Minister’s Column – March 2019 – Journey

Welcome to our month focused on the theme of JOURNEY. Many of you had the chance last Sunday during service to map where your ancestors journeyed from. It is a joy to look at the maps on our Art Wall in Fellowship Hall and see how we come from all over the world. I invite you to use this month to ask each other about your life’s journey and your ancestors. It could make for fascinating conversation during coffee hour.

Soul Matters also invites us to examine our spiritual journeys. As a way of deepening relationships with one another consider sharing your spiritual journeys with each other.

To help you map and tell your journey, here are a number of common “legs” along the spiritual path. Spend the month thinking about your version of each. Some will come to you right away. Others may be experiences you’ve had but never quite fully recognized as part of your spiritual quest. I invite you to share legs of your journey with people you don’t yet know, as well as with your closer friends, so that we can build deeper connections through our authentic sharing.

 

A Guide for Mapping Your Spiritual Journey

 

• The First Step – Who was most responsible for your first understanding of religion? What was unique about the first religious community that shaped you? How do you feel about that community today?

• Down the Road of Doubt – When did a crack in your faith first appear? Was it a moment of intellectual questioning or emotional disappointment?

• Partners on Your New Path – What mentors or fellow travelers helped light and shape your new path?

• Your First Spiritual Experience – What was the nature of your first spiritual experience? How does it still shape you today? When did your spirituality move from ideas rooted in your head or tradition, to faith rooted in an experience?

• Your First UU Spiritual Experience – UUs place the interdependent web at the center of our faith. When was the first time you experienced a moment of transcendent connection that led you to feel as though who we are does not end at the barrier of our own skin?

• The Moment of Institutional Commitment – What led you to become a member somewhere and make a commitment to Unitarian Universalism? How did it feel to publicly declare your religious group identity?

• The Turn Toward Practice – At some point on the spiritual journey our faith shifts forms, from a set of beliefs to a spiritual practice that engages and grounds our whole self. What was this shift like for you? What regular practice now grounds your spiritual self?

• Today’s Journey – What was your most impactful spiritual moment of the last year?

If you wish to write about or draw or photograph any experiences that inspire you as you reflect on your journeys, please share them on our Art Wall. It would be lovely to fill the wall with expressions of your physical, historical or spiritual journeys.

With reverence for our shared journeys,

Rev. Nica

P.S.  Please email me at minister@chaliceuu.org if you read this column. We are trying to get a sense of how many read our columns. Thanks!