April 19, 2020 Taizé: New Life Unfolding in Me

Call to Awareness – 3 Bells

Opening Prayer – Chris

Chant – I Am Remembering, by Melissa Phillippe

SILENCE – 1 Minute – Bell

Reading – Diana

Our theme for April has been New Life Unfolding. This is a beautiful time of year in Northern California. New leaves cover the once-sleeping trees. Flowers are blooming, birds are singing, and we recognize that as the world is springing to life, new life is seeking to be born within each one of us.

And so, today we give our prayerful attention to the new life within. We begin with the question, “What have I come here to be?” The contemplations that follow will offer possibilities. I invite you now to settle into this time and space…opening the mind… opening the heart…opening to possibilities…opening to inner Guidance and Grace…

I have come here to be connected. Your connection to Source is incorruptible. Nothing can ever interrupt the flow of love that streams through your heart from the Beloved. Focus on this infinite supply of love. Place your attention on it and feel your connection in its fullness. This is your Divine Inheritance.

SILENCE – 1 Minute

Reading – Chris

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.” (Thomas Merton) I have come here to be balanced. Find your center. Hold your balance. Be mindful of your load and how you carry it. Pay attention to how things shift in your hands and in your heart. Adjust… rebalance… breathe. Stay balanced at your core and all else will unfold with ease.

SILENCE – 1 Minute

Reading – Diana

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word…the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” (Leo Buscaglia) I have come here to be kind. It is humanity’s true nature to be kind. Moment by moment you have the opportunity to be a blessing by carrying out simple acts of kindness. Kind gestures of goodwill have ripple effects that not only benefit others, but will enrich your life beyond measure. Practice kindness and your world changes.

SILENCE – 1 Minute

Reading – Chris

“The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be.” (Oprah Winfrey) I have come here to be evolved. Evolution is really spiritual self-discovery, as you accept and release the past, allow your heart to take you to the depths of your being and uncover the Truth that lies within you. Look back on your life and see how everything that has happened in the past has brought you to this moment and has served as grist for the mill for your evolution into a fully awakened spiritual being.

SILENCE – 1 Minute

Reading – Diana

“Evolution has become conscious of itself and what it wants. And what it wants is wholeness. That is an extraordinary place to find yourself.” (Ken Wilbur) I have come here to be whole. Accept it. You are whole. There is nothing outside of you that can complete you because you are already a complete being. Our task is not to become more complete through the right job, relationships, education, or experience. Our task is simply to discover more of our inherent wholeness – to reconnect to the ground of our being. It’s an inside job. When you feel as though there is something missing, some part of you that feels lost, be still…get quiet…and listen to the whisperings of your heart. There you will find the wholeness which is you.

SILENCE – 1 Minute

Reading – Chris

“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.” (Rabindranath Tagore) I have come here to be humble. Humility creates an opening for the universe to bring forth blessings in your life. When you are open to being led and being taught, the field of infinite possibilities is available to you. As you put aside preconceived ideas and the need to be right, you make room for your cup to be filled by Spirit.

SILENCE – 1 Minute

Musical Meditation – I Am Here to Remind You, by David Ault

Reading – Diana

“The most wonderful aspect of the universal scheme of things is the action of free beings under divine guidance.” (Joseph Marie De Maistre) I have come here to be guided. With a willingness to listen, God’s guidance becomes available to you every moment of every day. The still, small voice is eternally whispering its blessings and needs a quiet mind in order to be heard. By entering the silence of your heart, listening with an attitude of gratitude and openness, you gain access to the guidance that is always ready to illumine the next step of your path.

SILENCE – 1 Minute

Reading – Chris

“The drop grows happy by losing itself in the river.” (Mirza Ghalib) I have come here to be surrendered. To spiritually surrender does not mean giving up or being defeated. Rather it means yielding to a power that transcends perceived limitations, opening a portal to infinite possibilities. Go beyond your structure of knowing and release preconceptions of how things need to be. As you open to the power of Spirit and allow It to lead, you will be shown the way through all seeming obstacles.

SILENCE – 1 Minute

Reading – Diana

“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” (Maya Angelou) I have come here to be safe. Is it safe to roam the neighborhood of your mind? Do you treat yourself with kindness and respect, as you would a treasured child? If there is a critical voice within you that is speaking unkindly, turn instead to the loving compassion of your heart. The heart is a safe haven of unconditional love. Come home to the safety of your heart.

SILENCE – 1 Minute

Reading – Chris

“Peace is not the absence of violence but the manifestation of human compassion.” (Dalai Lama) I have come here to be peaceful. Being at peace does not mean that challenges and difficulties will never again show up in your life. It does mean that when they do arise, you can focus within your own heart, discovering a place of peace that is undisturbed by any condition. You can bring that peacefulness to every situation by staying centered in your heart.

SILENCE – 1 Minute

Reading – Diana

“Spiritual awareness is an understanding of being imbedded in a larger whole, a cosmic whole, of belonging to the universe.” (Fritjof Capra) I am here to be spiritual. There is only One Life moving through all of existence and the wholeness inherent in that oneness expresses from within you. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience. Awakening to that true identity comes through conscious awareness of the present moment. You are one breath, one choice, one realization away from remembering who you have come here to be. Feel it…be it…

SILENCE – 1 Minute

Reading – Chris

“Learn to be quiet, still and solitary. And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked. It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” (Franz Kafka) I have come here to be quiet. The Psalmist writes, “Be still and know that I am God.” In the deep stillness of the soul, Spirit eternally resides, just awaiting your recognition. By turning your attention within, becoming quiet and entering the silence, you can reconnect with the truth of your being.

SILENCE – 1 Minute

Closing – Diana

“The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion.” (Albert Einstein) I have come here to be mystical. Our senses disguise the truth that you and I and everything around us exist as overlapping fields of energy, inextricably linked and energetically fused. Science can now demonstrate what mystics have intuited – there really is only one of us here.

And that One is that which is expressing Itself as you and as me. It breathes through each one of us, and we are alive within It, surrounded by It, infused with It, as part of It. There is no separation. Each of us is on a mystic journey to know the wholeness of our being. Each of us is nothing less than the One, the All, seeing Itself from a particular point of view.

And so right here and right now, I fully accept this Oneness. I recognize and welcome the New Life that is forever being born within me. I allow It to come forward in more beautiful, more Powerful ways than ever before. And for this, I am so incredibly grateful. I accept the Grace as it moves through my Life…speaking my Word into the Love that is Law…in absolute faith that this prayer is taking its perfect form in the world by means of us, as together we say…And so it is! Amen!

Musical Meditation –Greater Good of All, by David Roth

SILENCE – 1 Minutes

Blessing for the Offering – Diana

As I awaken to the God within me and all around me, I see Abundance everywhere I look. I consciously step into that flow of Abundance by this act of giving. I bless this gift, sending it forth to heal and prosper. It is evidence of my deep faith. It does good work in the world and blesses all of Creation. I give from a consciousness of Abundance! And so it is! Amen!

Offertory Music – It’s a New Day, by Eddie Watkins, Jr.

Closing Gratitude, Brief Invitation, and Benediction

Invitations:

Monday (Metaphysical Bible Study)

Friday (Way of the Peaceful Warrior Book Club);

Starting on Saturday, April 25th from 9 am to noon, the Monthly Mystic Morning Brew with Prayer Practitioner Lucinda Alton. Email her at kgfcinda@gmail.com

All on Zoom unless and until the Shelter at Home Mandate is lifted.