HERE COMES SUMMER

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We praise You, Lord, for all Your creatures,
especially for  Brother Sun,
who brings the day; through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor;
of You, Most High, he bears the likeness.

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St. Francis of Assisi

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A Summer Blessing

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May you walk with God
This summer
In whatever you do
Wherever you go

Walking with God means...
Walking with honesty
And with courage,
Walking with love
And respect
And concern for the feelings of others

May you talk to God
This summer
And every day and
In every situation

Talking with God means...
Praying words of praise
For the beauty of creation
Saying prayers of thanks
For friends and good times,
Asking God's help
In all your decisions
Expressing sorrow
When you have failed

May you talk with God
Every day.

   Amen.
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Annette Sherwood

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Great and living Aten, ordaining life, vigorously alive, our father. Our wall of millions of cubits, our reminder of eternity, our witness of what is eternal. Who fashions himself with his own hands, whom no craftsman has devised. Who is established in rising and setting each day ceaselessly. Whether he is in heaven, or on earth, every eye beholds him without hindrance, whilst he fills the land with his rays and enables everyone to live. With seeing whom, our eyes are satisfied daily in this Temple of the Aten and fills it with his own self by means of his rays, beauteous with love, and embraces us with them in life and power forever. 

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Ancient Egyptian Prayer
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Dear God, give us the brains to use some sunscreen!

Amen.
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EGYPTIAN PRAYER AND THE AFTERLIFE

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As it was in every ancient religion

(including those of the Greeks, Romans, and

Hebrews before the 8th century B.C.) polytheism

was taken for granted in ancient Egypt, for which

we have very extensive and detailed records.

During the period from about 2700 to 2200 B.C.,

for example, the Egyptian kings themselves were

worshipped as sons of the sun god. But from

2000 B.C., there is clear evidence of monotheism:

Amon was regarded as the one supreme deity,

and when one ruler addressed a spontaneous

hymn to Amon, his prayer was set down
 in hieroglyphs:

 "Creator, Maker, Giver of breath -

how manifold are your works, O sole God,

whose power no other possesses. You created

the earth according to your heart."

Egyptians also offered morning and

evening prayer to Amon.

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Along with the tendency toward monotheism,

there was a conviction about the afterlife.

The Papyrus of Ani, which can be dated to

about 1250 B.C., is a major extant portion

of the texts now collectively known as the

Egyptian Book of the Dead; it contains hymns

and invocations interred with the deceased

and intended to guide them safely to the

beyond. A typical prayer for mercy was

addressed, for example, to 
"My Shining One,
 who dwells in the Mansion of Images...

O Preeminent one...may you grant me life...

O my father, my brother, my mother -

Isis! I shall cross to the Mansion of him

who finds faces, the collector of souls...

And I will not die again in God's domain...

I give you praise, O Lord of the gods."

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Perhaps nowhere are the traditions of

prayerful acts discerned more clearly

than in this ancient conviction that life

endures beyond the grave, a conviction

to which the pyramids remain a grand and

silent witness.

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From In Silence - Why We Pray

by Donald Spotto

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