Weekly Graces

February's Weekly Graces:

Week of February 22nd As we looked at both the roller-coaster narrative of Hezekiah in
chapters 36 thru 39 and at the words of Jesus in John 15:1-9, we learned of a tenacity of
spirit worthy of emulation. Jesus says, "Abide in me..." and we definitely saw Hezekiah,
though not the wisest of kings, being a leader nonetheless tenaciously crying out to and
reaching for God. Your grace this week is both a prayer and a declaration, a reaffirmation on
your lips of your greatest allegiance and hope, in spite of whatever would slow you or hold
you back, you say with faith "I will abide." And in God's graces, abide we will.

Week of February 15th We'd like to share a prayer by Ludwig van Beethoven...
“We must praise thy goodness, that Thou hast left nothing undone to draw us to Thyself.
But one thing we ask of Thee, our God, not to cease Thy work in our improvement.
Let us tend toward Thee, no matter by what means, and be fruitful in good works.”

We can say “Amen” to that. And as a special intentionality this week, let's take that
thought of “Let us tend toward Thee...” and in our words have a prayer on our lips asking,
“God, help me keep my focus on you in all things...”

Week of February 8th Songs are powerful. Music speaks to and embeds in the heart
in a way that spoken words often cannot. Sunday morning we saw a song of praise spring
up in a text filled with troubles and woe, and our grace for the week to cry out in prayer,
"Lord, put a song of praise in my heart." May the hope and joy of God be a song that you cannot
shake, even in the hardest days.

Week of February 1st This week we are invited to stand with Isaiah and hear the call of
God in chapter 6, "Who will go?" And we're invited to give the same heart-felt response of
Isaiah, "Lord, here am I..."

What is God's calling in your life right now? Where is God working to change the world
and inviting your participation? This might be a good opportunity to take last week's
grace and put something new into action...

January's Weekly Graces:

Week of January 25th This week we are finishing a month of talking about building
a culture of peace. In view of that goal, the weekly grace is to spend some time in
reflection on this question, "Who does not have my heart?" In other words, who are
the people, or who is the person, to whom I respond out of anything other than love?
Is there an individual or a group of people for whom I have not chosen to share my
love and peace? Do any prejudices or hatreds still infect me? Gay people, Straight
people, Republicans, Democrats, Latinos, Whites, Blacks, Koreans or Cowboys fans?

Spend some time with this question this week. The answer may come quickly or
slowly. Our hope is to be further freed from the "old person" who lives by hate and
by malice. May God's peace increase!

Week of January 18th We went a little bit of a different way this past week. Instead
of a prayer to focus us we talked about a practice. For a while now there has been
on our "online resources" page a link to www.gratefulness.org and the opportunity
to light a virtual candle in prayer. Once there, search for a group called "cib."

Week of January 11th "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace." (St. Francis)

Week of January 4th "...to know Christ more intimately,
to love Christ more intensely,
to follow Christ more ardently..."

Weekly Graces from January & February…