Find an anchor in your breath.
Return to it as your mind might wander or as you might be led.
The anchor can be your upper lip or your belly,
Wherever it might be.
That's a reminder to catch your breath,
To reset where you are.
And is the root of the contemplative practice to reset right where you are.
Sometimes we're lost in the past.
Sometimes we're projecting a future.
What our practice does is helps us to remain present.
Finding an anchor is a tool along the way to remain present.
It's part of our weekly examine.
We come to a time when we appreciate the gifts we've been given.
So take just a moment to recognize the gifts you've been given this week and also the giver.
Spiritual teacher and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh says,
It's good to greet a gift with a smile.
So if your practice lends itself to it,
Allow your body to respond to the gift that's before you,
With a smile.
The giver of the gift is God.
Let's turn our attention to God.
The one who compassionately cares for our every need.
Focus on the grace that God gives you.
And if it's helpful,
Focus on the grace God gives me or others around you.
Now center yourself on that grace,
Being entirely open to what God has for you.
You were created for and with goodness.
You were created for and with goodness.
This is God's ultimate gift.
Using God's grace in and for our lives.
I invite you now to review your week.
You may want to do this chronologically.
Others of you buy events.
Still others of you just stay in the meditative contemplative practice and allow the week to unfold in whatever order it comes.
Attempt not to attach yourself to any specific event or create narratives.
Just look on with curiosity as to what feelings,
Thoughts and actions come up for you as you review your week.
Stay engaged.
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If your mind wanders,
Or you get caught up in a feeling or a narrative,
Just come back.
No judgment,
All compassion,
And begin again.
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You might not have gotten through your entire week,
And that's just fine.
It's a beginning of a practice.
Maybe you found yourself dwelling on one issue or concern,
A conversation.
Maybe that caused a miscommunication or misstep or mistake.
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And that's 90% of your contemplative practice,
For sure.
Recognizing it is a gift.
Now take what you've recognized and without exploring it,
Ask God to forgive you,
To forgive that moment,
To shower you with the gift of grace for that moment.
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Now I want you to do something outlandishly,
Courageous and compassionate.
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Forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to forget.
The hope is,
I believe,
That we grow far more comfortable with forgiveness than we do forgetting.
Living our lives being a forgiven and reconciled people.
Fully embodying the care that God has so freely given us.
We remember what Jesus said at the very close of the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew.
Do not worry about your life,
What you'll eat or what you'll drink or about your body,
What you'll wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air.
They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to the span of your life?
God's ultimate care is for and with you.
You will be cared for.
You will be loved.
Our intention this week is to recognize God's care for you personally,
For another,
For all of creation.
And maybe,
Just maybe,
You can speak those words to someone else.
I recognize God's care and love for me.
I recognize God's love and care for you.
I recognize God's love and care for the world in these kinds of ways.
The prayer that Jesus taught his disciples ultimately was an invitation to live in the present.
Not to dwell in the past and not to project a future,
But to realize even the simple gifts are profound in our lives.
So let us now gather our voices together as we set our intention to live presently,
Live in the care and compassion with our God as we pray together.
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Beautiful and loving people go from this place encouraged with a God of love and grace who is with you every step of the way.
God bless you on your journey.
