• Get Listed in ILLUMINE life!
  • Login

Logo

Navigation
  • Features
  • Community
  • Escapes
  • Traditions
  • Inspiration
  • About Us
    • Our Founder & Publisher, Lourdes Paredes
    • Our Creative Director, Jason Campbell
    • Columinists
      • Cathy Beres
      • Debi BUZIL
      • Pam UDELL
    • Featured Writers
      • Andrew GURVEY
      • Jim KULACKOSKI
      • Ruth Diab LEDERER
    • Contributors
      • Maria BOUSTEAD
      • Loong CHEN
      • Chris de LIZER
      • Kyle GATI
      • Adam GROSSI
      • Jillian SCHIAVI
      • Siddhartha V. SHAH
      • Linda Mura O’TOOLE
      • Danielle ZHU
  • Newsletter

Illuminating the Spirit: The Healing Powers of Community

Illuminating the Spirit

Mark Anthony Lord

By Mark Anthony Lord

Having served thousands of people as the founder and minister of Bodhi Spiritual Center, a spiritual community in Chicago, I have seen what I would call “ailments of the soul” – far too many people walking around feeling depressed, struggling with addictions and suffering from a pervasive feeling of disconnection and loneliness. They work hard and have given much to their education and career success, but they feel empty inside.


I have simultaneously watched people become healed from these ailments by coming together to practice meditation and pray, to be inspired and uplifted. I’ve witnessed strangers quickly become lifelong friends, and I’ve watched romances blossom and turn into marriages. I’ve observed people growing through the changes of life – becoming parents, facing illness, overcoming financial challenges and healing family relationships – and they did all of this together in community.

Community heals! Community causes connections that create happiness, peace and the experience of being loved.

One memory that’s forever imprinted on my heart was watching community members gather around a fellow member, Richard, who was dying from a brain tumor. He was a young man in his mid-40s, and he was dearly loved by so many in the community.

Richard was a member of a “home group,” a group of people who meet monthly in one another’s homes to deepen intimacy and spiritual practice. This circle of eight were devastated to receive the news about Richard’s terminal illness.

It would have been easy to feign being too busy to help, especially in our society where having too much to do is the number one reason people don’t take time to care and connect. But the small group of community members didn’t do that.

These community members put aside their lives, stopped being too busy and turned toward Richard to help him in his final months. They took turns bringing food to him and his partner. They prayed with him, played games with him and gave Richard’s family relief whenever and however they could.

This circle of people, who were once strangers, used their community to heal, forever bonding them. They became Richard’s spiritual family, and they rose to the occasion, allowing love to use them. They were transformed by the experience. Five years later, this circle of people will tell you the most blessed gift they’ve been given was the chance to help another.

Being in a community can forever change your life, but you have to show up. You have to put in the time. You have to allow yourself to be known, to be loved and to give love. You will stretch beyond your comfort zone. You will think, more than once, “It’s much easier to just stay home, sit on the couch and watch TV.” And I can’t argue with you on that. It would be easier. But it would also be far, far less fulfilling.

Mark Anthony Lord is a spiritual teacher, transformational coach and the author of two books. His newest adventure, malaproject.com, is an online spiritual community dedicated to praying, meditating and having fun waking up together.

Share this story:
  • tweet

Tags: Bodhi Spiritual CentercommunityhealingMark Anthony Lordspiritual community

Recent Posts

  • Part 2: The Post COVID Digital Shift: Working out at home and other “innovations”

    June 5, 2020 - 0 Comment
  • Jenny Kaufman, Yoga Teacher and manager at Yogaview Wilmette

    May 19, 2020 - 0 Comment
  • Lauri Stern, Yoga and Hot Tone Teacher

    May 19, 2020 - 0 Comment
  • Wellness Professionals in the City of Big Shoulders Flex Muscles at the Pandemic

    May 18, 2020 - 0 Comment
  • 4 Questions to Keeping Stress In Check

    December 23, 2019 - 0 Comment
  • Gift-giving Time of the Year: Still Checking Your List??

    December 21, 2019 - 0 Comment
  • With love: 2019 Last60 Best60

    December 20, 2019 - 0 Comment
  • Special offer from photographer Rose Yuen

    August 15, 2019 - 0 Comment
  • An Illumine Ode to Summer

    August 1, 2019 - 0 Comment
  • A Mid-Summer’s evening in the Summer Garden at City Grange

    July 29, 2019 - 2 Comments
  • Illumined in the Big Apple

    July 9, 2019 - 0 Comment
  • Upcoming workshop: Family + Systemic Constellations with Candice Wu

    July 8, 2019 - 0 Comment
  • This Is Love: Respect for our elders

    March 1, 2019 - 2 Comments
  • Career: making your life work

    December 13, 2018 - 0 Comment
  • Let’s take an adventure!

    December 12, 2018 - 0 Comment
  • Breakfast of Champions

    September 25, 2017 - 0 Comment
  • Teacher Feature: Patricia Moreno, Founder of intenSati

    August 11, 2017 - 5 Comments
  • Summer “With Love” from Lourdes: Nourish

    August 1, 2017 - 0 Comment
  • She #shinesobright: Tess Staadecker

    August 31, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • With Love: from Lourdes

    June 18, 2020 - 0 Comment
  • Jaq Howard

    June 5, 2020 - 0 Comment

Related Posts

  • With love, Lourdes (September 2, 2019)

    September 2, 2019 - 0 Comment
  • Yoga Therapy Summit: Chicago September 2017

    May 26, 2017 - 0 Comment
  • Lucky us! With Love, from Lourdes

    March 3, 2017 - 2 Comments

No Responses to “Illuminating the Spirit: The Healing Powers of Community”

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*
*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Sign Up Here

Illumine on Facebook

This message is only visible to admins.

Problem displaying Facebook posts.
Click to show error

Error: (#200) Provide valid app ID
Type: OAuthException
Solution: See here for how to solve this error
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No posts found.

Make sure this account has posts available on instagram.com.

Click here to troubleshoot

© 2013-2019 Illuminating Inc. All Rights Reserved.
web customization by Blue Canvas Inc.