Our Monthly Spiritual Themes guide our Chalice Circles, which are small, intentional groups of members and friends that gather for spiritual enrichment through personal sharing. For more information on Chalice Circles, please email chalicecircles@uuprinceton.org. Our Chalice Circle thoughts and questions around the theme of Courage this month are:

“Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work, a future… To be courageous is to seat our feelings deeply in the body and in the world: to live up to and into the necessities of relationships that already exist, with things we find we already care deeply about…” – David Whyte

Can you think of an example of how your life, those you love, or the world calls you to act with courage? If not, feel free to respond with a different idea of what courage means to you.

 

“And then it struck me: Maybe being brave enough doesn’t mean lessening my fear, but listening to it.” – Amanda Gorman

When your goal is to meet a situation with courage, do you find it is helpful to allow yourself to listen to or feel your fear?

 

“Nothing is more vital to the capacity for change …than the courageous willingness to outgrow your views, anneal your values, and keep clarifying your priorities. Changing – your mind, your life – requires giving something up – a way of seeing, a way of being…” – Maria Popova

Have there been times in your life when you realized that becoming your “best self” also meant letting go of “a way of seeing or being”?

 

“They will discover that when we reach beyond the confines of narrow interest, our hearts become filled with strength.” – 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet (Tenzin Gyatso)

When has your heart filled with strength? What did you do?