INTRODUCTION

FIRST STEPS

Hanging on our dinning room wall is a print of the Van Gough painting titled “First Steps.”  It depicts a mother gently coaxing a child to take some tentative, awkward, life-changing steps into the waiting arms of the father, kneeling receptively across the garden. 

Here are a few “first steps” you are invited to take as you begin the Sabbath Journey.

First, we must learn to slow down.  Unless we learn to slow the pace of our lives nothing will change for the better.  When we slow down we will have the time to pray, to learn, to be together in community and to find healing.  These are gifts that have been buried in the pace of our lives.  It is only in slowing down that they can be rediscovered.  When we slow down we become aware of God’s grace.   Two basic truths are foundational for the journey:

God’s grace and love are present in our lives all the time.

When we are aware of God’s presence we are most alive.

I hope that this Sabbath journey will help you to –

RECALL God’s presence

NOTICE God’s presence

NAME God’s presence

DEEPEN God’s presence

CREATE A RHYTHM of prayer that will enhance your awareness of God’s     presence.

“Every inquiry is seeking and the journey of seeking is guided beforehand by what is

sought.”9  Let our seeking be for God for in God we find our true selves. 

A PLAN FOR DAILY PRAYER

The way you pray is as individual and unique as your relationship with God.  As you begin to establish a Sabbath time in your life, notice what prayer styles emerge. What time is best for you?  What practices help you to focus or center on God?  You may want to close your eyes or watch a lighted candle, listen to music or sit in silence.  Try to set aside time in the morning and evening and discern what feels the most comfortable.

Can you describe your prayer time?  My prayer is like…

A GENTLE REMINDER:

Distractions, even frustrations and fidgeting may occur often at first. God honors any attempt you initiate to communicate and recognize the Divine Presence in your life.  At first, try three or four minutes. This may be your first attempt to prepare your heart and mind for a holy experience.  Be patient. Everyone has similar feelings at first.  Sharing your experiences with others may provide you some support.

      

JOURNALING

A journal can be a treasured companion to deeper spiritual awareness.

Guidelines for keeping a journal:

* Write with confidence and abandon.

* Others need never read your entries unless you choose to share them.

* Let your mind meander on paper. 

* Nothing is insignificant.

* Trust your first impressions. They are usually the most authentic.

* Acknowledge deeper feelings of which you may not have been aware.

* Feel free to address your thoughts to God.  This may take the form of a salutation like “God whose steadfast love and faithfulness never fails” or perhaps in the form of a lament or cry for help as in “O God do you hear me?” It may help to imagine sitting with God over a cup of coffee reflecting over the events of the day.  The biblical Psalms demonstrate a variety of ways one can authentically approach God. 

* Reflect on times and places where you’ve appreciated God’s presence in your life.

* Your journal can be a remarkable tool for prayers of recollection.

* You may want to return to it from time to time to recall how God was present in your experience.

      

Genesis 1:1 and 31-2:4

      

        At the beginning of God’s creating of the heavens and the earth…

        God said and it was so.

        Now God saw all that he had made, and it was exceedingly good!

        There was setting, there was dawning on the sixth day.

        Thus were finished the heavens and the earth with all their array.

        God had finished on the seventh day from all his work that he had made.

        and then he ceased on the seventh day from all his work that he had made.

        God gave the seventh day his blessings and he hallowed it,

        for on it he ceased from all his work that by creating God had made.10