Sunday Prayer: Proper 11A/Ordinary 16A/Pentecost +5

Sweet Spirit of Sleep, who brings peace and rest
to weary bodies,
Empty us of aches and pains,
for we struggle as seeds through unyielding earth.

Bring us the timeless nature of your presence -
the endless void of our slumber.

Make us aware of the work we can do while in your time
Make us to know our dreaming,
where past and future are reconciled.

Come let us honor sleep, that knits up
the raveled sleeve of care, the death of each day's life,
sore labor's bath, balm of hurt minds,
great nature's second course,
chief nourisher in life's feast.

amen.

(Prayer from Congregation of Abraxas, in "Earth Prayers from Around the World" edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon; HarperOne: 1991)