27th March 2020

Today's excerpt was chosen by our Associate Chaplain, Ali Newell.

In the silence of the morning

we are alive to the new day’s light,

alert to the early stirrings of the wind

and the first sounds of the creatures.

In the silence of our hearts

we hear the yearnings that are in us and the fears,

the hopes that rise from within

and the doubts that trouble our souls.

In the beginnings of this day, O God,

before the night’s stillness is lost  in the activities of the day

open to us the treasure of our inner beings

that in the midst of this day’s deeds

we may draw on wisdom.

Assure us again of our origins in you,

assure us again that our true depths are of you.

- Excerpt from 'Sounds of the Eternal: A Celtic Psalter' John Philip Newell

Today's prayer opens us to the wonder and gift of life, in the midst of these uncertain days and this quotation from Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky invites us to hold on to the perspective of love and compassion despite our physical separation from each other. 

"Language is a powerful shaper of thinking. And the very last thing we need right now, is a mindset of social distancing.

We actually need to be thinking in the exact opposite way: Every hand that we don’t shake must become a phone call that we place.

Every embrace that we avoid must become a verbal expression of warmth and concern.

Every inch and every foot that we physically place between ourselves and another, must become a thought as to how we might be of help to that other, should the need arise."

- Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky