Our next Community of the Lamb offering will be:
Summer Retreat Day
A Drop in the Bucket
Saturday, June 28
9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
St Dunstan Episcopal Church
722 N 45th St, Shoreline
The theme will be "A Drop in the Bucket," in reference to how individuals often feel about their efforts in comparison with huge need. In the face of "compassion fatigue" and being overwhelmed by all the areas of the world where disasters have occurred and human suffering is great, take a day to be compassionately with yourself and this universal intercession of the Prayer of the Lamb.
Please make reservations by email at PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com or by phone 206-713-5321.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Support for Practice
Not everyone who prays the Prayer of the Lamb has been through the comprehensive 12 week course, but all have received some sort of training, teaching and initiation into the practice. Whenever I teach the Prayer of the Lamb I also make myself available for follow up for questions and consultation regarding practice. I also make a point of saying that the Prayer of the Lamb is a form of spiritual practice that needs to be incorporated into daily practice and ideally connected to a community of others engaged in the same spiritual practice. Meditation to be fruitful is best connected to a teacher and community. When practiced alone as individuals there are many ways in which we can simply strengthen our own ego identification, miss our self delusion, use the meditation only as a relaxation technique, make assumptions about spiritual attainment, or misinterpret experiences that may occur during meditation.
In meditation we sit with openness to the Holy Spirit and trust in our Lord. The more we sit in this faith, the more we may come to recognize that underneath the initial peace and relaxation lie fears, anxieties, hopes, anger, despair all waiting to be compassionately addressed. Hence the need for the resource of guidance in practice.
Also we have a tendency to take a particular spiritual practice and the teaching which defines it, and adapt it to our own preferences. This most usually hinders the potential and potency of the practice as it has been developed from its tested and proven source tradition.
If any of you have questions or would like consultation about how your meditation practice is going, you may email me at PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com or call 206-713-5321.
In meditation we sit with openness to the Holy Spirit and trust in our Lord. The more we sit in this faith, the more we may come to recognize that underneath the initial peace and relaxation lie fears, anxieties, hopes, anger, despair all waiting to be compassionately addressed. Hence the need for the resource of guidance in practice.
Also we have a tendency to take a particular spiritual practice and the teaching which defines it, and adapt it to our own preferences. This most usually hinders the potential and potency of the practice as it has been developed from its tested and proven source tradition.
If any of you have questions or would like consultation about how your meditation practice is going, you may email me at PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com or call 206-713-5321.
Offering Outreach Ministry Through the Prayer of the Lamb
Over the last seven years I have been privileged to share the Prayer of the Lamb with almost 1,000 persons through seminars, workshops, retreats, 12 week groups, and ongoing groups, not to mention an equal number who have received malas (prayer bead bracelets), each mala having been used in meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb for at least one hour. Members of the Community of the Lamb are those who meditate with the Prayer of the Lamb, and a number of you have taken part in preparing malas for others to use. We did this for those attending General Convention in 2003, for members of St. Paul, New Orleans, as part of the “We Will Stand With You” campaign, and for inmates at the state prison in Monroe.
Now we have received a new request. It is a modest request, not a large project, and members of the St. Dunstan ongoing group are already engaged in make malas and meditating with them for this latest project.
The Diocese of San Joaquin has gone through a tremendous shaking during the last several months. After the bishop and most of the congregations chose to disassociate from the Episcopal Church, much work has been done through the offices of the Presiding Bishop and the Episcopal Church Center to support and reconstitute the diocese around those congregations and individuals who wanted to stay. New mission congregations have been forming. Interestingly those who had not identified themselves with previous parishes of the diocese, now are seeking to become members of the newly forming congregations.
Grace Episcopal Mission in Bakersfield is one of these new faith communities. On June 22 over 20 persons will be baptized, confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church. One of those being baptized is related to one of the clergy of this diocese. Observing both this priest’s spiritual process of responding to a call to serve in ordained ministry and the emergence of this new congregation has lead to a commitment of faith in our Lord Jesus. In support for this we have been requested to provide a mala for each of those being presented to the bishop recently appointed to oversee the diocese. (There is synchronicity in that this bishop’s name is Lamb!) My colleague will be attending this event and taking malas representing our prayer support for the individuals making faith commitments and for the congregation as it lays a new spiritual foundation.
As is the case every time we offer the Prayer of the Lamb in intercession, we ask for God’s mercy without agenda or qualifications. There are no assumptions about rightness or religious political positions of belief. There is simply the plea for that abundant, unconditional, compassionate mercy to pour over them and us, that mutually we may wake to the reality of Yeshua’s Resurrection Life. Please remember Grace Episcopal Mission in your intercessions.
Now we have received a new request. It is a modest request, not a large project, and members of the St. Dunstan ongoing group are already engaged in make malas and meditating with them for this latest project.
The Diocese of San Joaquin has gone through a tremendous shaking during the last several months. After the bishop and most of the congregations chose to disassociate from the Episcopal Church, much work has been done through the offices of the Presiding Bishop and the Episcopal Church Center to support and reconstitute the diocese around those congregations and individuals who wanted to stay. New mission congregations have been forming. Interestingly those who had not identified themselves with previous parishes of the diocese, now are seeking to become members of the newly forming congregations.
Grace Episcopal Mission in Bakersfield is one of these new faith communities. On June 22 over 20 persons will be baptized, confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church. One of those being baptized is related to one of the clergy of this diocese. Observing both this priest’s spiritual process of responding to a call to serve in ordained ministry and the emergence of this new congregation has lead to a commitment of faith in our Lord Jesus. In support for this we have been requested to provide a mala for each of those being presented to the bishop recently appointed to oversee the diocese. (There is synchronicity in that this bishop’s name is Lamb!) My colleague will be attending this event and taking malas representing our prayer support for the individuals making faith commitments and for the congregation as it lays a new spiritual foundation.
As is the case every time we offer the Prayer of the Lamb in intercession, we ask for God’s mercy without agenda or qualifications. There are no assumptions about rightness or religious political positions of belief. There is simply the plea for that abundant, unconditional, compassionate mercy to pour over them and us, that mutually we may wake to the reality of Yeshua’s Resurrection Life. Please remember Grace Episcopal Mission in your intercessions.
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