Night Time Prayer - Preparing For Sleep (Spoken Word)

A nighttime prayer from Graced Moments - this spoken word prayer is rooted in the ancient wisdom tradition of Ireland and the natural elements. Graced Moments - A Soulful Pause is a collection of prayers, reflections, and invitations to pause, not rooted in one particular path but honouring wisdom found across traditions.

The collection arises from many streams: ancient wisdom traditions and contemporary teachers, the land on which I live, the natural world, and the people and creatures I encounter in the course of ordinary days. I honour and thank all the teachers, formal and implicit, whose wisdom has helped shape my own understanding and words.

Transcript

As we begin, I want to honour and thank all the teachers, Formal and implicit, Who have supported and shaped my work in graced moments. My words are also shaped by a lifelong curiosity about the sacred and the many ways human beings have sought to live in relationship with one another, With the earth and with mystery. Evening Prayer as this day comes to close. Sun setting. Life fading. I pause. To let my own spirit soften and to have some ease. My work for today is done now. Mananon MacLear ruler of the sea and its mysteries. Come to me now as the darkness descends. Help me to trust the tides that I know I cannot control. And help me to rest. Held this night and every night. By the wisdom of the natural world and the sacred. May the cloak of earth, Land, Sea, And sky wrap around me tonight. May the wisdom of the ancestors be in my own heart and mind. May the sacred find expression in my resting and my sleep. As surely as in my daytime doing. I invite peace into my body. Peace into my mind. And peace into my heart. What is complete, I gently release now into the night sky. Hush remains undone. I lay down for now. I recall what has brought me joy today. And I am grateful. What has been challenging or difficult during today. I hold now with tenderness. Allowing compassion for myself. This situation. And any others who may be bruised by this challenge. To flow now. Warming my heart. And sending this healing warmth. Out beyond me. Beyond these walls. To the earth. And the sky. And to all living beings. I give thanks. For every graced moment of this day. For the breath of life. Flowing through me and through all living beings. For the earth beneath my feet. And for the wide expanse of sky above my head. And for the quiet sacred presence underpinning all. Made the earth ancient and steady. Old me now.