Eternal Echoes

a prayer of desire...

i want to dream dreams,

and to share visions,

i want to walk a

grace spiced

light filled

life, i want to seek

truth, shot through

with compassion,

and to know

that i move

to the heartbeat

of the one who understands 

my strengths, and my

weaknesses, i want to

be transformed

day by day,

moment by moment,

to grow, in wholeness,

to love as i am loved...

i want to be more than i am,

and to be(come) who i am

called to be...

i want to know

the power of God

at work in

my life, then

 to share that life,

salt and light,

in the world

Picture; Fullness by Tim

 

 

The strength of weakness...

This morning at a small village Chapel we commissioned two Lay Pastoral Assistants, as well as making promises they both gave testimony, and while I will not divulge the content of those testimonies here, I want to say that what came through powerfully was a story of God's strength in our weakness. The story of a God who has been present in difficult and traumatic times, the God who revealed in Jesus brought an assurance of compassion and understanding. A God who is big enough to take our anger and frustration, and gentle enough to dry our tears.

The reality, bravery and rawness of those testimonies also revealed a God who brings healing and is the strength in our weakness, the God who works by his Spirit in and through in all of our experiences. Everyone who heard these incredibly brave stories this morning was touched deeply. This was not a harsh and hard faith, but a real faith forged in tears and struggles, and the love of God shone through...

And I count myself privileged to pray for and support them, and to have shared in their stories.

  Treasure is kept in clay jars. In the same way, we have the treasure of the good news in these earthly bodies of ours. That shows that the mighty power of the good news comes from God. It doesn't come from us.

 We are pushed hard from all sides. But we are not beaten down. We are bewildered. But that doesn't make us lose hope. Others make us suffer. But God does not desert us. We are knocked down. But we are not knocked out. We always carry around the death of Jesus in our bodies. In that way, the life of Jesus can be shown in our bodies. (2 Corinthians 4: 7-10)

 

life (pondering John 10:10)

and here is life,

full, abundant life,

freely offered,

powerful, 

peace-filled,

grace driven

LIFE,

flowing with 

possibilities,

crammed with potential,

life, inviting life's 

participation, in a

life to be lived

as it was meant to be,

here is life,

calling out

in the darkness;

"here is light",

in the desert;

"here is water"

in the silence;

"hear my voice"

... here is life,

full, abundant life,

freely offered,

powerful, 

peace-filled,

grace driven

LIFE,

do you hear

the call

of life?

Will you respond?

 

 

 

 

invited...

do you hear the invitation,

in the quiet of your heart...

come ...

come, where

none are excluded,

come for

all are welcome,

come for

the barriers are broken

the curtain rent in two,

come ..

come with your doubts,

your fears, your dreams

and expectations,

come with your questions,

come in anguish and elation,

come, come bring

your anger and confusion,

come

with your scrap of

understanding,

open your heart

to hear creations

creator calling,

wooing,

waiting,

longing,

come,

come further up, and further in, 

come in your brokeness

and bleeding,

no need for masks,

or "proper" clothing,

no need for ritual initiation

come,

the table is ready,

the feast is laid,

do you hear the invitation,

in the quiet of your heart

come...

come as you are, and

I will meet you here...

 

Friday Five Sacraments.... all is holy?

It is my turn to set the revgals Friday Five this week, and having been so much caught up with thinking about the sacraments I had to ask a few questions about Communion and Baptism;

This Friday Five stems from some questions that have been running around my head and heart recently and are squeezing their way out through my blog here and again here

So I'd like to ask you some simple questions about the sacraments:


1. What does the Lord's supper/Holy Communion/ Eucharist mean to you?

I love the way that Mark.W. Stamm describes it:

"In the Eucharist we learn to handle holy things and offer them to God. God meets us in the midst of the action and converts us in and through it, changing our relationship with all of creation."

For me that transformational possibility of meeting with God is key, we are guests at his table, and just as in the parable of the banquet those who would take the lowest place may find themselves invited to move higher, so I believe God places himself into our hands, according us the deepest honour, and to refuse a place at his banquet is a terrible thing.

Handling the bread and wine always moves me whether I am presiding or not, it is a holy space, charged with the Spirits presence, and through it we touch God in a tangible way.

2. How important is preparation for this, and what form does it take?

How can I ever be ready for such an event, and yet I should aim to be, the command to examine ourselves applies particularly to those who know God and should be taken seriously.  BUT God can and does break through our unpreparedness, and the Methodist tradition that I am a part of offers and open table making it possible for people to respond to the invitation there and then...

I also believe that the encounter can be deeply healing, and one morning while feeling like I had no right or place to be training for the ministry, at an absolute low I was called on to serve the wine, and as I did so several of my fellow students, some who knew what I was going through and some who didn't met my eyes and through them in the sharing healing flowed, and God was in that place, the new covenant was alive and well, and I found myself cleansed.

3. What does baptism mean to you?

Baptism is primarily a sign and symbol of the covenant of God and the grace of God. It is offered to those who ask for it, and is an outward sign of that inward grace that called them to it. I would prefer to Baptise adults of children old enough to understand what they are undertaking, for it represents a commitment between the God, the one being baptised and the whole community of faith, local and global.

That said I do baptise children, and can with integrity because of the words of the Methodist Baptism Service:

"N For you Jesus Christ came into the world, for you he lives and showed God's love, for you he suffered death on the cross, for you he triumphed over death rising to newness of life; for you he prays at God's right hand; all this for you, BEFORE YOU COULD KNOW ANYTHING OF IT.

In your Baptism the word of Scripture is fulfilled:

WE LOVE BECAUSE GOD FIRST LOVED US!  (capitals my emphasis)

I am always sad when adults want Baptism and I am unable to offer it because they were Baptised as infants, it is possible to provide a creative liturgy that helps to meet their needs, but...

4. How important is preparation for baptism and what form does it take?

I don't think we need to make a huge fuss, but I do think it it important for people or parents to know what they are entering in to/ asking for their child to be initiated in to. This can involve formal classes, but I prefer the more time consuming yet fruitful one to one dialogue. People ask questions more freely when they are at ease.

5. A quote/ poem/ song that brings you before God in a sacramental way, and helps you to engage at a deeper level...

I want to share Taize's Within our Darkest Night, which may seem strange, but for me the Sacraments, especially the bread and wine of communion are never more powerful than when we meet God at our low point, knowing that s/he understands.

 

still outside the box....

Well when I put my blog post "Thinking outside the box" to bed last night I hadn't really thought that I'd wake up to comments from unexpected people like Steve Taylor, and am grateful for the way he has reflected on my post. As I said yesterday it was the result of my grappling with stuff in my head and trying to start a conversation, if only with myself.

I'd like to look at a couple of Scriptures that I used and unpack why, and then to search for others/ more insight.

• When I looked at Pentecost, I was looking to the response of the people, who wanted to know how to respond. I recognise that their world view was largely formed, but I would also argue that there is in many cases in the UK at least, an underlying worldview that is open to the story of Jesus if it is told in the right way. In a sense I'd see the Jerusalem group being led out, having their world view exploded beyond their imaginations, while in a western context I guess the invitation is to re-visit a known story (if a rejected one) and to see it in a new way. I guess the difference is that for the Jews that there was one God was not a question while for spiritual seekers in our post-modern context reject that idea, that said an invitation to move towards Christ is valid.

 

• I wonder if looking at Peter in Cornelius (Acts 10) house might be more appropriate:

⁴ While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. ⁴⁵ The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles.⁴⁶ For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Then Peter said, ⁴⁷ “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” ⁴⁸ So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

• Of course Peter had been invited (more like summoned) to Cornelius house, and the whole encounter was infused with the Spirit at work, but those words "surely no-one can stand in their way" blow open the barriers and boundaries that once existed in Peter's mind, the whole encounter with God on the roof-top made sense, and he grasped the open invitational move of God, and the encounter expanded as he stayed with them for a few days. Would they have celebrated the Lords supper in those days? I like to think they would have.

 

• I also looked at the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, and at her question about worship, and while I acknowledge that the sacraments were not offered in this place, (although there was a giving and sharing of water which raises interesting questions) I wanted to point more to the blowing away of boundaries, and Jesus pointing to himself as the locus of worship. 

Now to tradition:

• I take Steve's point about the preparation for the sacraments practised by the early church, and the year long anticipation, I am reflecting on these questions asked of a congregation in London: "But how many of us arrive in Church without any sense of preparing to meet with God in the Eucharist? How many of us say the words without thinking through their implications? How many of us use the peace as an opportunity just to speak to our friends? How many of us think that the long Eucharistic prayer is something to get through whilst trying to keep the children quiet?" and wonder if we should make more of less of our practice.

This all leads me to reflect again on Heiberts missiological thinking about bounded and centered sets, and I am intrigued by this post from Bosco Peter's who looks deeper into the mathematics and says:

"

Clearly, and unfortunately for the theological stuff expounded first, a bounded set is a subset of a centered set. Ie. all bounded sets are centered sets.

So the theological shift from a bounded set to a centered set makes little mathematical sense as a bounded set is a centered set.

I thank Mr Robert Sharp for checking my Mathematics. Any of the correct bits can be credited to him. Any of the errors, I’m sure, are totally my fault.

The contrasting of centered sets and bounded sets has now become accepted in theological circles. Maybe there just aren’t many Christian mathematicians? [See here and here and here and here and here and here...]. Mathematically they just don’t contrast.

As I reflect upon this I want to ask whether there is anything that should be bounded, and if so should it be the sacraments, is our practice too light? Do we receive week after week without real preparation, and should we place more emphasis on preparation? Or should we free ourselves from the constraints that we have created, emerge from behind the torn curtain (for God is no longer contained-if he ever was...), and offer God's holy things to the people made in his image if their desire is to respond to him through them.

Maybe the question we are left with then is who holds the centre, and what is it?

thinking outside the box (or trying to)

I don't even know how to begin this post, it comes from so many things that a stirring within me that and I have no real idea where it will go....

OK I'll start with this; this last weekend I gathered with a group of friends who are involved in ministry to the New Spirituality/ Pagan/ spiritually seeking arena; no surprises there I guess. I left that gathering (it is hard to call it a conference for it was so unique), with a sense of reconnection and joy but also a sense of frustration with myself, I'd wanted to say something, but I hadn't really had time to work it through within myself in order to present it coherently.

I  had wanted to ask questions about the way we might use the sacraments in a way that connected with the culture, told the story of Christ from creation to re-creation, and offered a physical, tangiable yet spiritual response. My thinking had been primarily centered upon the bread and wine of communion, but offering baptism might also be a possibiltiy...

Now I am not suggesting an unthought out rush into the local market place or shopping centre, but I am suggesting that there are occassions and contexts where we are able to share the story of God in the world, from creation to re-creation, the incarnation, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, and we need to give people the opportunity to respond...

Imagine setting out to tell the story of God at a town festival, a music festival or something of that kind, tell the story in an imaginative and creative way, and people gather to listen. How then do we invite them to respond? They could come forward and recieve a tract, and prayer, and maybe those things are good, or we could break bread together...

Jesus did just that with the 5,000 who had gathered to hear his teaching, they were hungry, physically and spiritually, and recognising their hunger as a whole hunger Jesus fed them; the action of taking, breaking, giving thanks, distributing the bread and fish are replayed and  brought to fullness in the last supper, where the bread and the wine took on holy significance...

Would we be offering holy things to people who don't understand, just think for a moment, at the last supper Jesus shared bread with one who betrayed him, one who denied him, and several who ran for cover and hid as the terrible events of his trial and crucifixion unfolded. They didn't understand, and lets face it , we don't understand the depth of love that gave and gives itself so freely even now, and yet we receive, and as we do we are converted as we enter into the transforming and renewing and recreating purposes of God.

How about the one who comes to us with an extraordinary experience of God, and on hearing their story we cannot deny that is was of God, do we demand that they attend classes to prepare themselves, when do we welcome and accept?

Now I am not saying that we should neglect discipleship, but I am asking whether the sacraments could be offered in an outside of the box , a tangiable, physical way for people to meet with and respond to what the Spirit is stirring in their lives.

I find myself rooted in a tradition that offers and open table, and yet I find that many people feel that they are unworthy and excluded, they voice a spiritual need and a spiritual hunger that is not met, and as much as we might think that the table is open many people's perception is that is is closed; and frankly the "body language" of church is unhelpful.

So what I am asking is how do we make something open really open? How do we do away with the boundaries and barriers in our minds, I wonder if we have replaced the temple curtain with communion rails  and service books... If we've re-worded the open invitation to all who want to respond in a language that is exclusive and incomprehensible to many....

On the day of Pentecost many responded to Peter's message:

Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?"

 ^38-39Peter said, "Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites." (Acts 2)

Whoever God invites we are to welcome, and as God's ambassadors he makes the invitation through us... (2 Corinthians 5), but we are not inviting people to jump through hoops, to conform and to become like us, we are inviting them to respond to the one who is living bread, and living water, who calls us to worship him in Spirit and in truth, to the one who has compassion on all that he has made, the one who loves completely, sacrificially and powerfully! Too often I hear people voicing a belief in a God who excludes and punishes with harsh discipline those who do not live up to his exacting standards, and I struggle to reconcile this God with the one I have come to know, the one who says to us:

^28-30"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

and:

 ¹³"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

 ^14-16"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

None of this was said to people who "got it", invariably they didn't and they needed freeing from the rules they and others had made for themselves. When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, she questioned him about the right place to worship, here is John's account of that part of the encounter:

" “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. ²⁰ So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”

²¹ Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. ²³ But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. ²⁴ For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”" (John 4)

Jesus broke down barriers and through boundaries, and opened a new way of worship, a new way of knowing God centered upon himself, and in doing so, set the good news free. I find this concept strangely offered again through a mathematical principle reclaimed as a missional model;  centered and bounded sets (many thanks to Steve Hollinghurst for introducing me to it). Frost and Hirsch pretty well sum it up here:

"In the bounded set, it is clear who is in and who is out (fences, not wells), based on a well-defined ideological-cultural boundary --usually moral and cultural codes as well as creedal definitions.. but it doesn't have much of a core definition beyond these boundaries. It is hard at the edges, soft at the center."

The centered set, on the other hand, "is like the Outback ranche with the wellspring at its center. It has very strong ideology at the center but no boundaries. It is hard at the center, soft at the edges. We suggest that in the centered set lies a real clue to the structuring of missional communities in the emerging culture.

"The traditional church makes it quite difficult for people to negotiate its maze of cultural, theological, and social barriers in order to get "in.".. and by the time newcomers have scaled the fences built around the church, they are so socialized as churchgoers that they are not likely to be able to maintain their connection with the social groupings they came from...

"We propose a better and more biblical way.. is to ... sink wells. If you sustain your connection with the water sources, you will find a whole host of people relating to Jesus from different walks of life. We allow people to come to Jesus from any direction and from any distance. The Person of Jesus stands.. at the center." (The Shaping of Things to Come)

So what am I saying about the sacraments? I believe that they open a door of powerful encounter with God, and that they can be used missionally, indeed that they are in some way;  for if it is the Holy Spirit who brings them to life, who are we to deny that gift to people wanting to respond to God, no matter where they are on their journey? Maybe we need to learn to become wellkeepers rather than spiritual bouncers....

 

 

 

relevant????

At a pastoral visitors meeting today I was asked why I thought that people who had been brought up in the church, been to Sunday School, etc. now find that church "does nothing for them?"

If I am honest the very question makes me want to weep, these people have not said that they don't believe in God, simply that church does not meet their spiritual needs. Frankly they find it irrelevant... I talk with these fol quite often, and honestly I understand the anguish they are expressing...

I understand because I find myself there, sometimes when preparing a service I loose the will to choose hymns, my soul does not want to sing five verses of a hymn no matter how rousing. It wants to sit in stillness, to make my own prayer rather than have others say them for me, and I get that they don't want me doing that...

Don't get me wrong, I think there is a place for both and, and a place for teaching and preaching and  hymns, but if that is all we offer we risk living in our heads, and knowing our faith in a very cognitive way...

Now that suits some people, but it starves others....

Am I being critical, well yes I guess that on some levels I am, but more than that I am voicing my own need and desire for the living waters that Jesus spoke of to flow through my very being...

We moved on in our meeting, at our coming Church Anniversary Celebration we are welcoming a little one through Baptism. One comment was "well I hope it won't be a three ring circus..."  followed by " I hope they will behave"....

Now there are times when I want to scream, and this was one, we cannot and must not demand that people who are searching become "like us", and who is this "us" anyway...

Too many people are leaving the church, week after week for us to be able to sit in judgement of them, we MUST ask ourselves if we are missing the point...

I love God, I love Jesus, I need and love the Holy Spirit to work in and through me,  I love the church, but I also despair of her lack of spirituality... and yes I know that that will deeply offend many. But please, raise your heads, look out at the world and ask yourself what is happening.

This weekend I attended a conference where I took part in a "Christ-fullness" meditation, after settling our breathing and becoming still we were asked to imagine Jesus standing, open hearted before us, as I did just that I experienced a touch of the Holy and found myself wrapped in a rainbow of colours and filled with joy and peace. It revealed to me just how dry and dusty and hungry I have been over the last couple of years...

God's love has not changed, but the world has and people are hungry and thirsty, we must change if we are to meet them, not by changing the gospel, but by growing into what we need to be for a new generation, for the lost generations....

How do we speak of the Jesus who speaks of life in all its fullness?

Maybe we simply echo his invitation: 

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."( Matthew 11: 28-30)

And maybe, just maybe we can begin to get our heads around talking about out pilgrimage of faith, and walking it together, rather than keeping it for Sundays and insisting on dressing it up in its Sunday best....

... it is a challenge.

Maybe this should be our song: (follow the link to hear it)

I've tried to stand my ground
I've tried to understand
but I can't seem to find my faith

like water on the sand
or grasping at the wind
I keep on falling short 

please be my strength
please be my strength
I don't have anymore
I don't have anymore

I'm looking for a place
that I can plant my faith
one thing I know for sure

I cannot create it
I cannot sustain it
It's Your love that's keeping (captured) me

Please be my strength...

at my final breath
I hope that I can say
I've fought the good fight of faith

I pray your glory shines
through this doubting heart of mine
so my world would know that You

You are my strength
You and You alone
You and You alone
Keep bringing me back home

 

Welcome by Tim Coleman

 

awakening....

As I walked through Durham today my attention was not caught by the bridges or the Cathedral towering over the city, but by the new leaves unfurling on the trees, and the freshly washed verges, where spring flowers and shoots were beginning to show. For once I stopped and breathed for long enough to catch a glimpse of the presence of God coursing through creation, bringing fresh life to the earth. I was struck by the fact that every spring trees receive a new cloak of leaves, and though they might be similar to last years cloaks, they will not be the same...

A fore taste of the new earth to come: 

 ¹ I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth were completely gone. There was no longer any sea.

 ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem. It was coming down out of heaven from God. It was prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

 ³ I heard a loud voice from the throne. It said, "Now God makes his home with people. He will live with them. They will be his people. And God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or sadness. There will be no more crying or pain. Things are no longer the way they used to be."

 ⁵ He who was sitting on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" 

(Revelation 21)

 

Picture: Best Spring Trees by Julie Haskell

+

+

the year turns on

to spring,

and as the sap rises

the potential

of a new season

begins to unfurl

in paper thin leaves,

and blossoms pregnant

with promise,

life burgeons

everywhere,

called

to new birth

by a powerful

internal

awakening...

here Ruach's breath

is stirring

through creation

wooing her with warmth

and washing

her clean with

gentle rains...

if we are attentive,

she might refresh us too...

+

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Eucharistic Prayer/ Thanksgiving for Beltane (the coming of spring)

I have been struggling with this liturgy written in an attempt to connect with not only the Season of Beltane, a celebration of the earths warming and awakening, with its rituals of cleansing and fertility and symbols of water and fire with a Eucharistic liturgy that celebrates the Trinitarian God as present in and through creation. I have written it for the ROMBS Conference this weekend, though it may end up being dramatically changed... as all things I and it I hope are works in progress...

 

 

Eucharist; Beltane

 

As seasons turn and earth warms beneath our feet

Invisible we see you,

Christ above us,

Christ beneath us,

Christ at our side, and within,

In you all things hold together

The atom’s light energy,

The pulsating rocks,

The oceans rhythms,

The vibrant greening of the earth…

 

Creator God, who called all life into being

THE EARTH, SEA AND SKY ARE YOURS.

 

Your presence is all around us

THE WHOLE EARTH GROANS FOR YOUR REVEALING GLORY.

 

Your Spirit enlivens all who dwell upon the earth,

WITH HER WE YEARN FOR JUSTICE TO BE DONE

 

For creation to be freed from her chains

FOR THE HUNGRY TO BE FED

AND FOR PEACE TO SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE EARTH

 

Here with these symbols of water and fire we celebrate

Your cleansing, healing presence. (A clear jug of water and a lit candle are brought to the table.)

 

Here with these symbols of bread and wine

We acknowledge your brokenness

And your givenness makes us whole. (Bread a loaf/ large roll, and wine are brought to the table)

 

On the night before Jesus died,

He took bread and wine

And giving thanks to God broke the bread saying

"take and eat, this is my body, broken for you"

and took the wine saying

"take and drink, this is my blood poured out to cleanse the world."

 

 

As seasons turn and earth warms beneath our feet

Here lie new hope,

New life, re-birth,

Here are the

Endless possibilities

Of the wakening earth,

May we too

Respond

Like seeds

Dying to live,

 Plunging down

Into fertile ground,

And reaching upwards

To the light,

Awakened by the

Spirit's breath,

To the ancient eternal, ever new

Rhythms of life

To grow,

To glory,

To dance,

And to praise

 

 

So meet us here Holy One,

Move among us Spirit of life,

Meet us here, as we remember,

Meet us here;

Transformed and transforming

Broken and whole, given and giving,

Meet us here, that we might receive,

Meet us here,  that nourished

Afresh by these holy gifts

We might live in you,

As agents of change in your world.

 

So now let us share together

In these gifts of creation and of God

Eat and drink that the life of Jesus may renew your life

and lead you to wholeness,

restore our broken relationships

and heal our world.