Sunday Invitation: Hope and longing

Today's moodling is just a quick invitation to Advent Prayer. Join me online, live at 7 pm MST this evening, or anytime afterward at the link below... I will post the video at the link, and it can be viewed for the next few weeks.

We will be praying with beautiful songs of hope and longing from the Taize community, with scripture, and silence. If you're online, you can also post your personal prayers so we can keep each other's intentions in mind.

All are welcome -- for the rest of Advent too.

https://www.facebook.com/events/430838638423614

Advent hope, peace, joy and love to you all!

Join us for Taizé Prayer tonight

With summer almost gone and fall activities getting underway, we resume our schedule for Taizé prayer this evening, 7 pm at Assumption Church (9040 95 Avenue). Consider this an invitation to join us for beautiful ecumenical prayer, followed by fellowship, coffee and goodies in the church basement. We all need to pray together more often, to be less afraid to cross each other's thresholds and share our faith journeys together, because spirituality is what makes us truly human.

We will be singing Bless the Lord this evening. God leads us into life, and that's worth celebrating together! Have a good Sunday.

Edmonton Taize Prayer 2016

If you’ve been reading these moodlings for a while, you’ll know that yours truly has been involved with Taizé Prayer for quite some time, and that I even had a chance to visit what I call my heart's spiritual home -- the little community in the Burgundy region of France known as Taizé.

I love praying in the style of Taizé because it’s one way that Christians can come together and not worry about theological differences – after all, everyone on the planet is a beloved child of God, and it’s kind of ridiculous that any of us go around thinking ourselves better than anyone else, or that our faith is truer. I also love that there is no preaching at an evening of Taizé prayer – scripture is read (in several languages) and we’re left in silence so that God can speak to our hearts.

If you’re in the Edmonton area and are looking for a beautiful, musical and ecumenical way to pray, come join us, and feel free to bring friends. Also, check out the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/edmontontaizeprayer/.

Come and fill our hearts with your peace

Tonight's Taize Prayer will be held at Strathearn United Church at 7 p.m. As we're into the Remembrance Day weekend, we are praying for peace, and for our veterans -- those who have given their lives for freedom, and those still with us. May they feel the Good Shepherd's care for them through the people who surround them, and may we all work tirelessly to end poverty, injustice and war in our world.

Come Holy Spirit

This afternoon, our Taizé group will be singing at 2 p.m. at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Main Atrium, offering our prayers for all the people in the hospital complex. We will begin with the chant in the video below, asking for God’s healing spirit to fill caregivers, patients and visitors alike. We hope many people will join us in prayer as life in the hospital goes on all around us. I'm also offering the prayer for Joan's family, and for Eric, and for my mom-in-law, who is recuperating from a bad fall... for whom are you praying today? Let me know and I'll pray for them, too.

This is such a lovely chant, I think I'll listen to it during my morning prayer for rest of the week ahead. Enjoy!

A prayer for Syria

Consider this my Sunday moodling, posted two days early. This weekend we will be praying for peace in Syria at A Taste of Taize Prayer on Sunday, 7 p.m. at Assumption Catholic Church, 9040 95 Avenue, Edmonton.

I have been praying for Syria for quite a while, as I have two friends in L'Arche who are from that beautiful but embattled country, and who are very worried about friends and family that they haven't heard from for too long. Cell phones don't work when there is no power grid... or when everything is left behind in an attempt to flee the country. Those who stay likely don't have enough with regards to food and shelter. It is a dire situation for far too many, and the dangers are constant.

Please consider adding your voice to ours as we ask God for a better solution to the conflict than more aggression. Everyone is welcome -- bring a friend or two with you if you can.

O God,

source of faithfulness and truth,

guide your people
in the ways of love and justice.

Open our hearts and help us
to work and pray together

so that oppression and poverty are eliminated, 

and so that people of all faiths
have enough of what they need
to live in harmony and joy.

Bless, especially, the people of Syria,
and bring them peace.

+AMEN.

Some new Taizé music for a Sunday

Tonight our Taste of Taizé Prayer will be held at 7 p.m. at Assumption Catholic Church, 9040 95 Avenue, and I hope you can join us if you live in the area. But if you're far away, not to worry. Here's a video with some images from Taizé itself, and some new music that I hadn't heard before, Ȏ toi l'au-delà de tout. The lyrics are wonderful... what I love is that they don't talk about God, but directly to God, as a real prayer should. Enjoy!

Ô toi l'au-delà de tout,

Quel esprit peut te saisir

Tous les être te célèbrent

le désir de tous aspire vers toi.

You who are beyond all things,

what mind can grasp you?

All that lives celebrates you;

the desire of all reaches out towards you.

For more information about Taizé, visit www.taize.fr

In God alone my soul can find rest and peace...

in God, my peace and joy. Only in God my soul can find its rest, find its rest and peace.

This is one of the chants we'll be singing at a Taste of Taize prayer at Assumption Catholic Church (9040 95 Avenue) at 7 p.m. on Sunday evening, October 14th. Everyone is welcome. Feel free to bring a friend!

I always end up singing it in French because that's how I learned it, but the English words work, too. Kudos to the video maker -- neat pictures...

Have a happy Sunday!