[Below is an edited transcript of a dedication Bonnie offered last month from the Christian tradition, during a Prayer Circle for India amid the country's escalating Covid crisis.]


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Hello everybody. Good morning. Good evening. Good middle of the night, whatever it is for you.

I am so touched by the stories that I heard. I live in Southern California and yet I have this deep connection to India from having visited there and from my close relationship with so many people from the service space ecosystem. I just remembered, as you were speaking that three years ago, on Mother's Day, we had the Jai Jagat children at our center singing, we had an animal parade for them and a lunch for them, and their presence changed so many lives. Their simple being just changed so many lives. So I think about the people that I do know in India, maybe a hundred, two hundred people. And then I just see that ripple out and know that there are so many other good people that are my brothers and sisters and I care so much about all of you. And I know that my congregation does too. So there's that.

What I am hearing in the sharing is so much about compassion and service and faith, and the belief that our prayers really do make a difference. As someone was sharing, I can't even remember who it was, but I started thinking about this phrase that we sometimes say in our denomination, which is: "Don't tell God how big your problems are, tell your problems how big your God is." So my intention today is to help us see that whatever's going on with coronavirus in India, around the world, that there is a power and a presence that is greater than it. It's not power and presence that's going to beat it into submission. It's a power and presence that's going to take this as something to work with and something to bring forth the greatest that is within us. Not to diminish the pain that everybody's going through because that's part of it bringing forth, but just to honor and accept that we can truly be part of the solution, that we can truly be part of the healing. So many people that have spoken on the call and so many people that I know have been silent and on mute, I know I trust, and I know that you were already being part of the solution simply by being here.

I am going to just do three short quotes, and then do a short prayer. I want to start with a prayer that I was reading from the Christian tradition that I think really reflects a way that we can anchor into the faith that our prayers make a difference. And this is also based in the ServiceSpace principle of lead by inner transformation. This is from the Gospel of Thomas, which is not in the traditional gospels, but it's an apocryphal gospel. And the disciples say to Jesus, "If we become like children, shall we enter the kingdom?" And by the kingdom, we mean wholeness and wellbeing and peace of mind. All of those things that we can have on earth. It's not about going to heaven. It's about having all of those things here.

So then Jesus says to the disciples, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside as the outside and the outside as the inside and the upper as the lower, then you shall enter wholeness." And I think that's what we're doing here by praying is that we're working on our inner transformation to see possibility and to see healing and to see how we can serve. And then that inner becomes the outer.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta encourages us to believe that our small gestures help the whole and Mother Teresa who of course was a Catholic nun is quoting Jesus here in the Book of Matthew. This is Jesus speaking -- Jesus says, "For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me."

And then the righteous will answer him saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry? When did we feed you? When were you thirsty? When did we give you drink? And when did we see you as a stranger and welcome you? When were you naked? And when did we close you? And when did we see you sick or in prison? When did we visit you?"

And Jesus answers them: "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these brethren, you did it to me."

So every time we serve somebody in this pandemic or otherwise, we are serving the greater whole we're serving the good, because truly there's only one of us.

And that's my last quote. Jesus quotes the Torah in the Book of Matthew. And he says, the Torah is the Jewish commentary or the Jewish scripture. The disciples say teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law. And Jesus replies quoting the Torah, "Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, this is the first and greatest commandment." And then he says, the second is: "Love your neighbor as yourself and the law and the prophets, hang on these two commandments."

And what I have learned over my years of being more of a mystical Christian is that Jesus, isn't saying, "Okay, over here love God, over here love neighbor, over here love yourself. It's like when you love your neighbor, you are loving God and you are loving yourself. When you love God, you are loving your neighbor and you are loving yourself. When you love yourself, you are loving God and your neighbor because really the three is one and there truly is only one of us here. So every single person praying on this call together is praying for and with, and as the people that are struggling with Covid and praying for and with, and as those of us who are here to serve in a greater capacity, by allowing something wonderful, to move through us.

One more thing and then we will pray. You may have seen in the news that the CDC just ruled Covid-19 as an airborne virus. I would like us to know together that yes, Covid-19 may be an airborne virus, but the solution is prayer-borne. So let us pray and spread that prayer borne karuna all across India and the world.

So I invite you right now to turn within and to breathe with me and to trust and to know that spirit, God, Love whatever it is you want to call it, is bigger than any condition in the world. Take a moment to visualize and to feel and to know you're part of this puzzle, to know what is pulling at your heartstrings. It may be somebody in your family that has passed away. It may be the general condition of people not being able to get into the hospital, standing in line or not having enough money to pay. It may be that people are lacking basic supplies and food. It may be that people are dying. People are suffering. Look at the darkness for just a moment and know that you are bigger than the darkness, but look at it to see it, to hold it. Then I ask you to feel that compassion grow in your heart. Feel it spread, feel it start to get so full in your heart, that it radiates outward as light and it starts to embrace the darkness.

It shines the light on the darkness so that the darkness has transformed. And that combination of darkness and light brings forth something emergent that is greater than the darkness and the light; greater than the combination of the two, something that transcends these opposites and something that provides a greater sense of hope and healing not only for India, not only for our individual loved ones, but for the entire world, because truly there is only one of us. There's only one of us on this call. There is only one of us in the world. There's only one of us in the universe and that one is spirit. So today, knowing that this is true, we anchor in that knowledge of our inner spirit. We anchor in that knowing of the peace and the power that moves through us always, that we only need to say yes to, and we allow it to humble us.

And we allow it to allow us to surrender into grace, to lead us into boundless grace. And we trust that the delivery system for that grace is service, that it is love, that it is compassion. In whatever way we are called we know that even the tiniest act of prayer, faith, service, love, compassion, make a difference. So collectively, here today, let us know that we have got this, that God has got this and that we are the, the emissaries of light and love and God and compassion. And that together we can turn this tide and that we can bring forth the birth of something new and wonderful that occurs not in spite of it, but because of it. I have deep faith and I anchor in that faith and I allow that faith to guide me and to guide all of us.

I am so grateful for this opportunity to speak the word of truth and to see beyond the appearance of death and destruction, and to see that the bigger picture is fully intact and that there is healing in place and that healing is coming into emergence right here and right now. With a heart that is so filled with gratitude, I say, thank you, Spirit, thank you Love, thank you Mystery. And I release these divine words and say, and so it is. Amen. Namaste.