THE COMPANIONS

COVER

Wondrous One, may we bend with courage and humility into this time of reflection, repentance, and reconciliation. Bless us with stillness and curiosity to hear those voices within ourselves and others that cry out in need of acceptance and forgiveness. Then with our Christ may we rise on Easter morn with clearer vision and renewed joy, bearing your generous love into the world.

Kay Hankinson, SCHC

THANKSGIVING: SUNDAY AND EVERY DAY

Thanksgiving Day is every day.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of this Earth, our island home, its sunrises and sunsets, moon and stars.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of life and breath and for the nurture of families, those of our birth and those created for us through classrooms, neighborhood, work, church and book clubs, and those who care for us but upon another shore and in a greater Light. Thank you, Lord, for the gift of water and soil which you have provided to create our food—the plants and animals who give their lives to nourish us.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of music to gladden our hearts.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of the holy angels who will escort us safely to You when we rise to the life immortal.

Every day is Thanksgiving Day.

Kathleen MacGregor, SCHC

MONDAY: SIMPLICITY OF LIFE

O Holy One, as we walk through Lent,

guide us by your Spirit to find joy in simplicity of purpose, that we may abide in your Love.

Nola Sheffer, SCHC

TUESDAY: UNITY OF ALL GOD’S PEOPLE

Lord, help me to see the face of Jesus mirrored in everyone I see today.

Help me to extend Your love into all I meet today.

Help me to receive Your love through whom I encounter today.

Help me to express my love for You by sharing it and receiving it.

Jill Dampier-Need, SCHC

WEDNESDAY: SOCIAL JUSTICE

Mother/Father God, you made the earth as a living creation, bountiful. Lead us, we pray, to nurture the earth and to share its abundance. Cause us to have visions of methods to equalize the riches, and help us, please, to have the courage to implement these visions. In Your name we pray.

Ginger Harstad Glawe, SCHC

THURSDAY: PEACE & RECONCILIATION

Let us all be reminded that each of us is a child of God. Allow our hearts to respond with the fondness of a sibling to all that we encounter. Give us the wisdom to be open to differences and change and to let the one who reigns over all be the decider of good and evil. We ask these things in the name of Jesus.

Nikki Wood, SCHC, for the Aims and Prophetic Ministries Committee

FRIDAY: GROWTH IN SPIRITUAL LIFE

Loving Creator, you know well our late-life burdens. Thank you for giving housebound Companions the strength to find contentment, even joy, in the difficult hours of pain and limitation we now experience. Thank you for our mentors who inspire us to “hold the beauty and sorrow of life together” knowing you are with us all along the way.

Eileen Harakal, SCHC

SATURDAY: PRAYERS PERSONAL AND GENERAL

O God, who orders all things well and good, mightily and always more tidily than I can: please help me to focus on essentials, to try to avoid distraction, so that when I mess things up, the overcomplication is less awful than before. It is always a struggle to pull back from the tempting “sidebar.” Help me know that I need to call upon your help daily! And in due course, by Your grace, get better at cleaning up my act, so I will have energy to devote to helping others whose needs I know.

Melissa Fox, SCHC

Give us grace, O Eternal Father, that we strive to

keep the way of the cross and carry in our hearts the

image of Jesus crucified. Make us glad to conform

ourselves to thy divine will, that being fashioned

after his life-giving death, we may die according to

the flesh, and live according to the spirit of

righteousness; through the same Jesus Christ our

Lord and only Savior. Amen.

The Manual, 2006

Image by Allan Rohan Crite