UCP joins in Lenten prayers for Japan

UCP did not open the Lenten season as we normally do on Ash Wednesday...but better late than never...and so we here at UCP would like to join with the Catholic community and wish all a fruitful 40 days of fasting, meditation and prayer. Good luck guys!

However it is indeed a sad time on planet earth and indeed a time for prayer! The things in the Middle East that we here at UCP quite don't understand and then the tear making and heart breaking events that still continue to unfold in Japan.

Therefore in this time of Lent we've asked Deacon Greg Kirk our friend in UCP to share the below prayer:

"Divine One - In this holy season of Lent we remember the path of Your Blessed One, especially His suffering that united Him with Your people everywhere. It is a time to recall that in losing ourselves, we find ourselves, that in dying to our desires, we rise to new life, in You. As we journey through these forty days, help us to remember those who suffer among us, today, especially your children in Japan. Please embrace them with your healing and divine assistance, as we embrace them with our tears and desire to serve and assist them." Amen

And UCP tonight joins with the Global Prayer Project for prayer there at 8 PM EST.

Also UCP and friends have been giving out daily intentions of prayer for the people of Japan over at the Lynne Mc Taggart lady's Intention Experiment over here on Facebook!



Please join us in UCP:Universal Collective Prayer!

Advent Calendar 2010: Our Christmas Eve Prayer!

Christmas Eve Bread copyright Meady's Musings Production

Tonight on the Eve of Christmas 2010 as promised we have again been visited by our Brother in UCP-Deacon Greg Kirk to say for us a prayer! :)However technological difficulties made us lose the copy of the exact prayer and so he sent us a new one with renewed blessings just fresh from his Christmas Eve evening mass and is also in spirit with us tonight! So here it is along with what was our Christmas Prayer on the Advent calendar last year!

Tonight's Christmas Eve Prayer
by Deacon Greg Kirk

Gracious God,
You could not contain your love for your people. When your people did not or could not come to you, you came to us. A brilliant star is a symbol and reminder that your Son, Jesus, is the Light of the World. This Christmas may His Light and Love be born anew within us. Empower us to share this Light and Love with those around us. And may Peace finally reign in our world. Help us to share in the Divinity of Christ, the One who humbled Himself and came to share in our humanity.
Amen

THE CHRISTMAS PRAYER (first said in 2009)
By Deacon Greg Kirk

The Season of Light

Christmas is Light, the darkness has been overcome by one who came to love. Christmas is more than decorating trees, exchanging gifts and gathering with loved ones. Christmas is an opportunity to embrace the Light - to open to the power, bliss and peace the Light brings.

Jesus of Nazareth desired to know the Light and live within its embrace so deeply, he became one with the Light. He left a path, a way, for you and I to share in this bliss. "Love God with all your being and love your neighbor as you love yourself." Jesus assured us that we are loved completely, unconditionally. He encouraged us to root our lives in the hope and promise of this Love.

My prayer this Christmas is for people everywhere to experience the Light and Love within them, to know more deeply of their beauty and dignity, to experience the Essence or True Self within and to find the freedom to be the people they were created to be.

Darkness abounds in our world, in many circumstances and ways. Embracing the Light -being open to every person's truth, daring to love others, especially the vulnerable and marginalized, causes the darkness to recede and the Light to shine more brilliantly.

Dare to be Light, dare to be Love. Dare to be one with the One who is Light and Love as Jesus did. You will find new possibilities and power. You will find yourself. And you will find yourself within the heart of God.

Love, Greg

So here on UCP we wish you Merry Christmas and to all a good night and continue to catch the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse on our parent blog Meady's Musings.

The Holy Week: Palm Sunday!

Image re-published from this site

Before we continue with today's posting, we here at UCP would like to apologize for the abrupt end to the Divine Mother Leadership Series. However at the end of the Hindu festival of Nav Raatri we felt it best to leave off on the series since we decided we would cover the Catholic Divine Mother Leadership roles during the Catholic Holy Week instead. Also truth be told is we got pulled into a wormhole over on our Meady’s Musings blog and was in some parallel world since last week Wednesday night! Check that blog for more details of what really happened there!

But now on to our Grand Opening of the Catholic Holy Week here on UCP! And as this is UCP-Universal Collective Prayer we begin with yes…a prayer by Deacon Greg Kirk:

"Brother Jesus, as you enter Jerusalem, I lift my palm branch high. I recognize in you, a heart of love, one of peace. In you, I see who we are called to become. How fleeting is recognition and praise - in a few days, the ones who line the avenue with me will not stand with you, at the cross. I wonder if I will stand there? Can I dare to drink in the horror of the suffering - and somehow continue to believe in the mercy, compassion, love and goodness of the One God who is One? This is a question that can't be anwered in a few days or even a week. It is a question that will have to be lived out over the course of a lifetime. I only know this - in this day, in this moment, I trust in you, to show me who I am, who I can become - if I dare to trust, if I can find it within me to share and to love. Love, it never fades, never dies. Love is eternal. May this Love always live itself out in me, and may I always live myself out in love.
Love. Eternal Love. You in me. Me in you.
Amen"

Now to my understanding Palm Sunday marks the kick off of the Catholic Holy Week as it is the day that Jesus would have come into Jerusalem riding on the back of a donkey some say. Now I mean no disrespect here on the prayers when I say this but for me all the time long since I’ve been preparing this blog I’ve been wondering what of this donkey? You see this isn’t a blog of any particular religion it is UCP-Universal Collective Prayer and here on the prayers we want to look at things from a new perspective…break down old boundaries…so tonight I want to look at this Palm Sunday entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem through a different lens…through my lens…it is UCP in itself as I’ve often said on this blog I am Hindu centric in my views as I was born and raised Hindu and continue to be but UCP isn’t a Hindu blog. Here I explore my journey into Universal Collective Prayer and as I’ve said in the past, what I try to do is show others how I explore this…the commonalities, the differences and how they can come together or take out what can’t be reconciled and so forth. As I often say too…“This is my journey… this is my prayer!” But then I also say and offer to all my readers and onlookers… “Welcome! And please come join me in this dance I call Universal Collective Prayer!”

So now as a Hindu it must be quite normal for me to ask… “What of the donkey?” To me as a Hindu all through the stories I hear of Jesus the Christ’s life I wonder about the animals that surround him…to me these stories are filled with animals from cradle to crave! I mean there were camels, sheep, cows and donkeys at his birth, fishing expeditions, snakes (I think?) as he made his way in life and now here he was about to be crucified and he is riding in to it on a donkey. And as a Hindu looking on at this I can’t help wondering about the connection to the animals and how they feel about all of this. You see from my Hindu perspective I see it that all the animals are also with soul and part of the Universal spirit…so to me I keep thinking of how they would have felt to be surrounded by such an enlightened spirit that was embodied in the flesh of Jesus the Christ while he was on planet earth. However I’m sure Christians must see it differently and so it must be noted this is just my point of view being shared with…no malice…no spite…and certainly no disrespect but just plain enquiry from where I stand in the journey!

So for the intent of my story I shall proceed to name this donkey upon which Jesus rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. I shall name him Sam…don’t ask me why but it is just what pops into my head as I keep seeing him before me…I don't perceive him as a talking donkey a la 'Donkey' from 'Shrek' but more that his spirit can communicate on a more subtle level with the spirit of Jesus...So as Sam walks into Jerusalem's gate with Jesus on his back he feels it...he knows this is the week it will all end...but at the same time his donkey hairs stand on end to know that is part of something bigger than him...something on a grand scale Universally!:)

In terms of Jesus' interaction with the donkey, Sam as they had travelled to Jerusalem I feel it would have been a very loving one...he would have been gently stroking him and stopping frequently on the journey for Sam to rest, drink and eat...he would have recalled too how another donkey took his mother, the Holy Virgin Mary to the manger for him to be born some more than thirty years before...and at that moment he would have perhaps recalled how he was about to go beyond his earthly maternal ties and make a sacrifice on a bigger Universal scale...although it would no doubt hurt his mother on the material plane very much!

And now as he sat upon Sam the donkey at the gates of Jerusalem he again touched the animal's mane lovingly and in that moment connecting with the animals spirit feeling both his fear and awe...He would have alighted from the donkey Sam and come before his face...caressing his snout in both his arms and explaining to him through divine connection that...Sam, the donkey should fear not for he would one day be liberated from the earthly plane and he would a greater spirit be for accompanying him on this journey!:)