Author: Michael Tino

“Choosing to enter into covenant with other people in a congregation, to make such a promise, begins with choosing to walk through the doors of a faith community again for the first time in a long time. It continues when we choose to try again after betrayal, when we choose to trust each other, though each of us knows the anguish of broken trust, when we choose to love each other instead of fear each other.” -Megan Lloyd Joiner

When have you chosen to try again after betrayal? How did you reestablish trust?

Covenants are sacred promised that bind us together. They can be used to keep people out or to invite people in to relationship and connection.

How have you experienced covenants used to invite deeper connection?

We have explored the theme of peace this month, understanding it to be complicated and shifting in our lives and in our world. Sometimes, the way to hold onto something that is moving is to move with it. We shift our perspectives, we move our understanding, we flow with the current of humanity.

How do you shift and move your being to stay in contact with the concept of peace?

Cultivating compassion and empathy are good practices for working towards real peace.  We allow our hearts to break and then seek the relationships necessary for them to heal.

What breaks your heart?

What practices help you mend your broken heart?

“I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.” -African-American Spiritual often attributed to Marvin Frey

Listen to a beautiful version of this song here.

How might peace flow like a river through you?