The New #AdventWords and #HashTags With Meaning are here! Today's word is #Mend

Good Evening Family of Love!

Happy Take Care Tuesday! I hope that everyone is doing just that. This is the the time of year when we need to be in today's #AdventWord on the #Mend. Holidays of any kind are fraught with emotional and interpersonal landmines galore. Yes, this is the time when we as family members find ourselves being brought once again into tensions and anxieties that aren't healthy. We need to stop the glorification of busy and be on the mend. What things do we need to mend besides our clothing? Our relationships with God, each other, the world, and yes even our adversaries. Mending requires a time of sacred healing and the forging of new spiritual nerve connections. Advent is a time for growth that shouldn't be rushed but slowed down so we can listen and heal. We get enough life in the fast lane this time of year and it isn't for our own good and it certainly doesn't lend itself towards mending. If you have mended a tear in a garment sloppily you may get a wardrobe malfunction. We must mend slowly and with great care. Healing and mending require us to be CALM (Compassionate, Accepting, Loving, and Merciful) So how do we do this tonight? We do this by doing our "Be Stills" and breathing which is what comes next.

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

Inhale slowly
Hold
Pause
Exhale gently.

Repeat as necessary to bring you into a place of quiet and ready to pray and make vigil.

Let us take time before we light our virtual candles and smudge and cleanse ourselves and our surrounding with this virtual smudging ceremony;

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.

God we come to you this night seeking the healing of wounds and the mending of hearts, souls, bodies, and relationships!

We light our first candle as an acknowledgement of  our misusing of words and deeds towards our family members. We acknowledge our sins and ask for forgiveness. 

We ask for forgiveness.

We pray for a change of mind, heart, and mien.

We seek re-union with you and our family members.

We accept our responsibility for our actions.

We atone for our actions.

We begin again.

We strive for justice and respect the dignity of every person you have made in your image and likeness.

We light our second candle in acknowledgment of our corporate and communal failures that have divided us.

We pray for forgiveness and reconciliation.

We pray for the building of bridges and tearing down the walls of division.

We pray for a coming together as one human family seeking to do what is best for all of us and not some of us.

We pray for an end to premeditated discrimination, hatred, and inequality and violence.

We pray for an end to the gimme,gimme, gimme society in which we live so that we may learn how to share and help us to be one in fellowship, the breaking of bread, and in our prayer and worship time.

We pray for an end to what is dividing us personally remembering___________

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.

The  Beatitudes  Matthew 5:3–12 

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. (5:3)

Blessed are those who mourn: for they will be comforted. (5:4)

Blessed are the meek: for they will inherit the earth. (5:5)

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they will be filled. (5:6)

Blessed are the merciful: for they will be shown mercy. (5:7)

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they will see God. (5:8)

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they will be called children of God. (5:9)

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (5:10

We light our third and final candle in prayer and healing of wounds too deep for words. 

We pray for an end to centuries old divisions that are man made and not of God.

We pray for an end to the hatreds that keep us from knowing God and each other more fully with Compassion, Acceptance, Love, and mercy.

We pray for an end to all forms of abuse that harm all of God's Children.

We pray for an end to inequality in all of its divisive forms.

We pray for all things that divide us from God and each other.

God help us to bind up the brokenhearted and love and care for the least of these.

Let us be at prayer.

God of all comfort be with us who mourn that we may feel your loving arms around us.

God of all comfort help us to serve and come to the aid of  the least of these.

God of all comfort heal all those who are ill and infirm.

God of all comfort help us us to reach out to the lonely and the lost

God of all comfort help us to be kind and loving to all children who are having a rough time this time of year.  May we  show them that we understand and care and are willing to listen to them without judgement. 

God of all comfort help us to listen with ears of the heart, mind, and spirit.

God of all comfort we pray for peace in your fragile and broken world.

God of all comfort we pray for everyone who has been a victim of violence and abuse of any kind.

God of all comfort help families who need to learn to be loving, compassionate , show loving kindness and warmth. 

God of all comfort help us to lovingly respond to all  of our family members.

God of all comfort we add our prayers for ourselves and those on behalf of others especially____________

We pray these prayers and offer them in the Name of God the Creator,Redeemer, and Sanctifier.

God help us to bind up the brokenhearted and love and care for the least of these.

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With love, hope, peace, joy, kindness, Love Energy abounding from my heart home to yours,

Sara