"Say their Names" with Rev. Michael McMorrow
As a leading-edge Spiritual organization, not the best kept secret, we are poised with a teaching and tools to take humanity into a new paradigm of consciousness. We are invited to demonstrate this in our lives, our centers, our communities, and in the world. To do so, we must rise up!
Many cultures honor the ancestors and those who have transitioned. 911, the AIDS quilts, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), biblical genealogies are a few examples. Giving ourselves opportunities to remember, reflect, and honor Life/God as It has shown ItSelf as each person, allows their power, story, love to live on in us.
We envision a world in which we live and grow as One Global Family that respects and honors the interconnectedness of all life; a world where this kinship with all life prospers and connects through the guidance of spiritual wisdom and experience.
*Values: Respect, Remembrance, Reclaiming of our Spiritual Heritage, Cultural, Societal, Communal, etc., Honoring, Accountability of our interconnectedness
There is a Universal Mind, Spirit, Intelligence, that it the origin of everything, It is First Cause. It is God. This Universal Life and Energy finds an outlet in and through all that is energized, and through everything that lives. There is One Life back of everything that lives. There is One Energy back of all that is energized. This Energy is in everything. There is One Spirit back of all expression. That is the meaning of that mystical saying, "In Him we live, move, and have our being." ~SOM
1. First – CSL as a leading-edge teaching, honors and recognizes the contributions of those who have come before. Those who have contributed to the teaching. We recognize and celebrate them by teaching about them, by speaking their names into the room, and by consciously identifying the interconnection of them to us and us to them i.e., the connection of and to the All. To ensure the power or recognition, we actively seek and speak the names of those who have been less honored over the years namely the BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color), LGBTQIA2+ individuals, and others whose contributions are vital.
2. Second – This week also affords the powerful opportunity to honor, recognize, celebrate and bless those who have made their transition. It is an opportunity to speak about the Early Ancestors (those who have been murdered due to such things as Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Othering, Xenophobia, etc. We do so because we know the powerful healing that comes from giving space to grieve and mourn as a community. We use this opportunity to recommit to being not only an Open and Welcoming community but also an Inclusive one that Honors and Celebrates the Diversity of God as It Individualizes.
3. Third – Howard Thurman* said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” So let us ask what does the world need of CSL? What does my city and state need from those of us in this city and state? What does the world and the people in it need from me? As someone’s answered prayer, who and what am I called to be and to do, today?
Today I commit to honoring those upon whose shoulders I stand. I commit to honoring those who are my ancestors be they family, spiritual tradition, community, or another form of legacy, this includes those who have been made to be Early Ancestors. Their names and their lives impact my life as well and I honor them.
I commit to taking the necessary action in my personal life, my spiritual community, and the community where I live to rise up and demonstrate a new level of presence and creative action that ripples out from where I am and what I do.
