I have been leading the morning study using Matthew Fox's book Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth. I am sharing the class curriculum plus a few notes here. Read class one here. Class two can be found here.
Here is class three.
Creation Spirituality at The Land, Class Three
Week 3
Chapters 2-3: Focusing on Compassion, Creativity, and Beauty
Compassion
“Compassion is the moral law of interconnectivity, the
cosmic law of responding to another’s pain and suffering as well as to
another’s joy and celebration.” P 45 (all page numbers are from Matthew Fox's Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer
true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the
widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against
each other.’
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious
to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
Compassion is not sentimentalizing, or pity. It requires feeling with – which makes us face our
intensity tolerance. I shared the story of when I was studying at Creation Spirituality University and took a class on compassion. For our final paper we had to write on an act of compassion we would like to serve. How I wrote about helping a friend who had just had a baby and treating a schizophrenic homeless woman as a human being. And how I failed. What I didn't understand then was that I was still thinking of me and them, not us, not suffering with.
We discussed compassion, and one of the class members shared brain studies on how compassion is contagious.
Creativity
“Birthing, begetting, dying, and being born – all this
happens to stars and planets, to galaxies and microbes, to plants, birds,
animals, and humans.” – p 47
Proverbs 22:29
Do you see someone skilled in their
work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before obscure men.
Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with
all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, knowing that
from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you are serving
Christ.
Beauty
I walk with beauty before me
I walk with beauty behind me
I walk with beauty above me
I walk with beauty below me
I walk with beauty all around me
Your world is so beautiful, Oh God.
--
Navajo prayer, quoted on page 49
A class member said it made her think of the poem attributed to St. Patrick:
“Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.”
―
Which made me think of the Cosmic Christ.
1 Peter 3:3-4
3 Your beauty should not come from
outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry
or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading
beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
Discussion questions:
Any questions or things that struck
you about the reading this week?
Where do you express creativity in
your life?
What is an act of compassion you
have witnessed recently?
What acts of compassion are you
drawn to perform?
What is the feeling of beauty?
How do these relate?
We then took a meditative walk on the path around The Land holding the
ideas of compassion, beauty, and creativity in our hearts!
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