Thoughts
for Meditation and Prayer
Raleigh Monthly Meeting
of the Religious Society of Friends
625
Tower Street, Raleigh, NC 27607, (919) 821-4414
All are welcome at Meeting for Worship each First-Day (Sunday) at 10 AM
A Meditation on the Lord's Prayer - Michael Dipilato
Loving Father, you are with us everywhere and present yourself in many ways. Your name is revered, holy, and all powerful. Bring your love and thruth to our daily world and let love prevail as it will when we pass on. Nourish us spiritually and physically, and forgive our inadequacies. Let us forgive others as you forgive us, since our differences are only of this material world. Help us to turn off all forms and temptations, and help us persevere over evil. You are magnificent beyond belief.
Fear of Our Own Power - Nelson Mandela
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate; our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?" Actually who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
Worship-Sharing: A Special Form of Friends Worship and Community-Building
Friends Sharing provides occasion to tell of our daily lives. The joy. The pain. The celebrations. The concerns. The apprehension. The comic. The intertwining of the divine within all. We honor everyone's words. We bring silencce after each person speaks. We speak as we are led. We encourage each person to share. This is a time to listed and a time to be heard. It is different from typical worship sharing. Discussion may arise briefly, het responses and solutions are not the goal. A gathering place to open our concerns. A place to see where the divine lives within others as well as ourselves. Another title could be "Connecting in our community: Knowing more about what's going on in the lives of other Friends."
Sowing Clover - Wendell Berry, Feb. 2, 1968
In the dark of the moon, in flying snow, in the dead of winter, war spreading, familites dying, the world in danger, I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover."
Chaos and terror circle the world.
Give me the wisdom to know how to help.
Give me the strength to transcend the demands of my daily life to find the time
to do more than pray.
Help me to take action to root out causes of unrest, to feed the hungry, to
bring jsutice to all.
With your help and guidance, I will take the steps I can to help my brothers
and sisters in all corners of the world understand that we are one.
Help me God!