June Spiritual Theme – Calling

By Rev. Bill

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 Linda Benson at chalicecircles@uuprinceton.org. Our Chalice Circle thoughts and questions around the theme of Calling this month are:

“I believe there’s a calling for all of us. I know that every human being has value and purpose. The real work of our lives is to become aware. And awakened. To answer the call.” ― Oprah Winfrey
When have you felt like you’ve answered the call?

“If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.” ― Émile Zola
Who in your life seems to “live out loud?” What does it look and feel like?

“It makes me happier, more secure, to think that I do not have to plan and manage everything for myself, that I am only a sword made sharp to smite the unclean forces, an enchanted sword to cleave and disperse them.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Does it seem like your calling, or one of your callings, serves a force or presence greater than you? What does that offer you?

“Today I understand vocation quite differently- not as a goal to be achieved but as a gift to be received. Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess. Vocation does not come from a voice “out there” calling me to become something I am not. It comes from a voice “in here” calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.” ― Parker J. Palmer
How can you imagine calling to be a gift? What does it give you?