day 29--prayers and a retrospective

I DID IT!!
I'm not sure I've done anything for 29 days straight, not in a long time anyway. I'm glad Cami had the idea for the Ning site and blogs; it helps so much to know I wanted to write down my gift every night and "talk"with you all about them, and about yours.

Tonight I sat down with my computer and my Anglican rosary (a little different from the Catholic one, 28 little beads instead of 108, but mostly there aren't any rules about what prayers to say with it). So I developed a little liturgy that I'd love to share with y'all.

I had my givingchallenge blog in front of me, and for each day's gift that I'd recorded, I prayed for the person I gave two. The prayer has two parts.

One is a practice I've kept for a long time that I read in a shared journal in a hermitage I stayed at once. I picture the person clearly in my head, then I say to them, "I love you. I forgive you." Then I sort of move focus down to my heart, and say (again to them) "I implant your essence onto my heart." Then I jump them back up from my heart into floating above my head (i imagine some of them enjoying this quite a bit, like flying or jumping on a trampoline!) and say the second prayer.

The second part is more traditional, it's basically out of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. It's the one I most often use with my rosary. I say, "God, I entrust ____ to your never-failing care and love, knowing that you are doing better things for them than I can ask or imagine. Amen."

What an amazing gift from Mbali, Cami, my sister (who gave me the book), and all of you. Thank you!! Now tomorrow for round 2 day 1!