The Great Fullness

Inspiration: 

Imagine that your consciousness is an empty bowl. Into that bowl place every thing of beauty that you love – music, art, poetry, nature, the images of those you love, until the bowl overflows with beauty.

The Great Fullness

It’s nice to set aside a few minutes each day to do nothing but practice gratitude. In the morning, I have embraced lighting the flaming chalice, Unitarian Universalism’s centering symbol, as my time of intentional strengthening of the gratitude muscle.

Before I light it, I sit with the great fullness of the chalice itself, empty though it may appear. I call to mind all that surrounds and supports me: ancestors, spiritual leaders, beautiful sights, people and animals and plants, and I sit with the great fullness of all there is. The members of CLF are central in this great fullness practice, both the folks I have spoken with and the ones I have yet to meet personally.

Once I am full of all of the gifts of life, I light the chalice flame, a symbol of thanksgiving. Flame offers light and warmth, without qualification, to all. “Be ours a religion which, like sunshine, goes everywhere,” wrote Theodore Parker, a prominent Unitarian preacher in the 1800s. And there is the flame, happy to offer itself, like sunshine, without limitation or holding back, to all who seek light or warmth.

By Rev Meg Riley, Senior Minister, Church of the Larger Fellowship TO READ MORE