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Date: 01/01/2014
  • 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.

Contributor/Author: Joanna Macy & Molly Brown