Spiritual Journeys: Weekly Messages from St. Peter's Episcopal Church

"But this righteousness that we're called to pursue is such grace. This idea of aligning our very hearts with God. And I want to encourage us to engage this Lent and this this intention of aligning our hearts with God this year, especially with a sense of wonder. Of wonder. Because this is our God. This is our God who is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness. This is our God. This is our God who, as far as the east is from the west, has removed our sin from us."

Listen attentively to the cries of those who are suffering. Listen to the cries of children in Tijuana. Listen to the cries of your neighbor beside you on your pew. Listen to the cries of your own heart, and you allow your listening to shape how you then live.

Have you not seen? Have you not heard? The same God who counts the stars is counting on us, each and every one of us, to be God's people, to be God's diakonos, to be God's people who serve in the world and who serve the reign of God for the healing and redemption of this world and that's what we hear in this great gospel story.

If you said, "I have a demon in my thought," or something like that, what would that mean to you?

You don't have to be a parson to be God's person. Every one of you is someone God yearns to work through. Wherever God has placed you in this world, whoever the people are in your life that you are interacting with on a daily basis, go be God's person for them. And bring God's love to them. And invite them to imagine a transformed world and a transformed life.

Each of us has been called by God to fulfill a purpose, a spiritual calling in this life. And the calling process can be divided into three steps. First, there's discovery. Second, there's decision. And third, there is action. May each of us proclaim, as Samuel did, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

God has a purpose for each of us, a mission, and in our baptism the Spirit gives us everything we need to live out the mission God has given us....

We are all born with a light in us. How will you share that light with the world this year?

God was Born for Us by the Rev. Paige Blair-Hubert

The Thin Places by the Rev. Susan Astarita