This beautiful prayer by Rev. Angela Herrera, the assistant minister at First Unitarian in Albuquerque, NM, was first published in her new Skinner House meditation manual Reaching for the Sun: Meditations. – Ed.

This is a prayer for all the travelers.

For the ones who start out in beauty,

who fall from grace,

who step gingerly,

looking for the way back.

And for those who are born into the margins,

who travel from one liminal space to another,

crossing boundaries in search of center.

This is a prayer for the ones whose births

are a passing from darkness to darkness,

who all their lives are drawn toward the light,

and keep moving,

and for those whose journeys

are a winding road that begins

and ends in the same place,

though only when the journey is completed

do they finally know where they are.

For all the travelers, young and old,

aching and joyful,

weary and full of life;

the ones who are here, and the ones who are not here;

the ones who are like you (and they’re all like you)

and the ones who are different (for in some ways, we each travel alone).

This is a prayer for traveling mercies,

And surefootedness,

for clear vision,

for bread

for your body and spirit,

for water,

for your safe arrival

and for everyone you see along the way.

******

Esta oración es para todos los viajeros.

Para los que comienzan en la belleza

y caen de la gracia,

quienes caminan tímidamente,

buscando la manera de volver.

Y para los que nacen en los márgenes,

viajando de un lugar liminal a otro,

cruzando fronteras

en busca del centro.

Es una oración para aquellos cuyo nacimiento

es el paso de oscuridad a oscuridad,

aquellos que se sienten atraídos por la luz,

y avanzan hacia ella.

Y para aquellos cuyas jornadas

son un camino sinuoso

que comienza y termina en el mismo lugar,

aunque sólo al terminar,

sabrán por fin donde están.

Para todos los viajeros,

jóvenes y viejos,

dolientes y alegres,

cansados y llenos de vida;

los presentes y los ausentes,

los que son como tú (y todos son como tú)

y los que son distintos (porque de alguna manera

todos viajamos solos).

Esta es una oración por la misericordia,

para que andes con pie firme,

y visión clara;

por el pan para tu cuerpo y tu espíritu,

por el agua;

para que llegues seguro,

y para todos aquellos que encuentres

en el camino.

Rev. Angela Herrera is the assistant minister at First Unitarian in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

About the Author

Gail Forsyth-Vail

Gail Forsyth-Vail is the Adult Programs Director in the UUA Faith Development Office. She is a Credentialed Religious Educator, Master’s Level, who served congregations for 22 years before coming to the UUA in 2008. The 2007 recipient of the Angus MacLean Award for Excellence in Religious Education, she has written or developed many religious education resources for UUs of all ages. She and her spouse, P. Stephen Vail, are proud and happy parents of three young adult Unitarian Universalists.

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