Category: Community

Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank you for your love. Except our thanks for your peace that yields this day and the shared faith that makes its continuance likely.

Make us strong to do your work, willing to heed and hear your well, and write on your hearts with these words: “Use power to help people.”

For we are getting power not to advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in the world, nor your name. There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us to remember it, Lord.

The Lord, our God be with us, as He was with our fathers; may he not leave us or forsake us; so that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways that all people of the Earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.

George H. W. Bush (1924-2018) Forty-first president of the United States of America. Excerpted from inaugural address, January 20, 1989

Everlasting God, who’s well is it is that all should come to you through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him, that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope of his resurrection; who lives in reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 🙏 From The Book of Common Prayer. 💕✌️🙏

Dear Jesus,

Help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go, flood our souls with the spirit and life. Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may only be the radiance of yours. Shine through us and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in your soul. Let them look up and see no longer us but only Jesus. Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be light to others.

The light, O Jesus, will be all from you. None of it will be ours. It will be your shining on others through us.

Let us thus praise you in a way you love best by shining on those around us. Let us preach you without preaching not by words, but by our example by the catching force the sympathetic influence of what we do the evident fullness of the love of our hearts bear to you.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910 – 1997) Catholic religious sister and missionary

This week’s biblical lesson is inspired by a quote by Walt Whitman: “Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you.” This quote invites us to live with hope, focus, and a spiritual orientation. Let’s explore a biblical lesson that draws from this imagery and connects it to Scripture.

Key Scripture Passages

• John 8:12“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
• Hebrews 12:2“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”
• Psalm 34:5“Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.”
• Isaiah 60:1“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.”

Reflection

Whitman’s quote beautifully mirrors the biblical call to orient our lives toward the light of Christ. In Scripture, light is not just a metaphor—it is the very presence of God, the revelation of truth, and the path of salvation.

• “Keep your face toward the sunshine” reminds us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the Light of the world. When we focus on Him, we are not consumed by the shadows of fear, shame, or regret.
• “Shadows will fall behind you” speaks to the transformative power of divine focus. When we walk in the light, the darkness loses its grip. Our past no longer defines us; our future is shaped by grace.

This lesson invites us to live with intentional spiritual posture—not looking down in despair or backward in guilt, but forward in faith, toward the One who shines with eternal love.

Application

• Choose Light Daily: Begin each day by turning your heart toward Christ. Let His presence guide your thoughts and actions.
• Practice Spiritual Focus: In prayer, worship, and study, fix your gaze on the goodness of God. Let distractions and discouragement fall behind.
• Speak Light into Others: Encourage those around you to lift their eyes. Remind them that the shadows are not permanent—they fade in the presence of love.
• Walk in Radiance: Let your life reflect the light you face. Be a beacon of hope, joy, and grace in your community.

Prayer

Dear Light of the World, Teach me to turn my face toward You, To walk in Your radiance, And to let the shadows fall behind. When fear whispers, remind me of Your truth. When shame lingers, lift my eyes to Your grace. Let my life be a reflection of Your light— Bright with hope, warm with love, And steady in the path You’ve set before me. In Jesus’ name, Amen 💕✌️🙏

Father,

Allow me to serve others with a joyful heart;

Never keeps score;

Always giving;

Never expecting to receive.

Allow me to give myself,

To give my talents end of my goods,

To give up my time and my energy,

To give up my heart and of my soul.

Help me understand the needs of others,

Never criticizing,

Never demeaning,

Never scolding,

Never condemning.

You have been so gracious to me,

Always loving,

Always forgiving,

Always restoring;

Never gloating over my defeats,

Even when I have been so wrong.

Father, keep a condemning spirit

Far from my heart and further from my lips.

Allow me to serve others as you serve,

With gentleness, compassion, and tenderness,

Never diminishing the worth of another,

Choosing to extend mercy to the brokenhearted,

Like you have repeatedly shown to me.

Jack Watts (1956-) American author 💕✌️🙏

Let me today do something that shall take

A little sadness from the world’s vast store,

And may I be so favored as to make

Off joy’s too scanty sum a little more.

Let me not hurt, by any selfish deed

Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend;

Nor would I pass, unseeing, worthy of need,

or stand by silence when I should defend.

However, meager be my worldly wealth,

Let me give something that shall aid my kind-

A word of courage, or a thought of health,

Dropped as I pass for troubled hearts to find.

Let me to-night look back across the span

“Twix, dawn, and dark, and to my conscience say-

Because of some good act to beast or man-

“The world is better that I lived today.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 -1919)

American author and poet 💕✌️🙏

On Sunday, November 9, 2025, the faithful at St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church in Urbana, Illinois gathered for a deeply moving Divine Liturgy, honoring St. Nektarios of Aegina and the Seventh Sunday of Luke.

The morning unfolded with a sense of reverence and quiet joy as the community commemorated St. Nektarios the Wonderworker, a beloved 20th-century saint known for his humility, healing, and enduring faith. His life—marked by unjust exile, patient endurance, and miraculous intercessions—offered a powerful lens through which to receive the Gospel reading from Luke, where Christ raises the widow’s son at Nain.

Moments of Grace:

• Commemoration of St. Nektarios: The hymns and readings reflected his radiant holiness, reminding the faithful that sanctity is often forged in silence, suffering, and steadfast love.
• Gospel Reflection: The raising of the widow’s son (Luke 7:11–16) echoed the hope of resurrection and the compassion of Christ, themes that resonated deeply in light of St. Nektarios’s healing ministry.
•  Liturgical Beauty: Incense rose like prayer, and the choir’s voices wove together ancient melodies that lifted hearts heavenward.
•  Communal Presence: Elders, children, students, and visitors stood side by side, embodying the unity of the Body of Christ in worship and thanksgiving.

Father’s homily invited reflection on the quiet miracles that unfold in our lives when we remain faithful amid trials. He spoke of St. Nektarios not as a distant figure, but as a companion in our own journeys of healing, forgiveness, and trust.

As the Eucharist was received, the sanctuary became a place of deep peace. The faithful departed with a renewed sense of purpose—to walk as children of light, as exhorted in the Epistle reading (Ephesians 5:8–19), and to carry the fragrance of Christ into the world.

Dear Lord of Light and Love,

As we step into a new week, we lift up every place where Your name is praised—cathedrals and chapels, homes and halls, sanctuaries and sacred spaces. We especially pray for St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, and for all communities gathered in reverence and hope.

May Your Spirit fill these places with peace and purpose. Let every prayer rise like incense, every hymn echo with truth, and every teaching be rooted in Your Word. Knit us together in unity, across traditions and languages, that we may reflect the beauty of Your body—diverse, devoted, and deeply connected.

Bless the leaders who guide, the servants who prepare, and the seekers who enter with longing. May this week be one of renewal, healing, and holy encounter. Let our endeavors be blessed, our hearts be open, and our lives be shaped by Your grace.

And as we go forth, may we carry the sacred into the ordinary, the worship into the world, and the love of Christ into every corner of our lives.

In Your holy name we pray, Amen 💕✌️🙏

Almighty God, whose loving hand hath given us all that we possess: Grant us grace that we may honor thee with our substance, and, remembering the account which we must one day give, May be faithful Stewarts, of thy bounty, through Jesus Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 💕✌️🙏 – From The Book of Common Prayer.

Lord make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

Where there is injury, pardon,

Where there is doubt, faith,

Where there is despair, hope,

Where there is darkness, light,

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master grant that I may

Not so much seek to be console as to console,

Not so much to be understood as to be understand,

Not so much to be loved, as to love;

Nor it is in giving what we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

It is in dying that we are awake in eternal life. – Saint Francis of a Assisi (d. 1226)

Patron saint of animals and nature