Unity Connections

   In recognition of Memorial Day, we will hold our annual candle lighting ritual this Sunday. This will offer us an opportunity to honor those who have given their lives in service of our country, and to remember our loved ones who have passed. We will draw on the following two beatitudes given by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.  (Matthew 5: 4) Mourning is the outward expression of the inner process of grief. As we share the experience of our loss with others, we are supported in moving through our grief in a healthy way. We come together to hold the space for that process in community. This is the value expressed in memorial services. This is how we show up to comfort each other in the shared experience of loss and grief. Grief has a way of breaking us open.  When we lean into that process we feel the depth of our capacity to love, and of our emotional response to the loss of those that we love. Depen...

The power of our thoughts is a central component of Unity’s foundational teaching. We believe that the quality of our thoughts directly impacts our experience.  Ultimately, our goal is to grow in our ability to think empowering God (good) thoughts over the more commonly limited, negative or fear-based thoughts. If we truly believe that the nature of God is good- and that we are expressions of that good (God) then it follows that our thoughts should reflect that belief. This Sunday, we will resume our series looking at the teachings of Jesus as a means for transforming minds, using  Discover the Power Within You  by Eric Butterworth as our guide.  If effect, Jesus was asking his followers to actually live as if they believed their sacred texts and laws rather than simply reciting them. While many thought that Jesus had come to overthrow the Roman government, he clearly stated that he had come to fulfill the law, not to break it. He was speaking of the universal spiri...

This Sunday we will celebrate Mother’s Day by honoring our mother figures- those in our lives that who have loved us and nurtured our growth. Few of us had ‘perfect mother’ relationships. For those who have become Mothers, the reality of the experience often sheds light on the impossibility of perfection.  We do our best, and often run head first into our own limits and weaknesses. We do well to learn from our mistakes. Fortunately, we can always access the nurturing, loving feminine energy within us; offering  her healing balm to our own heart and enabling compassion for our own Mother. Regardless of our gender identity or parental status, we all innately possess aspects of both feminine and masculine energies. While most of us were socialized to express one over the other, we are healthiest when these energies are balanced within us. Our modern world has long bent toward the expression of the masculine energies. Yet, we can all benefit from developing a stronger connection w...

I thought that might get your attention! 😀 We continue our exploration of the teachings of Jesus by way of His Great Discovery : the Divinity within Humanity. No doubt this great discovery forever changed the concept of God among those that were present to hear the teachings of Jesus. For those who believed his message, God was brought out of the sky into the world as a Spiritual Presence, imbuing all of creation . Yet, this great discovery does not mean all that much if it is tied to the personhood of Jesus of Nazareth. The relevance of this discovery is that it remains accessible for all of us,as the path by which we can discover and claim this powerful connection within ourselves! Of course, a commitment is required; it is not the only path. Making the decision for Christ requires us to claim the faith of Jesus; to know, and to claim, for ourselves this Kingdom of God within. Let’s simplify this bejeweled term, the Kingdom of God to mean the place within our own awareness where ...

In preparing for our Easter service, I was reminded of my genuine love and appreciation for the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. I was also reminded of how that message has so often been misunderstood and misused in ways that have left many a bit leery of the Jesus centered theology known as Christianity. I certainly understand this response and have experienced it myself. Yet,the message itself offers a transformative path that deserves a deeper consideration. There are a growing number within the Christain faith that have sought to extract the message of Jesus from the religous constraints that formed around it. I have turned to the work of Father Richard Rohr, Bishop Shelby Spong and Marcus Borg for inspiration. The ways in which the message of Jesus has been confused and even corrupted in the name of religion is just another example of humanity’s propensity to operate from our limited egoic –centered mind; forever seeking power and protection. Our last series revealed how our own mi...

Our journey of the study of the book Birthing a Greater Reality  by Robert Brumet has explored the evolution of consciousness both historically and personally as a means for understanding our collective case of mistaken identity, and the need for us to wake up in order to claim the fullness our True, Divine identity. This is the ultimate discovery that leads us back to our innate wholeness and freedom as expressions of Spirit. The journey begins with the glimmer of awareness that there is more to us than our conditioned ways of thinking and knowing the world. As our awareness expands, we wake up to see the veil of our egoic persona for what it is- a protective mechanism that seeks to provide a sense of safety and permanence in an impermanent world. Waking up involves seeing this illusion of our own making and how it provides a false sense of security. We also discover how it has cut us off from our own essential nature. Thus begins the journey of discovering a new and greater reali...

Author Robert Brumet ultimately equates “the evolution of consciousness with the evolution of self- identity. Each level of the ladder of evolution has a different answer to the question who am I?” (Brumet, pg. 129). He also offers us an important reminder that we cannot transcend what we have not yet reclaimed, healed and integrated within our self. Last week we explored the power of forgiveness and grief work as necessary and healthy practices for navigating the fullness of our life experiences by addressing the pain that accompanies being human. We considered how few of us have been well trained or supported in doing this work is a responsible and compassionate way. Instead we often deny and repress these painful experiences. What we cannot see within ourselves very often gets projected onto other people and/or experiences. Repression and projection are the mechanisms employed by the ego to protect the fragile false self it has created in order to survive. “Regression is the e...