Posts
Wildfire Rain
Rain is falling,thrumming, steady on the deck boards as I wake in the dark. Rain has arrived, like a nurse,in rooms of exhaustionplumping up the hard pillows of dry earth,tenderly touching the burnt boards of dreamsAnointing their fallen doorwaysreleasing the love they surrounded,to soakdeeplyinto the aching hearts of those who are bereft. It is like…
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Holy Week and Easter: Prayers on the Breath
May you risk the road and be graced by what you haven’t planned ~ I am travelling away from home during these marked days. I will be travelling to enter the delightful, loving chaos that days with children and grandchildren offer. I’ve chosen this travelling gratefully, but it opens questions in me.
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Prayers in Creation Time
Call to Worship (in the words of Hildegard of Bingen, in Scivias, The Way of Knowing) I, the firey life of divine essence,Am aflame beyond the beauty of the meadows.I gleam in the waters.I burn in the sun, moon, and the stars.With every breeze,As with invisible light that contains everything,I awaken everything to life .…
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Bent and Healed: Luke 13:10-17
A bent woman,bent over with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years,found a place somewhere in a house of worship called a synagogue. Jesus saw her. He called her. She came to him and he touched and healed her. She began to praise God. Those in positions of power in the place of worship were angry and…
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Listen to My Prayer: Chant
Listen to my cry O GodAnd hear my prayer Food for uplifted handsRespect and care Listen to my cry O Godand hear my prayer Streams of your living rainIn tender air. Listen to my cry O Godand hear my prayer Repeat however many times you feel lets the prayer settle into your body and heart.…
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May Your Lying Down this Night be an Intercession
May your lying down this night be an intercession, a sighed prayer into what is happening,a contrary trust in the Holy. May your lying down bean act of gentle resistanceto the striving for lives not oursand not theirs either. May it be a soft, audacious prelude to restin a restless world. A deep surrenderin the…
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I lie down: a prayer of slow breathing
I lie down in the beauty of the dark and breathe the stars. I lie down in a world of tears and breathe their wiping away. I lie down in a world of indifference and breathe wonder. I lie down in a world of greed and breathe grace. I lie down in a world of…
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A Quiet Pentecost Worship
Welcome on this Pentecost DayTo a quiet momentA space into which the SpiritMay flow like wateror burst like flameor breathe. Welcome to these shared moments,in the name of Jesus Christ Let us as we always do remember . . . (Lighting of the Christ Candle in the Godly Play way) And let us on this…
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On Pentecost We’re Gathered
On Pentecost we’re gatheredto wait again on Youwith mind and heart and bodyexpectant of the new.The newness of the ancientand ever-deepening callthe comfort and disturbancethat sound and make us whole. Where will the Spirit find Us,in church, at home, at school?Where will the bright flames hover;where will your fresh wind blow?There may not be much…
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Holy Friday
We quietly mark this day when, He who hung the earth upon the waters today is hung on the cross. The Lectionary for Ordinary Radicals We are living in solemn times and averting our eyes can never truly heal us. This is a day when the power of Love is so spent upon us, offering Love’s…
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Rev. Dr. Catherine Smith
Catherine lives a life of contemplation in action. This is a way that intentionally cultivates space to notice and receive the Holy Presence in all things. From that receptive space and encounter all vital action is set in motion. This is as important for the identity and life of our churches as it is for…
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Rest and Resurrection: A Silent Retreat
“Come and find the quiet center” Day One Arrival at 4:00Pre-supper gathering Check in, introduction to our time together and preparation for silence, gathering worship.SupperEvening Prayer (15 minutes) Day Two Morning prayer (15 minutes)Breakfast11:15 a teaching (chant, lectio, visio, meditative walking, etc.) Lunch4:15 a teaching (as above)SupperEvening Prayer Day Three Morning PrayerBreakfast11:00 Gathering, Check in, concluding…
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The telling of children
On the news we hear that two Israeli children, held hostage by Hamas, but also by Isreal in its avid pursuit of genocide. Perhaps they were murdered by Hamas, perhaps they died of starvation like many Palestinian children. Food and health care are both more than scarce. The death of these children is heart-breaking news. …
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Fireworks and the Darkness
I love to watch fireworks. They pull me into a place of awe.Standing in the darkness, I am watching for pure delight. Colour shot into the ordinary dark,for nothing but celebration,holds something of the transformative qualities of play. Fireworks remind me that life is about more than the practical,the explicable,the next task,the next outcome,the managed moment,the…
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