Module 14: God of Love

3/8/2018

Module 14:
God of Love, by Mirabai Starr

This module is structured a bit differently than our previous modules God of Love is a powerful testimony to interfaith/interspiritual understanding of the Divine by a gifted teacher. We invite you to read the entire book if you can. If you are unable to do so within the time frame allotted, we have selected certain chapters as required chapters and others as optional chapters for your study and reflection.

As you read, we invite you to frame your reading in terms of your own spiritual formation and the spiritual formation of your seekers.

Download the Module here
http://www.awakenedliving.com/SGTI/Module14.pdf

"We are made to praise the One. We remember, and forget, but we always remember again. This is the gift of the prophets: to remind us of what is real."
Mirabai Starr, God of Love

5 Comments

Barbara Buckley

3/16/2018 03:05:30 pm

Starr reflections
Toward the One: Early memories of connecting with the divine.

I’m on my flight to nyc and reading toward the one. I’m realizing that New York figured prominently in this connection! In my family, birth and laying to rest happen in ny. (Kids all born in ny, parents and paternal grandparents buried in ny. ). Important milestones happen there. My first communion, my first funeral (grandma), many holidays. My 70th birthday celebration.

0. My grandfather. “Papa” during regular visits to nyc. Sitting on his lap while he told me stories or did arithmetic problems was my first experience of being loved unconditionally and perhaps a sense of “the One” as expressed in a human being.
0. Tho we lived in Massachusetts, my first communion took place in tarrytown New York at the school and convent where my nun aunt( and my godmother) lived and worked. I was at the school for a few days beforehand, preparing for my first communion. It seemed magical and sometimes scary. I loved the chapel. The windows, the music. Maybe even the nuns in their funny habits. I loved dressing up in a long white dress and veil, ready to partake in this important, if mysterious, encounter with god. The scary part came because I didn’t know the prayer given to me for my first confession penance; so was god going to accept me? I wasn’t sure. So the mysterious God beyond my understanding felt powerful and not always loving.
And yet, the overall experience of first holy communion was sweet and felt like a gift. It was also special because it took place at my aunt’s “home” and I had some sense of the awe she felt in her life and her faith.

I loved the ritual, music, and some sense of something special that I experienced as a child at mass.

Jeanette

3/18/2018 11:16:11 am

What great timing to remember all the firsts that happened in NY! How wonderful to remember the parts of mass that drew you in - ritual and music - and the aesthetics of the church - the windows and clothing. You describe some of your early encounters as magical, mysterious, scary, sweet, special, a gift... what beautiful words of yearning as a young person.

Barbara

3/22/2018 12:46:12 am

Reluctant Prophets

It is fascinating and a bit uncomfortable to think of myself as a prophet of any sort! But I’ll try to put words to how I’ve been called to do what I do. The process seems to be one of responding to opportunities put before me with willingness to be present and to move forward. Sometimes the “opportunities” seemed like choices I wanted to embrace; and other times it was more of a demand I could not refuse, like it or not.
It starts with being the oldest child I think. I felt called to be a peacemaker at times or an interpreter within my family
I seem to have been called to live outside a box. In difficult moments, that has felt like “not belonging” or lonesome. But I can see it also as identifying with and supporting marginalized or oppressed people
I felt called to be involved in the early days of the AIDS crisis in Boston. I really had no idea what I was getting into. And the timing coincided with my coming out to myself as a lesbian.
I was called to be a lay leader in my church at a time of huge transition
I was called to develop interspiritual programs ( tho I didn’t have a word for it)
I was called to support women in healing guilt and shame about their bodies and their sexuality. This often led to revisiting moments of religious or cultural blaming.
Though I had no conscious intention of training to be a Spiritual director, I followed the prompts that showed up in my life and was guided to sgti.

Barbara

3/22/2018 12:48:17 am

Longing for the Beloved

Unlike Mirabai Starr ( and many other inspirational people whose life stories I have heard), I have not had any dramatic incidents in my life that changed me in an instant and led me on a path to Mystery. And I’m not sure I have yet fully surrendered to the unknown.
But as I consider my life longing for belonging and connection, and the joy I feel at this moment as I read Mirabai Starr’s book, I believe the gateway to my surrender (such as it is) was the loss of my beloved church community. Having felt for years that I had found my place of belonging , the day came when I finally realized it was no longer my spiritual home. Home must be someplace else. I grieved for many years, in many different ways, and sometimes allowed myself to “yield to my suffering” as Starr says. And a day came when I realized I was no longer looking for what I once had. I felt like I was on a new path but more likely, I was acknowledging and more deeply embracing the path I have always been walking.

“Longing may be our legacy, but wholeness is our birthright” (Starr, p 61). I’ve always known about the wholeness part and much of my life’s work has been in support of wholeness of myself and others. But I didn’t pay attention to the longing and understand its part of the process. I didn’t see that the longing may be the vehicle for discovering connection to Mystery. So it wasn’t until I lost my community that I began to experience more deeply what my search for belonging and connection was really all about.

Barbara

3/22/2018 01:04:26 am

Radical Wonderment

I am a divine doubter! (how lovely to have such a label!). Many of the people I am closest too might also be called divine doubters.
I’m not sure when I realized that doubt was a hugely important part of my path but for the last few decades I have honored this path and been grateful.
My “faith” is not one of beliefs, or not absolutes or creeds anyway. The god of my current understanding is Mystery, seemingly far from the god of my childhood.

My aunt /godmother (the 94 yo roman catholic nun) probably wishes I were a practicing roman catholic. But what she says about me is “you just love god and that’s all that matters”. I guess she sees and honors my interspiritual heart.

My absolute is that there are no absolutes! I am happiest when I feel able to live in the question and am in the company of others who also find questions more satisfying than answers.
When I have been in a church setting where the congregation is referred to as “people of faith”, I am uncomfortable when I think it implies that we all have a common belief and that we all know that god will provide.

The primary tenet of my “faith” is that god is love and love is god.

Module 14: God of Love

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