Epiphany 1 (Year A): Litany for the Gentleness of Christ

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*A litany for the season of Epiphany, Year A, based primarily in the Lectionary text of Isaiah 42 . In a time when continents burn, earthquakes shudder, oceans brim with plastic instead of fish, and endless wars simmer on. Still we look toward a new reality, doing all we can to bring it to pass in our lifetimes. 

God, as so many stories have given account
Of the revelation of Christ
To various people, in various times;
So we look for our own epiphany:
Of the nature of the Divine,
The character of God...

Litany for Wisdom’s Indwelling

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The lectionary passages for this week present us with two Divine emanations: the Wisdom, or Sophia, of God, “covering the earth like a mist,” portrayed as female; and the Christ, God’s human incarnation, through whom “all things came into being,” who is known in male form among humans. We are on the cusp of Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus as Christ, and here we find ourselves being reminded of Wisdom. I like to think of her as the gift of Consciousness. The creator gives us animus, life, and then consciousness finds a resting place within us as host.

The scriptures say that Wisdom “took root in an honored people” and “entered the soul of a servant of the Lord.” It’s mysterious and I love it. And it’s a perfect theme for a prayer to start the new year.

Wisdom, you came from the mouth of God,
And covered the earth like a mist,
You opened the mouths of the mute,
And made unconscious beings conscious.
You find souls who are willing to hold you
And guide, shelter, and reward them.

Christmas (Year A): Litany for Holy Refugees

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For the first Sunday after Christmas. This litany is inspired by the account in Matthew 2 in which the Holy Family flees the murderous despotism of Herod, leaving secretly on a night journey toward Egypt. 

God, as the Holy Family fled their home country
To find refuge in a new place (1),
In the secrecy of night,
For their safety, for their lives,To escape the rule of despots (2)
And the hands of murderers…

Christmas Eve (Year A): Litany for Silent Night

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This year's Christmas litany is perhaps more poetic and abstract than others I've supplied. I like to lean into the poetry and metaphor of the major holy days. If your community is not down to poeticize, you can peruse my selection of Christmas litanies from prior years.  But I hope you'll use your imagination and go with me here to a silent night filled with feminine energy and imagery, love and light finding embodiment and beginning in a human woman's belly.

Christmas blessings to you and your community. 

Silent night.
A feminine hollow
Filled with Divinity,
Demonstrating humanity’s worth.

Advent Week 4 (Year A): Litany for Mother and Child

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I had trouble keeping this litany as brief as it is. There's so much wisdom and depth in the story of the Mother. In the way human salvation from humanity's misperceptions and misdeeds, this great Correction of Our Understanding, came from within a human body. The wisdom came from within. The Divinity came from within. From a place that might have been overlooked or forgotten: the belly of a girl with no power, no influence, no streams of income, no security. 

And yet, her "soul rejoices in God her savior." And her song in Luke 1 gives us a grand poetic account of her transformed (saved) understanding. Within her gut Wisdom grows; Word is made flesh; Love gains body. And she BIRTHS it out into the world! Human salvation (by this I mean: setting a-right, justice, redemption from oppression and power hierarchy - not some measly personal salvation from after-life "hell" we usually hear about) begins in the belly of divinely touched humanity!! 

Gosh, I could go on and on. I hope it's enough. 

God, we are not satisfied*
Not with the way things are,
Not with the direction things are headed,
Not with the status quo…

Advent Week 3 (Year A): Litany for Desert and Crocus

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“The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing” (Isaiah 35:1)

This week’s Advent Litany is inspired by the Lectionary passages from Isaiah 35 and Mary’s Magnificat in the first chapter of Luke. 


God, from barren things 
We never expected fruit.
From dry ground 
We didn’t expect shade….

Advent Week 2 (Year A): Litany for Stump and Branch

I'm in love with this year's Advent litany titles. I dunno, sometimes these details just get me. 

I've read Isaiah 11 a hundred times in my life and it still makes me weep with the hope of it. Apex predators napping with baby lambs. Lions munching straw as counter-culturally as you please.  A community led by Wisdom, where Justice is a given and not something we have to endlessly fight for ... Will it ever arrive? Will this day ever come? The day no one is hurt or destroyed.  The day no babies suffer. The day everyone can let their guard down because the danger has passed. 

To me, this is the gospel: this Peaceful Kin-dom waiting in the wings for us to become conscious of it. This Kin-dom that touches every part of creation (male, female, human, plant, animal, ocean, mountain, cosmos) and rights every wrong both here and in the hereafter. And this is the work of Advent: to become conscious of the Peaceable Community. Hallelujah Amen. 

God, things are looking hopeless,
As they are, we’re not sure how to go on.
We look around and see death and destruction,
Greed, dishonesty, strife, ego-seduction.

Advent Week 1 (Year A): Litany for Sword and Plowshare

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A new Liturgical Year! I love getting started with the hope and longing of Advent. I love the depth that the year's reflective opener supports. Down into the darkness. We plumb the depths for hidden light. 


God, we are exhausted by ourselves.
We’ve been misled and exploited.
We’ve been complicit in exploitation.
We’ve been lulled into becoming part of the problem

Reign of Christ (Year C): Litany for Christ's Mercy

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Here’s a litany for Reign of Christ Sunday, the last week of the liturgical year. The culmination of all that has come before. Next week, we start over with Year A and the new 3-year cycle. I’m proud of the work I’ve done and the liturgy I’ve produced over these 3 years. I’ve officially now covered an entire Lectionary cycle of modern litanies. My hope is that this work serves the Church Universal, both those who consider themselves part of it, and those that don’t. This is an accomplishment and I’m taking a deep breath of gratitude this week as I pause and think toward Advent and a new 3-year pattern.

God, for so long, we had you all wrong.
We thought you were nit-picky and contentious.
Quick to punish, full of wrath,
Full of impossible standards.

Proper 28 (Year C): Litany for Kin-dom Come

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This week’s litany is a theme near and dear to my heart, and in fact is the reason I’m still following Christ after all these years of faith renovation. The Good Community. The Kindom. The Kingdom of Heaven. The Now and Not Yet. That Isaiah 65 vision of New Jerusalem. I want to live inside it now, and Jesus says we can. “The Kingdom of Heaven is near!” he says. I believe him. 


Oh God, you have done great things
You have shown us the way of Gentle Power*
Attracting us into your realm of peace,
Of unity and Oneness,
Of cooperation and wholeness,
Of attention, presence, and love. 


Proper 27 (Year C): Litany for Love's Story

This story comes from a reading of this week's Lectionary passages.

God, we know that the story you’re telling
The story the hills and the seas tell (1),
The story all creatures and all flesh are telling (2),
Is a story that never ends (3),
Never stops being told (4),
And can never be told enough. 

Proper 26 (Year C): Litany for Societal Awakening

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I write this after returning from a moving and enlightening trip to the border town of El Paso TX / Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Our group was graciously educated on border realities by the staff of Abara Frontiers, an El Paso-based non-profit, and it’s sister organization Ciudad Nueva. I highly recommend this trip. Getting first-hand experience on the realities of the border situation is the best way I’ve found to begin understanding and foster more compassion for these complex systems and those caught in them. I am on a constant journey of awakening, and so are many of the folks I walk alongside. Many of us are awakening from the deep sleep of Whiteness and White Privilege. Many of us are awakening to ways we have been complicit in and propped up systems of evil, injustice, and greed. Collectively, at least among the circles I’m part of, we are doing deep, necessary shadow work. Some of us are uncovering deep emotions we’d buried long ago, and patterns of behavior that are now unhelpful.

This is hard work. We wake groggy and disoriented. But each step takes us closer to a rich, full vision of the Community of God, the Kin-dom That Can Be. Each layer we uncover gets us closer to the soul of it. Here’s a prayer for us, based in passages from this week's Lectionary.



God, so many of us are crying out for justice,
We are witnessing societal wrong-doing,
Awakening to the greed, evil, and injustice among us,
And crying out for change…

Proper 24 (Year C): Litany for Wrestling

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Hello! Sorry the litany is a bit late this week - my kids had fall break and the week has been unusual.

This week's Lectionary has such a hopeful message about wrestling with hard emotions, conflicts, trauma, questions, and problems, but staying with it. When we stay committed to uncovering the shadow, digging out what lies hidden beneath the external behavior or presentation, and to persistence in prayer and practice, God notices! We may come out with a limp like Jacob, but we are our true selves!

Life is hard. Emotional and spiritual work is hard. Justice work is hard. We won't get off this earth scot-free and unscathed. We will limp, somehow. But every lesson, every experience, every heaving, breathless effort is part of our learning and our growth. We can wrestle hopefully and gratefully, with acceptance and faith.


God, there is so much to work through
And so many problems to solve:
Troubles that come to us from within ourselves
And from without…

Proper 23 (Year C): Litany for Gratitude 3


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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Gratitude is Spirituality 101. You want to grow spiritually, to expand your capacity for love and compassion, start paying attention to things you can appreciate. Attention -> appreciation -> gratitude -> love.

And I love it when the Lectionary backs up my pre-conceived notions ;) I mean just check out Luke 17.

See, you can’t be grateful unless you’re paying attention. And you can’t love something without first appreciating it. And you can’t love the world without first paying attention to it. And you can’t stay hopeful or optimistic while you’re paying attention to reality (‘cause I mean look at the chaos and systemic injustice we’re dealing with) without also looking for good things to practice gratitude for.

Gratitude is our best hope for not succumbing to cynicism and melancholy. It doesn’t always come naturally. This is why we call it a PRACTICE. We practice it so our synaptic pathways can remember it when we need it most. And when we practice gratitude, we lay the groundwork for love.



Oh God, you have kept us among the living,
Though we’ve lost many;
Though we’ve gone through fire and water,
You’ve brought us to a spacious place -

Proper 22 (Year C): Litany for Hanging On

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This week’s Lectionary is heavy on the lament, both from the two Lamentations passages, the Habakkuk, and the Psalm. Habakkuk reminds us that “there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. And the Psalmist says “Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices.”

This is a hard word, especially for those who are in the trenches, working for justice, working toward the Kindom-coming, working to serve the poor, pushing against inequity… to be still and wait. To not fret about “evil-doers.” To not allow our anger to consume us when the waiting for justice seems way too long. So I’ve written this litany in hopes that it will help us hang on, keep working for good, rest in the Love. 


God, all day long we see wrong-doing
Our eyes behold trouble.  
Destruction and violence are before us;
strife and contention are all around

Proper 20 (Year C): Litany for Economies

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This week’s Gospel reading from Luke 16 is one of those head-scratcher texts. The kind you read and know immediately that you don’t already have whatever context you probably need to understand the dynamics of. What do we do with Jesus when he says “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes” ? I had to read several commentaries on the passage to get a start.

I was especially enlightened by Dr. Mitzi J. Smith’s commentary on this passage, which frames it as a slave parable and assumes the character of the “manager” to be an enslaved and oppressed person. She sagely reminds us that “wealth is generally built upon the backs of the enslaved, women, the poor, and the oppressed; that wealth for one usually presumes poverty for many. The larger the wealth gap in favor of a few, the more people are impoverished” (via Working Preacher).

Dr. Barbara Rossing suggests that Jesus is critiquing the capitalistic practice of charging interest on loans in her commentary, pointing out that “Luke is making connections between debt structures, the urgency of impending judgment, and the idol of Mammon [Wealth]” (via Working Preacher).

I’ve incorporated these ideas in this litany, as well as the overall themes in Luke’s gospel regarding wealth, greed, and what keeps us from an authentic spirituality and true discipleship (See last week’s text in which Jesus states: “None of you can become my disciple in you do not give up all your possessions” Luke 14:33). And drawn also from Amos 8 and Matthew 23.

Oh God, give us courage to examine the ways our lifestyles and cultural habits
Exploit the poorest among us.
Give us wisdom to see the ways we are complicit
In “trampling on the needy, and bringing ruin to the poor.”




Proper 19 (Year C): Litany for the One Percent

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This litany follows along with the Lectionary narrative in Luke 15.


God, we are observing our culture,
And watching its dynamic play out in real time.

We can see that our society is designed to take care of those in power
And maintain the privilege of those who have it.
By contrast we can see that the society that Christ imagines
Looks after the least powerful…

Proper 17 (Year C): Litany for Humble Hearts

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This litany is drawn from the Lectionary passages for Proper 17 of Ordinary Time, Year C. Specifically from Hebrews 13, Psalm 112, and Sirach 10.


God, we know that the beginning of human pride is to forsake you,
As when our hearts withdraw from our Creator.
You exalt the lowly,
And admire the humble



Proper 16 (Year C): Litany for Societal Injustice

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I don’t always take the Bible literally. But when I do, it’s Isaiah 58.

This passage of scripture, when set alongside the life and priorities demonstrated by Christ in the gospels, shows us a detailed picture of a just and thriving society. A society in which corporate avarice and greed, and the priorities of for-profit special interest groups are not the driving force of government or political policy. Instead mercy is. Instead love is. Care for the poor and the removal of unjust “yokes” (think, unjustly imprisoning black and brown folks for minor crimes. Think, lack of access to decent food and education for children. Think, losing your entire life savings because you got sick.) are the hallmarks of this society.

I think there are a lot of ways we can start moving toward this God-imagined ideal. We mostly haven’t tried any of them. If I have ever advocated for “Biblical values” (which I don’t usually because I mostly think that term is misused), these are them. Read em for yourself. I didn’t come up with this. This isn’t “liberal” or “conservative.” This is old-testament Judeo-Christian Orthodoxy validated by the new-testament Christ-man. We’ve just been ignoring it all this time.

Here’s a place to start praying:

Oh God, we live in a society in deep need of reform,
And days of violence and avarice.

Rescue us, O God, from becoming the hand of the wicked,
From being the unjust and cruel (Psalm 71:4).
Rescue us, O God, from our own selfishness,
From our own ego obsessions…





Proper 15 (Year C): Litany for Fire

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A note to Patrons: I have made this litany widely available to anyone who wishes to read or use it. I occasionally do this when a litany is particularly resonant for a moment in time. Thank you for your support, which allows me to continue this output and contribution to the prayers of the people.

“Is not my word like a fire, says the LORD, like a hammer that breaks rock in pieces?”

I believe that the message of this week’s Lectionary, of the fire and hammer of God, which are mercy and restorative justice, is THE message our society needs in this moment. We are protecting the gun lobby over vulnerable school children. We are protecting agribusiness over the well-being of the planet and over and above human thriving.* We are protecting corporate profits and political interests to the detriment of the poor and powerless. We are protecting white supremacy and status over our God-given duty to regard every human life, every human black and brown body, as beloved and sacred. This is the story of our country right now. This is the legacy we are living. 

And the cure, the antidote, is the mercy and restorative justice of God. The Fire and the Hammer. The holy fire that Christ says he “came to bring ... to the earth,” and he says, “how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). 

This is a prayer of confession and contrition. This is where we begin. Opening our eyes to our communal complicity, and changing our minds (repenting) about how we will continue on. This is heart-centered work. This in inconvenient work. This is uncomfortable work. Standing in the midst of holy fire is bound to be difficult. 



God, as a society we have turned blind eyes 
And deaf ears to the poor.
We can hear the cries of the needy,
See the struggle of the lowly and destitute.
How the weak and the orphan long for justice!
How the defenseless are in need of rescue (1)!


We confess that we have centered our policies
On the success of profit-margins.
We confess that we have protected the interests of corporations and the wealthy
Over the well-being of Earth’s most vulnerable inhabitants.**
We confess that we have judged unjustly
And show partiality to the wicked (2).
We confess that much of our economy and material wealth
Is due to exploitation of human and natural resources.

We have not done our God-given duty of creation stewardship.
We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves.
We have not upheld righteous standards.
We have not pursued justice and mercy for all. 

Forgive us, oh God, and lead us on the path of peace.
Restore us to your justice.
Bring us into the community of heaven.
Be merciful to us, oh God. 

For your word is like a fire,
Like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces (3). 
Break our hardened hearts;
Burn down our wicked ways.

Let the fire that Christ brings kindle in our hearts (4),
Igniting flames of justice and peace-making,
Of shifting old, unhelpful paradigms,
Of right-action and reform. 

Let the ethics and policies of heaven come to earth. 
Be merciful to us, oh God. Amen



*watch the documentary “Cowspiracy” for more info on this topic

**inhabitants, both human, animal, and plant-life

  1. Psalm 82:3,4

  2. Psalm 82:2

  3. Jeremiah 23:29

  4. Luke 12:49