Morning Prayer

Our morning prayer service is an opportunity to carve out space for contemplation and stillness so that it becomes a spiritual practice. On the first three Sundays in May, our theme is Cultivating Growth, each week spending time tending to who we are becoming through spiritual pruning, planting, and practices.

We offer you a warm welcome, and as is our practice, we remember that the land on which we meet is, was, and always will be native land. We acknowledge those indigenous tribes to Oklahoma: the Wichitas, Caddos, Plains Apaches, and the Quapaws, as the original custodians of the land in this place. We grieve the violence done to native language, culture, and personhood, and seek to honor the sovereignty and dignity of native peoples.

Glenda Stansbury

Let us begin the day with this time of consideration, holy listening, supported silence, song, and prayer. We invite you to settle into your seat, let your shoulders drop, and take a deep breath. Remember: your whole self is welcome here.

Today we consider how growth often requires letting go of what no longer serves us in order to make space for practices that are more nourishing, and we ask:

• What habits and practices in my life are focused on cultivating personal growth?
• Do these habits and practices give me life, or do they merely fill my time? Which have become distractions? Am I holding on to them because they were once useful or are they actually helping me grow into who I am called to become? What am I currently neglecting because my hands are too full with other things?
• How will carefully pruning away those distractions, habits, and practices create room for new life and growth?

Come to Tend God’s Garden, Hymn 586
New Century Hymnal

We root ourselves in this moment with prayer, putting scripture into practice, for we have been told, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”  Let us pray together.

One: We begin with joy and gratitude, Holy One, for we know that these are acts of resistance.

All: For the birthdays of our beloveds, including Milan Nguyen and Pam Westbrook; for last Memorial Marathon weekend, filled with grief and hope in equal measures; and for new life emerging after the dormancy of winter, we give thanks.

One: We say aloud names and places that may mean something only to us, trusting the gathered community to help us, for we are not meant to carry everything alone. . .

All: [Please say those names and places aloud so that we can hold them close with you.]

One: We believe, Holy One, that you know all that is but a whisper in our hearts, and to those names we add members of this community. . .

All: Phil Manning’s brother Mark, Tyler Minton’s grandmother, George  & Jeanette Atwood, Meg Hunt, Mike Fox, Carolyn Wade, and Robert Lacy-Maus. May they know they matter and are  not forgotten. Be with our neighbors in Gaza, Lebanon, and Ukraine, and help us to do the things that make for peace, Holy One.

One: And now we pray as Jesus taught the disciples:

All: Our Creator, who is in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For you reign in the power that is love, now and always, Amen.

One: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia

All: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia

One: Praise the Beloved, O my soul!
I will give thanks to you with my whole heart.
To all who will listen, I will tell of your goodness.
Your name is to be praised upon my lips.

All: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia

One: Wondrous is Creation, Great Builder;
I will take pleasure in pondering your work.
Full of honor and integrity are your teachings;
Those who follow them will find new life.

All: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia

One: You bring new life to the world.
Your marvelous works in nature are wisdom and beauty incarnate.
Yes! Life in abundance is your gift to us.
Holy and glorious is your Name!

All: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia

(Alleluia 7 from the Taize Community. J. Berthier.)

Rev. Dr. Lori Walke

Rev. Dr. Lori Walke

When you are ready, come forward and use a pair of scissors to cut those distractions, habits, and practices that you hung up earlier on the branches. Let them fall to the table however they may, they are no longer yours to keep up. Or, if you didn’t come forward to put any up earlier in the service, bring them forward now and leave them at the table. If you are at home, tear up, throw out, or otherwise clear away the distractions, habits, and practices that you wrote down earlier.

Let us make space for new life together.

[Response music: Glenda Stansbury]

We have started, Holy One, a little work in the garden of our hearts. Be with us as we carry on the work of pruning this week, helping us to see what distractions, habits, and practices that are not helping us grow into our most faithful selves. Guard the new space this clearing away creates in our hearts, so that we do not rush to fill it too soon. Make us, as the psalmist said, “like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” With dirt under our fingernails we pray, Amen.

As you go out into the remainder of the day, may you carry the still, small voice of the Divine within you. May your hearts be filled with peace, your hands moved by compassion, and your steps guided by love.