Video Meditations

Sacred Journey meetings often begin and end with video meditations. 

Brother Dennis, who convenes the Circle and curates the video content says: "The audio/visual elements of each gathering are intended to enhance our group experience.  The Opening Video Liturgy is selected to help shift gears from life outside to a settled interior posture that then carries us into our group meditation and and Listening Circle reflections.  At times, we may also use brief talks on the topic of the evening.  The Concluding Music Video is typically one that can carry us into the world on a high note.  The music videos you see here are all examples from recent gatherings."

For those of us who wish to revisit these videos (since many of them deserve more than one viewing), below is a link to a Google doc with a list of links to some of the videos we have enjoyed over the course of our months together.  The list will continue to be updated, so keep checking back, or bookmark the doc for easy reference.

Sacred Journey Video Playlist

Seeing Who is with Us and Celebrating

Photo courtesy of Wirestock

Last Wednesday evening we meditated on the hopeful and challenging Hopi Elder's Prophecy issued in 2000.

One takeaway for many of us was our need for steadfast and loving community so we can not just survive but actually live fully in difficult times.  In the prophecy, this is expressed in the exhortation to "see who is in [the river] with you and celebrate."

I was reminded (yet again) of a song I first heard while traveling on a train.  A man a few seats back started playing guitar and singing a beautiful and poignant song that was a real balm to what was, at the time, a very achy soul.  And so I met Lee Koch, the musician and songwriter, and his song Dreams Awake has given me that same sense of hope ever since that day in 2009.  It embodies how I feel about the Sacred Journey group and other communities I'm involved with who hold a vision for the world of love, grace, justice, and acceptance that seems entirely contrary to what we witness on a daily basis.

So many times during our Sacred Journey together I have thought of this song, and I am glad to be able to share it on this blog.

Here is the original recording of Dreams Awake from Lee's Bandcamp Website.

A Provocative Parable

The focusing text of our gathering on August 6 was the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25.  Our meditation on this challenging parable prompted much reflection on our past associations with the story (if we grew up hearing it), as well as an introduction to a reframing of it by Cynthia Bourgeault in her book Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind - a New Perspective on Christ and His Message.  In the week following our meeting, two members shared these further explorations of the parable.  

Rick shared these quotes from The Mystic Way of Radiant Love by John Francis:

"Another metaphor suggestive of life energy is 'lamp oil'. It occurs in the intriguing parable of the five wise and the five foolish maidens (Matthew 25:1)... Let us consider that the number five, which is repeated twice, is a key to interpretation. There are five physical senses - sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. From the mystical point of view, there is a wise and a foolish way of using these senses. In mysticism, lamp oil is a common metaphor for the life energy that is associated with the sensory organs...  a sleeping maiden could represent a sense organ that is still and inactive. The parable thus presents us with sense organs that have entered an inactive ('sleeping') state through either wise or foolish means. The wise way to still the senses is through self-discipline that conserves life energy ('lamp oil'). The foolish way to sensory stillness is through exhaustion resulting from overindulgence in sensuality which drains the life energy."

"The parable would thus be telling us that to enter into the heart's cave (marriage chamber) sufficient life energy is required to illuminate the way. This interpretation is certainly consistent with contemplative experience. Anyone who has tried to focus attention inwardly in contemplation knows how difficult it is to remain alert and responsive when in a fatigued condition... this parable has the added dimension of instructing us regarding the inner discipline required to transcend ordinary, dualistic awareness and feel the Love beyond pleasure and pain." (pages 23-24)

At the close of our meeting, Joan shared this poem that she had written during our time together:

This is my prayer:

My Lord, I must come to realize that I will always have enough oil, enough energy, enough longing to make ready for your coming.

Indeed, I must believe you are coming any minute. I can’t wait until later to know how to be ready. I have to right now bend and stand straight before the glory you are. Close my eyes not in sleep but in reverence; your light is greater, bolder, more joyous than my lamp. My lamp is dim compared to what you offer this world. To be ready for you, I must first be in awe that you are alive, the fullness of grace and blessing, the wisdom and deepest voice coming, coming, now and always coming. I have a small lamp, Lord make this lamp grow. I have a waiting heart, make this heart patient. I have a crowd of thoughts, make them one steady flame of your love coming into me. Come into me and make me your flame.

Amen, and amen.

Welcome to the Journey

We gather the circle,

light the fire,

and tell our story.

This is the purpose of of the Sacred Journey Listening Circle weekly meetings, held via Zoom, and facilitated by Brother Dennis Gibbs of the Community of Divine Love.  The Sacred Journey programs are multi-dimensional in approach using Listening Circles, book groups, films, meditation, and teachings on the  contemplative life; all in relation to the most critical spiritual and social concerns of our time.

Our community of travelers comes together from all over the country.  While many of us identify as followers of the Christian tradition (in all its diveristy), we draw on the wisdom of many different spiritual practices, including Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, indigenous, and Twelve-Step.

Whether you join our circle each week, attend sporadically, or have stumbled upon this blog in some other way, it is our hope that the content will encourage deep practice of your spirituality that enables you to be a force for love and peace in this world.

Welcome to the journey.

(Note: this blog is composed of the contributions of members of this group, most of whom are not official members or oblates of the Community of Divine Love.  For more information on the Sacred Journey program, please visit the Community of Divine Love website at https://www.cdlmonks.org/ or send an email to info@cdlmonks.org.)