If there is anything I have learned about men and women, it is that there is a deeper spirit of altruism than is ever evident. Just as the rivers we see are minor compared to the underground streams, so, too, the idealism that is visible is minor compared to what people carry in their hearts unreleased or scarcely released.
Dr. Albert Schweitzer
[Cecilia Loving]So true, so really, really true, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, EXCEPT...when it comes to the Reverend Cecilia Loving. She WILL release all the "splendor" within her!
In a few short years, this blog will not be big enough to contain her. I know this and I make this prediction, as we move into this wonderful new year: 2010.
You see, the thing that I know, dear readers, that you don't is that Cecilia Loving is just getting started as the minister of a non-denominational church she founded in New York City, where she holds Sunday services.
In the short time that she's established Spiritmuv (http://www.spiritmuv.com), Rev. Loving has even exceeded her own goals of just wanting to hold church and now sends out weekly "Power Prayers" to more than 3,000 people in audio format.
That's the way it goes with Cecilia Loving.
She starts something, quickly hits her target, then moves to the next higher level, then the next, and the next and the next, reaching and reaching and reaching and always reaching ...for more...as she hits one target...and then some...as she moves to the top!
The beauty of all this is that what she's reaching for is to empower people... the world of people...about God!
The question is: Can anyone EVER OVERACHIEVE for God?I'm sure even God is laughing back at that one...stating clearly to my ears and those who know her: ONLY CECILIA!
The thing that becomes so clear to those people who are privileged to know this beautiful spirit is that she can't settle for second best...especially...very especially...when it comes to God.
In everything that she does she reaches into the core of her being and this "brown girl" manages to transform into concrete steps of achievement.
There are few of my contemporaries whom I truly, truly admire for their achievements, their sincerity, their integrity, their simplicity, their rightfulness and aaaaah...just for their TRUE beauty!
Cecilia Loving is one of those people.
She is one of those people I truly, truly want to reach the highest rung on the ladder and then applaud her as she reaches for the next ladder and climbs that, too.
The Rev. Cecilia Loving is a rare and beautiful spirit. I'm blessed to have met her on the labyrinth, yep, at Unity Village at 5:30 a.m. when we both were urgently trying to get through our daily meditation and exercise ...before having to rush to breakfast...(or miss it)...before classes.
That was almost 10 years ago. Since then, whenever I catch up with her...she's doing something more for God!
o She's had the courage last year to step out, after 23 years of practicing law at a large New York City firm in midtown Manhattan, and dare to live her spiritual dreams!
o She's NOT implusive, like some of us following the spiritual path, but developed a plan as to how she would give up the lucrative world of Corporate America and become a messenger for God.
o She's learned what she had to...did what she had to...to become The Reverend Cecilia Loving, then start her church.
Despite all the energy we feel exuding from Cecilia, there is a stillness about her when you're in her Presence. There is a TIME she does slow down; she does this for "LOVE."!
"In the Bible, John said that God is love. If we are centered in love and led by love and give to life through the energy of love, there is nothing that we cannot do or be or contribute. So many people are looking for love but fail to realize that they are the love they seek and that they cannot manifest what they are not willing to give.
I have been blessed in love, led by love and uplifted in love because I am not afraid to give it."
When people approach her with any issue or concern, she says,
"I slow down and breathe.
I open my heart to listen. I am the energy of compassion, of focus, of deliberation, of peace, of grace in all circumstances of life, towards the people I know and those whom I see and those whom I have yet to meet.
I spend more time being and less time doing. Being requires that we be the fullest expression of the divine vortex of all that we love. Doing is what we busy ourselves with in our struggle to be, which sometimes wears itself out from the pure exhaustion of trying.
When we are still enough to hear the voice of love, everything else will take shape with ease, joy and grace."
Everything has and is taking shape for Cecilia because she sees God as her life. "There is no separation. Jesus said I am in the Father and you are in me and I am in you. He said that the Kingdom of God is within us. He said I will send the counselor, who will live in you and be your guide. When I realize this truth, every word that I speak expresses through the divine power that it is and every action that I take becomes the miracle that God is."
This miracle of God stays open to God "expressing through me. Right now, God is expressing Spiritmuv, a church that needs to be offered to as many people as possible, so I am obedient in developing it."
It's not that Cecilia Loving doesn't have challenges. But with these, she says, "I always meet my challenges through God. I love what Job 23:14 says in the King James Version: God does the work for us that God appoints us to do. Life is in perfect divine order, which flows so wonderfully when we see it from the eyes of God and we create it from the power of Spirit within."
When you know her life story, then you understand that Cecilia Loving always has had a calling on her life.
Cecilia says her mother told her that she was "never a child." I truly believe that.
Cecilia Loving grew up in inner city of Detroit, where she was always "marching to the tune of a different drummer. Spirit was the way I was most comfortable dealing with my challenges. God was always calling me to be my best. I always sought to transcend the appearances around me by being tapped in and turned on to God."
There are periods in her life that she does remember ...when God was closer than her breath. "I do remember at 12 years old, lying across my bed, and making a decision to be my best---despite what everyone else was doing around me. That was a defining moment for me. At that time, I didn't think of it as God.
But afterwards, when I was 13, I experienced what I could call the dark night of my soul. I was in high school and realized that I had to push myself beyond my own self-imposed fears to remove my light from under my bushel.
Attending a magnate school at the time, the best school in Detroit,"I felt inadequate in many ways, largely because I did not have the material things of those teens who were from families of doctors and lawyers and principals.
For example, we never had a car growing up and these kids drove to school. A few even
drove a Mercedes. I had to learn to judge not by appearances in order to realize that we were all children of God. The realization of this at such a young age was my most
difficult hurdle in life because in some ways, I climbed it alone. But at every turning point, I felt the presence of God teaching me to prepare for the work that I would be called to do."
At age 14, Cecilia read Charles Roth's "Mind: The Master
Power." Now, she says, "Whenever I go back to this book, I realize it is the foundation of my beliefs. Ralph Waldo Emerson was another strong influence of my life; I loved his essays and read them repeatedly. By the time I was 15, I was a member of the Home of Love in Detroit, where late Martha Jean, the Queen, had combined Unity principles with her Disc Jockey backgournd and huge following bring the Word in a unique way. I took metaphysical callses at the Home of Love with my two younger brothers, 13 and 14 years old.
"I knew at a very young age what metaphysical principles are and understood that divine law works." Altogether she has been studying Unity principles for more than 40 years.
When she was about four years old, until she was eight, Cecilia attended a Baptist Church, where her mother taught Sunday School. "I hated it," she says. "It never resonated with me." She also remembers having a babysitter who was Jehovah's Witness and had her and her brothers "attend long classes and retreats with her."
The Detroit native attended Cass Technical High School, focusing on Performing Arts, and graduated in 1976. From this focused attention, she received a full National Competitive Scholarship to Howard University, Washington, DC, where she CREATED the first major in Theatre Management that combines theaters and business courses, as well as an internship in management. She interned at the John F. Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts.
"Howard's theatre curriculum supported (my reading metaphysical books) by expanding our horizons with more spiritual books, like those of Kahlil Gibran and og Mandino and Carlos Casteneda.
"Howard University was a place where the spirit met the academy in not just a soulful way, but in a manner that opened the mind, heart and soul to the infinite possibility of the divine. I was 17 years old at Howard, so I grew up in the cultural milieu of its mind, body and soul."
Leaving Howard University in 1980, where she'd obtained a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts, she was offered a scholarship to University of California, Los Angeles, where she obtained a Master's of Fine Arts degree in Theater Management, interning at the Los Angeles Music Center. Since the MFA program only accepted two people per year, this allowed them to design a unique concentration for their professional goals.
Cecilia focused on the legal negotiations for film and theater, so naturally, as most of us would do (sic), she went "to law school afterwards at New York University School of Law to learn more about entertainment law and intellectual property."
Receiving her Juris Doctor in 1985, Cecilia was admitted to the New York Bar in 1985 and the Washington DC Bar in 1989 and is still a member in good standing of both those Bars!
She has been a litigator and an arbitrator. (Today, Cecilia still does arbitrations for a number of tribunals.)
When did she have time to hear God?
She heard the call about a year after she got of Howard University...in 1977. She didn't want to listen then. "I had to experience a lot of other things before I would be open and receptive to how the universe was directing me.
"I heard the call into the ministry in 1999, while listening to Eric Butterworth [A MASTER Unity Teacher, 1916-2003] at Avery Fisher Hall one Sunday. I tried to ignore the calling. But later, while on a visit to Unity Village of Missouri in 2002, the call became a summon, and I knew that it would be a matter of time before I responded. I was patient with myself, but I suffered deeply when I knew that I wasn't listening to my deepest intent and purpose in life."
Of course, she was afraid to leave law. "I was afraid to leave the external trappings of a successful lawyer's life and all the material benefits that accompany it---to walk out on faith. This year[2009], I did it. I just have to remind myself that I do not work for me but that God is my CEO. Everyone asks me if I miss the practice of law. I do not. My day is filled with creative projects and the embrace of Spirit, which is wonderful. I trust that the Universe will take care of me, and it is."
To prepare for this stepping out, in 2003 while practicing law, Cecilia began attending New York Theological Seminary, obtaining a Masters of Divinity degree. She graduated in 2007....of course...with TOP honors, receiving the President's Award for being the second person in the seminary's approximately 100-year history to receive a perfect 4.0!!!
(She now serves as a Trustee of the Seminary).
Myrtle Tree Press, the publishing company Cecilia formed in the early 2000s, published her mother's book, "Angels, Angels, Everywhere." Myrtle Loving Ross' second book also will be published this year, "The Angel Blanket." She also published her own book, "Prayers for Those Standing on the Edge of Greatness," (Briefly reviewed in this blog on 1/03/10).
Spiritmuv was formed in 2007 when Cecilia began holding services at her home, then expanded them to the Sacred Center in New York City. Today, the services are held at Unity Center of New York City @ 2:30 p.m. {She had taught a few metaphyscial classes at the Unity School of New York City, during the late Eric Butterworth's tenure 1961-2003.}
You know the saying that behind every GREAT Woman, there is a GREAT man.
No less so for Cecilia.
[Cecilia Loving & Her Husband, Marlon Cromwell]Marlon Cromwell is her husband of more than six years. He is the co-minister at Spiritmuv.
"He is a wonderful, loving soul mate who keeps me committed to my spiritual goals from a practical perspective. He practices what I preach. he is also very committed to my family and to family and community generally. So when I am caught up in the poetry of Spirit, he keeps my feet anchored in the reality of embracing my family and my community.
"One of the things that both Marlon and I enjoy doing is working out."
Cecilia says, "I probably work out more than he does because as a former US Marine, it was something he had to do. For me, it was a conscious choice. I love weight-lifting, and I also love teaching weight-lifting techniquest to others. My days have to be balanced with lifting weights, doing yoga and/or cardio."
The couple also make full use of being in New York City by going to the theater about four times a month to catch a show on Broadway or at the Public Theatre. They also enjoy reading and traveling, with Africa being their "favorite place of destination."
Having no kids of their own, Marlon and Cecilia spend lots of time with their seven godchildren, ranging in age from nine to 30 years old, and several nieces and nephews, who range in age from one to 40 years.
What hasn't this "brown girl" done?
The reason for calling her "the brown girl": she formed a company, "God is a Brown Girl Too," which held its first retreat in October 2009. A book by the same name, "God is a Brown Girl Too," is her second book that retells the story of creation from the perspective of women of color and reclaims their power, beauty, courage, strength. Check out "God is a Brown Girl Too" blog: http://www.godisabrowngirltoo.com.
[Cecilia Loving, red dress, is surrounded by atttendees of her first retreat]
The way I see it, God, indeed, MUST be a "brown girl too."
Don't you see his image reflected in HER?
Cecilia Loving, reaching for the stars, and touching the sky.
May God continue to bless your path! You are an inspiration to us all.
You sure make ALL of us brown girls...so very, very PROUD!
You can appreciate these words from one of your favorite essayists, philosophers and poets, Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"Just do what you are doing now, and believe this moment will be good for the hours, years, and centuries to come."
Namaste',
Che'
