Everything! Dear Tina Turner, the answer is that love has everything to do with human relationships and responsibilities and possibilities in this world. In 1984 Tina Turner , “the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, emotionally belted out Lyle and Britten’s song “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” and made it her own and a number one hit on the charts earning her first Grammy of several to come and a biographical movie of the same name. In the song love is called a “sweet old-fashioned notion” and the question is asked: “Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?’ Yet there is a longing for the one who makes her feel this “love”. The song is about the vicissitudes of romantic love yet that, however wonderful it can be and yet challenging, is only one aspect of LOVE. We also experience the love of family and friends and for many passions and causes throughout our lives. We may also love God’s creation and seek out natural and spiritual moments in nature where the feeling is simply love. We may feel a grateful love for our animals and pets. We may feel a deep loving thank you for the God that gave us this beautiful world to live in and all that makes up love in our lives.

We love God’s Creation:

Defining love is the essence of the Sunday Scriptures this week. The reading from the Hebrew Scriptures: Exodus (22;20-26) sums up our responsibility to migrants and aliens in our land, to widows and orphans, and even to those who need to borrow or receive money from us. It stresses God’s compassion for those in need and for all vulnerable ones, asking the same of those who say they love God. The Psalm( 18:2-4,47,51) refrain is “I love you, Lord, my strength.” And the Epistle (I Thessalonians 1:5-10) asks us to be a model for all believers-to prove our faith by our ACTIONS (verse 4-TIB). LOVE IS ACTION! not just sentiment of any sort.

As I look up to the shelf above my desk right now I see two reminders of what love is. The first is a broken pink cup with a lavender heart that says “Mother is another word for love”, and the second is a set of bookends that says “God is Love” (I John 4:16). The cup was a gift I gave to my own dear Mother many years ago. And I grew up with the heavy metal bookends as one of very few prized possessions in my Grandmother’s house. On an economic scale we were working class and sometimes very poor, but we were rich in love and faith. The bookends, rested on the mantle and I saw them every day of my young life. Of course, thinking of my Grandmother and my Mother defines love for me even better than the words can. Their love was expressed in their every action and taught me how to love and in very different ways. And I am blessed.

Love is an essence and a longing we all feel, for love in the romantic sense, yes, thankfully, for some, but for love in all of its manifestations as well. For caring and care, for reaching out to others when it is hard to do, for taking on difficult causes with justice and peace at their base, and for being a friend, wife, husband, parent, daughter, son, or other relative, a pet parent, or even a good neighbor. We must all feel cared for and cherished and we must all do some things that are hard to do because of love. We must grapple with the meaning of love in our lives-what does it mean “to love”? What do love’s actions look like?

Jesus gave us the answer so long ago, summing up the Law of the Hebrews, the Commandments, he said:

“You must love the Most High God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. That is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: You must love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments the whole Law is based–and the Prophets as well”. Matthew 22:34-40 (TIB).

This love is all encompassing not put in a corner of our lives and reserved only for those close to us-it permeates all of our living and doing and interacting with, for and about others, about the good of the other, about justice. It includes what we DO for “the least of these”, not only what we may give in the collection plate. It includes our social and political and economic choices and actual actions that work toward equality-for the poor being poor no more, for the vulnerable gaining strength, for the different and stigmatized to be accepted as equal in God’s sight, and for those on the bottom of society to move up to the top in equality. When John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that God gave the Only Begotten One….to save the world” “the world” includes not a select few- but EVERYONE in it! To love includes our job of sharing God’s love for all, by being God’s love for all, however challenging that may be.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13: 34).

As I reflect on love I like this quote from Rev. Dr. Jane Shaw , Dean of Grace Cathedral , San Francisco in her Love and Listening:

“Here is a simple truth of the Christian faith: God made us, God loves us and God accepts us as we are. We did not have to earn our creation, and we do not have to earn God’s love. But God is delighted when we respond to that love. If we are to bring that love to others, then we must know something of what it means to be vulnerable with one another and vulnerable with God.”

Indeed, C.S. Lewis said that “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart certainly will be wrung and possibly broken….” I think that this applies to all types of loving. For loving inevitably involves losing and that is so often heart breaking. I lost one of my older kitties this week. His name was Brother Maurus, named by Judy Beaumont and her Sister friend (from the Benedictine’s) Sr. Johnette Sawyer. He was sixteen but only had been ill for a few days. Though I have several kitties, that is of no matter for loss is loss, and he is gone-along with Judy and Sister Johnette. His kitty sister Elana (named for my Grandma Ella and Mom Anna) is looking for him everywhere. Her meowing searching is hard to hear. Yes, animal families too have a hard time parting. I think of the happy day when Johnette visited us and Maurus was named. I like to think of them together in heaven now. Loss is hard whether it is an animal or person, missing someone dear, or even a time of life. As we face aging we accept many losses even as we have some gains-of perspective and , yes, possibly, wisdom and new chances at love and life.

C.S. Lewis continues about loving: to keep your heart safe from breaking “You must give it to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it up carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries, avoid all entanglements, lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless-it will change. It will not be broken, it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable”.

So, my friends, if you are brave enough to love you are blessed and redeemed with a heart capable of loving and of being broken. Let us thank God for that! Let us risk it, let us love one another as Jesus showed us how to do.-“Love one another as I have loved you”.

Love and blessings, Pastor Judy Lee, RCWP

The Good Shepherd Community in Fort Myers, Florida

10/28/23

Thinking About St. Francis: Reflections of a Roman Catholic Woman Priest

This week, on October 4th, 2023, the Church celebrated the life of St. Francis of Assisi known as the saint of the poor, all animals and the environment. A once very wealthy12th century man, he heard God’s voice telling him to rebuild the church and he became poor and developed an order of 5 thousand followers. He is known for loving and serving all of God’s creation and for Christ’s stigmata on his loving hands!

I have written other blogs about him and his influence on my life and ministry. Two others are: “For Those With St. Francis’ Heart” (July 8,2018) and “A Saint For Our Times: A Woman Roman Catholic Priest ‘s Reflections on the Feast of St. Francis.” October 4, 2018.

He is one of my favorite saints and an inspiration for my life. I can only aspire to his caring, his love and his gentleness toward all people and all of creation. I am often particularly moved by his inclusion of all animals in his caring. To St. Francis all beings are brothers and sisters. Oh what a different world it would be if all of us cared for our brothers and sisters.

These two, Mama in the rear, are part of a whole family of seven kittys given to me fifteen years ago by a homeless man that I worked with in the local park. Often the homeless adopt homeless pets but this man knew he could no longer take care of the cats that his wife adopted before finding indoor housing for herself alone. He had inadvertently stepped on one and killed it and he was distraught. Three kittens were quickly adopted but Mamacat, whom he called Lady Guinevere, and four others remained with me as they had Feline AIDS and people were frightened to adopt them. Now I know that the kittens can go into remission and they did after a year and a half, and that Feline AIDS kittys are not a threat to other cats unless there is a major fight with deep bites. While I rescue many, there has never been such a fight here, but sadly, no one wants older cats. So here they enjoy a restful day.

And below, Marco Polo, now 8, who was brought here as a kitten by his father, Big Benny, with his Mom and brother little Benny, is asking about dinner. The kittens were so tiny as the parents led them over a city block to my house every day to eat. Marco was adventurous exploring everything as he travelled here, hence his name. HIs father was sick and would not come in with them. A few months later he lived on our front porch and I cared for him there until he died of feline leukemia. It still amazes me that Benny found a home for his family before he succumbed to illness. Because his mother Bonnie remained frightened the two kittens took a long time to trust so could not be placed like the many kittens I have placed. But I am still hoping for a home for them.

May you and your beloved pets, and all beings that are in difficult circumstances or without food or homes be under the care of our loving God-and under the care St. Francis showed us to give.

Bless you all,

Rev. Dr. Judy Lee, RCWP

Pastor Good Shepherd Ministries, Fort Myers, Florida

” YHWH (our Loving God) you are gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and rich in love.

YHWH you are good to all and compassionate to all your creatures.” Psalm 145:8-9 TIB.

“How you love justice, YHWH!

You are always on the side of the oppressed….

You are tender and compassionate, YHWH...” Psalm 103:6,8

We are so blessed. Compassion is the very nature of God, our Creator, our Father/Mother. And it is the nature of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God who has sent the Holy Spirit to convict us about and show us God’s work here on earth AND TO ENABLE US TO DO THIS LOVING WORK.

The story of the widow of Nain is a passage that reveals Jesus’ compassion to us and it is one of my favorite New Testament passages.

Jesus, followed by a huge crowd enters the city of Nain.

“As he approached the town gate a dead person was being carried out-the only son of his mother, and she was a widow….”‘ When Jesus saw her, “his heart went out to her and he said ,”don’t cry”. Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man,I say to you,get up”! The dead man sat up and began to talk and Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe, and praised God…they said “God has come to help his people”. This news about Jesus spread…” ” Luke 7:11-17 (NIV).

Unlike some of the Gospel stories about Jesus’ healing where people reach out to touch Jesus literally and figuratively, here, it is Jesus who is moved by what he saw, and Jesus who reached out to the grieving and hopeless woman. Jesus, whose heart is made of compassion could not bear her grief and desperation for surely she had no means now of caring for herself. Jesus comforts her and then restores the life of her son. She did not need to know him or even to ask him. He knew her and her great pain and gently reached out to her. It is no wonder that the crowd felt that God was visiting them. Indeed, God was!

Oh, how good it is to know that even when we don’t have the words to pray because we hurt so much, God is there, God knows our hurt and our needs, and God will reach out with comfort and with what we need to survive. Oh, how blessed we are.

It is important to note that there are many places in the Gospels where Jesus is moved with compassion, or teaches about compassion. For example, Matthew 14:14; Mark 1:41, 6:34, 8:2 and Luke 7:13. In some places he is amazed that although God has shown us such great compassion that we are not so compassionate with others. Indeed, we may pass by on the other side like the priest and religious men who left the beaten man on the side of the road while a non-Jew, a Samaritan, tended to him compassionately (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus defines this beaten and dying man as our neighbor and asks for our compassion: “Go and do likewise.”

What moves you? What touches your heart and soul? What opens your heart to others?

For, to minister to those who Jesus loves, to do likewise, we need to see what is before us with the eyes of Jesus.

Sometimes the days come and go and it is almost by rote that we go through them. We finish our work. We follow schedules that order our lives. We attend to those in our families and seek our creature comforts. And so the days pass by, one folding into the other.

And yet, on occasion, we look up and see with new eyes. Our hearts and minds experience something or someone that moves us out of ourselves and our routines to really seeing and responding to someone else or something else. We are truly moved-to regard, to love, to give of ourselves, to reach out, to attend to that which is compelling. We are filled with compassion. And God’s love pours through us to reach the needs of others.

My life’s work, calling, was revealed to me one late night in the early 1980’s after a long day of teaching at NYU School of Social Work in the heart of Greenwich, Village, New York City. I had been a social worker for many years, and a Professor of Social Work for 5-6 years then. I loved social work practice and I loved teaching it. But this was to be a calling within the call to “help others”, especially the most marginalized. To walk to work every day I passed through Washington Square Park and the park was increasingly filled with homeless men and women sleeping on the benches and living in the park. As I walked through the park I sometimes talked with some of its residents. My heart was uneasy because of them. This night I could not sleep so I got up and read my Bible as I often did. Jesus’ own “call” in Luke 4:14-21 pierced my heart.

Jesus was teaching in the Synagogue in Nazareth and a scroll of Isaiah was handed to him to read. “Unrolling it, he found the place where it is wtritten:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

Because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor….

to release the oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

“Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

I placed my head on the Bible on my desk and stretched my hands out before me and prayed. When I finished the tearful prayer, I knew that I was called to minister to the homeless. The faces in the park appeared to me and I knew what I had to do. I did not know how I would do it, but I went to sleep knowing what I was called to do. The next day I mobilized my friends at NYU to join me in exploring how we could respond to the homeless before us. For my part, I located the two nearby women’s Shelters and volunteered my time there. The rest is history-serving the homeless became the rest of my life. My move to the University of Connecticut SSW in 1984 continued that work and I was blessed to join my life with Judy Beaumont who was the Director of My Sister’s Place, a four tiered shelter for homeless women, and families and men in 1988. Our move to Florida in 1998 continued that work and allowed us to do it full time. However hard it often was, we loved our work with the homeless and poor here.

In 2008, I was ordained a Roman Catholic Woman Priest and Judy Beaumont and I developed Good Shepherd Ministries of Southwest Florida to serve the homeless and poor in Fort Myers. ( She was ordained a Roman Catholic Woman Priest in 2012.) In 2010 I wrote a book about this compelling work entitled COME BY HERE: CHURCH WITH THE POOR, (Judith A.B. Lee) and it is available on Kindle. In this work we received so much more than we gave, and the ministry continues.

A picture of some leaders in our Good Shepherd Community: Our Deacon, Hank Tessandori stands between Ann Palmer and Pastor Judy Beaumont, both now home with God. Judy Alves, Harry Gary and Phyllis Williams are to my right.

Above: Carol Schauf and I celebrate Brenda Cummings’ birthday last week. Brenda, in the middle standing, has been with Good Shepherd since 2008.

As you identify what moves you, and how you might give of yourself and your goods to help others you will find answers for you based on your own uniqueness and gifts. there are so many ways to give back to our loving God. So what moves you?

My dear Cousin Jackie Marion is moved by the plights of animals who are to be euthanized unless caring people step up and donate to keep their care going, or, to adopt them. She was on fire when she described her mission for the animals to me. And, she was happy to be retired now so she could devote herself to this mission. She said “”…Now that I am retired I found my dream and purpose”. So all of the energy she devotes to fund raising and following animals in trouble, to donating and raising public awareness is a great joy to her. And many of the the dear pets, both dogs and cats, remain alive because of her compassion. She volunteers for several animal serving agencies, but mainly for Friends of Cumberland County AnimalS , North Carolina. She pledges for them and shares on Facebook and elsewhere. She found her calling and she said a resounding YES! And she is full of joy!

Below -One of the dogs Jackie helped to get into a No-Kill Rescue Shelter where she can live until adopted !!! Way to go Friends of Cumberland County AnimalS and Jackie!

God loves all of Creation and all Creatures great and small. Thanks be to God!

I am sure God is delighted when an animal’s life is saved.

Below Jackie, in the middle is with her husband Mike and me.

And I also know that God is delighted when each of us finds our own way to serve creation with compassion.

May God bless you as you discover your own callings and gifts.

Rev. Dr. Judy Lee,RCWP

Good Shepherd Ministries Fort Myers, Florida

This should be more aptly called “by the Water”-for any body of water is a gift from God to me. I live on a small lake in Florida and daily I say thank you to our loving God for finding this life giving place over 25 years ago. The life in and on and near this little lake always amazes and delights me. But a change of scenery is also a life giving thing and recently I spent ten days going North to New York and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It was exciting to be near other bodies of water, Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn where I saw two dear friends and Cape Cod where I also reunited with a dear old friend and explored the dunes and quaint towns, especially Provincetown.

Below is Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn where we celebrated Laura’s 86th Birthday. I first met Laura in the early 1980’s while teaching at NYU School Of Social Work and volunteering my services in a Shelter for Homeless Women in New York City. Laura was different than most of the women there. A religious Orthodox Jew, Laura became homeless after the loss of her parents and another elderly woman for whom she was a caretaker. As I shared her grief and her story we formed a bond that would last to the present time. Although of different faiths, our common faith in a loving God united us even as a concern for helping others was another bond. It was hard to find the right place for her to live but she made the best of the possible facilities and led a full life of serving others. In the picture with us is Dr. Danielle Nisivoccia Kavesh, also a social worker and social work educator and my friend and then hers over these many years. Last December Laura finally found the best place for her to live-in a Senior Residence sponsored by the Orthodox Jewish Community in Brooklyn. For the first time she feels at home in her home and is truly happy. She can finally attend regular Sabbath Services and enjoys speaking with her Rabbi. She also loves going just a few yards on her walker to the beautiful Bay. Her testimony is that “it took a long while, but God provided exactly what l needed” and she is truly happy and thankful. We are so happy for her! Happy 86th Birthday Dear Laura!

Below Danielle Nisivoccia Kavesh and Laura Rubin celebrating Laura’s August Birthday by the Bay. The waiters are singing “Happy Birthday”!

From New York we went to Provincetown on Cape Cod. This is a place that I loved years ago and I was delighted for the chance to visit again. The quaint houses and the crooked streets full of activity captivated me and the chance to explore the National Seashore, and even put my feet in its chilly water again was a special joy. And it was a special blessing to see my friend Dr. Carol Swenson again in her seasonal home on the Cape. (She and her husband Dave Hoover also live in California). We met half way between her home in Plymouth and Provincetown and spent a wonderful afternoon together. Carol and l first met when we were young Social Work Professors together at NYU School of Social Work. We ,thankfully , have remained close friends over the years as our jobs and lives took us far and wide.

Cape Cod is such a special place for God’s glorious creation to shine. The dunes are tall and wild and the sea beyond is calm and ever-flowing. The trees are bent by the gentle winds and the sky lifts as high as heaven. It was amazing to feel the vitality of the earth and sea joined there once again.

Thank you Dear God

Thank you for your magnificent

Creation,

for the city, and the countryside,

and the sea,

especially for the sea,

flowing from You,

flowing to You eternally.

For your people who persevere,

no matter what befalls, and

who love others

and become our loving friends.

For being with us

when times are good

and life is sweet and

when times are hard

and there are storms

on the peaceful sea,

and life is a challenge

for You are with us through

through it all.

Oh, thank You God!

Below is a stained glass window in the beautiful Church of St. Peter the Apostle in Provincetown. It shows Jesus calming the disciples’ fears, telling them not to be afraid, and walking toward the frightened disciples during a storm on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:22-36). At Jesus’ word, Peter is brave enough to get out of the boat and walk toward Jesus. He keeps his eyes on Jesus and is able to begin to walk toward him on the sea. When he takes his eyes off Jesus for a moment and feels the wind pulling at him he begins to sink and immediately Jesus reaches out to him and saves him.

I pray for the faith to walk toward Jesus when the seas are rough. And if I fall, I pray to be able to reach for his hand and grab hold. I pray for all who have come through stormy seas and still served others like my friend Laura. I pray for all to be blessed and given peace and joy as she was.

May you have a sea-walking kind of faith!

Blessings,

Pastor Judy Lee, RCWP

Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community, Fort Myers, Florida

Bloom Where You Are Planted

I received this wonderful reminder in the mail and have been thinking about it. Sometimes we are planted-by life and circumstances or Providence. Sometimes we make choices and plant ourselves. Sometimes we are replanted and replanted-yet we survive and can bloom. We can choose to do and be all we can be wherever we are, or we can choose to shutdown and hide our blooming, hoping to bloom behind our walls or to be replanted again. This little reminder suggests that we “bloom with grace” wherever we are. That we make choices to bring beauty and grace to the worlds in which we find ourselves-and perhaps that we look for the beauty in everyone around us. I believe that grace is a gift from God to bring out the best in us and let it shine-no matter who is looking or not! And I believe that as we all bloom the world is a beautiful place of amazing diversity and surprising delightful life.

Mother and the Weeds

My Mother was a special person who could see beauty in everything and everyone. She dressed and she painted, mostly large oil paintings of flowers,with a bright artistic flair. When the residents of her Senior building in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York were invited to adopt a plot in a nearby lot and plant whatever they liked she was delighted. Some planted vegetables and fruits. Most planted beautiful flowers. My mother looked for and planted weeds. They were as beautiful as any flowers and she thought they needed a showcase. They were all around but unnoticed and unappreciated. She was criticized for this but, in her way, paid it no heed, she knew they were beautiful and that if people could get by what they thought they were, the name they were given-“weed” to what they really were-God given creations-they too could be loved and enjoyed. She never worried about conformity and above all people I knew- she truly bloomed where she was planted. She had to battle mental health and financial issues at a time when medications did little to help. And, I realized, often not soon enough, that her views of the world were a vision to be embraced and emulated. She always saw the good others overlooked. I always hope that I have learned this from her and that by God’s grace, I too can be myself and shine just as I am.

Above Mother is with me at my graduation from Junior High School. She was always at my side through all of my later advanced degree graduations and through thick and thin. Below we are in front of her Senior Building and she will show me her garden plot across the street.

Below is one of her paintings.

In the picture below one of Mom’s paintings is on the left and her picture, painted by my cousin Jack’s wife Arline McGarry on the right. Mother was beautiful and she created beauty wherever she was.

Below are a few so-called weeds on my front lawn. I very carefully make sure they can grow just where they are. In my life I have tried to do the same with the people in my life. Some of the most beautiful children I knew were the middle school kids at the Alternative Learning Center where I worked as a Counselor for a few years here in Fort Myers after a second retiring from my University “Professor of Social Work” Career. Serious behavioral and emotional problems had landed them there but one by one and in small groups they could truly grow and shine. I remember one fellow, Sonny, whose name I spelled Sunny with him to give him credit for the positive joy he could express frequently. Each one had a special shining that could be revealed with care and attention to both the pain and happy places in their lives.

I loved the practice aspects of my long Social Work career as much as the teaching of “how to do it” in my Academic career. And after leaving formal teaching and going into practice again and then Pastoral study and pastoral work I loved, and still love, the opportunity to get to know people in their strengths and struggles, hopes and fears, and to seek the grace of God for their blooming with them.

I hope that today you will join me in finding the beauty and goodness in life where you are even when it is not ideal. I hope that you will find it past the labels given and truly appreciate things and people for what and who they are despite and beyond their “labels”. I hope you will see the beauty in the so-called weeds. I hope that you will join me in blooming where you are planted!

Blessings,

Pastor Judy Lee, RCWP

Rev. Dr. Judith AB Lee, Good Shepherd Ministries, Fort Myers, Florida

8/15/2023

“IN THE CHURCH THERE IS ROOM FOR EVERYONE”-POPE FRANCIS-WORLD YOUTH DAY 8/6/2023

DIOS NOS AMA- GOD LOVES US

In his address to a huge welcoming crowd of 1.5 million youth and others gathered for the 2023 Catholic World Youth day in Portugal today Pope Francis emphasized God’s LOVE and the INCLUSIVITY of the church. He said ” In the Church everyone is welcome” and he organized a resounding chant of “todos, todos, todos”-everyone, everyone, everyone!

He said “God loves you and accepts you just as you are, not as society wants you to be.” What a message to those of us of difference- of all colors, cultures, socioeconomic classes,genders, sexual orientations and -who are , for example, members of the LGBTQ community! Fr. James Martin, always supportive of our community, tweeted “And this does mean the LBGTQ Community” just in case anyone was still wondering. Pope Francis also said “follow the example of Jesus and be sensitive to the situations all around us, to other cultures, to the pleas of the poor and vulnerable, and the cry of the wounded and mistreated earth”(ncronline.org). He spoke clearly of loving everyone, noting that love dirties the hands-it is not an antiseptic act from afar. He said not to be afraid of loving, it is a risk, but worth it. He mentioned a huge wave on a nearby beach and suggested that we catch, ride and surf the wave of young people and all people interested in following Jesus now. He concluded by telling the youth “not to fear” and it was announced that the next World Youth Day would be in Seoul Korea in 2027.

Let us hear and enjoy the Good News spoken by Pope Francis today.

ALL are loved and cherished by God. ALL are to be included in the Church, and the church everywhere. God’s priorities are with the poor and vulnerable and our love is to be active and reaching out. God also cares for our precious environment and wants us to take good care of her. Exploitation of the labor of the poor and the gifts of the environment are concerns of the Pontiff and of everyone who says they love God- to love God is to love what and whom God loves-EVERYONE and all of Creation.

Let us then continue to love one another and God’s precious world as we go forward into this new week,

Love and blessings,

Pastor Judy Lee, RCWP

Good Shepherd Ministries of SW Florida-8/6/2023