1 Month Away!

  
HOLY NOW by Peter Mayer

When I was a boy each week
Sunday we would go to church
Pay attention to the priest
And he would read the holy word
Consecrate the holy bread
Everyone would kneel and bow
Today the only difference is
Everything is holy now
Everything, everything, everything is holy now

When I was in Sunday school

We would learn about the time

Moses split the sea in two

And Jesus made the water wine

I remember feeling sad

Miracles don’t happen still

But now I can’t keep track,

‘Cause everything’s a miracle

Everything, everything, everything’s a miracle

Wine from water is not so small

An even better magic trick, is that anything is here at all

So the challenging thing becomes

Not to look for miracles, but finding where there isn’t one

When holy water was rare at best

Barely wet my fingertips

But now I have to hold my breath

Like I’m swimming in a sea of it

It used to be a world half there

Heaven’s second rate hand-me-down

I walk it with a reverent air

‘Cause everything is holy now

Read a questioning child’s face

Say it’s not a testament, that’d be very hard to say

See another new morning come

Say it’s not a sacrement, I tell you that it can’t be done

This morning outside I stood

Saw a little redwinged bird

Shining like a burning bush

And singing like a scripture verse

Made me want to bow my head

I remember when church let out

How things have changed since then

‘Cause everything is holy now

It used to be a world half there

Heaven’s second rate hand-me-down

I walk it with a reverent air

‘Cause everything is holy now

I have this song set as my alarm each day, so I hear the beginning of it often before I shut the alarm off. I was thinking of the two of you with this as it's such a great follow up to our Camino and looking for the yellow arrows everywhere. 

I love this song because I just don't think we can have enough reminders to pay attention to the miracles right in front of us. So, my prayer for you this week is that you would have eyes to see the miracle of one another (how amazing is it that you get to be married ONE MONTH from today!?) and that you would be on the lookout to see God in your midst this week with wedding planning, with the people you encounter, with family and friends, and with strangers you meet along the way. 

Morning Prayer adapted for Keagan and Erika for this next month before the wedding
We begin this day
Honoring this life together,
with all its potentials and possibilities.
We begin this next month with trust,
Knowing we are created for loving encounter.
We begin this next month with hope,
 Knowing this month can hold
love, kindness, forgiveness and justice.
 
We recall the days we have had together this summer –
on the Camino, with our families, with difficult conversations-
May we learn, may we love, may we live on.
We make room for the unexpected,
May we find wisdom and life in the unexpected.
Help us to embrace possibility, respond graciously to disappointment and hold tenderly those we encounter.
Help us to be fully present to the day and to the month ahead.
 
We pray for our family and friends we hold dear--
We name them in our hearts or out loud
 
May we support, may we listen, may we change.
We resolve to live life in its fullness:
We will welcome the people
who’ll be a part of this next month
We will greet God
in ordinary and hidden moments.
We will live the life we are living.
A short silence
 
May we find the wisdom we need,
God be with us.
May we hear the needs of those we meet,
God be with us.
May we love the life that we are given,
God be with us.
-Padraig O’Tuama and Emily Huff 😊