A Prayer for Going on Vacation
Prepared prayers are a great way to learn how to pray, giving us words to stretch and expand our spiritual imaginations. "Every Moment Holy" is a really helpful resource that gives us prayers for different occasions, which can be prayed as a group or individually. Below is a prayer for leaving for a vacation.
LEADER: O Christ Our Sabbath,
You have fashioned us to function best
in rhyming lines of work and rest;
our relaxations and recreations
like unspoken invitations
to that still greater holiday to come—
when all burdens will at last be shed
and weariness be put to bed,
and gladsome joy stretch endlessly before us.
PEOPLE: Bless now, O Lord,
this happy foretaste of that good end!
Bless our pending trip here at its first christening.
Bless the days to come:
the days of duties undone,
unbuckled, unbound.
Bless our pilgrim quest for restoration!
Prepare our hearts to revel in new exploration
of cities not our own,
and of landscapes less familiar.
Along our way, in such places
whose contours you deliberately created,
may we pause to savor the evidences
of your diverse imagination
expressed in glories of scenery,
and in an artistry of peoples and cultures.
Waken our vision to perceive such subtle
expressions of your nature. Rouse also our hearts
that we might be quietly shaped
by those whisperings of divine beauty.
In our days away let us play together. Let us laugh together.
Let us be moved to speak such meaningful words
as ought to be spoken among family and friends.
Let us linger long at tables and drink deeply
of one another's company, enjoying each for who they are
with the steady pressures of our ordinary days now lifted.
As you called your disciples to come away with you,
retreating from the crush of crowds, pausing in their long work,
simply to rest, to reflect, to enjoy your company, your words,
your conversation, to enjoy their fellowship with one another,
so help us also, in this time of our vacation,
to carve out spaces merely to be,
to be with you,
to be together,
to be refreshed.
Ah, how we long for that fierce freedom for
which we were created!
Let us taste of it here in our travels!
Bless our journey and our arrival.
Bless our days spent away.
And bless also our eventual passage home, that
we might return as those who have been revived,
with hopes resurrected,
delight restored,
hearts readied again for
forward movement into life,
strength renewed to shoulder once more
the meaningful labors assigned to us in this season.
You are our rest, Jesus.
May this vacation serve your holy purposes.
May the deep enjoyment and the grand adventure of it
stir within us eternal longings, whetting our anticipation of
that best holiday celebration that will one day
encompass all days, and all of heaven and all of earth.
Amen.