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Tag Archives: camaraderie

Selfless Service

09 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by thesophiacenterforspirituality in Uncategorized

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camaraderie, Celebration of Discipline, Fully Awake and Truly Alive, hidden service, hospitality, Jan Phillips, No Ordinary Time, Rev. Jane E. Vennard, Richard Foster, service, spiritual deepening, spiritual growth, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

abagbreakEvery two weeks on Wednesday I meet with two sections (afternoon and evening) of a book study group. We have come to be known among ourselves as NOW (No Ordinary Women) after the title of our first great read, No Ordinary Time, by Jan Phillips. These gatherings have become an oasis of camaraderie and spiritual deepening for all of us, I believe, and yesterday was no exception. Almost at the end of Fully Awake and Truly Alive: Spiritual Practices to Nurture Your Soul by Rev. Jane E. Vennard, we considered the practices of Hospitality and Service. The beauty of this book is found in its practicality. One does not need to go looking to do something extraordinary but rather to look into everyday choices and activities familiar to us for our on-going spiritual growth. Some of the suggestions are simply a matter of attitudinal shifts.

Such was the last suggestion in the section called “hidden services,” a concept that Rev. Vennard takes from Richard Foster, author of the wonderful book, Celebration of Discipline. Foster speaks of the goodness that comes when we serve others without being noticed. “These are not acts done in secret,” he says, “but rather are ways of relating to other people that slip by their awareness. However, the results of these acts of service impact both the individual and the community in which they take place.”

Rev. Vennard’s illustrations of such practices were all quite apt but none more than the last entry. “A final hidden service is quite paradoxical,” she writes. “It is the practice of willing to be served. Service cannot happen if there is no recipient, yet we are often reluctant to accept the help being offered…Your grocery bag splits in the parking lot and someone comes to help. “Thank you,” you say. “I can take care of it myself.”

Agreeing that this kind of refusal is ingrained in most of us, we agreed to consider occasionally setting aside our fiercely independent nature and offering to others this most uncomfortable (for us) opportunity to serve. What about you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gathering the Nations

28 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by thesophiacenterforspirituality in Uncategorized

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all may be one, Baltimore, camaraderie, distress, nations, Nepal, one world, praise the Lord, psalm 87, stress violence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unity, violence

egypstianbusdriverStill in San Francisco, California for a for a short visit with my brother, I read the following from today’s lectionary: “All you nations, praise the Lord!” That is the repeated refrain (Ps. 87) which is followed in the first verse by: “They come from Babylon and Egypt, as those who know the Lord” and I am immediately thrown back to late yesterday afternoon at the end of our trolley ride to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was an experience – the jammed full car with the joyful driver who kept ordering people to “Stand back! Door is closing!” – so I turned to take a picture as we walked away. In the frame was an oldish man who immediately began to wave and smile, so I took the picture and thanked him for the wonderful addition he was to the image. He told us he was from Egypt and said that we should come to visit and he would take our picture there. We laughed and promised to look him up should we ever have the good fortune to visit. It was an enchanting thought and lovely moment.

There were crowds of people of many descriptions walking around enjoying the day and we seemed far away from any stress or violence. I will remember that today as I am thrown back into the world of CNN and other news agencies that today are concerned with rioting in Baltimore and intense grief in Nepal. We are one world and I need to think of and pray for my brothers and sisters everywhere with gratitude for the camaraderie that can be found anywhere and for those in distress both far and near. My prayer continues to be that all may be one and that my participation will add to the unity by walking always toward deepening love.

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