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Subject: Easter Bible Study: Community of Prayer (April 28-May 4)

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ProudDog

Posts:511

04/28/2008 11:46 PM
This week we're at the end of Jesus' farewell speech to his disciples. Kate's focusing on the prayer and the dimensions it had for the disciples and the early church as well as the Christian community today. I've really focused on the part at the end where Jesus talks about unity. Take a look at Community of prayer and Unity and let's talk!

-Kirk Moore

kate huey

Posts:52

04/30/2008 10:51 AM
We know that Jesus wanted us to see him in our neighbor, especially "the least of these" (some say it means "the littlest" of these - in the eyes of the world). But in our spiritual life we might also consider the way God sees us: as beloved children, yes; as precious sheep (not one should be lost), yes; but also as a community full of promise. I think that's how Jesus saw his "motley crew" of disciples that night before his death, even while they couldn't keep up with what he was saying (despite everything they had seen!). God looks at us with steadfast love and deep compassion, but God also gazes upon us - just as we are and just where we are - with hope, too, for the future and for what is yet to be. The disciples that night, like us today, are a band with great promise, and Jesus sees that promise within them. The difference, of course, is that since that night, we (the church) have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus knew that gift was coming, but he stil prayed for his little band and for us today. It makes sense, then, doesn't it, that we pray for one another today, and that we see the promise and hope that each one of us holds? When you pray for people (including yourself), do you ever pray that they (we) will reach the full promise God has placed within us? Do you see promise in yourself and others?

ProudDog

Posts:511

05/02/2008 10:41 AM
I think when we realize that we're just people and that everyone's part of this "motley crew" that God loves, praying for all to reach the promise that God has placed within us becomes the norm instead of a stretch.

-Kirk Moore

kate huey

Posts:52

05/02/2008 10:47 AM
John Pilch says that our prayers reveal how we perceive ourselves and God, "that is, how and what we pray reveal what we believe about the one to whom we pray." If you listen carefully to your prayers, what sort of things do they reveal about your beliefs about God? About your sense of the relationship you have with God?

subear

Posts:774

05/02/2008 4:23 PM
Kate wrote: "John Pilch says that our prayers reveal how we perceive ourselves and God, 'that is, how and what we pray reveal what we believe about the one to whom we pray.' If you listen carefully to your prayers, what sort of things do they reveal about your beliefs about God? About your sense of the relationship you have with God?" When I pray, I first remind myself who and what I think God is with as few or as many words as I need to come to that understanding within my mind and heart; sometimes my understanding is right there, other times, it takes a little reminding. Second, I align myself with that mysterious power and presence. What is my relationship to God? After all, we exist in the "image and likeness," or as I have come to believe, we are made of the Spirit and Substance of God, (It/Him/Her) Self. I say to myself, "I am united with God." (or as Jesus said, "the Father is in me and I am in the Father"). And then I remember that if I am in God, so is everyone and everything else, all of nature. And from this all inclusive state of mind and heart, I continue with my prayer. Am I asking for something? not really; it's more that I am opening myself up to a greater acceptance of the unlimited possibilities that God offers us. I am opening myself to a greater participation in our co-creative process with the divine. Opening up to a greater understanding and perception of wholeness, of life and of Love. So, if I am sick or tired, or have the perception of lack and limitation about any area of my life, prayer is my time to release those, to transcend my limited beliefs about myself or about anybody else or about "the world" and know that God has a greater plan, (if I could only see). And the way to see that greater plan is to let go of the smaller vision. Just release it all and let God do what God does (through us). And of course, if I am praying for (or about) someone else, I remember that they are as I am ("Love your neighbor AS yourself"). I see past the surface conditions, to see the divine within them, to see the divine within their lives, to see the expression of wholeness that they were created to be. And I accept that for them. And then I am grateful for this realization, and I release it all into the Action of God, knowing that it is already done. And I say, "And So It Is. Amen." The quote at the end of Kate's amazing commentary speaks to my experience in prayer: Angela of Foligno, 13th century mystic "The purpose of prayer is nothing other than to manifest God and self. And this manifestation of God and self leads to a state of perfect and true humility. For this humility is attained when the soul sees God and self. It is in this profound state of humility, and from it, that divine grace deepens and grows in the soul." In Peace, Love and Transformation, Susannah

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

subear

Posts:774

05/03/2008 2:47 PM
Prayer: Help me find a way to you, through the wilderness of all I don't know and never will know, and remind me to leave others alone to do the same. Amen. (Christina Villa. from today's Stillspeaking Devotional). Now, that's a prayer I could say every day! [Metaphysically, "the wilderness" represents "undisciplined thinking."] In Peace, Love, and Understanding, Susannah

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

kate huey

Posts:52

05/04/2008 9:52 PM
Kirk, wouldn't a "motley crew" be a good image for the United Church of Christ? I think "motley" means lots of people who don't appear to belong together...but they (we) really do....:) So those early disciples, no matter how bewildered they may have looked that night (and all the way up to Pentecost they were pretty unimpressive), were a lot like us. And yet there was so much potential within them, just as there is in us.

subear

Posts:774

05/05/2008 1:21 PM
re: Unity in diversity. Yes! The unlimited variety on the surface of all life is united by the Oneness of substance and source at the center of each Being. The whole is contained within each particle, just as the seed contains the whole tree; we grow into what we are intended to be, a unique individualized expression of the One, which we call "God." We grow from the inside out. God is still speaking, in you (in that "still small voice"), through you, and as you. Shhhhh, in the silence. Listen. Speak, Sing, Dance, Celebrate who and what you are, what we ALL are; (Divine) Let Your Divine Light Shine! "I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God." - Sufi proverb In Peace, Love and Transformation, Susannah

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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