Winter Solstice Prayers

Today is the winter solstice – the shortest day (and longest night) of the year. I have been thinking a lot about light and dark in the last couple of months. I think the doom and gloom of the general news – the continuing wars, the sinking economy, the bombings in Mumbai, the layoffs of many friends, etc. – has made me focus too much on the bleak side of life and I want to make a choice towards the light. And I don’t have to look far for inspiration at this time of year when so many religions focus on the light. Jews commemorate Hannukah, the Festival of Lights, at this time, lighting one candle on the menorah every night for eight nights. Pagans, too, have long celebrated the birth of sun at the midwinter solstice, in a festival they call Yule. And Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, their light of the world, at this time, too.

So on this darkest day of the year, I want to share with you some prayers from several faith traditions that focus on rebirth, light, life and the renewal we all seek and hope for at this time of year. I hope there is something here for every form of prayer bead – the traditional Catholic rosary, the new Anglican rosary, the various pagan prayer beads and the malas of the Eastern traditions.

[Try this one on the Anglican rosary - say the first line on the Cruciform beads and the rest on the Weeks beads]

God of all creation,

of bare forest and low northern skies,

of paths unknown and never to be taken,

of bramble, sparrow and damp, dark earth.

We thank you for loss, for the breaking of the dimming year,

We thank you for light, even in its seeming midwinter failing,

We thank you for life, for its hope and resistance,

Like a seed dying and living.

-Rachel Mann

A Midwinter Prayer [This would be great for a Catholic rosary - say the first two lines on the Our Father beads and the rest on the decades beads]

From the rising of the midwinter sun to its setting,

Scatter the darkness with the light of your love, O Shining One.

Make me short on mean thoughts, long on offers words of comfort.

Make me short on being driven, long on paying attention.

Make me short on focusing only on my own, long on looking beyond.

Make me short on obsessive lists, long on spontaneous acts of kindness,

Make me short on mindless activity, long on time to reflect.

Make me short on tradition as a habit, long on rediscovery and re-owning.

Make me short on rushing a tiring, long on walking and wondering.

Make me short on false, festive jollity, long on stilling and rooted joy.

Make me short on guilt, long on being merciful to myself.

Make me short on being overwhelmed, long on peaceableness as I set forth this day.

-from The Celtic Wheel of the Year by Tess Ward

Winter Solstice Prayer [This one works on the decade of a Catholic rosary, or perhaps on a set of pagan prayer beads, or a mala]

Dear God, help me embrace the darkness of this day, knowing that from the very deepest dark comes the brightest Light.

Help me to feel my own darkness, where fear resides inside, within my wounded child who is scared of being on Earth.

With your love, I may use the darkness of nature on this day to hold my wounded child close to my breast, letting her tell me all of her fears.

She will tell me how I scare her; I will ask her to tell me how I abandon her.

I will use this darkness to let her cry; and with her final tear she will begin to sense the Light.

I will use this day to go to the depths of my own dark places because I know you are with me always, and that only by going into the darkness may we see the truth of our Light.

Thank you, God, for giving me life so that I may explore the darkness and the Light.

Thank you for the cycle of creation.

Thank you for my breath, my heart, my body and my mind.

Thank you for the Light of my soul, where, though I sometimes forget, I long to always be.

–Winter Solstice Prayer to the Inner Child, by Nancy Swisher

And because Hannukah begins on Sunday, I want to include this prayer said over the lighting of the menorah:

Blessed are You,

Our God, Creator of time and space,

Who enriches our lives with holiness,

Commanding us to kindle the Hannukah lights.

Blessed are You,

Our God, Creator of time and space,

Who performed miracles for our ancestors,

In the days of lng ago. And in this time.

Happy prayers and love to all!

who enriches our lives with holiness,

commanding us to kinkle the Chanukah lights.