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 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 12 (Year C): Litany for Prayerful Living

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This week I’m working on a sermon on the gospel Lectionary of Luke 11:1-13, Luke’s account of the Lord’s Prayer and Christ’s comments on prayer in general. My mind is going to the truth I learn over and over again: that prayer is formational, and not just intercessory. These days, the best definition of prayer I can come up with is this: living attentively to God. And this both forms us in our character and soul and gives us rapport with God so that we may ask for what we want and need. When the disciples ask him to teach them how to pray, he teaches them how to live. 


Oh God, teach us how to live attentively to you.
Teach us how to pray (1).
For by our attention to you,
We learn how to be in the world. 

Proper 10 (Year C): Litany for Showing Mercy

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This week’s Litany brings in themes from various parts of this week’s Lectionary selections: the Colossians, Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Luke passages. The Gospel story is that of the Good Samaritan showing mercy to the stranger. I love seeing how the themes intertwine some weeks. This one is coming right at the perfect time for us as a national and global community. 


God, we know that your word is not too hard for us
Nor is it far away,
And that we have been transferred into the community
Of your beloved Son, Christ Jesus,
In whom forgiveness is abundant
And mercy is foremost

Pentecost (Year C): Litany for Oneness

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The Day of Pentecost in the Church Calendar marks the beginning of a new season: The season of Pentecost. From Eastertide and resurrection, to Ascension (the feast of Ascension was this past week), and now to the revealing (in a more public way than was revealed in John 20) of the Spirit and the spirit's loving essence of inclusion and enfolding of many into divine Oneness. Just exactly as Jesus had prayed in last week's Lectionary Gospel passage: "that they may be one."

This litany is drawn from John 14 and Psalm 104, Lectionary selections for Pentecost, Year C.

God, you have always been showing us what Oneness looks like
First in Nature.
Then in Christ.
Now in the Spirit. 

Eastertide 7: Litany for Resurrection Unity

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I’m ruminating on Jesus prayer/plea to Yahweh in John 17 (this week's Lectionary Gospel selection) for unity among his followers and among future generations of followers. I believe that, as Christ requested, we are one with God, invited into the Trinity, included in action and the love. In Christ, we learn what God looks like: relational, loving, unifying, inclusive. So I’m inviting us to pray into Jesus’ vision for unity and a new paradigm of being together in the world. And into the "right action" that true unity and shared love will reliably provoke us to.


God, we know that with the beginning of Resurrection,
Whose first fruit was Christ Jesus,
A new paradigm was established and articulated in the world -
A whole host of new possibilities -
One of the best of which is the hope of unity
Which Christ prayed and advocated for

Eastertide 6 (Year C): Litany for Resurrection Glory

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Now here’s a Christian-ese word: glory. Ok. If you are off-put by this word because it has lost its meaning for you, let me tell you how I think of it: Beauty and Light. That’s all. The intense beauty and light that emanates from the Source of all that is.  

God, the light of your glory shines on all humanity
And on all creation.
The beauty and light that you generate
Lights our path,
Shines on our faces,
Glows from within us…

Eastertide 5 (Year C): Litany for Resurrection Belonging

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I’m being bowled over newly by this week’s Lectionary selection. In part because I’m also simultaneously reading Richard Rohr’s newest book _The Universal Christ_, so I’m already riding Saint Peter’s wave in Acts 11. Peter has a dream that God tells him to eat food (animals, in this case) that his Jewish faith considers unclean or taboo, and subsequently gets a lesson in the universality of God’s love and presence. No race or people group is outside the scope of the Creator’s love and image. 

And then the Psalm for the week (149) reinforces the message, lumping in the heavenly bodies, the weather phenomena, landscapes, animals and creepy crawly things; with people of all descriptions, ages, and power-levels - in short EVERYTHING - together as things that reflect the divine image. Things that “praise” God. 

Stones sing God’s song. Animals and earth sing God’s song. People sing God’s song. Black people. Brown people. White people. Male people. Female people. Non-binary people. Industrialized people. Nomadic people. Indigenous people. And on and on. Every unique characteristic is glory. Everything belongs inside resurrection. 


God, we know that the Christ was already here,
Even before Jesus came along (1).
And now that Christ was revealed in human form,
We know he’s in us….

Liturgy for Mother's Day

Hello friends,

If you’re looking for liturgy for Mother’s Day (May 12), I have a few offerings that suit a Divine Feminine theme well.*

The first is one of my favorite litanies I’ve ever written, “Litany for the Midwives.
Another is “Litany for God Our Mother
And we can’t forget “Litany for the Divine Feminine”

And finally, for my lovely Patreon subscribers, I’ve written something new: “Litany for Mother.”

Whatever liturgy you decide to use, I would encourage and hope that it is sensitive. Mother’s Day is tough for many people - some who wish to be mothers but aren’t, some who’ve lost mothers, some who’ve lost children, some who never had good mothering, some whose mothers were harmful. Mother’s Day can be triggering and painful for a wide variety of people. Passing out flowers to moms in your congregation is not sensitive to that wide variety of experiences.

Good liturgy can be sensitive and empathetic. One way we have found to avoid some of the pitfalls of Mother’s Day, is to use it as an excuse to lean in to God’s Divine Feminine aspect. We like to incorporate feminine imagery and energy, in homage to God’s gender-full nature.

I love to hear stories from your churches. What are my readers doing? How do you incorporate the Divine Feminine into your liturgical year?

love,
f

*Although, Mother's Day isn’t the only day it’s appropriate to explore and expose your congregations to the Divine Feminine aspect of GOD. You can do this any old day. Or half the Sundays. Or just AT. SOME. POINT. Because most churchy people get no exposure whatsoever and that is a shame and a travesty and we need to teach our people to have a more robust understanding of the Divine.