Dear Friends,

This Sunday we celebrate Little Christmas—the feast of Epiphany. How is God showing up in our lives today? Take the inner pilgrimage below.

Traditionally on this day, the Church has come to bless homes. You are already blessing your home by living in it and letting love flow out to all who live there and all who enter. In the image of this Sunday’s Gospel, it is inspiring to think of the Wise Ones visiting Jesus, Mary and Joseph and blessing them and Jesus, Mary and Joseph blessing the wise ones in return. In God’s economy that’s the way it works: as we bless others, we ourselves are blessed. Below, we offer you a blessing prayer so that you might further bless your home.

We have newly learned that Epiphany, according to a long-standing Irish tradition, has been celebrated as Women’s Christmas. After the busy and hurried time of the holidays, Jan Richardson offers “this mini-pilgrimage into your own lives, an invitation to ponder where your path has taken you, what you're noticing in your life right now, and what you're dreaming for the path ahead, before diving into the responsibilities of this new year.” (You might be nourished by her website www.paintedprayerbook.com ) We will use this blessing for our second reading at Eucharist today.

The Map You Make Yourself
A Blessing for Women’s Christmas

You have looked
at so many doors
with longing,
wondering if your life
lay on the other side.

For today,
choose the door
that opens
to the inside.

Travel the most ancient way
of all:
the path that leads you
to the center
of your life.

No map
but the one
you make yourself.

No provision
but what you already carry
and the grace that comes
to those who walk
the pilgrim’s way.

Speak this blessing
as you set out
and watch how
your rhythm slows,
the cadence of the road
drawing you into the pace
that is your own.

Eat when hungry.
Rest when tired.
Listen to your dreaming.
Welcome detours
as doors deeper in.

Pray for protection.
Ask for the guidance you need.
Offer gladness
for the gifts that come
and then
let them go.

Do not expect
to return
by the same road.
Home is always
by another way
and you will know it
not by the light
that waits for you

but by the star
that blazes inside you
telling you
where you are
is holy
and you are welcome
here.

©Jan Richardson

Blessing of our Homes

Leader: O God of Light, bless this our home

and this our family.

May our home be a place of peace and health.

May each member of this family cultivate the gifts

and graces that You have bestowed,

dedicating our talents and works for the good of all.

Make this home be shelter in the storm and a haven of rest

for all in need of your warmth and care.

And when we go out from this home,

may we bring gifts of love and happiness and peace

to all we meet.

All: As we go about our work, our study, our play,

keep us in your light and in your love.

Help us to recognize you

in the epiphanies of our daily experiences.

Bless all who gather here with your gracious presence,

that your love may be our inspiration,

your wisdom our guide,

your truth our light

and your peace our benediction.

Watch out over our going out and our coming in

today and everyday

through Jesus Christ we pray.

God is love

and those who abide in love, abide in God and God abides in them,

present in the love and care we manifest to each other in our ordinary lives together.

.... and we invite you to make The Spirit of Life your ‘spiritual home’.  In our midst you will find support for your inner spirit’s growing in peacemaking. We promise you a unique experience of community; one where members and guests find support and hope in the journey through time and body to deepen our spiritual lives, and work together to transcend our limitations and grow in faith. Our liturgies are not “cluttered’ with non-inclusive language and messages that discount the dignity of all people. Rather, we are radically simple in embodying the “good news” of Jesus Christ... “uncluttered” by messages caught in the moral time warp so present in more traditional Catholic liturgies. At the Spirit of life... the call of women to ordained priesthood is affirmed...the sacredness of all loving relationships is honored and celebrated, and as Jesus did, we welcome ALL to the Table!   If you are seeking a Catholic community where you do not need to mentally/silently “insert” inclusive language into your prayer at Mass, or lament that your children are hearing non-loving messages about people whose sexual orientation is other than heterosexual, or feel that your “voice” is not heard.....we invite you to come and experience life in our community. We are an inclusive and interactive community, where everyone has a “voice.”  We are truly a people of “justice & Joy.”

With Epiphany prayers of love and peace for you, 

Ron & Jean