Welcome.
It's good to see you here this morning as we gather to be reminded of God's love and grace in this time and in this place.
As you're comfortable,
Let's begin our breathing practice this day,
Settling into your seat as comfortable as you can be.
If it's comfortable to allow your back to rest on the pew,
Allow yourself to sink into the seat,
To be held in a way.
If you're comfortable closing your eyes,
Please do so.
If not,
That's just fine.
Leave them open and rest your gaze,
Maybe on the pew back in front of you.
My eyes will remain open during our time together.
Let your breath.
If thoughts come,
Allow them.
Try not to attach yourself to a thought,
Creating a narrative or playlet.
Just allow the thought to come and go.
If a feeling arises,
Allow that feeling to be just that,
A feeling.
Place that comes to you by the thought.
Integrate in your breathing appreciation the gifts that you've received this week,
The joy that's on the surface of your mind or deep within your heart.
The gifts that you've received this week are from the giver.
The giver of the gift is also the giver of all grace.
Take a moment to center yourself on God's grace.
The one who breathed life into you.
The one who sustains you.
The one who provides for you.
The one who created you and called you good.
Oh,
What would it be like for us to focus our entire attention on God every moment of every day?
To be reminded that we're cared for,
That we were created for goodness,
That we're loved no matter what.
Rest in that just for a moment.
Maybe greet that thought with a half smile or focusing inward and finding that goodness,
That love,
That care that is already within you.
So often we live with the mythology that life happens to us.
As people of faith,
We know the truth.
Life happens through us.
So how did life happen through you this week?
Let's take a moment to remember our week.
Let's take a moment to remember our week.
Let's take a moment to remember our week.
Let's take a moment to remember our week.
Let's take a moment to remember our week.
Let's take a moment to remember our week.
Let's take a moment to remember our week.
Let's take a moment to remember our week.
Let's take a moment to remember our week.
As you've worked through your week chronologically or methodologically somehow,
Inevitably something comes up in the review of our week or our day.
In the Ignatian spiritual tradition,
We take a moment to ask for forgiveness for any miscommunication,
Mistake,
Misstep.
We offer that to God.
So take a moment to ask for forgiveness.
And if God,
The creator of the heavens and the earth,
Forgives you,
Why not forgive yourself while we're at it?
As a forgiven and reconciled people,
We set our intention on this baptism of the Lord Sunday.
We pray for the whole year,
Starting today.
Let's commit ourselves,
Be covenant partners in shifting our thinking,
Feeling,
And doing that life is happening to us.
It's external to us.
Push that spiritual thinking into life happens through us.
So what is it that we have to prepare our hearts and minds for?
John baptized Jesus in the River Jordan.
Jesus comes up out of the river.
A dove descends and a voice from heaven says,
You are my beloved.
Through whom I am well pleased.
What if we are all baptized with Jesus today?
What if you come up out of the water and a voice from heaven says,
You are my daughter.
You are my son through whom I am well pleased.
So this week I invite you whenever you might imagine that life is happening to you,
Ask yourself a question like,
What agency do I have in this moment?
What choices occur to me that I can respond spiritually in this moment?
How is God working through me to do no harm,
To do good,
Staying in love with God and my neighbor as I love myself?
And now we wrap up our time together.
By praying the prayer of life through us.
The prayer Jesus taught his disciples,
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
