in community

Here are some quotes from Addiction and Grace (Gerald May, 1988) that reminds me of what I feel we achieved in Ruah, and with effort, what we may continue to achieve:

"The power of grace is nowhere as brilliant nor as mystical as in communities of faith. Its power includes not just love that comes from people and through people, but love that pours forth among people, as if through the very spaces between one person and the next. Just to be in such an atmosphere is to be bathed in healing power.

...
But like individuals, groups can become consecrated. With grace, they can become dedicated to their shared heart's desire for God, committed to the holy spaciousness through which grace shines most brilliantly. They can admit their collective temptation to fill the space with some object of attachment, to make an idol of a cause or of a charismatic leader or of a frozen image of God. When the members of a group consecrate themselves to God above these and all other idolatries, even above the idolatry of their own togetherness, they become a community of faith. Consecration does not make the community perfect, any more than our own consecrations make us perfect as individuals. But it claims the community's desire for perfection and, more important, its willingness to be transformed." p. 173

RUAH Blogs

I agree with sentiments recently expressed through e-mails that this blog will best serve us as a private watering hole for RUAH VII companions (and faculty), a place to check in with each other and express ourselves personally, inside jokes and all.

Also, fyi, both JB and Laura said they are cool with having the videos for their charades performances posted here, so I'll leave them up unless there any other concerns.

"Peace"

HP

Book Idea: "Lamb - The Gospel According to Biff"

I call "Lamb" a book idea instead of a recommendation because it definitely is not for everyone. Reading the review and comments offered at amazon.com will help you discern whether or not this satire is more likely to inspire a closer relationship with God or upset you. One review criticizes the book for its "frat boy humor", which is understandable, for the book is certainly full of humor of the "frat boy" genre, which may be sophomoric and borish to some. Understanding this, we are who we are as a product of our life experiences, and so I will long carry various frat boy rythms in me. In this light, but also with consideration for a broader attraction to sarcastic, semi-irreverent humor, this book spoke to me at an important stage of my journey and helped me relate to the humanity of Christ on familiar terms, thereby inspiring greater measures of my affection for God. My sense is that God "dances us in" to ever-closer, experiential relations through multiple beats (humor included) that involve every instrument in his band. For me, author Christopher Moore strums a compelling guitar.

Amazing Sights!

It is a mystery how these videos get on a blog but hey! Aren't they funny? How often do we get a look at ourselves acting like "uh Jesus? uh Scarecrow? uh the Lord?" Too Much!

Julie the pictures are so good! Thank you so much. I am going to have my daughter print them out on her real photo copier.

Loved the Rilke quote Harold. Sing on!
Laura

I Made It!

Wow! I am finally on! When I was at work, the videos wouldn't run. But, now I am at home, I can see them in their full and funny glory! I wanted to let you-all know, too, that I have just finished reading the book J.B. mentioned by Emilie Griffin, Clinging. It was very good. I can highly recommend it to everyone. She does a very good job of describing the experience of prayer. I found it very nourishing to my prayer life. If someone has trouble finding a copy, let me know and you can borrow mine. I hope everyone is well!
Much love and peace,
Janine :-)

Sea Creature

We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine,
We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine

Sing it Paul.

What really happened in California?

Note: I am aware and respectful of the fact that our RUAH journey included an implicit covenant that "what's shared in RUAH stays in
RUAH" and that people beyond our fellowship may at some point be visiting this site. If any among you feel like posting this video is a
violation of that covenant, scarecrows and submarines included, please say so. Once this group has its fun I intend to take this down as I believe that some of the most delight full aspects of our experiences together are best left to others' imaginations.

Separated at Birth?

I added a list

Ok Folks: I'm just experimenting here so I added a list where we can post our favorite readings. You will see the list called OUR FAVORITE READINGS at the top of the column on the right hand side of the page. I added a book which I haven't read yet but a number of people have said it is excellent. I just ordered it through a used book store since it is no longer in publication. JBE

Site Administrator Information

RUAH Companions,


I was very excited to start this blog and look forward to being an active poster and commenter, but will not be able to serve in an administrator/editor role. And so I need to clear out to make room for anyone who may be so inclined (Julie? smile) to lend their creative energies to keeping things moving. Of course, I am happy to share what I know about operating the site and will lend support to anyone who needs some help with posting and commenting.

For anyone interested in exploring an administrator role with this site, you may access this capacity using the following logon and password:

Login I.D.: ruah_vii@yahoo.com
Password: companion


Recognizing the potential to do something special here, Ginny and I have talked about the possibility of devoting some retreat time to discussing how this blog, in addition to being a place where we stay connected, could be used to support the development/story-sharing efforts of Richmond Hill. That said, my sense is that the emphasis should be on maintaining a safe space to express ourselves in fellowship with one another, not on "marketing", per se.

Peace Out.

HP

It just got ugly...

Great way to stay connected!

I LOVE this new means to stay in touch with each other! The creative charades of Saturday evening really seemed to cement our trust and thus our deep spiritual connection with each other! And YES - LAUGHTER is definately the best medicine! I love the idea of posting thoughts, readings, poems, etc. etc. once a week! I have already found one I wanted to post - Next time - It is way past my bedtime now! I had to try this out! This is VERY new to me!! Hugs to each of you...

favorite moment

The weekend for me was unexpectedly good. I thought it would be kind of sad and kind of "ok let's get the difficult goodbyes over". I remember saying at breakfast Saturday -- wow, this has already been a great weekend! And think of all that was to come.

A period of time that stands out in my mind-- I was musing on it today-- was the free time that we companions had together. I don't know about the rest of you but it felt natural and peaceful to me. Laura's gift of song was beautiful and my opportunity to gift you all was meaningful to me. Even at one point when we moved into silence it felt totally comfortable.

And that group hug at the ceremony! So spontaneous.

Thank you all.

laughter IS great medicine

I tend to be a cup-half-empty person. Much of the weekend I struggled with the impending loss of monthly RUAH weekends. But I want to thank you recent post-ers for the hilarious email exchanges. I have laughed out loud so much. I have felt your presence with me. I've been able to celebrate!

Blog Questions

Please use the comments feature below in response to this post to ask questions and offer ideas about the blog. This way all companions will be able to participate in the conversations and learn from whatever comes up. As shared previously, if there is need for it, we can connect soon via conference calls in order to bring everyone up to speed. I think you will find that if you invest just a little time up front to learn the basics of posting and commenting here, you will have a good time and as our journey continues we will be able to do something special with this community. My observation is that we all left Richmond Hill with some very special bonds that we will not soon have an opportunity to create again. What a gift we have given each other! Let's hold onto it.


from "Let Your Life Speak", by Parker Palmer......

The German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, has a little book called Letters to a Young Poet, one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. In that book he has a definition of love which astounds me. I want to quote it because it's the kind of thing I'm trying to communicate about being together in our inner work. Rilke says. " Love is this...that two solitudes border, protect, and salute one another." He avoids the invasive and violent notion of getting in there and fixing each other up that we have in our culture. But he affirms the possibility of being present to a person's solitude, a person's mystery, while that deep inner work goes on.

Photos (from Theresa)

not-great photos; imagine someone will be posting better ones
these from Mom's camera & hence her viewpt

Congratulations (from Mark)

I had a lot of Dad duties on Sunday and did not make it to graduation. I wanted to say congratulations. Anecdotally, you all looked so at peace with yourselves when I saw you. Gail shared with me that the journey continued deeper and deeper in the second year. I really regret not seeing where that went. I hope that you all stay in touch. I really enjoy hearing about the “epiphanies” revealed on individual faith journeys and I hope you email me with any insights that you see.

Group Hug (Julie)

Dear Ruah VII Companions and Faculty,

If you're feeling like me, you're still high from a fantastic graduation weekend.

I couldn't resist sending this photo full of love that Devon took. I turned it into a watercolor.

I miss you all.

Love,
julie

ps if anyone wants a larger version, let me know. This one is 414k, the original is 1.5 mb