2.23.21 Universal Prayer Offering - Infinitely Loved (See Description for Prayer)

St. Joseph Health, Home Care Services

2-23-2021Univeral Prayer Offering -Infinitely Loved Good morning, this is Liz Wessel, and as we gather, we come just as we are and we are welcomed as we join in a brief time of reflection. We may come as stranger but we will leave as friends. Let us center ourselves, while sitting comfortably, take a few slow deep breaths and quietly repeat to yourself "I am" as you breathe in and "at peace" as you breathe out. Feel your entire body begin to relax. You may wish to focus on your breathing throughout this time together. In this sacred space we reconnect with the source of all that is. Gavin Thomas Murphy offers the following insights to think and pray about throughout this week. We are invited to rest awhile among the green meadows and flowing streams, to relax in God’s presence, and be nourished, strengthened, and renewed. In this place, we may turn from a closed fist of denial, frustration and turmoil to an open hand of acceptance, relaxation and serenity. (Gavin Thomas Murphy) Too many of us gravitate towards distress and anxiety: we say it is the way of work and the world. Just 5 minutes of silence seems pointless. But we get in touch with our ‘inner teacher’ when we find times to be still in our day, connecting us with deep peace and balance. It is available to tap into as we live in the moment. This can be discovered in talking with people, working on a single task, walking and feeling a fresh breeze on our face. This invitation has stirred Gavin to stop fixing his eyes on the ground and see the beautiful ordinary. (Gavin Thomas Murphy) After resting, we may be invited to walk more closely in Love’s presence, freer and more confident and better able to navigate the hazy path of our lives. It is true that we all need to work on maintaining balance in our lives, but we are not alone. We can learn so much from modern and contemplative wisdom to live life with greater richness, and when all is done, we can rejoice knowing that we are infinitely loved. (Gavin Thomas Murphy) In the spirit of prayer, let us pray I rest in you, Spirit of Life, and give to you my worries, my fears, my doubts, my hopes, my joys, my pains, my anger, my love, and allow you to take in all that I am. And as I give all that I am, I find the place of truth and stillness, l where you and I are one. (Karem Barratt) A Prayer for Resting in God's Love God of Goodness, I come into your presence so aware of my human frailty and yet overwhelmed by your love for me. I thank you that there is no human experience that I might walk through where your love cannot reach me. If I climb the highest mountain you are there and yet if I find myself in the darkest valley of my life, you are there. Teach me today to love you more. Help me to rest in that love that asks nothing more than the simple trusting heart of a child (unknown author) A closing prayer by Thomas Merton: O God, You have made us one with you. You have taught us that if we are open to one another, you dwell in us. Help us to preserve this openness and to fight for it with all our hearts. Help us to realize that there can be no understanding where there is mutual rejection. O God, in accepting one another wholeheartedly, fully, completely, we accept you, and we thank you, adore, and love you with our whole being, because our being is your being, our spirit is rooted in your spirit. Fill us then with love, and let us be bound together with love as we go our diverse ways, united in this one spirit which makes you present in the world, and which makes you witness to the ultimate reality that is love. Love has overcome. Love is victorious. Thanks everyone for blessing us with your presence and may you be blessed as your go forth to bless others with your love. Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel