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Pendle Hill Pamphlets
Interconnections
That God is present within us as the source of the unity of all life is an intuition so fundamental that it appears, even in similar ways, in many religious traditions. We have occasional intuitions of this unifying presence: times when we seem to have an awareness that is not so much of God as of Life, experienced with a kind of sufficiency and coherence. Perhaps then we have an inkling of what Paul meant when he wrote, “. . . in him all things were created,” and, “. . . in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:16, 17).
We have moments of intuition; we can also cultivate such moments, learning to expand our awareness. The practice, common in Buddhism, of “mindfulness,” is a means to that end. In a more western way, using the imagination, we can image ourselves and others as God’s temples; or we can imagine God’s presence as a fount of living water springing up within us (Jn. 4:14). We can use Ezekiel’s image of life-giving streams radiating outward from our own inner sanctuary. And so a stream of love-energy may bless every place we walk, every room we enter, every person we meet, every flower and every sow we see, and allow everything we encounter to “flower, from within, of self-blessing.”
We have moments of intuition; we can also cultivate such moments, learning to expand our awareness. The practice, common in Buddhism, of “mindfulness,” is a means to that end. In a more western way, using the imagination, we can image ourselves and others as God’s temples; or we can imagine God’s presence as a fount of living water springing up within us (Jn. 4:14). We can use Ezekiel’s image of life-giving streams radiating outward from our own inner sanctuary. And so a stream of love-energy may bless every place we walk, every room we enter, every person we meet, every flower and every sow we see, and allow everything we encounter to “flower, from within, of self-blessing.”
32 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1985
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December 25, 2025
The author begins by characterizing the connectedness and difference between individuals in a meeting, a community, the world—and that all are needed and should be respected. “Each one’s Fidelity to her or his gift enables the operation of someone else’s gift” (p. 3)
Romans, 12:4–5: “For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, so many, our one body in Christ, an individual individually members one of another.”
She then moves to explain how that interconnectedness is something grander: “One suspects that the web of interconnection is not just what we see and can reason to in the outer world, but something far more mysterious and secret, operating invisibly under the surface. It does depend on Fidelity, upon each one of us being faithful to what is given to us no matter what it is.” (p. 4)
This is a view similar to Spinoza’s belief that God is Nature.
But to retain the fidelity to one’s being that the interdependence of everything can be difficult She recommends discipline and intentional acknowledgement: “A ritual can be an aid and remembering. We could develop some private rituals – a small gesture, a bow, a word – that would help us remember to acknowledge that we are not simply taking something, but that’s something is being given to us.” (p. 15)
Romans, 12:4–5: “For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, so many, our one body in Christ, an individual individually members one of another.”
She then moves to explain how that interconnectedness is something grander: “One suspects that the web of interconnection is not just what we see and can reason to in the outer world, but something far more mysterious and secret, operating invisibly under the surface. It does depend on Fidelity, upon each one of us being faithful to what is given to us no matter what it is.” (p. 4)
This is a view similar to Spinoza’s belief that God is Nature.
But to retain the fidelity to one’s being that the interdependence of everything can be difficult She recommends discipline and intentional acknowledgement: “A ritual can be an aid and remembering. We could develop some private rituals – a small gesture, a bow, a word – that would help us remember to acknowledge that we are not simply taking something, but that’s something is being given to us.” (p. 15)
Displaying 1 of 1 review