Something to Ponder from Reverend Mary White
If we go through our lives with a dark cloud of not being good enough, then we spend most of our time either trying to overcompensate for our self-character assassination or we live in a place caught up with pessimism. Letting go and changing negative thoughts takes practice. It begins with recognizing, as adults, that we are not defined by labels given to us when we were children. Let us accept and release the beauty and love we hold within.
Stay safe. Stay connected.
Blessings and the strength of Love be with you.
Rev. Mary,
revmjwhite@hotmail.ca
Reading Excerpt From “Christ of the Celts”
by J. Philip Newell
If a child grows up being told she is ugly or stupid or selfish, at some level she comes to believe that about
herself. The descriptions haunt her self-understanding, and she lives in a state of doubt about her deepest identity. This is exactly what has happened in relation to the doctrine of original sin, a belief that has dominated the landscape of Western Christian thought and practice since the fourth century. It teaches that what is deepest in us is opposed to God rather than of God. It means that we are essentially ignorant rather than bearers of light, that we are essentially ugly rather than rooted in divine beauty, that we are essentially selfish rather than made in the image of love
– the list goes on and on. It is a doctrine that disempowers us. It feeds our forgetfulness of the sacred tune at the heart of our being. And its outcome is the belief that Christ embodies a song that is essentially foreign to us. The consequences, both individual and collective, have been disastrous.
Prayer
Spirit God,
We recognize that there are those among us who live surrounded by the Spirit. They experience life jam-packed with hope and joy. Help us discover how to live more in the Spirit.
Enable us to share with others the light we have available to us.
Free us from our limitations to make our coming into the presence of a child a transforming event.
Save us from making tradition serve our longing for security when you are making all things new, bringing new traditions alive. Let your will be done.
Amen