Love your Neighbor week continues! There is welcome at the table for all!

Good Evening Family of  Love,

Happy Sabbath Rest and Self-Care Sunday! I'm sorry there wasn't a blog last evening. I attended the San Luis Obispo Symphony and it got out late and I needed to have a late dinner and change clocks so that I would wake up in time to go to Oxnard for a DOK event at 10:30 at All Saints Episcopal Church. So that was my day in a nutshell. We are still in our Love our Neighbor Week and it seems that we all need a refresher to get us back on track for our own benefit and our family members. We all need to remember that part of being a good neighbor is rooted in hospitality and welcome. Every event that I attend whether it is a concert, soup supper, board meeting, church service, and restaurant there is some level of hospitality. I would suggest that we all practice hospitality and welcome not just in our public life, family life, but in out online and social media life as well. Being a good neighbor extends farther that we can ask or imagine. We should be looking at how we come across. Picture your computer screen as the face you are looking at across the dinner table or desk. We all have to practice good manners and right and welcoming speech. Let us remember that sticks and stones can break our bones along with words can hurt and divide us. Let us practice being positive role models when we Tweet and Post things on Facebook.  Yes, you can speak truth to power but you may not speak to bully or abuse. Let us welcome everyone at our tables. Let us be kind, generous, giving, and loving. Let us welcome without having to have some kind of  agenda. Let us use our best manners and if we have fine oil ;let us welcome, and heal the broken hearted and bind up wounds, wash their feet, and seat our neighbors at a place of honor at the table. Wherever we sit at the table we sit at a place of honor because we are neighbors, family members and beloved children of God.

Here are ponder questions for this evening:

What are the ways in which you are welcoming?
How do you practice hospitality when you aren't home?
Can you go through a day without posting or Tweeting something negative?
Do you have an etiquette book?
What was your worst experience of hospitality?

Using today's Gospel lesson what role does hospitality play in the story? Who are you in the story?
How do you feel about Mary's actions and Jesus' response to Judas?
Why do you think the Passover was important to mention?


The Gospel

John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."


Let us take time to meditate upon these questions and and then take time to offer ourselves hospitality as we  sit quiet and engage in the "Be Stills"

Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be

Please sit quietly and repeat with our eyes closed.

This is a day of Sabbath Rest dear ones. I invite us all this night to enter into our time of Virtual Candlelight Prayer Vigil quietly, reverently, and take  journey into a holy time with God. Let us open our heart homes widely with CALM (compassion, acceptance, love, and mercy) Let us pray that we may practice holy hospitality daily with all whom we meet and also with God, our neighbors, and ourselves. We pray that we may walk together as the family of  God and Love. We pray that we may walk hand in hand on equal footing.  We pray that we may welcome all the table and that means everyone. We pray that we may see God in every person this week. We pray that we may use loving words, kind speech, and non-violent actions towards our family members. We pray that we may let go of any and all anxieties that we are struggling with this week. We pray that we may Love one another as united family members in peace.

Let us be quiet and be at prayer.

Feel God's presence creating a space of welcome and hospitality for you in God's gentle arms.

Feel God's loving presence enfolding us and our family members.

Feel God's gentle tap on the shoulder guiding you and your life path.

Feel God's welcoming presence as we pray.

God we pray for an end violence of any kind and that peace may prevail upon earth.

God we pray for an end to all forms of abuse.

God we pray for an end to all hatred that we may sew the seeds of love.

God we pray for an end to all those who wish to do  us or our family members from harm.

God we pray that love may be the key to help conquer the world's ills and that we may show how loving we may be to our brothers and sisters who do not understand us.

God we pray that we may practice good conservation of the World natural resources.

God we pray for all of our family members who are grieving the loss of loved ones who are animal and human.

God we pray for all  who are ill that they may be healed and given  courage during their illnesses.

God we pray for all who are transitioning into Life Eternal and those who have entered the Thin Places today.

God give us courage to live and follow you and what you teach us each and every day.

God we pray for all these yet un-named prayers that we may have the courage to speak and pray them aloud.

God accept these our prayers in Jesus, name 

++++
Good Night Dear Family! I love you and Give God Thanks for you this night and always! Remember tomorrow is You Matter Monday ! You matter to God, each other, our neighbors, and you!


With love and blessings!

Sara