Are we truly ready to love our neighbors/ family members?

Dear Family of Love !

I hope everyone had a wonderful Self-Care Saturday and blessed All Hallow's Eve. Today I attended the Fall Assembly of the Daughters of the King in Fullerton. I drove down in one day. It was a wonderful time to be with my sisters, Today's assembly featured one of the Coaches from Laundry Love, Laundry Love is a ministry where a group of wonderful people help homeless and low income people do their laundry in laundromats and provide  many other services as well this is a ministry of the heart, We also celebrated the feast of St. Margaret of Scotland who helped many of the homeless and hungry. I was struck by the lessons from Deuteronomy and the message is sends us ;

Deuteronomy 15:7-11

7 If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbour. ⁸You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. ⁹Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near’, and therefore view your needy neighbour with hostility and give nothing; your neighbour might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt. ¹⁰Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lordyour God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.¹¹Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land.’

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This is our meditation for this night and as we think about these things where do we fall? Are we ready to truly love and serve our neighbor? Here in the Walk With Me On Our Journey Community we use family members the same way we do neighbors. Are we truly ready to love and serve all of our family members near and far away? Are we truly ready to love and serve them even though many may wish us harm? Let's listen to God in the stillness and meditate upon these questions. 

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God of  Creation, we give thanks and celebrate all that you have made. Give us a tender and compassionate reverence for all things living.

God of Creation, we thank you for the rain and pray for more so that  the drought parched areas of our world may be cleansed and healed.

God of  Peace, we pray for peace in this your fragile and broken world. Help us to become truly the Children of God as Peacemakers.

God  of Justice, we pray for all leaders of the  nations that they may do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with you O God.

God of Compassion,we pray for all who are in need of healing and comfort. May we help them wipe away their many tears and help them be relieved of anxieties and fears by using our empathetic skills and tender and loving hearts.

God of  Light, We pray that we may become Your beacons of hope to all who are in darkness.

God who walks with us on our daily journey, may we follow where you lead and may we walk hand in hand with you and when we need it may we feel you carry us in your arms.

God of all gentleness, may we always remember the vulnerable, especially children, elderly, the least of these, and all others who are the tender ones.

God of  time and space, help us to become acclimated  to the time change. Help our bodies, minds, and spirits adjust.

God we pray for all who travel. May they have safe journeys.

God we pray for all leaders of the many faith communities who are in preparation for worship tomorrow. Help them to preach The Word boldly and without fear.

God of all Saints may we live by their example and may we never forget that they were human beings with frailties just like us.

God we lift up our additional prayers for ourselves and others remembering especially__________

God we take time to add our remembrances of those who have died remembering especially-______

God we celebrate this the Feast of All Saints and remember those who have died and entered the Thin Places remembering especially________


God we give thanks for _______________________

God we lift up these our prayers, remembrances, thanksgivings, and celebrations in the most holy name of Your only Son, Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

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Good Night Dear Family of Love! I love you ! I wish for you a most refreshing, renewing, and restful sleep tonight. Enjoy another beautiful day of Sabbath Care and if you haven't done so lately it might be a good idea to check in your place of worship or try a new place for your spirit's health. Reemeber there is not a one size fits all faith community. I give thanks to God for you this day and always. DON'T FORGET TO CHANGE YOUR CLOCKS BACK ONE HOUR!

Love, prayers, and blessings be always yours,

Sara

A love letter from Jesus!

Halloween Eve and a time to look at our families past, present, and future!

Dear Family of  Love,


Happy  Keeping the Faith Friday Fearlessly Without Fretting! I hope everyone had a blessed day and that we all are in preparation mode for our Self  Care and Sabbath Rest Weekend. This weekend is like no other. It has two holy days; Halloween and All Saints. This is one of those times where we have the opportunity to do many things:Take time to remember our family members past, present, and future, take stock of our lives and the legacy that we will leave for future generations, take time for self care, and actively be present with God and our parish families in worship in our chosen worship settings. Each piece gives us time to connect with the holy in all things. Our relationship with God is rooted in all the above. How do we prepare for these days? Well it is quite simple, we all must dial in with God and also remember to use the Worry/Sabbath Box To Our advantage and get into contact with God as we place our notes into the jar.This weekend we gain much including an hour of sleep, a new perspective on how we live our lives when we hear the necrologies or lists of the dear departed ones at worship on Sunday. We will have an opportunity to hear the names and remember many of our family members who have also been our mentors and friends.  This is a time to get in touch with our living family members and lay down our grudges and be more loving, forgiving, understanding, and break open any estrangement that is happening. Tonight we will begin with ourselves by using the prayers from last year's Halloween blog along with taking time to enter into our mindfulness exercises and  listen for God's still Small voice. 

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Gracious God as we await All Saint's Day and All Soul's day let us remember all of our family members who reside in the Thin Places.  May we name those who remain special to us and pray for those whom we didn't get along with.


Gracious and God we give thanks for the rain and may there be more rains to heal and cleanse your drought parched lands throughout the world and in our state.

Gracious God we pray for all of our family members who are in need of healing remembering especially____________

Gracious God we pray for peace in your fragile and broken world.  Give to us the means whereby we may become peacemakers.

Gracious God take away all bitterness, hatred, and  divisiveness that we may be united as your children O God.

Gracious God  give the the leaders of all the nations strength to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with you.

Gracious God give us the courage to see you in our family members who are the least of these eyes and never forget that when we serve and love them we are serving and loving you.

Gracious God we add our additional prayer requests for ourselves and on behalf of others remembering especially_______________________

Gracious God challenge us to do what is right and be beacons of love, joy, hope, and peace in your holy world.

Gracious God help us to remember wherever we walk, look, taste, touch, or feel  we are living in a place of holiness Help us to lead holy and gracious lives and see the holy in everything.

Gracious God we lift up these our prayers in the name of your son Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Litaniae Sanctorum (Litany of the Saints) Latin


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Good Night Family of Love, may you have a blessed Triduum (Three Days) remembering all those who were and are precious to you I love you and you are precious and dear to me. I give God Thanks for you this night and always.


Love, blessings, and  peace be always yours,

Sara

Here is the blog that accompanies the prayers  Halloween blog

Keep Calm and Listen With the Ear of your Heart!

Memories that will last forever in our bodies,minds, and spirits.

Dear Family of  Love,

I love you and want to begin this blog by telling you that I give God thanks for you each and every day. I give thanks for this past year and the wonderful and loving support I feel from you across the miles in cyberspace. It has been a year since my last chemo and I honestly don't know what I would have done with out you and God giving me this ministry in which to pray and connect with you on a daily basis. Daily basis? Yes dear ones, basis. I was thinking about a year ago this evening when I had my chemo pump attached to my port and hearing the whirr when it was going through its cycle. The 5FU was doing its job and maybe a bit too well because it may be one of the possible causes of the hyperparathyroidism I'm now experiencing. We shall see! God has certainly been in the midst of this blog when I saw an old memory on FB with the blog stats and it showed 22,222 page views in history and we are now at 96,002 page views in history! That is our life together.That is a memory that will last a life time and knowing that each one of you who do read Walk With Me On Our Journey are a steady band of pilgrims who are seeking and finding something that your bodies, minds, and spirits need. Do you have memories that last forever in your bodies, minds, and spirits?
I do I can still feel where I had my port and how it feels now that it is no longer there. I think and know that all of us have some kind of  spiritual, physical, and mental muscle memory. These are a gift from God and I believe they help us when we need to call on them for help or need to reference a lesson that we should have learned. I realize that not all memories are pleasant and may be harmful but at the same time they do keep us safe from harm. Tonight I would like to share with you a portion of the blog that I wrote a year ago tomorrow and the link to it in its entirety. But first  let us do our gratitude journal and take time to be thoughtful and thankful. 


Tonight I'm grateful for and celebrate these many things.

I'm grateful for God's healing, loving, and embracing presence.
I'celebrate new life with all of its promises and newness.

I'm Grateful for family members who uplift and support me by their love, presence, and prayers.
I celebrate the power of prayer and it's amazing miraculous qualities.

I'm Grateful for Times of rest and renewal.
I celebrate all the refreshing life giving properties of rest.

I'm grateful for having a loving and grateful heart.
I celebrate living, loving, and laughing.

I'm grateful for a home.
I celebrate having a home and a heart that is is my soul's home.

I'm grateful for being alive!
I celebrate Life every minute of the day and may every moment holy.

I'm grateful for all the ancient wisdom that our elders imparted to us while they were living among us.
I celebrate the gifts of all of our elderly family members brought into our lives.

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God of all goodness we pray this night in gratitude and in celebration for all the many blessings you bestowed up on us this day.

God of all healing we pray for all who are in need of healing of any kind.  We name those in need of healing now before you___________________

God of all comfort, bring comfort to those who mourn the losses of any kind. We remember the many plane crashes and senseless acts of violence that caused loss of life today.

God of all mercy, keep watch over all the least of these this night that are in need of food, clothing, shelter, and loving comfort.

God of  Peace, we pray for peace int his troubled world. May the leaders of all these fragile and broken hot spots  do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you.

God and Creator of  your Cathedral of life we pray for rain that it may heal and cleanse your drought parched areas of the world.

God of all Joy, may we celebrate with joy our lives, our loves, our many blessings, our healings of body, mind, and spirits. 

God we lay all of our prayers and thanksgivings that we name now _________________ and in the name of your only Son Jesus. Amen.

Blog from a year ago


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Good Night Dear Ones! I hope that you all have many cherished memories that you share with your loved ones each day. Take time to share and be keepers of the lore. God gave us memories to help us along life's journey to keep our feet directed upon the path that God has set for us. Tomorrow is Keeping the Faith Friday Fearlessly Without Fretting! Time to get out our Worrry/ Sabbath box.

With love and a grateful heart for you this day and always,

Sara

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