Interfaith Service on the National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery Readings
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Reading from Muslim Scripture by Dr. Azza El-Remessy
The Power of Vulnerability
As Muslims, we believe that this life is short and temporary, but remains our means to eternal life in the hereafter. We believe also that this life is full of tests and hardship, and that render us completely vulnerable, confused and sometimes lost for even seeking help! Muslims also believe that God (Allah) sent prophets as the connection between Heaven and Earth and that the Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him), his last messenger was sent to embody the perfect character and role model.
I will be sharing an incidence where prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught us how to find the power in vulnerability.
After a decade of preaching in Makkah, the Prophet ﷺ had lost major supporters-his uncle and his wife and was still rejected by tribesmen. In an attempt to find a more receptive audience, the Prophet ﷺ traveled to Taif, hoping that his message would find a home in the oasis city. Instead, he was rudely insulted by the city leaders and then pelted with stones by the tribe members. Bruised and rejected, with his blood clotting as it leaked onto his sandals, he took this moment of absolute vulnerability and transformed it into connection with the real power, God’s power through the following supplication (du'aa).
To You, my Lord,
I complain of my weakness, lack of support and the humiliation I am made to receive.
O Most Merciful of the merciful!
You are the Lord of the weak, and you are my Lord.
To whom do You leave me?
To a distant person who receives me with hostility? Or to an enemy You have given power/ authority over me?
As long as you are not displeased with me, I do not care what I face. However, Your mercy is a more expansive relief to me.
I seek refuge in the light of Your face by which all darkness is dispelled and every affair of this world and the life to come are set right course, lest Your anger or Your displeasure descends upon me.
To You I submit, until I earn Your pleasure. Everything is powerless without your support.
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Reading from Jewish Scripture by Dr. Jason Henle & Cantor Daniel Geigerman
Healing is not a destination we finally arrive at; it is a sacred, ongoing return to ourselves. In the Jewish tradition, we have a powerful concept for this: Teshuvah. Often translated as repentance or return, Teshuvah is fundamentally about turning inward, acknowledging where we are broken, and stepping back onto the path of wholeness. When we talk about mental health, this Jewish lens changes everything. It reframes our struggles not as spiritual failures or personal weaknesses, but as part of the deeply human condition—a call to tend to the sacred vessel of our minds and bodies.
For generations, our community has excelled at endurance. We are descendants of survivors, people who mastered the art of pushing through unimaginable pain to ensure Jewish continuity. But survival and healing are two different things. Survival keeps us breathing through the storm; healing allows us to finally put down the heavy stones we’ve been carrying and learn how to exhale.
True healing in a Jewish context is also communal. We are commanded in Pirkei Avot, "Do not separate yourself from the community." When mental health struggles isolate us—whispering the lie that we are the only ones suffering in the dark—our tradition reminds us that we belong to a people whose strength has always been rooted in holding one another. Healing happens when we break the silence, when we name our pain out loud, and when we realize that asking for help is an act of profound courage and preservation.
May we grant ourselves the grace to heal at our own pace. May we honor our resilience, but give ourselves permission to rest. And may we build a community where vulnerability is met with compassion, knowing that every step toward our own mental well-being is a holy act of restoration.
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Hindu Reading by Kiran Karanth
1. Sit straight and take deep breath 3 times
2. 3 x Oms
3.Invocation and peace prayer
Om Saha NaaVavatu
Saha Nau Bhunaktu |
Saha Viiryam Karavaavahai |
Tejasvi Naavadheetamasti Maa Vid vissaavahaii|
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||
Meaning:
Together may we Move (in our Studies, prayers and contemplation),
Together may we Relish (our Studies, prayers and contemplation),
Together may we perform (our Studies, prayers and contemplation) with Vigour (with deep Concentration),
May what has been Studied by us be filled with the Brilliance (of Understanding, leading to Knowledge); May it Not give rise to Hostility (due to lack of Understanding),
Om Peace, Peace, Peace
4. Asatoma sad gamaya tamasoma jyotir gamaya
Mrityor ma amritam gamaya.
Om Shanti Shani Shantihi
Meaning:
Lead me from unreal to real,
lead me from darkness to light,
Lead me from death to immortality
Om Peace, Peace, Peace
5. Gayatri Mantra:
Om
Bhuh Bhuvah Svah
Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi
Dhiyo Yo nah Prachodayat
Meaning: The supreme lord pervades earth, the space in between and the heavens. That Lord is the one who is the most worshipful.
We meditate on that effulgent, all-knowledgeable Lord, may he enlighten our minds.
Om Peace, Peace, Peace
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Nichiren Buddhist Reading by Darrell Wright
Using Our Karma to Create the Greatest Value
Everything that happens in our lives has meaning. The way of life of Nichiren Buddhists is based on finding and discovering the meaning in everything we experience. Whatever a person’s karma may be, that is the cumulative result of words, thoughts and actions, it definitely has profound meaning. Changing the world starts by changing our fundamental state of mind. This is a key Buddhist principle. To turn even sorrow into a source of creativity – that is the way of life of Nichiren Buddhists.
We no longer view challenges and trials as negatives to be avoided but as things, which, when overcome, bring us closer to our attainment of Buddhahood, that is absolute happiness. Of course, it may not be easy for those in the midst of painful challenges to appreciate this fact. No one wishes to experience hardships. It’s human nature to avoid them. But, if we understand the highest teaching of the Mystic Law of Cause and Effect, when we chant Nam myoho renge kyo, we eventually realize our life itself is the Mystic Law; and, further that our difficulties arise from our struggle against the negative. Confidently overcoming difficulties, we can attain the supreme life state of Buddhahood. With such a positive attitude, we can tackle any difficulty with our inner strength and resilience.
Those who strive with faith for world peace, while battling their karma, embody the fundamental Buddhist principle of “voluntarily assuming the appropriate karma.” We summon forth the heart of the lion king – the spirit to bravely take on challenges, never fearing hardships or lamenting painful trials. Transforming karma into mission, is to enact the victorious drama of a great human revolution and build empathy for others.
Difficulties only truly become our destiny if we run away from them. Nichiren Daishonin’s philosophy of changing karma, which teaches this important essence of life, is revolutionary because it is totally different from the way religion usually views difficulties.
To practice Nichiren Buddhism is to live with the unshakable conviction that the most painful and trying times are opportunities for changing our karma, for carrying out our human revolution, and that no matter how difficult the situation, we can ultimately, and without fail, trans form it into something positive.
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Southeastern Buddhist Reading by Kendra O’Berry
Milarepa and the Demons
One day, the Tibetan teacher Milarepa left his cave to gather firewood. When he returned, he found that his cave had been taken over by demons. There were demons everywhere!
His first thought upon seeing them was, “I have got to get rid of them!” He lunges toward them, chasing after them, trying forcefully to get them out of his cave. But the demons are completely unfazed. In fact, the more he chases them, the more comfortable and settled-in they seem to be.
Realizing that his efforts to run them out have failed miserably, Milarepa opts for a new approach and decides to teach them the dharma. If chasing them out won’t work, then maybe hearing the teachings will change their minds and get them to go. So he takes his seat and begins teaching about existence and nonexistence, compassion and kindness, the nature of impermanence.
After a while he looks around and realizes all the demons are still there. They simply stare at him with their huge bulging eyes; not a single one is leaving.
At this point Milarepa lets out a deep breath of surrender, knowing now that these demons will not be manipulated into leaving and that maybe he has something to learn from them. He looks deeply into the eyes of each demon and bows, saying, “It looks like we’re going to be here together. I open myself to whatever you have to teach me.”
In that moment all the demons but one disappear. One huge and especially fierce demon, with flaring nostrils and dripping fangs, is still there.
So Milarepa lets go even further. Stepping over to the largest demon, he offers himself completely, holding nothing back. “Eat me if you wish.” He places his head in the demon’s mouth, and at that moment the largest demon bows low and dissolves into space.
When dealing with the toughest challenges – the kind that involves the demons inside of us – brute force turns out to be a blunt instrument. Acceptance, kindness, and a willingness to open our hearts and minds to the learning ahead of us enable us to make the progress we seek.
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Christian Reading by Rev. Dr. Sid Gates
A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON HEALING ASPECTS OF VULNERABILITY
Christian scripture, which includes Old and New Testament writings, has many examples of the concept of “paradox.” Simply, a paradox is a seeming contradiction. Yet, the Bible and other writings down through history, sacred and secular as well, showcase the wisdom of paradox understanding. In Proverbs 11:24 of the Old Testament we find, “One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer, another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.” From the New Testament, Matthew 23: 11 reads, “He who is greatest among you, shall be your servant; whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” And finally for our purposes here tonight, from 2 Corinthians 12:10, the Apostle Paul writes, “…for when I am weak, then I’m strong.”
Let’s understand the concept of “weak” as a profound link into our theme for this mental health interfaith service tonight. The theme being “vulnerability.” What I and others in our service tonight hope you will have as a primary “takeaway” from our service, is that owning our fears and places of holistic imperfection (Mind, Body, and Spirit), what many would label weak, is actually a strong and determined commitment to healing and wholeness. Owning and then sharing with others is key to our healthy transformation. And at times the others can and “should” be mental health professionals.
I want to close with thoughts from Henri Nouwen who was a Catholic priest, professor, and skilled writer. Writing often about his own struggles with his own failures, temptations, and long dark nights of the soul. Nouwen shares with us:
It is no exaggeration to say that the suffering we most frequently encounter in the ministry is a suffering of memories. They are the wounding memories that ask for healing. Feelings of alienation, loneliness, separation; feelings of anxiety, fear, suspicion; and related symptoms such as nervousness, sleeplessness, nail-biting—these all are part of the forms which certain memories have taken. These memories wound because they are often deeply hidden in the center of our being and very hard to reach. While the good memories may be present to us in outer signs such as trophies, decorations, precious stones, vases, rings, and portraits, painful memories tend to remain hidden from us in the corner of our forgetfulness. It is from this hidden place that they escape healing and cause so much harm.
Our first and most spontaneous response to our undesirable memories is to forget them. When something painful has happened we quickly say to ourselves and to each other: “Let’s forget it, let’s act as if it did not happen, let’s not talk about it, let’s think about happier things.” We want to forget the pain of the past—our personal, communal, and national traumas—and live as if they did not really happen. But by not remembering them we allow the forgotten memories to become independent forces that can exert a crippling effect on our functioning as human beings. When this happens, we become strangers to ourselves because we cut down our own history to a pleasant, comfortable size and try to make it conform to our own daydreams. Forgetting the past is like turning our most intimate teacher against us. By refusing to face our painful memories we miss the opportunity to change our hearts and grow mature in repentance. When Jesus says, “It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick” (Mark 2:17), he affirms that only those who face their wounded condition can be available for healing and enter into a new way of living.
May we all have the “love” and “courage” to be vulnerable with ourselves and others, admitting to our total history, thus allowing for greater healing and wholeness. And may we have the regard for others to encourage them in such exercises of honest, courageous vulnerability. Yes, we can.
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Unitarian Universalist Reading by Dr. Katrina Cooks
An excerpt from Stubborn Grace: Faith, Mental Illness, and Demanding a Blessing by Rev. Kate Landis
"I want you to know that you are loved beyond your wildest imaginings by the spirit of creation. Every bit of you is holy—even the embarrassing parts, even the thoughts you wouldn’t tell your best friend. God is in your every cell, calling you to live a loving, joyful, boisterous life. To go easier on yourself. To accept that you are a blessing. To spread the word that there is no original sin, that we are all glorious gifts to a world that desperately needs us.
I want you to know that you are a(n integral) strand in the web of all existence, one dew-drop-spangled thread reflecting the early morning sun. Connected to every other living creature. Frogs, mushrooms, great blue whales, and you. You are never alone. You were born into a huge family of life. Sit in the grass and know that it is your sibling, watch the crows circle and think of them as gossiping cousins. This is your world and you are worthy."
