Dona eis Requiem! Never forget! Always remember!

Good Evening Dear Family!

I hope everyone is well! Today has been a busy day! I had the privilege to be the officiant at our midweek service. This week our clergy were meeting for Spring Clergy conference and they needed me to do Morning Prayer. It was a wonderful time of worship. I made it to Cancer Rehab and Caregiver support. Yesterday my oncologist told me that my tumor marker test was good. Dr. Vara wants to get to the bottom of my fatigue and ordered blood work. So we will see what that holds.  Today I had forgotten that it is Yom Ha Shoah/ Holocaust Remembrance Day. So many precious lives lost. We must never forget. Many of us fail to realize that Jews weren't the only ones who perished in the Holocaust, there were homosexuals, gypsies, mentally ill, men, women, children, elderly and anyone else who didn't fit the ideal mold

Here are the badges that were worn by our family members in the concentration camps:

I'm afraid this could happen here again if we don't get our hearts and minds focused properly. Every one matters. We are all equal and beloved of God. No one, not one deserves to be discriminated against or rounded up just because they are from a certain group, race, or class of people. So this night  let us remember and never forget. If you think this can't happen here, Think again. Take time to walk through the pages of history and remember that God's children have suffered long and at the hands of extremists and despotic leaders who have their own ideas of who is acceptable and who is not. Dear ones God has deemed all of us who are God's children acceptable and equal no matter who we are or where we come from or what we believe or don't believe. We all get in.and loved.  Let us take time to think upon these things as we listen to these:

Pie Jesu- Andrew Lloyd Webber

Schindler's list - Theme John Williams


Holy God, G_D, Allah, Creator of the world and God of Many names  who made us in you image and likeness we pray this night and light our candles in memory and witness to all who have died in any genocide our world has ever known. We light our candles and remember the Women's holocaust in the Middle Ages, The Native Americans who walked the Trail of Tears and were killed by viruses brought to the New World, We pray for the Armenians who perished and The Great Holocaust that took the lives of 6,000,000 million Jews and others. We pray for the victims of modern day genocides in this era of terrorism and ethnic cleansing. We pray that we may look upon these our brothers and sisters who perished as a reminder of how easy it is to go down the slippery slope of hate, terror, fear, vengeance, and bigotry. We pray for peace in this fragile and broken world that we may be peace makers and truth tellers to our family members who do not know the history of these atrocities. We pray this night that we may stop the hate and new apartheid systems that infect the world. We pray that we may be compassionate, accepting, loving, and merciful. Let us always remember and never forget:

Let us pray the words of the Morning Prayer by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

MORNING PRAYER

O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray
And to concentrate my thoughts on you:
I cannot do this alone.

In me there is darkness,
But with you there is light;
I am lonely, but you do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;
I am restless, but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;

I do not understand your ways,
But you know the way for me…
Restore me to liberty,
And enable me to live now
That I may answer before you and before me.

Lord, whatever this day may bring,
Your name be praised.

and ponder this:

"I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me.” 

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community

Jesus (God, G_d)help us to remember who our neighbor is by praying for our family members below.
Those who died in any genocide. 
Women
Men
Children
Enemies
Refugees, immigrants of any kind
Caregivers
Those who don't share your political or religious beliefs
LGBTQ family members 
Elderly
Family members with whom we are estranged
Everyone
The sick and the suffering
The mentally ill and memory challenged
Those living with H.I. V./ A.I.D.S
Everyone
Those who have caused you harm or abused you
Those who hate you or you hate ( Not acceptable)
Those who have forgiven you and those whom you have forgiven
Everyone
Those who do not share the same ethnicity or race as you
Political prisoners
Prisoners of war
Those who cause terror, violence, bullying, and do unspeakable things. 
Everyone
Jews
Christians
Muslims
Buddhists
Hindus
All faith communities 
Everyone
Indigenous peoples
Victims of Human Trafficking
Everyone
Cancer patients, 
Chronically ill
The disabled 
The poor
The homeless
The hungry
 The lonely,
The lost,
The unemployed
The farm worker
Everyone
The misunderstood
The learning disabled
The marginalized
The invisible ones
The least of these
Everyone
The family of nations and all the peoples God's world

Jesus  (God, G_d) we pray for all of our family members nearby,stranger, and enemy and in particular those mentioned about that we may love one another as you have loved us . May we strive to be better at loving, accepting, and including everyone. We know that in  Your world all means all and not some. May we continue to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you to the end of our days and beyond. Amen.

We pray for peace within ourselves, our nation, the troubled places of the world especially in the Middle East (Israel, The Palestinian Authority-Gaza, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan), African countries (Uganda, Nigeria, Rwanda, Darfur, South Sudan, The Sudan), Burundi, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, The United States,  Afghanistan, Pakistan, The Ukraine, Central America, South America, and all other places in the world where there is violence, inequality, injustice, tribal discord, and sectarian violence.


We offer our own prayers, thanksgivings, remembrances, and celebrations in the stillness and quietness of our souls remembering especially________________

We lift up these our prayers to you Lord Jesus. Amen.

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Good Night Precious and dear family! I love you! Know that you are loved, you matter and you are precious to God and to me. May you all have a restful and blessed night.

Love, joy, peace, and blessings be always yours,

Sara