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Our January meeting for reverence and worship was led by Lucy, and focused
on why the words practice and discipline keep popping up in religion.
We started out by noticing that there is no single Unitarian faith, and that
every Unitarian service is an interfaith service, since – although we
can never know – we can imagine that every
person has a different faith.
In the light of the recent Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, we also agreed that it is important
for people of faith to practice their own
belief system long enough and seriously enough that they no longer harbour the
fear that another belief can insult
or affect their own. Losing fear of
other beliefs is one way to work towards peace.
After the lighting of the chalice and our normal opening ritual
there were readings from Hinduism and the Jesus tradition. The Hindu reading came from the sacred book of
the Upanishads, and it was the story of Indra and Prajapati. Indra spent one hundred and one years as a disciple
of his teacher Prajapati before he gained the mystical knowledge he sought.
The second reading was by a contemporary writer explaining some
of the teachings of the Christian hermits, men and women, who lived in the
deserts of 5th century Egypt. These
hermits are known collectively as the Desert Fathers and Mothers and the
teachings they gave were one of the inspirations for monastic life through the
centuries. These wise people have emphasised
to us that it takes a very long time to fully become the human being we have the
potential to become.
So these two traditions both advise that application and repeated
tries are the only way to develop and grow in a spiritual sense. The view was offered that the words discipline
and practice can more or less be interchanged, and that having a regular practice
to hang onto can prevent us from becoming completely derailed when crises and shocks
occur.
We spent some time in silent contemplation of the practices that
have emerged for us in our personal lives, that allow us to grow in faith or spirit,
and we sang some hymns in gratefulness for the project of spiritual growth and the
chance to keep on trying.
We finished with the International Prayer for Peace. The words of this prayer, adapted from the Hindu
Upanishads, were used by Mother Teresa in 1981. She urged everyone of all
faiths to use the peace prayer daily at noon.
Lead me from death to life,
from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace.
Let peace fill our heart, our
world, our universe.
