While our public gathering is cancelled, the following liturgy is provided for home use, for those seeking “sacred time” – –
Evensong ~ Lent IV ~ March 18/20
“Thrown all together in one unrelenting present, we are made to recognize in one another what we deny most vehemently about ourselves: in the end it’s our vulnerability that connects us” Jon Mooallam
A Simple Lighting of a Candle to Connect with the Evensong Community
A Prayer ~ Pandemic
When your body has become still,
Reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
In ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now)
Know that our lives are in one another’s hands.
(Surely that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
Of compassion that move invisibly,
Where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love –
For better or worse,
In sickness and in health,
So long as we all shall love. Lynn Ungar 3/11/20
Words of Reflection
“Not at every moment of our lives, but at certain rare moments of greeness and stillness, we are shepherded by the knowledge that though all is far from right with the world, all is right deep down. All will be right at last. I suspect that is a least part of what “He leads me in paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3) is all about. It means righteousness not in the sense of doing right but in the sense of being right – being right with God, Divine Presence, trusting the deep-down rightness of life that is in us and riding the wave of that trust. I think that is the shelter when the wind blows bitter and the shadows are dark.” by Frederick Buechner
“As frightening as it may be to “center down”, we must find the stillness at the core of the shout, the pause in the middle of the Amen as first steps toward restoration. Everything appears much clearer when it emerges out of silence.” by Barbara A. Holmes
Rest in Stillness
A Meditation on Psalm 46: v.10
Be still and know that I am God. Silence and follow the breath
Be still and know that I am… silence and breath
Be still and know that I… silence and breath
Be still and know… silence
Be still…
Be.
In times of great clarity, be still and know that I am God.
In times of chaos and uncertainty, be still and know that I am.
In times dis-ease, be still and know.
In times of fear and upheaval, be still.
In times of deep trust, be still and know that I am God.
Quiet Prayer
A Blessing
May there be bread for the journey.
May we be companions on the road.
May we dare to trust deeply and love extravagantly.
May we be lovers in a dangerous time. Amen.