Feel Free

A friend of mine has a habit of sticking things in her Bible. She recently sent me a note that she had cleaned out some papers from her Bible, and found a prayer that she had used for a prayer service that was held a few years ago.

"Lord Jesus we pray to you to ask your Blessed Mother
The Patron Saint of our Parish
To intercede for us that we may continue
as a community of faith here at St. Mary's.

Looking at our humble parish you see
a vital community of believers, growing
ever stronger on the faith born of
our ancestors, lived by our parishioners, passed on to our children
and our children's children.

Dear Blessed Mother we pray,
Do not let the fertile soil of
this parish be abandoned.
The seeds of faith planted here
have produced abundant fruit.
We earnestly pray that the harvest continue.

We ask you this through Christ our Lord

Amen"

She told me to "Feel free to Blog them". You know, the part that really jumped out at me was her suggestion to "Feel free". It made me smile. I started to wonder if I have really ever felt free these past few years. Have I felt free to create? Have I felt free to speak out? Have I felt free to worship? I think that the idea is a captivating one. Maybe the problem with our closed churches hasn't been "unity". Maybe we should just have been allowed to "Feel Free".