Reflection:
An Undivided Heart in a Polarised World
In this reflection we explore what it means to have an undivided heart in a highly polarised world.
Opening music:
Listen to the following as an opening prayer.
Lyrics:
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know that I
Be still and know that
Be still and know
Be still and
Be still
Be
Be still and know that I am love…
Be still and know that I am peace…
Sacred Reading:
Read the following readings through twice or three times, with an attitude of open receptivity. Allow a few minutes of silence between the readings. Listen for any words that call out to you, or that stir in your heart in some way:
Reading 1, Ezekiel 11:19
“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.”
Reading 2:
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
There is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase 'each other'
Doesn't make any sense.
~ Rumi
Quiet prayer
I invite you into a time of prayer, using this guided meditation for softening and opening your heart.
End the time of quiet prayer by listening to the following song:
Lyrics:
Remove from us these hearts of stone,
And give to us a heart of flesh;
Remove from us these hearts of stone,
And give to us a heart of flesh.
Pour out, pour out, pour out,
Pour it all out.
For Further Reflection:
Below are quotes from the talk for you to take this theme further.
Matthew 5:43-48
“You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor—but hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for your persecutors. This will show that you are children of God. For God makes the sun rise on bad and good alike; God’s rain falls on the just and the unjust. ... Therefore be perfect, as Abba God in heaven is perfect."
Charles Eisenstein: "The real revolution is a revolution of love. It is a revolution of peace. It is a revolution of healing. It is a revolution of forgiveness. Everyone knows this on some level, because it is obvious. You hear a real story of … anyone who your ideology holds in contempt, and the truth shines forth: you are my brother, you are my sister, if not for the grace of God, it would be me standing in your shoes. The revolution is to integrate this understanding into our systems and to run a planet on the basis of this truth." (click here for the full article)
Valerie Kaur: “I refuse to let anyone belittle my soul, or diminish my own expansive sense of self. The more I listen, the less I hate.The less I hate, the more I am free to choose actions that are controlled not by animosity but by wisdom.”... “Deep listening is an act of surrender. We risk being changed by what we hear.”
1 Corinthians 13 says that “if I have not love I am nothing”
In 1 John 4:7-8 we read “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
Thich Nhat Hanh wrote that: "Love and understanding are not only concepts and words. They must be real things, realized, in oneself and in society."
He has coined the term interbeing, and in describing interbeing, he talks about "the many in the one, and the one containing the many. In one sheet of paper, we see everything else, the cloud, the forest, the logger. I am, therefore you are. You are, therefore I am. That is the meaning of the word interbeing. We inter-are."
Ilia Delio: "Love is a consciousness of belonging to Another, being part of the whole. To love is to be on the way toward integral wholeness, to live with an openness of mind and heart, to encounter the other – not as stranger – but as another part of oneself. When we enter into the heart of love, that integral wholeness of love that is God, we enter into the field of relatedness …. This is the consciousness we need today, an integral wholeness of love that is open to new life.”
Henri Nouwen: “When you pray, you open yourself to the influence of the Power, you are no longer swayed back and forth by the countless opinions, ideas and feelings which flow through you. You have found a Center for your life that gives you a creative distance so that everything you see, hear and feel can be tested against the Source.”
Ending Prayer:
Holy Presence of God,
you shimmer in every stranger I encounter
whether in the world or in my heart.
When you came in human form
you sat at table with all those who walked the edges of life
and knew their presence as sacred.
Create in me a space to welcome in
all that is hard and disorienting,
those moments when I feel lost, angry,
heartbroken, overwhelmed, ashamed,
joyful, grieving, or in love with life.
Help me to honor the guests who arrive at the door,
to usher in the grace that newness offers
and find Christ’s compassionate presence there.
May your infinite compassion grow in me
the way sunlight spills across a field,
and include everyone in that loving embrace.
Amen
(By Christine Valters Paintner)
Ending music:
Lyrics:
Wisdom, Compassion, Love, Understanding [repeat]
Come be in my heart (come dancing)
Come be in my hands (come singing)
Come be in my feet (come running)
Come be in my working and playing, the words I am saying,
my laughing, my crying, my living, my dying
Come, be in my heart, Holy One, come.
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Sharon's book that was previously called "Contemplative Living" has been republished by AnamChara Books under the title "Deeper: Finding the Depth Dimension Beneath the Surface of Life". The Kindle version is available from Amazon, and the hard copy version can be ordered from loot.co.za or Takealot, or from your local bookshop through Ingram Distribution.