How good it is to be alive!

To feel the beat of our own hearts,
the pulsing of life in our veins,
the rhythm of our breathing.

So we come into the silence of this time of prayer and reflection
with gratitude for the gift of life this day.
(Silence)

In a universe so vast, may we be helped to sustain
a good sense of who we are,
and a good sense of worth in ourselves.

When time and events and people go by so fast,
help us to know the power in pausing,
and in pausing,
help us to find our life renewed.
 (Silence)

With others, and at this time, we share our concern for the universe:
creatures are dying, and every year more species vanish
that will never return;
great tracts of forest are torn down, and complex habitats destroyed;
rain washes the soil from naked land and rivers are polluted.

May we learn the ways of care and responsibility,
and that a just balance to earth may be restored.

In our hope for a better world and better human beings
may we embrace that force within ourselves and beyond ourselves,
that makes forgiveness possible,
that makes a wider and deeper achievement possible.

As we come and as we go, we pray that each of us,
in our own small inner world,
will know that we have been in a sacred place,
and that our lives have been made stronger.
May it be so.