I had the immense privilege of being able to speak at my commencement ceremony in front of my class! This is the prayer I wrote and shared with everyone in attendance.

 

An Invocation Prayer for Justice through Love and Memory

Good morning class of 2017! and Welcome to our families, loved ones, mentors and guests!

I invite you all to find your center. To calm your hearts and take a breath:

Breathe and remember.

Breathe and think of all the beauty and love that brought us to this place.

Breathe and recognize the work, the sweat and tears that made it possible for all of us to be here.

I am thrilled that we are here and curious as we start our new adventures. In the face of such newness, I find it helpful to ground myself in something. // Why not Love?

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And so we pray:

Love, light, Spirit of God, all that is life-giving, hold us tenderly as we begin this day. Ground us in our memories. We have seen and learned so much.

We have felt heartbreak and loss.

We have been transformed through mercy and healing.

We have practiced building community.

Together we have realized that love is a responsibility. Love is being critical of what is lacking while dreaming of what could be. We know it takes imagining something better to create something better.

Help us to accept this responsibility:

to act in the face of injustice

to fight the temptation of complicity and

to feel affirmed in our desires to make light and love more manifest in our world.

Spirit of Love and Light, shine on us today.

Remind us of our courage and our strength.

Remind us of our love and our beauty.

Remind us to breathe, to fill our lungs with your peace.

We ask for the courage to say Yes to the future, to Fall in Love, to take this stage and enter into the collaborative work of building love on earth.

In gratitude we pray.  Amen.