abiuro gave me back a Jewish prayer book I loaned her years ago and I opened it randomly and read various bits.
Given that it’s Friday night and just gone sunset (Shabbat, according to the Jewish faith I grew up with), and also happens to be the cross-quarter between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice (Samhain, according to one reckoning of the pagan calendar I now follow), I thought I’d post a meditation for the Sabbath from it. I no longer believe in the ‘God’ bit, not the way this is written, but I still find this a fascinating text. I think I have a lot to learn from it still.
God of the beginning, God of the end, God of all creatures, God of all generations: with love You guide the world, with love You walk hand in hand with all the living.
You created us in Your image, capable of love and justice, that in creation’s long unfolding we might be Your partners. You endowed people with freedom; we must not enslave them. You gave them judgement; we must not dictate their course.
You set before us many paths to tread, that we might search and find the way that is true for us. We thank You for Your gift of choice. Without it, where would our greatness lie? Where our triumphs and where our failures? We will then consider our lives as persons and as a people who are called upon to choose.
Let our reflections help us to bring into our lives the harmony we seek and the love we would share.