Monthly Service Prayer July 2012

Before God the Parent, Tenri-O-no-Mikoto, I, Owen Osamu Nakao, Pastor of Tenrikyo Pearl Church, pray with reverence:

God the Parent, as we receive Your overflowing grace and blessings, which grants us the free use of our bodies, we advance toward the realization of the joyous life world as you guide us in our spiritual development. We are forever grateful for these blessings and we express our gratitude day and night as we apply our effort in sprinkling the fragrance of the teachings and salvation work.

Today is the day we are granted to conduct the July monthly service at Pearl Church. Taking to heart the teaching: “If the mind is sincere, the performance of any kind of Service will all bring salvation,” (Ofudesaki VIII: 3) the service performers will now unite their hearts to perform the seated service and Teodori joyously and in high spirits. As you observe the brothers and sisters of the path who have looked forward to this day singing the songs of the service in unison with hearts filled with gratitude for Your parental love, we hope that You can be spirited as well.

Through your blessing, twenty-four persons from Pearl Church, attended the Annual Tenrikyo Picnic on July 4th. We continue with the community yard service helping the elderly maintain their yards and neglected sidewalks.

Later this month, the pastor of this church will lead a group of twenty persons participating in this year’s Children’s Pilgrimage to Jiba as the chairman of the Hawaii Boys & Girls Association. From July 18-24, twenty-five members of the Hawaii Young Men’s Association including three from Pearl Church will be participating in the Young Men’s Association International Hinokishin Corps in Jiba. Also one member from Pearl Church will be a lecturer at the Oyasato Seminar, serve as counselor in the Overseas Boys and Girls Hinokishin Corps and volunteer for the relief effort in the earthquake/tsunami damaged Eastern region of Japan.

We give thanks that members of this church are taking active roles in church activities bringing substance and spiritual growth to the church. We thank you deeply for these blessings as we strive to convey the teachings to as many people as possible.

As we help those in suffering, we pray for the victims and survivors of conflicts and disasters in the world; that they may have faith and resolve to overcome their grief and suffering.

In this 7th month of the 175th Year of Tenrikyo we vow to continue to work together engaging in hinokishin and salvation work with a unity of mind and encourage as much people as possible to return to Jiba.

With the Shinbashira as the core we vow to make sincere efforts in our daily lives to truly follow the Divine Model of Oyasama.

We pray that Your guidance will strengthen us into worthy Yoboku, striving with a single heart for the salvation of others. We hope that our efforts will bring joy to You and peace in this world where we all help one another as brothers and sisters. With our minds in unity towards the Truth of the Jiba, we would like to spiritedly perform the July Monthly Service.

In union with the congregation, I pray for these blessings.

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