LONG WEEKEND

Well it is the long weekend and I am sure lots of folks are gone away but for us here at St. Andrew's it is family Sunday. It is our time to gather for a meal together, to share fellowship.

In church this morning I am going to be using my favourite little theological book called, "Faith, Hope and a Bird called George" written by Michael Morwood. It is a great book that I think everyone should read. I still have a few copies if anyone wants to borrow one. We are going to focus today on Prayer. Do we pray the right way? Is there a right way? And whose way is the right way? Have you ever thought about how and why you pray?? Are you praying to a God who is out there somewhere just waiting to hear your prayer and decide if you are worthy enough to have it answered, or do you pray to help strengthen yourself and the person you pray for, not to a supernatural deity out there somewhere but to the divinity that resides within us all. Strange, most of us don't think about this at all. We learned how to pray at our parents knee or in Sunday school or from a book even, but do we think about why we do it and what happens when we don't get the answer we think we need to have.

This is what today's service is about.

This year at our United Church Conference of the Saskatchewan conference we are having what is being called Spiritual Nurturing times as opposed to Worship times. This is a term I like much better than worship. What is worship anyway? Well another question for another blog.

Hope you will come out and join us at 10:30 and hopefully you will find this a time of spiritual nurturing. All are welcome!

MOTHER'S DAY

Good Morning Everyone, it is a beautiful day here in Eston, a little chilly to start out but it will warm up. It is mother's day and with my mother living so far away I just want to say thank you to all the people here in Saskatchewan who help me in my life. But a special thank you to my Mom, for all she does for me, even all the way from Cape Breton!

I just got back from 12 days away. It was way too long to be gone. I had meetings and the second residential for my Prairie Jubilee Course on Spiritual Direction. it was a very intense week of study in Beausejour at the Sandy Saulteaux Spiritual Centre. What a beautiful place. I was surrounded by nature and by a group of folks who were so supportive and welcoming. The staff at the centre were amazing, the cooks spoiled us with great food. So the topic this week was Soul Work. What is our soul, how does our soul work, how do we communicate with our soul, how do we know what is the soul filled thing to do. Do we live from our soul, or from another part of ourselves, not quite ready to delve deep enough for soul work. So much to think about. So it was difficult deep work, but totally worth it. I learned so much about myself and about why I act the way I do sometimes. I learned that our memories from our past play an important part in our living today along with our hope for the future. So it is all intertwined.

It is a pleasure to be home and back in this wonderful little town that I have become part of. Take care all,
Barb