Wild poppies in the French countryside ©NK & JR, 2005
A Sacred
Circle
| Gratitude lies not
so much in the words that are spoken, as in the place within from which they are spoken. We can speak our truth only to someone who can hear our truth For truth to be spoken, we must listen one another into truth. Truth is not something out there, truth is what occurs between persons. When we speak with those we care about and who care about us, we sense a deep responsibility to speak truthfully. Words of life are words with which we try to be true to one another. Gratitude and love emerge between us, in our midst, when truth and caring become one. |
In recent conversations, the conviction has gradually emerged that truthfulness arises within dialogue. We discover what is most deeply true when we attempt to speak and listen from the heart, one to another with openness, respect, and honesty. Truth is the melody that flows from our conversation when we are attuned to one another.
While trying to remain with the experience itself, it seems that, in this event, we entered into a kind of sacred silence, that it drew us toward a truth and caring that blended into one, and that it evoked in us a sense of gratitude which tended to flow into generosity.
In this light, we may explore other experiences that have moved us, and try to articulate them honestly. We may also look to the words of others who may have felt, and thought, and lived deeply, and tried to be true to that experience. And perhaps there we may find a resonance with, a naming of, and a stretching of our own experience.
©NK & JR, 2004
Thoughts from Norm
....
Gratitude, which readily flows into generosity, is an underlying attitude to life. It reflects the experience of life as a precious gift--and a sacred task--despite the limitations and vulnerability that are built into life. The sharing of food is a basic expression of gratitude, and the heart of many secular and religious rituals. The word "Eucharist," used to name the central Christian ritual, means "gratitude," "thanksgiving."
The basic meaning of the meal is the sharing of food as the context for the sharing of self. Both are life-giving: One keeps alive and the other gives meaning to life. Put differently, the sharing of food makes concretely real the sharing of self.
Gratitude, which readily flows into generosity, is an underlying attitude to life. It reflects the experience of life as a precious gift--and a sacred task--despite the limitations and vulnerability that are built into life. The sharing of food is a basic expression of gratitude, and the heart of many secular and religious rituals. The word "Eucharist," used to name the central Christian ritual, means "gratitude," "thanksgiving."
The basic meaning of the meal is the sharing of food as the context for the sharing of self. Both are life-giving: One keeps alive and the other gives meaning to life. Put differently, the sharing of food makes concretely real the sharing of self.
At the farewell meal, called The Last
Supper, the narratives say
that Jesus blessed and broke bread and identified himself with the
bread, referring it to his body broken for them. Jesus also blessed and
poured out wine, identifying it with his blood shed for them. He asked
them to do this in memory of him.
The meaning appears to be an invitation to see one's life as bread and wine; to accept it with gratitude, to break it open and pour it out for one another, so that life may be healed, renewed, and brought forth anew.
In this perspective, Jesus is remembered and his presence felt and made real by the gratitude, openness, compassion, generosity and justice with which people embrace and spend their lives. This is accomplished significantly through the assuring of the need for food and friendship.
One aspect vividly conveyed by the breaking open of bread and pouring out of wine is the process of struggle and the cost that is involved in sharing and bringing life to one another. It is a making real of the death that leads to new life, as reflected in Jesus.
As the passage from seed planted to bread shared and eaten indicates, life is a process of endings and beginnings, deaths and rebirths. One form of life ends and another begins. The seed is planted, breaks open and a shoot emerges. It rises above the ground, flowers, and yields the grain of wheat. The wheat is plucked and ground into flour, mixed with a leaven and water. It is put into an oven and baked, and then eaten to become part of us.
This life process of death and rebirth is called "Eucharist" which means thanksgiving, gratitude. Life is presented as a gift for which we can be grateful, despite the pain and suffering it contains. The meaning of this ongoing process, which flows like water in tears of sorrow and of joy, shines forth in Jesus who, in the midst of forsakenness, entrusts himself to the Infinite.
The Eucharist is also the sharing of bread. We do not eat just to stay alive and healthy, but also to share food with family and friends, with those who share our life. The sharing of food becomes the context for, expression of, and making concretely real of the sharing of self, of life. Both are life giving: one keeps alive, the other gives meaning to life.
While the sharing of food can contain our vision, compassion and challenge, it can also be "poisoned" by our resentment, condescension, or hostility. The meaning and so the reality of the food is changed by the gift or refusal of self that it contains. When the sharing of food becomes the sharing of self, it becomes bread of life (rather than bread of death). It remembers, continues, and makes concretely real the gift of self that Jesus lived and put into the breaking and sharing of bread.
The meaning appears to be an invitation to see one's life as bread and wine; to accept it with gratitude, to break it open and pour it out for one another, so that life may be healed, renewed, and brought forth anew.
In this perspective, Jesus is remembered and his presence felt and made real by the gratitude, openness, compassion, generosity and justice with which people embrace and spend their lives. This is accomplished significantly through the assuring of the need for food and friendship.
One aspect vividly conveyed by the breaking open of bread and pouring out of wine is the process of struggle and the cost that is involved in sharing and bringing life to one another. It is a making real of the death that leads to new life, as reflected in Jesus.
* * * * *
As the passage from seed planted to bread shared and eaten indicates, life is a process of endings and beginnings, deaths and rebirths. One form of life ends and another begins. The seed is planted, breaks open and a shoot emerges. It rises above the ground, flowers, and yields the grain of wheat. The wheat is plucked and ground into flour, mixed with a leaven and water. It is put into an oven and baked, and then eaten to become part of us.
This life process of death and rebirth is called "Eucharist" which means thanksgiving, gratitude. Life is presented as a gift for which we can be grateful, despite the pain and suffering it contains. The meaning of this ongoing process, which flows like water in tears of sorrow and of joy, shines forth in Jesus who, in the midst of forsakenness, entrusts himself to the Infinite.
The Eucharist is also the sharing of bread. We do not eat just to stay alive and healthy, but also to share food with family and friends, with those who share our life. The sharing of food becomes the context for, expression of, and making concretely real of the sharing of self, of life. Both are life giving: one keeps alive, the other gives meaning to life.
While the sharing of food can contain our vision, compassion and challenge, it can also be "poisoned" by our resentment, condescension, or hostility. The meaning and so the reality of the food is changed by the gift or refusal of self that it contains. When the sharing of food becomes the sharing of self, it becomes bread of life (rather than bread of death). It remembers, continues, and makes concretely real the gift of self that Jesus lived and put into the breaking and sharing of bread.
Thoughts from Jane ...
A trained church musician knows that sacred music flows from and to the spirit, from and to the best place within us. There is much to be learned by those who study and listen to the life lessons that such music offers us. Music moves on, from, and to the breath of the spirit. Breath is what connects us all in a common community and, in the case of the church, a faith community. It is often said that music allows us to pray twice, once with the words, and once with the music. Perhaps more would be accomplished if we relied more on our song than our words alone at times when the spirit needs to be drawn from, or given to a people.
Few would disagree that the music of the church, played and sung well, is offered as a gift and is received as gift . In this sense, a gift, mutually shared in its best giving and receiving, reaches a place in us that lies beneath the need to distinguish giving or receiving... in a very real sense the spirit of giving and receiving may reach a further and deeper than the self or any group dynamic, to where we may discover an even greater value. Each time we sing a hymn, individual singers give their voice to the community and receive from it. Each voice is necessary and yet no one voice is, or should be, a soloist.
A gift such as music, once recognized as gift, carries with it a call – a push to respond to it, and from it, in a life-giving way. Music, like language, is a form of communication that derives from the impulse to express feelings and thoughts. Once heard as gift, one is moved to to respond to that gift with a call from within of one’s own potential gifts. Dr. Tomatis calls good music fantastic energy food. At times when it speaks to and from a community it may be more valuable than a single act of giving or receiving could possibly accomplish. In this sense, each individual, and each individual within the group dynamic, may move toward an awareness of a presence that is both greater than each individual, and yet moves between and through individuals. It moves us hopefully toward a subtle difference in our angle of vision: the way we see ourselves and others, and the way we see ourselves in relation to one another. As well, it hopefully moves us toward gratitude, a vision that sees, rather than is blind to, gift and giftedness. Greed demands more than the music, the words, and persons. It is only what we are truly grateful for that we can receive gently, compassionately, and with gratitude. Gratitude responds with a simple “thank you.”
Gorges de Verdon, France -- Photo ©NK & JR, 2006
Dr. Masaru Emoto
The Hidden Messages in Water by Japanese scientist, Dr. Masaru Emoto, explains how crystals formed in frozen water are changed or affected by specific thoughts, words, and feelings directed toward it.
"Water has a message for the world: The world is linked together by love and gratitude. Love and gratitude are fundamental principles of nature. At the end of its long journey through the cos¬mos, water arrived on the earth with love and gratitude in its bosom. This love and gratitude created the first inkling of life, and then provided the tender nurturing required for growth. Looking at the water crystal photo¬graphs awakens a primeval memory contained deep within the water in each of our cells. The message of water is love and gratitude." (page 134)
"We
live our short lives on this planet and then we set out on a journey
into the universe." (156)