Lent 2018 – Day 2 – Focus

CZ

What is Focus?

Here are some of the definitions from Merriam Webster Dictionary

1. a: a center of activity, attraction, or attention 
    b: a point of concentration
2: directed attention : emphasis
3 a: direction
   c: adjustment for distinct vision; also : the area that may be seen distinctly or resolved into a clear image
6: a localized area of disease or the chief site of a generalized disease or infection
What does Focus mean to you?
How can you improve Focus? 
What is your focus in life or in faith? 
For me, Focus is about the ability to concentrate, but also the need to know where I am going, both in life and in my faith. Meditation can be a great way to help with both of those.
Here is a video meditation designed for kids but good for anyone by Mairead Russell
Also here’s a picture to focus on. Trace the labyrinth, focus on the center, or use it as a way to start the breathing towards focusing.
green-light-2326574_1280

To close today’s devotional I will leave this prayer

A Prayer for Unfinished Business By Kelly Weisman Asprooth-Jackson

Dear great lathe of heaven,
O foundry of souls,
You churning, burning cosmos which has wrought me on the infinite loom of your celestial body.
Spinning stars and indifferent stones: hear my prayer.
Do not curse me to perish with all my dreams fulfilled.
Do not afflict me with a vision so narrow and a heart so small,
That all my greatest hopes ­could be accomplished within a ­single lifetime.
Rather, bless me with an unquiet spirit.
Anoint me with impertinent oils.
Grant me dreams so great and numerous,
That I might spend the fullness of my days to realize them,
And have ample remaining to leave to my inheritors.
Holy gyre that bore me and must one day take me home,
Allow me the mercy to depart this life with unfinished business.

 

Namaste,
Cricket

Sunday, February 18, 2018: Our UU Presidents

LdeG

Jefferson, though a sincere student of the teachings of Jesus and a Unitarian, was denounced as an atheist. We know the contumely, insult, and mob violence to which Priestley was subjected in England. Franklin, the Adamses, and Fillmore were all Unitarians, but they were looked at askance. Lincoln, one of the most deeply religious men, was clearly Unitarian in his faith. In spite of all these illustrious examples, religious prejudices have been played upon in politics to defeat Unitarians and upholders of liberal Christianity and in very recent years; but even in the time my life compasses, I can see a great change for the better.

–President Taft

On this President’s Day weekend we will look back at our Unitarian Presidents.

Our services are Sundays at 11 a.m. at the Progressive Women’s Association Uptown Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. There is a discussion time 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome. There is childcare and an activity for young children during the service.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA.

Map

The schedule for the current adult religious education class is here.

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Lent 2018- Day 1- Love

CZ

Today is the first day of lent. It’s also Valentine’s Day. So it is appropriate that the word for today is love.

Here is a meditation about love …

https://www.uua.org/worship/words/meditation/meditation-hope-and-love-time-struggle

I also wanted to include music so here is Bon Voyage singing “Though I May Speak” at UUCC.

To close I would like to leave you with this prayer.

This Is Our Calling
By D. Scott Cooper

The world aches for us to join together and bring about healing, toil for justice, and produce ever-increasing love. This is our calling. Go forth and act accordingly. Amen.

Namaste,

Cricket

UU Lent 2018

CZ

In Christian churches there is a 40 day period beginning Ash Wednesday and leading to Easter, that is full of meditation, prayer, and sacrifice. This is act of devotion and a spiritual practice.

While this is not a practice that all UUs participate in, it is something from our history and something that we may wish to participate in. The question might come up, “is there a Unitarian Universalist way to practice Lent?” The answer is yes. A calendar has been created by Mr. Barb Greve and Alex Kapitan. The idea is to focus on a particular word each day during lent and on the Sundays we are to reflect on the word and encourage each other to enact it in our lives. Should you choose to participate you can share your reflections with the hashtag #UULent

Here is the calendar for reference.


We aim to have a devotional about the daily word each day.

May your day be filled with light and the coming weeks be filled with introspection and healing. May we all use this time to nurture other spirits as well as our own, so that we are strong enough to help heal the world. May we use this time to connect with each other as we work towards beloved community and collective liberation. Blessed Be. Amen.

Namaste,

Cricket

Sunday February 11, 2018: Enshrining Our Values in Our Housekeeping

LdeG

A song at even time before the little ones say Good night; the habit of together saying a Good morning grace to God; perhaps a silent grace among the other greetings of a happy breakfast table; a picture in that bare niche of the wall; a vase of flowers on the mantel piece; well matched colors under foot.

— these all are little things; you would hardly notice them as single things; you would not call them religion; they are not morals; they scarcely even class under the head of manners.

Men and women can be good parents and valuable citizens without them. And yet and yet one cannot forget that as the years run on these trifles of the home will make no little of the difference between coarse grain and fine grain in us and in our children when they grow up.

The House Beautiful by William Channing Gannett

No matter how little we have or how temporary our lodgings, we can enshrine our values in our everyday life. And no matter how much we have, we can live in ways that don’t enrich our lives. Lisa deGruyter will talk about living in ways that remind us of the beautiful and holy.

Our services are Sundays at 11 a.m. at the Progressive Women’s Association Uptown Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. There are classes for children and adults 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome. There is childcare and an activity for young children during the service.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA.

Map

The schedule for the current adult religious education class is here.

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Sunday February 4, 2018

CZ

“Here’s what I’ve learned about “soon”; it’s short for “someday.” We make space in our lives for what matters, now. Not in promises and soons, but on mantels with sterling frames, in shelves we clear to make room for our now.”

Stephanie Klein, Straight Up and Dirty

This Sunday Cricket Hall will present a service titled “Someday is not a day of the week.”

Our services are Sundays at 11 a.m. at the Progressive Women’s Association Uptown Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. There are classes for children and adults 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome. There is childcare and an activity for young children during the service.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA.

Map

The schedule for the current adult religious education class is here.

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Sunday, January 28, 2018: 1800 years of UU History

Robert
Francis David at the Diet of Torda

The Christian roots of Unitarian and Universalist ideas go back to the first centuries of Christianity. Today we will watch a presentation by Sarah Lewis briefly over-viewing all of our past.

Our services are Sundays at 11 a.m. at the Progressive Women’s Association Uptown Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. There are classes for children and adults 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome. There is childcare and an activity for young children during the service.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA.

Map

The schedule for the current adult religious education class is here.

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Sunday, January 21, 2018: 1800 years of UU History

LdeG

The Christian roots of Unitarian and Universalist ideas go back to the first centuries of Christianity. Today we will watch a presentation by Sarah Lewis briefly over-viewing all of our past.

Our services are Sundays at 11 a.m. at the Progressive Women’s Association Uptown Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. There are classes for children and adults 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome. There is childcare and an activity for young children during the service.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA.

Map

The schedule for the current adult religious education class is here.

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Sunday, January 7, 2017

CZ

Come toast the new year with us. See you at 10:30 am for a potluck breakfast and small devotion.  

Our services are Sundays  at the Progressive Women’s Association Uptown Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. There are classes for children and adults 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

We would love to have you come worship with us. 

Children are welcome.  There is childcare and an activity for young children during the service.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom.

Map

The schedule for the current adult religious education class is here.

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Namaste,
Cricket