Prayer Bench Newsletter
Prayer Bench Newsletter
5 Resources You Can Use These Days
Greetings Prayer Bench friends,
These are the “thin days” of All Saints and All Souls. We join our efforts with the saints alive from other realms through whom the Presence of the Divine shines. Heaven and earth come close.
I am confident of the continuing, helpful presence of all the souls and the ones here in this world, illuminating the path of Love, and yes, even the ones who irritate us yet show us a deeper part of ourselves. We are not alone. We are in this time together.
Here are resources you can use as we attend to the invitation of these days. Our attention these days till the ground of incarnation and help us get ready for Advent.
Joining Wisdom: A Reflection
Practicing Grief: Ours and the World
Two Prayers by Jane Doull
Leaning in Advent: Resources at the Prayer Bench
Joining Wisdom: A Reflection
Slowly read this scripture poem about Wisdom, who reminds us we live in a world saturated with Divine presence.
Read: Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31
Wisdom is our Aliveness.
Wisdom in our experience.
Wisdom is God spilling God’s Self into our daily lives.
God is with us, Holy Wisdom, joining us in deep compassion.
God is with us, Holy Love, healing our divisions.
God is with us, Holy Power, inspiring our path and direction.
Prayer Practice: Make time today to intentionally keep God company with prayers of compassion and healing and notice where it leads you.
Practicing Grief
All Souls Day (November 2) invites us to sit with our grief as we remember those close to our hearts whom we have loved and loss. “Those close to our hearts, we remember you.”
Perhaps it is a day to especially hold space for all lives lost, in Palestine and Israel, in other places of violence and fear. It is a day for praying the prayers in your heart.
Contemplative Practice: As you are able and inclined visit a cemetery on All Souls Day. Walk gently on the earth.
The veil parts and heaven and earth come close.
The veil parts and the glory of God is made visible.
The veil parts and there is a “living opening”
and all can enter the Heart of God and glimpse the glory of God.
Thomas Merton once wrote, “we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time.”
What does your contemplative walk waken in you?
Two Prayers by Jane Doull
These prayers are drawn from the Let Us Pray: A Digital Collection of Prayers. You may use them with attribution to Jane Doull.
Invitation for Gathering
We look for God on sunlit sea and in swirling autumn leaves
God is everywhere.
We look for God on windy autumn days and in the night sky.
God is everywhere.
We look for God across our dinner tables and across the world.
God is everywhere.
We look for God in happy times and sad times, in war and in peace, when things change and when things stay the same.
God is everywhere.
Opening & Centering Prayer
O just and loving God, your prophets speak your dreams for our world. We have dreams too. But what chance do dreams have in these days of fear and anxiety, when hard times are not over? In this season can we hope for a better world? Today we entrust you with our fears and anxieties. We watch for signs of hope, reasons for resilience. We know: we still do walk upon holy ground, even while we seek a new era: where all can dwell in peace and unafraid, where young and old can see visions and dream dreams, where persons and communities can be restored and renewed. We pray, as those who persevere in love for each other and love for your world. Amen
These prayers are drawn from Volume 1 of Let Us Pray: A Digital Collection of Prayers by Jane Doull. This volume include Prayers for Creation, Advent & Christmas. Volume 2 is also available now with Prayers for Epiphany, Lent & Easter Sunday. Both volumes are available in the Prayer Bench Shop.
Leaning into Advent
Coming Soon: An Advent Calendar you can use and share with others. I’m working on a daily calendar for December: An advent kitchen party at the Prayer Bench. While we wait, we’ll be keeping company with the saints, the prophets, the mystics, the poets, the songwriters, the psalmists and artist and musicians. I’ll send notice to you by newsletter when it is ready for you.
Musicians of Holy Mystery Small Group Study and Individual Spiritual Study is now ready. You can learn more in this video or by visiting the Prayer Bench.
Advent Email Retreat Series. An invitation to make time this Advent to ponder your Advent Pathway with this three week Advent Email Retreat series with Margie Ann MacDonald and myself. On December 2, 9 and 16th you receive an email with opening, candle-lighting, prayers, reflection, prompts for reflection or journalling and spiritual practice. Learn more. (Note this is included in all paid Subscribers packages)
