The Words of the Maddox Family
|
|
The Words of the Maddox Family |
We need sacred space!
As mature humans, we desire to live and interact with others authentically, giving and receiving love in healthy relationships. However, when the drama of our actual lives brings out the less than savory side of our character, it can be challenging to be authentically present with our selves or those around us.
How do we become people who can acknowledge the pain, in ourselves and others, while maintaining a vertical connection and offering? How many times have you listened to peoples complaints and tried to stay compassionate but felt inside while you were listening that it's dragging you down? Or perhaps you reach your limit and go into judgment of their complaining, hoping to shock them into having a public view of the situation. Did it work? Did they throw your words back in your face? Or did they just shut down and go find someone they could commiserate with?
To do this work of healing in relation to those in our community we need to create sacred healing space. To be a witness to the love of God is not simply to cover over or whitewash the pain and suffering that we see in people. We must somehow acknowledge the suffering heart of heaven without using it as a stick to silence people who are crying out in their own pain. We need to become a bridge to help people recognize in their own painful lives, the suffering of God.
Church can be an example of sacred space where we gather to make a connection with the Divine, have a chosen representative as officiator and even offer our lower self-issues in prayer and repentance. However, it's not set up to allow safe expression of our wounded selves in the context of our interpersonal relationships. In other words it's primarily a vertical connection to Heavenly Father. We also need an environment where we can be allowed a healthy expression of our lower self-issues without bringing harm to the people around us or be judged by others in the midst of our efforts to bring light into the dark corners of our souls.
The Following is a format we are beginning to use in the Seattle Unification fellowship.
Creating a Sacred Healing Circle could follow a format similar to this;
We first sanctify the chosen arena of expression through prayer asking God to allow us the space to examine our wounded selves and acknowledging our stated purpose to heal the different levels of relationship involved.
One couple stands in the parent role, maintaining the position and channel to True Parents and God and thus being a Witness to Gods heart and opening the Circle With prayer. Following the tradition of Hyung Jin Moon, this couple acknowledges that they are also sinners and do not have any special power, only desiring to convey and represent the sacred heart of God. Different couples can have the opportunity to lead the Sacred Healing Circle as they develop in mature relationship with each other.
Having a Couple guiding the healing process is important as this allows both the masculine and feminine aspects of God to be fully present.
Opening the circle we then give each other permission to explore our damaged relationships and can safely allow lower-self feelings to emerge without self ñ judgments or the fear of condemnation by others.
In participating in a healing circle, we start by listening, seeking to be a witness to Gods heart in the life of the person who is sharing. In learning to quiet our judgmental mind, we can allow compassion to stir inside of us.
Without judgment does not mean without evaluation, and part of the purpose of the healing circle would be examining fallen natures and how they manifest in our everyday life.
By listening to others and attempting to see them from God's viewpoint within this sacred space, we can learn to also be present with our own lower selves that we normally don't look at.
Closing with prayer to God signals the finish of our healing time together and keeps it a sacred offering.
Some issues need special consideration and it's possible to expand this healing work to include:
Recovery circles
Youth circles
Men's circles
Women's circles
In the process of doing this work we can cultivate within our character:
Listening skills, being in neutral, authentic disclosure vs story telling etc.
Benefits to the community for doing Sacred Circle Healing work:
Hidden dysfunctional relationships can be addressed before they get out of hand
Membership who do not attend church regularly can have an alternative path for community participation
Outreach- Circles do not have to be limited to regular church membership
Develop Listening skills