Is Your Heart Clear?
Sunday, February 27, 2022 Taizé
Rev. Diana Johnson, with Chris Johnson, RScP
Call to Awareness – 3 Bells
Opening Prayer – Chris
Introduction – Rev. Diana
Good morning. My name is Rev. Diana Johnson, Pastor and Spiritual Director of Mystic Heart Spiritual Center. I’d like to welcome you Home to our Beloved Community, and welcome Home to your own Mystic Heart. Let’s prepare to Clear our Hearts and Minds with this affirmation…hold it silently as I speak it into the space: “I open my eyes to see the Spiritual Truth today. I open my ears to hear the Spiritual Truth today. I open my heart to receive the Spiritual Truth today.”
Chant – Opening Up (Sweet Surrender) from Rainbow Spirit Oregon
Rev. Diana
This morning we are asking ourselves…Is my heart clear? What does it mean, exactly, to have a clear heart? Let’s begin by bringing our awareness to the breath, noticing that, with no effort on my part, my breath is entering through my nose and moving down into my lungs…to the heart region…and is giving life to this body…to every tissue, every organ, every system. Ruach…the Hebrew word for breath…also means Spirit. Pneuma…the Latin word for breath…also means Spirit, or soul. By giving our attention to the breath entering our bodies, we are bringing awareness to the Spirit within us.
As awareness remains with the breath, allow any tension you may be holding to dissipate as you breathe out…letting go of any resistance or tightness anywhere in the body…allowing the heart to open as you inhale…and then letting go of anything that may be holding your heart closed…breathing in Love and allowing it to fill you to overflowing, and offering that Love into this space on the outbreath, allowing it to surround, hold and comfort you…basking in the feeling of God’s Loving Presence as it moves in and out of your body on the breath…completely content with whatever is unfolding in this moment.
In this state of Loving Presence, we sense our connection with our Global Community…envisioning a web of Consciousness that encompasses the earth, knowing that every being is a point of God’s Radiant Light in that web…every human, every other-than-human animal, every plant, every rock…the sand, soil, water, clouds…every star in our galaxy, and every galaxy in the cosmos…teeming with Life and Intelligence, radiating the Light of Spirit. We cannot help but feel and know our oneness with All That Is.
We share a heartfelt intention for our time together: We acknowledge our responsibility to one another as human family, and as caretakers of the earth; and we commit to Living from a Clear Heart. In setting this prayerful intention, we empower ourselves to see, hear, and feel the Spiritual Truth that by following Spirit’s Guidance, we are never led astray.
For the month of February, we have been contemplating what it means to live from a full, strong, open, and clear heart. When we are full-hearted, we’re all in…fully engaged…committed to the people and situations in our lives. Otherwise, we are half-hearted…acting from a perceived obligation or duty, from the shoulds or have tos. There is no enthusiasm in half-hearted living.
When we are open-hearted, we’re embracing possibilities, and softening where we have become rigid or defensive. Otherwise, we are closed-hearted…holding on to past resentments, grudges, or disappointments…and we can be punitive, withholding, blaming, or critical with ourselves and others. There is no joy in closed-hearted living.
When we are strong-hearted, we demonstrate courage in our lives. Courage actually means standing by one’s heart, or core. When we are courageous, we are able to meet conflict without fear. And we are able to be our authentic selves. The alternative is weak-hearted living…to act from a need of acceptance and approval from others…to have difficulty facing conflict…to move into denial rather than see things as they are. There is no freedom in weak-hearted living.
When we are clear-hearted, we’re acting from the clarity that comes from deep, intuitive listening rather than confusion, doubt, or indifference, AND we are willing to act on that Guidance. This is where we’re going to spend our time today.
What does it look like when I am living from a clear heart? Maybe we should begin by looking at how confused heartedness can show up. Confused heartedness can come from a true lack of clarity about which direction we should go, or how we should resolve a particular situation. But more often than not, we are playing games with ourselves…we do not lack clarity. We know what needs to happen, and we don’t like it. “Our confusion may actually be a manufactured camouflage for our unwillingness to be clear.” (Angeles Arrien, Living in Gratitude, p. 49) For example, in my own life, I have faced the need to leave a particular job, but had no idea how I would pay my bills if I left. My apparent lack of clarity was really my unwillingness and fear in admitting that I had to leave…for my own physical and psychological good, I had no other choice. For a period of time, I lived in the apparent confusion of not knowing. In truth, I had complete clarity, but little faith.
This same dance can occur in relationships, as well. Whether in a partnership, or with a good friend, we might say that we’re confused about where the relationship is going, “rather than stating what we are clear about and what we are not. In this way, we place the responsibility for a decision about the relationship on the other person – combining confused-heartedness with weak-heartedness.” (Angeles Arrien, Living in Gratitude, p. 50) In weak-heartedness there is no freedom, and in confused-heartedness there is no safety.
A clear heart is an untroubled heart…it exists when I am not hiding anything or hiding from anything…when I’m expressing my true feelings…living with integrity and alignment between my internal and external selves. When I am clear-hearted my thoughts, words, and actions all match…there is no cognitive or emotional dissonance. I act from the true clarity that is born or Spirit’s Guidance.
And so, living a Whole-hearted living means making commitments thoughtfully, and then living them fully…remaining open, flexible, and forgiving as we work through challenges, acknowledging that we, too, make mistakes…courageously facing conflict, standing in the truth of who we are and what we need, but allowing space for the needs of others…and listening deeply and generously, both within and without, and then acting from clarity, integrity, and faith.
SILENCE – 1 Minute – Bell
Rev. Diana
Whole-hearted Living means living from Integrity. This word, like its root integer, means the whole of anything, not a fraction. Living with Integrity speaks of the unimpaired state of one’s mind and heart, of soundness and purity of character, of uprightness, of honesty. When I am living from a whole heart, I am undivided…I am the same in private as I am in public. I have embodied the principles that govern my life, internalized them, and integrated them into every aspect of my experience.
Whole-heartedness says, “What You See Is What You Get.” There is congruency between what I verbalize and what I practice. My life matches my lips. The essence of integrity or Whole-heartedness is to be on the inside what I appear to be on the outside.
Whole-hearted living is when I remember the Truth of Who and Whose I Am and live from that…when I allow the Christ Consciousness to show Itself in my thoughts, words, and actions…and when I recognize the same in you.
Musical Meditation – Christ in Me, Christ in You by Gary Lynn Floyd
Rev. Diana
It can feel so big…so challenging…even unreachable…to talk about living with and from a heart that is full, strong, open, and clear. It seems to stretch me daily to live a life of complete Integrity…to live Whole-heartedly…to live from my Christ Self. But it’s not really so complicated as we make it. The Master Teacher Jesus gave five simple directions over 2,000 years ago. And these five match the teachings of many of the great world’s traditions. Granted, we are still working to master them.
The first is this: Jesus reduced the 10 Commandments and 613 Jewish Laws to these two: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37–39). In other words, when we replace hate with love, and anger with kindness, we notice more peace in our lives…we feel more closely connected and live more fully from our Christ Nature.
Second, Jesus taught The Golden Rule during His Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12). In other words, do nothing to another that you would not willingly have done to you. Even more, treat people the way they wish to be treated…which might include leaving them alone. As you do, you will strengthen your relationships and bring greater joy and peace into your world.
Next, Jesus invited his followers, and those who in future generations, to have faith in their own Christ Nature, and to live from that. (John 8:12) “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” In other words, the Great I Am… Spirit…God…Infinite Intelligence…is the Light of the world. All who follow Jesus’s example, living from a deep understanding that each of us IS that Light, will shine their own Light into the dark places in our world.
Also, Jesus taught by example that we might benefit from leading intentional and prayerful lives…that we are offered Guidance when we ask. (Matthew 7:7) “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye. shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
And finally, the Master Teacher taught us to freely forgive. Peter asked Him, “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” Jesus responded, “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21–22). When we freely offer forgiveness to others, we can invite more peace and forgiveness into our own lives.
Musical Meditation – Spirit’s Prayer by Gary Lynn Floyd
Chris –Meditation
Clarity is a value that we all share… Mental clarity is essential in the workplace… Our perceptions need to be clear in order to avoid misinterpretation of situations and inappropriate responses… Lack of clarity in our speech can lead to misunderstandings between us and others… But what does it mean to have a clear heart?
Proverbs 23 tells us that, “As a person thinks in her heart, so is she…” Our true beliefs reside deep within us, in our very heart of hearts… The Divine Creative Process does not respond to our mental beliefs… Rather, It reacts to our deeply embodied beliefs… to our gut-level feelings about Life…
Rabbi Yeshua of Nazareth taught us that we cannot offer our gifts to God if we have resentment toward anyone… He said that we must resolve the dispute before our gifts – or our prayers – are acceptable to Spirit[1]… This is because it is the contents of our heart, not the words on our lips, that set the Divine Creativity into motion…
Unresolved resentments and emotions we haven’t dealt with clutter our heart, giving Spirit mixed messages about what we want or need… We can resolve resentments by having what may be difficult conversations… And the only way to completely clear the heart is to choose fully to feel emotions that we may have been avoiding…
Let us resolve here and now to clear our heart of any and all negativity… Let us use this time to take an inventory… “Who am I still holding resentment towards?” … “Who may be resentful of me? … And for what?” … “What unprocessed emotions have I buried within my heart?” … As we take these questions into the Sacred Silence, remember to keep the heart open… Only an open heart can release judgment and negativity, and only an open heart can welcome the Divine Light of Wisdom…
Silence – 3:00
Returning our awareness to the here and now, we emerge from this Sacred Stillness in gratitude… Grateful for renewed clarity in our minds and our hearts… Thankful for the Spirit-given courage to face and overcome our resentments and fears… Thank you God, for everything and everyOne…
I invite you to know with me now that Spirit is moving powerfully through each of us, and through our Beloved Community… Individually and collectively, we are a powerful spiritual influence on our world… As we evolve in consciousness, the benefits of our growth ripple out, blessing the entire world…
Our hearts and minds are fully open and receptive as Rev. Diana continues her inspirational message this morning… And as she asks us, “Is Your Heart Clear?” we can answer truly, “Yes.”
Rev. Diana
We close our time together with a poem by Chief Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. These are said to be his last words, spoken on his death bed in 1813.
So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion;
respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours.Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place.Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
What he is speaking to is this…live a full-hearted, strong-hearted, open-hearted, and clear-hearted life…Live a whole-hearted life of integrity, and you will have no regrets.
Let’s join in whole-hearted prayer, to anchor what we know to be True.
There is One, and only One Life…one Source…one Spirit…one Heart…one Mind…
I call that One God. By whatever name we call It, we know It to be the Presence, the Power, and the Process back of all of Creation.
Spirit is forever expressing and experiencing Itself as Creation, and so I know that each and every one listening today is a perfect and intentional Expression of Divinity.
Each one is God in form, the Qualities of Spirit are ever available within each and every one. And so, this prayer is to remember the Truth of who we are…to know that each of us is serving as the hands, feet, hearts, and voices of God in this world. As we Practice opening, strengthening, and clearing our hearts and minds of all that no longer serves, we begin to live whole-hearted lives…we feel a great fullness and we are moved to share and to serve.
We envision a world where all beings live whole-heartedly…a world that is peaceful, abundant, and free…where all practice loving kindness and care for our planet with respect and intention. We envision a world where all needs are met…where all beings have plenty of nourishing food, the safety of a warm and comfortable home, medical care, education, healthy relationships, right livelihood, creative contribution, and a sense of belonging…a world in which every being is valued for its inherent Goodness and Light…where the Peace we cultivate within shows up a world free of violence. We feel and know a world without greed, where there is abundance in having enough…where every being, as a precious creation of God, is deserving of all the blessings life has to offer and receives those blessings willingly and gratefully. With humanity serving as the vessels through which God’s blessings flow, there is no reason we cannot have such a world. And so, we know that it is taking form as we speak our Powerful Word.
Thank you, God, for this amazing Spiritual Community…people of like minds and hearts to share this journey called life.
Thank you, Holy One, for the constancy of Your Loving and Lawful Presence. It is by this Constancy that I build my faith.
Thank you, Mother/Father God for the many, many blessings of this and every day. May all beings know an endless flow of blessing.
By this act of prayer, we step fully into our Whole-Hearted Lives…trusting that our needs are always met…practicing gratitude rather than complaint…sharing what we have with others…practicing forgiveness and seeking Beauty and Joy in our lives.
Absolutely faithful in the Power of my Word, I release it to the One Source of all Life, knowing that it is already being answered. I see it, feel it, know it, and call it done. And so we affirm this together by saying…and so it is. Amen!
Musical Meditation – Earth by David Roth (from the Spirit of Love Album)
Rev. Diana – Moving Into Celebration
Please repeat after me as together we affirm… There is Power in our Prayer…There is Power in our Vision…We are writing a new story for our world…right here and right now… And so it is! Amen!
It’s time for Celebration and Gratitude! Last week we highlighted Tails of Rescue and the good work they are doing in our community. We are sending our lunch donations to them for the months of February and March. Today, our Feel-Good Video looks at what we might learn from blissed-out quadruplets, a young but very mindful listener, and a clear-hearted, whole-hearted child who has just heard her parents arguing.
Feel Good Videos
Laughing Quadruplets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZH0sNsaAz4
A Captivating Imagining Of A Baby’s Mind
Toddler Giving Mother Advice After Hearing Parents Fight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y62veCinCvc
Rev. Diana – Blessing for the Offering
Each Sunday, we invite you to join in the celebration of the work we are doing in the world by sharing of your financial Good, should you choose to. If you are at home, you can go to mysticheart.org to use our Donate Button or to find our mailing address.
We also have a Gracious Giving Program for those who would like to make a heartfelt monthly commitment of support so that we can more effectively plan for our growth and our monthly spending. I would be happy to give you more information.
As we move into this time of giving, please speak this blessing, letting the words flow from your heart. And please feel our deep appreciation for your gifts:
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!
Please enjoy this version of Love Train, by Playing for Change, featuring Yoyo Ma, Jason Mraz, and Chad Smith.
Offertory Video – Love Train by Play for Change
Gratitude Prayer – Chris & Rev. Diana
Invitations – Chris
- Tuesdays, 11 am – noon: Music in Motion: A Body, Mind, and Spirit Experience for Mommy or Daddy and Me!
- Tuesdays, 3-5 pm – Michael Bordeaux’s Book Club. All are welcome to attend our final movie day for Church of the Wild. We will be watching My Octopus Teacher this Tuesday, March 1. A New book beginning on March 8. Made for Goodness by Desmond and Mpho Tutu.
- Thursdays, 12 – 2 pm: Connections: Book Club and Meditation Circle. Please join Rev. Diana in this journey through Heart Minded: How to Hold Yourself and Others in Love,
- Thursdays, 3-5 pm – Metaphysical Bible led by Prayer Practitioner Chris Johnson. No knowledge of the Bible is necessary. Drop-ins are welcome.
- Saturday, March 5th,10 am–2 pm: The Kingdom of Heaven: A Virtual Field Trip (in-person or on Zoom). Join Prayer Practitioner Chris Johnson for this mystical tour of the Kingdom. Lunch will be provided. Suggested donation: $20
Mark your calendars now…
- Patrick’s Day Dance Party with Narayan and Janet, Thursday, March 17th, 7-9 pm. Refreshments will be served. Suggested donation for Tickets: $20. Get your ticket early. Seating is limited. Contact Rev. Diana for more information.
- Spring Tea Party and Easter Basket Raffle, April 9th, 1-3 pm. Contact Ellie for more information.
- Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Parking Lot Sale, Saturday, May 21st , 7 am – 3 pm. Drop off your donations at the Gathering Place on Friday afternoon, May 20th. Please contact Kris Fortier to contribute goods, to help with the sale, or for more information.
If you’d like prayer support, we have prayer request cards and envelopes on the fireplace, as well. If you would like to meet with a Prayer Practitioner in person, I am available for a quick prayer after the service.
Or contact one of the Mystic Heart Practitioners for a full Session during the week. Our contact information is listed in the bulletin and on our website, as are all of the Mystic Heart events and activities.
To continue the celebration, there is food and fellowship next door immediately following the service. So let’s stand and sing our closing song.
Closing Song: Love Be with You, written by Lainey Bernstein, RScP & Gary Lynn Floyd
[1] Matthew 5: 23 – 24