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We are the Beloved of God
Opening Prayer: In these personal, communal and societal times of challenge, it is easy to forget who we are. Whose we are. With the help of mystic and author, Henri Nowen, we are invited to re/discover our identity.
Opening Song: You are Mine
Reading
Our first and most important spiritual task is to claim God's unconditional love for ourselves. To remember who we truly are in the memory of God. Whether we feel it or not, whether we comprehend it or not, we can have spiritual knowledge in the heart – a deep assurance that passes understanding – that we are God's beloved.
Dear friends, I want you to hear this: what is said of Jesus is said of you. I know this can be hard to affirm. You are the beloved daughter or son of God. Can you believe it? Can you hear it not only in your head through your physical ears but in your gut, hear it so that your whole life can be turned around? Go to the scriptures and read: “I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have written your name on the palm of my hand from all eternity. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you in your mother's womb. I love you. I embrace you. You are mine and I am yours and you belong to me.” You have to hear this, because if you can hear this divine voice speak to you from all eternity, then your life will become more and more the life of the beloved, because that is who you are.
Leader: Nouwen reminds us that we are not the beloved in a narcissistic way, but as a conduit of God’s love:
Love, as Jesus reveals it to us, is a relationship between persons. The word “person” is a wonderful word. It comes from the Latin words per, which means “through” and sonare, which means “to sound.” A person is someone who is sounding through.
What are we sounding through? We are sounding through a greater love than we ourselves can contain. When we say to somebody, “I love you,” that really means, “You are a window through which I can get a glimpse of the infinite love of God.”
Prayers of Intention: Who or for what, would we like to pray this evening?
Closing Prayer: As evening melts into night may knowing your identity is Beloved, allow you to relax way down deep within you.
Closing song: You Can Relax Now by Shaina Noll (3 min. 53 sec)
https://youtu.be/Ut0lwEahTB4?si=O5T9HyB8MsFxtD7b
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