It's a day for celebration as Walk With Me On Our Journey has reached35,000 + page views since July 29, 2013

Dear Family of Love and Pilgrims on Our Journey!

Happy you Matter Monday and yes it is true Walk With Me On Our Journey has reached over 35,000 page views today! I still cannot believe it but it is true! God is doing wonderful and exciting things with Walk With Me On Our Journey. As I write this I feel our family growing and coming together with love and united as one. Each one of us matters and I hope you know that we all contribute in some large or small way to Walk With Me On Our Journey. I give thanks to God for this blog, for you, your gifts, and everything else you bring daily to the table. Tonight let's celebrate our lives together and what the beginning a new leg on this journey of ours. But first let us take time to do a You Matter Monday Meditation! In this meditation let us write down why we matter , and why our family members matter. Let us listen to the following meditation and listening music. Nighnoise -At the End of the Evening!

I matter because:
God created me
I'm lovable
I'm worthy
I'm precious
I'm God's child
I bring myself and my gifts to the table
I am a vital presence to others and our family members.
I give my heart to you.
I am authentically who I am.
I am a peace maker, joy bringer, hope bearer, light shiner.
I am.

Our family matters because:
God created them
They are lovable
They are worthy
They are precious treasures
They are Children of God.
They bring themselves and their gifts to the table
They are a vital presence to others and our family members
They give their hearts to us.
They are authentically who they are/
They  make peace, bring joy, bear hope, and shine lights
They are

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God we thank you for creating us  in your image and likeness.
We pray for those who feel invisible and out of touch. Help us to know who we are and whose we are.
God we thank you for creating us out of love and may we love like you.
We pray for all  who are unloving. May we love the unlovable.

God we thank you for making us worthy of your promises.
We pray that we may be worthy and up to the tasks that you call us to do.

God we thank you that you have counted each hair on our heads and made us precious.
We pray for the least of  these and our most vulnerable family members. We remember all those who are facing another night in the bitter cold.

God we thank you that you have made us a family and your beloved children.
We pray for all children and animals who are in need of loving and forever homes.

God we thank your for allowing us to bring ourselves and our gifts to you your table.
We pray that we may allow all of our family members to bring themselves and their gifts to the table without judgement.

God we thank you for empowering us to be a vital presence to others and our family members.
We pray that we may speak truth to power and do justice, love, mercy and be a voice for the voiceless.

God we thank you for giving us hearts to love and heart homes to hold our family members tightly 
We pray for all who are mourning, ill, and in need. May we give them love and along with you hold them lovingly with compassion.

God we thank you for giving us the courage to be authentically who we are.
We pray for an end to all bullying of  all of our family members.

God help us to make peace, bring joy, bear hope , and shine lights.
All this we ask in Jesus' most holy name. Amen.

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From our Brother Stephen J. Robin: "Guide us in opening our eyes, our hearts and minds to your presence in our lives in the way Simeon was able in the Temple."

Today's wish for you is that we show our family members how much they mean and matter to us. Say" I love you" often!

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Good Night Dear Family! I love you! you matter, and I give thanks to God for you this night and always!
Now let us put our party hats on and celebrate another milestone in the history of Walk With Me On our Journey. 

With love and abundant thanksgiving!

Sara

For those of you who wish to go deeper here are the lessons and prayer/collect for the Feast of the Presentation.

Collect:
Almighty and everliving God, we humbly pray that, as your only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple, so we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts by Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Malachi 3:1-4

Thus says the Lord, See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight-- indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.



Psalm 84 Page 707, BCP

Quam dilecta!

1
How dear to me is your dwelling, O LORD of hosts! *
My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.
2
The sparrow has found her a house
and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young; *
by the side of your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my King and my God.
3
Happy are they who dwell in your house! *
they will always be praising you.
4
Happy are the people whose strength is in you! *
whose hearts are set on the pilgrims' way.
5
Those who go through the desolate valley will find it a place of springs, *
for the early rains have covered it with pools of water.
6
They will climb from height to height, *
and the God of gods will reveal himself in Zion.
7
LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; *
hearken, O God of Jacob.
8
Behold our defender, O God; *
and look upon the face of your Anointed.
9
For one day in your courts is better than a thousand in my own room, *
and to stand at the threshold of the house of my God
than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.
10
For the LORD God is both sun and shield; *
he will give grace and glory;
11
No good thing will the LORD withhold *
from those who walk with integrity.
12
O LORD of hosts, *
happy are they who put their trust in you!
or

Psalm 24:7-10 Page 614, BCP

Domini est terra

7

Lift up your heads, O gates;
lift them high, O everlasting doors; *
and the King of glory shall come in.

8

"Who is this King of glory?" *
"The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle."

9

Lift up your heads, O gates;
lift them high, O everlasting doors; *
and the King of glory shall come in.

10

"Who is he, this King of glory?" *
"The LORD of hosts,
he is the King of glory."

Hebrews 2:14-18

Since God's children share flesh and blood, Jesus himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

Luke 2:22-40

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord"), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

"Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,

according to your word;

for my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles

and for glory to your people Israel."

And the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed-- and a sword will pierce your own soul too."
There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

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