Claiming the words “Unitarian Universalist” gives us a LOT to talk about. Today, it’s the Unitarian part that is speaking so loudly to me. I spent twelve years as a practicing Catholic. The Daily Office is a spiritual practice of prayers, Psalms, scripture readings that many Catholics, clergy and laity, engage in. Through the Daily Office, almost every day of the year (and then some) honors an identified Saint, a human being whose life became exemplary to those who follow. When I ponder over all of those Saints and their lives, acts and examples, what I now see is the Divine at work, the One, showing up in a thousand million ways to work good in the world.
For the last 20+ years, I’ve been practicing an earth-nature centered spirituality, and among those who do so, it is often the case that gods and goddesses of many kinds are honored. They are each individual and have their powers, their stories, their influences. When I ponder over all of those gods and goddesses, those I have known for a long time and perhaps new ones that I have only heard about recently, what I see is the Divine at work, the One, showing up in a thousand million ways to work good in the world.
Ultimately, if justice and equity, the work to make right and good, things in the world for even one other human being, it is a Unitarian ground from which we do it. It is from the understanding that in myself, in you, in any other human being we have contact with is the One at work.
This past Sunday, the UUCG congregation lit our congregational candle to mark and honor the birth of our grandson. I was feeling the deep glow of love and joy from his birth just the day before, and it felt so good to have our community gather round us like that. When it came time for the opportunity to light candles, I looked at that candle burning for our grandson, and then what rose up in my heart were the children in Gaza right now suffering and crying as a result of the war being perpetuated against them. For them, I lit a candle.
I am a Unitarian. When I ponder my grandson’s precious face, I also see the children of Gaza. I am also compelled to see the Divine in all of their faces, the One in all of their eyes, in all of their cries. I am a Unitarian.
~Bob Patrick
For more on the UUA response to the war in Israel and Gaza:
https://www.uua.org/pressroom/press-releases/uua-condemns-violence-urges-ceasefire
The One at work … How am I to be the embodiment of that One in the face of the losses and the suffering in Gaza and elsewhere? This question sits like a stone at the bottom of the deep well of my consciousness and connection to all that is.
Thank you for this beautiful reflection on that connection, Bob.
with Love at the center,
Rev. Nancy