Faith Curriculum Library: Tapestry of Faith: Love Will Guide Us: A Program for Grades 2-3 that Applies the Wisdom of the Six Sources to the Big Questions

Spiritual Preparation

Read the poem below. Then, consider for a moment the vastness of the universe and all the events that occurred for the earth to form, the oceans to fill, the sky to look blue, and the grass to grow. Set aside the equations and graphs, calculations and theories, gods and goddesses, and all the vast array of explanations for life. Transcend the explanations and instead, allow life to just ... be. Give in to the wonder. Allow yourself to see the world with fresh eyes, the eyes of a child, without bias or expectations.

O Mystery

O mystery beyond my understanding,

Voice in my heart answering to the earth,

And light of distant stars!

O wonder of the spring, leading the seasons on:

The dewdrops sparking on the web at sunrise,

And unseen life, moving in depths and shallows of the brook,

Trembling in raindrops at the edge of eaves,

Whisper to me of secrets I would know.

O Power that flows through me and all that is,

Light of stars, pulsating in the atoms in my heart,

Whether you are mind and spirit

Or energy transcending human thought

I cannot know, and yet I feel

That out of pain and sorrow and the toil

Through which creation springs from human hands

A force works toward the victory of life, even through the stars.

Here on the earth winter yields slowly, strikes again, and hard,

And lovely buds, advance guards of the spring, suffer harsh death,

And pity moves the heart.

Yet life keeps pulsing on.

The stars still shine, the sun rises again,

New buds burst forth, and life still presses on.

O mystery!

I life my eyes in wonder and in awe! — Robert T. Weston, Seasons of the Soul, 1963