One Today

The Franciscan Spiritual Center has had a lot of activity this past month.  At the beginning of the month our Women's Awareness group focused on ZENTANGLE which is an art form that allows you to freely create beautiful patterns in a quiet meditative manner.  The tag line they use  is anything is possible one stroke at a time.  Visit the Zentangle website to learn more about this meditative form of art.  Mary Whalen is shown below teaching us this simple process and there is also  a composite showing the  end result of the participants   As you can see from the picture we had energetic participants but our youngest participant chose to simply enjoy the peace and quiet that flowed from our hearts.

In addition to this art form there was a Tai Chi Chih weekend led by Sr. Antonia Cooper, OSF.  The graceful movement of our participants filled the world with deep peace.  I hope you were able to feel some of it.  We also hosted a retreat week for Georgetown University, a Tai Chi Chih teacher's intensive, and a men's retreat for a local parish.

The prayer that flowed from our little center in these first weeks of the year were magnified by the prayers of our  nation at the inauguration of Barack Obama.  It was an important week, a time of re-commitment  and a time of reawakening the dream of "We The People".  The part that touched my heart the most  was the poem by Richard Blanco entitled One Today.  If you haven't heard it or want a copy visit this website.

Audio and Text of the Richard Blanco Inaugural Poem

It was a poem that touched every aspect of our American Life and reflected the diversity and the hopes of "We The People".  It reminded us that we are all in this together, one community moving together through each day, one community of hope.  May that hope and that desire for unity be evident in our Congress as we try to work for the common good of all peoples and, if it is not, may we let our voices be heard.