, even our salvation,
all is gift, all is grace, not to be achieved
but to be received as a gift freely given.
– Archbishop Desmond Tutu
To watch the spirit of children,
to nurture them in Gospel Love,
and labour to help them against
that which would mar the beauty
of their minds,
is a debt we owe them.
– John Woolman, 1758
The world is too dangerous for anything but truth
and too small for anything but love.
– William Sloane Coffin
Lord, make us masters of
ourselves that we may be
the servants of others.
Take our minds and think
through them, our mouths
and speak through them,
and take our hearts, and
set them on fire.
– Theodore P. Ferris
Song of an Iona Pilgrimage
Listen!
God sings
sausage-sizzle of surf-sifted sand
ah of the sea’s vast sighs
wild goose wings-strokes.
Here!
our sandcastle
society suffers and grows each ferry
love enmeshes and embraces
this many-layered parcel.
See!
the Trinity
in scented sisterhood: yeast creating
aluminum conveying, cumin uplifting
scrubbing and swearing side-by-side.
Feel!
Laces of faith
firm on my booted feet
I step open-eyed into swamps
theological, metaphorical, literal, littoral.
Rhiannon Grant, 24
Nottingham and Derby Area Meeting, Britain Yearly Meeting, UK.
Editor’s note: “Iona is and ecumenical Christian community focused on peace and social justice, the rebuilding of community and the renewal of worship.” Visit their site HERE
Source: Spirit Rising – “Young Quaker Voices,” published by Friends General Conference, 2010. p. 19.
A Blessing of Solitude
May you recognize in your life the presence, power, and light of your soul.
May you realize that you are never alone, that your soul in its brightness and belonging connects you immediately with the rhythm of the universe.
May you have respect for your own individuality and difference.
May you realize that the shape of your soul is unique, that you have a special destiny here, that behind the façade of your life there is something beautiful, good, and eternal happening.
May you learn to see yourself with the same delight, pride, and expectation with which God sees you in every moment.
- From Anam Cara, A Book of Celtic Wisdom, by John O’Donohue, 1997, p. 36
Once his brother asked Ryoken to visit his house and speak with his delinquent son. Ryoken came but did not say a word of admonition to the boy. He stayed overnight and prepared to leave the next morning. As the wayward nephew was lacing up Ryoken’s sandals, he felt a drop of warm water. Glancing up, he saw Ryoken looking down on him, his eyes full of tears. Ryoken then returned home, and the nephew changed for the better. – John Stevens, One Rose, One Bowl
A Step Along The Way
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent
enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of
saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an
opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master
builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw
*This prayer was composed by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw, drafted for a homily by Card. John Dearden in Nov. 1979 for a celebration of departed priests. As a reflection on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Bishop Romero, Bishop Untener included in a reflection book a passage titled “The mystery of the Romero Prayer.” The mystery is that the words of the prayer are attributed to Oscar Romero, but they were never spoken by him.”
Give me the wild children
with their bare feet and sparkling eyes.
The restless, churning climbers.
The wild ones using their outside voices,
singing all the way home.
Give me the wonder-filled, glorious mess makers
dreaming of mountains and mud,
aching to run through a field of stars.
Nicolette Sowder (about the author)
Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness;
And bearing one with another,
And forgiving one another,
And not laying accusations
One against another;
But praying one for another,
And helping one another
Up with a tender hand…
– Isaac Penington
We must always be on the lookout for perverse
dynamic processes which carry even good things to excess.
It is precisely these excesses which become the most evil
things in the world. The devil, after all, is a fallen angel.
– Kenneth Boulding
We must delight in each other, make each other’s conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same family.
– Governor John Winthrop, 1630 (Printed in the Sakonnet Times in 2009 and paid for by the Sakonnet Peace Alliance)
Jesus promised those who would follow his leadings only three things:
that they should be absurdly happy,
entirely fearless,
and always in trouble.
– Marty Babcock
Benedictine Sisters Prayer:
Lead me from death to life,
From falsehood to truth,
Lead me from despair to hope
From fear to trust,
Lead me from hate to love,
From war to peace,
Let peace fill our hearts, our world
Our universe.
(Prayed Benedictine Sisters the world over each day at noontime.)
Praying. It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.
– Mary Oliver
Not because
We have made peace this day
Not because
We have treated the other as our self
Not because we have walked the earth with reverence today
but because there is mercy
because there is grace
Because your Spirit has not been taken from us
We come
Still thirsting for peace
Still longing for love
Still hungering for wholeness
– John Philip Newell
Why Pray:
Some say we
pray for healing,
forgiveness,
for family and
friends, for
more rain and
less rain, for
peace and
tomorrow,
for life life
letting go
and life beginning,
for what we want
and do not want.
We pray
because we need to,
because we’re
told to by our parents
who were told to
by their parents,
believing Light
come shining-shaking
on a path called home.
We pray in quietness,
in subways, in meetings,
in giggles and shouts,
in singing silliness,
in touching,
in Him.
We pray on Sundays
on our knees, on skateboards
and scriptures read,
on words released
and days begun
on hope, on you, on me.
K.L
Our safety therefore stands in keeping to the root of ministry, the inspiration of the Spirit, patiently waiting at all times to know our place and services in the ministry, that when we speak, that it may be the word and mind of the Spirit, and not our own; and when we minister it may be in the strength and ability which God is pleased to give, and not our own.
– Samuel Bownas, (1676-1753) A Description of the Qualifications Necessary to be a Gospel Minister
The Bell and the Blackbird
The sound of a bell
Still reverberating,
or a blackbird calling
from a corner of the field,
asking you to wake
into this life,
or inviting you deeper
into the one that waits.
Either way
takes courage,
either way wants you
to be nothing
but that self that
is no self at all,
wants you to walk
to the place
where you find
you already know
how to give
every last thing
Away.
The approach
that is also
the meeting
itself,
without any
meeting
at all.
That radiance
you have always
carried with you
as you walk
both alone
and completely
accompanied
in friendship
by every corner
of the world
crying
Allelujah.
– David Whyte
This is what you should do: love the earth and the sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men…reexamine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss what insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem.
– Walt Whitman
On Leaving Bondage…Yet Again
Now we depart,
as our ancient ancestors always departed.
We leave, some of us encouraged,
some of us unscathed,
some of us energized,
all of us weary.
We leave, to depart to a better place…
Home… where we will be welcomed
with varying measures of
eagerness,
resentment,
responsiveness, or
anxiety.
We pray for good departures,
in the way our ancestors left Egypt,
that we may leave the grind of productivity,
and the hunger of craven ambition,
that we may leave for a place of wondrous promise,
visited en route by bread from heaven
and water from rocks.
We pray for big departures, like those of our ancient parents,
that we may leave where we have been and
how we have been and
who we have been.
To follow your better lead for us,
you who gives new place,
new mode,
new self.
We pray, each of us, to travel in mercy,
that we be on our way rejoicing,
arriving in wonder, love, and praise.
– Walter Brueggemann, “Prayers for a Privileged People”
The Lord is greater than all: I have said enough.
– Saint Patrick