Cranaleith from Home, January 7, 2021

All programs are offered virtually on Zoom. Scholarships are available because everyone is welcome at Cranaleith. Please email [email protected] so we can assist you.

O my God, I cry out by day,

but you do not answer;

And by night, but find no rest.

Psalm 22:2

Dear Friends,

We had planned to write in this introduction about the hope that the new year seemed to be holding out to us all, but the events of January 6 have imperiled our ability to see it. Although our country has systemic flaws, its blessings of empowerment, democracy, truth and justice were assaulted yesterday as insurrectionists surged on the U.S. Capitol. With weary spirits, we turn to God in prayer this morning. “How long, O Lord?”

Cranaleith is a ministry grounded in mercy. We are committed to doing the necessary work of healing the division and hatred among us. We know you have that same commitment. Stand with us as we renew our efforts to be people of love and compassion. Stand with us as we ask the Spirit to work through us to rebuild.

Please continue to join us in this work. Please continue to renew your spirit at our programs and retreats. Know that we hold you in our prayers with mercy, especially in this time of turmoil.

The Cranaleith Staff

The Work of Christmas

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and the princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among brothers,

To make music in the heart.

Howard Thurman

Cranaleith from Home is published every two weeks.

Pray with us

The staff and Board of Directors of Cranaleith Spiritual Center invite all those who are distressed to join us in prayer on Friday, January 8 from 4:30-5:00pm (via Zoom). Together, we will bring our grief and anguish before the merciful heart of God.

Click here to join the Zoom meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86991077336?pwd=U3krVFRFbXVZTHhGQlZ2eklJNU9Mdz09

Meeting Id: 869 9107 7336

Password: 001223

Statement from the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas

As a sponsored ministry of the Sisters of Mercy, we share their official statement on the events of January 6:

The Institute Leadership Team of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas strongly denounces the violence and disrespect exhibited on Wednesday, January 6, by insurgents who stormed the U.S. Capitol. This hateful and intentional behavior, meant to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power that is central to our democracy, is deplorable and totally disregards Gospel values and the principles of other faiths and people of good will. This deliberate assault on the soul of our nation shattered trust and common purpose while stoking suspicion, fear and division.

Read the full statement

Building Community

Did you know Cranaleith is part of a network of retreat centers across the country? Check out this video from the Retreat Center Collaboration (RCC) to see how retreat centers are uniquely positioned to create and cultivate community during these difficult times.

Learn more about the RCC

Opportunities for Growth in 2021

Start the new year with hope!

Connect with God, other seekers and great ideas

at one of our online programs.

January Programs

Conversations between Generations

Thursday, January 14, 6:30-8:30pm

with Jackie Newns

Categorizing people by their generation can be useful in some ways, but it can also blind us to our common humanity. Join in a Spirit-infused evening of conversation about the “big picture” questions of life as well as pressing issues of our day.

Learn More & Register

Deep River: African American Spirituality

Saturday, January 16,

9:30am-12:30pm

with Boreta Singleton

Explore the richness and depth in Scripture centuries of songs, writings, poetry and commentaries on

Spirituals by African Americans.

Learn more and register

Remembering MLK:

View excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letters from a Birmingham Jail"

Excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

Listen from Home:

"Take My Hand, Precious Lord" (2015) Ledisi - Selma Movie Soundtrack

Take My Hand, Precious Lord" by Ledisi, Selma, 2015

The Global Ode To Joy - Stay At Home Choir and Marin Alsop

"The Global Ode to Joy" by the Stay at Home Choir and Marin Alsop

"Peace Train" by Cat Stevens

Poetry from Home:

"Patient Trust"

by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything

to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through

some stages of instability – and that it may take a very long time.

And so, I think it is with you;

your ideas mature gradually – let them grow,

let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

"Bare Tree"

by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Already I have shed the leaves of youth,

stripped by the wind of time down to the truth

of winter branches. Linear and alone

I stand, a lens for lives beyond my own,

a frame through which another's fire may glow,

a harp on which another's passion, blow.

The pattern of my boughs, an open chart

spread on the sky, to others may impart

its leafless mysteries that I once prized,

before bare roots and branches equalized,

tendrils that tap the rain or twigs the sun

are all the same, shadow and substance one.

Now that my vulnerable leaves are cast aside,

there's nothing left to shield, nothing to hide.

Blow through me, Life, pared down at last to bone,

so fragile and so fearless have I grown!

Reflect from Home

The Baptism of the Lord, Cycle B Isaiah 55:1-11 and Mark 1:7-11

How could a person not see another’s pain and help? What else could be more important? Too often, we see what we want to see. This elective seeing is a problem in our relationship with our fellow human beings and simultaneously in our relationship with God.