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Worship Materials: Human Relationships, Beginnings

From the Celebrating Mystery collection

 
THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION

  1. Romance is only healthy within the context of our love for life, for the mystery, for the divine. Without it romance will be a vain pursuit of a total oneness which it cannot provide.
  2. When I stop looking for perfection, I can delight in what is.
  3. Look in the mirror and you see yourself. Look into your heart and you see your neighbor (your lover).
  4. Love is a form of entrainment where two oscillating systems come into phase i.e. are ‘on the same wave length.’
  5. Marriages are not made in Heaven but love is the doorway into Heaven.
  6. Infatuation is the illusion that two people completely become one. Love is the bridge that links two people’s solitude without destroying their separate identities.
  7. I met your mystery before I met your information.
  8. The illusion that there is only one person that could possibly be one’s partner is a denial of the complexity of the human psyche.
  9. Dependent love is a contradiction in terms. It may be dependency, or co-dependency but never the fullness of love, for love does not seek to possess or to manipulate.
  10. If love only has one focus, then it becomes transformed into possessiveness for love is the intimate dialogue between the many and the one.
  11. Love is not a cold exchange of ideas, but a firing by two people of each other’s passion for life: where there is no passion, love dies.
  12. The desire to possess is the enemy of all true love.
  13. Touch my hands and I meet your spirit. Touch my lips and I share your mystery.
  14. The mystery of the meeting is but part of description-less divinity and the knowing and unknowing two polarities equally contributing to relationship.
  15. God is the process of evolving connectedness i.e. love.
  16. Love for other people seldom occurs at any depth or with any lasting quality unless we first respect, enjoy and yes love being ourselves.
  17. Love comes in many guises but they all come from and to a greater or lesser degree all reflect God, the model for all our loving.

 

HYMNS  

In the wonder of love. (BL)

Is love a grand illusion. (BL)

Not in grasping or in holding. (BL)

We sing of human loving’s starting point. (BL)

 

All will be well.

http://www.methodist.org.nz/whakapono/online-resources/hymns/the-mystery-telling

Rise O my heart.

http://www.methodist.org.nz/whakapono/online-resources/hymns/the-mystery-telling

Between our thoughts.

http://www.methodist.org.nz/whakapono/online-resources/hymns/the-mystery-telling

In the wonder found in loving.

Singing the Sacred Vol 1 2011 World Library Publications

 

PRAYER

MY PRAYER

May our love be

as deep as the ocean,

as expansive as space,

as tender as the sunrise,

as passionate as the sunset,

as whole as the circle,

as wonderfilled as the mystery.

May it flower as a thousand orchids,

wrapped in sparkling gossamer,

and may it reflect the splendor of divinity

as the dewdrops prism the

technicolor sun.

This is my prayer, my love,

may it be so.

 

POEMS / REFLECTIONS

FRIENDSHIP

Like two tributaries

rushing and tumbling

from differing origins

to unexpected confluence

we create

calm meandering waters

where silted flats

originate fresh life

and lovers

hiding in the long grass

tease each other

with heaven-sent

humor.

 

CONNECTION

In the space of connection

between two previously

distanced worlds

and vastly divergent stories

a moment of miraculous meeting occurred!

Then the doors of heaven rolled back

and the oneness of all living

became visibly incarnate

in the one whose eyes

smiled with

the twinkle of

divinity.

 

AT THE BEGINNING

Like our relationship

the luminous rays of the moon

shone from behind

the jet black cloud

and I had no way of knowing

whether they would diminish

or flower into

overwhelming brightness.

So I put to one side

all the whys and why nots,

all the hows and wherefores

and simply allowed myself

to be immersed

in the wonder and whiteness

the darkness and mystery

of that moment

of awesomeness.

I shall no longer query our relationship

but rather delight

in its reality,

not detracting from its grandeur

by succumbing to past calculations

or hope’s ambiguous messages

but instead

let wonder

work its charm

in stillness

for therein lies

the essence

of love and life.

 

RELATIONSHIP

LOVE is seeing beauty amidst ugliness,

discovering miracles amongst the mundane,

pursuing justice when injustice prevails,

keeping your heart tender in the face of rejection,

offering forgiveness to those who have wronged you.

LOVE is determination to make improbable dreams come true,

seeking to hold together the disparate elements of life,

finding one’s identity in the lives of others,

serving others beyond the limits of

reasonableness, obligation or deserving.

LOVE is the nonsense of the heart that gives

meaning to all that is sensible, practical,

logical and scientific.

 

KNOWN

You and I only know what Heaven

of flesh and blood,

of intertwining bodies and coupled lips

our togetherness brought,

but there was more.

There was two dispirit spirits

cautiously exploring possibilities of union,

dancing hand in hand

down the walkway of the reservoir

of our soul’s infinity.

There was the tenderness

such as neither had experienced before,

the softness and caring,

the enfolding and nurturing

of the fetal depths

of each other’s spirit.

 

LATE LOVE

Before my sunset

I will love you with the tenderness of the dawn

the passion of the noontide

and the quietude of the cool

of the evening.

 

FOCUS FOR ACTION

  1. Love and friendship need nurturing. Would it be possible to regularly set aside time to share with my partner and/or best friend(s) those things which I like best about them? Could we jointly devise some ceremony that regularly celebrated our relationship?
  2. How can I become more open to compromise, more liberated from my desire to control and also to change my dependency into inter-dependency?

Celebrating Mystery Logo

LOGO NOTE: At the heart of the mystery all the separate boxes disappear and all is one, all is love.

Text and graphic © William Livingstone Wallace but available for free use.

 

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