Sacred Text Reading Group (Saturday)
Shevchenko
Date(s) - 01/14/2023
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Using a spiritual-practice approach, in each session we will explore a different brief scriptural text in depth. The aims of the sessions are educational (learning something about the texts and traditions), spiritual/moral (discovering what the texts ask of us), and community-building (getting to know each other better). Our practice usually follows this version of Lectio Divina.The facilitator will have a version of the text available to share; “bring” your own if you like. All are welcome, as are your suggestions of future texts. Group members also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.
Our text for Saturday, January 14, 2023 is the poem “Lyric,” by Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainian poet who lived 1814-1861.
Only friend, clear evening twilight,
Come and talk to me!
Cross the hills to share my prison
Very secretly.
Tell me how the sun in splendour
Sets behind the hill;
How the Dnieper lasses carry
Pitchers down to fill;
How the broad-leaved sycamore
Flings his branches wide;
How the willow kneels to pray
By the river-side;
How her green boughs kiss the water
Trailing, half asleep,
And unchristened ghosts of babies
Swing from them and weep;
How lost souls at lonely cross-roads
Cower, wild and dumb,
When the owl shrieks from the alder
Of the wrath to come;
How the magic flowers open
At the moonbeam’s touch. …
But of men, what would you tell me—
Me, who know so much?
Far too much! And you know nothing;
Why, you understand
Nothing of what men are doing
Now, in my dear land.
But I know, and I will tell you,
Tell you, without end. …
When you speak with God tomorrow,
Look you tell Him, friend.
To have check-in time, or if you are new and would like a brief orientation, arrive ten minutes early. And all are welcome to stay ten minutes after as well, for more getting-acquainted time.
How to join: First, e-mail sacred-text-reading+owner@uucpa.org, since you will need a password. Then:
- Join this class from your Web browser:https://zoom.us/j/91019857324
- Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
- Join this class by phone: 669 900 9128 US (San Jose), Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
- Join this class by on-tap on mobile phones: +16699009128,,91019857324# US (San Jose)
- Phoning in, but not in the bay area? Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT