Prayer for Thursday

The Jewish festival of Shavuot ends at sundown today.

Mothers and their children are in a category all their own.
There’s no bond so strong in the entire world.
No love so instantaneous and forgiving.
~ Gail Tsukiyama, Dreaming Water

O Loving Lord,
You have created mothers in love and blessed them with children.
As they work tirelessly to support their families may they be showered with your blessings.
Give mothers strength to exercise compassion as they live each day under your care.
May those who are joined in your love,
support mothers by their fervor of spirit and devotion to prayer.
Amen

(Bishop Kevin Manning; Source: Micah Challenge)

This Week’s Affirmation:

“I am loved.”

(For more on Affirmations, go to my Affirmations Page.)

Prayer for Wednesday (Shavuot)

Today is the first full day of the Jewish festival of Shavuot.

God could not be everywhere,
and therefore he made mothers.
~ Jewish proverb

Blessed art Thou
O Lord our God
King of the world
who makes the fruit
of the tree.

Blessed art Thou
O Lord our God
King of the world
whose word makes all
things on earth.

Blessed art Thou
O Lord our God
King of the world
who brings food
out of the earth.

Blessed art Thou
O Lord our God
King of the world
who gives clothes
to cover our bodies.

Blessed art Thou
O Lord our God
King of the world
who makes sweet smelling
wood and plants.

Blessed art Thou
O Lord our God
King of the world
who has kept us alive
until now so we may
find joy in what has
just come to us.

Blessed art Thou
O Lord our God
King of the world
who has created
the wonderful things of
earth and heaven.

(Hebrew prayer, North America)

This Week’s Affirmation:

“I am loved.”

(For more on Affirmations, go to my Affirmations Page.)

Prayer for Tuesday

The Jewish festival of Shavuot begins at sundown today.

An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.
~ Spanish Proverb

Yizkor¹

May God remember the soul of my mother, my teacher (say mother’s Hebrew name and that of her mother) who has gone to her supernal world, because I will – without obligating myself with a vow – donate charity for her sake. In this merit, may her soul be bound up in the bond of life with the souls of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, and with the other righteous men and women who are in Gan Eden; and let us say, Amen.

(Source: Chabad.org)

¹ Yizkor, a special Jewish memorial prayer for the departed, is recited in the synagogue four times a year, following the Torah reading on the last day of Passover, on the second day of Shavuot, on Shemini Atzeret and on Yom Kippur.

(Two of my friends lost their mothers recently and both attended the memorial service for them this last weekend. God bless you both.)

This Week’s Affirmation:

“I am loved.”

(For more on Affirmations, go to my Affirmations Page.)