Spirits on Fire!

A Year-Long Formation Program for
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 6: ‘Cordial’ Charity
Additional Resources For Reflection
• Scripture
• Maxims
• Songs
• Wisdom
• Poems
• Videos
      •    Scripture

I Corinthians 12: 20-27      One Body, many members, each having care for one another

I Corinthians 13: 1-13        This is the nature of the love we express

I John 4: 11-12; 19-21         We love because God has first loved us. Love of God
                                               and love of neighbor cannot be separated.

      •    Maxims

#11       “Always speak favorably of others and value highly the good in them. . .”

#55       “When you work for the neighbor, do it with a very unselfish love which
     expects no reward for its services, and aim at nothing other than helping
     him or her and being at the same time, pleasing to God.”

#64       “Strive to be kind always to everyone and unkind to no one.”
      •    Songs

NOTHING MORE:  The Alternate Routes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIuy1a9IdHk

LOVE IN ANY LANGUAGE:  Sandi Patty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63ocPIQSY5o

TODAY IM GONNA TRY AND CHANGE THE WORLD:  Johnny Reid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGAO7iU5na0

BREATHE LOVE: Susan Lincoln and Craig Toungate
(This mantra can be helpful in beginning one’s day or in focusing
oneself before entering into a challenging situation.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2eBbv7vVZg

      •    Words of Wisdom

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”  
                       -Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness

“. . .If you’ve never let anyone love you, if you’ve never let love flow through you—gratuitously, 
generously, undeservedly—toward other people, you can’t possibly know who God is. God is just a
theory or abstraction. But “God is love” (1 John 4:8). And those who live in love, live in God and know
God experientially. There is no other way you can know who God is, and who you are, but to love. ..”
                       -Richard Rohr, Disciples Who Love Others (daily post)

“ Goodness always tends to spread. Every authentic experience of truth and goodness seeks by its
very nature to grow within us, and any person who has experienced a profound liberation becomes
more sensitive to the needs of others. As it expands, goodness takes root and develops. If we wish to
lead a dignified and fulfilling life, we have to reach out to others and seek their good.”
                       -Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium

“. . . Ours is a practical spirituality lived out day-by-day . . . It expresses itself in humble virtues like
kindness, candor, concern, openness, courtesy, simplicity, hospitality and self-forgetfulness. We find
ourselves called beyond ourselves.”
                       -Bette Moslander, CSJ

“Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, the neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
                       -C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
      •    Poems

I WONDER, Derek Tasker

I wonder what would happen if
I treated everyone like I was in love
with them, whether I like them or not
and whether they respond or not and no matter
what they say or do to me and even if I see
things in them which are ugly twisted petty
cruel vain deceitful indifferent, just accept
all that and turn my attention to some small
weak tender hidden part and keep my eyes on
that until it shines like a beam of light
like a bonfire I can warm my hands by and trust
it to burn away all the waste which is not
never was my business to meddle with.


LOAVES AND FISHES, David Whyte
(from RIVER FLOW: New and Selected Poems, Many Rivers Press. ©David Whyte)

This is not
the age of information.

This is not 
the age of information.

Forget the news,
and the radio,
and the blurred screen.

This is the time
of loaves 
and fishes.

People are hungry
and one good word
is bread
for a thousand.

TODAY, Hafiz
(Purported to be translated from the original by Daniel Ladinsky in
The Gift: Poems of Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master, 1999.

I do not want to step so quickly
over the beautiful line on God’s palm
as I move through earth’s
marketplace
today.

I do not want to touch any object in this world
without my eyes testifying to the truth
that everything is
my Beloved.

Something has happened
to my understanding of existence
that now always makes my heart full of wonder
and kindness.

I do not want to step so quickly
over the sacred place on God’s body
that is right beneath
my own foot

as I dance with
precious life
today.
      •    Videos

Brene Brown On Empathy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw

Jesus in Skin, Terry Hershey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em4deaFL2yY

Shoulder Taps, Bill Hart:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OAAJwnMNRQ

Street Medicine: Caring for the Homeless with Radical Humility / Brett Feldman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wajr21K87U0    (18 Minutes)

I Think You Are Wonderful, lyrics by Red Grammar, video by musicmamma3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srGTs1vWSvY&list=RDsrGTs1vWSvY&start_radio=1