A NEW MORAL VISION
"A prophetic politics rooted in moral principles could again spark people's imagination and involvement. We need a personal ethic of moral responsibility, a social vision based on bringing people together, a commitment to justice with the capacity for reconciliation, an economic approach governed by the ethics of community and sustainability, a restored sense of our covenant with the abandoned poor and the damaged earth, a reminder of shared values that calls forth the very best in us, and a renewal of citizen politics to fashion a new political future. But to shape a new future we must first find the moral foundations and resources for a new social vision."
— Jim Wallis in The Soul of Politics
NURTURING PRACTICE
"Rumer Godden has written: 'There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but, unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.' "
—Rumer Godden in A House with Four Rooms
To Practice This Thought: Assess the condition of your four rooms. Which one looks like you visit it regularly? Which needs airing out?
OPENNESS PRACTICE
"This prayer is from William Penn, an English Quaker who founded the colony of Pennsylvania in America, which he envisioned as a place of religious and personal freedom.
" 'O God, help us not to despise or oppose what we do not understand.' "
— Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat in Spiritual Rx
OUR INNER TOOLBOX
"It's funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox, full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools — friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty — and said, Do the best you can with these, they will have to do. And mostly, against all odds, they're enough."
— Annie Lamott in Traveling Mercies
PANENTHEISM
"God is in everything and everything is in God. It is the ultimate blessing to be able to see all of life as sacred. Matthew Fox has written that 'Panentheism is the mystical way of understanding our relationship to divinity.' "
— Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
PEACE PRACTICE
"I have never met a person who has not felt better after crying. It's a great cleansing release. I have never met a person who has not looked more beautiful after crying. We usually think crying makes us look ugly. Your face is all blotchy, your nose is red, your makeup is smeared. But to me there is nothing more beautiful than a person's face after a cry. A sense of peace and relief settles on his or her expression. A holy calm. We all need to learn how to wear our tears. We need to learn how to let ourselves cry and . . . to bask in the precious healing that our tears will bring."
— Naomi Levy in To Begin Again
To Practice This Thought: The next time you cry, wear your tears well.
PLAY PRACTICE
"The word 'silly' derives from the Greek 'selig' meaning 'blessed.' There is something sacred in being able to be silly."
— Paul Pearsall in The Heart's Code
To Practice This Thought: Bless your friends or coworkers by being silly with them.
PRACTICE REACHES OTHERS
"Spiritual practice among Lakota peoples is grounded in the expression, 'All my relations,' which proclaims that spiritual activity is not only for those immediately participating in it but for all beings everywhere."
— Joan Halifax in The Fruitful Darkness
THE PRINCIPLE OF LIKENESS
"The enormous breakthrough is that when you honor and accept the divine image within yourself, you cannot help but see it in everybody else, too, and you know it is just as undeserved and unmerited as it is in you. That is why you stop judging, and that is how you start loving unconditionally and without asking whether someone is worthy or not. The breakthrough occurs at once, although the realization deepens and takes on greater conviction over time."
— Richard Rohr in The Naked Now
QUESTING PRACTICE
"Make a pilgrimage to a sacred site. Almost every community has places that have been honored for their spiritual significance, so if you cannot afford to go far, you can still engage in this type of questing. To make your pilgrimage more meaningful, choose an intention for your journey: what you hope to discover, learn, or receive. Research the history of the site and the rituals performed by pilgrims there. During your trip, write letters or keep a journal to record your impressions. Take photographs, make sketches, save postcards and mementos to use to spark memories of your experiences in years to come."
— Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat in Spiritual Rx
Go to Index for Alphabet of Progressive Christian Spirituality
