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 Renewal this month are:

And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer. ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

How does each of the seasons affect your sense of renewal? 

 

I couldn’t imagine living in a state that didn’t reach the ocean. It was a giant reset button. You could go to the edge of the land and see infinity and feel renewed. ― Avery Sawyer, Young Adult novelist

What do you turn to for renewal?

 

Hope is not pretending that troubles don’t exist. It is the trust that they will not last forever, that hurts will be healed and difficulties overcome. It is faith that a source of strength and renewal lies within to lead us through the dark into the sunshine.  —Elizabeth Muriel Chase was a Zimbabwean field hockey player and member of the national team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Have you experienced a time when this statement was true for you? 

 

I really think that’s the key, part of the spiritual renewal that America needs to have, the notion that we really can have confidence in a better tomorrow. — Carol Moseley Braun

What would America’s spiritual renewal look like to you? How confident are you that it could happen?