World day of Prayer
Tag: #unity
2nd Principle
So, I am reading a novel. It is for fun. Because of my ministerial studies over the past 6 years, I have mostly read serious and study related books. So, now that I am approaching the end of my studies, I have given myself permission to read just for fun. I like crime stories particularly those that is mixed with a bit of romance. It is important for me that it is light hearted and fun. It is also important that it is engaging and the characters are interesting and relatable. I have chosen Amanda Quick’s (pseudo name) novels.
I like her books. They are witty and engaging; they are not too violent and they have wonderfully complex characters. I must admit that the rather explicit sex scenes got me by surprised but I realized that there are hardly any TV shows or major films without at least one explicit sex scene. So, I concluded that this is the fashion these day. Most of her books take place in the regency era in England.
The book I am reading right now, Mischief, – a rather interesting title for a book that has not much mischief in it, in my opinion – has two main characters: an earl and a lady of little means. They are a married couple who need to untangle some mystery and series of crimes. The story is interesting but I am more fascinated with the two main characters who display wonderfully human characteristics.
Remembering St.Peter and St.Paul
On the 29thof June, the Christian Churches celebrates the life and martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul who were both guardians of Rome.
Thoughts on read and reflect – please find reding below
Who or what is the two pillars of your inner church? Can you imagine that Paul and Peter represents qualities or powers that hold your inner life or your spiritual life? What qualities can you name that you think supports your spiritual journey?
Also consider the following: In Unity we identify 12 Powers that we inherently have and we can consciously develop to have a fulfilling inner and outer life. As you can see, Peter represents the Power of Faith.
In what ways can you see your Faith in your individualized Soul and in the Divine Power that is the source of your Soul to be one of the pillars of your inner life or spiritual life?
Whit Monday
What is Whit Monday?
Pentecost Monday, also known as Monday of the Holy Spirit, and most commonly as Whit Monday, is a holiday that is celebrated the day after Pentecost, a moveable feast that is determined by the date of Easter. Whit Monday specifically represents the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, also marking the resumption of Ordinary Time after Easter.
The name “Whit Monday” actually comes from the English name for one of the three baptismal seasons in Pentecost, being “Whitsunday”. The origin of “Whitsunday” itself is generally believed to come from the white garments that used to be worn by those newly baptised on this feast.
The Holy Spirit
Who or what is the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost?
In my understanding, the Holy Spirit is the ‘guide’, the ‘connecter’, the covenant between the individualized soul – which is a spark of God – and the Divine Presence . The energy that we call God or the Divine Presence is our source of being but we not able to connect with it because we have ‘turned away’ – often called sinned or errored – from our source.
Imagine that you always look downwards – which we actually do – instead of looking upwards that would enable us to connect with God.
The Holy Spirit is our covenant, it connects us seekers with the Divine Presence through various means such as ‘hunches’, inner experiences, unexpected events and more.
In a way, God, realized that the souls living in each human being had gone dormant because of their downward gazing state. So, God ‘sent’ a covenant, the Holy Spirit, to help the souls finding their connection back to God.
Enlightened masters, such as Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Mohammed, etc. were ‘carriers’ of the Holy Spirit because of their deep connectedness with the Divine Presence. In their teachings they extended the gifts of the Holy Spirit onto those who were attracted to their teachings.
The Holy Spirit has different names in different traditions but the functions are the same.
Below is a quotation from Charles Fillmore, one of the founders of Unity. Please remember that this text was written in the later 1800’s by someone who was raised in the Christian faith but was later inspired to create a spiritual movement that embraces all religions, all faith, all races and other spiritual movements.
Pentecost
The promise of the Holy Spirit
Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after Easter and is when Christians remember the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third part of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – which is how Christians understand God, and is the means by which God is active on Earth.
“…behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city (Jerusalem) until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:29)
Metaphysically reading this quote, we are promised to be blessed with a deeper relationship with the Divine Presence as long as we stay in connection within through meditation and prayer. I often heard ‘Jerusalem’ described as an inner place, similar to an inner sanctuary, where we can always commune with God. So, we are asked to stay in meditation until we are ‘clothed from the high’, until we feel one with the Divine Presence.
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Acts 2:1-4
The promise of the Pentecost can be understood as a fulfillment of our hard work. We have spent the 40 days of Lent releasing our limitations, than we moved into different celebrations of Easter and Gudi Pavda, then we moved into contemplation over Passover, then the people of the Orthodox faith celebrated Easter, a lifting of the Spirit higher after having released some of its burdens or karma, and finally we have arrived to the week of the Pentecost starting today: the moment when we receive the blessings of the Holy Spirit which is freedom in being a unique expression of God as we are.
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Messiah, as though Yahveh God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Messiah, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20)
Metaphysical and Compassion
In Unity we look at events and spiritual texts through the lens of metaphysics. Metaphysical interpretation means that we look behind the words and look for the messages, the learning, and the teaching in it.
I always ask, what does this event or sentences mean to me? How can I use it for my upliftment and growth?
I never judge or diminish anything just because I am not familiar with it.
I love looking at the different spiritual and religious celebrations and texts and use them for my daily spiritual practices. I use them to inspire me.
Each celebration gives me an opportunity to learn more about the people and the beliefs. We are all part of the Divine Presence regardless of our beliefs. Understanding others better gives me an opportunity to become a more compassionate human being.
What I love about Unity
In this short podcast, I talk about what I love about Unity and how I see it embraces all people and offers a spiritual home for anyone regardless of faith, culture, race, etc.
Comparative Religions – Christianity 4
In a way, Unity is regarded a ‘protestant movement’ because it finds its roots partly in Christianity. Unity’s forefathers, the Fillmores, created the Unity Movement combining the theology of different Christian, Jewish, Arabic and Eastern traditions.
So I started a series on introducing different faiths and traditions to show you how Unity embraces them all in a way that it can provide a home for anyone regardless of beliefs, culture, religion, race, etc.
INTRODUCTION
These are many different approaches to the Oneness with God or the Divine Presence, don’t let words mislead you! Everyone is right! All faith and spiritual movements, religions included, were created by a group who were in search for God following the example of someone inspiring.
We must always remember that everyone is in search for God in their own way. It is because what we call God is an energy source that is pure Love and Compassion amongst many other wonderful qualities.
Everyone wants to be Loved unconditionally, however, that kind of Love only exists in the realm of the Spiritual. No human being can love another person unconditionally. It is because of our own personal limitations and karma (issues to learn or let go of). Our vision is blurred by these therefor we cannot see anyone in their purity of Spirit.
What we can do is to have compassion; compassion for self and others, knowing that regardless how it may look, we are all in search for our best selves and for God’s Living Loving Spark within.
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It is important to mention, that one of the most relevant element of Gnostic Christianity to Unity is that in philosophical thought, logos (“word”) was the principle of rationality that connected the highest god to the material world. In Unity, you will find that we place emphases on the words we use. We create positive affirmations and so-called denials to elevate our consciousness.
Personally, among all Christian traditions, I feel the closest to Gnostic Christianity. I highlighted parts of the text below that felt meaningful to me.
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Antient Christianity – The Gnostics
Gnostics: those who embody the highest ethical and spiritual values, such as temperance, diligence, humility, chastity, generosity, etc. and who can at will have personal experience with divinity.
Limitations and Awareness
Self-awareness is KEY to spiritual development and Self-Love
We all see the world through a filter that was mostly created in our childhood until about the age of 7. We created this filter as part of our self-protection. Most of us are not aware of this ‘mask’ or layer of personality because we often believe that this is who we are. Except that this is not true.
Who we are in our essence, this beautiful unique being, is often hidden behind the ‘mask’. Becoming aware of the different facets of the ‘mask’ or Ego can help us heal the wounds that created the ‘mask’ in the first place and recover our true identity.
In this podcast I talk about the different levels of self-awareness and how to go about gaining correct self-awareness. I also mention different ways to approach becoming aware of mask and limitations. I talk about the Enneagram system.
– sorry about the quality of the podcast, the filtering process diminished the quality 🙁 –
God is within
Revelation 21:3 ESV
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
The dwelling place of God is ‘within’ man. As we walk the inner journey of meditation and contemplation, we start feeling the Loving Presence of the Divine dwelling with us and guiding us throughout our lives.
Revelation 3:21 ESV
The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.
As we remove the barriers and limitations from our consciousness, as we conquer our own fear based ego, we start becoming aware of the presence of God, and we will feel as if we were sitting in the presence of the Divine all the time.
Comparative Religions – Christianity 3
In a way, Unity is regarded a ‘protestant movement’ because it finds its roots partly in Christianity. Unity’s forefathers, the Fillmores, created the Unity Movement combining different the theology of different Christian and Eastern traditions.
So I started a series on introducing different faiths and traditions to show you how Unity embraces them all in a way that it can provide a home for anyone regardless of beliefs, culture, religion, race, etc.
I found this fascinating and rather thorough article on the Protestant Churches. I hope you find it revealing!
Christianity was born out of the teachings of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. More specifically, his disciples began to spread The Gospel, or ”good news,” of Jesus after Jesus was crucified and resurrected. After Christianity had spread for centuries, Christians began to disagree on certain minute theological beliefs. These disagreements spawned different denominations or branches of Christianity. Each denomination slightly differs from the next based on each one’s theological beliefs. Such disagreements include different beliefs on baptism, the means of salvation, and God’s sovereignty.
The Protestant Churches
Protestantism was born in response to what many saw as the rigid teachings and traditions of Roman Catholicism. The spark that began the Protestant flame was Martin Luther’s “95 Theses,” critiquing the legalism within the Roman Catholic Church. Martin Luther was a monk who had extensively studied the Bible and Christian tradition. In his view, Roman Catholicism was the antithesis of Christ’s teachings of salvation through grace alone because Roman Catholic church leaders were selling indulgences as absolution to sin. In addition, Luther believed that Roman Catholic leaders were abusing their power and that they had lost focus on the gospel of Christ. After Martin Luther tacked his “95 Theses” on the door of the Wittenberg Castle church, Catholicism would be permanently divided.
UNITY and Christianity
I created this document as part of my Unity Ministerial training. I read Rev Roach’s book and made notes on my observations on how the 5 Principles of Unity is compared to the theology of the main stream Christian Churches.
Notes
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 12:30-31
This chapter seeks to understand Christianity and Jesus through the lens of Unity’s five principles. Rev Roach looks at how each Unity’s principle understands or differs from the traditional Christian perspective.
As part of Christian history, it was interesting to learn that only 4 of the original 45 gospels made it to the final version of the New Testament and by 325 A.C. Jesus was clamed to be fully God and fully human by the Council of Nicaea. After the Great Schism in 1045 which was mostly about the disagreement on the Holy Trinity, the Christian churches shattered into numerous divisions in 1517 when Marin Luther placed the 95 Thesis on the church door of Wittenberg. Part of this thesis was about the nature of Jesus.
Comparative Religions – Christianity 2
INTRODUCTION
These are many different approaches to the Oneness with God or the Divine Presence, don’t let words mislead you! Everyone is right! All faith and spiritual movements, religions included, were created by a group who were in search for God following the example of someone inspiring.
We must always remember that everyone is in search for God in their own way. It is because what we call God is an energy source that is pure Love and Compassion amongst many other wonderful qualities.
Everyone wants to be Loved unconditionally, however, that kind of Love only exists in the realm of the Spiritual. No human being can love another person unconditionally. It is because of our own personal limitations and karma (issues to learn or let go of). Our vision is blurred by these therefor we cannot see anyone in their purity of Spirit.
What we can do is to have compassion; compassion for self and others, knowing that regardless how it may look, we are all in search for our best selves and for God’s Living Loving Spark within.
Because the Unity Movement finds its roots in Christianity I decided to start investigating different aspects of Christianity and see how relevant they are to Unity today.
We have just celebrated Orthodox Easter. I have been investigating the differences between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.I found this amazing article. I have copied out some of the article that I found interesting. You can read the entire article HERE (CLICK)
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ORTHODOX AND CATHOLIC CHURCHES
Comparative Religions – Christianity 1
These are many different approaches to the Oneness with God or the Divine Presence, don’t let words mislead you! Everyone is right! All faith and spiritual movements, religions included, were created by a group who were in search for God following the example of someone inspiring.
We must always remember that everyone is in search for God in their own way. It is because what we call God is an energy source that is pure Love and Compassion amongst many other wonderful qualities.
Everyone wants to be Loved unconditionally, however, that kind of Love only exists in the realm of the Spiritual. No human being can love another person unconditionally. It is because of our own personal limitations and karma (issues to learn or let go of). Our vision is blurred by these therefor we cannot see anyone in their purity of Spirit.
What we can do is to have compassion; compassion for self and others, knowing that regardless how it may look, we are all in search for our best selves and for God’s Living Loving Spark within.
Because the Unity Movement finds its roots in Christianity I decided to start investigating different aspects of Christianity and see how relevant they are to Unity today.
Eastern Orthodox vs. Roman Catholic
Modernly, the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches remain separated with key doctrinal differences between them. The primary theological difference is that the Catholic Church believes the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father to Jesus Christ the Son, and the Orthodox Church believes the Holy Spirit proceeds only from God the Father. The second major theological difference is that the Catholic Church believes the Pope has supreme authority over the Christian faith, while the modern Orthodox Church has no doctrinal authority. Aside from these key theological differences, modern religious practices and beliefs vary between the two churches. For example, the Orthodox Church allows for divorce, while the Catholic Church does not.
The primary organizational difference between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches is the question of Papal Primacy. The Catholic Church believes that the Pope is the bishop of Rome and heads the Catholic Church. Papal Primacy is a doctrinal belief concerning the respect and authority that all Catholics and members of the Catholic Church must afford the Pope due to the belief that he has primacy jurisdiction over the governance of the church.
For Parents
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Below I placed a video that advertises Spiritual Playdate, a self- and spiritual-educational organisation in the USA. I love the concept and what they offer. <3
At Unity we take spiritual playdates a step further and address spiritually infused topics as well as personal management topics, listed above. We offer an educational program that comprises elements of creative adventures, self-management education, community building, both online and in person for those living in European Time zones.
EASTER and PENTECOST
In Unity we always look for a deeper or a metaphysical meaning of events, texts, and celebrations.
When we look at Easter we see the upliftment of our consciousness to a higher level as a result of fasting or withdrawing from the worldly to the spiritual.
On Easter Monday, we celebrate a kind of renewal and a clearer and deeper understanding of our spiritual journey through release and forgiveness. We are joyful and merry. We feel lighter because we released faulty ideas, misconceptions of who we truly are and who God is for us. (read about how I see God here CLICK)
During the days between today (Easter Monday) and Pentecost there will many spiritual observances from different traditions that we can use for our spiritual upliftment and growth. We can observe these 50 days by making the time to meditate or pray daily, focusing into the Divine Presence, reading uplifting spiritual material, and acting kindly towards ourselves and other.
Lets’ see if as a result of our efforts what happens on the day of Pentecost!
What is Pentecost and what does it have to do with Easter?
The name comes from the Greek word pentekoste which means fiftieth. Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a major festival in the Christian church, celebrated on the Sunday that falls on the 50th day of Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles – while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles – and other disciples following the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ (Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2), and it marks the beginning of the Christian church’s mission to the world.
The events of Acts Chapter 2 are set against the backdrop of the celebration of Pentecost in Jerusalem. There are several major features to the Pentecost narrative presented in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The author begins by noting that the disciples of Jesus “were all together in one place” on the “day of Pentecost” (ἡμέρα τῆς Πεντηκοστῆς).[27] The verb used in Acts 2:1 to indicate the arrival of the day of Pentecost carries a connotation of fulfillment.
There is a “mighty rushing wind” (wind is a common symbol for the Holy Spirit) and “tongues as of fire” appear. The gathered disciples were “filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance”. Some scholars have interpreted the passage as a reference to the multitude of languages spoken by the gathered disciples, while others have taken the reference to “tongues” (γλῶσσαι) to signify ecstatic speech.
Source Wikipedia and Britannica