Saturday, August 20, 2016

Our Online Retreat Continues! Talking care of our heart homes and creating our own personal sanctuaries!






Good Evening Brothers and Sisters on Our Journey!

Welcome to day 2 of our online retreat. Tonight I attended " In The Heights" at the PCPA  here in Santa Maria. I hope all is well. Since this is a flexible time of retreat you are welcome to enter and leave at anytime  during the day. Many of you know that we are continually engaging in Self -Care and Sabbath Rest retreat weekends on Saturdays and Sundays. This means we take care of our heart homes so that we may create our own personal sanctuaries of heart and home. The way in which we do this is by going off the grid and learning to love silence and take respite from all the anger, bitterness, hatred, and just plain bad stuff that causes our hearts and souls to rust. 

If you haven't already done so please turn off the TV, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, DVR, etc and join with us in a period of silence for meditation and a space and think on these things

Now get out some kind of timer, mindfulness app, or music and set them for 5 minutes. Then close your eyes and be silent. If the music goes long don't worry that will lead you into our time of extended meditation:

Let us begin to center in on how we can change our sometimes negative and edgy attitudes in to a life giving and thriving positive ones. 

What parts of our lives do we want to change?

What creates the negative and edgy attitudes with in us?

How can we change these out for better and healthier attitudes?

What role does God play in all of this? 

These are our questions to ponder. These are for you to answer as we pray the questions and pause for silent reflection and work on our inner being reflections.

Time for additional silent reflection. 

Please engage in these three words for our heart quieting: Peace be Still.

Peace be Still.
Inhale
Hold
Exhale

Peace be
Inhale
Hold
Exhale

Peace.
Inhale
Exhale
Hold






God we light our candles and pray that with your help we may be at peace and our heart homes may become living sanctuaries. We pray that wherever we may be that will become a place of sanctuary and healing. We pray for all who are going through tough times and that healing and solace may be found. We pray for our nation that we may continue to be a place of sanctuary and safe haven for those who are not only life long residents but the strangers in our midst. We pray that we may be a place of welcome, We pray that our neighborhoods will return to a place of unity, love, and sanctuary and understanding. We pray for all people who have died in acts of violence in our neighborhoods that we may continue to speak their names and remember them. We give thanks and pray for our rich and diverse family and neighborhoods that teach us many things about you O God. We pray this night  in the words of  St. Teresa of Avila:

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion
is to look out to the earth,
yours are the feet by which He is to go about doing good
and yours are the hands by which He is to bless us now.

and this.

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing;
God only is changeless.
Patience gains all things.
Who has God wants nothing.
God alone suffices.



God cleanse our heart homes and make them holy sanctuaries fit for you and a place where holy love may grow. We pray that as holy love and love energy grows we may use it to sow seeds of Compassion, Acceptance, Love and Mercy to this fragile and broken world and in service and loving care for the least of these. Amen.





God help us we pray to go deeper and seek out the parts of our lives we want to change.

God help us we pray to find help when we need it for our bodies, minds, and spirits.

God help us we pray to rid ourselves of negativity and edgy attitudes that are infecting our inner beings.

God help us to make the necessary changes so that we may have better and healthier attitudes.

God help us to rely on you more fully and seek out the path that leads to you and that we may find ourselves returning to you in peace and contemplation.

God help us we pray for a better outlook centered around love, joy, hope, mercy, and kindness.

God help us we pray when we find our selves going down the rabbit hole of despair to find you right beside us.

God help us  we pray to put on attitudes of gratitude that are life giving and harnessed by your Love Energy.

God help us we pray to not to take life so seriously that we forget to have fun and times of wonder.

God help us we pray to continue to let go of all that is causing our bodies,minds, and spirits to become rusty and unhealthy.

God help us to see good in bad situations.

God help us we pray to seek you and find you when we find our mental moods become gloomy.

God help us we pray to be at prayer when things get rough and the first thing we wear in the morning is a smile.

God help us to become friends with all our family members and show them love, encouragement, and kindness.

God help us we pray that we may become a soft place in which to fall so that our family members will know that we are safe harbors of comfort.

God help us we pray to go deeper in the silence to seek you and begin re-shaping our lives into positive, life giving and thriving.

God let us now enter into final prayers  in silence with you and that we may offer our prayers in the name of Jesus.








Good Night Dear Ones! I love you! Have a blessed time of rest and sanctuary! I give God thanks for you this night and always.

With love and peace,

Sara

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