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MAKING IT BETTER: Pray, Sing And Share With Me

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Sunday, May 1st, 2016
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Hello beloved readers, over the past few weeks I have had spiritual stirrings within me and having just completed writing two funerals, learning about the death of two colleagues, hearing about quite a number of celebrity deaths here in the UK and particularly reading the recent wonderful, moving, exquisite tribute to the late Ex Deputy Governor of Ekiti, Funmi Olayinka written by AW’s founder Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi(BAF); I found myself recollecting favourite hymns, prayers , words of wisdom that have seen me through many highs and lows of my almost six decades on earth. I felt compelled to share some of these with you. I hope you will also travel that road with me now and share the experience with me and be equally uplifted, comforted, encouraged and blessed with the words.

Above Whispers, in the short time that it has been born has already become my companion, friend, my daily Mecca.  I know the founder  BAF, had the vision, hope and intention for AW to become a home for women to come to regularly to find all they need.  In her infinite wisdom, intellect and love of her gender and people in general, I think she’s got it right, as AW will definitely meet a myriad of needs to a variety of people.

As a writer, I have other publications I write for and I am constantly checking on social media and a wide variety of publications. However I now find that my first port of call in the morning on rising is AW where I am fed, affirmed, entertained as I enjoy whatever beverage I choose to in a gentle quiet, safe space, before I move into the more aggressive world of the others. It’s akin to a kid getting reassurance and strength from mum before they face the world, and many times throughout the day I return to get my ‘fix’, before I return to the battle ground. Enjoy…..

 

The Lord’s Prayer

Our father who art in Heaven

Hallowed be thy name

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done

In earth as it is in Heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive those who trespass against us

Lead us not into temptation

And deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom

The power, The glory

For ever and ever

Amen

 

Song

Day by Day – Frederic Nietzche

Day by Day

Day by day

Oh Dear Lord

Three things I pray

To see thee more clearly

Love thee more dearly

Follow thee more nearly

Day by Day by day by Day

 

My Mission Statement in Life – Gloria Ogunbadejo

I am committed to living my life

With Passion, Hope and Compassion.

In the end I want people to remember me

As someone who cared deeply.

For it to be said that my life mattered because I made a difference in small but significant ways

In the quality of other people’s lives

 

Letter from Archbishop Desmond Tutu

God has a dream: A vision of Hope for our times

Dear child of God I write these words because we all experience sadness, we all come at times to despair and we lose hope that the suffering in our lives and in the world will never end. I want to share with you my faith and my understanding that this suffering can be transformed and redeemed. There is no such thing as a totally hopeless case. Our God (as you know and believe it) is an expert at dealing with chaos, with brokenness, with all the worst that we can imagine. God created order out of chaos, cosmos out of chaos and God can do so always, can do so in our personal lives, and in our lives as nations, globally …Indeed God is transforming the world now through us, because God loves us.

 

He who lives by the work of his hands

Is greater than he who indulges in idle piety- The Torah {Jewish Holy book}

Character is a person’s only real possession – rabbi Israel Salanteer

 

Healing Prayer

Merciful God, angels and spirit of love and healing

I offer prayers for those who are wanting.

Bless those with broken hearts and broken lives with healing.

Change their circumstances

And cause peace, and prosperity to come into their lives in abundance

Amen

 

My Ministerial Vow – Reverend Gloria Ogunbadejo

I will act in the service of building peace.

Affirming and upholding the inherent dignity of people.

My Ministry will be representative of my love of life and people.

I will live each day full of gratitude and joy

 

Hymn: It is well with my soul – Horatio G Spafford

2 Kings 4:26, Psalm 146:1

When peace like a river attendeth my way

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well; it is well with my soul

 

Refrain: It is well, with my soul

It is well, it is well with my soul

 

 

Though Satan should Buffett, though trials

Should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ hath regarded my hapless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul

 

My sin-oh, the blessing this glorious thought!

My sin not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.

 

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live,

If Jordan above me shall roll,

No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life

Thou wilt whisper thy peace to my soul

But, lord ‘tis for thee, for thy coming we wait,

The sky, not the grave, is our goal;

Oh trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the lord!

Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!

 

And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,

The trump shall resound, and the lord shall descend

Even so it is well with my soul

 

If sins had an odour would you be sitting alone? – The Koran

And whosoever fears Allah and

Keeps his duty to him,

He will make a way for him to get out from

Every difficulty                                                                 – The Koran { Al- Talaaq 65.21}

 

Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu

A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for h or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.

Because you have lived (Anonymous)

To laugh often and much

To win respect of intelligent people, and

The affection of children

To earn the appreciation of honest critics

To appreciate beauty

To find the best in others

To leave the world a bit better

Whether by a healthy child,

Or a garden patch

To know even one life has breathed easier

Because you have lived

This is to have succeeded

 

The late great Elder Nelson (Madiba) Mandela

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.

If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart

 

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere

And many of us will have to pass

Through the valley of the shadow of death again and again

Before we reach the mountain top of our desires

 

Our human compassion binds us the one to the other-

Not in pity or patronisingly,

But as human beings who have learnt

How to turn our common suffering into hope for the future

There is nothing like returning to a place

That remains unchanged to find

The ways in which you yourself have altered.

 

Prayer and Blessings for you dear readers

May the nourishment of the earth be yours

May the clarity of light be yours

May the fluency of the ocean be yours

May the protection of the ancestors be yours

May your troubles be less

And your blessings be more

And nothing but happiness comes through your door

May you dwell in the heart

May you be free from suffering

May you be healed

May you be whole

May you be at peace

May you be happy

 

Gloria Ogunbadejo writes a weekly column for Punch Newspaper. She is a Psychotherapist, a life coach, a spiritual counsellor and an ordained Minister

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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