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

Good Evening Family of Love!

Happy Second Sunday of Advent and day of Sabbath Rest. I hope everyone has had a good day and that you took time making today holy. Today we have an interesting #AdventWord and that is #Touch. This season we find all sorts of tactile experiences that make our 5 senses come alive. Touch is one of them that we often take for granted. So what can we do to incorporate touch into our spiritual lives this season and beyond? Here are a few ideas! See if you can make up your own.

Clay box and stylus. 
Get yourself a small stationary box fill it with modeling clay and get an old pen and write a spiritual word in the clay and then use your fingers to go over the word and pray and meditate as you go along.

Hand held Labyrinth
Purchase a small labyrinth and sit an use the stylus and pray. These are good when you are bed bound.

Rosaries (Traditional)

or

Anglican

Here is link to how to use this! King of Peace

Prayer beads 

Make up your own prayers

Gooshing in a bowl of  uncooked rice.

Pour a bag of uncooked rice and place your hands in the bowl and feel the texture of the rice ( like you do when you are  making meat loaf) and 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.

Keep doing that until you are relaxed.

Feeling fabrics and breathing.

Stringing popcorn, beads, and cranberries for your tree.

Do an intercessory prayer list after every group of twenty items that are strung. 

Touching and smelling dry herbs and plants like rosemary, lavender, sage, etc as part of connecting our senses. 

Tonight let us light our candles and make vigil as we pray the first two collects of  Advent and offer prayers using the five senses contained in the prayers.

First Sunday of Advent
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of
darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of
this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit
us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come
again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the
dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever. Amen.


Second Sunday of Advent
Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to
preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation:
Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins,
that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our
Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

God help us to see you in all of our family members and love them as we love you and ourselves.

God help us to hear and listen with the ears of our hearts and ever widening heart homes so that we may understand one another.

God help us to taste the sweetness you provide in our food and know abundance and not scarcity.

God help us to smell the clean air and fragrant perfume of the season and give thanks for your Cathedral of Life.

God help us to give kind and gentle touches to our family members who are in need of reassurance.

God help us to speak with words that heal and not harm.

God give us wisdom to pray the words of  Richard of Chichester 

Day by day,
Dear Lord, of thee three things I pray:
To see thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
Follow thee more nearly,
Day by Day.


Tonight Brothers and Sisters our prayers come from many Native American Tribes as we stand with them in compassion, acceptance, love, and mercy. We stand together for justice and human rights. We stand together in a circle of healing for all tribes and the healing of all sacred lands, waters, and spaces. We continue to pray for a holy circle of protection around everyone at Standing Rock even though we have received good news about the Dakota Pipe Line and those who are still on pilgrimage and making protest.

Smudging as a Christian Aboriginal Ceremony

We must stand with our indigenous brothers and sisters and encircle them with love and  their prayers tonight

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.

Let my prayer be set forth in your sight as incense, the lifting
up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:2

“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

Prayer Cycle for the Second Sunday and Week of Advent

Gentle God help us to be peacemakers and give us the courage to speak the language of peace to a broken world.
May there be peace and let it begin with us.

God of love and compassion give us the tools to be hope givers and comfort bringers to those who are lonely, lost, ill, and feel invisible.
Give them hope!

We pray for peace between nations, neighbors, and in ourselves.
Calm our fears Lord and settle our restless spirits Lord.

We Pray for the peace of_______________________________

We offer our Prayers for the hopes and dreams of_________________________

We remember and celebrate the lives of _________________________

Lord link our lives together as family members with love that we may be hope bringers and peace makers and that we may show the extravagant love you have for us to the entire world and in our heart homes. Amen.
********
Prayer suggestions-
Standing Rock
The people who lost their lives in Oakland
Remembering Sandy Hook and San Bernardino
We pray for an end to all forms of violence, hatred, division, discrimination and exclusion.
Please keep the Elderly, caregivers, cancer patients, travelers, mentally ill , farm workers our homeless family members.

Pray for Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, The Sudan, sound government,
Pray for an end to Human Trafficking and Women and Children who are abused and exploited.
Pray for good jobs and those seeking employment.
Pray for safe streets and monies to fix our damaged infra-structures. May the rough places be made plain.

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.

We pray and remember these prayers from God, As I imagined them to be.

God how we can celebrate these holy and life giving days ?  Advice from a loving God.

 Dear Children I want  you to Smile, laugh, and dance for joy  and feel my gentle and abiding presence. 

 Dear Children I want you to give of yourselves and as you do this you are my agents of change and love to a fragile and broken world.

Dear Children Tell everyone you love them and that you have their backs I have yours and always will.

Dear Children  avoid letting people who matter to you fall through the cracks. Remember I am the Good Shepherd and wont let any sheep be lost.

Dear Children I want you to find a way to make each day a party or celebration. Remember the parable of the Prodigal Son? We all may be this from time to time and and yes we did have a special party before Jesus died.

 Dear Children I want you have many very unbirthday parties because each day that you awaken is like a new birthday.

Dear Children Give people you care about a surprise party just because. Everyone is special and should be made to feel precious and treasured.

 Dear Children  Go to church as much as possible and connect with all of your family members and help strengthen the body and your bodies, minds, and spirits.

Dear Children I want you to Take a walk outside and enjoy my  Cathedral of Life. I want to show you what I created and help you become conservationists of the planet I made.

Dear Children I want you to Pray and meditate and spend some time with me so that you may feel my presence, love, give you the Love Energy you need to make each day holy.

 Dear Children please connect with your family members and friends. Yes I want you to connect with those who wish you harm. I will help you love and be compassionate towards them.

Dear Children  Enjoy being in my  presence so that you can be in the presence of others.

Dear Children Take time for fun. I want you to enjoy life and have it abundantly. I want you to stop being so sober that you loose what I am trying to teach you.

 Dear Children go outside and recharge your batteries by Walking a labyrinth, stations of the Cross , or prayer walk.

Dear Children  Take a drive and go to the beach and smell the surf. I want to show you more of what I have made.

 Dear Children I want you take daily pictures.of the world about you so that you'll be able to be dialed in with my creation and what  it means you.

Dear Children I want you Interview your older loved ones and learn about their family history stories.Remember this is how the Bible began. 

Dear Children listen to me in the still small voice of calm and I won't steer you wrong and you will know that every day that you live, move, and just be is holy.

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Good Night Dear Family! I love you! Please remember tomorrow is You Matter Monday. I give God thanks for you each and every day. Take time for more additional Self and Sabbath Care. 

With love and joy!

Sara