Sacred Text Reading Group (Wed.)
"God" in a different way - Armstrong
Date(s) - 05/15/2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 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.
The Sacred Texts Reading For Wednesday, May 15, 2024…The Rabbis frequently suggested that on Mount Sinai, each one of the Israelites who had been standing at the foot of the mountain had experienced God in a different way. God had, as it were, adapted himself to each person” according to the comprehension of each”* As one Rabbi put it, “God does not come to man oppressively but commensurately with a man’s power of receiving him.** This very important rabbinic insight meant that God could not be described in a formula as though he were the same for everybody; he is an essentially subjective experience. Each individual would experience the reality of “God” in a different way to answer the need of his or her own particular temperament.– Karen Armstrong in A History of God
For check-in / getting-acquainted time, and for those who are new and want a brief orientation to the practice, the room will be open ten minutes before and ten minutes after the session.
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/96865808923
- Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 968 6580 8923
- Join this class by phone: +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 968 6580 8923
- Join this class by one-tap on mobile phones: +16699006833,,96865808923# (San Jose)
- Phoning in, but not in the Bay Area? Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT
This is the Zoom link for Wednesdays. For the Zoom link for Saturday, go to Calendar and click on a Saturday session.