Walk With me on Our Journey: Trying hard not to feel invisible! A reminder that we are all God's Children!

Good Evening Beloved Community!

Today was one of those days when I felt like I was back to square one and feeling invisible and becoming erased. I had many triggers from the past today that were really emotionally painful. I can't wait for circle tomorrow night to work on these hurts. In my life I have learned to stuff all the gunk down the drain until it was hidden away. Sometimes that doesn't work and everything spills out all over the floor. and soaks the carpet just like my old water heater did a few months ago. Now, as I am sitting and writing to you I feel these triggers like stinging nettles. I want everyone to know that we must treat everyone as a beloved child of God with dignity and respect. We need to work against creating an atmosphere where we treat our siblings as outcasts, invisibles, and the erased. We are called to the holy work of loving care for the least of these.This is this week's action task we are called to do. We need to be on the look out for those who are struggling. Tonight I am dedicating tonight's vigil to the invisible and those who feel unloved. So let us begin!

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the

Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:2

Let us engage in the Be Stills

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

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

Be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know that I am.

Be still and know.

Be still.

Be.

From Thich Nhat Hanh

“*Breathing in, I know this is my in-breath.
Breathing out, I know this is my out-breath.*

It's very simple, but very effective. When we bring our attention to our in-breath and our out-breath, we stop thinking of the past; we stop thinking of the future; and we begin to come home to ourselves...Don't think this practice doesn't apply to you. If we don't go home to ourselves, we can't be at our best and serve the world in the best way... Our quality of being is the foundation for the quality of our actions.

*Breathing in, I'm aware of my whole body.
Breathing out, I'm aware of my whole body.*

Breathing mindfully brings us back to our bodies. We have to acknowledge our bodies first because tension and suffering accumulate in the body. Breathing in this way, we create a kind of family reunion between mind and body. The mind becomes an embodied mind.

...We can't do our best if we don't know to release the tension and pain in ourselves.

*Breathing in, I'm aware of the tension in my body.
Breathing out, I'm aware of the tension in my body.*

When we look at the suffering around us, at poverty, violence, or climate change, we may want to solve these things immediately. We want to do something. But to do something effectively and ethically, we need to be our best selves in order to be able to handle the suffering...

*Breathing in, I am aware of a painful feeling arising.
Breathing out, I release the painful feeling.*

This is a nonviolent and gentle way to help our bodies release tension and pain. It is possible to practice mindful breathing in order to produce a feeling of joy, a feeling of happiness. When we are well-nourished and know how to create joy, then we are strong enough to handle the deep pain within ourselves and the world.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society

I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches
me, night after night. I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not fall. Psalm 16:7, 8

“If you love someone, the greatest gift you can give them is your presence”

― Thich Nhat Hanh

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me

will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12

“The true miracle is not walking on water or walking in air, but simply walking on this earth.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my

redeemer. Psalm 19:14

“Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity,
whose name is Holy,” I dwell in the high and holy place and
also with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to
revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the
contrite.” Isaiah 57:15

O Gracious Light Phos hilaron

O gracious Light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!
Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
and to be glorified through all the worlds.

God as we prepare our lamps and fill them with oil may we remember that this oil tonight is a holy oil, a holy balm, made to light the way out of darkness and into healing. We light our candles as a symbol of unity, peace, and as your loving family. We pray for healing and comfort this day for the people around the world where there has been violence, terror, and threats of war. We pray for the healing of your Cathedral of Life and that we may help you become good conservationists of the abundant gifts you have given us. We pray for the healing of all nations and people that unity and a spirit of familyhood may grow. We pray for the healing of our bodies minds and spirits that we may be made whole so that we may serve you and all our family members nearby and in distant places. We pray for the healing of relationships where violent words and actions have occurred We pray this night that wherever there is division there may be healing and grace. We pray for the healing where injustice, inequality, and human rights are being challenged and in our land and in the other lands where people aren't being treated fairly because of who they are and how God has made them to be. We pray in the words of St. Francis as we go into silence and continue this vigil.

A Prayer attributed to St. Francis
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is
hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where
there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where
there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is
in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. Amen.

“May our heart's garden of awakening bloom with hundreds of flowers.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh

In Lak 'Ech

Tú eres mi otro yo.

You are my other me.

Si te hago daño a ti,

If I do harm to you,

Me hago daño a mi mismo.

I do harm to myself.

Si te amo y respeto,

If I love and respect you,

Me amo y respeto yo.

I love and respect myself.

Luis Valdez

A Smudging Prayer

Creator, our Father in heaven, we come to you as your children. We confess that we are weak and broken images of you. We pray for the forgiveness and healing you give in Jesus Christ. May his Spirit clean our spirits, minds, hearts, and bodies. We pray that your Holy Spirit will help us to worship in spirit and truth. We pray in the name of Jesus, so that his Spirit will carry our prayers to you. Amen.

Psalm 78: Part II Quoties exacerbaverunt

40 How often the people disobeyed him in the wilderness *

and offended him in the desert!

41 Again and again they tempted God *

and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

42 They did not remember his power *

in the day when he ransomed them from the enemy;

43 How he wrought his signs in Egypt *

and his omens in the field of Zoan.

44 He turned their rivers into blood, *

so that they could not drink of their streams.

45 He sent swarms of flies among them, which ate them up, *

and frogs, which destroyed them.

46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar, *

the fruit of their toil to the locust.

47 He killed their vines with hail *

and their sycamores with frost.

48 He delivered their cattle to hailstones *

and their livestock to hot thunderbolts.

49 He poured out upon them his blazing anger: *

fury, indignation, and distress,

a troop of destroying angels.

50 He gave full rein to his anger;

he did not spare their souls from death; *

but delivered their lives to the plague.

51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, *

the flower of manhood in the dwellings of Ham.

52 He led out his people like sheep *

and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53 He led them to safety, and they were not afraid; *

but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54 He brought them to his holy land, *

the mountain his right hand had won.

55 He drove out the Canaanites before them

and apportioned an inheritance to them by lot; *

he made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

56 But they tested the Most High God, and defied him, *

and did not keep his commandments.

57 They turned away and were disloyal like their fathers; *

they were undependable like a warped bow.

58 They grieved him with their hill-altars *

and provoked his displeasure with their idols.

59 When God heard this, he was angry *

and utterly rejected Israel.

60 He forsook the shrine at Shiloh, *

the tabernacle where he had lived among his people.

61 He delivered the ark into captivity, *

his glory into the adversary's hand.

62 He gave his people to the sword *

and was angered against his inheritance.

63 The fire consumed their young men; *

there were no wedding songs for their maidens.

64 Their priests fell by the sword, *

and their widows made no lamentation.

65 Then the Lord woke as though from sleep, *

like a warrior refreshed with wine.

66 He struck his enemies on the backside *

and put them to perpetual shame.

67 He rejected the tent of Joseph *

and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

68 He chose instead the tribe of Judah *

and Mount Zion, which he loved.

69 He built his sanctuary like the heights of heaven, *

like the earth which he founded for ever.

70 He chose David his servant, *

and took him away from the sheepfolds.

71 He brought him from following the ewes, *

to be a shepherd over Jacob his people

and over Israel his inheritance.

72 So he shepherded them with a faithful and true heart *

and guided them with the skillfulness of his hands.

Acts 3:1-11

Peter Heals a Crippled Beggar

3One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. 2And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. 3When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. 4Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, ‘Look at us.’ 5And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6But Peter said, ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,* stand up and walk.’ 7And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9All the people saw him walking and praising God, 10and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Peter Speaks in Solomon’s Portico

11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished.

A Song of the Wilderness

Isaiah 35:1-7,10

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, *

the desert shall rejoice and blossom;

It shall blossom abundantly, *

and rejoice with joy and singing.

They shall see the glory of the Lord, *

the majesty of our God.

Strengthen the weary hands, *

and make firm the feeble knees.

Say to the anxious, “Be strong, do not fear! *

Here is your God, coming with judgment to save you.”

Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, *

and the ears of the deaf be unstopped.

Then shall the lame leap like a deer, *

and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.

For waters shall break forth in the wilderness *

and streams in the desert;

The burning sand shall become a pool *

and the thirsty ground, springs of water.

The ransomed of God shall return with singing, *

with everlasting joy upon their heads.

Joy and gladness shall be theirs, *

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away

John 1:19-28

The Testimony of John the Baptist

19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ 20He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’* 21And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ 22Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ 23He said,

‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,

“Make straight the way of the Lord” ’,

as the prophet Isaiah said.

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah,* nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’ 26John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ 28This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

A Song of the Spirit

Revelation 22:12-17

“Behold, I am coming soon,” says the Lord,

“and bringing my reward with me, *

to give to everyone according to their deeds.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, *

the beginning and the end.”

Blessed are those who do God’s commandments,

that they may have the right to the tree of life, *

and may enter the city through the gates.

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to you, *

with this testimony for all the churches.

“I am the root and the offspring of David, *

I am the bright morning star.”

“Come!” say the Spirit and the Bride; *

“Come!” let each hearer reply!

Come forward, you who are thirsty, *

let those who desire take the water of life as a gift.

God we make vigil tonight for the healing of ourselves, our families, and the planet. Give us the courage to accept your healing and pray for the healing of others. Help us to pray with kind words, healing words, and loving words. Let us enter in holy silence as we make this vigil for healing.

Heal our bodies O God.

Heal our minds O God.

Heal our spirits O God.

Heal our hearts O God.

Heal our emotions O God.

Heal our fears O God.

Heal our lives O God.

Heal everyone and everything that lives on this planet O God.

Heal the Nations O God.

Heal divisions wherever we are O God.

Heal the world of hatred, racism, bigotry, abuse, white supremacy, terror, and all isms and obias O God.

Heal the world of hatred, racism, bigotry, abuse, white supremacy, terror, and all isms and obias O God.

Heal what ever is on our hearts during this vigil time and help us to pray and set it free and make us whole O God.

Heal_____________________ O God.

Hear our Prayers, and Heal us O God.

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

― Teresa of Ávila

The Song of Mary Magnificat

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in you, O God my Savior, *

for you have looked with favor on your lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed: *

you, the Almighty, have done great things for me,

and holy is your name.

You have mercy on those who fear you *

from generation to generation.

You have shown strength with your arm *

and scattered the proud in their conceit,

Casting down the mighty from their thrones *

and lifting up the lowly.

You have filled the hungry with good things *

and sent the rich away empty.

You have come to the help of your servant Israel, *

for you have remembered your promise of mercy,

The promise made to our forebears, *

to Abraham and his children for ever.

The Beatitudes

5 When Jesus[a] saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely[b] on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

God we pray for our tender hearts,bodies, minds, and spirits that are in need of healing this night.

Heal us loving and merciful God and make us whole .

God we pray for the healing of all our family members who are victims of bullying, terror, and abuse.

Heal them loving and merciful God and make them whole.

God we pray for the healing of our land and that our environment may be restored from climate change and misuse.

Heal this your planet O loving and merciful God and make it whole as you created to be.

God we pray for the healing of division that we may be made one and that we may in the words of the the Prophet Micah 'Do Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly with you O God.

Heal us from all hatred, bigotry, and discrimination and make us wholly one O God of love and mercy.

God we pray for healing of our jangled nerves as we confront life's struggles daily.

Heal our anxieties and may we always remember to "Not be anxious and to Consider the Lilies!"

God we pray for the healing of these precious ones we name before you now____________

Heal them God and make them whole.

God we pray for the healing of those who are grieving the loss of many dearly loved ones. We remember them now and speak their names tenderly and in their honor____________

Heal the grieving and give them peace and comfort loving and merciful God.

God we pray for the healing of all places where there has been violence and terror recently and today we remember all places known and unknown.

God we pray these additional prayers:

God of all comfort be with us this night as we pray for peace in this world and that we may live into our baptismal covenant with you and each other.

God of all comfort may we seek as one family with you to find solutions that will stem the tide of all violence and terror.

God of all comfort may we seek with you to find our true calling and life path.

God of all comfort give us strength to speak out firmly and lovingly for those who haven't any voice.

God of all comfort give us all a return to common sense. Take away from us all temptation to fall into a mob and hate mentality.

God of all comfort we pray for all who are ill and in need of healing of their bodies, minds, and spirits.

God of all comfort may we be sources of comfort one to another and listen to you with our heart homes for those who are in need of help and may not be able to name their needs.

God of all comfort may we ever be mindful of our family members who are grieving losses and pre-grieving.

God of all comfort we pray for all who have been senselessly murdered for who they are. Grant to them eternal rest.

God of all comfort may all of us who struggle to live authentically without fear be able to speak and live our truth valiantly and with courage.

God of all comfort we pray and give thanks for_________________________

We lift up these our prayers in the Holy name of Jesus! Amen.

St. Teresa's Bookmark

Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices.

Christ has no body- 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 the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.

The Woke Prayers of St. Francis

Help us O God to be woke!

Woke as your peacemakers, change makers, heart changers, and love energy bringers!

Woke to the hatred so that we may sow seeds of love.

Woke to the injury so that we may heal the hurt and cease the harm.

Woke to the divisiveness that we may be eager to heal and unite as one neighborhood and family.

Woke to uncertainty that will lead us to be renewed in faith.

Woke to the despair of all our neighbors so that we may sow seeds of radical hope, love, hospitality, and inclusion.

Woke to the knowledge that we are God's beloved children. Help us to be woke enough to know that God has made us in God's image and we are all in God's hands

Let us be woke and sing He's Got the Whole World In His Hands!

He's got the whole world in His hands,