A Mini-Selichot

A Mini-Selichot

© Rabbi Menachem Creditor

God, forgive us, but please help us surpass the pre-written stuff. Remind us to believe in our own living hearts and mouths and souls.

Hear us when we speak.

Comfort us when we cry.

Guide us when we stray. 

God, please forgive us for the things we did wrong and were brave enough to name, strong enough to own, and hopeful enough to see past.

May the coming year find us ready to be our full size, strong and brave and hopeful, alive and healthy and safe.

May the coming year be a good one.

For everyone, Dear God, for everyone.

Amen.

A Prayer for the World

A Prayer for the World
(c) Rabbi Menachem Creditor

We're in-process, God, just like You made us: a complicated mix of rich, undefined earth and yearning Divine breath. We're doing our best, God. Really.

Well, maybe not our best all the time, but we're really trying to remember to do our best, to breathe Your Breath into the world. It's just hard to figure out where to look, how to feel - what to do.

And so we turn to You. Somehow, You still believe in us, even when we fail.

Adonai:

    Please. Help us figure out where to look. It's hard to know where not to look when so many people are suffering in so many places. Help us realize that it is Your Breath that feels so tight in our lungs when the world writhes.

   Please. Give us the strength to keep feeling alive in our souls. Empathy can be exhausting, and we can feel shut down by the weight of the world, a burden You share with us. Remind us of Y/our holy power to feel fiercely and act in solidarity with every one of Your infinite human reflections, everywhere in Your world.

    Please. Teach us how to hope again. It's really hard to believe in ourselves sometimes.

But with Your Spirit pulsing in our bodies, God, we stand more able, more hopeful,  and more alive.

Grace us, Adonai. Please. We need more hope this year than we did last year.

May this year be a better one throughout Creation.

Amen.