Message from LIGHT OF GOD MINISTRY • REV. MARY WHITE
Excerpt from “What Matters Most” by James Hollis
SOMETHING TO CONTEMPLATE
Sooner or later, all of us are ushered by fate, by the actions of others, by choices we make, both conscious and unconscious, into places we do not wish to visit. Such rooms in our common psychic mansion we label depression, loss, grief, addiction, anxiety, envy, shame, and the like ... In these dismal environs we are flooded by anxiety because the fact of being out of control is no longer deniable. Accordingly, and typically, we tend to kick into our former management systems – denial, projection onto others, addiction, frenetic activity – and we mire deeper and deeper in the swamp.
With Love,
Rev. Mary White
YOUNG FAMILY FUN WITH BRENDA PIELLE
Dear Friends:
We have entered Lent and what a great way to start this special time: Pink Shirt Day fell on Ash Wednesday this year. A day of thinking about being kind to others is a wonderful way to begin the season of drawing closer to God which is one purpose of Lent. Our children and youth can certainly lead us when it comes to showing acts of kindness.
The Parent Tot video has a reading about Otters and a book called, "Friends", as well as these songs: This is the Day, May There Always be Sunshine, Snowflakes, I'm a Happy Kid, and A Happy Healthy Me (5-2-1-0).
The Family Fun video has a reading about the House Finch as well as the book called, "When We Are Kind" and these songs: This is the Day, Give Me Oil in my Lamp, A-Z in the Kitchen, Magic Penny, and Put Your Hand in the Hand.
Enjoy!
Brenda Pielle
Reaching Out to Families
Powell River United Church
R E A D I N G
From “Meditations for Mediocre Mystics: Inspiration for the Spiritually Homeless and Hungry” by Tom Stella
Anne Lamott is not only an author, but a person who knows what it is like to face her demons. She refers to that Presence and Power when she states that courage is fear that has said its prayers. The courage to face what frightens us does not dispel fear, but opening ourselves to a Higher/Inner Power enables us to move through our fear and to enter with confidence “places we do not wish to visit.” Buddhists say that when you walk into the fire, you find out it’s raining in there! Nothing is as bad as it seems from the outside, but we have to enter the swamplands of the soul in order to experience this.
P O E M ~ Take the Whole Kit
Take the whole kit
with the caboodle
Experience life
don’t deplore it
Shake hands with time
don’t kill it
Open a lookout
Dance on a brink
Run with your wildfire
You are closer to glory
Leaping an abyss
than upholstering a rut
– James Broughton
PRUC Online Worship Service
Please Join us this Sunday, February 26th
Your Inner Power is the Higher Power
Prayer
Servant-Christ
Help us all to follow you into wilderness places with you to fast, denying false luxury, refusing the tempting ways of self-indulgence, the way of success at all costs, the way of coercive persuasion. Servant-Christ, may we be enlightened to the knowledge that we are stronger with you guiding our journey.
Powell River United Church, 6932 Crofton Street, Powell River, BC, V8A 5H4, Canada