Food for the Soul | June 24th, 2020
Hello dear Friends,
I hope you are all doing well, practicing healthy ways of living, getting used to the masks that hide our smiles. Our world is different now, and one of the things we all strive for is solidarity with one another. One of the primary markers of a Christian life is solidarity as modeled by Jesus. The work of solidarity is to join and accept others as fully human – in our struggles and gifts alike. Then we will find in ourselves and in the other the true “image of God” in which we are created and connected. We may have to rely on teachers to guide us in our efforts.
- Lilian Revel, Pastoral Care Associate
A PRAYER - A PRACTICE - A POEM
A Prayer
Holy One, for the longest time we have prayed, “Your kingdom come,” and often we have wanted it to come in a supernatural way that did not ask too much of us. We have longed for your reign but imagined it elsewhere, not recognizing that it truly is a gift you have already given – but a gift that calls forth all our own gifts to receive it as fully as you intend. Let your kingdom come into our hearts and into our hands, and help us to activate it in our lives through the choices we make and the relationships we enter. May our own self-transcendence cause us to grow in freedom, and from the place of freedom may we choose to live in compassion and love. Amen.
--Judy Cannato, Fields of Compassion: How the New Cosmology is Transforming Spiritual Life
A Practice
Finding Our Teachers
If we choose to, we can see everyone as our teacher. Those people who have admirable qualities can inspire us; those with destructive qualities can remind us of our shortcomings and motivate us to change. Confucius was very clear about this:
“When walking in the company of two other men I am bound to be able to learn from them. The good points of the one I copy; the bad points of the other I correct in myself.”
When we meet kind people, we can develop feelings of gratitude and use those people as role models to inspire our own kindness and generosity. We can also learn from unkind people. Seeing how sensitive we are to criticism and hostility, we can remember how sensitive others are and resolve to treat them gently. We can also practice forgiveness and find how much better this feels than smoldering with resentment for days.
To begin this exercise , select an initial time period such as a morning or a day. During that time, try to see each person you meet as a teacher bringing you an important lesson. Your challenge is to recognize what that lesson is, then to learn as much as you can from this person. At the end of the day, look back and review your interaction with each person, the lessons each one brought, and what you learned.
As exercises like these are repeated, the eye of the soul gradually opens and we become increasingly aware of the sacred within us and around us. Every person becomes a teacher and a reminder of our spiritual nature, while every experience becomes a learning opportunity . . . and we see the world as a sacred schoolhouse designed to heal and awaken us, and to teach us how to heal and awaken others. What greater gift could the world offer?
--Roger Walsh, Essential Spirituality: The 7 Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind
A Poem
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
- The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry in Risking Everything