Hopes and prayers for the coming New Year

We live in a world of blind people. People are blinded by their

ambitions, their fears, their racism, their hurts, their hatred,

their arrogance, and their needs. I am convinced that their blindness

is the result of a spiritual battle.

Satan realizes that as long as people can see only themselves or

the lies he has woven for them, they will not see their need for God.

Therefore, my prayer is for the blindness of the world to be healed.

Selfish ambition would turn to compassion, fear would turn to

confidence, racism would turn to unity, hurt would turn to wholeness,

hatred would turn to love, arrogance would turn to a belief in

community, needs would be met by the community.

The reality is that there is no healing for these spiritual

blindnesses outside of God. We do not have it within ourselves to

heal ourselves. Jesus came as a light into this dark world so that we

could see the truth and be set free. We have a choice to accept the

healing he offers, or reject it and remain blind. It is with that

healing that the hymn “Amazing Grace” was written. A slave-trading

sailor found Christ. His racism, hatred, arrogance and ambition

blinded him to the terrible nature of the his trade. Then he was

healed in one fell swoop by the grace of Jesus. He wrote in that

hymn, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like

me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”

Once healed, however, we must continually ask for God to keep our

eyes open.

Too many of us get cozy and forget that there is a world living in

darkness. They need the light. As we pray for the survivors of the

massive tragedy from the tsunamis this week, I wonder how many of my

comfortable American brothers and sisters will even consider helping

out.

Humanity was punched in the gut this week, and only the blind will

not realize that a massive number of us are reeling in pain because

of it. I pray that we will begin see the needs and do something about

it not only in Asia, but to our neighbors across the street.

PASTOR RIC OLSEN

Harbor Trinity Baptist

Church

Costa Mesa

Peace! Peace in our hearts. Peace in our homes. Peace on our

streets. Peace in this world.

I believe that peace is the deepest aspiration of the human

spirit. I think that peace is much more “the presence of justice”

than it is “an absence of conflict,” and that peace is a “good” that

does not have to be described in terms of another “good.” I feel

unabashedly that peace with justice is what we all most desire,

perhaps especially those who behave unpeaceably.

The very word “peace” (“pace”), as St. Augustine said in “The City

of God,” “falls so sweetly on the ear that you do not need to give it

any other value.”

The “Prince of Peace” is God’s word to us about ourselves. To

those of us with hearts hardened by suffering, disappointment,

cruelty or pride, so that we’ve lost a sense of who and why we are in

this world, God slips in as a vulnerable child full of possibility.

The gift of holy tears and laughter, of tenderness and compassion,

moistens our hard hearts so that God can do something new with them.

When we “do justice ...” (Micah 6:8) God gives us peace.

My prayer is that we will imagine others, particularly the

nastiest people we know, as vulnerable babies, for we each were once;

if we learn that we all are children of God, we may reacquire

possibilities of childlike, rather than childish, behavior toward one

another.

Childlike behavior includes: Humility, trust, joy, creativity,

spontaneity, and honesty. Its essence is in the story of a child who

was busy with a pencil and pad when an adult asked what was going on:

“I’m drawing a picture of God,” the child answered.

“Oh,” exclaimed the adult. “But no one knows what God looks like.”

The child continued drawing and responded confidently, “They will

when I’m finished!” May we live in ways that encourage more and more

to understand God’s peace.

THE VERY REV’D CANON

PETER D. HAYNES

Saint Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

It is said that one can be disillusioned only if one has illusions

in the first place.

We have suffered annual disillusionment because we have maintained

the illusion that a new year will respond to the inflated prayers

routinely offered at this season -- prayers for world peace, human

brotherhood, an end to oppression and universal freedom -- all dashed

with the initial news reports of Jan. 1 that signify business as

usual.

Rather than pray for what cannot be realized, I hope that the

milestone of a new year will remind us to offer prayers that are more

modest and within our grasp:

* “May I use my talents and opportunities more wisely than in the

past year.”

* “May my mind be more enriched and my soul more elevated than in

recent days.”

* “May my family receive more of my love, guidance, and attention

than I offered last year.”

* “May I give greater thanks for the abundance in my life by

sharing more of it than I did last year.”

* “May I concentrate more on doing good and less on feeling

good.”

* “May I reach out less to grasp the things I desire and may I

reach up to heaven more for the things I need.”

Above all, in the face of global challenges and threats such as

the world has never faced, I pray for a quality illustrated in the

following: the world’s oldest surviving clock face is in the north

transept of Wells Cathedral in the West of England. It is an

astronomical dial more than 6 feet across.

In the center, earth is represented with two circles that show the

phases of the moon. From there, rings moving outward show the date of

the lunar month, the minutes and hours. When the clock chimes each

quarter-hour, the figures above the dial -- four knights on horseback

in a jousting tournament -- spin about, and one of them is unseated,

only to pop up again moments later. Since the clock’s creation in the

14th century, that knight has been knocked down millions of times.

There are those who would say the knight should have learned his

lesson by now. The other view, the optimistic one, is that this

hapless knight is teaching us a great lesson in perseverance. He

cannot end all war, but he picks himself up, dusts himself off, and

starts anew.

As that knight discovered, world peace is beyond our power to

secure. He has but brief respites between his battles. And for all

our

collective prayers, there has never been a moment on our planet

that has been free of strife. Let our prayer be more attainable and

sustainable.

Let us pray for strength for the war against evil, for resolve of

spirit and perseverance of heart against terror, for wills of iron to

confront those who seek our destruction. The world knocks us down;

may we, with god’s help, arise to fight another day, throughout

another year.

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

What are my hopes and prayers for my spiritual community, my local

community, and for the human family? Each one of us lives in a

community, therefore it is only good to consider our part as

individuals and our vision for the whole.

Even if we don’t go to a church, zendo, or temple, we all go

somewhere to reflect with others on the meaning of our life and

death.

I have often felt that there are many places of worship.

Personally, I have been drawn to the gym, libraries and the beach.

Each of these places refreshes and informs me about the true

purpose of my life. One Zen master, when walking in a meadow with a

student, pointed to the boulders lying here and there and exclaimed:

“Look at all the members!”

He was saying, look at all the members of the sangha (spiritual

community.) All things are with us in spiritual community. It’s a

shame that most of the time we don’t realize it.

For the regular practitioners at the Zen Center of Orange County

-- including myself -- I hope that more and more we continue to

depend on zazen (seated meditation) as a reliable path to liberation

and healing.

This, of course, will deepen our wisdom and affect our compassion

in the workplace, in our families, in our nation, and world.

For the city of Costa Mesa, my hope is that it stays small. I love

the entrepreneurial spirit and the amazing production that comes out

of the small enterprises on the Westside, and have enjoyed walking in

that area, just appreciating what so many people are up to during the

work days.

I also hope that the “Old Costa Mesa” residential areas are kept

for a while longer.

For humanity as a whole, I hope that this year we realize more

deeply that we truly are a global family and that we find more

skillful ways to care for one another.

For my part, I intend to stay quiet and be hopeful. This year may

be a very good year.

THE REV. CAROL AGUILAR

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa