Not sure where to start when praying or meditating? You’re not alone. If you manage to carve out time to do it, it’s often hard to quiet your mind. Well, on July 15th, for just an hour, we’re going to give it our collective best shot! To help us focus, we’ve carefully selected readings here that are related to our mission. Part of that mission is having conversations with each other – really listening to others’ opinions and life experiences, and considering how we can make help each other make our community a better place. We hope these thought-starters are interesting and inspirational to you.
What does LOVE look like?
TELL the truth when it's tempting to be quiet
SEEK the stories of people who are different from you, especially those of oppressed peoples
ACT and speak in ways that bring life, instead of tearing others down to build yourself up
REPAIR what’s broken in your own life and community (even if you didn’t break it, be part of healing)
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​​Questions for challenging and engaging conversations
- How will we grow as reconcilers, healers, and justice-bearers? 
- How can I respond when I witness bias and racism?
- What gives you energy or inspires you to act, in the current situation?
- What is your greatest concern or anxiety, given the current situation?
- What resources or relationships do you need most right now?
Additional Questions for Individuals or Small Groups
- In what ways are you or your church or organization engaged in your community, especially across racial/cultural lines?
- What is the racial/cultural, socio-economic make-up within a 1, 3 or 5 mile radius of your church or organization?
- What is the racial/cultural make-up of your congregation or organization? How does it compare to the area around you?
- What gifts do you bring that will be helpful for a time such as this?
- How have you participated in healing and justice work in the past? How can you show up now?
- How could you support and stand in solidarity with others, especially in suffering areas?
Resources on Mindfulness & Meditation
If you need help centering yourself and quieting your mind prior to meditating or praying, you may find these resources helpful.
> When we meditate, we inject far-reaching and long-lasting benefits into our lives: We lower our stress levels, we get to know our pain, we connect better, we improve our focus, and we're kinder to ourselves. Learn the basics in this mindful guide on how to meditate.
> Sharon Salzberg, one of America's leading spiritual teachers, introduces loving-kindness meditation in this Google Talk – watch it on YouTube through this link: "Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection"
> This Loving-Kindness Meditation is a Radical Act of Love: Jon Kabat-Zinn leads us in a heartscape meditation for deep healing of ourselves and others.
Online Resources for Further Study ​

Prayers and Words for Meditation

Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as he did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that he will make all things right if I surrender to his will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with him forever in the next.
Amen.
I offer you peace.
I offer you love.
I offer you friendship.
I see your beauty.
I hear your need.
I feel your feelings.
My wisdom flows from the highest Source.
I salute that Source in you.
Let us work together. For unity and peace.
Mohandas Gandhi
I offer you peace.
I offer you love.
I offer you friendship.
I see your beauty.
I hear your need.
I feel your feelings.
My wisdom flows from the highest Source.
I salute that Source in you.
Let us work together. For unity and peace.
Mohandas Gandhi
​I pray to the birds.
I pray to the birds because
I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward.
I pray to them because I believe in their existence,
the way their songs begin and end each day,
the invocations and benedictions of earth.
I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love
rather than what I fear.
And at the end of my prayers,
they teach me how to listen.
--Terry Tempest Williams
We pray to God to eradicate all the misery in the world:
that understanding triumph over ignorance,
that generosity triumph over indifference,
that trust triumph over contempt,
and that truth triumphs over falsehood.
Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech.
Be a lamp unto those who walk in darkness, and a home to the stranger.
Be a breath of life to the body of humankind, a dew to the soil of the human heart,
and a fruit upon the tree of humility.
Give us the wisdom to teach our children to  love, to respect,
and to be kind to each other so that they may grow with peace in mind.
May we who are merely inconvenienced, remember those whose lives are at stake. May we who have no risk factors, remember those most vulnerable. May we who have the luxury of working from home, remember those who must choose between preserving their health and making their rent. May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close, remember those who have no options. May we who have to cancel our trips, remember those who have no safe place to go. May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market, remember those who have no margin at all. May we who settle in for a quarantine at home, remember those who have no home. As fear grips our country, let us choose love. And during this time when we may not be able to physically wrap our arms around each other, let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbors. Amen
​
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow charity;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, the truth;
Where there is doubt, the faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light; and
Where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master,
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 in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
We pray for our families, for every relationship most dear to us, that you would guard our time, and our lives together. We ask for your ability to quickly forgive hurts, for a renewed heart of compassion, for love and faithfulness to be evident in every decision and action.
Only to do justice and to love goodness and to walk humbly with your God  Micah 6:8
God of peace, we pray for our communities: For our local leaders; for our schools; for our neighborhoods and workplaces. Kindle in every heart a desire for equality, respect, and opportunity for all. Give us courage to strive for justice and peace among all people, beginning here at home. 
​
When cries for justice
are met by violence,
tear gas and military response,
and lawlessness
only adds to the suffering
of local communities,
be the peace that speaks
into these situations,
the truth that calls for
repentance,
the love that demands
forgiveness,
and the healer
who brings wholeness
into broken lives
and neighbourhoods.
As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love.  Martin Luther King
Come, open us to the wonder, beauty, and dignity of the diversity found in each culture in each face, and in each experience we have of the other among us.
Come heal the divisions that keep us from seeing the face of God in all men, women, and children.
Come free us to stand with and for those who must leave their own lands in order to find work, security, and welcome in a new land, one that has enough to share.
Come bring us understanding, inspiration, wisdom, and the courage needed to embrace change and stay on the journey.
Love and Justice are not two. Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters. Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Sensei
Dear God, we ask that you fill us with your Spirit of love and unity among believers all across this nation.
We ask for your help to set aside our differences and look to the greater cause, the cause of Christ. We ask that you would help us to truly live a life of love. We know that this is only possible through the power of your Spirit, so we pray for your Spirit to move across our land in fresh ways. Turn your people back to you. Draw others to come to know you. Thank you that you are always with us to give us great purpose and hope.
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart and especially the hearts of the people of this town, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I have learned the guilt of indifference. The opposite of love is not hate but indifference. Elie Wiesel
Incarnational Beatitudes, By Nicole Anderson
Blessed are the homeless and those who beg for spare change, for they will inherit the house of the Lord.

Blessed are the black mothers who lament the deaths of their sons at the hands of the state, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and pansexual individuals who reflect the very image of God, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are the undocumented workers whose labors are hard and whose fear of deportation is real every day, for they will produce many fruits to sustain the kin-dom of Heaven.

Blessed are the marchers who put their lives on the line, putting their faith in action, and demanding mercy for all, for they, too, will receive mercy.

Blessed are the disenfranchised children, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers as named by Martin Luther King, Jr. who continue to strive in making his dream a reality, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are our Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, and First Nation siblings, and all other siblings of differing faiths, who do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with their god, for theirs is the kin-dom of heaven.

Blessed are those who are detained, deported, and unjustly held on account of showing radical love and grace to a world filled with violence and hate, for their reward is great in heaven.
About the Author: Rev. Nicole Anderson is a United Methodist pastor serving a church in Vermillion, South Dakota.
Love RISES: Love stands in solidarity with the most vulnerable and oppressed, sacrificing ease and seeking the other’s well-being.
If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely.
If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly.
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart and especially the hearts of the people of this land, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we 9 may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

A Community Day of Reflection & Conversation
in New York’s Niagara & Erie Counties
July 15th, Sunrise to Sunset
updated 8.1.24