Spirituality

Learning the art, and practicing the discipline of compassion, begins by paying attention. It is not possible to be compassionate until we actually take notice of our surrounds, until we see the people before us as, well, real people. Sharon Salzberg, Compassionate Practitioner, voices this animation.

Refugees are fleeing, hate groups are rising, the far-right is winning elections around the world. Those who want to do something about it are going to need a model for resistance. And there may be none better than the story of a small French community that rescued around 5,000 refugees from the Nazis.

The Advent season lasts for the four weeks leading up to Christmas Day. Contrary to the busyness of the season in the world, the Christian calendar calls us to a time of reflection and contemplation. Have a listen to some of our advent music and listen to Bishop Barron speak about the spirituality of Advent.

Learn about Ramadan, considered one of the holiest months of the year for Muslims. In Ramadan, Muslims commemorate the revelation of the Qur’an, and fast from food and drink during the sunlit hours as a means of drawing closer to God and cultivating self-control, gratitude, and compassion for those less fortunate.

In 586 BCE, the city of Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian army. Its destruction triggered significant changes in the intellectual, cultural, religious and political identities of the people associated with the city, with effects that continue down to the present. This exhibition explores how Jerusalem, a small Iron Age city state, became the world's religious capital and an ethereal symbol of the imagination.

Inter-faith dialogue is an important one, because all faiths had deep wisdom to share. Our own faith is enriched in listening to the faith traditions of others. Here Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee offers two talks on the essence of Sufism, which is - love.

Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee explores the simple but essential truth: that the mystical journey which takes us deep within the heart is always for the sake of the Beloved, never for our sake. In this present time, when so much is distorted, it is vital that we remember this, no matter our faith tradition.

Award-winning author and preacher, Diana Butler Bass speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about her latest book Freeing Jesus. Diana shares how her experience of Jesus has changed over the years and how the Christian that is she is today is much different than she was before.

Daniel Berrigan was one of the best-known American peace activists of the 20th century. But there’s a lesser-known aspect of his Christian commitment worth noting: his work on behalf of the material and spiritual needs of New York City’s “discarded souls,” in particular those suffering the ravages of cancer and HIV/AIDS.

Ash Wednesday has traditionally been an important gathering in the Catholic church, and less so in the Protestant tradition. There is much to learn from its observance, for it is a thoughtful beginning to the Lenten season of repentance and contemplation.

The season of Eastertide is the season of resurrection, the season of new life. Arriving at the same time as the emergence of spring, we have all around us evidence that from the cold, hard, seemingly barren ground, astonishing wonders may emerge. Wendell Berry has learned from the earth and offers us his manifesto for practicing resurrection.

Joan Chittister, with her straight forward manner and deep love of God and people, offers a modern, intelligent, Christian spirituality one can live with day by day. Here are three different podcasts of interviews with sister Chittister, centred around her books, all of which reflect a Christian Spirituality for the 21st Century.

Sr. Joan Chittister is one of the most articulate social analysts and influential religious leader of our times.. In her message, Contemplation in the Midst of Chaos, Sr. Chittister, O.S.B., reflects on what it means to be spiritual, to be contemplative, in the midst of the private chaos that sometimes clutters our lives.

While all members share in Christ’s ministry, the church from its earliest days has recognized that God calls some to exercise specific gifts of leadership, both paid and voluntary. These ministries of leadership are based in God’s call and therefore serve to remind the community to whom we belong.

The early community that followed Jesus was a community of practice. Jesus’ followers did not just sit around the campfire and listen to lectures on Christian theology. They listened to stories that taught them how to act toward one another, and what to do in the world.

The Easter Triduum begins on Maundy Thursday evening, includes Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and ends on on the evening of Easter Day. We are called, through this holy time, to stay steady, to stay awake, to bear the sorrow, to adjust to the darkness, and then, to celebrate all that we do not understand.

Amid the on going struggles world wide to find compassion and grace in the midst of violence, Christians celebrate the power of courage and love in the midst of adversity and hatred. Good Friday is a challenging day, for a struggling, yet still beautiful world.

Lent is a time of reflection. Here, to aid in your contemplation - a prayer, a theological video offering with Peter Rollins, two musical offerings, UCC Moderator Richard Bott’s Lenten message and a bumper sticker.

The prayers found here are called Nocturnes. They, and the music that accompanies them, are designed to resonate with those dimmed times when the burdens of life drain much of the light away. These Nocturnes afford a time of stillness in the midst of the dark.

Macrina Wiederkehr’s wonderful book, Seven Sacred Pauses, is an invitation to learn, and practice, the ancient spiritual discipline of praying the hours. Macrina offers this practice as a unifying place for all faith traditions, and those with no formal faith at all. She sees it as a place for all of us to live our our fullest lives.

Contemplation, in its simplest analysis, is the spiritual arena that lies beyond our own personal efforts, where knowledge exists that cannot be obtained through the well worn pathways of intellectual acquisition.

We stretch our wings, head thrown back in the effort it takes to open ourselves to all that might be, not knowing whose fingertips we will touch in the aching desire to connect with another.

Wendell Berry is an American farmer, writer, environmentalist, poet and general all around man who wishes all of us to calm down and explore what we don’t know. His very short poem ‘To know the dark’ has been often quoted. It is a short poem that encourages the contemplation of the unknown.

Spirituals are uniquely American music, emerging as they do from the African American people who endured slavery. They were people who had their own native African spirituality taken from them, abruptly and violently, as though it were of no account. And then Christianity was forced upon them.

The hymn "This Day God Gives Us" has a wonderful lyric that draws us into a meditation of the moment, a gratitude for all things, and the safety of the divine embrace. It is a modern take on the ancient Celtic writing St. Patrick's Breastplate.

As people of the way we need to be able take into account many parts of an argument or situation, to have a voice that can hold two opposing ideas at once, without feeling the need to choose one against the other. It is a voice that is more interesting in nurturing than opposing, more interested in discovering than demanding, a voice that is more interested in serving, than oppressing. Jesus was such a voice. And it is a challenging one.

Those who are already facing health challenges, mental, physical or a combination of both, can feel overwhelmed. And even those with no apparent struggles can feel less grounded in the midst of the fluidity that is the current landscape. It may be wise to say that 'the only way forward is through.' But the through is not always a saunter through the flower filled meadow. Nevertheless, we persist.

It is hard to imagine where everything is headed - except to know that we are living in an uncertain time - and that living in the day, confining our thoughts to what - and who - we have in front of us is paramount. It is the ultimate spiritual discipline.

It is perhaps a time to remember, most of all, that though we can control the smaller, intimate moments in our lives and in our hearts, the larger arena of the universe is not within our control.

It is such a strange landscape to be living in. Everything looks the same, but it's all different. Simple things like shopping have become complicated rituals that need careful orchestration. Simple pleasures like visiting for a morning chat, are bound by rules and rituals we could never have guessed at.

When we quiet ourselves, and listen to our inner wisdom, we do know how to proceed. We may despair, we may feel low in spirit, we may be sorrowful. But we do have a plan of action. We do know what we are to do. Hold steady. Keep your eyes on God. Keep your arms open to the world. Know you will sometimes be hurt, and keep loving anyway.