Readings from Sunday, June 24, 2007

---We kindly ask for your comments/thoughts to continue our Sunday conversation--


VOICES AND VIEWS:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.--Margaret Mead

In every community there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart there is the power to do it.--Marianne Williamson

We don't accomplish anything in this world alone...and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one's life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.--Sandra Dan O'Conner

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.--His Holiness the Dalai Lama

There is a light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond us all, beyond the heavens, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. This is the Light that shines in our heart.--Chandogya Upanishad

A READING FROM MARTIN PRECHTEL

In the village, people used to build their houses out of traditional materials, using no iron or lumber or nails, but the houses were magnificient. Many were sewn together out of bark and fiber. Like the house of the body, the house that a person sleeps in must be very beatiful and sturdy, but not so sturdd that it won't fall apart after a while. If your house doesn't fall apart, then there will be no reason to renew it. And it is this renewability that makes something valuable. The maintenance gives it meaning.

The secret of village togetherness and happiness has always been the generosity of the people, but the key to that generosity is inefficiency and decay. Because our village huts were not built to last very long, they had to be regularly renewed. To do this, villagers came together, at least once a year, to work on somebody's hut. When your house was falling down, you invited all the folks over. The little kids ran arouand messing up what everybody was doing. The young women brought the water. The young men carried the stones. The older men told everybody what to do, and the older women told the older men that they weren't doing it right. Once the house was back togeather again, everyone ate together, praised the house, laughed, and cried. In a few days, they moved on to the next house. In this way, each family's place in the village was reestablished and remembered. This is how it always was.

Everything has to be maintained because it was originally made so delicately that it eventually falls apart. It is the putting back together again, the renewing, that ultimately makes something strong. That is true of our houses, our language, our relationships.

It's a fine balance, making something that is not so flimsy that it falls apart too soon, yet not so solid that it is permanent. It requires a sort of grace. We all want to make something that's going to live beyond us, but that thing shouldn't be a house, or some other physical object. It should be a village that can continue to maintain itself. That sort of contant renewal is the only permanence we should wish to attain.

A READING FRAOM MATTHEW 18: 19-20

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

A READING FROM THE GOSPEL OF MARY MAGDALENE

The disciples were in sorrow, shedding many tears, and saying: "How are we to go among the unbelievers and announce the gospel of the Son of Man? They did not spare His life, so why should they spare ours?"

Then Mary arose, embraced them all, and began to speak to her brothers: "Do not remain in sorrow and doubt, for his Grace will guide you and comfort you. Instead, let us praise His greatness, for He has prepared us for this. He is calling upon us to become fully human [Anthropos]."

Thus Mary turned their hearts toward the Good, and they began to discuss the meaning of the Teacher's words.


CLOSING MEDITATION

CALL TO CONVERSATION