Moment of Oneness - July 21, 2021

7:00pm EST

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81507551772
Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772
To connect by phone dial: +1 646 558 8656

Greeting:  Good Evening.  As we gather for our Moment of Oneness, we begin by listening to The Lilies of the Field.  I invite you to breathe in the beauty all around us – a beauty that is free and available at any moment. Our readings and prayers are an invitation to discover or rediscover that ever present beauty amidst our very busy and often distracted lives.

Opening Song:  Consider the Lilies of the Field by Roger Hoffman

https://youtu.be/nWfIMrSzFVs

 Opening Prayer:

Holy One, help us arrive at the beautiful truth that, without a doubt, we are immersed in the Holy One.  Help us to realize that The Sacred is not an occasional find in life, in church, or even in a sunset.  Help us arrive at the deep conviction Joan Chittister describes: The Beloved ‘is a sense of life now and of life beyond life.’  She ‘is what calls us to live into the heart of the universe’’. 

Reading:  Start with a Stone by Richard Rhor

Abraham Maslow points out in his hierarchy of needs that you cannot meet higher needs at any level of depth if the lesser needs are not first tended to.  You cannot do an end run to levels of communion and compassion, for example, when your basic security and survival needs have not been met.  As Jesus might put it, when you are “worried about many things” (Luke 10:41), you cannot have faith.  When you cannot enjoy the lilies of the field or the sparrows in the sky, don’t waste time thinking you can enjoy God or respect people at any depth.  So, start at the bottom, if you can, and try to love a rock!  If you can do that, it only gets bigger, wider, higher, deeper, and better.

History tells of too many people who have tried to be spiritual before they have learned how to be human!  Maybe this is why Jesus came to model humanity for us – much more than divinity.  Once you get the simplest human parts down (stop slamming the doors and start loving rocks), God will most assuredly take it all from there. Get the ordinary human thing down and you will have all the spirituality you can handle. 

Adapted from Contemplation in Action, pp 83-84

Silent Reflection:

Intentions: 

Response:  Let it  be so.

May we awaken to the mystery of being in the here and now and enter the quiet immensity of the Sacred

For all of us ‘who worry about many things’, may we go back to the bottom and discover the beauty and oneness of nature

For all those living without the most basic security and survival networks

For anyone imprisoned by fear and/or trauma, that we can reach out with support and the gift of love

That we all might ‘get that human thing down’ so that the spiritual in each of us can thrive.

That we may learn to enjoy and appreciate the lilies of the field and the sparrows in the sky 

That we might live the heart of the universe

Silence to add your intentions

Closing Prayer:   from An Altar in the World on seeing the  world through a tree’s eyes.

What do the tall trees say

To the late havocs in the sky?

They sigh.

The air moves, and they sway,

When the breeze on the hill

Is still, they stand still.

They wait.

They have no fear.  Their fate

Is faith.  Birdsong 

Is all they’ve wanted all along.

Closing Song:

May we recognize that We are a Blessing to the World

https://youtu.be/s4V1bMYnGwU