Here’s Hoping You Have a Beautiful Thanksgiving 2025.
Always
Category: Holiday Joy
Seeing the happiness in the holidays.
Veterans Day 2025
A Saintly Sunday
What a terrific Day of the Dead 2025 Robert and I have experienced!
It all began with breakfast as we feasted on delicious Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead) we had ordered the day before from local Mexican bakery/restaurant La Canasta Panaderia.
What IS Pan de Muerto? you may be asking. Here’s what Google told me:
Then we went to our church, Asbury Memorial hrre in Savannah, for our annual All Saints Sunday service, where we remember the church members and other dear folks who have passed on during the past year.
At the front of the church, there was a large ofrenda (altar), and at one point, the pastor invited folks to come forward with photos or mementos of their loved ones.
I brought a little marble Last Supper sculpture I bought for my parents when daughter Amy and I were in Italy … 25 years ago. It sat on their mantle for eons until they passed away.
This year Robert remembered his kitty cat Boopers.
Then tonight HR and I had our Dia de los Muertos supper, consisting of several of our deceased parents’ favorite foods: Maryland crab cakes, homemade vegetable soup and cornbread.
A wonderful and joyful heartfelt day of remembrance.
Oh, let’s not forget the special treats our folks loved.
Taizé Four 4/9/25 “Let All Who Are Thirsty”
Tonight was our church’s (Asbury Memorial, Savannah) fourth and final Taize service before the beginning of this Sunday’s Passover and Holy Week.
“Taizé is a meditative prayer service that incorporates simple repetitive song and chant, scripture readings, and periods of group silence in a setting of peace and soft light that fosters communion with God.” St. Mary’s of the Hill
After Pope John Paul Il visited the ecumenical, monastic Taizé community in France in 1986, he said:“One passes through Taize as one passes close to a spring of water. The traveler stops, quenches his thirst, and continues on his way. The brothers of the community do not want to keep you. They want, in prayer and silence, to enable you to drink the living water promised by Christ, to know his joy, to discern his presence, to respond to his call, then to set out again to witness to his love and to serve your brothers and sisters in your parishes, your schools, your universities, and in all your places of work.”
So come into this place of peace & let its silence heal your spirit; Come into this place of memory & let its history warm your soul; Come into this place of prophecy & power & let its vision change your heart. (From the service bulletin.)
Tonight‘s chant:
Let all who are thirsty come. Let all who wish receive the water of life freely. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
REMEMBERING OUR BAPTISM. You are invited to “Remember your baptism” by coming to the altar and receiving a stone from the flowing water of life. We encourage you to keep the stone with you throughout the seasons of Lent, Easter, and Eastertide. (From the service bulletin.)
May a Bit of Evening Peace be yours tonight.
Happy National Unicorn Day!
If it weren’t for this display near the entrance to Kroger, I might have missed this IMPORTANT CELEBRATION!
Taizé Three 4/2/25 “There Is a Balm”
Tonight was our church’s (Asbury Memorial, Savannah) third Taize service of the 2025 Lenton season.
Taize is a meditative worship service known for simple, repetitive chants, scripture readings, and times of silence, originating from the Taizé community in France.
Peacefully beautiful as usual, with the theme this evening of “There is a balm in Gilead.”
Whatever our faith (or lack thereof), we all probably need a balm from time to time, a gentle soothing.
The tranquil chorus we sang several times throughout the thirty minute service:
“There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole; There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.”
May we all experience a Bit of Balm this lovely Springtime Season.
Taizé Two 3/19/25 “Into Life”
This evening brought the second Lenten Taize service at our church, Asbury Memorial here in Savannah.
I love the almost somber beauty of Taizé.
Here’s the simple quiet chant we sang meditatively several times during the brief service:
“Bless the Lord, my soul, and bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, my soul, who leads me into life.”
(And if you, like me, from time to time have difficulty embracing the concept of a faithful God, perhaps just switch the wording of Lord to “greater than me” or “universe” or whatever works for you.)
We also recited together the powerful Prayer of St. Francis:
And Now, A Truly Warm and Heartfelt Irish Blessing
A Warm and Heartfelt Irish Blessing
On St. Patrick’s Day, there’s nothing quite like a heartfelt and loving Irish Blessing …
NealEnJoy 