“What we are asked to do is to love; and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbor worthy if anything can. ~ thomas merton

This is the Welcome Table of our Redeemer,
and you are invited
Make no excuses, saying you cannot attend;
simply come, for around this table you will find your family.
Come not because you have to,
but because you need to.
Come not to prove you are saved,
but to seek the courage to follow wherever Christ leads.
Come not to speak but to listen,
not to hear what’s expected,but to be open to the ways the Spirit moves among you.
So be joyful, not somber,for this is the feast of the reign of God,
where the broken are molded into a Beloved Community,
and where the celebration over evil’s defeat has already begun.
~ from SING THE JOURNEY

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For thou art making me, I think thee Sire.
What thou hast done and doest thou knowest well;
And I will help thee, gently in thy fire
I will lie burning; on they potter's wheel
I will whirl patient, though my brain should reel;
Thy grace shall be enough my grief to quell,
And growing strength perfect through weakness dire.

~~From The Christian Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitehall Smith