The Prayer Chest – May 26, 2021

Compassionate One,
Hear My Prayer

All-embracing one, foundation of my being,
hear me as I come into your presence,
in search of peace, of healing, of courage and awareness.
 
Trying to overcome the challenges of my everyday living becomes at times a burden too heavy to bear.
 
Help me, please, Compassionate One,
to harbor integrity and love in my weary heart,
in the moments of misunderstanding, in the moments of anger.
In the inevitable moments of despair and doubt, help me to recall the power of trusting my own inner light.
 
When loneliness and sadness besiege me,
help me to remember to reach out to those who love me,
to seek the warmth of my community of faith, and
to confidently rest in the glorious network of all existence of which I am a living, special link.
 
May I be forgiven for any hurtful things I have done,
and may I find the courage to forgive
any hurtful things done to me,
so that equanimity and joy may fill my heart.
 
Amen and blessed be.
—   Lilia Cuervo
Conversations with the Sacred: A Collection of Prayers by Manish Mishra-Marzetti and Jennifer Kelleher; Ed-2020

The Rev. Lilia Cuervo is a pioneering Unitarian Universalist minister. She led full time ministry in Spanish in San Jose, CA. where she served for six and a half years. At First Parish in Cambridge, she also made history by being the first woman and Latina to be installed as Associate Minister.  She devoted four years to a very productive multicultural ministry there. She is a co-founder of the Latino/a UU Networking Association (LUUNA), and the initiator of, and a translator and contributor to, Las Voces del Camino, the Spanish language Unitarian Universalist hymnal.