| The true community does not arise through people having
feelings for another (though indeed not without it), but through, first, their taking their stand in living mutual relation with a
living Center, and second, their being in living mutual relation with one another. The second has its source in the first, but is not
given when the first alone is given. Living mutual relation includes feelings, but does not originate with them. The
community is built up out of living mutual relation, but the builder is the living effective Center. . . . Marriage, for instance, will
never be given new life except by that out of which true marriage always arises, the revealing by two people of the Thou to one
another. |
| —Martin Buber |
| We will gather together and consider the religious community. |
| Here are some words, phrases, thoughts to stir your own: |
| | One is accepted in spite of feeling unacceptable. |
| | Love participates. No self is annihilated. |
| | mutual respect |
| | regard |
| | wholeness of self-respect |
| | the reunion of oneself with oneself |
| | wanted, not needed |
| | A love relation is a meeting of people in their integrity. |
| | based on strength, not weakness |
| | A love relation involves wholeness of self. |
| | genuine conversation |
| | enables relating rather than distancing |
| | a Yes that allows each to be |
| | genuine meeting |
| | communion |
| | mutuality in speech |
| | acceptance |
| | confirmation |
| | affirmation |
| | engagement |
| | directness |
| | We emerge changed from meeting with the other. |
| | What I want for myself I want for others. |
| | Love with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love |
| | your neighbors as you love yourself. |
| | the kin-dom of God |