Let Us Walk in Beauty
O Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds
whose breath gives life to all the world,
hear me, I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty and let my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears grow sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength not to be greater than my brothers or sisters but to fight my greatest enemy, myself.
Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes
So when life fades as the fading sunset my spirit may come to you without shame.
Great Spirit of Love, come to me with the power of the North.
Give me courage when the cold winds of life fall upon us.
Give me strength and endurance for everything that is harsh, everything that hurts, everything that makes me squint.
Make me move through life ready to take what comes from the North.
Spirit who comes out of the East,
come to me with the power of the rising sun.
Let there be light in my word.
Let there be light on the path that I walk.
Let me remember always that you give the gift of a new day.
Never let me be burdened with sorrow by not starting over.
Great Spirit of Creation, send us the warm and soothing winds from the South.
Comfort us and caress us when we are tired and cold.
Enfold us as your gentle breezes enfold your leaves on the trees.
And as you give to all the earth your warm, moving wind,
Give to us so that we may grow close to you in warmth.
Great Life-Giving Spirit, we face the West, the direction of the sundown.
Let us remember every day that the moment will come when our sun will go down.
Never let us forget that we must fade into you.
Give us beautiful color.
Give us a great sky for setting, so when it is time to meet you, we come with glory.
And Giver of all life, we pray to you from the earth,
help us to remember as we touch the Earth
that we are little and need your pity.
Help us to be thankful for the gift of the earth
and never to walk hurtfully on the world.
Bless to love what comes from mother earth
and teach us how to love your gifts.
Great Spirit of the heavens, lift me up to you
that my heart may worship you and come to you in glory
Hold in my memory that you are my Creator,
greater than I and eager for my good life.
Let everything that is in the world lift my mind,
and my heart and my life to you so that I may come always to you
In truth and in heart.
St. Francis Prayer
O Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
where there is injury, pardon
where there is doubt, faith
where there is darkness, light
where there is despair, hope
and where there is sadness, joy
O God, grant that I might not seek
so much to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
and it is in dying to oneself that we receive eternal life.