Ordinary Blessings for the Christmas Season

orange cutout Christmas ornament of a deer sits on a shelf

Perhaps you are a planner and October doesn’t seem too early to start talking about the Christmas season. You’re already formatting your Christmas card picture, booking travel plans, or deciding which days you’ll take PTO and which days you’ll “work from home” while kids are around on winter break from school.  I’m not very proactive…

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Comfort Me, Know Me, Hold Me

maternal image for God

Lord, when I pray to You as my Father, do not allow my human mind to limit You to my human understanding of what it means to be father or mother. I pray that our limits of human language do not hide who You truly are to every one of Your children. You are Spirit,…

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Prayers for Parenting in Impossible Times

Praying during impossible times as parents

School shootings. Pandemic parenting. Racial violence, wars, natural disasters, civil unrest. Parenting right now can feel impossible. When you’re fumbling for the words to pray, our Mothering Spirit writers have powerful prayers to give voice to your deepest fears and hopes as a parent. A Prayer for Gun Violence in Schools by Kayla Craig A…

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Prayers for the Hard Days of Parenting

hard days of parenting prayers

Angry? Frustrated? Stressed out? We’ve been there. We’ve prayed through it, too. Here are a few words for when you feel like you’re going to lose it as a parent. 1. Breath prayers Inhale: Breathe in peace (love, hope, joy).Exhale: Breathe out fear (anger, grief, stress). Inhale: You are with me, God.Exhale: I am not…

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3 Practical Tips When You’re Wrestling With Faith

wrestling with faith as parent

1. Turn to well-worn prayers. Try these by Thomas Merton and St. Anselm of Canterbury if you need words for your wondering or wandering. 2. Pray with the story of Jacob wrestling with God. The same night [Jacob] got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the…

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a prayer for morning sickness

Morning sickness is awful. At best it’s a nuisance for a few weeks; at worst it’s debilitating for months. I’ve had both scenarios, so my sympathies leap out to any expectant mother who suffers – and longs for a prayer during these hardest times. I’ve written ad nauseam (ha) about morning sickness: “In Which We Are All…

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how to pray lectio divina with kids

Want to pray lectio divina with your kids? I had never heard of lectio divina until I started graduate theological studies. Thankfully I was blessed to study with the Benedictines, who are steeped in this prayer practice (which St. Benedict wrote about in his Rule dating back to 500 AD). So I learned from wise sisters and brothers how…

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