The purple WorshipWeb logo

To search for resources that support March's Soul Matter theme of Transformation, toggle the red arrow below and search for Spiritual Themes of: Transformation, Change, Endings, Beginnings, Searching.

Changing a filter will refresh results (and remaining options) immediately. Searching by keyword or changing the number of items per page requires use of the "Search" button.

Displaying 1 - 20 of 21

  • Harm of one is harm of all.
    Reflection | By Karen G. Johnston | May 1, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Character, Compassion, Connections, Direct Experience, Empathy, Ethics, Humanism, Interdependence, Poverty, Privilege, Responsibility, Secular, Suffering, Worship
  • Loss binds us together undeniably.
    Affirmation | By Atena O. Danner | August 23, 2022 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Connections, Grief, Healing, Kindness, Suffering
  • We are an angry and beautiful people.
    Reflection | By Laura Solomon | June 1, 2022 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Connections, Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Fear, Humanism, Love, Suffering, Unitarian Universalism, Worship
  • As the news cycle brings us images of terror and heartbreak once again, We grieve together As each of us faces into this new level of horror, We grieve together As we remember other moments of pain, fear, and loss, We grieve together Yearning for an end to violence and suffering, We grieve togeth...
    Litany | By Caitlin Cotter Coillberg | December 8, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), Brokenness, Community, Connections, Disaster or Crisis, Grief, Healing, Solidarity, Suffering, Unitarian Universalism
  • "Suffering doesn't always mean something's gone wrong; it just means you're living a life." —from the Dear Sugars podcast, Sept. 2, 2017.
    Quote | By Cheryl Strayed | September 7, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Balance, Direct Experience, Suffering, Truth
  • An awakening passed through the whole theatre, and as if touched by some invisible hand, the people stood, clapped, shouted with joy, laughed, and wept… It was blessed to be connected to—no, to be a part of a community—a people. —Volker Kühn, in his essay about a cabaret performance during...
    Reflection | By Sean Parker Dennison | December 14, 2016 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Arts & Music, Community, History, Personal Stories, Power, Responsibility, Self-Respect, Suffering, Tradition
  • All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain... By trying to handle all suffering through willpower, denial, medication, or even therapy, we have forgotten something that should be obvious: we do not handle suffering; suffering handles us in deep and mysterious ways that ironically...
    Quote | By Richard Rohr | May 23, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Christianity, Despair, Meaning, Mystery, Pain, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality, Suffering
  • Dear Liberal Allies, You and I learned very different things in very different ways. If you didn’t live an experience, then step aside. We students of color, gay students, trans* students, children of immigrants and refugees knew this stuff before our professors told us what to call it....
    Reading | By Trungles | March 30, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Growth, Identity, Justice, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Multiculturalism, Personal Stories, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Solidarity, Suffering
  • "We hold on to hell because when we discard it we glimpse through the clearing smoke a God who is too complicated for us."...
    Quote | By Robert Walsh | January 10, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: God, Suffering, Unitarian Universalism
  • I vote we let the artists win the ones covered in paint from their last attempt to smuggle across the beauty of a bowl of fruit the 14-year-old rapper learning to spit throwing life's chaos on the rhythm wheel uncovering the shapes that live on after the next break I say we let the food bank...
    Poetry | By Bob Janis-Dillon | November 16, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Arts & Music, Awe, Caring, Direct Experience, Peace, Playfulness, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Suffering, Wonder
  • [In the] spirit of love, harmony, and remembrance, we stand too often divided, too often set apart from one another in heedless ways. We seek to be compassionate but our vision may be clouded or distracted. We too often go forward, day by day, and look without seeing....
    Litany | By Dennis McCarty | August 3, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Compassion, Direct Experience, Integrity, Relationships, Solidarity, Suffering, Vulnerability
  • I have learned to trust those who are witnesses rather than gurus, those who express their confusion as well as their knowledge, and those who share their suffering along with their joy.
    Quote | By David O. Rankin | May 28, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Humility, Joy, Suffering, Trust, Vulnerability, Wisdom
  • [In the] spirit of love, harmony, and remembrance, we stand too often divided, too often set apart from one another in heedless ways. We seek to be compassionate but our vision may be clouded or distracted. We too often go forward, day by day, and look without seeing....
    Litany | By Dennis McCarty | February 18, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Healing, Love, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Seven Principles, Suffering, Unitarian Universalism, Violence, Wholeness
  • My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.
    Quote | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Despair, Hope, Pain, Suffering
  • I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that cruelty too will end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.
    Quote | By Anne Frank | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Brokenness, History, Hope, Suffering, Transcendence
  • To worship God is nothing other than to serve the people. It does not need rosaries, prayer carpets, or robes. All peoples are members of the same body, created from one essence. If fate brings suffering to one member The others cannot stay at rest.
    Reading | By Saadi Shirazi | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Compassion, Connections, God, Islam, Solidarity, Suffering, Unity
  • "Put up at the moment of greatest suffering a prayer, not for thy own escape, but for the enfranchisement of some being dear to thee, and the sovereign spirit will accept thy ransom."...
    Quote | By Thomas Wentworth Higginson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Faith, History, Hope, Spiritual Practice, Suffering
  • I. THE CYNIC I was the town cynic whose life was choked out By a hidden disease of the heart That I knew was there in my chest But never told. And I carried it around with me And quoted verses to the people I met About the vanity and absurdity of it all And made them weep. If only they could have...
    Reading | By Joshua Leach | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Arrogance, Death, Failure, Searching, Suffering
  • When the world’s violence shatters the joy of a moment We pause and reach out for the hands that remain We open our hearts with love. When despair rises as a monster from the deep and drags down one of our own, our answer is that We open our hearts with love....
    Reading | By Naomi King | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Compassion, Healing, Love, Suffering
  • How can we begin to understand what hope and healing mean in the face of a deadly illness with no known cure? We have many sources of hope and healing in our lives—singing, praying, thinking, communicating, acting, giving, and remembering. Dr. Richard Cabot tells the story of a young theological...
    Reading | By Jay E Abernathy, Jr | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Body, Healing, Illness, Suffering

Search Options

  • worship component, like chalice lighting or prayer
  • tags include spiritual themes (like hope, winter, anti-oppression or trust), UU Principle, and holiday, holy day, or other occasion: (holiday pages)
  • keyword searches the title, page text, tags, and author names
  • author: list of authors

Using the Site Search Box

You can also use the search box in the upper right corner of any page.

Give Credit to Authors

Our authors and artists have granted permission for use by Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) member congregations for any worship service, including printing materials, projecting onto screens, or including in audio/video podcasts. Thank you for crediting the author or artist.

WorshipWeb's Origin Story

Conceived in 1999, WorshipWeb was implemented in late 2000 and 2001 through funding from the Unitarian Universalist Association's successful 1997 "Handing on the Future" capital fund campaign.

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association and its members in the development of WorshipWeb.