A Prayer of Remeberance

By: Nermine Mohamed, Writing Intern 2015

We are honored to share a post from our former intern, Nermine, whose prayer about remembering her mother offers grace and wisdom. Her prayer seeks blessings for those living with loss, just as our prayer for the dead sought blessings for those who have died. 

It’s hard to put in words what we feel about a person who is long gone; a person who is no longer a part of our life and who never got to know what we’ve become, who we are now…They say time heals and that’s true. Our own frail human memory makes loss bearable. But do we really want to forget or is it simply inevitable?

From all that I’ve lost, all the memories I can no longer recall, all the photographs that captured a moment I don’t remember living or even how it felt being there, I know that what hurts even more than the loss is the inability to remember what we once had.

Today my mother would have been 54 years old. I sometimes think what my life would
have been like if she was still alive. I get angry sometimes that I can’t remember much.There’s nothing but emptiness; a void of something that has left without leaving me any traces to hold on to. So, I pray for me and everyone who suffered loss that we can be healed by remembrance.

Dear God,

Today I pray for remembrance of the mother.
I wish I had a little bit more time to know her better.

Help me remember her by being even just a tiny bit like her,
for everyone speaks of her strength, her honesty, her generous and loving heart.

Help me remember her by living up to her memory
and being be the best person I can be.

Help me remember her every time I feel lost or alone
and help me remember that I never really was lost or alone,
for I’ve always had support and found people who love me
even when I thought there’s nothing to love in myself.

Help me remember her by cherishing every living moment,
by keeping every memory solid,
by not taking life for granted, by loving,
by staying true to who I am and what I believe in.

Help me and all those who have lost a loved one.

Help us remember those who are gone,
even when our memories fade and there’s nothing to recall.

Help us remember them in little acts of kindness,
and by showing those who are grieving
that pain can be healed and that nothing is ever lost forever.

Help us remember them in You,
in Your boundless generosity and Your mercy
and how You always give way more than you take.

Help us remember them in Your kindness,
for despite our loss and the pain that seemed at the time intolerable,
You helped us heal.

Love and peace made their way into our hearts again
and now we know that You don’t really put us through what we can’t endure.

Help us remember with patience, with gratitude, and with faith that there’ll be another chance to see those we’ve lost, where we’ll hold on to them for all the time we couldn’t have and all the memories we wished they were a part of, and finally there will be no letting go.

Amen.

A Prayer for the Dead

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Dear God,

They say that dead men tell no tales,
but I am not so sure.

I think, perhaps, it is only the dead that can tell us anything at all.

Through their death they show us the mirror of mortality.

They show us the flaws in our own lives.

The deaths of those we cherish tell us each the stories of our own ends,
and give us the power to rewrite them.

I believe it is every person’s last gift, to shed light on living through their dying.

Those who I morn have taught me lessons, have told me their stories, and have given me strength to change my own.

So I ask that the dead be blessed, as they have blessed me by living and dying.

Amen.

A Prayer for Community

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Communities can sustain us, they can support us, and they can help us succeed. Communities can also fall apart, they can break our hearts , and they can fail us. This is a prayer for all our communities, in all their forms.

Dear Spirit of Universal Love,

Let me find communities of wisdom.

Help me seek out communities that love me as a whole person, that challenge me in just the right ways, and that allow me to connect with something greater than myself.

Help me find healing with the communities in my life that have let me down or caused me harm.

Let me connect with new communities and with scattered members of communities I was a part of in the past.

Let the spirit of unconditional holy love stretch from me to every member of the communities I cherish.

Amen

A Prayer for Encouragement

By: Autumn Elizabeth, Editor in Chief 

Sometimes we can be, as the Lit songs says, our own worst enemies. When others encourage us, we hear only platitudes; when we see a new journey ahead, we let fear and doubt close the door. Sometimes we waste our time waiting for the perfect words of encouragement, when perhaps there is no such thing.

I am not immune to this kind of thinking. I spent much of our recent hiatus in such a state of waiting. Ultimately, I realized that no one’s words would give me sufficient encouragement, except for the words of my best, most-hopeful self. So here is the prayer I created to encourage that voice, to encourage myself, and to start sharing all of these prayer with all of you again.

My Dearest Self,

You are capable.
You are capable despite your failures, past and future.
You are capable despite your doubts and the voices of those who doubt you.
You are capable because you are loved, more than you will ever know.

You are capable because against all odds, you have still continued to exist.

You are capable because you are part of a species that is the result of millions of random mutations. You are part of a species that flew to the moon, photographed the stars, and measured galaxies.

You are capable because you are part of the same history as poets, philosophers, and prophets.

You are capable because you have dared to ask yourself for encouragement.

You are capable because you said so.

Amen

…and We’re Back!

We here at Searching Sophia’s Pockets are back from our Summer Hiatus and ready to bring you new wisdom, love …and lint in the form of new prayers and posts.

We are still focusing this year on prayer, and we still would love for you to join us in sharing your thoughts about prayer, your own prayers, or the ways you have used our prayers with us. For more details check out our submissions page, or e-mail us directly at SophiasPockets@gmail.com

Thank you for continuing this journey with us.

 

With Wisdom, Love …and Lint,

The Searching Sophia’s Pockets Team

A Prayer for Peace

Although we are still on hiatus, these times of worry, fear, hate and division called for a special prayer of peace. This is a version of The Peace Prayer, or the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, that was written by our Editor in Chief to reflect the struggles of our current world. 

My Strength and My Song,
make me an instrument of peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, attention;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is separation, compassion;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is oppression, liberation;
and where there is sadness, joy.

Divine Spirit of Grace,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is through the freedom of others that we are all made free.

Amen.

My Strength and My Song,

[Image of an ocean scene with above text]

Please fee free to share as use this prayer in any way you like, but please do mention Searching Sophia’s Pockets, and our Editor in Chief, Autumn Elizabeth, as its source.

A Prayer for the Protestor

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Today’s prayer comes from my specific Christian context, and is dedicated to all of those who are out there, standing up, raising their voices in order to create a better world for ever single life. 

Dear Jesus,

Today I pray for those who embody your rebel spirit.

May they feel the love of the universe when they come face-to-face with hate.
May they feel protected by the power of your example when they face violence.

May they also feel called to wisdom, contemplation, and self-care.
May they burn like candles, lighting the path to our best future,
and may they act like mirrors, reflecting our best, most dedicated selves.

Jesus, be with those who stand up to corruption, to hate, and to violence, even if they do not call you God, even if they worships a different God, even if they worship no other God than justice.

I pray that they feel your spirit, as one in a long line of leaders who have sought equality and justice in the name of the divine. I pray that they do not feel alone in their lives of resistance.

Be with them, as you are with all of us, as we all struggle towards creating your kindom on earth.

Amen.

Like all the prayers on this site, this prayer is just a beginning, so everyone is welcome to modify it, customize it, and re-create to better fit their own journey and beliefs. If you would like to share you re-creations, we welcome you to do so in the comment section, or to submit your reworking of this prayer or your own prayer.

A Prayer for Rest

In this world of achievement, this era of busyness, sometimes we all need to pray for the simple things. Sometimes, the exhaustion of caring for others, of being just, of living spiritual lives requires us to pray for rest. 

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Dear God,

Grant me rest.

Create with me a place to put down my weary load,
a place to hide my mental busy-work for a while.

Help me achieve this one thing today,
help me achieve a child-like slumber.

Amen

 

Like all the prayers on this site, this prayer is just a beginning, so everyone is welcome to modify it, customize it, and re-create to better fit their own journey and beliefs. If you would like to share you re-creations, we welcome you to do so in the comment section, or to submit your reworking of this prayer or your own prayer.