February 2017

Call to Silence and Opening Meditation:

A Reading from the Gospel of Mary:

   "Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying, 'Look over here!' or 'Look over there!' For the child of true Humanity exists within you. Follow it!                                                           (Karen King translation)

 “The Lord is in me, the Lord is in you, as life is in every seed, put false pride away and seek the Lord within.” 
                                                                                                                                        ― Kabir

 We Were Made For These Times

My friends, do not lose heart.  We were made for these times.  I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered.  They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now. Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most too civilized, visionary people.  You are right in your assessments.  The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking.  Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times.   Especially do not lose hope.  Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yet, for years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one.  Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the world.  And they are provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind.  Lookout over the prow;   there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you.  Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest.  That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.

In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world.  Do not focus on that.  There is a tendency, too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be.  Do not focus there.  That is spending the wind without raising the sails.

We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear.  Didn’t you say you were a believer?  Didn’t you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater?  Didn’t you ask for grace?  Don’t you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.  Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely.  It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.

What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing.  We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to standup and show your soul.  Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times.  The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire.  To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.  There will always be times when you feel discouraged.  I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it.  I will not entertain it.  It is not allowed to eat from my plate.

The reason is this:  in my uttermost bones I know something, as do you.  It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here.  The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours.  They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here.  In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall:  When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt.  But that is not what great ships are built for.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            D                                                                                                     Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“Here's the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don't know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think.”

                                                                                                 Alice Walker, The Color Purple

 “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact the kingdom of God is among [within] you”.                          

                                                                                              Gospel of Luke

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

                                                                                               Statue of Liberty

Call to Conversation:

Closing:

     SOLO:    Where are you from?

     UNISON:   We have come from the place where light is produced from itself.

               Where is that place?

It’s a mystery

But can you say you image the light?

Yes, indeed.  We carry the light within.

And the peace?

The peace.

How do you know of such light and such peace?

The sign is the feeling.

The sign is the movement from within.

The sign is the passion for the well-being of all.

What are your other signs?

Our recognitions of injustice and hatred and oppression throughout the globe

Of power races and violence that seem unending.

Can we turn those around?

We must seek to do so.

Are you willing to spread your light and your peace?

We are eager to spread it.

It spreads just as love spreads.

The kingdom spreads out on earth

Just as love spreads.

But some people are not aware of it.

Yet you are aware!

Yes, indeed.

We are aware of the light and the movement and the peace.

And we cannot stand back.

We will step forward

We will overcome the violence, the domination, the hatred

And spread love

Peace be with you.

Acquire my peace within.