Amen. Amen.

Happy New Year!

Praying in the Light is our Triennial Torch Relay Program. The National Council and Office Staff began the schedule that has the Triennial Prayer Torch traveling for a week at a time through all 50 states, Washington D.C., and other countries with DOK chapters.  The relay will end with the torch in Utah and a "lighting ceremony" to be included in the Opening Service at Triennial 2015.  We encourage you to check the website (click here for the Triennial Torch Relay) to see the Light spread around the world, read information on the location of the torch, and download our special Triennial prayer and canticle to use as you pray for the transforming power of the Light of Christ and special Triennial intentions. 

National Office Staff (L to R) Donna Vana, Annie McLeod, Lynn Kimbrell, Mary Fletcher, Pat Lewis, and Anna Seden

Walking in the Light is a program to prepare ourselves ("...know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit...") for Triennial. We invite all Daughters to walk, run, bike, swim, or ski the distance (1,844 miles) from the National Office in Woodstock, Georgia, to the Zermatt Resort in Midway, Utah. Along the way we will share information on exercise, health, diet, high altitude, and much more. On our website (click here for Walking in the Light) you can track the progress of our virtual Daughter (in development), download a sample log sheet to track miles, and find articles of interest.  At Triennial we will compile the total number of miles traveled by Daughters and recognize those who participated in the program. (Note: Daughters do not have to complete the entire distance but rather do something to improve their health and prepare themselves for the Triennial location and events.) 

Whether you anticipate attending Triennial or not, everyone is invited to join our virtual walk to Utah; the walk will do us good! 

I had the privilege of attending the Junior DOK Retreat for the Diocese of Texas at Camp Allen this past November.  These girls had a marvelous spirit-filled weekend. They made Advent Wreaths and Advent Prayer Chains; they studied and worshiped together; they sang and played.  They were encouraged to share one of their activities with their Parish.  In fact, I want to share it with my own Juniors and Parish, as well as with all of you.  They made Bags of Grace.  They took small paper shopping bags, first decorating the bags with encouraging slogans such as "God loves U", and filled them with various items which would provide a bite of food throughout the day and a bit more.  They were instructed to keep the bags in their car; then as they drive around with their parents and see someone whom they think could use a moment of grace, the girls hand the bag to this person out their car window.  

This is what they put in those bags:  One bottle of water, one can of Vienna Sausages, one small bag of pretzels, one pack peanut butter crackers, one applesauce cup, one granola bar, one mint, one pack of plasticware, one paper napkin, and one pair of new socks.

Perhaps this is something you could do in your parish.

Susan Keith

Junior DOK Directress

I am looking for Daughters who are, or have been, Park Rangers, Naturalists, Environmentalists, or who work in related fields.  I would like to talk with you about Triennial and the Wasatch Mountains.  Even if you know nothing about those particular mountains you may be able to assist me.  

Reply to:  SusanKeith@doknational.org

Susan Keith

Junior DOK Directress

Donations from Daughters to the Self-Denial fund are used to support mission work throughout the world.  Have you done mission work in your neighborhood, church, or community?  It is so rewarding to help others in need with our time, talents, and treasures.   Having worked on mission projects since I was a young child, mission is a big part of who I am in my relationship with Christ.  But it has always been my dream to go on a mission trip. This past year I had two wonderful opportunities to reach beyond my community and see Self-Denial grants in action.   In July, I worked with a mission team from Colorado to do work on the Lakota Reservation in South Dakota.  It was hard work during very hot weather, but we saw such good results in the church.  The second trip was to the Haiti Diocesan Assembly Meeting in November with Grace Sears, Joyce Pipkin, and other Daughters.  We visited St. Vincent's School for the Handicapped in Port-au-Prince.  The school received grants from the Self-Denial Fund this past year.  We also traveled to Montrouis to visit St. Paul's School and Church.  At both schools we delivered much-needed school supplies such as the pens, pencils and markers we take for granted to be available for schoolwork.  Missionaries working in Haiti also accompanied us on the trip.  Several have received funds from Self-Denial Grants.  My reply to others about my trips has been:  It was an awesome experience.  It reinforces my thought that the poor in other countries have so little but give so much - to visitors, to their church, and to Daughters with love and joy.

I hope that you will consider a generous donation to the DOK Self-Denial Fund this year.  We have several grants that are waiting for funding and more grants will be submitted for funding.   We thank those who have given donations to the fund, but more work can be done with additional donations.  Continue to honor your vows and do mission work as a Daughter of the King.

Marjorie Rogers

Self-Denial Chair     

When we become Daughters of the King, we take a vow to pray, but often we feel we do not know how .....  Yet, in my observations of very little children, I have come to realize we all come into this world with the innate knowledge of speaking to our God.  In fact, I think our very first babbles could be what grown-ups have called "speaking in tongues," for it certainly is a joyful noise we make as infants, and I believe God understands every word.  But then, we grow older and are expected to learn the language of our culture so everyone can understand what we are saying, and we lose that ability to so freely talk to God without constraints.  We become the tight rosebud, afraid to open up to the sunlight... or is it son-light? 

But God is our Father and in our quiet moments, we feel that intense longing to talk to Him, listing our wants and needs, acknowledging our relationship with Him.  There is no right or wrong way to talk to Him.  We just open our mouths and the words spill out.  But we are not so comfortable praying out loud with others... afraid we will not do it right... forgetting there is no wrong way or right way. 

For we still are just talking to God about the needs of our friend or even the stranger who comes to us because we are a Daughter of the King and we have this thing that we do and could we pray for them and whatever is amiss in their world.  They long to hear us pray out loud the words they cannot seem to find or they feel their request needs more than one voice.  As we begin to do this, sometimes with the words of prayers we have memorized, we are like the rose that is barely open, beginning to show what it is meant to be.  And as we continue to trust Him for the words to say in each situation He brings to us, we begin to open more and more until all of who we are in Him is open to the light of the Son.

If you are not comfortable yet with this thing that we do....with your private prayers or with praying out loud with others, there are many helpful (and some not so helpful) books on the subject out there. But the bottom line is we have to be willing to open our mouths, knowing He will hear us and does not judge. 

My friend, Father Reid Morgan, recently wrote,

I really like the idea of God hearing us with three sets of ears.  Don't you?  And it is good to remember that this thing that we do is about waiting patiently upon the Lord.... Much like my roses waiting patiently, moving from tight bud to barely open to more and more open to His light.

Father Reid Morgan continues, writing, "Our work, our purpose, is to pray for the world, to serve the least, and to "wait patiently upon the Lord."

May God bless each of us as we continue to do this thing that we do.

Patsy Thomson

Spiritual Formation Chair

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