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| prayer and action | women who feel called | feminine values | Home | Mary of Magdala | devotion to Mary Priest | feedback |
These are texts used in women’s
liturgies.
We have tried to trace the owners and obtain their permission
where possible.
Can
we, as women, risk listening to God who may seem to ask the impossible? Are we
prepared to say like Mary 'I am the Lord's servant. Let it be unto me as you
have said'? If God seems to be calling us in ways we don't understand and to
paths we have no idea how to follow isn't it all just too confusing? At times
like these we have to trust that God desires only what is best for us and wills
to live our life and wills to give us the answers we need to live our life.
Prayer for Guidance
Lord,
show me clearly what you want me to do
with the gifts you have given me.
Grant
me the strength that I need
to answer your call with courage and love.
Make
me a generous person
so that others may experience your love through me.
Help
me always to look to You
as the One who will show me the way to live my
life.
Amen
Meditations for encouragement
To
find one's true calling in life can take a lifetime. But we believe in a God
who cares for each one of us uniquely and cares about what happens to us. The
God who has called us does not just abandon us, however lonely and difficult
the journey we have embarked on may appear to be. What plan does God have in
mind for you?
John
Henry Newman
Some Definite Service
‘When a civilisation turns,
God may no longer be found
at the
old familiar landmarks.’
Jim
Cotter
You keep us waiting
Reading: “I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord.
I repeat: what I want is your happiness. Let your tolerance be evident to
anyone: the Lord is very near. There is no need to worryy, but if there is
anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving,
and that peace of God which is so much greater than we can understand, will
guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and
sisters, fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is
noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour,
and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise. Keep doing all
the things that you learnt from me and have been taught by me and have heard or
seen that I do. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
Phil
4,4-9.
You
keep us waiting
You,
The God of all time
Want us to wait
For
the right time in which
To discover who we are,
Where we must go,
Who will be with us,
And what we must do
All: So, thank you for the waiting time.
You
keep us looking,
You,
The God of all space,
Want us to look
In the right and wrong places
For signs of hope,
For people who are
hopeless,
For visions of a better world
Which will appear
Among
the disappointments
Of the world we know.
All: So, thank you for the looking time
You keep us loving,
You,
The God whose name is love,
Want us to
be like you
To love the loveless and the unlovely and the unlovable,
To love those near us without jealousy or design or threat,
And,
Most
difficult of all,
To love ourselves.
All: So, thank you for the loving time.
And in
all this
You keep us.
Through hard questions with no easy answers,
Through failing where we hoped to suceed
And making an impact when we
felt we were useless.
Through the patience and the dreams and the love of
others,
And through Jesus Christ and His Spirit,
You,
Keep us
.....
All: So, thank you for the keeping time
and for now and for ever
AMEN.
Pam Freeman
New wine
This poem/reflection has been used often by the New Wine' group, a group of
women from England who have all experienced a strong sense of calling to
ordained ministry. The group come together to pray and share on a regular
basis. We find more in this poem each time we pray it!
“No--one pours new wine into used wineskins, because the new wine will
burst the skins, the wine will pour out and the skins will be ruined. Instead,
new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.” (Lk. 5: 37--38)
May
the wine of the Divine Feminine
be created in you,
as it was in
Christ,
as it was in Mary of Magdala.
Her beloved died.
Her
desire for him, And her newly healed self,
descended to ferment.
May
the wine of the Divine Feminine
Flow through you,
as it flowed through
Christ,
as it flowed through Mary of Magdala.
She knew him still,
in her own separateness,
and from her depths
new wine rose.
May
the wine of the Divine Feminine
send you forth,
as it helped send Mary
of Magdala.
They touched for a moment
companion lovers
and she is
free to tell
'Love is risen.'
Mary
Robins
Dreaming
THE INVITATION
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your
heart’s
longing.
It does'nt interest me how old you are
I
want to know if you will risk looking like a
fool
for love
for
your dream
f`or the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me
what planets are squaring
your moon
I want to know if you have
touched the centre of
your sorrow.
If you have been opened by life's
betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
f`rom fear of further
pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.
I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with
wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your
fingers and
toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
to
remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the
story you are telling
me is true.
I want to know if you
can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself,
If you can bear the
accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul
if you can be
faithless
and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see
beauty
Even when it is not pretty
every day
And if you can
source your own life
from its presence.
I want to know if you can
live with failure:
yours and mine
and still stand on the edge of the
lake
and shout to the silver moon of the full moon --
“Yess!”.
It doesn't interest me where you live or
how much
money you make.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of
grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to
be done
to feed the children
It doesn't interest me where or what or
with whom you have studied
I want to know what sustains you from the
inside
when all else falls away.
Orian Mountain Dreamer
For more prayers, click
here!
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Poems
Litanies
Prayers
Mary of
Magdala
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