St Lucia Spirituality Group
We are a small group in St Lucia, Brisbane that seeks to support spiritual seekers, particularly those who are nearby. Below is our recent newsletter for your information. We have a mailing list of nearly 70 and a private Facebook page with 23 members to aid sharing of information.
Greetings
As a consequence of the final Conspire conference organised by the Center for Contemplation & Action in New Mexico, we held two successful zoom meetings in October.
Our first meeting discussed the question “How do you live in the real world and take your faith
tradition seriously?” We recognised that the fastest growing denomination in Christianity today is the ‘Alumni Association’, yet the challenge before us is to live our lives with integrity if we are to remain within our tradition.
We considered Jesus’s instruction in his Sermon on the Mount: “Seek first the kingdom of God”.
However, before we can seek the “kingdom” we must first understand what Jesus meant when he used that expression – and recognise that Christian attitudes over time have not always been faithful to fulfilling that ambition for everyone. The Spanish biblical scholar, Jose Pagola, writes that the kingdom of God represents an abundant life filled with mercy and justice for everyone, now, and not just attainable after one dies.
Our second meeting looked at suffering and loss as a pathway to spiritual growth, again with
discussion in small groups. A fuller report on each of these meetings is available on our Facebook Page.
Butterfly Series – Streams of Spiritual Development
At our next meeting we shall be introduced to four different aspects of spiritual development, in
particular:
• Waking up
• Growing up
• Cleaning up and
• Showing up
John introduces these concepts in this brief video. You can also gain some insight into this model by reading Richard Rohr’s introduction here.
We shall hold our introductory meeting on Zoom at 7-8pm on Tuesday 16 November. To register, email John at jscoble@hradvantage.com.au so that he can send you the zoom link for the meeting, and remember to ensure your zoom software is up-to-date.
Our Facebook Page
The primary purpose of our newsletter is to keep you
informed about our activities, particularly through our
new and private Facebook group. The purpose of this FB
group is to provide a forum for members to share
information and promote discussion online.
We invite you to find our group by clicking on this link, it
will take you to our page where you will be able to apply
to join our private group. We shall be interested in your
comments.
If you are not a Facebook user, we can help you set up
your account with maximum privacy, you can be
anonymous and even use a nick name or an alias if you
wish, you can create a fake identity! Consult Robert or
John if you want help.
You can also contact us by email slsg4067@gmail.com.
Go well…
Robert van Mourik
oOo