Give us this day our daily bread, the right to work that all be fed, to live in thankfulness for what we have, give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day your daily word, the heart to act on what we’ve heard, to live in mindfulness from all we learn, give us this day your daily word. Give us this day your daily light, the eyes to trace the true and right, to see each other as you see us, God, give us this day your daily light.
Go gently, go lightly, go safe in the Spirit, live simply, don’t carry much more than you need: go trusting God’s goodness, go spreading God’s kindness, stay centered on Jesus and where he will lead. Go singing, go bringing the gifts of the Spirit, go hopefully searching for things that are true: in living, in loving, whatever befalls you, God keep you, God bless you in all that you do.
God bless the ones who watch and wait through lonely vigil, constant care, who must stay strong for those they love for hope to shine through black despair. Hold in your light the lives entwined with those impaired they cannot leave, where damaged bodies, damaged minds, become a cause to rage and grieve. God bless the arms that lift the weak, adjust a tone for deaf to hear, who calm with love a fretful child, who wash the ill and wipe the tear. The towel and basin Jesus took is for us all to take and use, in giving respite, easing stress and walking in another’s shoes. God bless the ones who watch and wait with cheerful face, though heart may bleed, who every day commit to care, to serve and meet another’s need.
God in the silence, God in the speaking, God in the working of countless human lives, reach us and teach us, soul matched with science, how we must live that humanity survives: Refrain: for yours is the kin-dom, the glory and the power. Peace is the journey, justice her herald, peace is the midwife for hopefulness to birth, peace lays her head on the block of our conflict, peace sings lament for the dying of the earth, (Refrain) We are the blind ones, we are the lame ones, we are the deaf who refuse your Spirit’s cry, ours is the madness sparked by our anger, ours is the tangle of systems gone awry, (Refrain) God of Good Friday, God grown in Jesus, God in the fabric of all the life we have, take us, re-make us kind to each other, crossing the bound’ries to find a larger love: (Refrain)
God in whose memory no one is lost, love that will seek and will find, do not forget us when we forget you, when we know fear in the mists of the mind. Faces and places familiar are gone, clouds of unknowing descend, do not forget us when we forget you, cared-for and carer have need of a friend. Help us accept what we cannot repair, though our hearts hunger and ache, do not forget us when we forget you, give us the strength not to flinch or forsake. Memories moved to a world of their own test all our faithful belief: do not forget us when we forget you, help us, each one in this shadow of grief. Give us the grace of true kindness and touch, patience to stay on this road, do not forget us when we forget you, Spirit of Jesus, compassion of God.
God of our foremothers, God of our day, firing, inspiring our song, God who is Wisdom, in woman’s own voice calling for freedom from wrong: you have a vision we dare not resist, you have a dream to be born. Who will be midwife to justice and peace? Who will wait up for this dawn? Refrain: It’s in our hands it’s in our hearts it’s in our power to make the vision plain! Spirit who challenges all that we see, widening our screen to your scope— new generations are tugging our hand, needing direction and hope. You are our confidence, you are our truth, you are the steel to our nerve, you in Christ Jesus the life and the proof: we are to lead and to serve. (Refrain) Ours is the role and the work of the soul, each in our everyday place proving by outward and visible sign, inward and spiritual grace. Sing a Magnificat tuned to our time, justice the heart can perceive, woman’s reality livened by faith, vision the world will believe! (Refrain)
God of the galaxies spinning in space, God of the smallest seed, our living source: yours is the gift of this beautiful place— Refrain: Let us care for your garden and honor the earth. Careless and covetous, gross are our greeds taking the riches the garden provides, wasting its goodness, forgetting its needs, (Refrain) Forests and rivers are ravaged and die, raped is the land till it bleeds in its clay, silenced the birdsong and plundered the sea— (Refrain) Let there be beauty and let there be air fragrant with peace, never poisoned with fear, freed from the plagues of pollution and war, (Refrain) Life is a holy thing, life is a whole, linking each creature and blessing us all, making connections of body and soul, (Refrain)