With fame comes opportunity, but in my opinion, it also includes responsibility – to advocate and share, to focus less on glass slippers and more on pushing through glass ceilings and, if I’m lucky enough, then to inspire. Meghan Markle

Meditation: It is fascinating to think that Meghan is 36 years old today, while Princess Diana was 36 years old when she died. Diana met Prince Charles when she was only 16 years old. She stayed in a marriage for the sake of her two sons, although she did not feel loved by her husband. At the young age of 36, she was killed in a tragic car accident after having left the royal family shortly before her death by divorcing her husband after many years of enduring a painful “threesome” experience in her marriage. Meghan is also a divorced woman. She is an accomplished actress. She is entering the royal family at age 36. Her quote indicates her maturity and her mission. As Diana had found meaning and personal healing and fulfillment in serving and loving the poor, the sick and the forgotten, Meghan seems to want to pick up this calling. It is fascinating how Prince Harry waited for a mature wife to join him in continuing the legacy of his mother. Life is coming full circle!

Prayer: God we pray today for Princess Meghan as she prepares for her new life. Thank you for her life experiences and for her maturity. We pray that she and her husband will break many glass ceilings, and that they will uphold their responsibility and care for others by sharing their fame, wealth and spirit with those who need it most. We pray for protection for both of them from Paparazzi and other forces that could negatively impact their love and relationship. Send Your Healing Spirit so that they (and all of us) will help create a “New World” as Bishop Curry urged them during their wedding ceremony. Amen

But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. 2. Peter 3:13

My dad is Caucasian, and my mom is African American. I’m half black and half white. Being biracial paints a blurred line that is equal parts staggering and illuminating. Meghan Markle

Meditation: When my biracial daughters were four years old they witnesses how a biracial man was sworn in as the US President. For eight years they watched with pride how this man and family were role models with high integrity. They felt represented and validated. Today they witnessed a young feminist biracial American woman become part of the royal family in the UK. She and her husband will make a difference within this institution and family. They will use their position to reach out together to make a difference in the world’s great areas of needs. I am grateful that in the midst of the current American backlash against women and against minorities plus the reemergence of open racism and the oppression of free speech, my daughters have seen and still see examples of what is possible. There is no way back! There is no stopping! The future of our world will depend on the reconciliation of the races and the inclusion of minorities as equals and every person as an important member of society.

Prayer: God, we pray for Harry and Meghan today on their wedding day. May their marriage find the freedom and support it needs to thrive. May our children who represent the next generation be inspired by this young couple’s courage, integrity and their positive use of power and influence. Thank You that the current hate filled “Zeitgeist” will in the end not be able to overcome the larger worldwide movement of inclusion, acceptance and reconciliation of different races and classes. Amen

Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” Acts 10:34-35

If you want to preserve – I’m very serious now – if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started. John McCain

Meditation: The fact that the White House and the president are not apologizing for an internal remark that leaked: “McCain’s political opinion no longer matters, because he is dying anyway” is deeply troubling. However, if we consider McCain to be a prophet who dares to speak out when most others in his party remain silent, it is understandable that the White House rejoices about him becoming silenced. In history those in power whose actions were questioned by prophets always tried and often succeeded in silencing or getting rid of them. What we see today is a movement towards silencing the independent press. It is a movement of silencing any critics. It is a movement of oppressing and removing anybody who represents a different or opposing view. What we see in the US today is a deliberate movement toward dictatorship. There is nothing sacred, and nobody is safe. Sarcasm, bullying and mockery are every day occurrences. And even God’s people turn and are carried away and find no fault in them.

Prayer: God, we are deeply troubled. We lament that nothing is sacred anymore. Cruelty is being worshipped and human dignity denied. Prophetic speech is silenced and people who think differently are being attacked and their name and public image “is being killed”. Instead of democracy, we experience an oppressive regime. We are deeply troubled. We are mostly troubled with those who think they proclaim and speak in Your name, and who watch and listen, but who find no fault with the oppression that is happening. God, hear our lament. Amen

There is nothing sacred, and no one is safe. Vicious sarcasm drips from their lips; they bully and threaten to crush their enemies. They even mock God as if He were not above; their arrogant tongues boast throughout the earth; they feel invincible. Even God’s people turn and are carried away by them; they watch and listen, yet find no fault in them. Psalm 73:8-10 (VOICE)

 

If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. James O’Barr

Meditation: “There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one should not even attempt to do so.  One must simply hold out and endure it.  At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a great comfort. For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled, one remains connected to the other person through it. It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness. God in no way fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us preserve – even in pain – the authentic relationship. Furthermore, the more beautiful and full the remembrances, the more difficult the separation. But gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent joy. One bears what was lovely in the past not as a thorn but as a precious gift deep within, a hidden treasure of which one can always be certain.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Prayer: Gracious God, as some of us walk in grief and have to adjust to a world without the beloved person physically present, we pray for them as they remember their life before the painful loss. Be present in those feelings of emptiness. Be present in the pain of missing. Be the one who transforms our torment of memory into silent joy. Amen

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

When you have children, your marriage is now more important, not less, because other people are counting on you – Sheila Gregoire

Meditation: In the recent months my husband of twenty years and I admitted that we had shamefully neglected our marriage. Everything else came first: our work, our children, the education on the side and the demands to keep a household going. We did not even notice that we had become estranged from each other. We are both first generation immigrants. This means we are aware that we stand and fall by ourselves as we have no family here in the US to back us up. And so both of us have a high work ethic. We rarely take time out to rest or celebrate. Our social life is close to zero. All our energy goes towards work and to our children. When we woke up to the reality that our marriage had not been nurtured enough, and that we were missing time for just the two of us, I decided on a radical recovery plan. Every other Sunday night (for the rest of the year!) I booked a nice hotel room for just the two of us. As my husband works on Saturdays, and I am working on Sundays, this is the only time we have. And so on Sunday afternoons we first spend some time with our girls. Then we pick up some tasty food and drive to the hotel. The clerks checking us in usually assume that we have travelled far. And sometimes those twenty minutes drive surely feel that way. After many years without an intentional date night, we have come a long way taking every other Sunday evening as our “date night” out. Often we are just too tired to go out and do something. All we both want and need is rest. And yet it feels healing to be together. It feels like “good old times”. Times before the kids came along, times before we worked too much, times before life was so filled up and stressful…

Prayer: God of recovery, thank you for these “holding spaces” of a Sunday night out. Thank you that we are finding times to recover from too much work and from not enough couple time. Thank you for waking us up to the reality that we were neglecting the most important relationship we have: our marriage. Thank you for inviting us to eat, drink and take time away from kids and from work. And we are grateful. Amen

Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. Ecclesiastes 9:7

God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers. Rudyard Kipling

Meditation: Many of us remember their mothers today. Many women are being thanked and celebrated on this special occasion, and they deserve all recognition and love that comes their way. I like to also remember on this day, that there are many unusual and unrecognized “mothers” among us. I am thinking of and I am grateful for all kindergarten teachers, nurses, teachers and loving neighbors. I am grateful for all men and dads who choose to be mothers and who have motherly features. I am thankful for aunts and grandmothers who sometimes love a child exactly how the child needs to be loved. I am also grateful for women who are in their heart and in their ways with children definitely mothers, only not in a biological way. And I am grateful for the joy and the challenge to be a mother myself. I have never learned as much, grown as much and have been stretched as much until my children came along. They have made me a more patient and forgiving person. They are my mirror and show me my growing edges and my weaknesses. And they are such loving and forgiving girls who also see my strength and who appreciate me in my effort to be a Mom who learns and changes along the way as they grow and mature into their very own personalities.

Prayer: God, we are grateful for spouses and children everywhere who prepare red roses, thank you pictures and cards, self-baked cakes and breakfast in bed. We thank you for all families that celebrate in this way today. We are also aware of those who are sad today, as they miss their mother, or miss being a mother. Comfort them and help them see You as their mother who wants to provide them with what they need. Thank You for all who take the role of mothers in biological or in chosen ways. They make the world go round. And they stand in for Your presence. They help us believe that You still exist and that You still care. And we are grateful. Amen

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you. Isaiah 66:13a

What I try to tell young people is that if you come together with a mission, and its grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible. John Lewis

Meditation: I feel energized and excited today as this week I am participating in the national conference of the ACPE community that I belong to. We are six-hundred educators who train spiritual care providers. Our national community is going through a major transition and transformation. Instead of dividing us into regional communities, as we were organized for more than 50 years, we are now beginning to re-educate and organize ourselves with our national/global mission in mind while creating small communities of practice in local and online gatherings. I am excited to be part of an ACPE national “Professional Wellbeing Committee”. Our task is to promote the larger community’s mission while caring for the wellbeing of its small communities, its members and those who are being trained and served. A new and challenging opportunity.

Prayer: Gracious God, as our community of Spiritual educators are going through a major transition, provide us with the vision of who we can become, as we let go of old structures and patterns. Help us to embrace the even larger vision of growth and possibilities. Help us to create and remain part of new forming communities of belonging and professional nurture. Help us accept and embrace our anxiety that change naturally entails, and fill us with excitement and encouragement that Your Spirit offers to us individually and to us as a Spiritual community. Be with us in our growing pain and help us love and care for each other during this time of transitioning. Amen

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had. Romans 15:5

 

Comparison is an act of violence against the self. Iyanla Vanzant

Meditation: Raising twin daughters has been a spiritual journey for us as parents. My husband and I are both people who do not compare ourselves with others. We do not envy or strive for something because somebody else has it. We do strive for growth, and we have dreams and goals. But we do not compare. Raising twins took this value and principle to a new level of relevance for us. Since they were small we never compared them with each other, even when others tended to do so. We told our daughters: “Do not compare yourself. Not with each other nor with others around you. You are each special. You are each uniquely made. Comparing makes you miserable.” At times my teen girls struggle with this principle. However, most of the time it gives them freedom and permission to celebrate their uniqueness. They are growing to be content with who they are and what each of their strengths and limitations are.

Prayer: Spirit of God, breathe in us. Free us from comparing ourselves. Free us from self-violence, from envy or self-doubt. Free us from all external distractions and pressures that keep us from embracing who You have created us to be. Breathe in us and through us. Nurture us, so we fully embrace the person You meant for us to be. And we are grateful. Amen

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 1. Peter 4:10

If your love for another person doesn’t include loving yourself then your love is incomplete. Shannon L. Alder

Meditation: Every Sunday I am ending the worship service of the German church here in Atlanta with the words: “And now go forth, love God, love yourself and love and serve the world!” Some attendees might be surprised that I name “love of self” second and not last. Growing up with Pietistic teaching, the love of self was always mentioned last, if at all. And often it had a more utilitarian sound to it: “Preserve yourself so you can be a better servant for God and live long to serve others.” The notion of “loving self” was often associated with the notion of being “selfish, self-absorbed, vain, or greedy”… It took me many years to shed these preconceptions that self-love is basically sinful. When I finally came to fully embrace and love myself (with a change of my theology and a lot of therapy), what a liberation! My love for others has become more genuine, less forced, less moralistic and is no longer an effort to “please” God or others. Genuinely loving myself enables me to truly love others as well. This is a mystery. And so, as pastor when sending my congregation forth, I first name God as the Source of all Love, then I name loving ourselves as the genuine basis for all human love that is then being shared with others and the world.

Prayer: God, Source of all Love, you created us so we would love ourselves the way you love us. You delight in us, so we can delight in ourselves as well. You embrace all of us, so we can learn to embrace all of who we are, too. You forgive us, so we can be gentle with ourselves in our humanity and learn to forgive ourselves and others. As you send us forth into the world, you first want us to develop a loving relationship with You and also with ourselves. And then all we are and all we do radiates from this place of abounding love. And we are grateful. Amen

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22: 37-39

The English language has 112 words for deception, according to one count, each with a different shade of meaning: collusion, fakery, malingering, self-deception, confabulation, prevarication, exaggeration, denial. Robin Marantz Henig

Meditation: We live in the era of deception. A six year old on the street was asked what he thought about president Trump after his first year in office. The boy answered: “He changed the world. He took away harmony.” It seems to me that American children grow up today exposed to all 112 nuances of daily broadcasted political deception. However, it is intriguing to learn that the Native American community of the Apaches, who have a particularly negative view of lying, in their language only have two words for lying or deceiving. They did not need more words, as it happened so rarely in their culture. Our current American culture needs more than hundred words to describe and talk about deception, as it happens every day in many ways. The view of lying and deceiving is being normalized by our current political climate. The lack of harmony the boy describes is grounded in us becoming what our behavior and our mind engage in. We as culture are shaped by the language we use.

Prayer: God of history and God of the present day, as the Native American culture was eliminated and their values of harmony with nature became eradicated, the newly imported language and culture brought with it the frequent use and many nuances for the phenomenon of lying and deceiving. Behavior (and thus culture) creates language! God we pray that we, including our children, will remain critical and awake. We pray that we adults will teach the next generation in words and in practice the opposites of those 112 words. Amen

They will do no wrong; they will tell no lies. A deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouths. They will eat and lie down and no one will make them afraid. Zephania 3:13