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July 2021 Newsletter

Newsletter · July 14, 2021

So how is your summer going? Does this feel like “Ordinary Time” – or something else? In this season of growth, think about how you are growing within, how you are tending to the care of your soul. Take a breath, reflect, connect, open, renew….

Lit candle with a cross and heart ornament wit a rainbow blanket.

With Passion

With
passion pray. With
passion work. With passion make love.
With passion eat and drink and dance and play.
Why look like a dead fish
in this ocean
of
God?

Rumi


Recalibration LIVE!

Contemplative Photography
with Ingrid Cyros
Saturday, July 17

Zoom begins at:
1:00 pm Eastern
12 noon Central
11:00 am Mountain
10:00 am Pacific

The zoom will last 2 hours.

Photography is a powerful powerful art form that offers a means to encapsulate and explore the depths of experience. Thus, it can be an evocative tool in spiritual direction.

Let’s explore this together in a workshop that is both experiential and instructive. Included are take away resources and exercises to incorporate into one-on-one companioning, or a workshop.

For additional information and to register, click the links below.

Get more information

Register Now!

Our next Recalibration LIVE! will be Saturday, September 18, 1:00 pm Eastern, with Jerry Webber.

Recalebration Live

God’s Nature

Sometimes we think what we are saying about God
is true when in fact
it is not.

It would seem of value to differentiate between what is
God’s nature and what is false about Love.

I have come to learn that the truth never harms
or frightens.

I have come to learn that
God’s compassion and light can never be limited;

thus any God who could condemn is
not a god at all

but some disturbing image in the
mind of a
child

we best ignore, until we
can cure the
dark.

St. Thomas Aquinas


Wherever You May Look

Wisdom is
so kind and wise
that wherever you may look
you can learn something about God.

Why
would not
the omnipresent
teach that
way?

St. Catherine of Siena


Book Reflection
Caste by Isabelle Wilkerson
~ Rev. Linda Holbrook

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabelle Wilkerson is a profound and disturbing book. Wilkerson begins by saying she is talking about the three best known caste systems; India, Nazi Germany, and the United States. I was surprised to see the United States in the list of caste systems. Wilkerson claims that caste is a better description of the United States than saying that the US is racist. She also claims that the caste system is deeply embedded in our culture and influences decisions made in every part of our culture, and in our daily lives. Further, Wilkerson notes that to change a caste system requires extensive work.  

Many people refer to the period of slavery in this country as a sad, dark chapter of our history. Wilkerson reminds us that this chapter lasted hundreds of years and many of the inequities from the period of slavery continue today. In a caste system there is a dominant caste and a lower caste. In this country from the days of slavery, the white culture is considered the dominant caste, and people of color are considered the lower caste. The caste system requires the individuals in the caste system to fulfill the roles they are assigned. Those in the dominant caste have rules allowing for superiority over the lower caste. Those in the lower caste are expected to defer to those in the dominant caste. We can see examples of these rules in the culture today. 

There are so many things I learned from this book. I will include just a few here that show the disparity between the dominant caste and the lower caste. A Virginia law in the 1600s stated that a child inherited the status of his or her mother. That meant a white slave owner who had children with a slave gained additional property. Years later after the Civil War, reparations were paid to the slave owners who lost property, and no reparations were paid to the former slaves. More recently, the GI bill for education and first time home ownership enacted after World War II did not apply to African Americans who had served in the war, only white soldiers. 

One of the most disturbing things Wilkerson mentioned was that when the Nazis started determining how to establish laws to discriminate against the Jewish people, they used the laws from the southern states in the United States as models. I think we are all repulsed by Nazi Germany and the actions they took. We don’t usually have the same reaction to the events in the United States and the laws regarding the lower caste. Perhaps it is easier to see the horrors of Nazi Germany than our own culture. 

In addition to the well-founded research in the book, Wilkerson shares personal stories; both her own personal stories and the stories of others. I recount one story from the book. An African American father is at dinner in a restaurant with his son and telling him to eat his food. A white woman (a stranger) comes to the table and contradicts the father. The white woman is entitled to interfere because she is in the dominant caste, and the father is left in a quandary on whether to confront the woman or not.

Caste: The Origins of our Discontent encourages the reader to examine how the embedded rules of the caste system influence our thoughts and decisions. I grew up in the South and I remembered hearing many of the justifications of why African Americans expected to be treated a certain way. I did a lot of reflection on the things I learned as a child, and what beliefs I hold today. Whether you grew up in the south or not, this book will help you understand the history of our country from a different perspective. I recommend this book to everyone. 

Have you read something that moved you, challenged you, helped you grow, invited deeper reflection? Please share and begin a conversation on our Facebook page.


Hearts On Fire
Community Information

Membership

  • Zooms are every other month this year.
  • Retreat in 2022 – in person! (Members receive a discount on registration.)
  • You do not have to be a UM to join.
  • You do not have to be a spiritual director or retreat leader to join.

Click here for the membership page on our website. You will have the option to complete your member profile and pay online, or print a form and mail in a check.

Are you interested in serving on the board? Contact us and someone will contact you to discuss what that entails.

Facebook

Click here to join the Conversation on Facebook!

Information sharing, enrichment opportunities, questions and responses, inspirational words all appear in our Facebook group. 

Share your events, questions, things that inspire you, books you are reading, questions about resources, networking, how-to’s etc.

Enrichment Opportunities

Here are some online offerings to check out:

  • “Voices and Stories” series, spiritual direction ministries at Rolling Ridge
  • Zoom events including circles of trust, mini retreats and more at Kirkridge
  • Upper Room Academy for Spiritual Formation

They Can Be Like a Sun

They can be like a sun, words.
They can do for the heart
what light can
for a field.

St. John of the Cross

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