Moment of Oneness, January 25, 2023

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

Communion

Opening Prayer: Source of all peace, we come together in the gathering darkness of this holy night in your name.  We open our hearts and minds in your presence and allow your peace to fill us.  We pray that we become vessels of that peace, to be poured forth in our homes, our communities, and our world.  Amen. 

Reading: Richard Rohr

We go through our lives, our years on this earth, thinking of ourselves as separate. That  sense of separateness basically causes every stupid, sinful, silly thing we ever do. The little, separate self takes offense when people don’t show us proper respect. The separate self lies and steals and does unkind things to other people. When we’re separate, everything becomes about protecting and defending ourselves. It can consume our lives.

One word for overcoming that false sense of separateness, that illusory self, is heaven, and, quite frankly, that is what death offers us. It is simply returning to the Source from which we came, where all things are One. The whole gospel message is radical union with God, with neighbor, and even with ourselves. I think that’s why so many of us are drawn to church each week—to receive communion and to eventually, hopefully, realize that we are in communion. We have never been separate from God except in our thoughts, but our thoughts don’t make it true! Nor are we separate from anyone else. Whatever separates us from one another—nationality, religion, ethnicity, economics, language—those are all just accidentals that will all pass away. We are One in God, with Christ and with one another. Every time we do something with respect, with love, with sympathy, with compassion, with caring, with service, we are operating in union.

Affirmations and Intentions: 

May we look for your goodness in others when it hides beneath layers of coldness.

May we behold your radiance in the ones we neglect or spurn at home or work.

May we discover your love in our deepest self when we feel unloving and irritable.

May we embrace you in the persons whose faithfulness we take for granted. 

May we see your empathy in those serving the wounded of the world.

May we unite with your peace hidden beneath the layers of humanity’s disharmony.

Silence to add your own intentions.

Closing Prayer:  Holy Presence, we thank you for your gift of life that you have given us, filled with love, grace, joy and suffering. May we always feel the presence of your love and support however it may manifest in our lives. Knowing you are never farther than our next breath, may we breathe in and out with each other expanding our capacity to love and care for our brothers and sisters without hesitation. Through all the angels and saints, and Mary, Joseph and Jesus may we come alive.

Meditation/Contemplation  Let us take a few minutes to become one through quiet deep contemplation.

The Foundation is Always Love 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEL4L6YsxOc