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Liturgy: Benedictions

 

May the deeds we do with our hands,
And the words we speak with our lips,
And the thoughts that we think in our minds,
And the things we feel in our hearts,
Be at all times worthy
Of the divine Spirit in us.

Words of Worship number 284.

 

Bid our peace increase,
Rest the travel worn,
Give the mind increase,
Bid new hope be born.

Youlden, H. 1914, p. 2.

 

Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labour and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

To see a world in a grain of sand
And Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

William Blake

 

May the strength of the old
Enter into the new
And life arise once more;
O great ones of the forest
And great ones of the city
May this be so
And offer, unto us all, renewed life.
Amen.

Adapted from Slater, H., ed., A Book of Pagan Rituals, p. 68.

 

Live long.
Go in love and peace to serve the world,
And may you find holy blessing. Amen.

 

Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that the music and words which we have heard this day with our outward ears may, through thy grace, be so grafted inwardly in our hearts, that they may bring forth in us the fruit of good living, to the honour and praise of thy name. Amen.

 

Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, harmony;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

St. Francis of Assisi

 

 

On leaving this sanctuary let us remember the absent ones with love and expectation. Where they are solitary, give companionship; where they are in need, give refreshment.

May light illumine our souls, and the warmth of love kindle a flame of devotion within our hearts, and, for all our realism and conditions of life, we can say, "let light and warmth be in us always!"

 

Open your hearts to all faith
Revealed throughout the ages
So that what has seemed great
Is only a part of that vastness we know of love

Tomorrow is a highway broad and fair
And we are the many who'll travel there.
We are the hands who'll build it there.

Come let us build a way for humankind,
A way to leave all hate and wrong behind;
And travel onward to a better year,
Where love is and there will be no fear.

So come then friend and travel on with me,
We'll go to a time of liberty.
Come let us walk together hand in hand,
From dark to sunlit land.

Tomorrow is a highway broad and fair
And hate and greed shall never travel there;
But only they who've learnt the peaceful way
Of personhood, to bring a better day;
We'll see that coming day!

After Lee Hays and Hymn 91 in Unitarian Religious Education Department (1972), Hymns for Living and Words of Worship, The Lindsey Press.