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Ways to give

​Time

  • Give of your time by listening to others and/or by actions

  • Give your attention to another - abandon devices for an hour each day

  • Give thoughtful comments of encouragement

Talents

  • Live with an open heart, open hands, open wallet

  • Meet with someone with whom you disagree politically and listen only to better understand them.

  • Make amends

  • Do a “random” act of kindness

  • Show compassion and validate other’s feelings or situation

Money

  • Give the money you’d spend on a meal or shopping to a charity.

  • Give your belongings

 
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Ways to Pray

Pray to grow closer to God, pray to help others and change our hearts

  • Commit to a time each day for prayer

  • Participate in Monday evening Prayer & Meditation meeting.

  • Download the Pray as You Go app and use it.

  • Create a FaceTime or ZOOM prayer meeting

  • Do a walking prayer

    • Prayer walking is the practice of praying on location, a type of prayer that involves walking to or near a particular place while praying. For example, walk and pray in your neighborhood and pray for your neighbors, walk and pray near a lake and give thanks for the beauty.  Be creative, walk and pray...​

  • As you read the news, local, national or international, silently pray for those people or situations you read about.

  • In community and/or while driving, smile and pray for those around you in “real time.”

  • Try choosing a “breath prayer” for each week and use it daily, such as, “I am a child of God”, “God created me for His good.”

  • Practice silence, listen to your conscience, share your experience with God.

  • Read the Bible daily or a devotional such as Jesus Calling by Sarah Young and journal your discoveries, thoughts and prayers

  • Daily read one scripture three times in a Lectio Divina style: read, meditate, pray, contemplate

  • Be intentional to let people know you are praying for them

  • Participate in a daily examen (from Reimagining the Ingation Examen, Mark E Thibodeaux):

    • Relish the moments of the day - the gifts / highlights of the day

    • Request the Spirit to be present

    • Review the day with honesty and patience

    • Request forgiveness of any mistakes or failures

    • Resolve, in concrete ways, to live tomorrow well

 
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Give it up

  • Skip one meal per day, use the time for spiritual exercises/practices, use the money saved and give to a charity

  • Fast from character defects. Identify one defect per day and practice letting it go with God’s help.

  • Fast from worry or judgment, or self-loathing, or judgement of self and others

  • Fast from social media - try not look at your phone for 1 hour of “waking hours” instead be aware of your surroundings, sounds, nature, quiet, smells, touch

  • Fast from shopping

  • Fast from multi-tasking - “be present to the present” - be fully present to the moment before you.

  • Fast from talking - if you must, pause before you respond