Spirits on Fire!
A Year-Long Formation Program for
Lay Leaders in the CSSJ Mission and Tradition
Lay Leaders in the CSSJ Mission and Tradition
“Our charism… sends us into the world as continuous acts of love, a love that is active and inclusive, patient and enduring, fearless and tender, forgiving and giving, steady and steadfast. It forms bridges, makes connections easier and facilitates life for others, enabling them also to stir up love in our world.” Sister Marcia Allen, CSJ Concordia, KS
Contact:
Module 3: All Permeating Love
Additional Resources For Reflection
Additional Resources For Reflection
• Scripture:
Ephesians 3:16-20
And I pray that God, out of the riches of divine glory, will strengthen you inwardly with power through the working of the Spirit. May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, so that you, being rooted and grounded in love, will be able to grasp fully, the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ’s love, and with all the holy ones experience this love which surpasses all understanding, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. To God—whose power now at work in us can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine—to God be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, world without end!
Ephesians 3:16-20
And I pray that God, out of the riches of divine glory, will strengthen you inwardly with power through the working of the Spirit. May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, so that you, being rooted and grounded in love, will be able to grasp fully, the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ’s love, and with all the holy ones experience this love which surpasses all understanding, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. To God—whose power now at work in us can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine—to God be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, world without end!
• Maxims:
#31 In your greatest troubles and dangers, hope with a firm confidence . . . that God will effect in you and through you God’s holy and loving will, and live perfectly at peace with this hope.
#52 Interpret all things from the best possible point of view.
#31 In your greatest troubles and dangers, hope with a firm confidence . . . that God will effect in you and through you God’s holy and loving will, and live perfectly at peace with this hope.
#52 Interpret all things from the best possible point of view.
• Poetry
SONG OF THE BUILDERS
Mary Oliver
(from WHY I WAKE EARLY)
On a summer morning
I sat down
on a hillside
to think about God –
a worthy pastime.
Near me, I saw
a single cricket;
it was moving the grains of the hillside
this way and that way.
How great was its energy,
how humble its effort.
Let us hope
it will always be like this,
each of us going on
in our inexplicable ways
building the universe.
BEGINNERS
Denise Levertov
(Dedicated to the memory of Karen Silkwood and Eliot Gralla)
But we have only begun
To love the earth.
We have only begun
To imagine the fullness of life.
How could we tire of hope?
—so much is in bud.
How can desire fail?
—we have only begun
to imagine justice and mercy,
only begun to envision
how it might be
to live as siblings with beast and flower,
not as oppressors.
Surely our river
cannot already be hastening
into the sea of nonbeing?
Surely it cannot
drag, in the silt,
all that is innocent?
Not yet, not yet—
there is too much broken
that must be mended,
too much hurt we have done to each other
that cannot yet be forgiven.
We have only begun to know
the power that is in us if we would join
our solitudes in the communion of struggle.
So much is unfolding that must
complete its gesture,
so much is in bud.
THE GARDENER OF EDEN
James Broughton
I am the old dreamer who never sleeps
I am timekeeper of the timeless dance
I preserve the long rhythms of the earth
and fertilize the rounds of desire
In my evergreen arboretum
I raise flowering hopes for the world
I plant seeds of perennial affection
and wait for their passionate bloom
Would you welcome that sight if you saw it?
Revalue the view you have lost?
Could you wake to the innocent morning
and follow the risks of your heart?
Every day I grow a dream in my garden
where the beds are laid out for love
When will you come to embrace it
and join in the joy of the dance?
(Untitled)
Marlo Morgan
(from MUTANT MESSAGE DOWN UNDER)
Forever Oneness,
who sings to us in silence,
who teaches us through each other,
Guide my steps with strength and wisdom.
May I see the lessons as I walk,
honor the Purpose of all things.
Help me touch with respect,
always speak from behind my eyes.
Let me observe, not judge.
May I cause no harm,
and leave music and beauty after my visit.
When I return to forever
may the circle be closed
and the spiral be broader.
Words of Wisdom Worth Pondering
• “Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars.
Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed.
Quit the evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully
inhabit the situation you happen to be in now. You are not some disinterested bystander.
Participate. Exert yourself.
Respect your partnership with providence. Ask yourself often, How may I perform this
particular deed such that it would be consistent with and acceptable to the divine will?
Heed the answer and get to work.
When your doors are shut and your room is dark, you are not alone. The will of nature is
within you as your natural genius is within.
Listen to its importunings. Follow its directives.
As concerns the art of living, the material is your own life. No great thing is created
suddenly. There must be time.
Give your best and always be kind.”
-Epictetus, 50-135 AD
(from THE ART OF LIVING: EPICTETUS,
interpretation by Sharon Lebell)
• “We are held by an embrace of Love, a ‘love field’ sustaining us at every moment.
This field of love is God, the hidden depth and core of being that makes wholeness
of being possible.”
-Ilia Delio, OSF
in THE UNBEARABLE WHOLENESS OF BEING
• “Just as birds find air wherever they fly, we find God wherever we are.”
-Saint Francis de Sales
• “We’re all like localized vibrations of the infinite goodness of God’s presence. So love
is our very nature. Love is our first, middle, and last name. Love is all; not [love as]
sentimentality, but love that is self-forgetful and free of self-interest.
This is also marvelously exemplified in Gandhi’s life and work. He never tried to win
anything. He just tried to show love; and that’s what ahimsa really means. It’s not
just a negative. Nonviolence doesn’t capture its meaning. It means to show love
tirelessly, no matter what happens. That’s the meaning of turning the other cheek.
Once in a while you have to defend somebody, but it means you’re always willing to
suffer first for the cause—that is to say, for communion with your enemies. If you
overcome your enemies, you’ve failed. If you make your enemies your partners, God
has succeeded.”
-Thomas Keating, OCSO
in “Healing Our Violence Through the Journey of Centering Prayer”,
(CD: disc 5,Franciscan Media: 2002)
• Media Reflections/Songs:
Fibonacci Sequence:
“Holy Spirit, Come and Fill This Place” by CeCe Winans:
“Confetti All Around" by Eric Clayton: