Orange City Invocation for November

Let us learn peace

Peace is more than the absence of worry. It is the creation of a safe haven for all; it is the building of security for everyone; it is the forgiveness of self, as well as the forgiveness of one who would harm you.

Let us seek contentment; let us learn peace.

Peace is more than the absence of discordance. It is the intent listening to diverse points of view; it is the intentional speaking of all voices, one at a time; it is the tension within silence that welcomes all thoughts.

Let us seek harmony; let us learn peace.

Peace is more than the absence of tension. It is studying the hard lesson of letting go; it is breathing through the pain into tranquility; it is forming friendship out of enmity.

Let us seek serenity; let us learn peace.

Let peace flow into you. Let it calm your troubled self, heal your needy self, help your angry self to remember to listen – fully and compassionately – to one another.

Let peace flow around you, until you walk with peace and speak words of peace and reflect all the radiance of this beautiful world.

Let peace flow through you and beyond you. Let peace guide you and fill you with wisdom. Let it be the bridge that connects you, not just with people of good will but also with people whose hearts are centered in their own needs and desires, who are not yet free to bring peace into their own hearts.

Let peace fill the world. Let it begin now. Here. Today.

We ask this in the name of that power that dwells within us and beyond us; a power called by many names, in many times and in many places, but whose universal name is Love.
So Be It. Namaste. Amen.

Prayer for the City Council

Let us be
Let us be together
Let us be together in love
In respect
In honor
In appreciation
In wonder
In joy
Let us be together in harmony

Let us be together with unity
With peace
With hope
With charity
With compassion
With justice
With mercy
Let us be together with gladness for all that makes us human, striving to be and become more than we are, to become more human, more merciful, justice-seeking, and loving.

Fill us with the spirit of all heroes and heroines, saints and saviors, named and unnamed. Fill us with the spirit of love, of hope, of justice.

Enable us to desire rightly and to be of use in the service of others. Be with this assembly in its work tonight. Grant them the wisdom to create what is essential for the common good. Keep within each of their hearts a love for the cause of community welfare and a dedication to enrich the lives of all in our community.

Let us be
Let us be together this day and all days to come.

So Be It, Namaste, Amen.

A Collection of Quotes for Sunday's service...

Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.
~Oscar Wilde

If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything.
~Win Borden

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.
~Flora Whittemore

One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure its worth watching.

Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see Life with a clearer view again.
~Alex Tan

The most important things in life aren't things.
~Anthony J. D'Angelo

Never waste a minute of your precious life by squandering it thinking about people you don't like.

Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us.
~John N. Mitchell

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
~Anne Frank

Look at life through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror.
~Byrd Baggett

Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.
~Horace

When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.
~Peter Marshall

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.
~John W. Gardner

Don't worry about life, you're not going to survive it anyway.

Winter Solstice Menu for Mosaic

Holiday Chicken Salad on Endive leaves

Avocado Egg Salad on mini croissants

Hummus and Chips

Grape tomatoes, baby carrots and green and red grapes

Christmas Dip and crackers

Pecan Pie Bars

Pumpkin Bread

Coquito - I actually have my own recipe for a vegan version that I will make instead.