Unity of Bozeman

FOR THE GREATEST GOOD (V.2-i.241) The Unity Message
~ HOLY CHRISTOS-SOPHIA: Bless us today with the willingness and wisdom to make the choices that proclaim the greatest good for all. Let us let go, sacrificing the lesser for the love of the greater. AMEN

Our word of appreciation today is: MEMORIAL. Our affirmation of generosity is: WITH GRATITUDE, I HONOR THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED AND SACRIFICED.

Today, we remember the ultimate sacrifice of those who gave their lives in service. We take time to reverently appreciate their dedication and commitment, that we may that our profound freedoms. Our remembrance and appreciation extend as well, to those dear to us, recent and distant, who have completed their earthly journey. Through our memories, those special ones are yet alive through us. A glimmer of connection always remains. Knowing that their souls live on, fills our hearts with comfort. We endeavor to live in a way that honors all who have gone before us, their unique qualities, their choices made, and the inspiration given to us for following their example of right living.

“For in the one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body – Jews and Greeks, slaves or free ~ We are all created to drink from one Spirit.” – 1 Corinthians 12:13

Let us honor in gratitude all those who gave the sacrifice of their lives in service throughout our nation’s history. Let us not stop there in offering gratitude to just those few. Let us appreciate that every human being through time has made choices that sacrificed a possible path so that another outcome could be given a chance to live.

All of our ancestors made sacrifices in their choices to do one thing rather than another. My spiritual grandfather Black Elk, the Lakota Holy Man, chose to be a healer rather than a warrior or political headman of status. Even though his father and grandfather were healers, Black Elk still had to make the choices to follow that path rather than another. Although a traditional pipe-keeper, he set aside and sacrificed that way of being, when he made a choice to become a Catholic spiritual teacher, as his tribe/nation/ people had been subjugated and confined to a reservation. His role as a Catholic Teacher gave him a freedom of movement that the pipe-keeper did not have. He now had more ability as a comforter and healer of that new wound for his people. This then resulted in his choosing to use the symbols of the new religion imposed on his people, to build bridges to their old traditional ways. He sacrificed his well-earned status as a specifically traditional pipe-keeper and healer, and was subjected to ridicule as a result. He sacrificed his personal reputation to do what was best for his people in the moment of their tribulation.

Black Elk taught the common ground between two different spiritual symbol systems. He taught his people how to navigate between two worlds. He actually carried a strip of canvas with the Christian symbols on one side, and the Lakota symbols on the other. Symbols arranged to show commonality between the two ways of describing the Spiritual World, as a sacred unity.

After completing his sacrificing time as a bridge-building teacher, Black Elk again picked up the pipe-way, as his preferred way of praying. He sacrificed his new status with Christian people to hold true to his deepest spiritual life. Black Elk was always a devoted healer, regardless of the circumstances. He sacrificed throughout his life so that all those he served might be healed.

Let us sacrifice where necessary, that we too might heal the world wherever the need appears. AMEN

Love and Blessings

Grandfather Philip