April 2021
Dear Boundless Compassion facilitators,
So much wonderful energy is now flowing through the connections within the BCF Groups. I am gaining a lot of hope-filled information from the summaries that the Core Team leaders have sent to me. Thank you to all who have participated in the Zoom meetings and for the variety of ways you are integrating and sharing the foundational components of Boundless Compassion. I find myself amazed at how you’ve been able to do this in spite of the pandemic.
I think that I may not been clear enough regarding BCF Groups and participation in them. Every BCF is required to participate because this is now the central way of communication between the BC program and the facilitators. If for some significant reason, you are unable to be present at a scheduled BCF Group Zoom meeting, you will then provide a summary of your current situation and activities for your leader. This can be in the form of a written response, (your leader will send this form to you), a phone call or virtual communication directly with the BCF Group leader. Your response will then be included with the quarterly summary sent to me. Missing a Zoom meeting entails more time and energy for the leader. So please, out of compassion, do all you can to be an active member of your BCF Group via Zoom.
What to do with so many resources and options in the newsletters? I share these with you so you can gain ideas of what you might be able to use as a facilitator. My suggestion is that you create files on your digital device, title each file with one of the six weeks’ themes of BC, along with a file for articles. When a song, quote, etc. that you consider worthy of keeping is included in the newsletter you can place it in one of these files for possible future use.
And now, to proceed to the current programs, activities and a few suggested resources.
with gratitude for each of you,
Joyce
Kinship Day for BC Facilitators Re-scheduled (In-person)
October 2nd 2021 (Saturday) BCF Kinship Day Benet House, Rock Island, IL
This will be a renewal day that includes strengthening relationships with one another through our connectedness with Boundless Compassion. The day will include ritual, brief presentations, quiet reflection, dialogue, and time to enjoy one another’s presence, share ideas, etc. More information will follow in upcoming newsletters. For now, if you plan to come, be sure to save the day on your calendar. If you want overnight accommodations at Benet House, please contact: [email protected] or 309-283-2218 to reserve a room.
Four Day BC Retreats
Please encourage participation in the following through your programs, newsletters and personal contacts.
June 20 – 24 (In person) Patty Forsberg & Jeanne Johnson,
St. Benedict’s, Schuyler, NE
July 18 – 23 (Zoom) Mary Dean Pfahler SND, The Well Spirituality Center, LaGrange Park IL
Oct 29 – Nov. 2 (In person) Bobbi Bussan, OSB & Joan Doherty, Benet House, Rock Island, IL
Facilitator Training Workshops (Both will be led by Joyce)
June 25 St. Benedict’s, Schuyler, NE
Nov. 3 Benet House, Rock Island, IL
Self Compassion & Yoga Retreat
I overlooked including Heather Smith’s Yoga retreat in my last regular monthly e-newsletter. Please do what you can to publicize this on your Facebook page or any other virtual mode of communication, or personal contact. Thank you for doing so.
April 30-May 1, 2021 Friday 5:00-7:00 p.m. PDT Saturday 9:00a..m.- 4:00 p.m.PDT. Hosted /presented by Heather Smith Yoga (via Zoom) San Diego, CA Information Registration
My Walk With Grief
BCF, Elaine K. Olson, has just published a memoir. This book is about Elaine’s ten-year search for identity and love after living in the shadows as a pastor’s wife for thirty years, eventually marrying an agnostic who embodies God’s grace. This memoir will inspire readers to seek new identities after significant loss or transition, encouraging them to grieve deeply, live fully, and rediscover love and the largeness of God’s embrace. For sales Publisher
New programs by BCF on the Website
The following will be added to the BCF site by May 1st. If you are planning workshops, retreats or presentations, I encourage you to visit the site from time to time. More and more BCF are sharing their creative endeavors for other facilitators to use.
(1) PowerPoint for Three Session BC Program
This BC program was created and led by Michelle Mehan via zoom. There were 3 sessions of 90 minutes each. Every session included a PowerPoint Presentation. These presentations are listed on the website as follows: Session 1 of 3 Sessions, Session 2 of 3, Session 3 of 3 Sessions.
(2) Two Weekend BC Retreat
Donna Nordang divided the BC Four Day retreat into two weekends to accommodate those who cannot get away for four successive days. The entire outline for the two weekends is included in this file.
Website Updated Email and Postal Addresses on BCF Profiles
By the end of this month, most of the updated email addresses on the BCF Profiles will be posted. The remaining updated ones will be added in May. There are also several facilitators who have decided to end their certification and involvement with BC. Their names have been taken off the list. Here are the updated email addresses if you want to change them on your personal contact list:
Gisele Bauche [email protected]
Elena Bunnell [email protected]
Susan Coale [email protected]
Bunny Flick [email protected]
Jill Foltz [email protected]
Michelle Mehan [email protected]
Donna Nordang [email protected]
Marianna Nwankwo [email protected]
Patricia Valderama [email protected]
Kate Woolf [email protected]
Silvia Bereczki and Marcelle Marion have new postal addresses. You can find these on the website after April 30th.
Resources
Mary Dean Pfahler introduced our Core Team to this resource: The One Year Mark: Ritual + Accompaniment Through the Pandemic Portal. It was developed by the Nuns and Nones, a collaboration of women religious and young adults who are “spiritual but not religious.” There’s an excellent article by Adam Horowitz. here is the introduction:
“Arundhati Roy accurately likened this time of pandemic to a portal, an invitation to pass from this world to something else. In her words, “pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
Perhaps enough of us can pass through the portal with the clear-seeing and resolve needed to make another world possible. If we choose, we can claim COVID-19 as a collective rite of passage into a more just and loving world.
Unlike a traditional rite of passage, no one is holding this container for us. But, any one of us can create moments of ritual and reflection in our own lives and communities, with the goal of emerging on the other side of pandemic with deeper courage, compassion, and commitment. Adam’s full article and our ritual resource guide can offer some starting points, juicy questions, and experimental prompts for the weeks and months ahead.”
(I’m hoping that some of our facilitators will develop programs and rituals centered on the topic of grief. This is much needed but especially due to the pandemic and its consequences.)
Compassion Theme for Vacation Bible School
For those working with youth: Michelle Mehan recommends the following program. The company Illustrated Ministry created a virtual five day VBS program on compassion. It is being released again this year.
Song on Video O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
This song was written by George Matheson, a Scottish minister and hymn writer who became blind while studying for the ministry. At age 20, he was engaged to be married but when he broke the news to his fiancée about his impending blindness, she decided she could not go through life with a blind husband. This song could be used with the theme of compassion and suffering. Video includes lyrics. (you need to scroll down the page to get the video)
Great Metaphor to describe Resilience (for Week 3, Suffering)
(from a talk by Dr. Ira Byock, Love and Resilience at the Contemplative Care Summit. Dr. Ira Byock author of Dying Well, is a leading medical authority and public advocate for improving care through the end of life. He is founder and chief medical officer of the Institute for Human Caring. Dr. Byock has been involved in hospice and palliative care since 1978.)
“This brings us to resilience. We need to be honest and acknowledge that this has been a truly traumatic year for all of us. I, and so many of my colleagues and friends, are on the front lines of healthcare. It is a terrible experience. … I used to think that resilience was like a steel I-beam that holds up to any gale, any force of nature. But I’ve come, in my maturity, to understand resilience as being more akin to rivers. I’m a fly fisherman, and I love spending time in the rivers of the Northwest of America. I live in Montana and every spring I see how the rivers that I fish have faced new obstacles. There’s been storms that have changed their course—trees have fallen. Sometimes there have been backups, so that while bodies of water that weren’t there the year before are now there. The rivers somehow always find their way through. Sometimes they’ve been diverted, sometimes they’ve had to change course. But their destination remains constant. As I walk the banks or float the rivers it’s apparent to me how inherently creative, opportunistic, and steadfast rivers are. Those have become the qualities of resilience that are meaningful to me, not denying the challenges, not pushing away the pain, the loss, the obstacles that life puts in front of me. But remaining resilient, aware of destinations, aware of what matters most…. The lessons that 2020 and early 2021 continue to teach us is to keep our hearts open and remember to breathe, to be kind and generous with one another and to ourselves.”
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Here is how you can locate BCF files: www.joycerupp.com
Boundless Compassion Facilitators, click on this and log in.
Go to: BCF Resources and click on it; this takes you to: BCF Programs
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Let us open our hearts to admit all humanity.
At the touch of the divine, let us resound
with every generous thought, every human affection;
let us learn to find in each soul
the point at which it is still in touch with the Infinite, with God.
(My Soul Rejoices, Elisabeth Leseur, Frenchwoman, 1861-1914)
