Rev. Lori on Taking Responsibility for Finding What is Sacred For You
A version of this reflection was originally published in the previous week’s Friday Flyer.
Hello Good People!
We had an amazing Aging to Saging group this week when we had Todd Glacy join us to guide us with some gong journey work. It felt so resonate with what I will be talking about Sunday that I wanted to share. It consists of clearly posing a question that needs resolution in our lives. Envisioning the question written out. Seeing ourselves in a safe or beloved place and bringing our question to that place.
The gonging begins for a period where we try to keep our minds focused on the question. Then after the gonging ends, we journal about the experience. We journaled about what our question was, what it looked like written down in our minds eye. Was it in cursive or a specific font? Then we were asked to write down our specific location. Then journal about any answers to the question that may have come. It was a very powerful experience for me and the other’s seemed to be enriched by it also.
Identifying a soulful question, using a medium to help explore our soul’s answers to that question. Doing so in a supportive and relational community setting. That speaks loudly and clearly to me of what a Unitarian Universalist journey is all about.
We alll have our own questions and challenges. And when I say we, I mean WE. That is obviously not unique to us at UUCSB. Our faith recognizes that each person has inner light and we trust that they have the capacity to answer the questions for themselves. Our call and journey together is to hold the mirror up for them so they can see the light reflected back. Our kinship is not focused on a shared understanding of a deity, so we dont center ourselves by saying creeds or proclaiming doctrine. We commit and covenant with each other to be in relationship and walk with one another. To trust, to extend and receive grace, to act in love.
Being a part of a small circle allows for each of us to individually and some of us collectively too deepen our spiritually using creative means and in creative ways. I have often used the method of lectio divina to invite you to explore questions that arise from spiritual readings. Very similar to the guided dream work. Asking you to read a passage outloud and in your head. Picturing the words in your minds eye. Asking the text and the words how they apply to you and to your life. Then asking you to sit with that for a while. Usually the reading is somehow related to the topic or theme. I will offer you one in a minute. I wanted to share that these spiritual practices are not unique to UUism. What is unique is that we draw on practices from different religious and spiritual traditions. Lectio is an inherently Christian technique that employs scripture readings or icon gazing. There is a shared belief system that is implied and employed to guide your experience. Here we don't have a shared creed or text. There is an invitation and a responsibility for you to define what is sacred to you. You are invited and supported while you explore it in the ways that you do explore it or don't explore it. There is freedom and there is responsibility.
Rebecca Palmer, a Unitarian Universalist Minister and a woman of significance in developing and nurturing the higher education for UU ministers writes in , The Courage to Create a New World:
The central task of the religious community is to unveil the bonds that bind each to all.
There is a connectedness between you and me
that is deeper than all the differences that separate us.
When we know this, we act differently in the world.
We live as if love were the purpose of our lives.
Re-read the prior passage out loud, then silently. Then read them a third time, noticing what word or sentence stands out to you. Read those words out loud again. Ask then what they are saying to you right now. Then reflect. Journal, sit in silence, take a nap or take a walk. Remember those words as often as you can for the next few days and continue to ask the question, what do these words mean to me right now!
Rev Lori Whittemore
(she, her, hers)
Unitarian Universalist Church of Saco Biddeford