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Today's Daily Devotional comes to us from Rev. Brenda Riley who is a retired United Church Minister. She and her husband, Dennis, became part of our congregation early in the spring - a difficult time, this year, to get connected with a church family.  Thank you for sharing your gifts with us in this way, Brenda!

 

The Welcoming Prayer  

I have found the Welcoming Prayer helpful over the years.  It is a form of meditation that can be used at times when you are being overwhelmed by an emotion in the midst of your daily activities.  A sort of “consent on the go” that can be used for as little as thirty seconds in the midst of daily life. When it is difficult if not impossible to let go of an emotion or state of being, you can instead move deeper into that state. This is a way of accepting what is rather than trying to run away from it. You consent to the presence of the sacred and to this moment just as it is.

Welcome, welcome, welcome.
I welcome everything that comes to me today
because I know it’s for my healing.
I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons,
situations, and conditions.
I let go of my desire for power and control.
I let go of my desire for affection, esteem,
approval and pleasure.
I let go of my desire for survival and security.
I let go of my desire to change any situation,
condition, person or myself.
I open to the love and presence of God

There are three steps of the prayer:  

1)Focus and sink in. This is not about indulging bad feelings. It’s not about amplifying them or justifying them. It’s about feeling the feeling. Allow yourself to become immersed in it. Let it wash over you. Don’t run away from it or fight it. Just feel what it’s like to be experiencing it. The word “feel” can mean either to have a physical experience of touching, or to have a mental experience of encountering an emotion. Connect those two. Feel the emotion physically. Notice your body, how you are tense or anxious or hot or fidgety or lethargic.

2) Welcome.  You can only start from where you are, and you can only move forward if you accept where you are. So, now, affirm the rightness of where you are by welcoming the bad feeling or emotion, and acknowledging God’s presence in the moment. You do this by literally saying, “Welcome, [bad feeling].” If you are frozen in fear, say, “Welcome, fear.” Hot with rage: say, “Welcome, rage.”

Rembember: This is about feelings and emotions, not problems and physical hardships. We are not welcoming illness or injustice. If you are looking for relief from the struggle with a problem or illness through the welcoming prayer, think about what negative emotion or feeling is being kicked up. (It will likely be a variety of fear or anger.) You might be angry about unfairness, or afraid of the future. Remember, the welcoming prayer is for feelings and emotions, not what triggered them.

Many resist the idea of accepting where they are at, when where they are at is not good. But there’s nothing passive about acceptance. Acceptance merely establishes you in reality, so that you can respond to a situation effectively. If you are terrified about a health issue, that fear may be immobilizing you; accepting and then releasing the fear may free you to be able to deal with the issue.

3) Let Go – When you are ready, say one of the following:

- “I let go of my desire for security, affection, and control and embrace this moment as it is.”

- “I let go of the desire to change this feeling.”

- “I let go of my [fear/anger/etc.].”

- “God, I give you my [fear/anger/etc.].

A good quote for living, by Sonia Ricot: “Surrender to what is. Let go of what was. Have faith in what will be.”