COLLECTS FROM OUR OWN CAROLYN CARDAMIS

COLLECT #2

Dear Father God,

You gave us Your son, the incarnation of YOU, to behold His ways and learn from Him.

In this world of tribulation, You have redeemed us. You have called us by name. We rest in You and Your Son, Christ.

As we live and breathe, let us walk in Your ways. Let us grow in strength and goodness, so that each day, hour and moment are a renewal in Your love.

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #6

Dear Blessed Father,

You, who are the Maker of all, You made us in your image. You gave us a soul fashioned to hear and see your message in all manner of things. We hear it in the rush of wind in the trees, in the sunlight that secures our footsteps on our journey, in the tides of the oceans that deepen the knowing of our blessings of light and shadows of darkness.

We adore Your presence. When our sight dims and we can hardly see, restore our vision and let us know You are there. When shadows fill our minds with doubt, let us feel the grace of Your cleansing love. Dear Father, bind us always to You, the Eternal Being of Light.

We shall always rejoice in Your name. Amen

COLLECT #7

Our Dear Father in Heaven,

Your mighty hands birthed us from the womb of the earth. You molded us from the stardust in the grains of sand. We breathed in the breath of the Holy Spirit to rest in Oneness with You. On the wheel of the master sculptor, You fashioned our souls to know Your Heart of Love.

We pray now, dear Lord. Let us hear Your cry of triumph, for you have overcome the sins and tribulations of this world. Let us know when Your voice calls. Let us turn to You, to abide in You, to trust and believe in You. Let us walk in your Light from everlasting to everlasting.

We shall always rejoice in Your name. Amen

Collect #8

Dear Father,

In silence we hear your voice, we feel your presence, we know your love.

As untamed ocean waves come to rest in quiet peace, so let our minds.

Fulfill our deepest longing to be one with you.

In this moment of silence we shall Be Still and Know That You Are God. Amen

COLLECT #10

Dear Creator of All,

You are the Master Weaver of our souls. Threads of Your love adorn the loom. Over every thread, Trust and Belief hold tightly to the delicate fibers. The warp and weft of Your hands fashion us high above earth-bound humankind and just a bit lower than the angels. We have the Presence of the Holy Heart of Christ woven into our souls.

We bow in gratitude for this gift of love. We pray each day that we feel and know Your Presence ever more clearly. We strive to follow in Your steps, permeated with compassion and humility, for we are woven into the very tapestry of Your love. Amen

COLLECT #12

Dear Father,

You are the breath of life. You are the very air we breathe. You have loved us into being. As You created the magnificence of the universe, so You created the magnificence of the soul of man and the soul of woman. You engraved Love on our souls. It is in loving that we know You. It is in loving that Your presence lives and moves within us.

Help us nurture this gift of love. Let us be the caretakers of love with our families, our friends and our communities. Everyone who loves knows You, dear Father, for You are love.

Rejoice again I say rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #13

Dear Father, Shepherd of our souls,

Our steps walk the paths that lead to you. The light of Your truth and the light of Your love guide our way. There may be stones on our paths. Sometimes the winds will howl. Our steps may grow unsteady. Dear Father, You gave us the gift of trust. We trust the Shepherd that will lead us home.

We shall overcome the stones on the path. We shall bear up against the howling winds. Our trust in you will steady our steps. In You we believe. In You we rest. In You we trust.

Rejoice always, again we say rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #14

Dear Father in Heaven,

You are the Master Healer of our bodies and souls. You are the Teacher of our minds and hearts. In Your love and light we find the path that leads us to rest in You.

As water in the stream is transformed as it rushes over stones, so we are transformed by the trials we face on our path to You. Your teaching tells us to wait upon You, Dear Lord, and surely we shall renew our strength. “Surely, we shall run and not be weary. We shall walk and not faint.”

Rejoice always, again we say rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #16

Dear Heavenly Father,

You gave us our minds. You gave us our souls. Our minds search far and wide. They want to know Your truths and Your existence. They want arguments to prove You are truly with us. How different are the souls You gave us. They know, see and are enclosed in Your Presence. All this by faith.

The mind can be a restless thing. Thoughts of the world are constant intruders. Help our hearts to stay on Your path. Shield our souls with Your love. Let our souls know with certainty what we cannot see.

Rejoice always. Amen

COLLECT #17

Dear Heavenly Father,

You are our Messenger of Love and Hope. You have given us Your son to teach us to walk as He walked, to love as He loved, to serve as He served. In Him we steer our hearts and thoughts away from the earthly messages of fear, anxiety and hate. We walk in the wonder of His love.

Dearest Father, when our steps grow weary, when our hearts are heavy, when the world’s obsessions obstruct our paths, I know with certainty You will strengthen our steps, You will lighten our hearts and you will surround us with the peace of Your Presence.

Rejoice always, again we say rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #18

Dear Lord,

You have hollowed this earth and made it holy ground.

From the grains of billions of stars you formed clay to flesh.

In your Almighty power and love you instilled in us the Holy Spirit.

What was a being of earthly clay was transformed into a being of light.

Dear Lord, we ask that our light may so shine each and every day, that our eyes and ears see and hear the Holy Spirit that lives in each of us. With reverence for all, let us know that our brothers and sisters are also beings of light. It is only in seeing their light that love and peace shall prevail.

Rejoice always, again we say rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #19

Dearest Father God,

You perfect all things.  There was a stone.  It was perfectly round.  How had it come to be so perfect?  What mighty and violent waves had pounded against it.  What rugged and sedentary rocks had carved its edges, knocking and rocking it to and fro.

Is that what you do with us, Dear Father?  To make us whole and at one with You, must we fall and recover from the rocks in our own lives?  In our weaknesses do we know You more deeply and follow You more wisely? 

Dearest Father, may we be grateful for every weakness that has brought us closer to You.  Your love upholds us.  Your love strengthens us.  Your love perfects us.

Rejoice always, again we say, rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #20

Dear Father,

You inspire our lives and hearts with seen and unseen messages. Some divine messages may lead us by calm waters, some by blazing fires. Both the waters and the fires cry out for Your Living Presence.

If we serve You by the still waters, we commit to You our lives. If we serve You by the blazing fires, we also commit to You our lives.

May our hearts become fortified steel in the presence of the fires. May Your shield of courage and endurance strengthen us. Your shield of love will comfort us.

For we know that in all circumstances we live, move and have our being in Christ.

In every way we will serve You, our Heavenly Father, in commitment and love.

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #21

Dear Heavenly Father,

You have given us a shield. The shield is the essence of your truth and love, given to us at birth. We are humans that bear the trials of flesh and humans endowed with your spiritual shield within us.

Life‘s journey is for each of us to find the shield within. We each have our own path. Some paths take us through glorious gardens adorned with flowers of all shapes, sizes and colors. Some paths are arduous, rocky and steep. They tear at our flesh. They numb our hearts. They rob us of hope.

In these times of despair, we pray for courage and trust. Your shield is within us. It is not in the dreams and illusions of this world. Help us to stay on the journey, “to fight the good fight, to finish the race, to keep the faith,” to win the prize: the shield of Your Truth and Love.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Amen

COLLECT #24

Dear Father,

You created us. You knit and wove us into being in our mother’s womb. We have grown up in this world of contradictions, this world of enticements, this world of the egocentric-self. Our minds are bound to these worldly ways. Your love is in us and we know it not. Your voice speaks to us and we hear it not.

In your mercy and love renew us now. Do the deeds that will make our eyes to see and our ears to hear. You gave us the will to choose. We choose now, Dear Heavenly Father. We choose to walk in love and to follow your voice. We commit ourselves to you and the empowerment of your light-filling love.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Amen

COLLECT #26

Dear Heavenly Father,

We must remember that all things are passing. Every moment is passing. We rest in each passing moment. Within each moment, You are here. You tell us to be still and know that You are here. You are not in the past we recall or the future we imagine. You are in this precious moment.

We treasure You. We see what we see and You are here. We hear what we hear and You are here. In sweet times and bitter times. In laughter and tears. In joy and despair. We shall hold you close for You are here.

You are in the sound of silence. We shall trust in the promise of Your peace and love.

Rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #27

Dearest Heavenly Father,

You are the cornerstone of life. All stones are laid in reference to your mighty stone. You set the direction and position of the tower that you build, the almighty tower of love.

I bring to you the fragments and pieces of my faith and trust in you that I have garnered over my lifetime. I ask you to mold them into solid stone so that I may be a part of your great tower.

My faith is riddled with doubts and fears, my trust broken in lonely times. Your mighty tower will be my shield. With You, I shall be made whole. My faith and trust will rest on your firm foundation of love. Doubts and fears cannot break your cornerstone. I shall know your love, peace and joy forever.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Amen

COLLECT #28

Dear Heavenly Father,

You have given us a heart with which we feel love. You have given us a mind with which we discern the truth. You have given us a soul with which we know you.

You have sewn our hearts, minds and souls together and created divinity in us. We feel you. We discern you and we know you.

The world would not have it be so. It would rip away the fabric of divinity that you have sown in us. Our hearts, minds, and souls would be driven far from your abiding Presence.

But we heed your promise that as we declare our faith and our trust in you, nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Rejoice in the Lord always… again I say rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #32

Dearest Heavenly Father,

You are the wounded healer who has walked among us, who has worn our shoes, who has paid our debts. For many a year the sun brightened your days. The nights darkened your paths.

Humankind bears its own wounds. Buried deep within us are the wounds we have gathered over our lifetimes. Some have risen up from our deep unknowing. As our minds allowed us to see them, we asked You to help us bear the pain they brought. You healed each wound as we brought them to You.

You reminded us that we are the branches of Your vine. “If we remain in You, and You in us, we can bear much fruit. Apart from you we can do nothing.”

In many ways, our deepest wounds have blinded us to Your love. Perplexed and confused, we hold ourselves in distain. Our wounds have ingrained themselves into patterns of alarming thoughts in our minds. Our own thoughts despise us. Our own thoughts persecute us. Our own thoughts desert us.

Let us learn Your eternal love from the wounds you bore for us. You loved us. You forgave us. You died for us. If you so loved us, we also must learn to love and forgive ourselves and our brothers and sisters.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Amen

COLLECT #35

Dearest Heavenly Father,

The soul of humankind has always known You are there. The mind knows the language of the world, but the soul knows the words of the heart, words written by the Spirit of Love. The pen of love and grace moves across the pages of our lives. It cries for us to let go of the Old-Self and to walk in the freedom of love.

The Old-Self has learned and practiced the lessons of fear over our lifetimes. The lessons are so well-practiced they seem like solid truths. They are buried so deep within us, ruling our bodies and minds without our knowledge. But they are the language of lies. Those fears tell us we are not worthy of love and grace. They isolate us and wrap us in a blanket of loneliness and sadness.

Let the pen of Your grace and love rewrite those old stories created in the chaos of the world. Let Your words fill the library of our lives. “Let fear be a stranger to our hearts.” We must read and reread the words You have for us. Your words renew our hearts. The voice of the Old-Self will no longer have a language to speak. Its books of self-condemnation will be burned in the basement of our library of life.

The words of love and grace will rejoice in the silence of our New-Self.

Blessing. Amen

COLLECT #41

Dear Father,

You gave us your son to teach us love, for God is love. Jesus came to us in the brokenness of this world. The newborn innocence of our lives had slipped away. Lesson by lesson the world taught us its thoughts and ways.

Heavenly Father you said: As Heaven is higher than the earth so are my thoughts higher than the world’s thoughts and my ways higher than the world’s ways.” We pray, Heavenly Father, to know and live by your thoughts and ways.

You sent Jesus to us. Jesus came at a price. In pain and sorrow, He died. He showed us that “no greater love has the world than this: to lay down one’s life for another.” And He laid down His life for us.

Now we must die to our old selves. The lessons the world taught us must be ripped away from our hearts and minds. There will be pain and sorrow; but Your light will draw nearer and nearer, and we shall live in the light of life. In knowing and practicing your thoughts and ways in the depths of our souls: hate will become love, doubt faith, despair hope and grief joy. The world’s thoughts and ways will find no place in our hearts.

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice! Amen

COLLECT #49

Dearest Father,

Who shall convict us? Only your truth and love can convict our souls to belief and faith in you. The world’s convictions dwell on satisfying every moment’s cravings. It does not see beyond this moment of satisfaction whatever the cost; and the cost is high.

Lost is seeing the eternal in all of life. Lost is feeling compassion for all things, weak or strong. Lost is the union of love for all people and all things.

The world’s convictions convert our minds to seek wealth, self-aggrandizement and power. How different do the convictions in Christ convert our lives? Wealth is rich in compassion. Self-aggrandizement becomes honoring all of life. Its power is spirit, “the spirit of the wind that blows where it pleases, so it is with the soul that is born again.”

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #59

Dear Heavenly Father,

You have given us Day and Night. You have given us Life and Death.

All is here and All must pass. Hold us and comfort us as those we cherish pass beyond the gates of this world. Sustain our hearts with the love we shared in this lifetime. Comfort the children whose hands reach out to touch the mother who gave them life and love.

Yesterday is a piece of our lives we cannot recover. Tomorrow will pass in the shadow of yesterday.

Forever is eternal. We will be One Soul, One Spirit. AND the peace of God that passes all understanding will be ours.

Rejoice in our Lord for He will give us more joy in Heaven than ever imagined on earth.

And again I say Rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #60

Dear Heavenly Father,

You said to us, “You must be ground like wheat, recover and then you can help your brothers and sisters.” We are born in innocence. The fields of life serve as our teachers. The water flows; the water stagnates. The sun shines; the clouds darken.

We grow until the scythe and the sickle cut us down. Life’s inevitable examiner comes with a thresher. Our moments of life are separated by the beating of the thresher’s stick.

Seeds, hulks and stalks fall from the life we have lived. Now is the time for us to recover. The seeds are full of life’s soul. They are fruitful; they live in love.

It is now that our eyes and ears, our hearts and minds can rise above the husks and stocks remaining below. We recover. We step out of the fields. “We have finished the race.” We can now serve our sisters and brothers.

Perhaps the simple lesson is: The fields are necessary, the recovery optional.

Rejoice in the Lord always…again I say rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #61

Dear Heavenly Father,

You ask us to be born again. You ask us to forget the life we have lived before. You promise to restore in us hope, joy, peace and life eternal.

We have the birth of our earthly selves. We celebrate this birth once a year. Let us profoundly comprehend You have offered us a rebirth of our souls. This birth is not celebrated once a year. It is celebrated every moment of every year.

Our hearts are made new. We commune with nature and our brothers and sisters without the fears and tribulations of yesterday. Let us unravel the knots and tangles of yesterday’s life, for a single tangled thought cripples our souls.

Gratefully, as You have created each single waterdrop to make an ocean, You have made each single word and act of love renew our hearts.

“Create in us a clean heart, dear Lord, and renew a right spirt in us.”

Rejoice in the Lord always…again I say rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #70

Dear Heavenly Father,

You have given us a New Year. We ask you, Father, how can we be made New?

You teach us moment by moment to know what is New and what is Old. The New has the power to awaken our souls. It is the Unseen becoming the Seen. Our eyes, ears and mind see what was Old can now be New. But will the New reach our souls and spirits?

As dawn is to twilight, New is born. As “heaven is to the earth,” New recreates itself. So is our path to You New. The cycle of the year is 1 to 365 days. In each year we can dissolve the Old Self that steers us away from You. The scheduled minutes of humankind are only a breath away from the New Self. The Holy Spirit breathes into each soul and spirit the breath of the Light of Life.

We must welcome this Light of Life; we must pray to the Holy Spirit to heal our Old Self; we must pray that our thoughts and actions that block the path to the New be abolished .

Finally, our New Self can follow the way, the truth and the light on our eternal path to You.

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice… Amen

COLLECT #73

Dearest Heavenly Father,

The Bible tells us that “Jesus wept.” His tears, soft and warm, rolled like broken pebbles onto the earth that groaned for humankind. His tears embraced the depths of human sorrow. The shadows of the universe would grow long and wide as humankind faced its struggle with good and evil.

You stepped between us and the degenerate promises of this world, dear Lord. Our faith and trust in You gave us a refuge and a fortress. In grief, Your son fulfilled his purpose in life. It was He who built the fortress in which we abide. His armory is Grace. His refuge is love.

God’s love is the very wood of the fortress. His nails of truth and light drive deep into the soul of the wood, keeping the walls, strong and straight.

Abide in this fortress and we abide in love. Our words speak of this love, but our actions and deeds are proof of this love.

We thank you and praise you, Lord, for this fortress, which is now our home.

Rejoice in the Lord always…again I say rejoice. Amen

COLLECT #74

Dear Lamb of God,

You are the still quiet voice in each of us.

This earth we walk has deceitful stony paths. We stumble and fall; the stones like teeth bite into our very hearts. Your hand stretches out to us and You set our feet on solid ground. For You are the are the Lamb of God.

Crevices stretch wide. They are on the path. Thoughtlessly we walk many times without seeing them. We fall into the pitiless darkness. You reach down to pull us out. For You are the Lamb of God.

Winds may sweep us up far beyond the sight of you. Puffed up and riding high on pride, we cannot know You. By grace, Your mighty hands still the winds to a whipper and a sigh. For you are the Lamb of God.

Our debt to you is unimaginable. You created humankind as conscious beings. We have the gift of free choice. The way of Christ or the way of the world. You prayed for us. You wept for us and ultimately You went to the Cross for us. You paid the price for the steps we took on the scheming paths of the world.

Humankind can never cancel our debt to You. Yet we can renew our vows to walk in Your ways of love.

For You are the Lamb of God.

Rejoice in the Lord always…again I say rejoice. Amen