Farewell Readings
From Pastor Aline:
"As you formulate your next steps, may you discern your identity and learn to express it with assertiveness as you hold sanctuary for the values you share. May you continue to make safe space for all in the Community. May you hold space for voices less privileged than your own. Most of all, may you go in Peace…Thank you for the countless hugs, meals, letters, and hours of care....As we meet one another, wherever we are on the journey, pray that we can meet another with abundant grace."
“And this is it. This is the life we get here on earth. We get to give away what we receive. We get to believe in each other. We get to forgive and be forgiven. We get to love imperfectly. And we never know what effect it will have for years to come. And all of it…all of it is completely worth it.” ― Nadia Bolz-Weber
Everyday Miracles by F. Forrester Church
“The power which I cannot explain or know or name I call God. God is not God’s name. God is my name for the mystery that looms within and arches beyond the limits of my being. When I pray to God, God’s answer comes to me from within, not beyond. God’s answer is yes, not to the specifics of my prayer but in response to my hunger for meaning and peace.
Choose life and trust life. Grow in service and love. Take nothing for granted. Be thankful for the gift. Suffer well. Dare to risk much. Consecrate your world with laughter and tears. And know not what I am or who I am or how I am, know only that I am with you.
This is God’s answer to my prayer. There are times when God is not with me, many times - times of distraction, fragmentation, alienation, brokenness. But when I open myself to God, incrementally my wholeness is restored. Perhaps that which I call the mystery of God is no more than the mystery of life itself. I cannot know, nor do I care, because the power that emanates from deep within the heart of this mystery is redemptive. It is divine. By opening myself to it, without ever hoping or presuming to understand it, I find peace. The mystery of God will remain a mystery. That, I suppose, is as it should be. Anything less would fail to do justice to the everyday miracles of consciousness, of love and pain, of life and death. Responding to these miracles, responding to God’s yes, I can do no other than to answer yes in return.”
Where is God? - Mark Nepo It’s as if what is unbreakable- the very pulse of life-waits for everything else to be torn away, and then in the bareness that only silence and suffering and great love can expose, it dares to speak through us and to us. It seems to say, if you want to last, hold on to nothing. If you want to know love, let in everything. If you want to feel the presence of everything, stop counting the things that break along the way.
REVEAL - Deb Allerton
Through tears
my pen writes itself.
Words bleed
from untamable Source .
Pain,
be a teacher.
Discord,
I’m listening…
A soul can’t breathe
if you silence the heart.
In pain,
a crying for the cost…
In pain,
a calling for what refuses to be lost.
Courage,
are you there?
Voices are waiting to be heard.
Let love silence fear.
Let compassion rise.
Let Wisdom reveal
where blame and judgement cease
where what we hold dear
is within reach.
Isaiah 55:10-12 NRSV
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
goodbyes sometimes hurt when the story is not finished but the book is closed. ~jnd
STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING BY ROBERT FROST Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
The Blessing Celtic Woman
In the morning when you rise I bless the sun, I bless the skies I bless your lips, I bless your eyes My blessing goes with you In the night time when you sleep Oh, I bless you while a watch I keep As you lie in slumber deep My blessing goes with you This is my prayer for you There for you, ever true Each every day for you In everything you do And when you come to me And hold me close to you I bless you And you bless me too When your weary heart is tired If the world would leave you uninspired When nothing more of love's desire My blessing goes with you When the storms of life are strong When you're wounded, when you don't belong When you no longer hear my song My blessing goes with you This is my prayer for you There for you, ever true Each every day for you In everything you do And when you come to me And hold me close to you I bless you And you bless me too I bless you And you bless me too
Songwriters: Brendan Graham / David Downes
Traditional Gaelic Blessing: May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields And until we meet again May you be held in the palm of God's hand.
