Mindful prayerfulness

Yesterday, Good Friday, at one of my churches, we had a day of creative prayer.  Every couple of hours we had some led prayers and reflections and the rest of the time, everyone was free to wander, to reflect, to read, to listen to music, or to just be still in God’s presence.  It was a wonderful time; a time of retreat together.  There was a strong sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit, a unity through community, and a serious but hopeful contemplation on the message of Good Friday.  You can read one of my past Good Friday reflections here… Christ’s Hands

I shared some thoughts from the people of Solentiname in Nicaragua in the 1970s, whose experience of Jesus was one of liberator; someone who came to set them free from the sins of the corrupt and oppressive political systems they found themselves in. You can read more in The Gospel in Solentiname’ by Ernesto Cardinal  – an amazing script of bible study discussions of the Gospels among these oppressed peoples.  If you live in the privileged West, it is truly worth reading to have your eyes opened to a different Gospel perspective.

I also designed some bookmarks for people to colour in, using them as a kind of mindful prayer to help focus our attention.

We then laminated the coloured bookmarks for people to take away.

I want to offer these as a resource to anyone who would like to use them for non-commercial purposes.  You may download them and print them for personal use or for use with church or community groups.  Please do not use them for profit.

You can download a pdf version here … Janelydialoves bookmarks1.  I hope you will be blessed by these.

May Jesus, the liberator of the world, give you freedom and hope now and always.