intentional community

Prayer for a Diverse Community

eamaya1 Prayers and Meditations ,

By Catholic Center for Concern’s Education for Justice

Creator of all races and ethnicities,
help us see that a diverse community is the way
to deepen our lives and to know you more deeply.

Guide us to see that entering into a vital and just relationship
with others who are different from us
is the way to make ourselves whole.

Guard us from fear of the other,
from the fear that our own security is threatened
if we become truly willing to make a place at the table for all.

Open us to live out what we profess to believe:

That our true security is in You and in your call to justice and peace,
That we are a part of your global family,
That, because of your Incarnation, the human dignity of everyone is sacred,
And that we are constantly called to conversion and inclusive community.

We pray that you help us recognize any forms of racism in our hearts,
And in our legal systems and social structures.
Forgive us our sins of exclusion.
Heal our souls and spirits.
Ground us in compassion for all through your grace.

Help us take the steps you call us to take
To build a more just community,
Where difference is respected
And where we can all join hands
And rejoice in the common good.

Through the mercy of God, we pray.

Amen.

Humility and Simplicity

eamaya1 Guided Reflections ,
“The indispensable quality for good listening is humility…The humble person senses his or her incompleteness…So [s/he] listens.”
-Robert P. Maloney, CM
“Humility acknowledges that everything is a gift.”
-Robert P. Maloney, CM
Simplicity today: In some ways simplicity is not difficult to retrieve today… In a contemporary context… it can take many forms, some of which are suggested below:
  • Speaking the truth.
  • Witnessing to the truth.
  • Seeking the truth.
  • Being in the truth.
  • Practicing the truth (in love).
  • Integration
  • Simplicity of life.
-Robert P. Maloney, CM
Compassion also leads us to simplicity in our way of living. We begin to sense the need to live more simply, to let go of many superfluous possessions, to examine the way we live in contrast to, and often at the expense of, the way the rest of the world lives. The Quaker Richard Foster, in his book Celebration of Discipline has an insightful and practical chapter on simplicity. He speaks of three inner attitudes that characterize simplicity: to receive what we have as a gift from God; to know that it is God’s business, not ours, to care for what we have; and to have our goods available to others. Then he goes on to speak of the outward expression of simplicity and lists ten controlling principles that are excellent guidelines for developing a simple lifestyle. They are:
  • Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status;
  • Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you;
  • Develop a habit of giving things away;
  • Refuse to be propagandized by the custodians of modern gadgetry;
  • Learn to enjoy things without owning them;
  • Develop a deeper appreciation for creation;
  • Look with healthy skepticism at all “buy now, pay later” schemes;
  • Obey Jesus’ instructions about plain, honest speech;
  • Reject anything that will breed oppression of others;
  • And shun whatever would distract you from your main goal
“Each of these characteristics of the Way of Appreciation– experience, compassion, acts of mercy, simplicity of lifestyle–is important for spiritual growth toward solidarity with the poor.”
-Theodore Wiesner, CM

Positive Energy Reflection

eamaya1 Guided Reflections

As a facilitator, read these statements in consecutive order for the group, pausing after each:

  1. I would like to invite you to take a moment and look around the room. Take notice of who is here. Who else surrounds you? In whose presence are you in? Who accompanies you?
  2. Now, secretly identify 3 people (perhaps 3 whom you do not know very well, or have yet to have a conversation with). For now I want you to hold them in your heart, we will return to this activity in a moment.
  3. I’m going to ask you now to please close your eyes.
  4. Looking back over the past week, or it could even be today, I invite you to identify 3 independent positive interactions you had with someone from which you felt good energy from, or maybe briefly developed a good connection with. Re-imagine and re-create that experience and moment in your mind. (Pause and wait about 10 minutes).
  5. Reflecting on these moments, how did it make you feel?
  6. What was the energy like in that moment?
  7. What made that moment have such positive energy?
  8. Bring that feeling of positive energy to the fore front of your mind and hold it there. Try and focus that energy to certain parts of your body as I read them aloud to you. Please feel free to close your eyes and concentrate on the words I am saying. (Read deliberately and slowly, giving space and time to focus attention to each body part intentionally). Feel that energy move throughout: your shoulders and your back. Behind your neck. Your wrists and your knees. Your ankles and your toes. When you are ready, please open your eyes.
  9. Now, I want you to recollect the 3 people you secretly held in your heart and identified earlier. Send them some of your positive energy that you have within.
  10. Feel free to silently say or send a prayer for them.
  11. Take a moment to think about, some concrete ways in which we can share positive energy. Especially with the 3 people we have identified.
  12. When you are ready I invite you back to this space, and feel free to jot down those ways you’re going to share your good vibes with this person and with the world.

Approaching Another

Quote eamaya1 Quotes ,

“Our first task in approaching another people, another culture, another religion is to take off our shoes, for the place we are approaching is holy; else we find ourselves treading on someone’s dream. More serious still, we may forget that God was already there before our arrival.” -John V. Taylor

John V. Taylor was an English bishop and theologian.

Our Light

Quote eamaya1 Quotes

“We believe in letting our light shine, but not shining it in the eyes of other people.” -Donald B. Kraybill

Donald B. Kraybill is an American author, lecturer, and educator on Anabaptist faiths and culture. This quote is from his book Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy.

Anonymous Affirmations

eamaya1 Guided Reflections ,

Think of an affirmation you’d like to give to someone, not anyone specific, but just something that you would want anyone to know or think they might need to hear. Write it down. Throw it in the middle. We all pick up an affirmation and read it aloud.

Then, after focusing positive energy on each other, we can turn that outward and focus positive energy on people outside of our group:

  1. I would like to invite you to take a moment and look around the room. Take notice of who is here. Who else surrounds you? In whose presence are you in? Who accompanies you?
  2. Now, secretly identify 3 people (perhaps 3 whom you do not know very well, or have yet to have a conversation with). For now I want you to hold them in your heart, we will return to this activity in a moment.
  3. I’m going to ask you now to please close your eyes.
  4. Looking back over the past week, or it could even be today, I invite you to identify 3 independent positive interactions you had with someone from which you felt good energy from, or maybe briefly developed a good connection with. Re-imagine and re-create that experience and moment in your mind.
  5. (Pause and wait about 10 minutes).
  6. Reflecting on these moments, how did it make you feel?
  7. What was the energy like in that moment?
  8. What made that moment have such positive energy?
  9. Bring that feeling of positive energy to the fore front of your mind and hold it there. Try and focus that energy to certain parts of your body as I read them aloud to you. Please feel free to close your eyes and concentrate on the words I am saying. (Read deliberately and slowly, giving space and time to focus attention to each body part intentionally). Feel that energy move throughout: your shoulders and your back. Behind your neck. Your wrists and your knees. Your ankles and your toes. When you are ready, please open your eyes.
  10. Now, I want you to recollect the 3 people you secretly held in your heart and identified earlier. Send them some of your positive energy that you have within.
  11. Feel free to silently say or send a prayer for them.
  12. Take a moment to think about, some concrete ways in which we can share positive energy. Especially with the 3 people we have identified.
  13. When you are ready I invite you back to this space, and feel free to jot down those ways you’re going to share your good vibes with this person and with the world.

radical gratitude spell

eamaya1 Prayers and Meditations

by adrienne maree brown

a spell to cast upon meeting a stranger, comrade or friend working for social and/or environmental justice and liberation:

you are a miracle walking
i greet you with wonder
in a world which seeks to own
your joy and your imagination
you have chosen to be free,
every day, as a practice.
i can never know
the struggles you went through to get here,
but i know you have swum upstream
and at times it has been lonely

i want you to know
i honor the choices you made in solitude
and i honor the work you have done to belong
i honor your commitment to that which is larger than yourself
and your journey
to love the particular container of life
that is you

you are enough
your work is enough
you are needed
your work is sacred
you are here
and i am grateful

 

adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public through her multi-genre writing, her music and her podcasts.

Kahlil Gibran on Love

eamaya1 Prayers and Meditations

Excerpt from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

 

Khalil Gibran (1883-1931) was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, and visual artist.