Like splendid palm branches, we are strewn in the Lord’s path. – Latin Antiphon
 
Prayer of the Week:
Lord our God, holy is your name! Incline our hearts to your commandments, and give us the wisdom of the cross, so that, freed from sin, which imprisons us in our own self-centeredness, we may be open to the gift of your Spirit, and so become living temples of your love.  Amen.
 
Theme of the Week:  
​The Way of the Cross is the Way of Trust.
Where have you chosen not to place your trust?  
In each circumstance, does the decision bring freedom?
In each circumstance, does your decision bring a burden?
What will you do with your freedom?
Imagine placing your burden at the foot of the cross.
                             
Spiritual Practice: Contemplation of the Cross
They who enter the way of life in faith bear the cross patiently.  They who advance in hope bear the cross readily.  They who are perfected in charity embrace the cross ardently.         - St. Bernard of Clairvaux
 
Sayings from the Desert
The Cross is the true tree of life.                                                                 - A Monk
 
The cross tests everything.                                                                           - Martin Luther
 
The death of Jesus is a mystery wrought in the silence of God.      -St. Ignatius of Antioch

Now is the hour of the garden and the night, the hour of the silent offering; therefore the hour of hope:  God alone. Faceless, unknown, unfelt, yet undeniably  God.                                                                                                                                      - Abbe Monchanin  

Simply waiting for God in silence is prayer.                                             - Ladislaus Boros
 
Alleluia is the song of the desert.                                                               - Thomas Merton
 
At midnight I awoke and gazed up to heaven.
No star of all the starry host
Smiled down upon me at midnight.
At midnight my thoughts went out into the bounds
Of darkness.
No light brought me thoughts of comfort
At midnight.
At midnight I noted the beating of my heart;
I felt a single pang of pain.
At midnight.
At midnight I fought the battle of human woe;
But with all my power I could not decide it.
At midnight.
At midnight I gave the power into thy hand,
Lord, thou keepest watch over life and death,
At midnight.         -  Freidrich Ruckert

Do these three things and you will be united with God: rejoice always, pray constantly, and no matter what the circumstances give thanks.       - Abba Benjamin
Prayer of the Week: 
Day by day, dear Lord, of Thee three things I pray:
            to see thee more clearly,
                        love thee more dearly,
                                    follow thee more nearly,
                                             day by day.        - Richard of Chichester
Theme of the Week: 
What will satisfy me and yet leave me open to more?
[Robert J. Wicks Crossing the Desert]
Each day, give yourself at least one of these foods for the soul:
            Gratitude
            Simplicity
            A listening spirit
            Appreciation for your vulnerability
            Scripture
            Prayer
            Accomplishment is not the goal, faithfulness is. [Wicks, p, 83]
Spiritual Practice: Solitude
            Solitude is not anti-social.
            Solitude is being in the space of our “peaceful worthwhileness.”
             Be at peace, and thousands around you will be saved.       [Seraphim of Sarov]

​The Sayings of Abba Poemen:  Eternal Wisdom from the Desert, ed. Henry Carrigan, Jr.
The name “poemen” means “shepherd," and the sayings attributed to this monk (who died in about 449) constitute the core of what we call the desert teachings:
Teach your heart to guard what your tongue teaches.
Teach your mouth to say that which you have in your heart.
If you are silent, you will have peace wherever you live

A person who teaches without doing what he teaches is like a spring that cleanses and gives drink to everyone, but is not able to purify itself.

A person may seem to be silent, but if he condemns others in his heart he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another person who talks from morning until night, and yet he is truly silent; that is, he says nothing that is not profitable.
 
Watchfulness, self-knowledge, and discernment: 
These are the guides of the soul.

A Prayer from Sunday School:  from Rachel Carpenter
This week we are looking at what Jesus teaches about worry in Matthew 6:31-33.  As part of our teaching, I want to emphasize the fact that we have to trust God to take care of our worries and that sometimes that means that we intentionally have to give them to Him and ask Him to help us.  It seems to work better with our children if they pray in a tactile way so we need something that involves a deliberate action of release.  What better than bubble wrap!!
 
Bible verse: Matthew 6:31-33
31 Don’t worry and say, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 All the people who don’t know God keep trying to get these things. And your Father in heaven knows that you need them. 33 The thing you should want most is God’s kingdom and doing what God wants. Then all these other things you need will be given to you. 
Prayer Activity:   God loves you and wants to take care of you.  Tell God something you are worried about and ask Him to help you.  Burst one of the bubbles as a sign that you are giving your worry to God.   *****If you don't have bubble wrap, make bubbles in the sink and pop a bubble with your finger as you tell God about your worry.
On Sunday March 22nd we learned how to let Jesus push fear out of our hearts.  Here is a link to our lesson:
 

 Just as it is impossible to be at the same moment both a plant and a seed, so it is impossible for us to be surrounded by worldly honor and at the same time to bear heavenly fruit.
- Amma Syncletica

Prayer of the Week:
Holy God, it would be so deadly dull if You’d made all of us identical. Thank You for being so infinitely imaginative. Amen.
[William J. O”Malley, Lenten Prayers for Busy People]

Theme of the Week: How do I empty myself? [Robert J. Wicks Crossing the Desert]
Grace can never be possessed. It must be received afresh again and again.
-Rudolf Bultmann
What works best as a way to “clear your heart”?
A little time of silence in the morning?
Pausing to take a few breaths at certain times through the day?
Postponing checking your newsfeed until after 8am and after 6 pm?
Walking when you might otherwise drive?
Other ways to substitute solitude for company?
Accomplishment is not the goal, faithfulness is. [Wicks, p, 83]
Spiritual Practice: Solitude
Solitude is not isolation or loneliness.
Solitude is being in the space of our “peaceful worthwhileness.”
I have often said that the sole cause of our unhappiness is that we do not know how to stay quietly in our room. [Blaise Pascal]
Solitude is genuine only when it is inhabited. And the best way not to have people in your way is to let them into your heart. [Alessandro Pronzato]

Prayer from Sunday School:
Dear God, 
Help me to live one day at a time. Help me to not worry about tomorrow but instead focus on what you’re doing in my life right now. I want to trust in your promise to take care of every one of my needs.  Help me to trust you more and worry less. I pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen
Calming Prayer Bottle
How to make a calming prayer bottle:
Use a small, 8 oz, water bottle. Drink or dump about 1/2 out. Add blue food coloring to the remaining water. Then add vegetable oil and glitter. Hot glue the top back onto the bottle. Have the children shake and explain how it resembles a storm. 
Glue on the Prayer Jar note: when you are nervous, upset or worried, shake this bottle. The oil, water and glitter will mix. Pray to God using the above prayer until the liquids separate back out. Jesus calms our storms.

Those who pray stand at that point of intersection where the love of God and the tensions and
sufferings we inflict on each other meet and are held in the healing power of God.

[Sister Mary Clare]

Prayer of the Week:
Accept me, O Lord, just as I am, in my frailty, my hopes, my contradictions and my confusions.
Accept me, with the currents that pull me in many directions. Accept all of this, and help me so to live with what I am, that what I am may become my way to you. Amen.
Theme of the Week: Antony of Egypt:
We should be aware always of the uncertainty of our life and know that we are governed by God’s Providence. . . . The Lord has entrusted our soul to us: let us keep what has been entrusted to us in the same state as it was in when we received it. No one can put forward as an excuse that what is born in us is external to us. Let the One who made us recognize His own creation, and let Him find His own work as He created it.
Question of the Week: What prevents me from letting go?

[Robert J. Wicks Crossing the Desert]
Knowing what to let go of and when to let go is an undervalued art, rarely practiced. [p. 71]
What can I put aside in order to make space for God’s creative work?
Becoming acquainted with our resistance is the first step to letting go.
Resistance is not a barrier to overcome; rather it is a bridge to deeper self-
understanding.
What is the name of one thing you are holding onto?
What are the benefits of holding on?
What are the benefits of letting go?
Which choice will make you feel your “peaceful worthwhileness”?

Prayer from Sunday School: Forgiveness
_____________________________ is forgiven. In the name of the living Christ, I set you free
from my resentment and my expectations.
Go on your way in peace.

A Prayer for the Journey, by Becca Stevens [Hither and Yon]:
God, set me on the path again.
Turn me to the rising sun when I need to be inspired.
Turn me to the wilderness when I need to be lost.
Turn me toward the business of the world when I need to work.
Turn me toward the mountain when I need to be refreshed.
Then turn me toward the sunset when I need rest. Amen.
Prayer of the Week: We entreat you, make us truly alive. [Sarapion of Thumuis]
Theme of the Week: Rowan Williams, Where God Happens:
Religious education . . . has to be the conveying . . . of what I call the peaceful
worthwhileness of each person . . Individuals as they are at rest are worthwhile, just
as they are. From that God will move. [pp. xii, 54]
Question of the Week: What am I filled with now? [Robert J. Wicks Crossing the Desert]
Am I too full of my own words?
Do I speak when listening in silence might communicate more meaningfully?
When do my words create space for someone to experience their peaceful worthwhileness?
On what do I spend the most time, energy, hope, and resentment?
Prayer from Sunday School: The 5-Finger Prayer