Programs and Services

CPCSM's Prayer and Meditation Ministry

Please note: The following are some of our favorite prayers and meditations -- either chosen or written by our staff and volunteers -- that are closely related to our mission and to our ministry efforts. Please send us by email or US mail your favorite prayers or other spiritual reflections; and if they are supportive of our mission, we will post them here on this web page.

Prayer for World Peace
Dr. Jane Goodall

We pray to the great Spiritual Power in which we live and     move and have our being.
We pray that we may at all times keep our minds open to     new ideas and shun dogma;
That we may grow in our understanding of the nature of all     living beings and our connectedness with the natural world;
That we may become ever more filled with generosity of     spirit and true compassion and love for all life;
That we may strive to heal the hurts that we have inflicted on     nature and control our greed for material things, knowing     that our actions are harming our natural world and the     future of our children;
That we may value each and every human being for who he     is, for who she is, reaching to the spirit that is within,     knowing the power of each individual to change the world.

We pray for social justice, for the alleviation of the crippling     poverty that condemns millions of people around the world     to lives of misery - hungry, sick, and utterly without hope.
We pray for the children who are starving, who are     condemned to homelessness, slave labor, and prostitution,     and especially for those forced to fight, to kill and torture     even members of their own family.
We pray for the victims of violence and war, for those     wounded in body and for those wounded in mind.
We pray for the multitudes of refugees, forced from their     homes to alien places through war or through the utter     destruction of their environment.

We pray for suffering animals everywhere, for an end to the     pain caused by scientific experimentation, intensive     farming, fur farming, shooting, trapping, training for     entertainment, abusive pet owners, and all other forms of     exploitation such as overloading and overworking pack     animals, bull fighting, badger baiting, dog and cock fighting     and so many more.

We pray for an end to cruelty, whether to humans or other     animals, for an end to bullying, and torture in all its forms.
We pray that we may learn the peace that comes with     forgiving and the strength we gain in loving;    
That we may learn to take nothing for granted in this life;
That we may learn to see and understand with our hearts;
That we may learn to rejoice in our being.

We pray for these things with humility;
We pray because of the hope that is within us, and because     of a faith in the ultimate triumph of the human spirit;
We pray because of our love for Creation, and because of     our trust in God.
We pray, above all, for peace throughout the world.

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A Child is Listening. . .
A Reflection from a Christian Mother's Journey

The following are the words of a Christian mother, whose son committed suicide after being unable to accept his own sexuality. She firmly believes that her church's teaching played an important part in her son's death.

"Because of my own lack of knowledge, I became dependent upon people in the Clergy. When the Clergy condemns a homosexual person to Hell and eternal damnation, we, the congregation, echo 'Amen'. I deeply regret my lack of knowledge concerning gay and lesbian people. Had I allowed myself to investigate what I now see as Bible bigotry and diabolical dehumanizing slander against our fellow human beings, I would not be looking back with regret for having relinquished my ability to think and reason with other people...people I trust for truth and guidance in my life and in the life of our gay son.

"God did not heal or cure Bobby as he, our family and Clergy believed He should. It is obvious to us now why He did not. God has never been encumbered by His child's genetically-determined sexual orientation. God is pleased that Bobby has a kind and loving heart. In God's eyes, kindness and love are what life is about. I did not know that each time I echoed 'Amen' to the eternal damnation, referring to Bobby as sick, perverted and a danger to our children that his spirit was broken until he could no longer rise above the injustice of it all. Bobby ended his life at age twenty.

"It was not God's will that Bobby jump over the side of a freeway overpass into the path of an eighteen-wheel truck, killing him instantly. Bobby's death was the direct result of his parent's ignorance and fear of the word gay.

"An injustice has been done not only to Bobby but to his family as well. God knows it isn't right that Bobby is not here with loved ones. Correct education about homosexuality would have prevented this tragedy. There are no words to express the pain and emptiness remaining in the hearts of Bobby's family members, relatives, and friends. We miss Bobby's kind and gentle ways, his fun-loving spirit, his laughter. Bobby's hopes and dreams should not have been taken from him, but they were. We can't have Bobby back; if we could we would say to him, as I say to all gay and lesbian people around the world, these benevolent words of Leo Buscaglia:

Love yourself -- accept yourself -- forgive yourself --
and be good to yourself, because without you the rest
of us are without a source of many wonderful things.

"There are children like Bobby sitting in our congregations. Unknown to you, they will be listening to your 'Amens' as they silently cry out to God in their hearts. Their cries will go unnoticed for they cannot be heard above your 'Amens'. Your fear and ignorance of the word gay will soon silence their cries. Before you echo 'Amen' in your home or place of worship, think and remember...a child is listening."

Mary A. Griffith

Bobby Griffith lived June 24, 1963 - August 27, 1983.

Mary Griffith with her son
Bobby (from the cover of the
book, Prayers for Bobby)

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Prayer for the Healing of
Religious Fundamentalism
by David J. McCaffrey

O God, our Beloved Mother and Father, in our need and desire to seek you and your truth – often because of our fear of losing your love and of losing our way – some of us search for you too much with our heads and too little with our hearts. In our passion to know you and to please you, some of us focus too much on your laws and your judgment and not enough on your forgiveness and unconditional love. When we do try to learn and follow your laws, some of us attend too much to the letter and too little to the spirit.

Some of us often interpret the Bible and other religious writings too literally – often with little or no background information about the origin of these writings, their original untranslated texts, and their meaning for our unique place in salvation history. We look too closely at individual words and phrases and not enough at the overall message that they contain. We attend too much to your words to the people of the Old Testament and too little to Jesus' words and example for us in the New Testament – as he spent most of his public ministry among the outcasts of his day.

Some of us pray so much for our own needs and are so concerned about whether we will be saved in the next life that we pay too little attention to the needs of our brothers and sisters – especially those whose needs are the greatest. We show too little concern for whether they will be saved from the pain and suffering of this life. After all, Jesus tells us that what we have done to the least of our sisters and brothers is a crucial criterion upon which we will ultimately be judged.

In short, some of us, in spite of our best intentions, find that others call us religious fundamentalists or say that we have a tendency toward fundamentalism. Often, with good intentions that become misguided, groups of our fellow fundamentalists – whether they be Catholics, Protestants, Jews, or Muslims – have caused some of the greatest pain and suffering throughout history – including wars, terrorism, and inquisitions – and throughout today's world, especially among those we perceive to be different from ourselves.

We recall that it was religious fundamentalists of Jesus' time who misjudged and condemned his works the most, who were most threatened by the renewal he brought to their traditional laws and customs, and who eventually participated in his torture and death.

O God, our Beloved Mother and Father, you have said that perfect love drives out all fear. Heal us and our brothers and sisters of our fundamentalism and our tendencies toward it. Help us to let go of our fears and replace them with faith in you and in your providence and protection.

Help us to replace our search for money, power, and the praise of others, with our admission of powerlessness and with a surrender to your will and your all-loving protection. Help us to strive less for our own righteousness and more for peace and justice toward others.

Help us always to see all people of the world community as our brothers and sisters and to love them as you have loved us – even when they seem different from us and we do not understand their ways. May we always treat our neighbors as Jesus would have treated them and as we would have them treat us. We ask this in your name. Amen.

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There's a faith in loving fiercely the one who is rightfully yours especially if you have waited years and especially if part of you never believed you could deserve this loved and beckoning hand held out to you this way.

I am thinking of faith now and the testaments of loneliness and what we feel we are worthy of in this world. Years ago in the Hebrides I remember an old man who would walk every morning on the gray stones to the shore of baying seals, who would press his hat to his chest in the blustering salt wind and say his prayer to the turbulent Jesus hidden in the waters.

And I think of the story of the storm and the people waking and seeing the distant, yet familiar figure, far across the water calling to them.
And how we are all preparing for that abrupt waking and that calling and that moment when we have to say yes!

Except it will not come so grandly, so biblically, but more subtly, and intimately in the face of the one you know you have to love. So that when we finally step out of the boat toward them, we find everything holds us,
and everything confirms our courage.

And if you wanted to drown, you could, But you don't, because finally, after all this struggle and all these years, you don't want to anymore.
You've simply had enough of drowning and you want to live, and you want to love. And you'll walk across any territory, and any darkness, however fluid, and however dangerous to take the one hand and the one life, you know belongs in yours.