Breathe

 

Breathe in today…the holy mystery of God’s connection with you right now.

Breathe in the truth that you continue to be crafted and created in God’s image in this moment.

Breathe in the ways God cares about you and God companions with you.

 

There is a great prayer in the Buddhist tradition where you begin with yourself and pray, “May I be happy, healthy, safe, and live with ease.”  Or you can alter this just a bit, “May I today know joy, love, peace, and contentment.” 

 

Pause and pray those words for yourself.

 

Now, I invite you to go back over the “homework” for the last few days to pray that prayer for every person you’ve interacted with.  Pray for your coaches to have joy, love, peace, and contentment today.  Pray for your companions to have joy, love, peace, and contentment.  Pray for your causal, colleague, and those whom you care for deeply.

 

Now, comes the challenging part, where Christ’s invitation to love our enemies comes into play.  To pray that the chronics and wounded ones of your life would know joy, love, peace, and contentment. 

 

Wait…what?  This is not easy.  Maybe today all you can find the strength to do is that your wounded one would know contentment.  Or pray for that chronic to taste a millimeter of peace.

The point of this practice is to do this daily throughout your life.  This is not a one and done type of experience, there is no finish line where you can do this perfectly all the time.  We work with the Divine dance in our own lives and to move in the lives of others.

 

I pray for you, dear reader, today to know joy, love, peace, and contentment…to let your light shine to others.  Amen.