Daily Compass

Inspiration: 

 

Spend a few minutes letting the compassion that is in your heart wash over you. Then let that compassion spill out into the world as justice.

Faithful Risk for Living Faith

Contemplative spirituality leads to and supports active spirituality. When contemplative spirituality is only about self-improvement and self-regulation, then it loses the spiritual piece and becomes another set of practices, like turning off the lights when we leave a room. Good and useful, yes, but not something that moves us out of our comfort zones and into working with others to bring more compassion, merciful justice, steadfast love, or ecological renewal to this world. The fruits of practice that is self-focused are personal. The fruits of true spiritual practices, of living faithfully, are contributing to the goodness of the whole.

Inspiration: 

 

 

You have the right to remain silent – but you also have the right to speak out.

We Honor …

Unitarian Julia Ward Howe, who became famous for writing the words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” However, although the “Battle Hymn” was her most famous piece of writing, she ended up feeling embarrassed that people knew her for this song which made war seem very noble and wonderful. She wrote the “Battle Hymn” during the U.S. civil war, and was dedicated to the cause of freeing the slaves. However, she also saw the terrible cost of war—the killed or injured soldiers, the families who had to manage without loved ones, the homes and farms that were destroyed. When she saw war break out again, this time in Europe, she began speaking out on the horrors of war, as well as working for the rights of women and Arfican-Americans. In 1872 she wrote a stirring call for women to demand peace  and established a yearly Mother’s Peace Day as a way for women to work for peace.  Mother’s Day has since become a more general holiday honoring mothers (you can find out more about its history under the Mother’s Day link above), but we still remember Julia Ward Howe, who believed so strongly in the ability of women to change the world for the better.

If you’d like to learn a lot more about Julia Ward Howe, including her difficult marriage to Unitarian reformer and educator Samuel Gridley Howe, click here.

Inspiration: 

“If I am not for myself,
then who will be for me?
And if I am only for myself,
then what am I?
And if not now, when?”

–Hillel

Day of Service

Take a few minutes to write down your best ideas of what you would really actually do for a day of service, and some things that you have actually done to make the world a better place. It doesn’t have to be huge stuff—reusable shopping bags and speaking up when someone tells a racist joke count, as well as letters to the editor or calls to your senator, helping out at your school, going to a rally or march, helping someone with their homework, walking or biking instead of taking a car, choosing not to cross a picket line, buying fair trade or organic products, collecting food for people in need, helping kids work out an argument without hitting, planting trees, sharing your skills through teaching or coaching, listening to someone who needs support, etc., etc., etc. You might want to start with everything you can think of that you did in a day or a week that made the world a bit better, and then fill in some bigger stuff from other parts of your life.

 

BY LYNN UNGAR, MINISTER FOR LIFESPAN LEARNING, CHURCH OF THE LARGER FELLOWSHIP  TO READ MORE

Inspiration: 

 

“Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.”–Eleanor Roosevelt

Inferno of the Living

When most people imagine an inferno, they think of Dante ’s The Divine Comedy. However, I was raised on another story about hell, a parable told by Jesus, in which a rich man goes to hell and a poor man to heaven. The rich man is surprised to see the poor man in heaven by the side of Abraham. In his suffering, the rich man pleads to Abraham to send the poor man to give him water to quench his thirst. Abraham says that the chasm is too wide to be crossed.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and other preachers have interpreted this story to mean that the rich man went to hell not because he was rich, but rather because he allowed the poor man to become invisible to him. He passed this poor man every day and failed to help. The rich man was blind to the need of others. Even in hell, he still believed he was better than the poor man and could expect that the poor man should serve him. The callous rich man wanted the people in heaven to care and help him, but he had failed to do this in his own life on earth for others.

BY ARCHENE TURNER, COMMUNITY MINISTER, WASHINGTON D.C., FORMER YOUTH MINISTER, CEDAR LANE UU CHURCH, BETHESDA, MARYLAND  TO READ MORE

Inspiration: 

 

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart lead me into the work of love, which is called justice.

What Are We Missing?

This month I offer you a spiritual practice. Find yourself a bush, a tree, a nook, a path, a place on the edges of life organized by humans. Visit it when you are burned out, and let your attention go deep into the particular life of that place. Visit it when it rains, or when the sun comes out, and see how it responds and grows.

Spring is a particularly exciting time to notice a place, because change happens so quickly and with such artistic flourish. Take a child or a friend to your special place, and see what they might notice that you have missed. And when you know it well, and it becomes part of you, remember that this ordinary bit of wildness is just as much a miracle as the Amazon rainforest, and as deserving of our attention.

Environmentalism is not just about protecting the earth: it is about letting the earth renew you, letting it transform you, body, mind and spirit, and letting the earth and all her creatures be your companions on this journey

BY DARCEY LAINE, MINISTER, UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF ATHENS AND SHESHEQUIN, PENNSYLVANIA  TO READ MORE