Pathways Press.com

MEDITATION:

Written by Marianne Williamson, a contemporary spiritual leader, political activist, and author. This is an excerpt from her book “Everyday Grace.”

Once, when I was in my early twenties, I lived in a house in San Francisco with several other people. In the dining room overlooking the city, there was a very long table at which there were always people drinking coffee and engaging in lively conversation at almost any time of the night or day. That was a period in my life in which I thought of my future as more important than my present—surely in my future I would find the secret to happiness. But now that I’m living what my younger self thought of as the future, I look back to that table and think, “That was it!” There at that table, I remember having my first and still one of my most potent experiences of community. My house today is nicer, to be sure. Like others of my generation, I “graduated” into my own this, my own that. But also, like others of my generation, I sort of miss the old days when there was more connection and less competition, more community and less isolation, more conversation and less TV. Today, when we think about people joining together, it’s not always for such wonderful purposes. We know about “terror cells,” made up of terrorists joined for the purpose of wreaking havoc on our world. We get chills as we realize the power of two or more terrorists joined together, exerting greater power than the sum of the individuals. Yet the power of joining together applies as much—in fact, much more—to those who love than to those who hate. For there is a cosmic propulsion behind love that is not behind hate. Our problem is not that hate is more powerful than love, because indeed it is not; our problem is that hatred today is more energetic and active than love. It’s time for our generation to allow ourselves not only the satisfaction of deep love and community, but also the power of deep love and community. It is the greatest antidote to the darkness of our times….God did not create us individually, but as one; that is the esoteric meaning of “only one begotten Son.” The awareness of our oneness, while foreign to the ego, is clear to the heart. And that’s why unity is the key to our happiness. Spiritually we do not exist in isolation. It is unnatural for us to perceive ourselves as separate. We’re like sunbeams of the same son and waves of the same ocean. Imagining ourselves as separate waves, we feel that we are tiny and powerless, when in fact we are integral to the immense power of the sea.

PRAYER:

Written by Janel Breitenstein, a contemporary author.

Lord, thank You for the diverse personalities, abilities, passions, and ways of seeing the world that you’ve placed around me. I beg you today for unity in this town/city/country. We are highly divided. You alone are the Prince of Peace; you alone are the One whose name is Love. Cover our community with Your peace. Teach us—teach me—to love. Show us the ways of forgiveness, of loving our neighbor—even those most outcast—as ourselves. Open our eyes to those who are rejected, powerless, oppressed, or overlooked. You have such great promises for us when we shoulder their burdens with them (Isaiah 48)! Let us be a voice for the voiceless.

MUSIC MEDITATION:

Blest Be the Tie That Binds:   Performed by Fountainview Academy.

This favorite hymn by John Fawcett (1740-1817) was written in 1772 for his congregation. He was going to leave for another position but decided to turn down the call at a larger church and remain with his flock.