I AM, Therefore we are. We are. Therefore I AM

Howdy Folks,

Starting this week, Bill has embarked upon his well deserved sabbatical/holiday that he has titled, "Sacred Spaces in Scotland".  Bill will regularly be updating the Ordinary Life website with stories, musings, and photos from his journey.  You can click the link at left to follow Bill's journey over the coming weeks.  He has already begun making updates.

Brooke Summers-Perry, active in both Ordinary Life and Conspire at St. Paul's, was our guest speaker this last Sunday.  In a talk entitled, "I AM, therefore we are. We are. Therefore I AM", Brooke used a combination of "whiteboard" drawings and an engaging approach to describe our disconnection from the "we", sacred mystery, and our subsequent attempts to cross a barrier and reconnect.

Brooke explained that at the core, we are all participants in moving towards wholeness in an unfinished universe.  And central to moving toward wholeness is love, for love is a consciousness of belonging to another, of being part of a whole.

In Brooke's own words:

Sister Ilia Delio states in her book, The Unbearable of Wholeness of Being, God, Evolution, and the Power of Love, "By the sheer power of its energy, love draws everything into an endless depth of greater wholeness."
 
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin states in his work, The Phenomenon of Man, only love "is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves." 
 
Because of our existence and relationship to the whole, it is necessary for us to personally participate in the evolution of an unfinished universe."

Brooke, through the use of diagrams and imagery, took us through the stages of development and the transitions and transformations required of us along the journey to wholeness. She showed us how it is possible to find our personal responsibility and freedom through the the lens of Richard Rohr's Cosmic Egg elements - My Story, Our Story, and The Story, and the notion that "Everything Belongs.

I close with the words of Bill... Be well and much love.

Wayne Herbert

Brooke has provided a PDF file of her talk and many of the illustrations she used here.

Brooke has also provided a YouTube link to an animated presentation that closely follows her talk on Sunday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9UhU_WStPQ

To download or listen to the audio version of the talk use the link below.