Weekly Notices - March 13th, 2025

I wonder if anyone of you have found yourselves holding your breath lately, or maybe its just me. Over the last few weeks I have noticed that every time I go to read a news article, or someone makes reference to political situations – I hold my breath. I’m not sure if its an attempt to brace myself for the unknown or simply a response to an overarching cloud of anxiety that I think many of us are feeling these days, or just my body’s involuntary primal reaction to stress, but either way I need to remind myself to breathe. I imagine many of us are similar, as this pattern really is our body’s natural response to stress, anxiety or uncertain situations while our brains decide if we need to fight, flee or freeze. However, there is a difference between being stared down by a cougar and opening the latest news article and it's important for us to recognize this. So if you are like me and need to work on retraining your brain to breathe, I would offer you the practice of breath prayers.   

 

Breath prayer is a way of praying by focusing on our breath – entering in and flowing out of our bodies and is often accompanied by a simple phrase or word that roots us to our faith. It is a practice of noticing, of using simple rhythm to bring us back into our bodies when our minds are racing, while also helping to centre our hearts on God. One historic form of breath prayer is the Jesus prayer and I’ll use that to demonstrate how this prayer practice works. Inhale slowly, filling your whole self with breath, paying attention to the feel of the air in your lungs. And then pray aloud or to yourself, “Jesus Christ, Son of God”. Now exhale slowly and fully and then complete the phrase, “Have mercy on me.” And simply repeat the practice as many times as you need.

 

It may seem too simplistic or a bit silly, but I can attest that this is an excellent form of prayer, which can be done anywhere and often without anyone even noticing you are doing it. And so if you are like me and find yourself holding your breath lately, I encourage you to give it a try. There are thousands of words and phrases to choose from, and it can be helpful to find something meaningful for you. However, to get you started, here are a few examples: [Inhale] “Lord…” [Exhale] “…have mercy.” [Inhale] “Holy Spirit…” [Exhale] “…fill me.” [Inhale] “My God…” [Exhale] “…and my all.” [Inhale] “Yah…” [Exhale] “…weh.”

 

So let's keep breathing, friends, and keep finding ways to stay rooted in God during the days, weeks and months ahead.

 

Peace,

Kirsten +

Mark your calendars now on Saturday, July 12th for St. Mary's Strawberry High Tea!

As our Christmas High Tea was such a great success, we will be holding another High Tea at St. Mary's, this time with a summer theme.

You are invited to come and see a presentation by Dr. Susan Wilson, the Founder and CEO of Tumaini, who will be in our parish hall from 1:30 to 2:30 next Wednesday, March 19.  Thanks to the parishioners who donate to the birthday box, funds are sent to Kagera, Tanzania to help with the support of 200,000 orphans.

 

After over 5 years of faithfully filming our services and often juggling multiple jobs at once, Elaine has decided it is time to step down from the position of filming. I would like to thank Elaine for hanging in as long as she has, as the goal was to transition her out of this position as other folks stepped up to take it on. However, as no-one has come forward, we will no longer be able to offer regular filming of our Sunday services going forward. That being said, I will try to make special arrangements for high feast days and holidays (such as Easter), but most Sundays we will not have a recording.

Every month, parishioners who have shared the dates of their birthday and their wedding anniversary are sent a card from the parish family.  We know that there are names and dates missing from the list.  If you are not on the list but would like to receive a card in the month of your special occasion, please give your dates (month and day, no year is necessary)  to Linda Chad in the church office, as she is updating the lists.