Three times a month we are able to provide meals to our neighbors. It is a gift for us to be able to open our hands and hearts and help others — and of course, love is always a two-way street — we are made richer by their involvement in our lives. We are serving “Grab and Go” meals during this time of safety precautions due to the pandemic, but the meals are healthy and prepared with love. If you would like to be involved in this ministry, please contact Mother Barbara (email on website) and she will connect you with the Coordinator.
Tag: community
We keep making beads!
We want everyone who would like to be able to make Anglican Prayer Beads and learn how to pray them.
So we brought the beads to the people today. Thank you, Jeanine, for making this possible!
Here are some photos of people creating beads from clay, choosing the right spacer beads and laying it all out, and then stringing them.
If you would like to make a set and haven’t had the chance to do so, just let us know. We want you to be able to engage in this way to connect more deeply with God.
Book of Psalms: How they respond to our life
Tonight, we gathered for dinner, then for a conversation about how the psalms were used in the liturgy of the Jewish temple. We learned that the themes of the psalms connected with major festivals which celebrated pivotal events in the salvation story of the ancient Israelites, such as the Passover and the Day of Atonement. In addition, they were used during rituals of purification, entrance hymns, victory songs, King’s birthdays or wedding times. The psalms responded to and led people forward in their thinking to how the ancient Jews structured their worship lives.
We then looked at how we as Christians use the psalms in our worship — always as a response to the Old Testament Reading. A response mandates that we say the psalm together and also says that the sentiment, or wisdom, or thought process of the psalm offers something that leads us in responding to the Old Testament reading in a faithful manner. We looked at the reading and response for Sunday — the grumbling prophet Jeremiah and the psalmist response, in both the NIV (New International Version of the Bible) and Psalms for Praying by Nan Merrill.
After all this discussion, we looked at how St. Benedict, as he formed the Benedictine community 1500 years ago used the psalms to respond to life, to draw people through the week to a place of faithfulness of God. It’s fascinating how we can use the scriptures to remind us about God and God’s faithfulness and we can structure our practice of praying the psalms so that we use certain ones to offer the support, comfort or challenge we may need (predictably) at the moment throughout the week.
We ended by listening to the chanting of the psalms by SSJE (Society of St. John the Evangelist). Here’s the link to purchase the CD: https://www.amazon.com/Guard-Us-Sleeping-Compline-Prayers/dp/1561012556
In the still of the night, after a long day, by candlelight, we could have all fallen asleep at the moment, lulled by the melodic chanting of the psalms by the monastic community, but woke up to eat pie and ice cream and wish each other a good night.
Our next series of fellowship, conversation, and engagement will be making Anglican Prayer Beads, which will begin on October 5th. Please join us!