Bootleg Prayers

As we approach Palm Sunday and Holy Week, I’m thinking about the strange mixture of hope and heartache that we experience.  Even messages of welcome, acceptance, and inclusion can bring hateful responses when folks feel their power is threatened.  And somehow Jesus shows resistance to oppressive regimes and love for the marginalized without dehumanizing his oppressors or proliferating the rhetoric of hate.  

I wrote this song for Palm Sunday a few years back.  It’s really a musing on Jesus’ gracious movement between solitude and service, humanity and the divine.  He finds rhythms that lead to openheartedness and help him find a way of justice and peace while living under the thumb of Empire.  Jesus moves in unexpected ways that invite us to find the trajectory of grace in the dust and shadow.

Here’s a blessing for the week:

As you go,

May you find yourself more awake.

More aware of the warm sun and the cool breeze.

More attuned to birdsong.

More attentive to each unique smile you encounter.

May you find yourself more awake.

More aware of the heavy loads folks bear.

More attuned of the the uneven ground beneath us.

More attentive to the heartaches that reverberate from one heart to another.

May you find yourself more awake.

More aware of each possibility for love to flourish.

More attuned to the songs of peace and justice.

More attentive to the presence of the divine who leads us into beloved community.

So go, in peace.

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Since the rhythms of the church calendar tend to set the tempo for a lot of my life, it’s time to talk about Lent. This year have that lovely confluence of Ash Wednesday and Valentines Day.  Like peanut butter and chocolate. This is a song I wrote for Ash Wednesday in 2021 while we were still in the throes of the pandemic.  I supposed I was trying to hold the real losses we experienced alongside the mysterious welcome of the Divine.

Here’s a blessing for the week:

As you go,

May you find contentment in mystery.

May you find hope in feeble sparks.

May you find joy in stillness.

May you find grace in ordinary things.

May you find healing for your wounds,

gentleness in your missteps,

welcome in your faltering.

May compassion greet you

and lead you into the holy truth—

that you are part

of a great kindred company

of belovedness.

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After a week of snow in Kentucky, we turn our thoughts to warmer climates. This began on a back porch on Sanibel Island and ended up on a driveway in Kentucky. There are places and times when we seem to naturally connect with the ground of our being. Sometimes a change of scenery can help us find these deep connections. Maybe these moments of connection can help us discover that the divine is always near.

Here's a blessing for the week:

May you find delight hiding in

every nook and cranny.

May you be overwhelmed by the

million tiny kindnesses

you encounter.

May you be awash in a steady,

invisible flow of grace.

May laughter be your friend.

May tears come and go like spring rains.

May you discover,

down deep,

a wholeness,

a belonging,

a certitude,

that you are part of God.

That you are cherished—

just like this.

And so may you be you,

all the way into Love's fullness.

You can find out more at the Bootleg Prayers website.

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Welcome to Bootleg Prayers. A podcast where Aaron Austin as he rummages through our collective sock drawer looking for tufts of hope and threads of sublimity. He'll share songs and stories (and maybe transcendental grocery lists) for each week (or so) as we look for beauty in this mess.

This first song is a song Christmas Song, just a few weeks old.

You can find out more at the Bootleg Prayers website.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.