A reflection for Community of St Bridget for September 2026
September 1 2026
Every week in the beautiful liturgies of the Community of St Bridget, we pray the words of Jesus. The translations and ideas vary because ours is a very big God. Every week there is opportunity for a deep dive into the words of the Word. Here is a meditation on the opening words of that prayer.
from “Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic words of Jesus” Translated and with commentary by Neil Douglas-Klotz
Our Birth in Unity
Abwoon d’bwashmaya
(KJV version: Our Father which art in heaven)
O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos,
you create all that moves
in Light.
O Thou! The Breathing Life of all,
creator of the Shimmering sound that
touches us.
Respiration of all worlds,
we hear you breathing – in and out –
in silence.
Source of Sound: in the roar and in the whisper,
in the breeze and the whirlwind, we
hear your Name.
Radiant One: You shine within us,
outside us – even darkness shines – when
we remember.
Name of names, our small identity
unravels in you, you give it back
as a lesson.
Wordless Action, Silent Potency –
where ears and eyes awaken, there
heaven comes.
O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos!
Abwoon -The prayer begins with an expression of the divine creation and the blessing that emanates from all parenting. The ancient Middle Eastern root ab refers to all fruit, all germination proceeding from the source of Unity. This root came to be used in the Aramaic word for personal father, – abba – but still echoes its original engendered root in sound-meaning. While abwoon is a derivative of the word for personal father, its original roots do not specify a gender and can be translated “divine parent.” The roots reveal many levels of meaning. Bwn shows the ray or emanation of that father/motherhood proceeding from potential to actual, here and now. In Aramaic, the character for b may also be pronounced w or include shades of both. …
Further, according to the mystical science of sounds and letters, common to both Aramaic and Hebrew, the word abwoon points beyond our changing concepts of “male” and “female” to a cosmic birthing process. At this level of interpretation, abwoon may be said to have four parts to its sound meaning:
A: the Absolute, the Only Being, the pure Oneness and Unity, source of all power and
stability…
bw: a birthing, a creation, a flow of blessing, as if from the “interior“ of this Oneness to
us.
oo: the breath or spirit that carries this flow, echoing the sound of breathing…linked to
the Aramaic phrase rukha d’qoodsha, which was later translated as “Holy Spirit”.
N: the vibration of this creative breath from Oneness as is touches and interpenetrates
form.
There must be a substance that this force touches, moves and changes. This sound echoes the earth, and the body here vibrates as we intone the whole name slowly: Ah-bw-oo-n
d’bwashmaya – The rest of the phrase completes the notion of divine creation. In d’bwashmaya, the central root is found in the middle: shm. From this root come the word shem, which may mean light, sound, vibration, name or word. The root shm indicates that which rises and shines in space, the entire sphere of a being. …The sign or name that renders Abwoon knowable is the entire universe. The ending -aya shows that this shining includes every centre of activity, every place we see…shmaya says that the vibration or word by which one can recognise the Oneness – God’s name – is the universe. This was the Aramiac conception of heaven. This word is central to many of the sayings of Jesus and usually misunderstood. In Greek and later in English, “heaven” became a metaphysical concept out of touch with the process of creation.
Body Prayers
1. Intone Ah-bw-oo-n slowly, finding a pitch that resonates the most in your body…feel the vibrations of the sound. As the sound enters the silence, let yourself follow it there’s. Begin to feel all the movements within your body - heartbeat, breathing, peristalsis… feel these movements as internal prayers that point to the gift and responsibility of co-creation with God.
2. In nature, walking or sitting, breathe in feeling the sound Abwoon inside yourself and breathe out feeling the sound d’bwashmaya. Feel the breath come into you as it does into the grass, trees, rocks and water. Feel the One Source of this breathing. And feel the breathing returning to all creation. Our breath feeds the plants and theirs us. The exchange unites us in God. All creation says the holy Name silently.
3. When at work, breathe in feeling the sound Ah; breathe out feeling the sound bwoon. As you inhale, feel all the newness and nourishment coming into the heart- lungs area, As you exhale, feel everything old, everything that wants to be released, leaving with the breath…As we become aware of the body, the darkness, the inside, we begin to be aware of soul (Aramaic, naphtha) and on the track of the
kingdom/queendom within.
With blessings on the month ahead.
Meditation: The Entire Prayer, Neil Douglas-Klotz. Around the World With the Aramaic Prayer of Jesus ℗ 2012 Neil Douglas-Klotz. https://youtu.be/0q5_f4agiRQ?si=b_sSjXvOLxEjgkoZ
Abwoon d’bwashmaya
O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos, you create all that moves in Light.
Nethqadash shmakh
Focus your light with us—make it useful as the rays of a beacon show the way.
Teytey malkuthakh
Create your reign of unity now – through our fiery hearts and willing hands.
Nehwey tzevyanach aykanna d’washmaya aph b’arha
Your one desire then acts with ours, as in all light, so in all forms.
Hawvlan lachma d’sunqanan yaomana
Grant what we need each day in bread and insight.
Washboqlan khaubayn aykana daph khnan shbwoqan l’khayyabayn
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others’
guilt.
Wwla tahlan l’nesyuna Ela patzan min bisha
Don’t let surface things delude us, but free us from what holds us back (from our true
purpose).
Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l’ahlam almin –
From you is born all ruling will, the power and the life to do, the song that beautifies all,
from age to age it renews.
Ameyn
Truly, power to these statements.
The full Aramaic text, transliteration, and line-by-line English translation are available in Douglas-Klotz’s Prayers of the Cosmos and online through the Abwoon Network.
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