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YOU WHO ARE ONE
O God, we rejoice to find in our search that:
You are the Truth clouded by our ignorance;
You are the Beauty in whose light we are joyfully alive;
You are the Goodness invincible amidst and above evil;
You are the Will deeper than our own wills;
You are the Love that slowly raises the human soul;
You are the Eternal in which all that is Temporal is rooted;
You are our Beginning and our End;
You are the Object of our life’s quest;
You are the Inspiration for the quest itself;
You are to be found both without and within.
In our search, give us courage and strength, patience and confidence,
O You who are One-in-All
SPIRIT OF LIFE
Spirit of Life that is within us and about us: in each of us there is some margin of despair and hope, some overtone of creation’s song; in each of us the welling ache of life; the being and the becoming; the promise and the hunger; the one resurgent moment that speaks of eternity, that may pass from memory but is never forgotten.
In each of us there is some margin of discovery; some truant shadow of tomorrow; in each of us, an un-named need, a purpose brooding and uncertain, waiting to be realized.
Spirit of Life that is within us and about us: we rededicate ourselves to a higher purpose, a nobler dream, a more perfect life together nour ished in wisdom and love.
J. Raymond Cope (1905–1988) served for 22 years as the pastor of First Unitarian Church in Berkeley, California, beginning in 1940. He previously taught philosophy at Indiana University. Cope was a community leader in Berkeley and participated nationally in the civil rights movement.
