REDEFINING HOPE CONFERENCE

NATIVE AMERICAN
O Great Spirit, whose Voice I hear in the Winds,
Hear me -- for I am small and weak:
I need Your Strength and Wisdom.
I seek Strength, O Great One, not to be superior to my Brothers --
But to conquer my greatest enemy: Myself.
I seek Wisdom: the Lessons You have hidden
In every Leaf and Rock so that I may learn
And carry these messages of Life and Hope to my People.
May my hands respect the many beautiful things You have made;
May my ears be sharp - to hear Your voice.
May I always walk in Your beauty;
And let my eyes behold the red and purple Sunset
So that when Life fades with the setting Sun,
My Spirit will come to You without shame.

HINDU
Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:
The bliss of growth;
The glory of action;
The splendor of achievement;
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision;
But today, well lived, makes every yesterday
a dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

BUDDHIST
May I become at all times, both now and forever
A protector for those without protection
A guide for those who have lost their way
A ship for those with oceans to cross
A bridge for those with rivers to cross
A sanctuary for those in danger
A lamp for those without light
A place of refuge for those who lack shelter
And a servant to all in need.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

JEWISH
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

PROTESTANT: O Lord, you have made us very small, and we bring our years to an end like a tale that is told. Help us to remember that beyond our brief day is the eternity of your love.
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971

CATHOLIC

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console,
not so much to be understood as to understand,
not so much to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we awake to eternal life.
St. Francis of Assisi

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1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Epictetus:
A ship ought not to be held by one anchor, nor life by a singe hope.

Oliver Wendell Holmes:
Beware how you take away hope from any human being.

Roman saying:
While there's life, there's hope.

Thomas Fuller:
If it were not for hopes, the heart would break.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
Hope has as many lives as a cat or a king.

Hope is necessary in every condition.
Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops... at all. ~Emily Dickinson









Reinhold Niebuhr:
Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,
Therefore, we are saved by hope.

Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by faith.

Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.

No virtuous act is quite a virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.
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Czech President Vacel Havel once said of hope:
Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

Children's hospice programs are helping children and families hold on to hope...how ever that hope may be defined...by helping things to turn out well and embracing healing even when there is no cure.

Children's Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition vision is:
To ensure that seriously ill children and their families get the compassionate medical, emotional, and spiritual support they need to hold on to hope - whatever form hope takes- whether it be hope for a cure, a family vacation, time with family and friends, finishing the school year, graduation, or relief of pain and a peaceful death.
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IRA BYOCK
Because accidents and sudden illness do happen, it is never too soon to express forgiveness, to say thank you and I love you to the people who have been an integral or intimate part of our lives, and to say good-bye as a blessing. These simple words hold essential wisdom for transforming that which matters most in our lives-our relationships with the people we love.

“All religions stress the power of forgiveness, and this power is never more necessary, nor more deeply felt, than when someone is dying. Through forgiving and being forgiven, we purify ourselves of the darkness of what we have done, and prepare ourselves most completely for the journey through death.”
- The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

“What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the hope of loving, Or being loved.”
Meister Eckhart, Love Poems from God
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It Takes a Village to Say Goodbye
Doug Smith – Oct 10

Giving your current capabilities, how would you want to spend your time?

Focusing on the client’s resources rather than mine.

ANEMNESIS

In remembering something from the past, in the present we make it present.

Sometimes this is used in the prayer of consecration, when the elements are transformed, we make it present. The doctrine of the Real Presence: “really, really, present.”

That is what love really means.
Something in your past that you are proud and which you experienced love.

Do in remembrance of me

Where would you go to find peace?