THEME Touching the Essential
THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION
PRAYERS Adapted from “Sacred Energy / Mass of the Universe”
HYMNS
Thank you, thank you, thank you God. (BL)
Not every day. (BL)
This Earth is full of beauty. (BL)
The darkness and the light. (BL)
Congregational Alleluias. (BL)
Charge our hearts with wonder. (BL)
The Cosmos in all its wonder. (BL)
At each journey’s ending point. (BL)
My spirit shall rejoice. (BL)
In the darkness of my spirit. (BL)
To God the process. (BL)
How liberated are those. (Paraphrases of the Beatitudes).(BL)
There shall be life and love.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
All will be well.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
Give me laughter.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
God gives the song.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
Come join the cosmic family. (STS1)
We will celebrate with praises. (STS1)
Give joyful praise and honor. (STS1)
O God of Earth and God of Sky. (STS1)
The way of life. (STS1)
As we give we shall receive. (STS1)
Singing the Sacred Vol 1 2011 World Library Publications
GRACES
We give thanks for the plants.(Ecological Grace) (BL)
We eat and drink. (BL)
May the food that we eat. (BL)
REFLECTIONS
THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF THANKFULNESS
In this particular church the congregation was encouraged each Sunday to share significant events that had happened to them during the week. One man told the following story. “When I got home from church last Sunday my wife asked me what we did during the service. I replied that we turned to our neighbours and said ‘I see Christ in you’. My wife’s response was ‘that’s an odd thing to do’ to which I replied ‘no it isn’t. I see Christ in you!’
‘Well that’s even more odd she replied’ so I proceeded to share with her all the good qualities which I saw in her”
What a transforming action that would be if it occurred in all of the churchgoers’ homes every Sunday!
AFFIRMATION OF AWARENESS FROM THANKFUL HEARTS
In the white light
we glimpse the colors of the rainbow –
In the darkness
we see the hues of our spirit ‑
In our encounter with emptiness
we discover the patterned fullness of the vast inner and outer world –
In the intermingling of tears of sorrow and joy we find wholeness of life-
In entering the sorrows of another
we find healing for our own grief –
For the totality of compassion
is immeasurably greater
than the sum of all destructive suffering ‑
In stepping aside from the self that we can see
we discover the unseen self,
the spark that links us with all other sparks of that divinity
which sets the world alight.
And in allowing ourselves to be embraced by the mystery we discover our heart’s delight.
THE DEPTHS OF THANKFULNESS
It does not require much spiritually to be thankful when all is going well but to be thankful in the midst of tragedy is the mark of a deep faith that in the end all will be well. This was the depth of faith that Jillian of Norwich had when at the height of the ravages of the Black Plague in England she proclaimed “All will be well and all manner of thing(s) will be well”. This is not only a belief that things will be well in the future but an affirmation that despite all appearances to the contrary at the very deepest level all is well with the Cosmos.
THE CENTRALITY OF THANKFULNESS
The Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart said ‘if the only prayer you say in your (entire) life is “thank you” that would suffice’; such is the central significance of thankfulness. To make sense of this in modern scientific terms we need to refer to the fact that neuroscience, quantum biology and quantum physics are now beginning to assert that we are more than a bundle of chemical and neurological interactions. We are what can be described as a force field. Indeed quantum physics asserts that this invisible energy realm is the ‘primary governing force of the material realm … in a universe made out of energy, everything is entangled, everything is one’ (The Role of Spirituality by Bruce Lipton in the Forum on Science and Spirituality website). As a consequence of all this it is clear that how we think of others has an enormous effect both on our own psychological well-being and that of others. We no longer need to perceive our self as a victim of our negative experiences of the past but can choose to focus upon the positive things that have happened to us or even to create wonderful, imaginary scenarios. Thankfulness of our actual or reinvented past and our enfolding and thankfulness of all those people who made up our past can be a life transforming activity.
FOCUS FOR ACTION
LOGO NOTE: At the heart of the mystery all the separate boxes disappear and all is one, all is love.
Text and graphic © William Livingstone Wallace but available for free use.
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