MONK'S MUSING

From Pastor Janell Monk

“Blessings on your day” is how I end my daily phone calls to the women on the Women Touched by Grace prayer list. “Blessings of hope” is the salutation on my church email. As I woke Tuesday morning to no electricity, I heard the hum of a generator on my walk as a blessing for the medically fragile and the hoot of an owl as a reminder of my connection to creation and the Creator. Fortunately, the power was back on by the time I got home from my walk, and I felt blessed to easily brew my tea.

At the end of worship, we bless people who are having a birthday, anniversary and traveling. It was brought to my attention in this social media world how someone with ill intent could notice a blessing for those who are travelling and possibly take advantage of their absence. Unfortunately, this is the world we live in. We talked about this a bit last Sunday, and I have a solution. Before the solution, I acknowledge some of you would never have imagined the vulnerability of announcing in a church service that someone is travelling out of town. Another person mentioned that the neighbors keep watch. Both may be true and that does not diminish the potential harm a determined person may ignite. Not everyone is blessed with the freedom not to worry about someone knowing their whereabouts or having caring neighbors who watch out for them.

As your pastor, I want to bless significant situations in your life. Corporately, we will continue to invite folks to come forward for a birthday or anniversary blessing. For those who are travelling, I still want to know. My solution is to invite you to write your travel plans (where you are going, when you are going, or whatever you want to share) on the prayer card in the chair backing and then to put it in the offering plate. I will be able to pull it out as I receive the offering and lift up those who are traveling with a general blessing. We will experiment with this adjusted practice of holding our travelling companions in our prayers. Thank you for caring for this community of faith and being concerned about our well-being.

When I met with the Care and Comfort team this morning, I opened to a page of In the Sanctuary of Women by Jan Richardson and read a blessing. It is poignant as we prepare our hearts and minds for All Saints Sunday. This can be a day of resurfaced grief as well as a reminder of the promise of eternal life. I invite you to spend a moment and reflect on your one wild word.

ONE WILD WORD

“I'll tell you a secret. Though I am drawn to the Liturgy of the Hours and it's ancient beauty, it still stirs up a fight in me. I resist its regularity and orderliness. Some days, when faced with the Liturgy, I give up and pray for one wild word, one plea that is the most honest prayer I know in that moment, that sums up the deepest longing I am feeling.

One of my ongoing prayers is this: God, teach me to pray. On those days when I find the one wild word, when I offer it and know the place from which it has come and the God who dwells: there on those days, I think perhaps I've begun to learn what it is to pray.

Blessing

That you will learn how to pray.

That you will forget how to pray

and so learn again and again.

That you will find one wild word.

That I will open your heart.”1

Blessings of Hope

Pastor Janell

she/her

1 Richardson, Jan. In the Sanctuary of Women. Pg. 138-9