Well, it’s day 20 into the month of October, and if your month is going like mine, I’m playing catch-up! It has really been a few weeks of cold and flu, and so many of us have been hit hard by the creepy crud, I hope many of you are feeling better these days. We will continue to offer alternative closing to asking for hand holding, during this season of sniffles and coughs. Please take needed actions personally to keep you healthy and strong.
This month’s spiritual theme of Hospitality has really afforded us some very nice Sunday service gatherings and spoken messages. I am pleased to see the common bowl of readings becoming an integral part in meetings and gatherings, with the sharing of some readings to open or close gatherings. I hope many of you who might have just heard about Chalice Circles last month, will be making plans to participate this month and November and December. We are so very fortunate to have new member Char Tarashanti to facilitate and offer caring heart and hold space for these circles, such a fine opportunity to deepen engagement with Beacon, and to make new friends.
Speaking of the readings from the common bowl, in case you haven’t seen these in the monthly theme journal, or shared some in a meeting or gathering, the following are the quotes from the first week of October:
Day 1: “The heart of hospitality is about creating space for someone to feel seen and heard and loved. It’s about declaring your table a safe zone, a place of warmth and nourishment.” Shauna Niequist
Day 2: “True hospitality is marked by an open response to the dignity of each and every person.” Kathleen Norris
Day 3: “Hospitality does not try to impress, but to serve.” Karen Burton Mains
Day 4: “There is nothing that makes me happier than sitting around the dinner table and talking until the candles are burned down.” Madeleine L’Engle
Day 5: “Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.” Henri Nouwen
Day 6: “Hospitality is the practice of …welcome by reaching across difference to participate in …actions bringing justice and healing to our world in crisis.” Letty Russell
Day 7: “Worship, then, needs to be characterized by hospitality; it needs to be inviting.” James Smith
I hope you will find like me, these are so helpful to shift my thoughts, realign my outlook, perhaps you will develop a daily practice with morning coffee, or before hitting the pillow in the evening, to simply review the quote of the day. A moment’s pause to center and reflect, to allow a new thought and expression to cross your pathway.
Grateful to be on the journey with you,
Rev. Kevin