Weekly Reading

  The Seed of a New Year by Joyce Rupp

Seed of Restoration, reach into the layers of my past year. 

Bring into view the positive gifts that I missed due to clouded expectations and unwanted experiences. Soften the inner places that have been hardened by hurt. 

Warm the cold ground of dormant hope.

Seed of Curiosity, widen my vision of how life is to be received. 

Keep me open to what the hidden confines of my soul have yet to reveal. 

Nudge me to be inquisitive, to be ready for the surprises that awaken the wisdom waiting within me.

Seed of Insight, expand my ideas and thoughts so the lessons of your  love keep influencing 

the way I think and act.  Visit me with unexpected turns of understanding and perception. 

Urge me to be transformed into an ever more gracious and caring person.

Seed of Equanimity, disperse anxious remnants of fear and concern. 

Strengthen me to free them from my tight grasp.  Like a seed planted in the soil, 

encourage my surrender into your abiding presence.  When I wait with uncertainty, 

draw your enduring tranquility into my heart.

Seed of Happiness, enter the gray spaces in which I lose sight of joy.  Awaken enthusiasm. 

Loosen whatever restrains my spirit from life-giving energy.  Release gloom when it wraps around me. 

Let it slide off like the shell of a seed giving way to a greening shoot.

Seed of Unity, touch my heart to the suffering of others through each kind thought and caring deed. 

Let compassion spread like droplets of rain seeping into the soil of humanity. 

Thank you for your life resonating in the heartbeat of our co-existence on planet Earth.  

May there be peace.