
A Non-Religious Spiritual Practice and Volunteer Community Supporting Boston’s South Shore
Sunday Reflection — June 15, 2025
This Week’s Music
S. Rachmaninoff: Canon in E minor
A. Ginastera: Milonga del Angel
B. Wilson: God only Knows (arr. Brent Edstrom)
L.M. Gottschalk: Souvenir from Puerto-Rico – Marche of the Gibaros, Opus 31
This Week’s Theme – The Beauty of Discipline
Discipline sounds like a dirty word, unless you’re an athlete or artist. It reminds us of Catholic School, rulers rapping knuckles. My aunt who chased my cousin around with a long wooden spoon until he was six years old, never connecting with his bottom (never able to catch him!), the spoon a stern warning. There’s nothing harsh at all about the discipline of mindful practice! What catches my attention, in reading the great teachers, is how sweet and gentle are their instructions. Yes, It takes intention and much repetition to practice and live mindfully. And there are some very simple rules that really help us out. Yet these rules don’t break us, and mindful discipline isn’t hard on us. However many times our mind wanders and our attention drifts, however many times we must repeatedly return attention back to our practice, each time is an opportunity to extend lovingkindness to our own selves. In this repeated extending and receiving of lovingkindness – from our open and spacious hearts to our overburdened minds – in this exchange we feel the ground soften and shift. Spaciousness and clarity emerge, right in the midst of whatever squeezes us too hard or demands too much.
Come this Sunday…sit a spell…and enjoy being curious about this experience of being human.
This Week’s Reading
Each week, we hear a short chapter from Mindfulness for Beginners – Reclaiming the Present Moment – and Your Life, by Jon Kabat-Zinn. If you’d like to read along, you can purchase a copy at Buttonwood Books in Cohasset. Tell our friends at Buttonwood that you’re connected with the “Sunday Reflection Book Club” and you’ll receive a 15% discount! This week, we’ll hear the short chapter “The Beauty of Discipline.”
You don’t need to read along or buy the book to join in! And you aren’t missing out if you haven’t started “from the beginning.” Read along if you like, and come whenever and as often as makes sense to you.
We Offer
practice groups, volunteer opportunities, educational workshops & retreats, and social events in support of our South Shore communities.
Want to find out more about M+?
“Good works need financial support and few of them check as many boxes as M+. I know my monthly check is promoting the spiritual and community values that are important to me. The warmth and kindness of its members are like nothing else I know.”
— Jim from Cohasset