It seems the intensity of world events political, ecological, economic, might be the greatest many of us have felt in our lifetime. We experience this as loss: we are losing our security in how things used to be (or how we perceived them), our trust in what we hoped for. As a result we are anxious, fearful, angry at the state of our country and the…

When we want to take right action in the world, we must first become truly aware of what is going on—to understand what the problem or challenge really is. When we become aware of discomfort, we tend to jump to take whatever action we think will most quickly relieve our immediate suffering. Too often that action leads us to ever more suffering down…

On this, International Day of Peace—we celebrate the founding ideals of the United Nations: to promote peace, end conflict, and foster global cooperation to build a peaceful and sustainable world. These are global ideas, but work on the personal level as well. In fact, peace will only ever happen globally when it first happens person to person as w…

Stillness is a secret superpower that—when practiced-- brings us closer to who we really are. In stillness we commune with God, instinctively feel our oneness with nature and with all beings, and come to know ourselves more deeply. So why is it so hard to get and stay still? It is so easy to become overwhelmed by distractions, anxieties, activities…

저자 churchofonelove

Throughout history humankind has believed in Truth, only to find out that it was, after all, not really True. Is it possible that we really do not know anything for a fact? What and where is our guiding star, or is there such a thing? We seem to have been on an evolutionary journey to discover what God is, only to see it slide away from us more oft…

Is that a suit of armor? Can you take it off? As humans we hurt and then we try to protect ourselves from it ever happening again. Unfortunately, we cannot build walls (or wear suits) that close our hearts only to what is painful. A closed heart is a closed heart. So how do we navigate a world where to keep an open heart feels too painful, but to c…

What is with this “praise and worship” that traditional churches do? Does the thought of "praising" offend? What even is “praise?” or “worship?” Does praising something make us somehow lower than the object of our praise? Does God “need” it? Or do humans have a need to express praise? What in your life today might be calling for awe, wonder, gratit…

Are you paying attention to your messages? Checking your Earth-mail? Checking in with yourself? Being open to the many messages and all the different guises messengers take puts us in communication with the angels—literally!저자 churchofonelove

Do we make “soul contracts” with each other? Is there truly a reason we meet the “random” people we do, have the particular experiences of life, make the synchronous connections we make? Do they (or can they) all lead to our soul’s growth? Are they part of a larger plan? Are we in on it? Let’s explore these questions and take look at life as if it …

Just as the future can only be met from the place of the present moment, the past too, can be met right here right now in the present--has value in helping us to understand how it shaped and may still affect us in our present. Let’s learn to look, learn, then forgive and let go. A wise person once said, “There’s nothing wrong with looking at the pa…

In a time when so many feel overwhelmed or unseen, encouragement is more than a kind word—it’s a powerful ministry. This message explores how Spirit calls us to build each other up, how simple acts of encouragement can transform lives, and how each of us can be a light in someone’s darkest hour. Drawing on biblical examples, personal stories, and p…

Most of us would love to know what’s ahead. We have all kinds of questions? Will I be happy? Healthy? Alone? More spiritual? Aging gracefully? Insecure? All these anxious questions are about maintaining the illusion of control. We think if we know what’s coming we can prepare for it. Since we can never know what will happen in the world, the only w…

We love to think of ourselves as independent, but the truth is we are all inextricably connected in- and as- the One. Physically, we cannot survive without each other and without the resources of Mother Earth. In fact, we have become so specialized that in a literal sense we depend upon each other for almost everything—the intricate processes of pr…

…is that we all have it to a degree. To be ignorant is to NOT KNOW. And none of us can know what we don’t know until we know it. Confused? As we own our own ignorance, it can help us to have true compassion and empathy for those we might otherwise judge and condemn. And one of the greatest gifts of admitting to ignorance is that we can then develop…

The Middle Way, a core concept in Buddhism, emphasizes finding balance and moderation between extremes, particularly in thought and action.저자 churchofonelove

We hear a lot about the gifts of the “Divine Feminine,” and find that our masculine structures are often spoken of today in denigrating terms. This is not about anything being wrong with the masculine, but about our being out of balance in expressing these divine energies. The Masculine Principle is both Divine and Beautiful: the other side of the …

3. We Co-create with God; 4: We commune with God; 5. We express as God. Since God IS the oneness in which we live and move and have our being, and we are all individuations of that One, we have the power to create our experience of life as part of that vast divinity. We do this by directing our thoughts, by immersing ourselves in the truth of our b…

1. God is Good, and God is all there is; and 2. We are that—the very substance of God is our substance, meaning our very essence is God, and is good. These statements are in alignment with COOL’s tenets of oneness with God and with each other, yet regardless of our belief in our ultimate oneness, it is a constant challenge for us to see the world, …

This week the service will be led by your Prayer Partner team! Spiritual Growth does not occur through affirmative prayer alone, but through spiritual study and contemplation, different forms of meditation, and through spending quiet time with our Higher Self and our personal understanding of the Divine. We hope you will join us again as we share o…

Throughout history, mankind’s evolution has been slowed or even stopped by the belief in the certainty of facts that were known to be TRUE, but turned out not to be so. This is clearly true in the spiritual and religious world. Today, we will use a few current events and a Biblical story to see how our definition of God was formed from ancient lite…

Mother to child is maybe the most intimate and important of relationships, which does not mean that it is easy or comfortable—often just the opposite. Yet, we all have at least two mothers: we are offspring of Mother Earth, and we are children of our own mothers. While Divine Mother is the perfection of the feminine principle in us, it was a very i…

Most of us began a conscious spiritual path because we wanted more understanding, inner peace, joy, wisdom, and love in our lives. This is right and good... AND there is more. As we grow in love, peace, joy, service, we also grow the world in those things--even more when we make a conscious intention to do so. Our spiritual practices help us to exp…

Overcoming the ego is often touted as our greatest task on the spiritual path. Yet, to be human is to have an ego; it is an inevitable part of life on planet earth. Are we really here to get RID of our egos? Or to put them in their proper place—not as rulers of our lives, but as servants to Spirit?저자 churchofonelove

Traditional Christianity is focused more on the fabled death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ than on the content of his teachings on love. Jesus taught a totally new way viewing he world: freedom from transactional, conditional love, spoke of the spirit inside all of us, which is unconditional and eternal. Did Jesus really rise from the dead? …

When our inner peace is dependent on outer circumstance it is fragile and unreliable. We can’t control the world, or make anyone else peaceful, but we can learn to find peace in ourselves regardless of what happens around us. Jesus was celebrated as a hero on Palm Sunday, and by the end of the week betrayed, reviled, abandoned, taunted, and killed.…

True compassion is not just feeling sympathy or even empathy for another—but it includes the desire to alleviate the suffering of others. How do we fulfill this desire? Especially for people we don’t know, will never meet? This week we will explore 2 spiritual practices we can do anywhere, anytime--that are meant to assuage the pain of humanity, on…

What is compassion? Is it feeling sorry for another? Helping one another? Can one have compassion for oneself? Is it something to do or something to feel? How can we lead lives of compassion in a world of overwhelming suffering?저자 churchofonelove

There is so much noise in today’s world—a constant soundtrack of news, music, entertainment, other people’s opinions and requests, continuous ‘to-do’ lists… To change our lives we must change our ways of thinking and viewing the world, and we can’t possibly know what we think until we get quiet enough—inside and out—to hear our own thoughts, intuit…

How does one distinguish between a thought and a prayer? How much praying is enough? How would you change what you spend time thinking and believing, listening to- and watching-- if you knew that your thoughts had a direct impact on the world?저자 churchofonelove

We continue our series on finding refuge as we explore the Sangha: the community of all those who endeavor to practice the Way of love, peace, joy, and abundance. We are uplifted, held, encouraged and supported by the community…to the extent that WE participate in community and allow ourselves this refuge. What does it require to truly be a part of…

The Dharma is the Way itself…the directions we follow, the practices we engage in, the thoughts we think, the words we speak and the actions we take. The idea is that we can find refuge, comfort, safety in our very way of being in this world. How do we find that? What practices will lead us there?저자 churchofonelove

Join Rev. Janet Ellis as she speaks on finding and owning one's passion.저자 churchofonelove

The Buddha in this context is not a person, but a representation of the One Presence and Power in the universe. How do we contact that Presence? How do we know it is there? How can we activate this presence in our lives so that we may find our safety and our refuge in it?저자 churchofonelove

In Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s letter, he outlines both the reasons for non-violence, why the time is right NOW, and the basic steps to ensure its success. In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: 1) collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive; 2) negotiation; 3) self-purification; and 4) direct action. How ca…

Welcome, Black History Month!저자 churchofonelove

When we truly know what we believe, then our task is to truly live from that conviction. In choices small and large--do our thoughts, words, and actions support, illustrate our beliefs? Can others tell what we believe by the way we live? Let’s explore what it means to live out our beliefs into the world.…

At COOL we don’t necessarily follow an “organized” path, but we do have some fundamental beliefs: oneness and unconditional love. In this new year, let’s get back to basics and explore these foundational ideas. What is Oneness? What does it mean to teach only love? Are there really many paths, and are they all equally valuable?…

Perhaps we have all said this to ourselves a few times in our lives, when what we must have thought was a good idea at the time, turned out to be less than useful, or worse! If we believe that we should lead an examined life, then let’s begin today to open the hood just a little higher and see what we can find by asking this simple question: “What …

Burning Bowl Sunday! Changed by the rebirth experience, we cannot keep being, doing what we’ve always done. What will we claim? What will we need to release first? Join us as we identify (and set fire to—literally!) what we wish to release from the old year, and claim our new good for the coming one! Mark your calendars and invite a few friends for…

When we become conscious of the birth of the Spirit of Love and Light within, our lives change. Just as the Magi, after visiting the baby Jesus, were instructed to take a different route home in order to avoid falling into Herod’s schemes, our new awareness calls us to approach our lives from a different direction, with different energy and attitud…

Christmas Eve traditionally marks the birth of Jesus—a symbol of innocence and infinite possibility for all of us—and reminds us to celebrate the continual re-birth of that Spirit of love and light in ourselves. Please join us at 6 pm for a contemplative Candles & Carols service, beginning with the lighting of the advent candles, and culminating in…

At this time of winter solstice when daylight time is at its shortest, the ancients longed to remember light. This Christmas season we recognize the Light of Love and its power to illumine, to beckon, to fill us and to give us hope & direction. Join us as we celebrate this festival of light and joy with lots of extra music from our music team, and …

Christmas is a time of giving—from the legend of the Magi, to the generosity of St. Nicholas, to the gifts we give and receive with friends and family. What does each of us really have to offer this Christmas, and how can we find deeper meaning and truly receive –and give --the gifts of Spirit that are here for us this season?…

The Christmas story is one that has shaped our view of this season, just as we tend to define ourselves by our stories--our past. Stories can be helpful and bring us clarity , until the moment we become rigidly attached to a single interpretation of them. As we explore the Biblical Christmas story in ways that can free us from the ghosts of Christm…

Advent: the arrival to come. To everything there is a season, and in our culture we like the season of Having & Doing. The season of Advent asks us to wait and just BE. Mary could not force the birth of the Christ, but had to wait for the wisdom of her body. The Magi could not speed up their quest, but only follow the star of their intuition and tr…

Most parents urge their children to say Please and Thank You. They were considered the “magic words” that could open doors and were more likely to get us what we wanted than whining or demanding. Could this still be true? It is my experience that expressing gratitude is magical in that it opens our eyes to the blessings already all around us, and e…

What if everything that shows up in our lives is truly for our good? Would we learn to embrace and find the gifts in all the ways life presents itself, instead of those we predetermine to be “good”? How much energy do we waste judging and fighting conditions? Let’s explore the practice of greeting all of life with a hearty welcome.…

None of us likes to be told “no,” and yet—a “no” from the universe might be just the re-direction we need to change course and find we are headed to a more enriching, fulfilling destination. In the same way, the “noes” we give to others define our boundaries and help determine the paths we take and those we avoid. Every “no” leads to a “yes” of som…

There is power in the thoughts we think and the words we use. They illustrate the core beliefs behind them, and influence our actions and determine the reactions of the world around us. Are we living the way we say we believe? If we want to change our destiny it makes the best sense to start with our thoughts and words. Are they filled with love? C…