Making It Up As I Go Along… Sunday, June 6, 2021 Taizé
With Sherri Dotter, RScP, Prayer Practitioner and Chris Johnson, RScP Leading the Meditation.
Call to Awareness – 3 Bells
Opening Prayer – Sherri will set the intention to open heart and mind, welcoming whatever is to be awakened today.
Introduction – Rev. Diana
Good morning. My name is Rev. Diana Johnson, Pastor and Spiritual Director of Mystic Heart Spiritual Center. Welcome Home to our Beloved Community, and Welcome Home to your own Mystic Heart. I thank you for joining us this morning for our Taizé Meditation.
For the next hour or so, I invite you to let go of all that has come before this moment…take a slow, deep, cleansing breath…and fully arriving in this moment. Gently close your eyes and allow your body to relax…let your mind relax…allow yourself to just be…be here…be here now. There is Beauty in stillness. Take a moment to experience the Beauty of this moment…nowhere to go, nothing to do, but sit…open…listen. (Pause) Take another deep breath and allow yourself to be carried by the meditative tone of Taizé…allow the music to carry you as you allow the Love and the Beauty of this moment to breathe through you…
Chant – Love Breathes Through Me by Narayan and Janet
Rev. Diana –
This year’s theme is Connection and throughout June we will be exploring the idea of Tending the Dream. Today’s meditative journey will serve as a reminder that we are Making It Up as We Go Along…individually and collectively. Like the author of an adventure novel, we are creating the human story…we are writing the next chapter in the story of planet earth, and the next leg of our soul’s journey…we’re that powerful. Breathe that in for a moment.
Each of us wants to co-create a Beautiful story…Beauty is a Quality of Spirit. As we prepare to go deeper, we call to mind the most Beautiful scene we can imagine…and we breathe in that Beauty, and then send it back out into the world on the outbreath. As we breathe together, we are creating an atmosphere of Absolute Beauty…both within and without…
Allowing the breath to find its own natural flow, gently move your awareness away from the breath and turn your focus within, to the Silence, to the eternal nature of your being, where you feel and know your Oneness with a Loving and Lawful Presence, a Deep Wisdom, an Infinite Intelligence. We are attuning ourselves to a higher vibration as we co-create this experience of Loving Communion…take a moment to feel the Presence of Spirit in your body… (Pause)
Beauty is the natural state of all beings everywhere…the Divine shining through all that is, expressing and experiencing Its own loveliness as all of creation…constant, and yet ever-changing. It is that Beauty, that Perfection, that infuses the Evolutionary Process…It is that Beauty that is expressing and experiencing Itself as you…as me…we recognize and honor the spark of Divine Beauty in everyone and everything. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us that “He hath made everything beautiful in its time.” As one by one, each of us acknowledges the Beauty of our world and everything in it, and allows that Beauty to shine forth from us, life on earth is being transformed.
We take a moment to sense our connection with all of Life…to feel the Oneness of our global community. Together, we envision a web of consciousness that is everywhere-present… knowing that each of us is a Radiant point of Light…(Pause) And now we recognize that all beings are part of that web…we see that in Truth there are no spaces between us…our web has become one continuous field of Awareness, one Radiant Light, ever-expanding, with each of us an individualized expression…and we sense that this Light extends out beyond our beautiful planet, into the cosmos…no beginning, no ending…
As we come together this morning, we share a heartfelt intention…to spend time, as Spiritual Family, grounded in the One Heart, the One Mind. Each of us feels the impulse to grow and evolve, and chooses to do so consciously.
Acknowledging our connection with all of life lends Power to our prayer and meditation…collectively, we leave an imprint of Peace and Love, of Beauty and Grace, on the Whole…for all time…we give shape and form to the transformation that is occurring…Wholeness is being revealed by means of us. Franciscan author Ilia Delio shares her thoughts on the story we are creating.
SILENCE – 2 Minutes – Bell
Rev. Diana
“If evolution is the language of growth and change, then an evolving faith is one that accepts and even embraces change.” (Fr. Richard Rohr)
I am not talking about simply tolerating or accepting change. To embrace means to accept or support something willingly or even enthusiastically. The root of the word embrace means to encircle, surround, or enclose. To me, this speaks of embodiment…of not only accepting that the nature of Life is change, but inviting and welcoming change to become a Graceful part of my experience…being curious, looking for how change will show up next…standing ready and willing to play my part in the story.
Father Richard Rohr reminds us that
While the word change normally refers to new beginnings, real transformation happens more often when something falls apart. The pain of something old cracking apart or unraveling invites us to evolve instead of tightening our controls and certitudes.
After all, Truth be told, the idea that we control anything outside of our own thoughts, words, and actions, is an illusion…the illusion of control. And certitudes? The only thing we can be certain of is change.
Each of us has had plenty of opportunity in the past year to get more comfortable with change. Initially, all we want to do when we see something falling apart is to put it back together again…just like it was. But patching something that has been broken never makes it just like it was. And life will never be as it was before the events of this past year…it is not meant to be.
What if we were to see the cracks appearing in our societies, the apparent brokenness in our lives, as the revealing of a deeper Truth? What if we saw them as gifts, as blessings? How might our story moving forward be enriched? Each of us has the capacity to do so…
Musical Meditation– Morning Has Broken by Cat Stevens
Rev. Diana
There are times when I experience frustration, anger, or even sorrow, because I am telling myself the wrong story about who I am and what life is about. If I want to create a new story, I have to begin to tell myself something different about who I am. So I spend a few moments feeding my Soul am different narrative.
In this moment, I hold the awareness that I Am Peace…I, the Soul, Am Stillness. I take some time to sense and feel that Peace. I remind myself of my True Reality, that I Am Light…so much more than flesh and bone…I Am Spirit, I Am Light. And for the next few moments I allow myself to feel the Light within me.
Within me there is an ocean of Spiritual Energy…I tap into It now, and sense the movement of Energy inside me.
I remind myself that I Am Free…that I, the Soul, can go beyond any limitation of time, of the body, of the drama in this world…I Am Free, and I feel and sense that Freedom right now.
I Am Loved…I Am Loved dearly by the One Source of all that is. And I belong with and to every soul…we are brothers and sisters. There is no such thing as a stranger. The Truth is that I live amidst a sea of souls that are part of my world family and I remember this now.
I have something to give to this world, and I hold in my mind that one quality that has the power to uplift the world around me. I know what it is. I just have to awaken it and allow it to radiate inside and from me. When I tell myself the True Story about who I Am, I feel a sense of Wholeness, I feel a sense of Peace, I feel a sense of Connection.
To create a new story, all I have to do is to shift my perspective and allow the train of thought to be redirected…I consciously give attention to ideas that encourage my growth and evolution.
The same is true for humanity as a whole…as each of us shifts perspective, finding empathy and compassion in our hearts…accepting all other beings as parts of myself that I don’t yet know (Valerie Kaur)…accepting ourselves and one another as Perfect and Intentional expressions of the Divine…we create a new story, one in which Love is both the atmosphere and the common Practice we share.
SILENCE – 2 Minutes – Bell
Chris – Meditation
In this contemplative atmosphere, let us consider our own spiritual evolution… What is it that causes us to grow in consciousness? … The Divine Impulse certainly urges us to grow, but what part do we play in the process? … What is ours to do to create the right conditions for our spiritual growth?…
We are told that we must surrender to the Divine Will… but what does that really mean? … As expressions of God, aren’t we given Dominion and Spiritual Authority? … We are called to surrender our human will to the Will of Spirit… to use our Spiritual Authority in alignment with the highest good for all of Creation…
Spiritual Authority implies that we are the author of our experience… we write our own story… And how do we write a story? … We make it up… We use our Spiritual Imagination to envision our Ideal Life… and then we accept it in grateful prayer… So, what is it that we need to surrender? …
We need to surrender our old story before we can fully step into our new Ideal… We cannot occupy our new life while clinging to the old one. When we outgrow our stories, we must shed them, as a reptile sheds its skin… Rabbi Yeshua compared this to putting new wine – which is still fermenting and expanding – into old skins, which have lost their elasticity… the skins break, and the wine is lost… As we move into the Silence, let us ask, “In what ways does my old story limit me? … Can I release it in favor of a new one? … What story can I make up that is worth surrendering the paradigm that no longer serves me? …”
Silence – 3:00
Grateful for this time together in contemplation and communion with Spirit and our Beloved Community, we give thanks for all that Life brings us… We appreciate both blessings and challenges, as they grow us into our next yet-to-be…
Thank you, God, for everything…
Please affirm with me that our thoughts, words, and actions align with our deepest spiritual intention, and that we are all inspired daily to give full expression to the gifts given us. The light of our souls shines brightly as we express powerful spiritual qualities in this world.
Our heart, mind, and soul welcome Rev. Diana’s message this morning, as she encourages us to co-create our life by Making It Up As We Go Along…
Rev. Diana – Invitation to Practice
As I take this meditation into my week, I reflect on the words of Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
I remember that I am making it up as I go along…we all are. And I am careful to give my attention only to what I want to create and experience in my world. I ask Spirit to guide me in seeing myself and my life through new eyes, in seeking and finding new perspectives, in developing new ways of thinking and being.
I ask to be shown…where do I most often slip into negative patterns of thought, speech, or behavior? What might this be creating in my experience and in our world, and what would I rather be creating?
Closing in prayer, I gently guide my mind into the silence…and knowing this Truth for each one listening.
There is only one thing happening here and that is God living Its life as all of creation. Everything I see, every person who crosses my path, and all those who do not…all expressions of the Divine.
And so, I know that I Am, that each of us, is made in the image and likeness of God… the image pointing to the Essence…and the likeness, to the Substance…of the one and only One. There is nothing else. I Am That!
Here and now, I breathe that in…I accept and know my creative capacity. I take responsibility for my part in creating a new story in my personal life, and for the human family. I understand that each of us is making it up as we go along…that that is what is meant to be. We are each given choice, and I use this gift consciously as I move through my days.
I Am so grateful to know the Truth of who I Am. I give deep and profound thanks for the many gifts of this day, for the gift of Life Itself. I Am grateful for my growth, and for the evolving faith that allows me to welcome and embrace change Gracefully. In this prayerful moment, I feel and know the Beauty of Life as It washes through me in all Its Glory. I bask in It and allow it to fill me to overflowing so that I might bless all who cross my path in this coming week.
Knowing that the Power of my word is mighty, that it creates my experience of Life, I release this prayer to the Beauty and Intelligence that I call God, knowing beyond all doubt that it is already active, coming into being as spoken, or in an even more Powerful way that serves the Whole in ways that I cannot yet imagine. And so, I rest, knowing it is already done…And so it is…Amen!
Musical Meditation – Earth by David Roth
Rev. Diana – Moving into Ceremony and Celebration
In the spirit of Making It Up as We Go Along, let’s take a moment, with eyes still closed, for our Joyful Practice of Envisioning a Love-Soaked World, a world impacted and transformed by all of the good we are doing, individually and collectively…Visioning together…a world that is peaceful, joyful, abundant, and free…where the Earth is in perfect balance, respected and cared for by all beings everywhere…where everyone has plenty of nourishing food to eat, a warm and comfortable home, access to medical care, opportunities for education and creative contribution, and a sense of belonging…a world in which every being is valued for his or her inherent Goodness, Beauty, and Perfection…a world created by our willingness to practice Radical Love and Compassion, Integrity, Forgiveness, Kindness, and Generosity.
Let this Vision become crystal clear in your heart and mind. Feel it…know it…within you and all around you. Trust and Know that there is no lack or limitation in God…and with humanity as Its hands, feet, voice, and heart, all things are possible.
Now hold onto that Vision…and let it bring a smile to your face and Joy to your heart as you gently bring your awareness back to your body…to your senses…to the atmosphere in the room. As you feel ready, allow your eyes to gently open and take in whatever is before you.
Holding a shared Vision is a powerful form of prayer. We are building our belief…we are building our Faith. Please join me in affirming …We are writing a new story…We are doing it here…We are doing it now…And so it is!
Thank you for joining me in this Powerful Practice every week. Together, we are
Practicing the Possible Through Prayer.
We are so grateful to be a part of this Beloved Community. Mystic Heart is an Independent Spiritual Center that is self-governed by Community Agreements, which means it is free to grow and change according to the needs and desires of its members and friends. If you’d like to know more about our philosophy, we have a full description printed in our monthly bulletin. Also, I am always happy to answer any questions you may have.
And have you heard? We are serious about Celebration…and if you want to witness it in action, please join us on June 11th for the State of the Heart Gathering. Celebration is a vital part of our Spiritual Practice. We understand that by celebrating the Good in our lives, we bring more of it into our experience. I celebrate you and your choice to be here this morning. It is only in community that we come to know who we are.
Rev. Diana – Blessing for the Offering
Each Sunday, we offer you the opportunity to share your financial Good, in support of the Work we are doing in the world. 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 feel the Truth of these words, and know how much we appreciate 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!
Feel free to get up and dance to…
Offertory Video – Inside Outside by Keb Mo and Daryl Hall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuoCdep_b90
Sherri, Prayer Practitioner, opens the brief Gratitude Prayer, Rev. Diana closes.
Sherri, Prayer Practitioner
If you are new with us today, please consider filling out an information card so that we can reach out. If you’d like prayer support, we also have prayer request cards and envelopes for your privacy. All of the Mystic Heart events and activities are listed in your bulletin, so feel free to take it with you. 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
Close of Service