"Welcome to your soul. You have an infinite number of new messages."

I believe that faith is a series of questions not a set of answers. People who were upset at Mother Teresa's last book in which she was open about the doubts and questions in her spiritual life, were missing a very important point: doubt is a strong component of faith.

But I can't just say, "I doubt it", or "Who can know?" and leave it at that. It is important to search our souls and study our environment for insight and meaning. Humans---it would appear out of all creatures---- have self-awareness and consciousness. There must be a reason.

As Rabbi Heischel said: "Man is the messenger who has forgotten the message." I have this feeling that my soul has "call waiting", and I need to retrieve those messages.

I'm hesitant about stating to others my spiritual beliefs. First, I can’t prove I’m right and neither can they, so why involve ourselves in “un-edifying” conversations? Second, and more troubling to me, is that people should know what I believe by the way I live.

When I first considered that, it stopped me cold. If I went up to people who I interact with regularly but have never discussed religion with, and asked them,
"Judging from how I act and live my life, what would you say are my beliefs?", what would they answer and how happy would I be with the responses?

If I say I believe in a God who loves the poor, why aren’t I doing more about the shameful poverty in my own city, on my own street? If I claim God in present in nature, why do I allow it to be so mistreated? If I say my God is one of charity and concern and healing, why do I treat people with impatience, disdain and disrespect?

In the old days this used to be called "examination of conscience". I think I'd better check in with my soul. There's a call waiting.

"The New Outline of Your Body..."

"Give us grace in our changing day
to stand by the temple that is the present church,
the noisome temple,
the sometimes scandalised temple that is the present church,
listening sometime to what again seems mumbo jumbo.
Make it our custom to go
till the new outline of your body for our day
becomes visible in our midst."

---------George Macleod (1895-1991)
Founder of the modern-day Iona Community

Corpus Christi

My May Crowning

Going over the rosary this morning while walking by Lake Michigan, it occurred to me that Gabriel's greeting to Mary could (and should) be addressed to "all creatures great and small"---if one is serious about regaining a feeling of oneness with the many likenesses of God in our daily lives. We can certainly say to one another,



"Good Morning/ Good Day/ Good Night/
You are full of grace.
You are blessed among all God's creation,
and blessed is who and what you bring to the world
-----JESUS."


I tried this form out on a gull who persistently circled overhead, and, while there was no noticeable response from the bird, it did not crap on my bald head which must have been an attractive target from up there.

But my thoughts turned back to Mary and the Annunciation,


Mother Mary, help us and heal us,
and keep us on the path to oneness with God.

It's enjoyable to paraphrase the traditional prayers to search the words for hidden meanings and new ways they apply to who and where we are.

The Blight of the Soul

“Alexander Scott, the nineteenth-century Celtic teacher, uses the analogy of a plant suffering from blight. If such a plant were shown to botanists, even if the botanists had never seen that type of plant before, they would describe it in terms of its essential life features. They would identify the plant with reference to its healthy properties of height and color and scent. They would not define it in terms of its blight. Rather they would say that the blight is foreign to the plant, that it is attacking the essence of the plant. Now this may seem a very obvious point botanically. But maybe it is so obvious that we have missed the point when it comes to defining human nature. We have tended to define ourselves and one another in terms of sin and evil, in terms of the failings or illnesses of our lives, instead of seeing what is deeper still, the beauty of the image of God at the core of our being.”

--------from “Christ of the Celt”
By J. Phillip Newell

Just Thinking again

"Let not your hearts be troubled. In my Father's house there are many mansions..."

All the sermons on this text that I have heard have been in the context of the afterlife: each individual being accepted into the "heavenly lodge", as the Scots would say.

I have been perusing a wide variety of religious blogs, by definition dealing with a particular "ISM", and how one "ISM" is truer than another, and in the Catholic`s case,one time period (similar to Picasso's rose or blue periods?) the truer way and the the truth and the life.

Can't the scripture passage be addressed to those of us who get all wound up in knots over which path leads to you-know-where? Don't trouble yourself. In my father's house there are many churches and religions---though probably not alot of theologians!(As the old joke goes, just don't disturb the Catholics; they think they're the only ones up there.)

Addendum: At a funeral recently, the preacher said that when "Do not let your hearts be troubled" is translated from the Spanish it comes out, "Do not lose peace."

Lord
it is night.

The night is for stillness.
Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.
What has been done has been done;
what has not been done has not been done;
let it be.

The night is dark.
Let our fears of the darkness of the world
and of our own lives rest in you.
The night is quiet.
Let the quietness of your peace enfold us,
all dear to us,
and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.

Let us look expectantly to a new day,
new joys,
new possibilities.

In your Holy name we pray.
Amen.

[courtesy of The Rev. Devin McLachlan]

cummings

dive for dreams
or a slogan may topple you
(trees are their roots
and wind is wind)

trust your heart
if the seas catch fire
(and live by love
though the stars walk backward)

honour the past
and welcome the future
(and dance your death
away at this wedding)

never mind a world
with its villains or heroes
(for god likes girls
and tomorrow and the earth)

The Crosses of Melanie Twelves

"Come Unto Me"

"Willingness of God"

"The Dance of Salvation"

"Christmas Cross"

"Mission Cross"

"Rainbow Resurrection Cross"

Artist Statement Concerning Crosses
"The symbol of the Cross of Christ represents to me the point of both conversion and regeneration. Conversion to Christ through the perfect gift of His sacrificial Love and regeneration and rebirth as we take up our own cross by accepting that we are sinners. This acceptance empties us to receive forgiveness. When we know we are forgiven, we ourselves can forgive and in our willingness to forgive we give Love. In giving Love we are reborn.

All the images and titles on the crosses are gifts to me from God. He continually reminds me how to Love through the designs. I am blessed beyond knowing or understanding."



For more crosses and information on the artist, please click here and visit her beautiful site. (Maybe buy a cross for me, huh?)

After looking at all the portraits and icons and representations of "GOD" that all the different cultures and religions have put up to aid in understanding and worship, reading all the tales, fables, proverbs and scriptures attempting to read the creator's mind and convey that message to others, unless you are completely sold on one viewpoint (which I suppose is still possible, even with our expanding consciousness) you reach a point of choice: you can reject them all, intellectual smugness intact, or you can embrace them all and then some. You can say:"All this only begins to give meaning to my being alive and my consciousness of it." My image of the creator is a kind of omnipotent and omni-PRESENT chameleon. God can be all of these things, none of them, or something else entirely. God can be anything but limited. Put the creator in a temple, mosque, church, cave, or a nicely bound book, and that spirit will find a way out. This is why Buddhist tend to dismiss any discussion of a God or an afterlife as "not-edifying."



But this does not mean I have no spiritual life. Indeed, I think I have a closer, richer, and yes, even more personal involvement, the more I let go, and LET GOD DEFINE GOD in each moment. I can pick up a rosary, read the Qur'an, meditate and chant,-----all these can be fruitful paths. But the goal is not a definition of God but an understanding of this life, why I have been given the gift of awareness of this existence, and what am I to do with that gift.



In the process, I can look at God's creation and my movement through it without the trepidation and fear that organizers of "isms" would foist on followers


and instead
truly rejoice that I'm a part of something that, even though I don't understand it completely, moves me with meaning and divine love.

Peace

Be Still

Know

I AM HERE.

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift
and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant
and has forgotten the gift.
(Albert Einstein)



Alas! The world is full of enormous lights and mysteries,
and man shuts them from himself with one small hand.
(The Baal Shem Tov)




I saw my Lord with the eye of the heart.
I said: "Who are you?"
He answered: "You."
(Mansur Al-Hallaj)