Jane Leonaitis, who was with us in worship this year, passed away recently. She was a person of compassion, of joy, and of prayer. She wrote frankly and honestly, and with love. She wrote a prayer, heartfelt and unwithholding, that was read at the celebration of her life, March 27, 2010.
Here is Jane's prayer. What would your prayer be?
Thank you for giving me a prayer voice, Lord, but I feel wordless in your presence. Help me to overcome my Christian insecurity.
I recognize that you are a fathomless mystery, God, and yet that you are a reality and not an illusion. I know that my concept of you matters. Help me to spend more time in reflection, without getting too off-track.
We live in a sea of many belief systems. Help me to swim in the current that is right for me, and to accept that other currents are right for other people.
I am firm in the belief that you are the God of all people. Give me global consciousness and compassion. Help me to appreciate the good that is in those who are different from me.
The world's problems are so big (nuclear - economic - overpopulation . . . . ). Show me how to make sense of that without damaging my optimism.
Help me to believe rightly. Lord, I do not see you as judge and punisher. Help me to recognize what is true and to know if there is something I should be doing about it. What do you want me to be doing?
Help me, Lord, to have a sense of your reality in my life. Fill me with a recognition of your love, and let me enjoy the surprise of finding you where I least expect you.
Lord, help me to clear my mind of the things I don't have answers for. Give me patience, knowing that we will never have all the answers.
Give me strength of purpose, especially in the inevitable hard times of my life.
Give me confidence to enjoy the sweetness of life.
Use me as your imperfect instrument in nurturing others, Lord.
Give me tolerance of my own imperfections, and understanding that you are not finished with me yet. Let me apply similar understanding to others and their imperfections.
I see you as our God who listens, who loves, who is beyond us but also with us, who permits as well as causes things to happen in our lives, who is patient, who is all-knowing and totally good.
I pray that I will think more on these things and apply them in my life. Amen.
--Based on notes of May, 2003, considered and rephrased Feb. 2009. jl
a prayer by Jane R. Leonaitis (March 28, 1927 - March 3, 2010)
Copyright (c) 2010, Jane R. Leonaitis estate. Used with permission.
For the Gospel Grapevine (May 2010) parish newsletter of St Alban's Church, Edmonds, Washington.
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Showing posts with label Jane Leonaitis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jane Leonaitis. Show all posts
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Jane Leonaitis
A Thanksgiving and Celebration for the life of Jane Leonaitis
I shall pass through
this world but once.
If, therefore, there
be any kindness
I can show, or any
good thing I can do,
let me do it now;
let me not defer it
or neglect it, for
I shall not pass
this way again.
Isaiah 40:28-31
Psalm 42:1-7
Romans 8:14-19, 34-35, 37-39
Psalm 23
John 12:24-26
In loving Memory of
Jane R. Leonaitis
March 28, 1927 - March 3, 2010
March 27, 2010 – 11:00 AM
Fairwinds Brighton Court
6520 196th Street
Lynnwood, WA 98036
What I want my funeral to do:
Witness to others.
Be a consolation to those who will miss me.
With these words alone you know that Jane was an extraordinary and loving person. What she witnessed to was life and the goodness of it. She loved, well: and among those whom she loved are those present. She had the gift of joy, and shared it. She had the gift of compassion, and she used it well. Her life was proof that you never know what is coming next. But you know that you are not left alone to face it. She believed in a loving God. A God so loving that he could not be confined by the regulations of his followers. She believed in a present God. A God so present that we are free in this moment to live life fully and truly. She was frank enough to tell us what she thought, what she felt, what she believed. She was a gift to all who met her, however briefly.
Her quiet patience as she came to the altar rail one last time in January; she could not make the steps, she was getting too weak; was just a final testimony of her love, her gentleness, her faith.
She believed in the God that people who don't believe in God yearn to believe in. She believed in God who is love. God who is compassion. God who is mercy. God who is wise - and God who is honest.
She would not want us - or me or you - to confine ourselves in expressing our belief, our trust, in the ultimate power behind the universe. Because she believed that power to be more than power, to be benign and loving. Real power is not in what you take; it is in what you give.
Jane gave; and knew that she was given the gift of life by a loving Creator. We share in that gift of life. It came to us most perfectly in Jesus, whom we Christians know as the ultimate self-expression of divinity, the word of God in person. Through him we come to know the love and mercy and compassion of God; through him we come to believe; in him we find eternal rest.
Gone before us into a great city that has been awaiting her arrival for years; gone before us on strange and wonderful adventures; gone before us into a union with God that makes all occasions ones of celebration, of life, of thanksgiving; of a dance with joy.
Jane led the way.
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I shall pass through
this world but once.
If, therefore, there
be any kindness
I can show, or any
good thing I can do,
let me do it now;
let me not defer it
or neglect it, for
I shall not pass
this way again.
Isaiah 40:28-31
Psalm 42:1-7
Romans 8:14-19, 34-35, 37-39
Psalm 23
John 12:24-26
In loving Memory of
Jane R. Leonaitis
March 28, 1927 - March 3, 2010
March 27, 2010 – 11:00 AM
Fairwinds Brighton Court
6520 196th Street
Lynnwood, WA 98036
What I want my funeral to do:
Witness to others.
Be a consolation to those who will miss me.
With these words alone you know that Jane was an extraordinary and loving person. What she witnessed to was life and the goodness of it. She loved, well: and among those whom she loved are those present. She had the gift of joy, and shared it. She had the gift of compassion, and she used it well. Her life was proof that you never know what is coming next. But you know that you are not left alone to face it. She believed in a loving God. A God so loving that he could not be confined by the regulations of his followers. She believed in a present God. A God so present that we are free in this moment to live life fully and truly. She was frank enough to tell us what she thought, what she felt, what she believed. She was a gift to all who met her, however briefly.
Her quiet patience as she came to the altar rail one last time in January; she could not make the steps, she was getting too weak; was just a final testimony of her love, her gentleness, her faith.
She believed in the God that people who don't believe in God yearn to believe in. She believed in God who is love. God who is compassion. God who is mercy. God who is wise - and God who is honest.
She would not want us - or me or you - to confine ourselves in expressing our belief, our trust, in the ultimate power behind the universe. Because she believed that power to be more than power, to be benign and loving. Real power is not in what you take; it is in what you give.
Jane gave; and knew that she was given the gift of life by a loving Creator. We share in that gift of life. It came to us most perfectly in Jesus, whom we Christians know as the ultimate self-expression of divinity, the word of God in person. Through him we come to know the love and mercy and compassion of God; through him we come to believe; in him we find eternal rest.
Gone before us into a great city that has been awaiting her arrival for years; gone before us on strange and wonderful adventures; gone before us into a union with God that makes all occasions ones of celebration, of life, of thanksgiving; of a dance with joy.
Jane led the way.
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