A Message from Rev. Suzelle 

Life is a journey — a physical one, and a spiritual one! Our Soul Matters question for the month of March is “What does it mean to be people of the journey?” To journey is to engage in the practices of patient change, courageous growth, and pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage is a powerful word — in religious parlance, a pilgrim is person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons. In the literary sense, a pilgrimage is “life viewed as a journey.” For Unitarian Universalists, life itself is that sacred place to which and through which we journey.

In the UU Orientation class, we invite folks to reflect on questions about their spiritual journey. I thought you might find these questions interesting! Every time I see them, I think, “Wow, we could base a whole spirituality class or Soul Circle around these!” I’d love to lead that class or circle — let me know if you’d like to join in that journey with me.

Here are the questions — I’ll share one of my answers, too.

  1. Life functions in space. What is a place where a significant religious/spiritual experience happened for you?
  2. All life is meeting others. Who is someone who had an impact on your religious or spiritual feelings and ideas?
  3. Experiences shape our religious faith. What was one formative experience you’ve had in your life and why was it important to you? Did it support or change your beliefs about God, Spirit, death, the afterlife, etc.?
  4. We live in communities. What religious community (church, synagogue, mosque, sangha, study group, etc.) has had a lasting influence on your life’s development?
  5. We human beings are choosing creatures. Think of an important decision in your life and what it meant to you, how the decision was made and the result.
  6. Life is made of joy and sorrow. List a happy experience and a sad one. How have these experiences impacted you spiritually?

Here’s one of my answers to Question 2. In a recent sermon (“Can You Be a UU All by Yourself?”) I mentioned a born-again Christian friend with whom I used to talk about life, the universe and everything. This friend — Liz Jones — worked with me in the corporate world. She was pretty conservative, and I was very liberal, yet we were kindred spirits in our belief that life simply had to have greater meaning than “earning and spending.” It was my conversations with Liz that inspired me to stop “being a UU by myself” and go back to church. Her openness and generosity of spirit sent me in a direction that changed my life profoundly.

Where are you on your spiritual journey? Thank you for making UUCW part of it!

Blessings to you,

Suzelle

The Rev. Suzelle Lynch, Minister