Spirit of Life and Love, God of grace and mercy, Source of all things that changes us as we cannot change ourselves,

We gather this morning as a covenanted community of spiritual seekers, coming together in a rainbow of diversity united by our conviction that the wounds of this world can be healed through compassion, forgiveness, acceptance, and courage. And by healing we do not mean restored to some mythical original purity, but brought to a new place, with greater wisdom, wholeness and liberation than could have been envisioned before.

This community is on a journey from one home to another, and yet in truth we know that each one of us is on a journey, and all our journeys place us before forks in the road. These places ask us to make choices, saying yes to some things, saying no to others, grieving in what we must leave behind, rejoicing in the blessings, often unexpected, that come our way.

In these journeys, some will choose to walk with us, and some will choose another path. Some will pause for a while, withdrawing into their own places of transformation where we cannot follow. Some of these partings happen gently and lovingly, others with judgment and disappointment.

It is our calling to accept these things as a testament to our strength and our fragility, and to trust in the process, even as we fear the unknown, even as whispers of beloved memories draw us deep into our own hearts, even when we see more clearly where we have come from than where we are going. The journey asks us to keep walking.

Let us enter into a time of communal silence for the individual prayers and meditations of our hearts.

Spirit of Life, we ask for patience, we ask for understanding, we ask for compassion, we ask for hope and gratitude so that we may welcome our collective and individual journeys with open hearts, open minds, and open hands.

Amen and blessed be.