People's Climate March in NYC - Sunday September 21st

People's Climate March in NYC on Sunday, September 21st
We will be taking the train from the Long Branch train station at 8:06am (arriving at 9:46am in NYC) for the People's Climate March (PCM).  Come and join us!  For discounted train tickets from Long Branch to NYC go to this link ($20 round trip): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/long-branch-nj-train-to-the-peoples-climate-march-tickets-12733055913.

Logistics
The PCM is scheduled to begin at 11:30AM north of Columbus Circle. For details of the PCM route go to:  http://peoplesclimate.org/logistics/ .             
   
Other Transportation
If you prefer to leave from a different location closer to home, go to this link for other areas of transit (there are many!) that are being organized by the PCM, some with discounted tickets:  http://peoplesclimate.org/transportation.

For More Information
http://peoplesclimate.org/
http://greenfaith.org/resource-center/coming-events/people-of-faith-the-people2019s-climate-march
https://www.facebook.com/peoplesclimatemarch

Disruption - the Movie
To build momentum for the march and to encourage substantial attendance at the PCM, the documentary Disruption will be streaming free online this Sunday, September 7th.  Disruption is a one hour documentary about climate change and the movement towards action.
View the trailer here:  http://watchdisruption.com/.

We and our partner organizations are encouraging as many people as possible to attend the PCM and to recruit as many people as you can to attend the PCM.  As we are all well aware of, this is a critical time for the Earth community. 

Given the enormity of the march and the amount of people entering the city, we do not expect to have the ability to coordinate to meet with people in the city on that day to march along side them.  Our experience from past "marches" is that we are lucky if we can just keep together with the people we arrived with!  So we hope to hear from you that you are attending the PCM or that we will be seeing you at the Long Branch train station.

Please call or email us if you have any questions.

The WATERSPIRIT Team
732-923-9788
waterspirit@stellamaris.comcastbiz.net

Winter Solstice

May you believe in your resiliency when you are wintered.

May you have the strength you need to bear life's burdens.

May you trust the love and mystery within yourself to uphold you.

May your winter times of darkness become fruitful sources of growth,

gifts to be given to yourself and to our wounded world.

Winter Solstice

Mark your calendar 

 Winter Solstice 

Sunday, December 15 

 7:30-9:00 PM

Pause in the midst of busy holiday preparations and experience the sacred in the darkness and the coming of the light of the Winter Solstice.  Ritual darkness followed by the lighting of fire enhanced by music and liturgical dancers help all who participate to spark hope and deepen peace. 

Spirit

Spirit of God, Present in the North, the place where water is snow and ice, we greet you.  You are the Spirit of the cold and biting wind that blows across our land, that strips the Earth of all that is dead and decayed, that robs us of the false securities so easily blown away.  Teach us to plant our feet securely on the Earth and to see creation as it really is, that your coming may find us standing firm in integrity.

Your winds bring the snows of winter with their fury and their solitude.  It is you who blanket the Earth for sleep.

Strengthen us for whatever is cold and uncertain in our lives.  Help us to be faithful when the struggles are hard.  Teach us, Spirit of the North, in the silence of winter, to wait in darkness with the sleeping Earth, believing that we, like the Earth, already hold within ourselves the seeds of new life.

Sprit of God, present in the East, where the sun comes up over our Atlantic Ocean, we greet you.  You usher in the dawn with diamonds of light sparkling on the waving surf.

You promise new birth – birth of babies, birth of puppies, birth of ideas, birth of friendship.  You bring us the hope of a new day, hope that we can live in harmony with one another and with the whole community of life.

Spirit of the East, fill our bodies with your breath, bring us light, invigorate us that we might reach out boldly to grasp the miracles that come to birth with each new dawn.

Spirit of God, present in the South, with its warm, tropical waters and currents, we greet you.  You warm our oceans and nurture our land.  Your mighty rain forests breathe life into our Earth.

You are the Spirit of all that is soothing, gentle and refreshing.  We ask you to give us this spirit of growth, of fertility, of gentleness.  Caress us with a cool breeze when the days are hot.  Give us seeds and rain that the flowers, trees and fruits of the Earth may grow.  Give us the warmth of happy families and good friendships.

Oh Spirit of the South, thaw and soften our coldness and hardness that we may, like children, rejoice in the simple signs of life.

Oh Spirit of God present in the West, where water finds its home in both sparse desert plants and in the wild surf of rugged, jagged coastlines, we greet you.

We turn to you in praise of sunsets and in thanksgiving for changes.  It is by your power that the sun hangs suspended for endless moments before you catch it with your breath and carry it off into the night.

You are the great colored sunset of the red west which illuminates us.  You are the powerful cycle which pulls us to transformation.

O Spirit of the West, keep us open to life’s changes.  And guide us at the end of each day that, filled with your peace, we might rest securely in your great mystery of night until morning calls us forth again.

We greet you, Great Spirit of the Earth.  It is from you we came and from a mother; you nourish us still and give us shelter.

Teach us to walk softly on your lands, to use with care your gifts, to love with tenderness all our brothers and sisters, humans and non-human, who have been born of your goodness.

And when the day comes when you call us back to yourself, help us to return to you as a friend, to find ourselves embraced, encircled, enfolded in your arms.  Amen.

O Antiphon for Autumn

O HARVESTER OF WISDOM,

Come, Come fill us with the waters of wisdom.

Show us the beauty of aging with grace.

Prepare us for the long, dark nights.

Gather from our lives all that has potential.

O Come!

“The Mystery of Sandy”

Fri., August 2, 2013 7:30 p.m. –

Mon., August 5, 2013, 1:00 p.m.

(A light supper will be served at 5:30 p.m. on Friday)

Many of us have lived through and some may still be living through the heart wrenching experience of Sandy and its aftermath.  This experience may include anxiety, anger, frustration and even doubt about the presence of God in nature.  Are there also messages of healing and transformation in this experience?  Are we being called to a deeper understanding of ourselves and our connection with Earth and both the nurturing and destructive powers of her waters?

Come away to where water meets shore for a gentle time of hope, reconciliation and 

re-energized faith.

 Presenters/Facilitators

Suzanne Golas, csjp               Joan Carey, ssj

Registration Deadline: July 2, 2013 Cost:  $325    

Deposit: $75.00 (non-refundable)

Enjoy this special program at Stella Maris Retreat Center on the beautiful Atlantic Ocean. 

For more information call us at 732-923-9788 or email us at waterspirit@stellamaris.comcastbiz.net

Happy Earth Day!

"There is a new story waiting to be born, waiting to redeem the planet and nourish our souls. It is a story of a oneness that includes the diversity of creation in a self-sustaining whole, a story that can bring back the magic within nature that is needed to heal our damaged planet. It is a story of co-operation rather than competition or conflict. And it includes the mystery of life as well as the understanding that science can give us. It is also a new story, arising from deep within the psyche of humanity and the world soul at this moment in our and its evolution. We are not the sole creators of this story, because it is the story of life evolving, recreating itself anew, but we are needed to midwife it into existence. As with all births it needs to come from the inner to the outer world."   ~ Llewllyn Vaughn-Lee