Who Are You?
“You may think of truth as a quantity, a thing, almost an object… Yet…what we consider [the truth] is highly colored by the story we are living, the culture in which we live, and our state of knowledge and our purposes – all of which might be quite unconscious and slanted…”
~ Thomas Moore, Parabola, Winter 2003
As you prepare to embark on a journey with the UU College of Social Justice, you will probably find yourself full of questions about what you’ll see, do and experience. Many of these questions will be answered during the weeks leading up to your travel.
This unit of our Study Guide is designed to lift up questions not only about your destination, but about the particular “lenses” you wear, through which your world is translated.
Among the topics you’ll be asked to explore in this unit are who you are — as an individual, a person of faith, a seeker of justice — and what leads you to view the world in the way that you do.
With this first unit, we invite you to begin using a journal. You can use the journal for any written exercises you’re asked to do, and to record your reflections and reactions as you learn more about your destination, both before and during your journey.
Opening Meditation
Take a moment to pause and center yourself. A common centering practice among Unitarian Universalists is to light a chalice (a simple candle will do) and then read aloud a short prayer or reading.
The following prayer is excerpted from the book A Grateful Heart, edited by M.J. Ryan:
“Be at peace with your own soul, then heaven and earth will be at peace with you. Enter eagerly into the treasure house that is within you, and you will see the things that are in heaven; for there is but one single entry to them both. The ladder that leads to the Kingdom is hidden within your soul…Dive into yourself, and in your soul you will discover the stairs by which to ascend.”
~ Saint Isaac of Nineveh
