August 2021 Touchstones Ministry Theme: Communion
August 2021 Readings from the Common Bowl
August 1: “Empathy is an affinity, a communion, a comprehension.” C. JoyBell C.
August 2: “The secret of a full life is to live and relate to others as if they might not be there tomorrow, as if you might not be there tomorrow. It eliminates the vice of procrastination, the sin of postponement, failed communications, failed communions.” Anaïs Nin
August 3: “In a true partnership, the kind that lasts through the ages, there is an unspoken communion.” Cassandra Clare
August 4: “He is one of those who has had the wilderness for a pillow, and called a star his brother. Alone. But loneliness can be a communion.” Dag Hammarskjöld
August 5: “Here and there does not matter. / We must be still and still moving / Into another intensity / For a further union, a deeper communion.” T. S. Eliot
August 6: “Empathy is an affinity, a communion, a comprehension.” C. JoyBell C.
August 7: “I think …[religion] is an art, …an extension of the communion all the other arts attempt.” Dodie Smith
August 8: “Happiness is home. …It is a state of mind. A place of communion and unconditional love. It is where, when you cross its threshold, you finally feel at peace.” Dennis Lehane
August 9: “Finally, he said that among men there was no such communion as among horses and the notion that men can be understood at all was probably an illusion.” Cormac McCarthy
August 10: “…Here is the mystery of our global responsibility: that we are in communion with …all people. …If we want to be real peace-makers …our primary concern …should be survival of humanity, the survival of the planet, and the health of all people.” Henri J.M. Nouwen
August 11: “Our homes, imperfect as they are, must be a haven from the chaos outside …where troubled souls find peace, weary hearts find rest, …lonely pilgrims find communion, and wounded spirits find compassion.” Jani Ortlund
August 12: “There is almost a sensual longing for communion with others who have a large vision. The immense fulfillment of the friendship between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality impossible to describe.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
August 13: “The ocean was the best place, of course. …It was a feeling of freedom like no other, and yet a feeling of communion with all the other places and creatures the water touched.” Ann Brashares
August 14: “The practice of forgiveness is not …a way of dealing with guilt. Instead, its central goal is to reconcile, to restore communion …with one another, and with the whole creation.” L. Gregory Jones
August 15: “Soul grows in communion. … From true conversation… communication deepens into compassion and creates community.” Sam Keen
August 16: “Whoever moves within the forest can partake directly of sacredness, …drink the sacred water as a living communion, …open his eyes and witness the burning beauty of sacredness.” Richard Nelson
August 17: “Eating, and hospitality in general, is a communion, and any meal worth attending by yourself is improved by the multiples of those with whom it is shared.” Jesse Browner
August 18: “Faith is not knowledge of an object but communion with it.” Nicolás Gómez Dávila
August 19: “For mystics from the Abrahamic faiths…, the inward odyssey is also an upward odyssey, a quest for personal and vital communion with an infinite Being.” David C. Downing
August 20: “True communication is communion—the realization of oneness, which is love.” Eckhart Tolle
August 21: “The man or woman who proclaims devotion to the cause of liberation yet is unable to enter into communion with the people, whom he or she continues to regard as totally ignorant, is grievously self-deceived.” Paulo Freire
August 22: “…The effort to discover an authentic self, …and find a soul in a clear, unimpeded communion with the sacred is consonant with spiritual quests throughout the ages.” Cynthia Eller
August 23: “My love affair with nature is so deep that I am not satisfied with being a mere onlooker, or nature tourist. I crave a more real and meaningful relationship… in which I have communion and fellowship with nature….” Euell Gibbons
August 24: “To care means first of all to empty our own cup and to allow the other to come close to us. It means to take away the many barriers which prevent us from entering into communion with the other.” Henri J.M. Nouwen
August 25: “Commit to finding the true nature of art. …Go for that communion, that real communion with your soul, and the discipline of expressing that communion with others.” Anna Deavere Smith
August 26: “…I …know that eating a Hershey’s Kiss is like an act of communion.” Damien Echols
August 27: “Love creates a communion with life. …In any moment we can step beyond our small self and embrace each other as beloved parts of a whole.” Jack Kornfield
August 28: “They spoke of a communion so much vaster than any church could contain: one I had sensed all my life could be expressed in the sharing of food, particularly with strangers.” Sara Miles
August 29: “There is communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk.” M.F.K. Fisher
August 30: “The measure of your solitude is the measure of your capacity for
communion.” Henri J.M. Nouwen
August 31: “The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion.” Tom Ryan