May 2021
Dear Boundless Compassion facilitators,
Here we are in the month of May. Summer is before us. As we slowly move out of the pandemic, opportunities will become apparent in how you might be more involved in offering presentations, group studies, retreats, workshops, etc. If you’ve not already done so, I hope you are dreaming of future options and how you will invite others to grow and deepen in compassion. Once again, this newsletter offers a variety of resources to assist you with these plans. Also, your BCF Group leader is available to help you with concerns, uncertainties, or questions you might have as you prepare for these events.
I wonder if you know how something you share as a BCF can influence another person to want to grow in being compassionate. Recently, I received a request from a person inquiring about the BCF Training Workshop in June. She wrote, “Kateri had a Circle of Compassion gathering in which I participated. I found it wonderful. It is because of that experience I’d like to learn more about the facilitator program with possible integration into a couple of my university classes.” (So never doubt that your presence and actions can make a difference.)
And now, to proceed to the current programs, activities and a few suggested resources.
with gratitude for each of you,
Joyce
Grief Resources
This seems the opportune time to look at how we can be more attentive to the grief residing within both individuals and society due to the pain and loss resulting from the pandemic. Our BC Core Team has been reflecting on this. The following are a few of the numerous resources on grief available via the internet.
During their upcoming BC Four Day retreat, Patty Forsberg and Jeanne Johnson will be using this powerful article from the NY Times as a PowerPoint Presentation when they present “Compassion and Suffering.”
Bobbi Bussan registered with David Kessler’s website on the topic of grief and has begun watching free videos she received with her registration. There’s a wealth of excellent information and compassion on this site that can be accessed through these videos.
Ritual of Grief for Medical Staff
Erin Matteson shared a beautiful ritual that chaplain Peggy Kelley prepared for the staff at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in CA. This ritual could be adapted by anyone whose work is connected with medical staffs. If you would like to have a copy of this you can contact me: ([email protected])
“Re-Meeting the Self: A Thoughtshop Exploring Losses and Blessings of the Pandemic.”
Stella DeVenuta suggests participating in this 40 minute webinar with poet Rosemerry Trommer. (Coming soon… May 11th. ) She will “read poems that help us to name our griefs, meet them and honor how they have shaped us. She will also share poems that explore silver linings and small blessings. With each poem, she’ll offer prompts for writing on your own.”
Videos
Mary Dean Pfahler facilitated our recent Core Team meeting by using this tender video. The music by Tim Fain is sung by Sleeping at Last. The song’s soothing melody and the compassionate message could be used with most any BC gathering. The lyrics are included with the video. Here are the lines I especially like: “There is hope in our eyes when we truly see each other. We are sacred, we are strong…”
Poetry Films
National Public Radio’s program “On Being” with Krista Tippett has produced Poetry Films. Here are several of them you may want to visit and possibly find useful.
Other Areas of Interest
Many of you have read one or more of Greg Boyle’s books, so you know what a deeply compassionate man he is from his work with those on the margins of life, especially young people in gangs. Ken Larson alerted me to a virtual event on Saturday, May 22nd with Fr. Boyle. It is part of of Stillpoint’s Speaker Series: 10:00 a.m. (PST), Saturday, May 22, 2021; Free Registration.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fr-greg-boyle-stillpoints-speaker-series-zoom-free-registration-150145829217
What Does “Tough Compassion” Look Like in Real Life? by Elizabeth Svoboda
This article reminds me of China Galland’s “Fierce Compassion.” Svoboda presents an important dimension of compassion: “Tough compassion means speaking up, setting boundaries, and making uncomfortable choices for the greater good.” (We definitely need to be including this when we give presentations on compassion.)
How to Encourage Participation
Jane Trasowech has a great suggestion for facilitators who choose to offer a BC Book Study group. Jane decided to send out personal invitations via postal mail to those she thought might be interested (from her church and other organizations). It paid off with the result of a good response and enthused participants.
BCF Enrichment Gatherings
In the last news, I mentioned what you might do in organizing the many resources and options offered in past newsletters. The next step involves how to use them. Wendy Mospan and Colleen Shephard will be inviting you to join a new group they are forming to share ideas and suggest ways to incorporate some of these resources into your events. I think it’s going to be a valuable opportunity to inspire both practical and creative ventures. You’ll learn more about this in a special newsletter that will be sent to you later this month.
Re-visiting the Idea of Morphogenic Fields
The following items that I’ve come across recently reminded me of a morphogenic field and the connection with compassion. It’s good to review this concept from time to time so that we continue to trust in the effect and strength of compassion the more it is lived and shared.
Remember what a morphogenic field is?
“It is a field of information, a non-material region of influence that structures the energy of a system. Fields of invisible but identifiable forces form a collective memory upon which all organisms draw and to which they contribute.” (Rupert Sheldrake)
Here’s one thing that caught my attention
(I found it in a precious book by scientist Aimee Nezhukumatathil, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, 2020, Milkweed Editions.)
“There’s a spot over Lake Superior where migrating butterflies veer sharply. No one understood why they made such a quick turn at that specific place until a geologist finally made the connection: a mountain rose out of the water in that exact location thousands of years ago. These butterflies and their offspring can still remember a mass they’ve never seen, sound waves breaking just so, and fly out of the way. How did they pass on this knowledge of the invisible? Does this message transmit through the song they sing to themselves on their first wild nights, spinning inside a chrysalis? Or in the music kissed down their backs as they crack themselves open to the morning sun? Does milkweed whisper instructions to them as it scatters in the meadow?”
Recall what Judy Cannato wrote in Field of Compassion:
…British biologist Rupert Sheldrake proposes that systems are surrounded by non-visible fields that carry information or memory from one generation to the next, thus making a new behavior pattern easier to learn. The hypothesis of morphic resonance (the influence of like upon like) suggest that the human person and the systems to which humans belong are much more than what can be measure by standard empirical procedures. We are not merely personalities contained in a defined body, like water carried in a bucket. Rather, the human person is a field of energy and information rooted in the body but extending out from the body, interacting with the energy and information of others. None of us is a discreet, separate unit, but an integrated system of interactions and relationships connected to all.
We live in a world of grace, and as we more consciously receive grace, each of us becomes a Field of Compassion. Each one of us becomes open to love a little more completely, and then love pours out of us and into the world. As we become free, others experience freedom in our presence and can choose to be open to love, too. This is our life work, our great work, what the Universe asks and what this moment in time demands. Our work requires all that we have become and all that we are becoming. It requires a “yes” that at one moment may be whole-hearted and the next tentative and unsure. But together our “yes” is empowering. Let us imagine the grace, then, hold it in our hearts and manifest, one day at a time, a Field of Compassion.”
The more compassion we embrace and activate, the stronger the field of compassion there will be.
Finally: (The following could be used when speaking of morphogenic fields or when presenting Metta meditation.)
“A thought”, Teilhard de Chardin says, “a material improvement, a unique nuance of human love, the enchanting complexity of a smile or glance—the spiritual success of the universe is bound up with the release of every possible energy in it.” We say a kind word, we sit and remember and reflect, and nobody sees this, nobody knows, but a love is released, a momentary goodness, and it joins with the love and creativity and energy released by all the other thoughts and acts and feelings going on every minute, every second, and these come together and gather force. Evolution is still going on, the universe is still growing and expanding, and everything is becoming more intricate, more complex.
“Before we pray,” Anthony de Mello says, “we should seek this disposition: that we embark upon this exercise not for ourselves alone but for the welfare of creation, of which we are a part, and that any transformation we experience will redound to the benefit of the world.”
This is the hardest thing to believe, and the most freeing. That what we think and feel matters. That the inner life is as real as the outer, and finally even more so. That somehow we are all connected.
(Light When It Comes, Chris Anderson)
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.
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
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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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Grief work is soul work. It requires courage to face the world ss it is and not turn away, to not burrow into a hole of comfort and anesthetization. Grief deepens our connection with soul, taking us into territories of vulnerability, exposing the truth of our need for others in times of loss and suffering. … Grief also reveals the undeniable reality of our bond with the world. …It is grief that moves us in the direction of contact, toward the helping hands and embrace of others. We need grief in order to heal these traumas and make sense of a world turned upside down.
The Wild Edge of Sorrow, Francis Weller
