She Who Prays

Today is my birthday ... another year gone!  And another yet to come!

I got a gift I love from two people who love me and I'll share a favorite prayer from this lovely book called She Who Prays: A Woman's Interfaith Prayer Book by Jane Richardson Jensen and Patricia Harris-Watkins.  This prayer is the Collect for Morning (p 14) on the Day of the Sun and I offer it in the wee hours of my birthday morn ...

Morning Star, as the sun moves through the heavens, night becomes day.  As the Spirit moves through the world, the dusks and the dawns of life become holy ground.  May I feel the sparkle of your radiance so deeply within, that I am able to live fully into this day.  Let my spirit play in your presence, regardless of what transpires.  For I pray in the name of the Sacred Three.  Amen.

A Prayer for Thanksgiving

Give us this day our daily bread,
O Father in heaven,
and grant that we who are filled
with good things from Your open hand,
may never close our hearts to the hungry,
the homeless, and the poor;
in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.        Amen.

from the abbey of New Clairvaux, Viña, California
Source of Prayer: http://www.godweb.org/thanksgivingprayers.htm

the hope of unknowing

my young friend

so sad and angry

hiding behind a mask
a painted smile
on a clown’s long face
empty eyes stare

drawing me close

piercing my consciousness

neon lights flash
illuminate the night
behind you so bright
cars speed by
on the busy boulevard
sounds in the night
burning rubber
honking horns
yet all I can hear is
the silence 

crash
into the emptiness
of your tender years
i feel your pain
stabbing my heart

bleeding into my soul
each droplet 

splash
into the darkness

that holds the hope

of unknowing

© 2009 Cindy Foster Serio

Light a Candle

I often feel like a slave to my computer! Gratefulness.org is a wonderful website for those of us who like interaction in the midst of our emailing, blogging, and surfing ... I've been praying the hours with the angels for awhile but yesterday I lit a candle and posted a prayer.  If you want to light a candle yourself and post a prayer, I invite you to comment with your candle initial and I will visit to pray with you. After you light a candle or not, I send you on your way with this Celtic blessing ...
 
May the blessing of light be on you - light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great fire, so that stranger and friend may come and warm the self at it.
And may light shine out of the two eyes of you, like a candle set in the window of a house, bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.
And may the blessing of the rain be on you, may it splash upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean, 
     and leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines, and sometimes a star.
And may the blessing of the earth be on you, soft under your feet as you pass along the roads, 
     soft under you as you lie upon it, tired at the end of day; and may it rest easy over you when, at last, you lie out under it.
May it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be out from under it quickly; up and off and on its way to God.
And now may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly. Amen.

The Silence of God

One night on a silent retreat at the Abbey I walked the Labyrinth and confronted the illusive God lurking in the depths of the darkness. I demanded to be shown the darkest part of myself. One word reverberated through my consciousness, the silence of God a deafening "no."

A Journey to Worship Part 2

Last night I went to Mercy Street at Chapelwood UMC. Their mission statement is: to create a safe harbor for the hurt, the lost, the seeking so they might experience the radical grace of God. Mercy Street is an authentic community of grace that worships in a "come as you are" environment.

A Journey to Worship Part 1

I am struggling with many things in my spiritual life right now. I am desperately thirsting for a deeper connection to God. What does one do when what has always worked, doesn't work anymore? What does one do when simply nothing works anymore? Get silent ... Get silent ... Get silent ... What does one do when even the silence refuses to allow a single droplet of living water to wander onto the landscape of the soul? My God, My God! Perhaps one simply takes a leave of absence in order to search for the well within and find the way to worship again.

God works in mysterious ways ...

An All-Saints Day Tribute to MOM

Today is a day for remembering 
our loved ones ...

Leona Elizabeth Sansing Foster
1927-2007

For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

My Mom loved her little rock garden. She used to spend hours planning and digging and planting … pulling up tiny weeds and picking up thousands of leaves. I sat looking out upon my mom’s little rock garden a couple of mornings after she took her last breath. As the birds sang and the trees swayed in the gentle breeze I thought about Mom. Come, journey with me through that morning meditation. I call it …

Mom’s Little Rock Garden in Heaven

Mom died … We were expecting it but that makes it no less tragic.

Dad is so strong and we all go on. There is so much grief yet to bear but bear it we must. How blessed are we all that gathered together in her presence – to celebrate a birthday she just barely passed before passing on.

Mom fought so hard all the way to the end. Just like the weeds in her little rock garden, the tiny trials came and she banished them all … until she couldn’t anymore.

Now the weeds grow wild in her untended garden, free and rampant in their quest to take over … just like the trials that finally overcame her.

I wonder when she saw the light – the one they always talk about – the light that brings peace to the tortured soul. I wonder if she reached out to Jesus as Jesus reached for her.
No looking back, he whispers gently. No looking back, sweet Elizabeth.

I wonder if Jesus took her hand as they danced down the path. I wonder if she wondered or if she just knew … Jesus was leading her to her very own little rock garden in Heaven.

I wonder if she saw her loved ones long gone standing by the path cheering her on … her grandma her dad her mom and her sisters. I wonder … if her anticipation grew as she took each bouncing step for in heaven you bounce with no pain only joy bubbling up with each step you take.

I wonder … if she knew what God had created just for her pleasure in heaven. I wonder … if she knew she was created just for this moment.

I wonder … if Jesus covered her eyes as she wiggled and giggled with glee and opened her eyes to see … her little rock garden in heaven … a garden where no weeds ever grow … only the beautiful sweet flowers just like she loved for it’s always four o’clock in heaven and the blooms never die.

Can you see her sweet face as she smiles up at Jesus and reaches down to touch the welcoming stone?



Can you see her stand up tall and breathe in the peace and the fragrance of love? Can you see her lift up her arms and twirl round and round? Can you see her dance with childlike abandon as her garden fills up with her new dancing partners?

Grace and Mercy – her devoted garden angels flutter and flash at the edge of her garden … twinkling blue eyes and cherry red cheeks. They lift her up and hold her close, sweet Elizabeth … alone she’ll never be for she dwells today and forevermore tucked safely inside the tender heart of God …

©October 3, 2007 Cindy Foster Serio