prayer is meaningful but undefined

Greek Orthodox Prayer

Afterglow I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one, I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done. I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways, of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days. I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun of happy memories that I leave behind when day is done. -Helen Lowrie Marshall

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is bitterest.”

-Confucius 

Prayer for Friendship

You have blessed us, O God, with the gift of friendship, the bonding of persons in a circle of love. We thank you for such a blessing: for friends who love us, who share our sorrows, who laugh with us in celebration, who bear our pain, who need us as we need them, who weep as we weep, who hold us when words fail, and who give us the freedom to be ourselves. Bless our friends with health, wholeness, life, and love. Amen.

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

-C. S. Lewis

“And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all we call human history- money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery- the long terrible history of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

-C. S. Lewis

Almighty God, Author of life, Lord of all creation, from whom comes the beauty of each flower bud and every new born child. Thank you for your everlasting forgiveness and eternal hope. You turn the pages of our lives, filling everyday with forgiveness, erasing our failings and encouraging us to try again. You are the author of life, who brings fresh expectation into each day. Come flood this heart with your hope. Amen.

There is a light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond all of us, beyond the heavens, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. This is the light that shines in our hearts.

- Chandogya Upanishad

One of my favorite historical anecdotes is as follows: