Goof Evening Beloved Ones!
Happy Third Sunday in Lent and the Feast of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne! We are on the land of the Chumash here in Santa Maria CA. It is a blustery Sunday afternoon. Today's readings have themes of gardening and shepherding! As we approach the Vernal Equinox a.k.a. Springtime, I believe and know that God is calling us to tend, love, and care for one another and all of creation. This isn't just a seasonal call it is a forever and minute by minute call. Part of being good shepherds and caregivers is taking time for Sabbath rest. Let us begin with our "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.
Peace be still.
Peace be.
Peace.
Peace be.
Peace.
Peace be.
Peace.
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.
Peace be.
Peace.
Peace be.
Peace.
Peace be.
Peace.
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.
Peace be.
Peace.
Peace be.
Peace.
Peace be.
Peace.
God of love we make vigil and pray for all of our family members who are on the margins needing our love and care. We pray that we may all have empathy to be able to see outward appearances and see the face of God in each one of these precious souls whom you send in to our lives. We light candles for the least of these and remember them
God and Creator of us all we pray and light our candles this night at a time where we are finding ourselves sorely divided one from another by a myriad of circumstances. We pray that we may start to learn from each other and place our egos and the need to be right at the door. We pray that we may use gentle speech and kind actions when we meet someone who differs from us. We pray that we may lovingly enfold them in our arms and extend to them radical hospitality and welcome. We pray that we may continually beat the weaponry of hate into ploughshares and turn the spears of division into pruning hooks and that we may grow into a peace-filled and loving world. We pray this night for all who are enduring any kind of pain that they may be comforted and that we may lovingly respond to their needs. We pray and ask this night for forgiveness of any action or word we have done or spoken this day and that we may turn away and repent of the wrongs we have done. We pray that we may spread God's light of love, peace, and learning to this world and that we may be beacons of hope, joy, love, and peace. We pray that we may follow Jesus and imitate him by being CALM (Compassionate, Accepting, Loving, and Merciful) and show the world that we are carried aloft by the Holy Spirit's Love Energy and that our Hearts and heart homes may be enlarged and that truly we may become one family of God and Love and brothers and sisters one to another. Amen.
IN LAK’ECH
"Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love?' These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will be many fruits, here in this world and the life to come." - Henri Nouwen
23 Dominus regit me
1 The Lord is my shepherd; *
I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures *
and leads me beside still waters.
3 He revives my soul *
and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.
4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil; *
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; *
you have anointed my head with oil,
and my cup is running over.
6 Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, *
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Exodus 3:1-15
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”
But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I am has sent me to you.'” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you':
This is my name forever,
and this my title for all generations.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1–11
3For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
9 What gain have the workers from their toil? 10I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. 11He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
2 Corinthians 6:1-10
6As we work together with him,* we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. 2For he says,
‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’
See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! 3We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger; 6by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8in honour and dishonour, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; 10as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
Ezekiel 34:11–16
God the True Shepherd
11 For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. 16I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
A Song of Penitence Kyrie Pantokrator
Prayer of Manasseh 1-2, 4, 6-7, 11-15
Especially suitable in Lent, and on other penitential occasions
O Lord and Ruler of the hosts of heaven, *
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
and of all their righteous offspring:
You made the heavens and the earth, *
with all their vast array.
All things quake with fear at your presence; *
they tremble because of your power.
But your merciful promise is beyond all measure; *
it surpasses all that our minds can fathom.
O Lord, you are full of compassion, *
long-suffering, and abounding in mercy.
You hold back your hand; *
you do not punish as we deserve.
In your great goodness, Lord,
you have promised forgiveness to sinners, *
that they may repent of their sin and be saved.
And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart, *
and make my appeal, sure of your gracious goodness.
I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, *
and I know my wickedness only too well.
Therefore I make this prayer to you: *
Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
Do not let me perish in my sin, *
nor condemn me to the depths of the earth.
For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent, *
and in me you will show forth your goodness.
Unworthy as I am, you will save me,
in accordance with your great mercy, *
and I will praise you without ceasing all the days of my life.
For all the powers of heaven sing your praises, *
and yours is the glory to ages of ages. Amen.
Matthew 6:24-34
Serving Two Masters
24 ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.*
Do Not Worry
25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,* or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?* 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God* and his* righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
Luke 13:1-9
At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."
Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Collect of the Day
God of grace and goodness,
you know that by reason of our frailty we cannot but fail;
keep us always under your protection
and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen. (ANZPB)
Merciful God, who called Cuthbert from following the flock to be a shepherd of your people: Mercifully grant that we also may go without fear to dangerous and remote places, to seek the indifferent and the lost; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gracious and loving God we pray this night for the least of these who are our family members.
God, help us to remember always that the least of these may be anyone and everyone.
God, we remember especially our homeless, hungry, ill-clad, and most vulnerable family members. We pray for safe sheltering tonight and for food that will sustain.
God, we remember especially refugees, prisoners, captives, victims of human trafficking, and those who are facing violent and terrible ends by political and religious extremists.
God, we pray for all in the LGBTQ community and their allies who are continually being discriminated against and are endeavoring to live authentically without fear. We pray for universal human and civil rights and an end to bullying, hate, and injustice.
God, we pray for all of our family members who are ill and in need of healing remembering especially__________________
God, we pray for our family members who are living with chronic illnesses. Help them to follow their medical team's advice.
God, we pray for our family members who are living with any kind of mental illness and the caregivers in their midst.
God we pray for all of our family members who are caregivers, give them courage to rest and play and find body, mind, and spirit balance.
God we pray that our bodies, minds, and spirits may be in balance and healthy harmony.
God as we close this time of prayer we pray for peace in our hearts, minds, and spirits as we prepare for the days and weeks ahead when we will meet you at the foot of the cross and at the empty tomb.
We add our additional prayers and thanksgivings_____________as we lift them in the name of Jesus, our brother, friend, redeemer, healer, savior, and teacher. Amen.
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
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
Peace be still.
Peace be.
Peace.
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
Peace be still.
Peace be.
Peace.
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
Peace be still.
Peace be.
Peace.
++++
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that God is Love.
Be still and know that You are Love.
Be sill and know that I Am Love.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
Slowly inhale.
Hold.
Slowly exhale
Pause. Count to 10.
Breathing Exercises with 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
How do we do this and what are the rules of the road?
As Maria says in "The Sound of Music" "Let's start from the very beginning!"
We must seek common ground and question our words, deeds, and thoughts towards each other . This is called self-examination!
We must recognize the holy in all people, places, places of worship, and in God's Cathedral of life.
We must walk like Jesus walked, Talk like Jesus talked, Love like Jesus loved. Forgive like Jesus Forgave.
We need to get a mirror and look at ourselves and see who God sees and who God made.
We need to look at ourselves and tell ourselves this "I love you!'
We need to begin to reacquaint ourselves with our family members and seek to not be estranged.
We need to show love for one another with generosity and care.
We need to begin to stop the hate and violence towards all our family members who differ from us.
We need to be practitioners of social justice, civil disobedience, and peaceful non-violent protest without fear and whenever necessary.
We need to model ourselves after God and Jesus and engage in radical love and hospitality towards everyone.
We need to choose our words and actions rightly.
We need to stop politicizing events such as 9/11 and come together as one.
We must sow seeds of Compassion, Acceptance, Love, and Mercy.
We must strive to respect the dignity of every human being.
We must strive to make peace and show those who do not know how to make peace the right way with love, justice, mercy, and humility.
We must learn to be one with one another without spite and without malice.
We must love!
#WordsDeedsandThoughtsMatter
#WeMustStriveToBeEmpathetic
#WalkTheWalkThatJesusWalked
#CallEachOthersBadBehaviorOut
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