Prayer In Motion, LLC

LET THE SPIRIT MOVE YOU

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Prayer in Motion, LLC Newsletter
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 9^th 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

Isaiah 25:1 (NIV) O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.