WORDS FOR REFLECTION, FROM ‘THE HIGHER LIFE’ BY GERTRUDE VON PETZOLD:

Let us be amongst the few,
let us gain the Divine vision and never lose it;
let us shape our lives in harmony with that vision.

We may not have revelations like the apostles of old,
we may not have experiences as the poets sing of,
but we all have solemn times and seasons when the
grandeur of the universe opens itself to our view;

when we seem to be overwhelmed by the majestic
harmony of the world in which we live,
when the sea and air and sky seem to call forth in us
infinite longings after a ‘world not realized’.

Yes, and there are those moments when we withdraw
within ourselves –in the hush and silence of the night –
when we review the past, remembering our successes and failures.
When we realize how we have fallen short of the ideals of our youth
and the aspirations of adulthood.

Ah, friends, here and now let us swear allegiance to the Vision beautiful,
through doubt and sorrow, through success and failure –
let us look to the Infinite and the Eternal,
whom no-one has seen at any time, except through the inspirations
of beauty and the intuitions of the heart. Amen.

BENEDICTION ADAPTED FROM ‘THE HIGHER LIFE’ BY GERTRUDE VON PETZOLD:
Let us remember that we live in God’s sight,
learning from the great souls of history how
to make our lives a blessing to others,
prepared to risk all in the pursuit of a
righteous principle.

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