January 29, 2012

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Published on Sunday, 29 January 2012 19:33

Dear Friends,

At this time of year when the Church asks us to pray for immigrants and refugees in a focused way, welcoming them and sharing our resources with them, we hear the presidential candidates talk about “self-deportation.”

Read more: January 29, 2012

December 31, 2011

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Published on Saturday, 31 December 2011 19:07

Dear Friends,

We hope that each of you experienced a blessed and grace-filled Christmas, and that as we approach the coming of a new year, your spirit is ready for its unfolding. That’s a tall order for many of us, I suspect. In my work as a grief counselor I long ago learned that New Year’s Eve can be an especially difficult time for persons who are grieving, as well as for many who find the transition from ‘last year’ to a ‘new year’ emotionally challenging. Often this is because of all that the year we are saying farewell to held….the joys and sorrows are ‘familiar’ and we’ve learned to ‘hold’ them.

What this new year will bring remains mystery, and its uncertainty can be unsettling. Undoubtedly, each of us has a dream for 2012. Some dreams may be very personal, perhaps for health and healing, other dreams may be more universal or global, for peace in the world, for an end to violence in our streets and across the globe. Many of these dreams are in our thoughts as we plan for Saturday’s “Alternative New Year’s Eve” Celebration, and as we reflected on the song “Dreams are More precious” on Enya’s “And Winter Came” CD….it led us to ponder the tremendous blessing we have in the gift of imagination and the capacity to dream! We hope it’s tender message will be a blessing to you as the new year unfolds.

Dreams Are More Precious

Come! See! High above * Come! See! High in the heavens
a new star shining bright * Come! Hear bells that are ringing
and from some distant shore * sounds of a journey echo on

This is the night * they say * everyone wants a dream
This is the night * they say * nothing is as it seems

Come! Sleep! Close your eyes * Come! Sleep! Give me your sorrow
and I’ll keep watch for you * until the dawn is breaking through * until the morning wakens you
Come! Dream through the night * Come! Dream, and then tomorrow
you’ll see your heart will know * dreams are more precious than gold
Dreams are more precious than gold * dreams are more precious than gold

We wish you peace and dreams fulfilled in the year ahead. We welcome you to come and join us for our “Alternative New Year’s Eve” where we will all do a bit of dreaming together.

Blessings in this time of new beginnings,

Jean & Ron

January 22, 2012

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Published on Sunday, 22 January 2012 10:01

Dear Friends,

One of my companions on this respite time recovering from surgery is John O’Donohue’s Anam Cara. Right up front, he says: “This book is intended as an oblique mirror in which you might come to glimpse the presence and power of inner and outer friendship.” Anam Cara means “soul friend” and I wonder how many of us are friends to our own souls even before we befriend the souls of others?

He begins his book: “It is strange to be here. The mystery never leaves you alone. Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. A world lives within you. No one else can bring you news of this inner world…In order to keep our balance, we need to hold the interior and exterior, visible and invisible, known and unknown, temporal and eternal, ancient and new together. No one else can undertake this task for you. You are the one and only threshold of an inner world. This wholesomeness is holiness. To be holy is to be natural, to befriend the worlds that come to balance in you…The heart is the inner face of your life. The human journey strives to make this inner face beautiful. It is here that love gathers within you. Love is absolutely vital for a human life. For love alone can awaken what is divine within you. In love, you grow and come home to your self. When you learn to love and to let yourself be loved, you come home to the hearth of your own spirit…When we love and allow ourselves to be loved, we begin more and more to inhabit the kingdom of the eternal.”

The Ninevites and Peter and Andrew and James and John in this Sunday’s readings, in the midst of all they had, were hungering for something more—that is why they turned their lives around so rapidly when invited. This O’Donohue reading will be our second reading. The community of seekers at The Spirit of Life gives us courage to befriend our own inner life and to reach out to each other as kindred spirits and companions on the journey. We are so grateful that you are a part of our lives!

This Sunday is also our spiritual discussion group featuring Marianne Duddy-Burke, Executive Director for Dignity USA who will meet with us to share her work and the issues that Dignity is presently addressing. One of the most important of these is the joint effort between Dignity and Call to Action “Equally Blessed.” Equally Blessed seeks equal treatment for Lesbian Gay Bi-sexual Transgendered people within the Church and within society at large based on seeing LGBT people as having equal dignity in the eyes and heart of God. One of their most prominent initiatives is promoting an end to anti-gay violence and bullying, a campaign that they have sent to the US Bishops. We hope you join us to hear Marianne!

We wish you peace and dreams fulfilled in the year ahead as you journey in and journey out befriending your own spirit and that of others.

Blessings in this time of new beginnings,

Ron & Jean

December 25, 2011

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Published on Sunday, 25 December 2011 16:45

Dear Friends,

A Happy and Holy Christmas to You! Our theme line comes from Meister Eckhart who inspires us: "We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born." What a wonderful mission for us: to give birth to God in our world today. We as The Spirit of Life Community try to give God birth with a face of justice and joy! This Advent Oscar Romero has guided our path with his advent homilies. On Christmas Eve, he writes:

"We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs.

We must see him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed with nothing to eat,

among the poor newsboys who will sleep covered with newspapers in doorways. December 24, 1979

I am recovering quite remarkably well from knee replacement surgery. I am most grateful for the healing energy you are sending my way: that is wrapping me in God's love and strength and comforting me in the quiet and in the painful moments of rehab. I hope to be back with the gathered community for our "alternative New Year's Eve:" our prayerful, twilight retreat and Eucharist as we ponder how God is moving among us as one year finishes and another abundant year of God's blessings begins. I also want to thank all of you who have expressed sympathy on the sudden death of my brother Tom. This community of support is truly comforting to Jean and me.

This is the prayerful blessing that Jean and I send to you this Christmas:

May the Angel of Annunciation awaken in you

God's profound heartfelt love.

May your dreams lead you to profound reverence

as you bow before the Divine born in the stable of every heart.

May Mary guide you in birthing the Holy One in your life

and in birthing Love in others.

May Joseph engage you in deeper questioning and listening

and give you courage to risk the next step.

May your life become a Luminous Presence

leading others to the place in their hearts and in the world

where Christ is always being born anew.

May you have the Spirit of Christmas which is Peace.

The Joy of Christmas which is Hope.

The Heart of Christmas which is Love.

The poem originates with CSJ Ministry of the Arts.

In these Christmas days we send you our love and feel encircled by yours in return, We wish you many blessings!

Ron and Jean