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You Start Dying Slowly

arampone Prayers and Meditations

By Pablo Neruda

You start dying slowly
if you do not travel,
if you do not read,
If you do not listen to the sounds of life,
If you do not appreciate yourself.

You start dying slowly
When you kill your self-esteem;
When you do not let others help you.

You start dying slowly
If you become a slave of your habits,
Walking everyday on the same paths…
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colors
Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.

You start dying slowly
If you avoid to feel passion
And their turbulent emotions;
Those which make your eyes glisten
And your heart beat fast.

You start dying slowly
If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love,
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain,
If you do not go after a dream,
If you do not allow yourself,
At least once in your lifetime,
To run away from sensible advice…

 

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet, diplomat, and politician.

Human Family

arampone Prayers and Meditations

By His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Whenever I meet even a ‘foreigner’,
I have always the same feeling:
‘I am meeting another member of the human family.’
This attitude has deepened
My affection and respect for all beings.
May this natural wish be
My small contribution to world peace.
I pray for a more friendly,
More caring, and more understanding
Human family on this planet.
To all who dislike suffering,
Who cherish lasting happiness –
This is my heartfelt appeal.

 

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Siddur of Shir Chadash

arampone Prayers and Meditations
May the door of my inner home be wide enough to receive those who hunger for kindness, those who are lonely, or isolated from friendship.
May it welcome those who have cares to unburden, thanks to express, hopes to nurture.
May the door of my heart be narrow enough to shut out pettiness and pride, envy and enmity.
May the door of my heart be closed to self righteousness, selfishness, and harshness.
May its threshold be no stumbling block to receiving those who are different than I am.
May my inner home be for all who enter, the doorway to spiritual richness and a more meaningful life.

Compassionate Listening

arampone Guided Reflections

Compassionate Listening requires questions which are non-adversarial and listening which is non-judgmental. Listeners seek the truth of the person questioned, seeing through “masks of hostility and fear to the sacredness of the individual.” Listeners seek to humanize the “other.” Listeners accept what others say as their perceptions, and validate their right to their own perceptions. Compassionate Listening can cut through barriers of defense and mistrust, enabling both those listened to and those listening to hear what they think, to change their opinions, and to make more informed decisions. Through this process, fear can be reduced, and participants will be better equipped to discern how to proceed with effective action.

Form pairs. Have one partner tell a meaningful story about their service site or experience to their partner. The story should be short, to the point, and include valuable moments of vulnerability or emotion. Have the partner practice compassionate listening. Then have the partners switch roles.

Reflection Questions:

  1. Using this model of compassionate listening, how did this change the way we engaged in our ability to understand the stories our partners told us?
  2. How can we use this as a way to share our stories as Vincentians?

The Dance

arampone Prayers and Meditations ,

By Oriah Mountain Dreamer

I have sent you my invitation,
the note inscribed on the palm of my hand by the fire of living.

Don’t jump up and shout, “Yes, this is what I want! Let’s do it!”
Just stand up quietly and dance with me.
Show me how you follow your deepest desires,
spiraling down into the
ache within the ache,
and I will show you how I reach inward and open outward to feel the kiss of the Mystery,
sweet lips on my own, every day.

Don’t tell me you want to hold the whole world in your heart.
Show me how you turn away from making another wrong without abandoning yourself when
you are hurt and afraid of being unloved.
Tell me a story of who you are,
and see who I am in the stories I live.
And together we will remember that each of us always has a choice.

Don’t tell me how wonderful things will be . . . some day.
Show me you can risk being completely at peace,
truly okay with the way things
are right now in this moment,
and again in the next and the next and the next. . .
I have heard enough warrior stories of heroic daring.
Tell me how you crumble when you hit the wall,
the place you cannot go beyond by the strength of your own will.
What carries you to the other side of that wall, to the fragile beauty of your own humanness?

And after we have shown each other how we have
set and kept the clear, healthy boundaries that
help us live side by side with each other, let us risk remembering that we never stop silently loving those we once loved out loud.

Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance,
the places where you can risk letting the world break your heart.
And I will take you to the places where the earth beneath my feet and the stars overhead make my heart whole again and again.

Show me how you take care of business without letting business determine who you are.
When the children are fed but still the voices within and around us shout that soul’s desires have
too high a price, let us remind each other that it is never about the money.

Show me how you offer to your people and the world the stories and the songs you want our children’s children to remember.
And I will show you how I struggle not to change the world, but to love it.
Sit beside me in long moments of shared solitude,
knowing both our absolute aloneness and our undeniable belonging.

Dance with me in the silence and in the sound of small daily words,
holding neither against me at the end of the day.
And when the sound of all the declarations of our sincerest intentions has died away on the wind,
dance with me in the infinite pause before the next great inhale of the breath that is breathing us all into being, not filling the emptiness from the outside or from within.

Don’t say, “Yes!”

 

Oriah Mountain Dreamer is a Canadian writer and mystic.

The Two Feet of Social Action

arampone Guided Reflections

Activity to discuss the desired balance between service and justice.

  1. Everyone stand up! Stand on one foot and think of all the times that you offered service or helped someone out. Think of all the moments that you were doing charity of some kind. When you are finished thinking about these moments you may put your foot down.
  2. Now stand on your other foot. Think of all the times that you worked toward changing a structure or system of some kind.  Think of all the times you advocated for someone, called your legislature, or anything else you would consider working for justice. When you are finished thinking about these moments you may put your foot down.
  3. Did you notice a difference between the two? Did you stand longer on one foot than the other? Why?

We need both feet – both charity and justice – if we are in this for the long haul.  Direct service is important, but it is also important to start asking ‘why’ we are doing what we are doing and ‘what’ are the causes of the injustice and poverty we witness.

Two Minutes in the Hot Seat

arampone Icebreakers

Purpose:

This can be a great get-to-know-you icebreaker, but also can work really well later in a group’s development to dive a little deeper.

Activity:

One person is chosen to be in the “hot seat.” For 2 minutes, everyone in the group asks the person in the “hot seat” questions about themselves (varying in content and depth) and the person answers. After 2 minutes, the person in the “hot seat” chooses someone else in the group to be in the “hot seat” and the process repeats itself until everyone in the group has been in the “hot seat.”


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Stop Being a Pleaser

arampone Quotes

By Henri Nouwen

You have to let your father and mother [and parent] figures go. You must stop seeing yourself through their eyes and trying to make them proud of you.

For as long as you can remember, you have been a pleaser, depending on others to give you an identity. You need not look at that only in a negative way.  You wanted to give your heart to others, and you did so quickly and easily. But now you are being asked to let go of all these self-made props and trust that God is enough for you. You must stop being a pleaser and reclaim your identity as a free self.

 

Henri Nouwen was a Catholic priest, writer, and theologian.
From The Inner Voice of Love: Doubleday, 1996.

Vincentians In Action Reflection Toolkit