Spiritual Discernment for 2025

An Invitation to Create Sanctuary in Community

A sanctuary is a place or time set apart for a specific intention. This is defined by what we retain on the inside, and what we share with others. For example, we may come together to explore our spirituality in community, but we also have spiritual practices and beliefs that are focused inwardly, and we may choose to keep them private. We come together in community to learn, explore, listen, connect, share, and evolve in a safe and nourishing way with others whom we trust.

January: Sanctuary of Inclusion: Inclusion means welcoming the strange, which may involve ideas, people, images, language, approaches, etc. Inclusion can create space to share our oneness in diversity. Can we take this opportunity to relax our identities and see the places we may be stuck in our self-definition?

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February: Sanctuary for the Divine: A house of worship is a Sanctuary for the Divine. How does it differ from any other building? How do we make it a sanctuary with our presence and our stewardship? How do we keep it safe and inviting, and also encourage exploration and diversity? The Divine also abides in the Sanctuary of the human heart, and in the relations between creatures. In what ways do we help each other nourish the Sanctuary of our own heart?

March: Sanctuary for Transformation: Transformation occurs in many different ways. Experiences transform our lives; ideas and concepts evolve and help us understand and integrate our experiences and the experiences of others. Relationships with others transform us. How is this Sanctuary transformative? How do we encourage healthy and positive transformation without exerting pressure?

April: Sanctuary for Healing: It is our stated mission to be a place of healing. There is much to be healed, both individual and collective trauma, but also the universal suffering of our human condition. Ways of healing include both active processing (e.g. speaking & being heard), or simply being welcomed warmly and accepted until one is ready to engage. Perhaps our role is to provide support for each other to find our own personal approach. There is much that can be done through simple awareness and open-heartedness. Can our personal experiences and the knowledge we have gained from them help us to help one another?

May: Sanctuary for Engaged Listening: It is part of our mission to be a school. Perhaps not simply an academic institution (though we sometimes are that), but a place for exploration, like the agora or Lyceum of the Greek philosophers, or the yeshiva of the rabbis. The key to learning is engaged listening and studying. How can we cultivate this practice? How can we find ways of inviting and listening to ideas outside our normal frame of reference?

June: Sanctuary for Refuge: In the past, cathedrals or cities of refuge provided safety from legal persecution. Even now, religious institutions sometimes shelter refugees, or create barriers to arrest. We can also provide a space safe from social persecution, and a haven for free thought. This is as much a question of what we keep out as what we let in. How do we dance this border with integrity and love? The concept of taking refuge is present in all spiritual traditions. This refuge can be a safe space for sharing our happiness and sorrow with others. We build community brick by brick through our interactions. Can we find ways to make this an integral part of the spiritual path?

July: Sanctuary for Preservation: Just like a nature preserve, we function as a repository for transmitted wisdom, collective memory, and blessing. How can we improve our connection with our ancestors and our progeny as we participate in a conversation with the Past and the Future?

August: Sanctuaries in Time: Sanctuaries exist not only in space, but in time. Examples are Shabbat, Sunday worship, and Salat/Jum’ah. How does our temporal rhythm support our spiritual progress? How do these special times provide refuge, inspiration, and safety?

September: Sanctuary of Nature: In our highly artificial built environment, we crave wildness. In our information-rich world, we crave the empty space for free thought. How can we nurture and work with this deep desire? Honoring the natural world of spiritually alive, sentient beings, we seek to stay connected with the natural world through our worship and around our building. What lessons about life can we learn from nature? “The holiest of holy books is the book of nature.” ~Inayat Khan

October: Sanctuary for the Self: We often need a personal sanctuary, a haven from our outer life, whether that means our work, our social life, or our relationships. It’s difficult to integrate spiritual experiences when we are overwhelmed by ‘the World’. Creating sanctuary for ourself means allowing ourselves time and space to develop an inner calm in the face of a world in crisis. How can we create places of solace and retreat, contemplation and prayer?

November: Sanctuary that Functions as a Sacred Space to perform Religious Rites and Ceremonies. Rites of passage in life are important and need to be marked in a sacred way. Understanding and facing death in new ways has also been a feature of our Sanctuary as we consider the integration of life and death as one continuous spiritual journey. Can we find old and new ways to enrich our lives and transitions through community ritual?

December: A Complete Sanctuary of Community: How does this community help us grow in awareness, understanding, acceptance, harmony and love? We have talked about the next Buddha as the Sangha (community), and about the prophetic community. What is the community level version of the spiritually aware or realized human being? What is the growing edge of our service? What is the essence of this community?

2024 Spiritual Discernment

In 2024, our spiritual discernment will be Making a Home for the Mystic Heart
(Maintaining an Environment for Spiritual Practice).
Our main source of inspiration for this year is Interspiritual Meditation by Edward W. Bastian. In this book, he points out the necessity for our spiritual practices to be performed in a context of intention and wisdom that supports and informs them. He outlines a series of steps we can take to help integrate our practice, wisdom, and daily life.
We can consider each of these steps in a personal, communal, or universal domain. Also, as particular independent practices or as elements in a ritual sequence.

JANUARY: Making a Home
Why do we need a context for practice? How might we design one? Remember to consider this on both the level of each of our individual paths and on the level of our congregational practice.