Author Archives: Janet Salbert

About Janet Salbert

Always becoming a listener for God.

Delicate Touch

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Maker of the heavens and earth,
who arrives in flickers of translucence, 
Fill us with your breath in this moment and set our intention on finding your Presence in this day. Open us to all the ways you work to restore our bond with your creation. We so often fear spaciousness, we are afraid of letting go, we cling to the towers of our own making. Transform us with your delicate touches of grace where we might acknowledge the fullness of your Presence. Remind us to remain watchful for the reverent flow of life where Love emerges inviting us to enter in. Amen. 

Pray Without Ceasing #2020

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This is my first post this year. Not for any lack of prayer. I am offering daily prayer on Facebook Live each Monday thru Thursday on the Manassas, VA, Grace United Methodist Church page. Please join me there. I hope together we can grow in our awareness of both the beauty and the suffering around us. Come, Spirit, Come to fill us and move us!

Withering Beauty

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God of mercy, whose creation is ever before us
Even the falling leaves whisper their consent. Even the fading flowers express their beauty as they wither. Help us to recognize the visible strength found in delicateness. Slow our pace, remind us to pause as living things return to the earth. Increase our trust in the rhythm of the seasons that follow. You breathe your goodness and gladness in us, make us satisfied to breathe in you this day. Amen.

2 Cor 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Tender Souls

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Harvester of Souls, who nurtures us through the deep, fragrant soil of the earth,
Each of us belong to your tree, some of us grafted by cuttings, some of us pollinated by generations, all of us tender and fragile in our ripening. Hold us in your branches to nestle in safety, until we find ourselves ready to explore beyond toward brighter light. Set us free in your fields of grasses, to touch the countenance of everything that is alive, accepting the love with which you labor to strengthen us all. Amen.

Matthew 9:38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore,  to send out workers into his  harvest field.

 

Living Words

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Holy One,
Help us return to our old words, words that we have used up and thrown out,
words that once gave us life , that now, we might live in them anew.
Breathe the word, in long slow gulps, until it fills our being,
Until we become that word for the sake of the world, living words for others.
Let us fill this world with…mercy, peace, kindness, compassion, justice, gentleness, strength, love, presence, goodness and…..
Thanks be to You, Amen.

“Whoever drinks the water I shall give, it will become in you a spring welling up to endless life.” John 4:14

Even Today

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Let us all seek to find some piece of glory amidst tangled brambles, today.  Stop and listen for your breath in that place.  Make a way for some kind of peace to be revealed. Even the most delicate veins yield tremendous strength. Even today, your life has a purpose.  Amen.

 2 Cor 12:9
 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Arms Reaching

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Wednesday Simple Prayer:

Let gratitude for the earth beneath us, fill our hearts; flowing freely, opening us wide to Presence. All that the dark earth produces strengthens our living bodies, each of us with arms always reaching. Take notice how light reflects off everything, and everyone, how all creation breathes. Amen.

A Simple Prayer for Beginning Again

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Water ran dry

One day the water ran dry.
Even when life stopped, still creation grew wild,
swelling around me as the water found its different course.
Time has a way of painting extraordinary character
a beauty that has gone by without fading.
Now, more than ever, each breath
draws me back to Presence-
revealing the Love that contained my past,
holds the water that fashions my future.
where each breath is enough.

In October of 2016, my beloved died suddenly and tragically after 36 years together. Just as I began to feel the earth under my feet again, in January of 2019, my sister died three days after a terrible stroke. A month later, a dear friend lost her life, entrusting me with her last letter. A month later, my dear Aunt Janet for whom I am named died, my godmother and beautiful soulmate. Here today, is my simple thought for beginning again. Thank you for reading.

 

Give Completely

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Hearts of Stone

 

She-Mystery, who gives herself away completely,
In this challenging season, we breathe, we pray, we serve others.  Make us not forget, however, that an important part of our work is to accept the Love you offer.  Help us not even try to make sense of it, only open our eyes to watch for it and open our hearts to receive it.  We don’t want a feel good story on Easter, we want you to turn our hearts from stone into bread that brings life for the world.  Amen.

 

1 Kings 17: 12
 But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”