Wow, this was great!  I really think we should do this at least once a year.  At the beginning of September, we started the St. Philaret Challenge.

To kick off the new year, many of you took up the challenge of writing out this beautiful morning prayer each day, and emailing me to tell me you had done it.  I was so blessed to have so many participate!  Here are just two notes I received as the month wore on…

Good morning! Just wanted to tell you that I have looked forward to this exercise in prayer every morning. I plan to continue it well beyond September. It has helped me to stop and think before reacting in situations where before I might have had a knee jerk reaction. Thank you for initiating this.

Hi Cynthia, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your encouragement and inspiration.  Although I haven’t been sending emails daily, I’m thrilled that writing out the prayer has become part of my daily prayer routine and I haven’t missed one day yet.  My brain is quite slow in absorbing and retaining these timeless truths, in fact nothing seems to stick to it any longer, so this routine is not only good for my soul, but also exercise for my brain. 

Oh my, I’m going to miss your daily emails!  For those of you who were not able to join us, please think about incorporating this into your day for at least a couple weeks.  The discipline truly became a blessing for those who tried it.  Many were able to memorize the prayer, and I had several people tell me that it helped them get through some difficult situations that they were going through.

Congratulations to all who participated, but for those of you who might be competitive…  🙂

Jeanne and Evelyn were neck and neck, but Jeanne finished out in front.  Honorable mentions go to Laura, Jamie, and Sherry.  But all of you did a wonderful job, and I know that many times you wrote it out and just forgot to let me know!