LET THE SPIRIT MOVE YOU
"For I know the plans
I have for you,” declares the Lord,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you a hope and a future."
(Jeremiah 29:11 NIV)
†
Janene Ternes,
Director
Prayer in
Motion, LLC
351 Eastlook
Drive
Saline, MI
48176
PH: (734)
429-7754
Email:
PrayerInMotionJT@aol.com
NEWSLETTERS 2008
December 31, 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
Happy New Year! As has become my custom, I will use this first newsletter of 2009 to share the highlights from the past year. 2008 was another wonderful year, filled with many adventures and much love!
January
The year began with work in my home parish, St. Francis of Assisi, who continues to support me so faithfully. Between a reflective program for my fellow liturgical ministers and a celebration through movement of the Baptism of Jesus for our family religious education group, I was able to expose many people to the practice of movement prayer. On a personal note I was thrilled to be able to purchase an almost new Honda Accord because of last year’s Christmas gift from my mother-in-law. It has served me well as I already put 18,000 miles on it this year!
February
I did many Lenten programs this month with one favorite being the women’s retreat at St. Joseph Shrine in Brooklyn where I spent the day with 60 beautiful women seeking to find their beauty within and live their faith more fully. Another special program was at St. Andrew parish in Saginaw. The people there were such a loving, giving group who sent me home with a huge container of homemade chili from their evening meal that fed me for much of the winter!
March
In March I was privileged to provide a retreat day for a group of adults from St. John’s in Fenton preparing to enter the Catholic Church at Easter. These neophytes were open and seeking the Lord. My Easter celebration was complete with choreographing and teaching 3 dances for the St. Francis Easter pageant, two dances for different ages of girls (Resurrection and Alleluia angels) and 10 precious boys who became dancing fishermen much to their surprise!April
Continuing my Easter joy I led a full day retreat at Manresa Jesuit Retreat House on “Finding our Joy”. It was my largest retreat there thus far and much joy was truly experienced! Sadly, shortly thereafter my dear friend, mentor and former spiritual director of more than 15 years, Shaun McCarthy, passed away. Shaun walked with me during Don’s illness and death, the many years of healing and discernment that followed and the fearful times I experienced in the beginning years of Prayer in Motion. Even now I feel his encouraging presence each time the fear threatens to return. How God has blessed me with so many people to be His Presence in the day to day business of life!
May
May brought a lovely opportunity to be a part of an appreciation day in Blissfield for seniors from Hillsdale and Livingston counties. I found these people to be so prayerful and engaged despite lessening physical abilities, truly savoring their later years.
June
I took my “Embracing Transition” program, which I have been so blessed to present several times to the nurses at St. Paul of the Cross Retreat Center, on the road to a wonderful group of women at the Capuchin Retreat Center in Washington (Michigan). Shortly thereafter I was able to squeeze in my own personal retreat at Jesuit Retreat House in Cleveland. After 3 years without this precious time in silence with God, it was very renewing and restoring.
July
Of course the highlight for July was the celebration of Prayer in Motion’s 5 year anniversary! Fifty dear friends and family gathered to mark this special occasion and many others sent cards and email wishes. As seems to be the case in God’s time, I feel an odd sense of having just begun while at the same time feeling like I have always done this work. I continue to be open to whatever God may have for me in the future while at the same time thoroughly enjoying each day I get to do this.
August
Through a series of God-incidences – a postcard that I sent to someone in the school who passed it along to the gym teacher there, Therese Terns, because of our similar last names, who then recommended me to her principal - I was able to conduct a retreat day for the teachers at Sacred Heart School in Dearborn. Through more divine intervention the out-going director of Weber Center, Sr. Pat Fischer, OP, recommended I be added to their spiritual director team. This has provided wonderful opportunities to do retreat direction which I have always wanted to do.
September
One of September’s big events included planning and conducting the St. Francis parish picnic as a part of my part time position there. While I have planned many parties in my life, this one was for 600 people and had to be moved indoors at the last minute due to rain! It was a huge success despite the rain but I slept for a few days afterwards! The other big event that month was a day retreat at Manresa entitled “Going Deeper”. It was the first program actually planned for those who had previously attended Prayer in Motion retreats and resulted in much deeper work by the Spirit.
October
I was blessed to return to St. Gerard’s in Lansing to work with 120 children ranging in age from 5-12 for their Kids Mission. Using songs from the Mass I taught them to add movements to their prayer. I also began working with a prayerful, spirit-filled woman, Jean McGarty, to learn how to give the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Our weekly times together with our directee have been like an oasis in the busyness of life as I get to see the Spirit working so powerfully.
November
My time at the Lansing Youth Jamboree was an amazing adventure as both sessions were filled beyond capacity by very energetic high schoolers. After battling with a fear-induced creative block for weeks prior, I finally opened to God’s inspiration the night before and choreographed some great Christian rock and hip hop songs. I so felt Don’s and Shaun’s encouragement that day as well as the prayers of many of you! To start off Advent I presented three Generations of Faith programs to Corpus Christi parish in Detroit. This very poor parish had amazing spirit and faith which blessed me tremendously.
December
As seems to be my pattern, I started getting sick just before my Advent retreat day at Weber Center this year. Last year just before this program at Manresa I lost my voice. This year I lost my hearing. For nearly two weeks my ears were plugged and it was quite difficult to hear much. Having encountered both difficulties, I found the inability to hear much more challenging. I felt so isolated as I struggled to communicate, really putting on my heart the deaf of our community. As for the retreat day, God managed to work amazingly despite my inability to hear much and playing the music too loud! And as for my ears, after lots of drops and multiple attempts to flush them, a quick trip to an ear specialist has me hearing better than ever, thanks be to God!
In this time of uncertain economy and high unemployment, people so need to feel God’s presence. Prayer in Motion opens hearts to God and allows Him to heal, inspire and empower them. And I am so blessed to have been chosen to help!
My prayer for each of you in 2009 is that you feel God’s loving Presence and that you allow Him to heal, inspire and empower you through that love. Thank you for your continued love and encouragement which continues to sustain me.
Prayer in Motion, LLC … Let the Spirit move you!
Janene
November 28, 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
As I sit down to write this on the day after Thanksgiving, I am feeling thankful to have all of you in my life. What a source of love, joy and support you are to me! For those of you who haven’t heard from me much lately, I apologize. My mantra continues to be balance but it has been a struggle to squeeze time off amidst my three “part time” jobs.
In July I began my second year in the part time position at St. Francis of Assisi Parish as Adult Faith Group Coordinator. Knowing that I have 12 paid hours each week no matter what else happens in my schedule is a great blessing! It has been a wonderful experience to work with the parish to help build community through many events such as an outdoor movie night and parish picnic, as well as walk with the bereaved, divorced and unemployed by facilitating programs on celebrating the holidays amidst our losses and navigating change and being a welcoming presence at our business leaders breakfast, All Souls’ Mass reception and annulment seminar.
The spiritual direction portion of my ministry has continued to increase as I have been added to the retreat team at Weber Center, doing direction out there for people on retreat. This fall I began training to give the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with a wonderful mentor, Jean McGarty, who has given the Exercises for many years. In our weekly meetings with the directee I am constantly amazed at the great wisdom of this process and the guiding of the Holy Spirit that brings people to a deeper realization of their faith.
Things have really heated up for Prayer in Motion in the third quarter of this year. I began with a wonderful retreat day for the staff of Sacred Heart School in Dearborn. Having grown up in Dearborn and attended a nearby Presbyterian church as a child, it was an odd sense of “going home”. Next came an awesome program at Manresa which I called “Going Deeper”. And deeper we went! The retreat day was filled to capacity with many who had attended my retreats in the past so we were able to begin at a much deeper level and continue the journey inward. The day was filled with much Presence of the Spirit!
In October I conducted breakout sessions for St. Gerard’s Kidz Mission in Lansing. Using songs from the Mass I taught 120 children ranging in age from 5 – 12 to add movements to their prayer. I returned to Lansing a few weeks later to lead two breakout sessions of high school youth at the annual Jamboree. After spending some weeks frozen in fear about what to do for this program, the Lord finally provided inspiration the night before as I choreographed three Christian rock and hip/hop songs in my basement studio. Fearful that no one would choose my sessions, I was shocked and overwhelmed when 120 teens showed up for the first session and 90 for the second. My constant prayer throughout our time together kept me focused and calm and I was blessed to see the fruits of the Lord’s labors through me.
I ended the quarter with my first full retreat day at St. Paul of the Cross Retreat Center in Detroit. Fr. Jim Thoman, the Passionist Priest who is the director there, was most helpful and made me feel right at home. The day’s theme “Listening to God” was well met by God’s very active Presence within our midst. I am working with St. Paul’s to hopefully schedule another date there in the spring as well as serving on a planning committee to create more programs for nurses at their center.
Prayer in Motion, LLC … Let the Spirit move you!
Janene
July 31, 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
As most of you know, I just celebrated the 5th anniversary of Prayer in Motion, LLC. I was blessed to borrow the Paschal candle from my church and honor each of the 50 dear friends and family who were able to attend the celebration with a candle lit from it which said “Thank you for being Light to me.” Indeed each and every one of you is Christ’s Light to me and without you Prayer in Motion would likely not exist and my life would be much diminished! Thank you!
Last quarter I was blessed to be able to continue a series of workshops for nurses I am doing in conjunction with a classmate from the spiritual direction internship, Bernadette Beach, at St. Paul of the Cross Retreat Center. We held 5 sessions in the last year and are scheduled for 7 more in the coming year. The theme, “Women and Mid-Life, A Mosaic of Transitions,” covers the physical, emotional and spiritual components of change and has been accredited by the Michigan Nurses Association so those attending will receive 6.0 contact hours towards their continuing education requirements.
In April I conducted my largest day retreat ever at Manresa Jesuit Retreat House. It was filled to capacity as we gathered to “Find our Joy”! It was indeed a joyous day with much healing and the joy that results from such healing so evident! These gatherings are truly my favorite to do since in spending the day together we can explore God’s relationship with us so much more deeply. Those who leave these gatherings are friends, not clients. And of course I get to see God at work which is always my joy!
Additional programs last quarter included the Women’s Spirituality Series at the Capuchin Retreat Center that was well attended, a large group of Hillsdale/Lenawee seniors who gathered in Blissfield for their annual appreciation day and the Episcopal Ministry Fair where I was blessed to make many contacts in the Episcopal Church for future programs.
I was also quite blessed this quarter to have more individual spiritual direction clients than ever before - 12 directees plus 2 others I’m supervising for the Manresa Spiritual Direction Internship. Each person has been a unique gift, allowing me to more fully see God’s working in my life and theirs.
Prayer in Motion, LLC … Let the Spirit move you!
Janene
May 16, 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
2008 has been a great year! January started off with a couple of nice programs at St. Francis, my home parish. God bless them for keeping me busy! A group of about 150-200 family religious education parents and children of all ages, gathered together to celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, Prayer in Motion style. We reenacted our own Baptism as well as focused on our Baptismal call to “Go Ye Out”. I was also blessed to present a reflective, prayerful experience for about 100 of the liturgical ministers who serve us so faithfully each week in the mass.
I had some lovely youth experiences this quarter, including a Confirmation retreat for a group from the Congregational Church of Birmingham and a junior high school retreat from St. Andrew’s in Saline. Both were rockin’ events with much activity (thanks to Michelle for those hip/hop lessons!) which finished for me with a long soak in a hot bath! I was most blessed during the Confirmation retreat to see a young man, who I was told never participated in anything, come out of his shell and embrace God through the movement prayer. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I had his grandmother in a day retreat a few weeks later which proved to be equally moving to her. I have always felt God placed an affinity for movement prayer deep within some of us - perhaps this prayer form is in our genes?
Lent of course was a blessed and busy time. I kicked off the season with a trip to St. Andrew’s in Saginaw to give a Lenten soup & supper talk and program. I found there a wonderfully open and loving group who sent me home with buckets of leftover chili and slipped money in my pocket. And the Dominican Sister I stayed with overnight has become a new friend and cheerleader. My Lenten program at Weber Center was another prayerful gathering of truly wonderful people, where I was blessed with the opportunity to witness and participate in God’s healing work. I finished off Lent with a lovely RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) retreat at St. John’s in Fenton, giving them some new experiences of prayer before they were initiated into the church at the Easter Vigil. The fact that the retreat day was on the 9th anniversary of Don’s death was particularly moving for me. How far the Lord has brought me from that empty and bleak time in my life!
My Easter joy this year came from working with 3 groups of St. Francis children, choreographing and teaching them dances for the Easter pageant. The first group of 18 glory angels, ages 5-6, processed in with movements enacting Jesus’ love for us through the cross. Then the older girls, ages 7-10, danced around the altar celebrating Jesus’ Resurrection. But my favorite group was the 10 boys, ages 7-10, who came thinking they were going fishing, looking for the tackle boxes and fish in the Baptismal font, and soon realized they were dancing fishermen. Despite their somewhat awkward movements, they hopped joyously around with their nets.
On a personal note, thanks to great generosity from my mother-in-law, I was most blessed to be able to get a new car at the beginning of the year. In addition to having reliable transportation again (after many issues with my previous 1999 Buick with more than 130,00 miles on it), I am getting great gas mileage (it’s a Honda) and even have a few luxuries with heated seats (love that in the winter!) and XM radio thanks to a family plan I’m on with my brother-in-laws. And a most wonderful Christmas gift from my brother-in-law Dave and his wife Kathy, a GPS, has me headed in the right direction with no more stress about finding places or my way home! Prayer in Motion is on the move!
Prayer in Motion, LLC … Let the Spirit move you!
Janene
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