Rising Tides

She the Spirit is rising and lifting us all with her. Powers and principalities are terrified, their minions' stocks are declining and with their declining influence, we are retaking stock of ourselves and each other. We go online (my blog is receiving as many hits from Russia as from the US), pick up our phones, and see each other, in real time, and see simultaneously, we are the same. We start to see that if we are the same, then perhaps we are one divided against ourselves, to someone else's profit. Eventually we say enough, we are one. We can therefore move as one. We can peacefully, as one worldwide community, communion, say to powers and principalities, with their machines of poverty and war, and say to them: Enough, we will participate in your illusion no more!

She the Spirit is moving. Can the church keep up? We must follow Spirit beyond the walls of stone and wood and beyond the walls of doctrine. If we must, we must leave preachers, priests and bishops behind. If we must, we must leave all the fearful behind with our sacrificial fears. We can simply follow God's call for loving justice. Pray and let Spirit remind you. Pray and be moved to remind me.

The Next Church

I think this is where the Spirit is leading us to ultimately.

People, from all around the world and different traditions will move past the ancient barriers of ideology, personified in brick, mortar and doctrine. Because we communicate now, literally "through the ethers" of electronic media, the barriers are dissolved. Because the barriers are dissolved we, the Church of Christ's communion of compassion, can make direct contact, right now, to accumulate help in addressing the needs of those who suffer around us. We who hear Christ's call to first value love, and loving God through loving each other, will ultimately move on beyond those who would despise, judge and ignore the pleas of the suffering.

It's only a matter of time before the regional "minorities" of disciples will look beyond their denominations, their regions to find each other and connect with each other. We will then realize, "Wow, the Church has been here the whole time, we've just been separated from each other." We, from our compassionate minorities, will join each other in a "super-majority": the loving, compassionate, justice bearing community Jesus promised us, if we but believe and do.

The Evolution

God's call, and the prophetic echo, has always been liberation. Though it takes on different voices through history, the Spirit has always moved humanity towards liberty. We continue to move forward, as more people experience liberty, more people desire it. The more people desire it, the more they move towards it. Liberty, freedom, is the natural state of the garden, therefore, in a certain sense we humans are the last to evolve to it. But we will, it is inevitable, unless we completely destroy the garden before we can get there.

So Grant Us Courage

The way of the prophets is hard to endure, yet graces the hearts of God's people with courage and love for all creation and the prophetic voice shatters hearts of glass.

Why Show Up?

When I returned to the church, I wrestled with the liturgy's language and the Creed, I couldn't say the parts I didn't agree with, but eventually I did, and do, say them as a practice of humility: I just might be, could possibly be, wrong about some things. It is possible that I don't have all the answers. There are days when I don't want to go. I may be depressed or tired. But sometime we just have to show-up. You never know wonderful little thing may occur, a smile from someone who never does, or a hug from someone who never does but just happened to need one more than me and was willing to give it a try. You just gotta show-up sometimes, you never know what may happen.

We Can Overcome

Who are you, or am I, to judge? We can overcome bad theology without resorting to the same belittling tactics and scapegoating used by extremists. In fact, we will only overcome the bad theology by first overcoming the bad rhetoric. There is no time for hyperventilated rhetoric. The time is now for options and solutions in our discourse. Even more, the time for discourse is fast passing, as we are now in a time for action in the care of those among us who are suffering in spirit, mind, body and economically: the actions that are God's justice and compassion. Jesus Compassionate calls us to act, not to judge.

This is a bittersweet time, yet full with emerging grace.

Doubts

Oh dear Thomas, the promise was always the promise of suffering, don't doubt it.

Unsure?

Put your fingers and hands into the risen one: the wounds remain. In a few days, the risen one will be the ascended one, and the wounds will remain.

What changed is the person around the wounds, the same person who, if we will, can by those same wounds, transform me around the wounds of mine.

Such is the mystery and power of love.

Easter 2012

Today from every dark place, every nook and cranny, every crevice and cave, from under every stone and rock, from even the rocks themselves, came the great cry of creation, of life's inability to be suppressed. The great shout goes up defying death's folly and self-indulgence, as it is the Cosmos' plan, the Living One's victory that life always returns, always rises up, again and again and again.

We know this whether we always see it or not. And more, today we know that we are made in God's image, their image, male and female, in their image too in our capacity to love as well. This is what's so special about us, we can choose to love, and the greater our willingness to suffer the exquisite pain of loving, the greater and deeper our love and being loved grows, growing ever, like the expanding Cosmos, which is hoping to be big enough to contain all the love we have to grow in God's promise, and each other.

This is the great shout coming from the depth of our being, the sorrows of our hell, into which the great love of Jesus enters into, pulling us out of the depth and dark of our suffering and into the light of his love, God's love. All I need to do is have the courage of my Lady Mary Magdalene, to go to and look into the tomb, see it empty of death and full of life's hope, and though like her, confused and terrified, I too can go running, shouting the joy of Love's victory!

We can know it. We can live it.

Happy Easter!

Notes On "Long-Suffering"

These notes, thinking out-loud on paper, are the early formations of some study I'm currently engaged with on human suffering and the traditional thinking of the Church (Christianity), written to be shared on March 13, 2012, with my community as we study together The Life of Saint Anthony.

Br. Kenneth asked me to specifically address the question of "long suffering", as the object of my study now seems to have evolved into addressing human suffering and the Churches' (read Christianity) apparent inability to address suffering as the prime concern among humanity. Why is the Church (and religion in general) losing ground of validity and relevance in the modern world? The inability to deal with suffering is the answer, I believe. In the pressing needs of this world, salvation is nice, as is heaven, bliss and nirvana, but what about the suffering now?

I don't believe religion and the Church do a very good job in directly addressing human suffering as a concern. Many religions deem suffering to be a consequence or an end, and Buddhism, which most directly addresses suffering does so by making it the result of illusion and desire and chooses to use detachment as the means around the problem of suffering; it seems if we become enlightened enough, we won't be subject to suffering. If we do or don't do something, we'll be spared suffering. The Church spends a lot of time either saying "we deserve suffering because we're retched sinners" or would rather side-step the issue and talk around it and the mystery of it.

As a matter of fact, in my study of and experience with shamanism, it leads me to believe shamanism does a better job of addressing suffering, in that in my experience, the community holds itself accountable for the suffering within the community and the individuals who are suffering and work as a whole to address and remedy the suffering... but that's another story.

But I'm getting off track in describing my interest in the Church and suffering, and there will be plenty of time to share my studies and thoughts on the subject. The subject directly here is that Abba Antony speaks to "long-suffering" (which ultimately has implications in the world's sufferings), I think, in this sense, he is more concerned with inner-suffering, the suffering which reveals to us that we are indeed doing the real inner work required of us to grow in God's Spirit and love.

My first thought about long-suffering is that I would generally prefer short-suffering. If suffer I must, then mostly I would rather not suffer at all. But as I think on that, it occurs to me that no-suffering would also mean no-breathing and no-living, for if I stop suffering, then I must be dead... unless I've become Buddha, who while no longer suffering, I would then have to be wary of meeting Zen pilgrims on the road who would just as soon leave me dead on the road, should they meet me...

The point here being, the very fact that I am alive means I must suffer. Along with taxes and death, suffering is one of the things we all must experience, including suffering fools, beginning with my own foolish self. Yet, there are choices to be made about suffering, as it is a given that suffer we will, we can choose to a certain degree what we shall suffer and in doing so, actually diminish the totality of our suffering, while also gaining the illumination to help others in this world suffer a little less, and if we are blessed, maybe help a few suffer a lot less. Suffering is the mythic hero's lot, the means beyond the illusion of victory and glory, and rather to true happiness and peace found finally at home. Suffering is too the shaman's way, the means to learning the healing way as the wounded healer. Suffering the cross, death, and hell, is the Savior's way to resurrection and the way to our healing, or salving.

I think this is what Jesus may have been alluding to when he said his followers must take up their crosses to follow him. I hear Jesus telling me that if I make the right choices towards my suffering ("take up my cross"), then those things which cause me to suffer may then die-off (doing the inner-work) and a new me, transformed and restored me, may be resurrected form the depth of my suffering. I think that it's likely that until we begin to shape our suffering, our suffering will continue to shape us, or rather misshapen us. Could it be that this is the power Christ offers us when he invites us to take up our crosses and follow him. I believe for me this has been the case, continues to be the case, and will be for the rest of my life: this is the way for me to fully embrace my humanity and my life. This also means letting go of the idea I can control all that happens to me which brings suffering, and I can't end the suffering but that I can sure as hell embrace it as part of the fullness of my humanity and that this can serve as the springboard for more mature spirituality.

The first choice towards my suffering is realizing I will suffer, do suffer and am suffering. Thank God, not always, 24-7-365, but suffering is my companion. Someone famous once said death is my sister. Yep, it was St. Francis who spoke of "Sister Death". Perhaps we could view suffering as part of the family of experience too, "Brother Suffering", with us always. Of course with Brother Suffering being part of the family, we have to accept him and love him too unconditionally. Long-suffering this is indeed. And many tears, the holy tears of healing, holy tears cleansing The Wound we all bear.

Which leads to choice two, doing the inner work regarding "my" suffering. The questions for us then is: why do I suffer, and what cause me to suffer? This is the hard part because this means we have to accept the suffering in a deep and personal way. I have to examine the wound, probe it, examine it, wash it with soap and water, and maybe alcohol... ouch. Ouch! Ouch!! This hurts... I'm going to cry now. Maybe scream some too.

But, without the probing and cleaning, healing of The Wound will not occur. The Wound will remain and fester, and slowly poison the whole of me, and will kill me, heart and soul (or even physically), making me numb, the walking dead, or maybe even a raging horrible monster.

The next part is harder still, it means I have to be willing to take up my cross, willingly to let die the part of me which is attached to the cause of suffering, to let die the part of me which is hurt, angry, resentful, bitter, addicted, the part of me which would choose this hell and choose to make my hell part of your hell, the part of me which would strike out from the place of my suffering. Ironically, I must be willing to suffer the sorrows, deep deep sorrows of my suffering, to overcome my suffering, and the suffering I cause others in vengeance for my suffering, or in defending against suffering (an impossibility!). I must descend into my hell.

I must endure the harrowing. Fortunately there in hell Christ endures too. Christ descends into our hell, my hell, your hell, as well. Love is there too. The greatest leap of faith for me is into the pit of my hell, trusting that even in the hell of my making, God's love is present there too. And it is. I must be willing to open the gates of my hell, and let God in, you in, my friends and family in, trusting that I will be loved anyway. Even if no one shows up, I know love is present, within myself, in the act of the willingness to be vulnerable, loving God in spirit and in truth. But, I've yet to be abandoned. And if I honestly look around, I can see beyondme, and my suffering and see love is present in the world. If love is still present in the world, then I know the hope of God is present still.

Suffering forms us and depending on how we're taught to relate to it, forms us either into beings of compassion, for others and ourselves, or as beings desensitized as mis-shapened creatures forever self-imprisoned and alone to some degree, bitter, spiteful and harmful in the vain illusion that one can escape suffering. Depending on our understanding of its tension, in ourselves and others, determines whether the process is ultimately creative or destructive: the confrontation with our sufferings in each other is not something to be afraid of, friction is the natural sate of the universe creating heat and light: life; tension, when properly understood and tuned, leads to the music of life: proper tension in the lips is music for brass and woodwinds, proper tension on strings is music in piano, guitar and the string section, proper tension on drum heads is the joy of being in the percussion section... none of these are possible without tension.

Our suffering, our embracing of it, of our full humanity, brings us closer to our full divinity in Christ, in God's love and Spirit. Our suffering, our willingness to companion it, provides a place for new growth. Indeed, the companionship of our suffering is the only way to the next life; the healthy, centered, fully aware life, which embraces all, for better or worse, with compassion, joy and peace with all experience. All people share suffering in common with each other, and in suffering, all share the magnificent capacity of love. We have before us the grace of God's love born through our suffering, the liberation of suffering pioneered in bearing our own suffering Jesus in his (and therefore our) empathy and compassion... wisdom true and divine.

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Hebrews 2:10

The Monk

Continuing meditations and reminders while on the way.

Most recent are 50-55.

1. After taking his vows and being vested in his habit, the monk sat in silence and came to know that should he dwell in the desires of arrogance, anger and condescension, he would be nothing more than a hanger for his habit.

2. He sat in meditation upon the ascetic way, thinking, perhaps if I act holy, then I will be holy. Mother Spirit then reached down. Taking his face in her hands, she looked into his eyes and and said, "Be holy and you will act holy." The monk asked, "What is holy?" She the Spirit answered, "What is Love?"

3. Jesus calls us to be disciples, radical as he. Paul calls us to dare to be radical, to actually consider changing one's mind, to be transformed. It is radical indeed to consider discipleship. It is radical to truly ponder changing my mind, my self-perception as unchanging, to truly consider I need changing. Be transformed! It is radical to love without forethought but as a simple response to The First Love. But be not hard on yourself. Most often the most radical thing to do is to simply Believe.

4. Must I forever remain a neophyte? God willing!

5. Do I prefer guilt over healing to avoid the painful cleaning of my wounds?

6. Of all the things we can do, mercy and charity will bring us quicker into the heart of God.

7. Compassionate love, love and kindness, is joy to the heart of God. Praying for those who despise you is a song in God's heart. Sing then! Sing a joyful song!

8.Obsess on nothing, not even God. Joy is known in pure simplicity.

9. Without ceasing is God born into us, and with us, in the great communion in union with all.

10. The sands of orthodoxy can bury the head and swallow the heart.

11. The monk sat in silence, but his mind was mulling which form of asceticism to practice. Many masters taught that by disciplining the body, the heart would follow. Many taught that by disciplining the mind, the heart would follow. He wrestled with these notions until he could think no more. In this quiet Spirit came to him. She whispered into his silence, "Your true ascetic is of the heart. The heart is the body and mind of the soul. This is where the ascetic heart is trained: you hear me with your heart, you see me with your heart. Where the ascetic heart leads, the mind and body follow."

12. The monk's true abbey is the heart. Otherwise, he's just a man in a dress.

13. "Forgive me" cried the monk, again and again and again. Lost in the duality of sorrow and guilt, he felt his faith wavering in such agony so as to lose it. She came to him, Spirit asked, "Do you not believe, do you not know? Faith can be lost. Don't you know what you experience? Knowledge of Love can never be lost and never forgotten. Would you rather have faith or knowing? Faith is the final veil of the mind, discard your faith so that you may know!"

14. I need not the desert of wind, sun and sand to temper my heart. Sadly, I have the desert of my compassion wherein to find myself.

15. Vanity is a shelter from fear, truth its destroyer.

16. There is only one thing I need to remember: God is Love, God is with me now and always. This is the course of my orbit and the song of my being.

17. Mother Mary, you first bore He who we all too must birth into this world.

18. Love is not a goal or a prize, but is a blessing, known, unknown and unfolding.

19. Christ is present in everyone. Practice is required for Christ to be realized in me. Practice realizes the Love and reciprocates the Love into the communion of humanity and creation, never fixed but ever gaining in the expanse of God's Love.

20. Without the purification of contemplation, I am but an empty bowl, forgotten on a shelf and full of dust.

21. If I fail to reciprocate and realize Christ Compassionate, my endless repetitions of prayer and scripture have less value than the endless summer croaking of frogs.

22. The tree of gratitude bears endless fruits of compassion: this is the Tree of Life.

23. Loving is waking prayer, is being Christ, one with one and all.

24. Justice isn't something to be fought for and won. As with Christ, justice is something which must be lived in our selves and realized in each other.

25. If I fail to move, to realize compassion, I am a hollow idol, in a box, on a shelf, in a forgotten closet.

26. Shimmering light is absent without the shadow's willingness to dance.

27. The Spirit is moving, be ready!

28. Finding God in our fragility, knowing God in our forgiveness and compassion.

29. Moving in The Mystery of Faithfulness: Christ has died. Christ is Risen. Christ is with us always.

30. "And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith. (Matthew 21, Advent 1, Tuesday) What is my faith? Faith built on belief, belief built on knowing, knowing built on the experience of Christ. Then my knowing Christ should direct me towards asking faithfully in prayer what is true in my heart in response to God's love. Why should I pray for anything else but for the Father's loving direction, for Christ's loving compassion, for She the Spirit's loving wisdom? Why would God not answer this prayer of faith?

31. Liberate me, loving God, to love all creation in Christ, and to be free to be loved by all creation in Christ. Free to know your love in the earth beneath me, in the embrace of the sky and heavens above me, to hear your call to my heart in the red tail's cry, to feel your love in the rhythm of sea oats in the ocean breeze, to know and taste you in the ocean breeze, to see the power of your love in the Appalachians, to deeply breath in the perfume of your love in the rhododendron, to see it all in the last hanging raindrop on the blossom tip.

32. The answers gained lead me to more questions enveloped in the mystery of God's love.

33. The things I think I possess in truth would possess me.

34. Ignore the noise of certitude. All that matters in the journey is being in Christ.

35. My wrong choices are more easily forgiven. The choices of my ignorance are less so.

36. More and more through prayer, and in the intention of Christ, I'm finding myself lightened in the simplicity of true need rather than in the endless absence that is the vacancy, the emptiness, of desire.

37. I am finding myself increasingly at home, of simply being present in the mystery of God's love, unquantified and unfolding, rather than being in the thinking of attachment, possession and accomplishment.

38. Being held in the loving Spirit, the wonderful mysterious God of the cosmos, is my truest retreat.

39. At this later stage in life I am falling, no, I am in love with the Psalms. We in the West have tended to read, say, study, sing, or chant the Psalms, all good and lovely things full of their own merits. But now, finally, I sit and rest, I breath and pray with the Psalms. Praise be to the glory of our Living God's love for us all... Listen for Her tender voice, beloved world, listen.

40. I must remain careful to not allow my beliefs, seeking in themselves, to become names for God.

41. If I rest on the laurels of God's victory, the eternal power of love, then I practice a stagnant idolatry of my own self, and I fail to the whole point of God loving me: to love others. This would be an idolatry of the immobile tin god of selfishness, and empty praise from my hollow heart. The Living God is constantly moving in loving purpose and we in the Spirit must keeping moving to Love's purpose.

42. Regardless of where we come from, in the spectrum of light that is living in the love of God, we all speak the same language of Love's purpose. I don't hear or see different language or interpretations, just different dialects. My dialect is Christ and even in the dialect of Christ, there are countless variations of the same dialect, the same language.

43. The most tangible of Love's language is a sign language, the language of doing.

44. I am a foolish monk to wait on grace. Do I wait to breathe? Then how is it possible to wait on grace?

45. The question arose: "How can the Christianity be more relevant in today's world?" The Spirit, She answered, "Feed the hungry. Shelter the homeless. Heal the sick. Live justice and peace."

46. Again I say, and I'll say it again: Poverty is violence.

47. In Jesus' compassionate love, I pray for open hearts, open minds and open hands.

48. Poverty is violence and violence is the poverty of the soul.

49. The glory of love is not revealed until I experience its loss.

50. Meditations on Martin Luther King's "Poor Peoples' Crusade"

Poverty has never been a question of racial divide based on the color of skin but on the color of money. Poverty is the great tool, great weapon, of powers and principalities, used to keep us separated from each other and from Christ in each other. Poverty is violence of the most subtle and insidious form as it causes us all to be seemingly guilty by association. We can not let shame, guilt and misplaced desire hinder us, as we have Christ with us and in us; Christ to first allow us to forgive ourselves and each other, as one body in Christ, and to end the worldwide violence and tyranny of poverty. We have the God-given power to do this, the power to end the cycles of accusation and guilt, of fear and violence, by refusing to give in to the cynicism of the unnatural divide of human interests as being "black and white", "rich and poor" or "us and them". We who claim Christ must lead the way, as we claim the power of God's love to change ourselves and the world by our belief in God's love and therefore, our love. If we don't believe in Jesus, in realizing Jesus in the lives of the poor, then we deserve every criticism and accusation of superstition and hypocrisy made against us.

51. It seems we Christians, especially of the west, are woefully short when it comes to examining suffering and human suffering in particular. Whether or not this is residue from Augustine's confused embrace of Paul's struggles with morality is another topic to consider; yet it's unfortunate that at the moment of decision he flipped open his scripture to Paul instead of Jesus, which he took to be God's direction. It seems to me Jesus spent comparatively little time on morality, choosing to focus instead on human suffering, our roles in it, and the healing of it, through loving God and each other; the "morality" of intention and purpose, if you will. We would mostly rather talk about "sin" and "salvation", and numerous other code-words, than simply examine suffering, our part in it and the means to our being freed from our fear of it, it's impact on us and how we treat ourselves and each other.

52. Poverty is violence and in the truly rational mind and the spiritual heart, an abhorrent absurdity.

53.These are little prayers which came to me in meditation for receiving communion.

With the host: You feed me so that I may feed others.

With the chalice: You pour yourself out so that I may be poured out.

They remind me that I am but one step in the cycle of the communion with God, humanity and creation.

54. The road to hell is paved with certitudes.

55. The moment I think of myself as holy, is the moment I am lost.

Perhaps...

Of the one thing I'm certain of, certitudes litter the circles of hell.

And with certitude I can say for me, God is not worth killing for.

The closest I can come to a certitude about God is that God is...

I can make suggestions about God: God is good, God is great... God is love, God is the persistence of life on earth, the cosmos, the beating of my heart. I can't say anything about God that doesn't acknowledge the mystery that is life as being ultimately just that, mystery.

Even my knowing God doesn't give me the ability to make an all-defining statement about God. It's like the Justice who said of pornography, "I can't define it, I know it when I see it."

Me too. I know God when I see God... from the top of Taos mountain, or in the ancient forests of Appalachia, in the ancient valleys of Scotland's highlands or the California high desert or an Arizona desert in bloom... or in the hummingbird who has nerve to hover right in my face, eyeball to eyeball, or in the spirals of stars, dust and clouds through the telescope, or in the frenetic vibrating image of sperm penetrating egg and the following explosion of cellular divisions under the microscope... or while at sea, in seeing a sky so deep with stars so to take my breath away, or to see in my beloved's eyes a universe of love so deep as to take my breath away... to have my breath taken away seeing fellow pilgrims approach the table and kneel in humility, just to share in each others' brokenness...

Or know God when I feel God... in the embrace of my almost four year old nephew, in the embrace of anyone who wishes... in my dog as he rests his head on my leg while laying down next to me when I pray, in the broken joy of tossing dirt into the grave of a loved one whose suffering is over and in the tears of knowing it will be a while before we again see each other... and in feeling the presence and memories of the dead... or in the thrill of hearing the hawk's cry... in the warmth of the sun on my face on a clear cold winter's day or in feeling summer's wind whipped ocean spray on my face, or in the soft melding of my beloved's lips in mine, kissing again and again, as we drift off to sleep...

I see and feel God in giving... in giving alms... in seeing others realize God in acts of mercy and giving, just for giving's sake.

All these are signs to me and only a few ways to name God.

With certainty though God is, God is, God is...

Ashes, Ashes

Shelve the "Alleluia".

Lent is returned.

Time to look back and look ahead so to be better seated here in the present, the eternal present. Lent and Advent are my favorite seasons. Granted they're not for everyone, but I'm introspective and introverted by nature, so they suit me and I them.

Plus, I like to wander and wonder so the journey of Lent, through desert and wilderness... and occasionally dried sea beds, also suits me. So on wondering wanderings I will travel, trip and stumble and get up again and keep on walking, all the while soaking in the beauty of it all, the mystery of it all, in self-examinations and reflections on the communities I share.

Where have we been, are we going: what is my, our, intention? Where is the gospel calling me to and where is she the Spirit taking me. Sometimes to the scary place of white-boned self-reality and truth. Yikes, will they again bear new flesh, breath and animation? Spirit always takes us to someplace new, where the laurels of yesterday have faded brown and are tossed upon the fire.

Ashes. Ashes. Ashes we are, ashes we are born of. Ashes of cosmoses past, stars born and died, of ages come and gone on this earth, born and died, all pointing the way to now, this moment, all giving seed to what is now and what is to come. Ashes. Ashes we will be, dusty dust and rusty rust, giving soil to something new, giving seed to something beyond our imaginings and hopes, something alive and enough; alive and enough. Life, wonder and mystery will persist, beyond our wildest aspirations and fears.

The Spirit persists, "No" is not in her vocabulary, for vocabularies are reserved for we who reside a little lower than the angels. She is "Yes". She is "I am". The word of life, the command and covenant for all eternity is the great persistent "Yes", the "I AM", God of Life, God of Love. The God of biology supreme, of geology, chemistry, astronomy and physics, the I AM of existence, perpetually churning forward, life, death, life. Against all odds such is what we are made of: ashes, dust and seed, before us and after us, alive, part and part in the mysterious whole.

God bless the ashes and the life they bring.

Three Line Psalm

Lent came early this year*

not with an imposition of ashes

but with an exposition of tears.

Directions

The poles have slipped

the earth's axis

has tipped to the side

The compass

spins wildly

with no bearings

to read

The gyroscope

tumbles blindly

no direction to see

In this night

on this mountain

there are no stars to be found

as the clouds have gathered

to hide them from my sight

What was north

south

east and west

are now forever gone

I can only

sit through the dark

and wait

wait on the dawn

the sunrise

of the new east

The Willing One

Mary, the willing one.
Willing to bear the child,
willing to bear his death.
Showing us the way,
who now bear the child
into the world.
Mary, who echoed the words
on Sinai, "I am".
Mary invites us to join voice,
the great "I am".
We join her on her journey
to the nascent town,
the least of Judea.
We follow her to the nascent space,
the least of within our hearts,
to the sweet suffering
which comes only from
loving and knowing;
to birth a new child
a new heart;
a new creation.
Blessings to you Mary,
for answering Love's call.



Theotokos icon image from "A Reader's Guide to Orthodox Icons" http://iconreader.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/the-theotokos-of-the-sign-icon/

Entitlements

The question isn't why the poor feel "entitled", as though a living wage is an entitlement. The question is why the powers feel entitled to make the poor suffer for their pleasure.

Poverty

I am left wondering how intentional acts by one person or persons, which causes harm and suffering to others is illegal, unless the weapon is money? And why then is economic bludgeoning only deemed "economics"? What real comfort can I find in the knowledge that "legal" doesn't equate to "right"?

In fact, being legal has no bearing on what is right. Every injustice humans have overcome was once a legal right, and even called "divine rights". Someday we will come to accept the reality that subjecting people to economic harm and suffering is far more devastating than a punch in the face, a kick in the ribs or a boot on the throat.

There is nothing innately wrong with wealth. To the powers I say, after the primary needs of the labor force, and those unable to work have been satisfied to provide equitable levels of income, security and recreation, hoard away as much wealth as you can bear.

To the powers I say also, do not delude yourself into believing you have no culpability in the suffering of the impoverished just because this economic remnant of domination is legal. The suffering you bring upon the masses you would economically subjugate, while legal and to a certain degree remains "acceptable" in your culture of greed, it is indeed ungodly and inhuman, it is the violence of poverty.

There is coming a day, which has begun, when those in your culture will no longer regard poverty as "fate", "laziness", or a "consequence of race or intellect" or "God's will". Poverty is not God's will. Poverty is none of these things.

Poverty is the willful disdain for humanity by a minority of the population over the rest. Poverty is the willful cause and perpetration of suffering over the majority of people by the few.

Poverty is the purveyor and perpetuation of societal, domestic and international violence. Poverty is the intentional absence of justice and this injustice will not stand.

Poverty will one day be understood for exactly what it is, criminal oppression and criminal violence. There will be a day when poverty will no longer be tolerated but will be regarded to be as criminal as slavery.

Poverty is oppression. Poverty is violence. Poverty is a crime which will one day be treated as such.

h a i k u 9

Countless cuts to Me

with salt vinegar salve is

poverty's violence

h a i k u 10

Obsess on nothing

even God, joy is known in

pure simplicity

Blessed

Blessed am I

in the original blessing

kiss and breath

of God's first life

first love

Blessed am I

pierced companion

in union with the one

and creation

Blessed am I

held up by the love of Christ

in family parish and community

love sustaining this

holy

fragile

life