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Bear W. Qolezcua
April 26, 2020
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

The best laid plans… Growing up a sceptic, I questioned the faith I was told to have and why I would ever want to be a part of it. Join our R.E. Chaplain, Bear W. Qolezcua, as he speaks about atheism and the power of prayer. Where does it have a place and how can we use it when we don’t believe anyone or anything is listening?

Chalice Lighting

We light this chalice so that its flame may signify the spiritual strands of light that bind our hearts and souls with one another. Even while we must be physically apart, we bask in its warmth together.

Call to Worship

Impassioned Clay
– Ralph N. Helverson

Deep in ourselves resides the religious impulse. Out of the passions of our clay it rises. We have religion when we stop deluding ourselves that we are self-sufficient, self-sustaining, or self-derived.

We have religion when we hold some hope beyond the present, some self respect beyond our failures. We have religion when our hearts are capable of leaping up at beauty, when our nerves are edged by some dream in the heart.

We have religion when we have an abiding gratitude for all that we have received. We have religion when we look upon people with all their failings and still find in them good; when we look beyond people to the grandeur in nature and to the purpose in our own heart. We have religion when we have done all that we can, and then in confidence entrust ourselves to the life that is larger than ourselves.

Affirming Our Mission

Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.

Meditation Reading

The Book of the Good
by A C Grayling
Chapter 8, Verses 1-12

  1. Shall we ask, by what commandments should we live?
  2. Or might we better ask, each of ourselves:
  3. What kind of person should I be?
  4. The first question assumes there is one right answer.
  5. The second assumes that there are many right answers.
  6. If we ask how to answer the second question, we are answered in yet other questions:
  7. What should you do when you see another suffering, or in need, afraid, or hungry?
  8. What causes are worthy, what world do you dream of where your child plays safely in the street?
  9. There are many such questions, some already their own answer, some unanswerable.
  10. But when all the answers to all the questions are summed together, no one hears less than this:
  11. Love well, seek the good in all things, harm no others, think for yourself, take responsibility, respect nature, do your upmost, be informed, be kind, be courageous:
    At least sincerely try.
  12. Add to these ten injunctions, this:
    O friends, let us always be true to ourselves and do the best in things, so that we can always be true to one another.

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