Adult Bible Study
Beauty, the invisible embrace
Monday (1:00 pm)
Tuesday (7:00 pm)
Tuesday (7:00 pm)
Mondays: 1-2:30
Tuesdays: 7-8:30
Kingston Parish House Library
Our book is by John O'Donohue and is called Beauty, the invisible embrace. It's possible you could come across a copy from Great Britain with the alternate title Divine Beauty.
As always, come along even if your book hasn't arrived yet or you didn't have time to read it. And come even if you won't make the next class. We can always include you.
This is the list used for the first class discussion:
1. John begins with a quote from a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley:
" It visits with inconstant glance
Each human heart and countenance;
Like hues and harmonies of evening, --
Like memory of music fled, --
Like aught that for its grace may be
Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery.
Spirit of Beauty ... where art thou gone?"
Here beauty is momentary yet everywhere. Yet Shelley asks "where art thou gone?" Where is beauty for you? Has it gone away?
2. "We live between the act of awakening and the act of surrender." Each morning we awaken; a new day is born. And as the day progresses, we awaken to new experiences or old experiences again. We also keep dying, surrendering the day as we go to sleep, surrendering each moment for the next one. Where is beauty in this regular daily process for you?
3. John says we hunger for beauty especially in times of anxiety and uncertainty. Somehow in all the evils of this world, beauty still exists to be found. How do you hunger for beauty? How do you search for it in a healthy way? How is our hunger for beauty different from greed? (p. 4)
4. How do we honor the beauty by caring for nature, having a vision that allows us to lead in our community and in politics, using money for good rather than using good to make money? How does church mean more than numbers of people or numbers of programs or a good budget; how do we make space to honor the mystical flame that we cannot hold?
5. What does it mean to have courage in life that does not simply seek to win the struggle?
6. What does Hillman mean by the "repression of beauty"? How is beauty belittled in our daily lives?
7: Beauty is often in and of itself without purpose. It comes as a surprise. It does not cause "self-improvement" or financial gain or power. Why do we hunger for it? (p.8)
8. John invites us to "dream into" this book by an exploration of experiences that will "coax the soul to the land of wonder where the journey becomes the bright path between source and horizon, awakening and surrender." Do you understand what he is calling us to at all?
As always, come along even if your book hasn't arrived yet or you didn't have time to read it. And come even if you won't make the next class. We can always include you.
This is the list used for the first class discussion:
1. John begins with a quote from a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley:
" It visits with inconstant glance
Each human heart and countenance;
Like hues and harmonies of evening, --
Like memory of music fled, --
Like aught that for its grace may be
Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery.
Spirit of Beauty ... where art thou gone?"
Here beauty is momentary yet everywhere. Yet Shelley asks "where art thou gone?" Where is beauty for you? Has it gone away?
2. "We live between the act of awakening and the act of surrender." Each morning we awaken; a new day is born. And as the day progresses, we awaken to new experiences or old experiences again. We also keep dying, surrendering the day as we go to sleep, surrendering each moment for the next one. Where is beauty in this regular daily process for you?
3. John says we hunger for beauty especially in times of anxiety and uncertainty. Somehow in all the evils of this world, beauty still exists to be found. How do you hunger for beauty? How do you search for it in a healthy way? How is our hunger for beauty different from greed? (p. 4)
4. How do we honor the beauty by caring for nature, having a vision that allows us to lead in our community and in politics, using money for good rather than using good to make money? How does church mean more than numbers of people or numbers of programs or a good budget; how do we make space to honor the mystical flame that we cannot hold?
5. What does it mean to have courage in life that does not simply seek to win the struggle?
6. What does Hillman mean by the "repression of beauty"? How is beauty belittled in our daily lives?
7: Beauty is often in and of itself without purpose. It comes as a surprise. It does not cause "self-improvement" or financial gain or power. Why do we hunger for it? (p.8)
8. John invites us to "dream into" this book by an exploration of experiences that will "coax the soul to the land of wonder where the journey becomes the bright path between source and horizon, awakening and surrender." Do you understand what he is calling us to at all?
