Moment of Oneness, November 20, 2024 - Prepared by Denise Hackert-Stoner

 

Photo by NASA

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Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772

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Welcome

We assemble in the gathering gloom, as the year begins to close. Day continues its gradual retreat, and shadows grow longer each day.  Many people detest this time of year.  I wonder though, if we lean into the darkness, and let it instruct us in its ways, perhaps we might learn from its quiet.  There is holiness in the dark.

Opening Prayer:

Beloved, we call your name in the darkness and we feel your presence in the love of our community.  Let us be at peace in this love.  Let us embrace the darkness, knowing that we are not alone.  Amen.

Opening Song: Holy Darkness, sung by John Michael Talbot

https://youtu.be/EAeCzCDb9NQ?si=JKauC55-0cWsnjkc

Reading:  From “In Praise of Darkness” by Barbara Brown Taylor

Christianity has never had anything nice to say about darkness. From earliest times, Christians have used “darkness” as a synonym for sin, ignorance, spiritual blindness, and death. 

At the theological level, however, this language creates all sorts of problems. It divides every day in two, pitting the light part against the dark part. It tucks all the sinister stuff into the dark part, identifying God with the sunny part and leaving you to deal with the rest on your own time. It implies things about dark-skinned people and sight-impaired people that are not true. 

[M]y spiritual gifts do not seem to include the gift of solar spirituality. Instead, I have been given the gift of lunar spirituality, in which the divine light available to me waxes and wanes with the season. When I go out on my porch at night, the moon never looks the same way twice. Some nights it is as round and bright as a headlight; other nights it is thinner than the sickle hanging in my garage. Some nights it is high in the sky, and other nights low over the mountains. Some nights it is altogether gone, leaving a vast web of stars that are brighter in its absence. All in all, the moon is a truer mirror for my soul than the sun that looks the same way every day.

Intentions:  

(We know that the longer we sit in the dark the better we are able to see in it.  We pray this evening for the patience to sit, and to learn, from the darkness that surrounds us.)

As the night lengthens, help us to learn from its silence….

Response:  Help us to see in the dark.

As darkness surrounds us, help us to wonder at its mystery.

Response:  Help us to see in the dark.

As light dims, help us to rest in the coming of night.

Response:  Help us to see in the dark.

As the world is bathed in shadow, help us to wait for the return of light.

Response:  Help us to see in the dark.

At this time please bring any blessings or concerns that you would like to share.

We place all of these prayers in the welcoming hands of our Beloved.

Amen.

Closing Prayer

Holy One, as the light dims and our minds and bodies slow to the rhythm of the coming winter, you call us to rest.  Cover us with the dark night sky and we will see the radiance of a million stars.  Amen.