- Practices
- Honoring Our Pain
- Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes
- Emerging Facilitators
- Facilitators
Two Litanies
from chapter 13 of Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown; second edition, published 2014. Please acknowledge the source when you use any of these practices.
These litanies can be used anywhere in a workshop that a centering ritual is needed, for example, before or following intense practices in Honoring Our Pain, or transitioning to Seeing With New Eyes. They are often done as responsive readings, with the guide reading the major sections and the rest of the group responding at key moments, according to the script.
We Have Forgotten Who We Are
The following reading from the UN Environmental Sabbath can be done as a responsive reading, or by passing it around the group, with everyone reading the next sentence as it comes to them. A meditation bell might be rung after each “We have forgotten who we are.”
We have forgotten who we are
We have alienated ourselves from the unfolding of the cosmos
We have become estranged from the movements of the earth
We have turned our backs on the cycles of life.
We have forgotten who we are.
We have sought only our own security
We have exploited simply for our own ends
We have distorted our knowledge
We have abused our power
We have forgotten who we are.
Now the land is barren
And the waters are poisoned
And the air is polluted.
We have forgotten who we are.
Now the forests are dying
And the creatures are disappearing
And humans are despairing.
We have forgotten who we are.
We ask forgiveness
We ask for the gift of remembering
We ask for the strength to change
We have forgotten who we are.
We Journey Together
The universe unfolds through a continuous process of breakdown, chaos, and spontaneous eruptions into new levels of order and meaning. This process occurs in every manifestation of life: the stars, the planets, earth, the continents, the oceans, plants, animals, humans.
In our human world, the old forms are breaking down and chaos threatens to annihilate everything. But, like the universe, we too will erupt into new levels of order and meaning. Consciousness is our unique reflection of the universe. We are the universe in a conscious mode. We participate most intimately in the great unfolding. We journey together.
Leader: In the face of growing darkness
Response: We journey together
Leader: In the face of ecological decline
Response: We journey together
Leader: In the face of social upheaval
Response: We journey together
Leader: In the face of growing uncertainty
Response: We journey together
All: In the face of growing darkness, we journey together toward the light.
Leader: As we search for glimpses of truth
Response: We journey together
Leader: As we search for signs of possibility
Response: We journey together
Leader: As we search for heralds of a new era
Response: We journey together
Leader: As we search for angels of hope
Response: We journey together
All: As we search for glimpses of truth, we journey together toward new levels of meaning.
Leader: As we build our world out of chaos
Response: We journey together
Leader: As we build our world out of shatter illusions of superiority
Response: We journey together
Leader: As we build our world out of our inadequate Institutions
Response: We journey together
Leader: As we build our world out of our unfair sharing of resources
Response: We journey together
All: As we build our world out of chaos, we journey together toward a new era of justice.
Leader: As the universe unfolds
Response: We journey together
Leader: As the universe unfolds through spontaneous communion
Response: We journey together
Leader: As the universe unfolds through new levels of meaning
Response: We journey together
Leader: As the universe unfolds through new forms of life
Response: We journey together
All: As the universe unfolds, we journey together in God’s great becoming.
[Here you may want to omit “God”, or use Gaia or “the Great Turning” instead.]
Additional Resources: Michelle Merrill of Novasutras created these slides that can be used during the We Journey Together litany.