Speaking of Spirit

As the new school year begins, we send out theses thoughts and prayers for the teachers and students that they may have a year filled with peaceful classrooms, engaged learning and joyous moments of accomplishment. Photo Credit: Hippocrates lecturing to his students under the plane tree - via Wikimedia From the Iroquois Thanksgiving Address The Enlightened Teachers  We gather our minds to greet and thank  the enlightened Teachers who have come to help throughout the ages. When we forget how to live in harmony,  they remind us of the way we were instructed to live as people.  With one mind, we send greetings and thanks  to these caring teachers.  Now our minds are one. Aho! ~~~~~~ Prayer for Students   by S r. Joan Chittister - Benedictine Sisters of Erie May your journey  through the universal questions of life  bring you to a new moment of awareness.  May it be an enlightening one.  May you find embedded in the past,  like all the students of life before

Morning Song The concert begins with lights low first a trill, then a warble. The deep caw and the flutie tweet add to the harmonies. As the Solar Star makes his entrance the canticle crescendos in sweet concordance – each voice raised in praise, harmonizing, welcoming the new day. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas © 2015

  Photo Credit: by Sasha Kopf under GNU license on wikimedia commons Often, we are faced with making a decision that fills us with fear.  Often, the only way to get where we need to go is to have the courage to take a leap of faith.  Often, the courage comes from a tiny spark  - like a satellite sent towards the dark unknown, which finds new universes, our tiny light suddenly is revealed as the brilliant star of hope. The following is by John O’Donohue , a poet and philosopher who is best known for his book, Anam Cara, (Gaelic for "Soul Friend"; 1997). This is a poem about finding that light. For Courage ~ John O'Donohue When the light around you lessens And your thoughts darken until Your body feels fear turn Cold as a stone inside, When you find yourself bereft Of any belief in yourself And all you unknowingly Leaned on has fallen, When one voice commands Your whole heart And it is raven dark, Steady yourself and see