Do Not Worry with Rev. Dr. Amy Slaughter Myers

St. Francis Spiritual Sustenance on July 6, 2022

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Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body (Mt 6:25).

How do you and I cultivate faith and trust? In the paradoxical experience of the spiritual life, it is those times which challenge our faith, challenge our trust, that are our greatest teachers of faith and trust.

One prayer practice I am returning to is a contemplative prayer practice called the Welcoming Prayer. You can read more about the Welcoming Prayer practice here [https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/welcoming-prayer-method/]

The Welcoming Prayer gives me a spiritual framework - a container of prayer - that I can hold my most difficult emotions and still feel held in the presence of the living God. The Welcoming Prayer teaches me that strong, painful emotions are ok, and they are in fact no match for the power of God's love available to me at all times.

In this video I introduce the Welcoming Prayer practice, concluding with its third and final step which is this prayer: I let go of my desire for security, affection and control, and embrace this moment as it is.

I invite you to practice the Welcoming Prayer and share what your experience with it is. Amen.