Reflection
We gather round fires because we crave the heat and light they generate. In this moment of history when so much of the world has become harsh and bitter cold, people cry out for a rekindling of the fires of love and compassion. We need to build heart hearths–havens of warmth and light where we can look across the sparks and flames to see the same longings in each others’ eyes. We need to gather the kindling, feed the fires, tend the flames, bend toward the light – whatever it takes to not just survive winter but to allow its harshness to teach us, its rigors to hone us, its clearing away of distraction to burn our hearts down to the essence of the light within.
Linda De Graf
Prayer
Let us love one another.
Action
How can you build a “heart hearth”? Take one concrete step.
Suggested Reading
And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
John 13:34
And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul.
Acts 4:32
The happiness that everyone desires, for that matter, can be expressed in any number of ways and attained only if we are capable of loving. This is the way. It is always a matter of love; there is no other path.
Pope Francis
All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.
Dalai Lama
We are one, after all, you and I, together we suffer, together exist and forever will recreate each other.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Start with the little things seen through a magnifying glass of wonder, and just as a magnifying glass can focus the sunlight into a burning beam that can set a leaf aflame, so can your focused wonder set you ablaze with insight. Find the light in each other and just fan it.
Alice O. Howell
The inner fire is the most important thing humankind possesses.
Edith Sodergran
With the removal of darkness, grossness, and ignorance, the tiny flickering light in our hearts can also shine brightly, illuminating the whole universe.
M. M. Schneerson
People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.
Michelle Obama
Look for a way to lift someone up. And if that’s all you do, that’s enough.
Elizabeth Lesser
That which is called light in creation is, in all its forms and in every being, one and the same spirit, a flame unique.
Arthur Lajone