"My Burnoose" by Ameen RIhani

Sacred Text Reading Group (Saturday)
Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/03/2024
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
A twice-weekly online sacred text reading group. We meet on Saturdays, 4-5, and on Wednesdays, 12-1. All are wide open and you are welcome! Please note that the Zoom room now requires a password, so please drop an e-mail to sacred-text-reading+owner@uucpa.org to express interest.

 

What do we mean by a sacred text? Any text that helps us to:

  • connect to something of supreme importance to us
  • feel more connected to other beings or to the universe
  • feel more intensely alive
  • align our lives with our values,
  • perceive or feel more deeply
  • be more fully and authentically ourselves.

As Unitarian Universalists, we find these kinds of meanings everywhere, so the text itself might be from a so-called secular source, or from a religious canon, or something in-between.

The participants over the years have found that the approach we take, and the respectful, affectionate community of inquirers in which we read and converse, are as important as the text. Our practice usually follows one of these versions of Lectio Divina. 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).

The facilitator will post a version of the text in the chat for all to see. Everyone is welcome, as are your suggestions of future texts. Group members also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.

Into this world they tell me I was sent
Wrapt in a burnoose, which was rudely rent
And flung away, by her who first didst touch
My steaming flesh; I never loved her much,
The surly, stolid, sordid, spectral hag:
For never would my star of fortune lag⁠—
No dwarf of earth to oppose my will would dare⁠—
If my sebaceous burnoose she did spare,
And if around my neck, the ajouz says,
It hung, locked in a charm, for twenty days.
But ever since the amulet was torn,
The curse of gods and jinn and men I’ve worn;
And to my flesh it stuck⁠—a Nessus shirt⁠—
Despite the oozing blood, and not spurt
Of power, alas! is left me to control
The stinging tongue of an avenging soul.
— “My Burnoose” by Ameen RIhani

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

For the Wednesday Zoom link, go to the Calendar and click on a Wednesday session.

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