Welcoming Prayer

       Thursday night I co lead a meeting of Spiritual Directors for the Spirituality Network Spiritual Directors Association.  It was designed to be a time of connecting with each other.  I shared a reading by Mark Nepo about the "practice of return."
Here it is

Despite all the blessings of an awakened life, and all the support we can give each other, we can stumble and lose ourselves in a second. 

I can leave home tomorrow and trip into an old insecurity and flounder for days.

 And you can become lost, no matter how many times you’ve found your way.

  Accepting how quickly our course can change opens each of us to the practice of return.

Being human is to always be in return: to sacredness, to wakefulness, to the fact that we’re on the same journey, alone and together.

We’re safe, then afraid. 

We’re calm, then agitated.

We’re clear, then confused.

We’re enthusiastic, then numb.

We long for the moments of lift, and run from the moments that weigh us down.

But the inescapable rhythm of life lifts us and weights us down by turns, just as the ocean swells and dips with each wave.

When we lose our way, each of us is challenged to discern and embody a very personal practice of return – to what matters and to what has heart.

So we talked about the personal practices of return.  Lisa, who was leading with me, shared that she is praying the" welcoming prayer" these days.  I was unfamiliar with it. And today, Richard Rohr included it in his daily meditation.  So, I sat on my front porch this morning - and in my own very peculiar way - prayed it.  And thought I would include it here in this blog.

For me practices like these enable me to get a little bit centered in the living of my life.  It has been a pretty busy time  after a BIG garage sale,  four days leading small groups at Camp Christian, boundary training, and o anti racism training   I continue to feel somewhat strange in this new life of living alone.  Audrey has been gone about two months and it is just different to be the only occupant of 1812 white pine court. Sometimes it is peaceful and sometimes it is lonely.  As I sat on my front porch this morning, I was struck by all the blessings I cherish - family, friends, my home, my car, my memories.

But most of all, I am grateful for my faith - that - in the words of the "welcoming prayer",  God's "healing action and grace" are at work.  Here is a quote by Mary Mrozowski:

"I am where i need to be

Everything around me

includes and hides the sacred."

I trust that.

Here is the prayer she wrote:

The Welcoming Prayer

Gently become aware of your body and 

your interior state

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

I welcome everything that comes to me in this moment

because i know it is for my healing.

I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions,

persons, situations, and conditions.

I let go of my desire for security.

I let go of my desire for approval.

I let go of my desire for control.

I let go of my desire to change any

situation, condition,

person, or myself.

I open to the

 love and presence of God

and 

the healing action and grace within.