January 2023
| Prayer of Blessing for the New Year… O God, Creator of beginnings, Healer of our wounds, and Companion on our Journey, We have been abundantly blessed by your grace and unconditional love in our shared journey this past year. All the experiences, joys, challenges, and yes, even our griefs have deepened our inner commitment to the Holy. We now offer our future to you as the one who created us to live out the mission of Jesus, the peaceful one, and to be your voice in the communities that surrounds us. We come offering our best intentions, our hopes, our dreams, our curiosity, and anything unresolved to be blessed by you knowing that when we do, you will propel us into growth…and we will be blessed both inwardly and outwardly. Today, we also hold out to you the entirety of who we are becoming, individually and as a mission center community, as we stand together on the threshold of another new year. As worshiping communities may God sharpen our vision and fine-tune our senses to be more alert to notice where the Holy is stirring the embers of wonder and curiosity. May we embrace the “what ifs” of life with Holy compassion and turn them into “Jesus-centered” actions. O God, awaken our senses as we pray the Mission Prayer daily…amaze us with moments of clarity and a fullness that brings us closer to who we are becoming in the Kingdom of God. Help us remember that each moment is like a seed that carries within itself the possibility of becoming the moment of change in someone else’s life…or in our own life. Mission Prayer God, where will your Spirit lead today? Help me be fully awake and ready to respond. Grant me courage to risk something new And become a blessing of your love and peace. Amen Open our eyes and our hearts to your true vision for each congregation and each leader in their part of the mission of Christ’s peace…may they become a blessing of your love and peace within their communities. As we continue our journey into this new year, we will do so with intentionality and with the awareness of your presence already before us, cultivating the soil of hope, joy, love, justice, and peace. May our hearts always be open to you as we seek your wisdom in all that lies ahead. We offer this prayer of blessing in the name of Jesus, the peaceful one, Amen. |
December 2022
| Merry Christmas! As we celebrate Christmas in our many unique and diverse ways, may we continue to lift up the worth of all persons no matter where they are in this world. May our gaze continue to be directed to those who suffer due to discrimination and unjust practices, homelessness, as refugees, or are overlooked because they remain in the shadows of life. God’s light pierces this darkness of hate and greed, and we celebrate. Christmas is a time to celebrate God’s extraordinary gift of love that is and will always be for all humankind as evidenced through the life and ministry of the Christ Child. May this knowledge bring you a deep sense of peace to mingle with the abundant hope and joy of God’s extraordinary gift! “My soul cries out with a joyful shout that the God of my heart is great, and my spirit sings of the wondrous things that you bring to the ones who wait. You fixed your sight on the servant’s plight, and my weakness you did not spurn, so from east to west shall your name be blest. Could the world be about to turn?” “My heart shall sing of the day you bring. Let the fires of your justice burn. Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near, and the world is about to turn.” Rory Cooney, Canticle of the Turning, CCS 404 (Luke 1:46-55) The World is about to Turn! |
July 2022
| Dear Friends, Over the last several months, the mission center leadership teams have been seeking God’s wisdom and direction as we envision sacred community in our post-pandemic journey. The practice of discernment is a valuable tool to use for seeking and reflecting on the will of God as we continue the journey ahead. There are many of these discernment resources that are accessible to use from Spiritual Formation Ministries on the My Ministry Tools website. For those who desire to engage in discernment, accessible tools, resources, and practices that are written specifically to address what has been shaping and shifting in us because of this global pandemic are available. Katie Harmon-McLaughlin, Spiritual Formation Specialist, shared her thoughts below on how the Mission Prayer is a great, simple example of a daily habit of discernment. “God, where will your Spirit lead today? Help me be fully awake and ready to respond. Grant me the courage to risk something new and become a blessing of your love and peace.” The goal is not to figure out the whole future at once, but to listen deeply for the voice of the Holy Spirit and discern the next faithful steps as congregational communities for the journey ahead. ************ Discerning Post-Pandemic Church Life by Katie Harmon-McLaughlin, Spiritual Formation Ministries (adapted from Daily Bread, Aug 2, 2021) “Many throughout the church are sensing that the time is ripe to engage in deeper discernment about who God is calling us to be in a post-pandemic world. We have lived through a transformational time and now we are invited to integrate this transformation into our ways of being together. For years, we have sensed that we are in liminal space, those places between what was and what is yet to be. The pandemic has moved us even further into liminality and has disrupted many of our default patterns and assumptions. Collectively, we have discovered just how much is out of our control despite all our best plans and intentions. We are more poised than before to lean on the wisdom and grace of God with all our heart and strength and understanding. For communities yearning to embody the transformation they are sensing, discernment can be a meaningful way to discover and live God’s deeper vision. Discernment is a habit, a practice, a process, a way of life that is essentially about listening for God. It does not need to be overly complicated, and it can take the time it needs to take. It is not about finding a “right” answer, but about becoming people more attuned to the movements and invitations of God that shape everything about who we are and how we live together.” |
December 2021
Prayer of Blessing for the New Year… O God of Endings and Beginnings…we consider natural endings and closings in our lives, like the dark of dusk at the end of the day. We watch until the light is almost gone and stand in the darkness of what needs to be released. With courage and hope, we begin to see what we must let go. We give thanks for the night that brings growth and transformation and for the coming dawn of new beginnings.
O Gentle God of Wonder…we arrive in awe at what new life is dawning within us at the sunrise of a new year. Where are fresh beginnings, understandings, or ways of being emerging? What is rising and bringing fresh vision and light to our weary world? We give thanks for the gifts of new beginnings that are always arriving.
O God of our Openness and Honesty…we dare to ask again, what matters most? When life seems uncertain, what does integrity come to say? What deep values will sustain and stabilize us this new year? We give thanks for all that remains steadfast and will guide us, even as we still feel unsettled.
O God of our Inner Most Being who gives birth to all that we are…we listen deep within to what is yearning for expression in us. We notice our longings and the creativity of your Spirit that is stirring hope and possibility. We give thanks for the love and grace you constantly pour into the world through each one of us and we are blessed and humbled.
O God of Amazing Grace and Inner Peace…prayerfully we imagine our lives in response to your Spirit’s deep call and invitation in this new year. We give thanks as we remember that you already dwell within us and within all of creation. We come with open arms and willing hearts to be seekers of justice and joy as we continue to follow your son, Jesus Christ, the peaceful one.
Inspired from writings in The Discerning Heartby Wilkie Au and Norene Canon Au
September 2021
Journaling as a Spiritual Practice
My tenth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Lynch, gave me my first journal as a farewell gift. I’d been in her class for two months, and now my Dad’s job transfer was moving us north from Kansas to Michigan. In her inscription she wrote, “Here’s a book to help you collect thoughts, ideas, inspirations, etc. Promise me you won’t throw this book away when you get older…”It took me nearly six years to fill that first journal, but in the following years I picked up my writing pace. Thirty-one years later, I am filling journal number 40.
The pages of those journals became safe spaces for me to daydream, ponder, and process. The older I grew and the more I wrote, I began to consider my writing as a spiritual practice and a form of prayer. The beauty of the practice is that it is private—a repository of thoughts with time stamps for marking progress without the pressure of sharing thoughts with others before I am ready.
This writing practice developed my skills as a writer for certain, but journaling as spiritual formation is not reserved for people who call themselves writers. All that’s required is a notebook and something with which to write, and a desire to spend time with one’s own thoughts.
The pandemic, isolation, and sickness have created a collective and depth of grief I believe we haven’t yet begun to understand. There are many ways this difficult season has affected us as individuals, congregations, nations, and a global community. Writing down our thoughts can help us process this time. It can help navigate difficult emotions and manage anxieties.
Each morning, I start my day by writing three notebook pages. Some days I have no idea what I will write until the pencil starts moving across the paper. Other days I feel worried or scared or angry, and I fill the pages with those concerns. On other days, I write rough drafts of essays like this one. No matter the content, I feel better and more capable of starting the day ahead. This practice nourishes my spirit and eases my mind.
– Julie Steele Mahoney