A journey back into sacred silence as we end our online retreat. Let us be still!

Good Evening!

I hope everyone is enjoying your sacred time of silence. I know I have and I don't miss TV or Radio one bit. Tonight I would like us all to retreat back into silence as we look towards the week ahead. Let us remember that silence is the best medicine and it really does have healing properties. No wonder Jesus was fond of gardens, going across the lake to the other side, and getting away from his disciples when necessary. Yes too much peopling even if you are an extrovert or ambivert can be harmful too. So it's time to take your do not disturb sign out and enjoy some time with you time and don't forget some time with God as well.

Here is the task from IThrive today! More about noise pollution.

Day 2

How did you do with turning off the TV, Thriver? We hope you were successful. Many studies continue to show that too much noise is bad for our health. In October 2010 the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health reported that the psychological effects of noise “can be equally devastating” as noise-induced hearing loss. The researchers concluded that our bodies have a physiological response to noise that can, over the long-term, damage our health.

That’s why today we’d like you to continue turning off that TV unless you are really paying attention to it. We’d also like you to consider turning off the radio. We realize that the radio is a valuable source of news, entertainment and relaxing music but we’d like you to consider how much you listen to the radio and if it’s the first thing you turn on when you get in the car or get home. Consider sitting in silence with no radio on while you drive or no radio on at home. Just take a little break from the radio today. You can turn on the radio after a while, but take a little silence break while driving or when you get home.

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 Tonight let's give ourselves over to rest and renewal. It may not be the easiest thing we have to do, but we must because sleep and rest are both important for our general and spiritual health. Let us place our worries into the jar and just be. Take as much time as you need to just be. It isn't always easy to sit still but I think you'll be able to master it if you take  rest periods in small amounts.  Set your timers and close your eyes until you are ready to open them.  Here is a timed piece of music that may be used if you don't want to meditate in silence. Bobby McFerrin and Yo Yo Ma -Hush

Let us be at prayer

Gracious God we pray for the rest of our bodies, minds, and spirits . Give us courage to take rest any time that we need to.

Gracious God we entrust our worries and anxieties to you this night so that we may rest gentle with a clean mind and spirit.

Gracious God we pray for all of our family members who are struggling with life's challenges.

Gracious God we pray for all who are ill that they may be healed. 

Gracious  God we come before you to ask for forgiveness of any and all the things that we have done.

Gracious God we pray for  peace in our hearts, cities, nation, and the world.

Gracious God we pray this night for all who are traveling and especially those traveling where there have been mudslides and flash floods.

We pray this night for rain and seasonable weather.

We pray for _________________________

We give thanks for____________________

We lift up these our prayers in name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.


Or you may add these prayers and prayer vigil if you so choose.

Let us begin!

Be Still and Know That I am God.
Be Still and Know.
Be Still.
Be.


Be Still and Know That I am God.
Be Still and Know.
Be Still.
Be.



Be Still and Know That I am God.
Be Still and Know.
Be Still.
Be.


Gracious and loving God as we meet in community this evening to pray and light candles let us remember all of our family members who do not have community, family, where loving shoulders and soft places in which to fall are available. We pray for the lost, lonely, and afraid that they may be found and brought into the family of God and wrapped in a quilt of comfort. We pray for our family members who are refugees, asylum seekers, children in foster care, children who are seeking to be adopted and all who are waiting for their forever homes wherever that may be. We pray that we may practice radical hospitality and welcome all of our family members and especially the strangers who are in our midst. We pray that we may keep our eyes on all of our loved ones and pray that no one, not one will fall through the cracks. We pray that a community of  CALM (Compassion, Acceptance, Love, and Mercy) may spring up around the world and especially where there is hatred, violence, terror, and division.  We pray that peace, justice, and mercy may prevail upon Earth, that we may be peacemakers and called the Children of God. Amen.

We Join together in prayer

We join our hearts with all of our brothers and sisters all over the world God as your family of love, peace, and mercy to pray for our family members who have become refugees, outcasts, and the persecuted.

We join our hands and hearts in love and pray for peace. God may we with you become peace makers.

We join our hands, feet, eyes, ears, and voices in service to you God.

We join our voices to speak truth to power and to speak out for the least of these.

We join our minds to help become the educated Children of God.

We join our hands and hearts in prayers for those who have come to us asking for prayers on behalf of others.

We join our hearts in prayer with those who mourn and those who are keeping vigil at the bedside of their loved ones who are transitioning into the glorious Heavenly Thin Places.

We join our prayers for those who are dying and those who have died today.

We join our bodies to help become stewards of God's Cathedral of life.

We join our hearts in love and pray for an end to hate and violence.

We join together to pray that there may be an end to war and terror in this Your Fragile and broken world O God.

We join together to add our prayers, thanksgivings, celebrations, and remembrances to you now O God. Accept these our prayers in the Name of your only Son Jesus. Amen.

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Good Night Dear Family! I love you and give thanks to God for you this night and always.
Remember it is time to lay down our burdens and rest and enjoy the silence.

With love and blessings,

Sara