Happy Easter! Honoring the Holy in All People
April Newsletter: Week 12 of From Wounds to Wisdom Series. Easter Resurrection from the perspective of an inmate: True Self unblended from other identities.
Upcoming Soul Care for Wounded Healer Events
Tues April 9th, 10-11am PST : Open Soul Care Group
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. -Colossians 3:1-4
My friend who is in prison wrote the below reflection based on this passage:
“Eastertime makes me think long and hard about how my life aligns with this passage. A glimpse of my personal history is inked between the knuckles of my right hand. A tattoo names what I once believed to be the truest thing about me: B-O-R-N-S-C-U-M.
This was my core identity for years. Several people likely feel this is still the truest thing about me. I might agree on occasion…
All too often we can pray with begging and groveling, as though we believe that we are undeserving of love and God wants to withhold his goodness from us. But Christ’s resurrection shatters this false belief, and we must learn to live our lives in the reality of God’s resurrecting power.” Continue reading here: https://sojo.net/articles/what-jesus-resurrection-means-me-prison
In Easter we are invited to see the True Self hidden in all people, to be willing to see our shared humanity, and extend compassion. Throughout my Wounds to Wisdom series, I’ve been inviting people to do their inner work, examining inner fears and beliefs, unblending their parts (in Internal Family Systems language), digging into internal narratives, and letting their Core Self lead.
This Core Self is present in all people. Untarnished by trauma and wounds.
I wonder what it would look like, feel like, if we could get glimpses of that in each other. If we could honor the Holy, the image of God in each other, treating each other as carriers of the divine. If we could see the Life hidden with Christ in God.
What if, by helping parts unburden and trust our Self so that we feel our connectedness to other people, to the planet, and to SELF, we are serving this larger project of divine reconnection? ~ Dr Richard Schwartz, No Bad Parts
I read this quote in No Bad Parts last night and it encompasses my hope for this series, for the work that I do. Dr. Schwartz uses big SELF to speak of 'whatever call God'. He continues:
"Our enlightenment is much brighter and more sustained if all of us is involved and we don't treat the ego as this bad part we have to leave behind in the dust on the way to attaining that enlightenment. Our parts long for connection to our Self—just as much as we long to connect to SELF.
When people spend time exploring inside, they all come to the same conclusion--that this essential Self is who we really are. I think that what's often called awakening or enlightenment is the embodied realization of that fact, and that shift from identifying with your parts and their burdens to identifying as your Self has profound implications."
The more I know about trauma and recovery, the more I believe in the importance of doing this work, for ourselves, our planet, our global family and generations.
This Easter Week, may you take a moment to connect to your Self, and to the big SELF to the God of Love that desires connection with your wounded and burden parts in a journey of wholeness and resurrection.
This God who came in a body, is present in our bodies.
As Cole Arthur Riley writes below, “Liberation comes in a body.”
It can be hard to hold on to when liberation feels far off, when we are caught in destructive patterns, when we witness destruction and violence on personal and global scales.
Yet we are invited in this practice of Easter, of resurrection, to do our own inner work, to let our Core Self lead, and to see and love the Beloved in the other and ourselves.
Journal Prompts
Take a moment to consider on what you base your identity. Where do you gain your sense of worth and value?
What person or community is hardest for you to see with love and compassion? If you follow that trailhead of judgment, in what way is it serving you? How do you feel about that judgment?
Take a moment, and perhaps ask that part of you if it would be willing to step back a little, and make some room for some compassion.
Prayer from Black Liturgies, by Cole Arthur Riley
God who rose,
Resurrect us. We've belonged to communities, workplaces, and spiritual spaces that have demanded our death far more than they ever advocated for our life. They ask us to "die to self," the ambiguity of the command like grabbing a knife by its blade. No longer will we mirror the hands of neglect that the world uses daily. Let joy find us today. Remind us that any spirituality which is always death, never resurrection, is a farce. What liberation we taste today, may we crave in full as we refuse to wander back to the chains that once held us. May joy find us. Not a joy absent of story or sorrow, but a joy whose allegiance is to memory. A joy that is not quick to forget the agony of Good Friday or dismiss the doubt of Silent Saturday.
May we remember and rise to meet hope nonetheless, knowing our liberation is whispering up at us from its empty grave. Amen.
Breathe
INHALE: God is alive.
EXHALE: And God's breath is freedom.
INHALE: Liberation comes in a body.
EXHALE: I will honor mine.
deep, abundant grace and liberation to you on the journey, and a joyous Resurrection Sunday!
Bethany Dearborn Hiser
Ignatian Prayerful Imaginative Reflections
Last year I shared a few Holy Week reflections and practices based on Ignatian Imaginative Prayer, check them out below. You could also listen to a guided meditation on Insight Timer that I recorded: https://insighttimer.com/bethanydhiser/guided-meditations/receiving-resurrected-breath
Hearing our name
I’ve never been so ready to celebrate Easter as when I walked through Holy Week in Antigua, Guatemala. Following the crowds, watching the parades carrying massive statues of the tortured Jesus. Parades that marched over intricate carpets of beautiful
Receiving Resurrected Breath
As you prepare to enter this story with your imagination, I invite you to take a few deep breaths. Noticing the air as it goes through your nose, windpipes, and into your lungs. Notice how you feel as you enter this story. What do you notice in your body? Where do you feel tension, pressure, stress?
RESOURCES
BURNOUT & RECOVERY RESOURCE LIST (Hay varias en Español también). If you have recommendations, I'd love to hear about them!
INSIGHT TIMER GUIDED MEDITATIONS:
I’ve recorded some of my soul care group meditations for your listening and prayerful contemplation on-the-go! I welcome your rating and sharing of the meditations.
Here’s one I did for Easter season:
SOUL CARE FOR WOUNDED HEALER: CUSTOMIZED NON-PROFIT WORKSHOPS
Based on the book, From Burned Out to Beloved, workshops integrate discussion questions, grounding activities, trauma research, recovery tools, contemplative practices, and other spiritual disciplines. They seek to improve the overall well-being of individuals, enhance organizational culture, and improve sustainability and effectiveness in work.
Workshop topics can be combined or tailored specifically for your group. Contact me to start the conversation.
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
Open Air Spring Retreat: April 23rd, geared for those in ministry
Bethany Dearborn Hiser is the Director of Soul Care for Northwest Family Life, a network of therapists trained to work with survivors of domestic violence and sexual trauma.
She is the author of From Burned Out to Beloved: Soul Care for Wounded Healers. For more about her, her book, or workshops she offers, visit: