Attached media: https://www.dublinunitarianchurch.org/podcasts/300820-sermon.mp3

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211110172230/http://www.dublinunitarianchurch.org/podcasts/300820-mor1.mp3

Lectio divina is a spiritual practice based in reading—spending time enough to go deep with a sacred text. But there are many other spiritual practices based in reading—or speaking or singing—words.

What is a spiritual practice involving words that is meaningful to you?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

 I haven't done this for a while, so...

My name is Lauren Leach-Steffens, and I am 57 years old, about to turn 58 in a couple weeks. I don't feel that old unless I try to sleep on the ground while camping, and then I feel every year of that and more. When I am not writing, I teach college at a small midwestern regional university. I'm an associate professor who has had tenure for the past 15 years.

I am a writer. I write contemporary fantasy, with the philosophy that the unusual is hidden in plain sight for those who know to look. My world, which looks much the same as this one, hides preternatural beings, people with hidden talents, and legends that shape the earth for lifetimes.

I first declared myself a writer at age seven, when my third grade teacher posted my Groundhog Day poem on the classroom door. I remember going home and telling my mother I wanted to be a poet when I grew up. She asked me if I wanted to eat, and I was the sort of person who liked cookies more than just about anything. So I said "Yes," and my mother informed me that poets starved. It was then I set aside my dream of becoming a poet.

It wasn't that I quit writing. I wrote poetry and stories all throughout school. In fifth grade, I got roped into writing a poem for a high school neighbor (even though it was cheating) -- he got an A. My eighth grade English teacher collected two years' worth of poetry and gave it back to me to keep when I left eighth grade.

I wrote poems and short stories (although I know now they were more character sketches) throughout my life, even as I was working on my PhD, but I didn't make much of it. I didn't revise for publication, I didn't let people read them, I didn't publish them.

And then, five years ago, I started writing a series of short stories and character sketches around a general plot line, and my husband said, "If you're going to write all these stories about the same thing, you might as well write a novel." 

I didn't think I could. But as I started writing, I came up with a first draft. A problematic first draft that I am still revising. But then I wrote another and another.

My novels have not been published yet, but I have had short stories and poetry published and recognized -- an essay in A3 Review, poems in Sad Girl and by Riza Press, short stories that have won honorable mention by Cook Publishing and New Millennium Writings and Sunspots, to name a few. 

I have dreams -- getting one of those novels published, getting published in a more selective journal (even though I write fantasy), getting something to really brag about. But for now, I write, and I continue writing. 

The creation of a Tibetan Buddhist sand painting, or mandala, is painstaking, sacred work. And the destruction of that mandala is equally sacred work. It beautiful and requires a great deal of effort to create—and isn’t meant to last. Because that is how life is.

What practice helps you handle the transitory nature of all of life?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Please join us on Sunday (30 August 2020) at 11:00 AM for
a wonderful sermon (title to be announced later) by Rev. Barbara Jarrell.

Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here.

Because of the impact of Hurricane Laura (including the fact that many of our performing artists have no internet and no electricity), we are postponing our online Artist Sunday worship service until next week (6 September 2020).

Rev. Barbara and our worship team will be back this Sunday with yet another inspiring and thought-provoking service on a timely and needed theme.  Please join us.

We will have a  virtual coffee hour after the service on Zoom.

While we are remaining physically distant, we want to know how you are doing, what you need, and what you are interested in.  You can let us know using these online surveys.

And you can contribute to All Souls using this online resource.

Please join us for our online religious education for children and youth this Sunday (30 August 2020) — we will start this online Zoom classroom at 1:00 PM after the virtual coffee hour is over.

We begin our season of focus on Unitarian Universalist Identity with Love Surrounds Us (a Tapestry of Faith curriculum that explores all of our Unitarian Universalist principles in the context of beloved community).

We can still use your art work illustrating our principles and sources.

You can post it on the All Souls Religious Education page on Facebook or send it to Susan at dre@allsoulsshreveport.org.

We can use more illustrations of the third and fourth principles and — of course — the eighth principle too:

• How people act when they support each other and learn together
• How people act when they are free to search for truth in their own lives?
• How people act when they are working to dismantle racism and create beloved community?

Join us using the religious education Zoom link about 5 minutes after the worship service.

If you aren’t on Facebook, send Susan Caldwell an email or text her at 318-465-3427 to get into Zoom for online religious education class.

The All Souls middle and high school youth will be meeting via Zoom for religious education this Sunday (30 August 2020) at 2:00 PM.

“Ratifying the Eighth Principle” — After a check-in and some planning for the year to come, we’ll take a look at the proposed eighth principle of Unitarian Universalism and talk about introducing this to the congregation later this fall.

Please join us on Sunday (30 August 2020) at 9:15 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom.

We will continue the next series of Faith Forward — UU Theology.

UU Theology is a planned as a six-session series exploring various theological concepts through a Unitarian Universalist lens.

Each session addresses the question “What does our Unitarian Universalist tradition teach about this concept, and how does that help me clarify and act on my own beliefs?”

For this week (Session 3 – “What Are God and Spirit?”), we will continue explore the range of beliefs about God and Spirit that are encompassed within Unitarian Universalism.

Please join us next Wednesday (2 September 2020) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch.

Bring your lunch and meet up with your All Souls friends, have lunch, and just catch up.

This a chance to connect and catch up midweek.

At some point we may decide to bring in speakers but for now we’re just hanging out and enjoying each other’s virtual company.

Hope to see you there!

The Great Decisions Group is meeting online on Saturday night  (29 August 2020) at 6:00 PM.

Great Decisions is America’s largest discussion program on world affairs, sponsored by the Foreign Policy Association.

If you are interested in being a part of the group, email Melodie here and she will send you the link for the meeting.

Please join us on Saturday (29 August 2020) at 10:30 AM for our weekly meditation group with Larry Androes.

This is a sitting Buddhist meditation including a brief introduction to mindfulness meditation, 20 minutes of sitting, and followed by a weekly teaching.

The group is free and open to all.

For more information, contact Larry via email or phone using (318) 272-0014.

If you wish to join the group, please email Larry Androes for Zoom meeting link, meeting ID, and password.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services.

This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats.

For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook or have a Facebook account to view this video.

You can find the 23 August 2020 worship video here.