Prelude Chanson de Matin by Edward Elgar
Opening Words by Alex Brianson (adapted)
We gather today to share a particular kind of community – a community of faith in which each of us is free to quest for our own ways of being spiritual and religious.
We gather today to think about how we have done this until now, and how we might do this from now.
We are none of us the same as we were twenty years ago or even last week; we are none of us the same as we shall be in five weeks or ten years.
As the paths of our lives cover new terrain, may we find helpful new thinkers, concepts, and understandings of Spirit, or of the highest good in life, and new ways to interpret those we have loved long and hard.
And may we be open to the voice of wisdom, wherever – and however – we find it.
Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point. I will be lighting my chalice for worship at 11.00 am on Sunday morning) words by Laura Dobson.
As Unitarians we are people seeking
Truth, meaning, love and deep connection
As we seek to discern our path
May we follow the guidance of our hearts
May our hearts be open to unexpected truths
May our chalice flame remind us
To welcome all the truth of our lives
To welcome each other
Into the beloved community
Of love and compassion,
Opening Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love,
Be with us as we gather for worship,
Each in our own place.
Help us to feel a sense of community,
Even though we are physically apart.
Help us to care for each other,
In this world in which Covid has not yet gone away,
And the clouds of war and climate change overshadow us.
May we keep in touch however we can,
And help each other,
However we may.
May we remember that
caution is still needed,
that close contact is still unwise.
Help us to be grateful for the freedoms we have
and to respect the wishes of others.
May we hold in our hearts all those
Who are grieving, lost, alone,
Suffering in any way,
Amen
Reading Cultivating a New Heart by Richard Rohr, Part 1
Practice is an essential reset button that we must push many times before we can experience any genuine newness. Whether we’re aware of it or not, we are practicing all the time. When we operate by our habituated patterns, we strengthen certain neural pathways, which makes us, as the saying goes, “set in our ways.” But when we stop using old neural grooves, these pathways actually die off! Practice can literally create new responses and allow rigid ones to show themselves.
It’s strange that we’ve come to understand the importance of practice in sports, in most therapies, in any successful business, and in creative endeavours, but for some reason most of us do not see the need for it in the world of spirituality. Yet it’s probably more important there than in any other area. “New wine demands fresh skins or otherwise we lose both the wine and the container,” as Jesus said… Practices, more than anything else, create a new container for us, one that will protect the new wine we wish to take in.
Many are convinced that rituals and “practices” like daily Eucharist, the rosary, processions and pilgrimages, repetitive chants, genuflections and prostrations, physically blessing oneself (as with the sign of the cross), singing, and silence have operated as a kind of body-based rewiring. Such practices allow us to know Reality mystically and contemplatively from a unitive consciousness. But, over time, as these practices turned into repetitive obligations, they degenerated; most people came to understand them magically as divinely required transactions. Instead of inviting people into new consciousness, such practices often froze people in their first infantile understanding of those rituals, and transactions ended up substituting for transformations.
Alternative Lord’s Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love, here and everywhere,
May we be aware of your presence in our lives.
May our world be blessed.
May our daily needs be met,
And may our shortcomings be forgiven,
As we forgive those of others.
Give us the strength to resist wrong-doing,
The inspiration and guidance to do right,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
We are your hands in the world; help us to grow.
May we have compassion for all living beings,
And receive whatever life brings,
With courage and trust.
Amen
Reading Cultivating a New Heart by Richard Rohr, Part 2
Mindless repetition of any practice, with no clear goal or clarity of intention, can in fact keep us quite unconscious—unless the practices keep breaking us into new insight, desire, compassion, and an ever-larger notion of God and ourselves. Automatic repetition of anything is a recipe for unconsciousness, the opposite of any genuine consciousness, intentionality, or spiritual maturity. If spirituality does not support real growth in both inner and outer freedom, it is not authentic spirituality. It is such basic unfreedom that makes so many people dislike and mistrust religious people.
Any fear-based “rattling of beads” reflects the “magical” consciousness that dominated much of the world until it began to widely erode in the 1960s. Yet each of these practices can also be understood in a very mature way.
It’s a paradox that God’s gifts are totally free and unearned, and yet God does not give them except to people who really want them, choose them, and say “yes” to them. This is the fully symbiotic nature of grace. Divine Loving is so pure that it never manipulates, shames, or forces itself on anyone. Love waits to be invited and desired, and only then rushes in.
Prayer May the light of your soul guide you by John O’Donohue
May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work
You do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those
Who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden you.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams,
Possibilities and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you.
Amen
Reading from Everyday Spiritual Practice by Scott Alexander
While working on this collection, I was often asked, “what makes an everyday spiritual practice different from a casual spiritual hobby, something worthwhile that one simply dabbles in when one feels like it?” The answer is intentionality, regularity, and depth. Whether it is sitting zen, doing charitable giving, working with a spiritual director, or tending your relationship with loved ones, what shapes your efforts into an everyday spiritual practice is your commitment to making the activity a regular and significant part of your life.
People often associate the word “practice” with joyless discipline and unrewarding labour, like countless hours spent at a piano or computer keyboard, struggling to master the skill. As I read the diverse essays in this collection, I was struck by how consistently the contributors describe the liberating, soul-satisfying pleasure their spiritual disciplines bring to their lives. Paradoxically, by choosing to embrace discipline and structure, which on the surface seems to restrict freedom and limit choice, you gain the freedom to become more fully and joyfully yourself.
Time of Stillness and Reflection words by Helen Mills
I have always included a time of stillness and reflection in our services, as it is an important spiritual practice – being in silence with others. Here is a lovely meditation by Helen Mills…
In our time of prayer now, may we bring our contemplations into the stillness, and know that in that place we may hear the deeper stirring of the soul …May we remember the simple words of Psalm 46 verse 10 ‘Be still and know that I am God’…The place of the spirit can be a place beyond our human expression, but may be felt in our hearts as a oneness and connection in Love.
And if the stories of our lives make that difficult, let us be kind to ourselves, and simply ‘know’ deep down that love is here, and that the light of our souls is always greater than the dark.
May we listen for the soul…
May the soul feel nourished ….
May we connect to its bright colours; that its wisdom and power may lead our hearts. And, beyond the confines of the human mind, may our spiritual hearts know deeply, the loving power, blessings and healing balm of the ocean of spirit flowing through us and all that is.
So let us take some quiet moments now for our personal prayer and reflection…
[silence]
May we bring the light and peace of the soul and its’ wisdom with us now, as we close this time of reflection.
Amen
Musical Interlude Claire de Lune by Claude Debussy
Address Cultivating a New Heart
This week’s service is about the importance of having a spiritual dimension to our lives. I assume we all share that belief, otherwise we wouldn’t be here, as members of this spiritual community.
The Franciscan theologian, Richard Rohr, speaks of “cultivating a new heart”, of choosing, through regular practice, to nourish our spiritual selves through doing regular spiritual practices. And he warns us that the key word is “practice” – it won’t do us any good, it won’t nourish our souls, if we only manage to engage in some spiritual activity at wide and irregular intervals. Like he says, “It’s strange that we’ve come to understand the importance of practice in sports, in most therapies, in any successful business, and in creative endeavours, but for some reason most of us do not see the need for it in the world of spirituality. Yet it’s probably more important there than in any other area.”
I would agree. I have only had made time for a regular spiritual practice in my own life since I attended my first Summer School. I can remember being quite embarrassed when I was asked at my interview for ministry training, “What are your spiritual practices?” and having to confess that actually, I didn’t have any (except for running). Which didn’t go down well! I had flirted with various different ones – praying at night, reading the Bible each morning, starting a “blessings jar” – but nothing had stuck for longer than about a week. I think this was for two reasons: first, I was not doing them with “intentionality”, as Scott Alexander advised us to in our third reading; and second, I hadn’t found something which really resonated with me, which reached me on a soul level.
My attendance at that Summer School in the Summer of 2009, with impeccable timing, changed all that. As a member of the engagement group Gems for the Journey, I was introduced to the Unitarian Universalist version of a prayer bead practice, which I have continued with, more or less faithfully, ever since. Linda Hart and Patricia Walker-Hesson, the group’s facilitators, had put together sets of beads in sealed plastic bags, and each participant could choose the one that “spoke” to them. I was immediately attracted by a set which featured a large bead, circular yet slightly concave on both sides, as Centring Bead, which is bisected into two colours: a rich purple and dark turquoise that is almost teal in some lights. The twenty three breath beads are a light blue somewhere between cerulean and pale turquoise, while the Naming, Knowing, Listening and Loving beads are slightly larger than the breath beads, and creamy white.
We were then required to string them ourselves – the big Centring bead (which I hold while saying my version of the Lord’s Prayer); four small entering beads; the Naming bead (for naming the sacred and holy in our lives and for giving thanks); five breath beads (each breath in, a Breath of Life, each breath out, a Breath of Love, as my first spiritual director later taught me); the Knowing bead (for giving voice to the broken, wounded, worried places in our souls); five more breath beads; the Listening bead (for being still and open to the Divine); five more breath beads; the Loving bead (for praying for others, holding them in the Light); four closing beads; then back to the Centring bead, which brings me to the end of the practice. I finish by saying my version of an ancient Celtic prayer adapted from the Carmina Gadelica.
I find it an extraordinarily rich practice which suits me perfectly, and I try to do it every morning. I think the fact that we strung our own beads was quite significant for me. I keep my beads in a little purse on the altar in my bedroom. Having now prayed with them for well over a decade, they feel sacred themselves.
The words of the 18th century German physicist and satirist, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg remind us, “You should never have so much to do, that you never have time to reflect / meditate.” And I would guess that his words would resonate uneasily with many of us. It is very easy to be always on the go, always chasing the next item on the To Do list, and never taking time out to reflect, to meditate, to spend time with the Divine.
It is perhaps ironic that, the more we love our jobs, the more we see them as a vocation rather than a job, the less time we seem to have to just do nothing. Do Nothing. Sit. Relax. Simply BE.
Yet it is vitally important to make that time. Because if we simply carry on beavering away, not looking after our deepest selves, we will eventually burn out. And then wonder why…
Time for spiritual reflection, time out of our everyday lives, is such an important thing. It brings our lives back into balance, helps us to take a long, reflective look at the matters which are concerning us, and hopefully allows us to move back into our lives with lower stress levels. And even, wiser, more well-thought-through, solutions.
I honestly believe that it doesn’t matter what form this time out takes, so long as we have the intention to step away completely from our mundane world. For me, a walk in the woods is a vital part of my life. As I walk, I notice God’s creation all around me – the trees, the bushes, the wild flowers, the birds singing in the trees – so loud and present, but so difficult to spot! After a walk in nature, I return home feeling lighter, more centred, more whole.
I have learned from long experience that, if I lose the habit of making time for my regular spiritual practices: a walk and sitting in silent contemplation with my prayer beads in the morning, and a gratitude practice in the evening, I am more wound up, more easily irritated, less relaxed, less able to give myself to others. And doing whichever practice we choose is a matter of that – practice. But it is also vital that we do it mindfully, concentrating as purely as we can on whatever it is, being entirely present to it. I have long understood that I will receive no spiritual nourishment from any practice if my mind is elsewhere – if I’m distracted by what I need to do next, or by negative emotions.
And I honestly believe that it doesn’t matter what form our individual spiritual practice or practices take, so long as we do it or them, preferably each day. Speaking personally, I prefer to do them in solitude, as I am an introvert (although I do love sitting in a gathered silence with others). But you might find your spiritual nourishment through attending worship on a Sunday, or a Heart and Soul session in the week, or walking a labyrinth. Or attending a peaceful yoga class. The possibilities are endless, as varied as the human spirit. As Unitarian minister, Matthew Smith, writes, “As we reach out, let us have resolute faith that we will connect with those true hearts – the companions we really need for life’s journey. So it is that we recognise and celebrate this hard but invaluable work of trusting and reaching out – In our own personal lives, and in the practise of spiritual community.”
The other thing to note is that the spiritual practice which suits us may change over time. And that is okay too – we are all on a spiritual journey through life, and what suits us one year, may not suit us the next. But the key thing is to persevere at least for a good few weeks, otherwise how will we learn what nourishes us?
I guess that what I am saying is, if you do not already engage in some form of spiritual practice, your soul will thank you for finding one which suits you. It took me a long while to discover my prayer bead practice, and I count myself blessed to have discovered one which suits me so well. There are dozens to choose from – the Scott Alexander book (which I’ve brought with me, in case anyone would like to look through it during coffee hour) is full of ideas, from engaging the mind through some kind of contemplative or prayer practice; through engaging the body, through movement and physical nourishment; engaging the heart, in our relationships with each other; engaging the will, by participating in some kind of social action; and engaging the soul through an act of creativity – art, writing, handcrafts, whatever. I know myself that when I cross-stitch or crochet mindfully, concentrating on what I am doing, it nourishes my spirit. And a regular spiritual practice can nourish yours.
May it be so, Amen
Closing Words
Spirit of Life and Love,
May we learn to reach out
towards the Divine in our spiritual practices,
so that we may learn to cultivate new hearts,
and to nourish our spiritual selves.
May we return to our everyday world refreshed,
may we share the love we feel,
may we look out for each other,
and may we keep up our hearts,
now and in the days to come,
Amen
Postlude Air from Water Music Suite No 1 by Georg Frideric Handel