Tonight we are beginning our study of Dr. Albert S. Rossi’s book Becoming a Healing Presence. Please read the brief introduction and chapter 1 “Inner Stillness.”
As we read through this book, please keep in mind that its overall purpose is to allow Christ to become a healing presence in us and to move through us to heal others. We cannot share that peace which passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7) unless we have that peace within us, and we cannot love our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:27) unless we have that Love within us. In his book, Dr. Rossi shows us how we can cultivate God’s peace and God’s love within our lives so that we can go out and share the same with others. This process begins with us intentionally seeking an inner stillness that opens us to contemplative prayer and through contemplation to be transformed and through transformation to be able to go out to others. As we saw when we read through Thomas á Kempis over the last three years, Dr. Rossi is not suggesting a program to follow but a way to be and live our lives.
Dinner is at 6. The menu is ham and chicken white lasagna. Discussion begins about 6:45. Compline around 8. I hope that you can all join us.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Prayer attributed to St. Francis (1979 BCP 833)
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.