Eat, Pray, Love... With Common Ground
By: John Parsons
I’m often asked, “What can I do for Common Ground?” My quick answer is that there are many ways to help the children of our community through this collaboration of three churches and five schools. What are your talents? How much time or money can you give? What direction is your heart telling you to go? I’m thinking that with the question comes the mindset that helping children is what you want to do. We can first look at the overarching goal of Common Ground : Help build healthy communities.
Eat:
A healthy life comes through nourishment. This includes nourishment of the mind, body, and soul. You can help by donating food or volunteering time during our two “Feeding Families” food drives in November and March. You can volunteer in the classrooms at any of our five schools in a number of ways, from helping at one-time events at the school to being a regular classroom volunteer on a weekly basis. You can also help in the organization of events or ongoing volunteerism.
Pray:
This one should be first, but is listed second in the book title so we’ll go with that for now. The power of prayer should not be trivialized or set out as an afterthought. With your prayers, meditations, and positive thoughts sent toward our children and organization – action will follow.
Love:
Alright, maybe this one should be first. Ignore the order, but start and do everything with love. Nourishing and praying for our children comes from our love for them and a need to be a part of a greater community.
To quote Richard Rohr, a contemporary theologian/Catholic priest:
"Secular freedom only creates individualists and private freedom, but not a society. It never gets around to the common good, which is a central principle of the Gospel and Catholic social teaching, which instead demands from you and demands for others—while ironically giving you all that you really need. Then you become who you most deeply and truly are, a member of a family, a neighborhood, a society, and a planet."
Thanks for your continued support of Common Ground.
Visit or blog - svcommonground.blogspot.com for more information.
Reference to Elizabeth Gilbert’s book in title only. Thank you Susan Naslund for the inspiration.