We pray and wonder of what and who is eternally free, that which dwells in and is yet beyond all. We long to escape the inner prisons that limit liberties; to flee the wardens of fear that daily double our chains. Today, with dawning freedom, we consider the fires of passion balanced and buoyed by careful reason. Now is the hour, this is the day to live and to love, to be released…to be honest with our sighs, our sadness, our anger - our delights. On this beginning of the rest of our lives, we commit to increasing intimacy and affection to one another. May the emotions of the heart and the importance of calculating intellect be dancing partners for us all.

We are grateful that it is enough to show up today, to simply be. And in our becoming, may we be nudged to something new, something saving, something true, something playful. May the water of our words be turned into the wine of will and risk, the bread of mundane subsistence into the blessedness of deed on this fine day. May we be forgiven our absent-mindedness, the deafness of ear, the hardness of heart, stubbornness of spirit, the dullness of senses inhibited by the busy-ness of this day. May we be forgiven our neediness, our insecure projections and creations of gods that do not represent the fullness of possibility, reality, common sense, depth, mystery and pervading life-giving presence.

We would consider each other now. All those in pain, those facing financial and family adversity, those separating, divorcing. Those seeking jobs and fresh starts, those depressed, those living with and struggling against various forms of cancer. Those caring for others -those who feel the drain, joys, burden and anger through it all. Those hospitalized, those facing surgical procedures, those newly born, those actively dying. What human dramas! We release ourselves to each other this day, offering hands, voices, embraces, words, actions that esteem, include, warm and heal.

May we, by grace and the ongoing movement and emergence of this world and our expanding minds, taste the eternal Sabbath within this Summer’s day. And slowly, Holy Presence, after this day is done, may we savor and celebrate a day well-lived and well-filled with essential things. We pray with freedom, confidence, with passion and reason and wonder this day, celebrating life, God within and between and beyond.

Amen.

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