ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life
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Summary for May 9, 2021
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Dear Folks -
The Steering Committee has met and put in place plans for the reopening of Ordinary Life for in-person attendance. I want to thank them for the time and effort that have and are putting into this endeavor. We will open Ordinary Life for in person attendance on June 6. On both the Tuesday and Friday before that Sunday announcements will be sent out as part of the Summary and Preview that any who want to register may go to the Ordinary Life website to do so. For the first week or so attendance will be limited to 30 people. It is anticipated that we will increase the number in the weeks going forward. Here are the guidelines that will be part of the invitation:
St Paul's has established guidelines for classes to resume in person indoor meetings; Ordinary Life will use the following procedures to insure compliance with these instructions.
Attendance will be limited to 30 people so you must register to attend. (Please cancel if your plans change.)
Everyone is required to wear a face mask which covers the nose; no food or drinks are allowed.
You will need to check in with the Greeters upon arrival and fill out the health evaluation form before entering Fondren Hall.
Please be seated in chair groupings as per your registered number of guests to insure appropriate social distancing.
Note that the speaker will be distanced from the group but will not wear a mask to allow for live streaming of the lecture.
As for this week in Ordinary Life, using words from Eugene Peterson's translation of "The Lord's Prayer" we titled what we offered in Ordinary Life this week -
Yes! Yes! Yes!
We began with the most well-known of Teihard de Chardin's quotes about harnessing the energies of love. Holly spoke about both the negative and positive powers of fire. I spoke of how for most of its history Christianity has focused more on "right beliefs" about Jesus rather than on the need to acquire the consciousness of Jesus. We both emphasized the need for an increase in knowledge both about our current web of relationships and of the Jesus of history. The time ends with this Zen teaching: If you wish to attain enlightenment, you must know two things: all efforts to attain enlightenment are of no avail. And, you must act as if you did not know this.
That is a very brief summary of Ordinary Life for this week.
You can find the text we had in front of us, the presentation slides and the audio version of the talk using the links below.
Also, be aware that we have instituted a weekly podcast. It is called “In Between.” You can access this through the Ordinary Life website.
If you would like to know how to make a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here for video instructions.
If you are reading this, I want you to know how grateful I am for and to you.
Be well and much love,
Bill Kerley
In order to read or download the text we had in front of us, click here.
In order to view or download the presentation slides, click here.
To listen to the audio of today’s talk, please either download the file or use the player below.
To watch the video of today’s talk, please use the YouTube player below.