Here is a responsive reading by Carie J. Johnsen and the choir members of Unitarian Universalist Community Church (Augusta, ME).
Here is a link to a playlist on YouTube of UU hymns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbJ32h-YpQA&list=PL6B257199CC44C6AB
May both of these serve as a reminder of how important music can be in our spiritual lives. What does music mean to you? What are some songs that provide inspiration? What are songs that provide you with hope?
Namaste,
Cricket
#UULent
May this talk by Dennis Murphree help you to consider the role of persistence in your life and in your spirituality.
Namaste,
Cricket
#UULent
Prelude: Here Comes the Sun – George Harrison
Welcome: Here in this sanctuary – Jack Mendelsohn
Welcome to this community.
Here in this sanctuary of ancient dreams and wisdom and beauty we come to grow, to be healed, to stretch mind and heart, to be challenged, renewed; to be helped in our own continuing struggles for meaning and for love; to help build a world with more justice and mercy in it; to be counted among the hopers and doers.
In the face of cynicism, darkness, brutality around us and within, we seek to align ourselves with a living community that would affirm rather than despair, that would think and act rather than simply adjust and succumb.
Here we invite the spirit of our own humanity and the healing powers under, around, through and beyond it, to give us the nerve and grace, the toughness and sensitivity, to search out the truth that frees, and the life that maketh all things new.
Chalice lighting: Take from life its coals – Laurel S Sheridan
Take from life its coals, not its ashes.
Fan the flames of love and justice;
join hands and hearts in common endeavor;
and there will be no limit to what we can achieve together.
Song: Gathered Here (5 times)
Please rise in body or in spirit and join in singing Gathered Here, five times. Continue reading
This poem by Barbara J. Pescan and this article by Rosemary Ellen Guiley take a look at prayer from different perspectives. As you thoughtfully read them today, focus on two questions: “What does prayer mean to you?” and “How do you pray?”
Namaste,
Cricket
#UULent
May this prayer by Rev. Elizabeth Tarbox and this look at the vulnerablity of God help us all look at our own vulnerability and the vulnerability of others that we might find strength in it.
Namaste,
Cricket
#UULent
Today I will leave you with two ways to think about creativity and what it means. First, a meditation called “How Poets Pray” to help you think about creativity as a spiritual act. Second, a video guided meditation to help affirm your own creative spirit.
May these words and images help you focus on creativity and what it means to you.
Namaste,
Cricket
#UU Lent
All too often we are busy in this world. We do not stop too rest. May this article by Joshua Becker reinforce the need for rest and the value of rest in our lives.
Namaste,
Cricket
#UULent
This sermon by the Rev. Vail Weller is about coming together and working together. May it challenge us to find new meanings for partnership and new ways to partner in our own community and outside of it.
Namaste,
Cricket
#UULent
[TEDTalks (audio)] A better way to talk about love | Mandy Len Catron
“In love, we fall. We’re struck, we’re crushed, we swoon. We burn with passion. Love makes us crazy and makes us sick. Our hearts ache, and then they break. Talking about love in this way fundamentally shapes how we experience it, says writer Mandy Len Catron. In this talk for anyone who’s ever felt crazy in love, Catron highlights a different metaphor for love that may help us find more joy — and less suffering — in it.”
https://download.ted.com/talks/MandyLenCatron_SFU_2015X.mp3?apikey=172BB350-0207
May these words help us all focus on love and how it should be.
Namaste,
Cricket
#UULent
http://www.uua.org/worship/words/blessing/go-boldly
May these words help you find courage.
Namaste,
Cricket
#UULent
West Fork Unitarian Universalists 