1st May/June Trinity 2016, No Hands

June Trinity

Arild Rosenkrantz

May 22, 2016

John 17: 6-11

I have made manifest your name to those human beings who have come out of the world to me through you. Yours they were, and you have given them to me, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus, they have recognized that everything which you have given me is from you; for all the power of the word which you have given me, I have brought to them. They have taken it into themselves and have recognized in deepest truth that I come from you, and they have come to believe that I have been sent by you. I pray to you for them as individual human beings, not for humanity in general. Only for the human beings which you have given me, because they belong to you. Everything that is mine is yours and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them. [I am revealed in them.] I am now no longer in the world of the senses. And I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep, through the power of your being, those who came to me through you, so that they may become one, even as we also are one.

June Trinity

May 22, 2016

John 17: 6-11

We have come to a particular moment in the cycle of the liturgical year. This moment represents both an ending and a beginning. We have completed our walk through the mighty deeds Christ did on and for the earth. We have accompanied him from His birth through His death, His Ascension, and His sending of the Father’s Spirit at Pentecost. This gospel reading is taken from the evening before His death. He had nearly completed His time in a material physical body and was about to inhabit another kind of body, His resurrection body of light, and ultimately, at Ascension, to take on the whole earth as His

body.

At this moment in time, it is as though we remember and reflect back on certain highlights, certain key points about His time with us before we move on to the next phase of the year.

This gospel passage, called the High Priestly Prayer, is the one we also heard at Confirmation, that moment in a child’s life which signals the end of childhood and the beginning of another life phase, the phase of youth. And the priest also reads this passage at the Last Anointing, just before a person’s death. In this prayer, Christ assures us that he remains watching us prayerfully, intimately and individually. And he commends us in prayer to the Father’s care.

We could say that this moment signals the end of ‘Phase One’ and the beginning of ‘Phase Two,' both in Christ’s life and in our lives in the cycle of the year. And what is Phase Two? It is an opportunity that depends on upon our openness and loving response to everything He has gone through. Will we continue His work? Will we open ourselves anew in wonder and awe of all he has done? Will we take up His compassionate, healing spirit? Will we act out of the promptings of our good angels, the promptings of our higher selves? He hopes we will take up His work. For as Teresa of Avila said,

Christ has no body now but yours

No hands, no feet on earth but yours

Yours are the eyes through which He looks

compassion on this world

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

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First June Trinity 2015, Expectation

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

Father, I have revealed your name and your being to all human beings whom you have led through destiny to me. They were yours; they lived out of the powers that worked in folk and family, and now you have given them to me, and into my working that lives in the Self, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus they have recognized how all the spiritual power that you have given me truly proceeds from you; for all the creative spiritual power that you have given me, I have brought to them.

They have taken it up into themselves and have recognized that in truth I come from you, and they have gained insight, and trust that I have been sent by you. I pray to you for them as individual human beings; they who are to live out of the power of the self, as individuals, I pray to you for them; not for mankind in general, but for the human beings which you have given me. For they belong to you, just as everything which is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them [I am revealed in them]. I no longer live in the outer world, but they live in this world.

My whole being is devoted to you. And I am coming to you.  Holy Father, you who give healing to the world, keep in your name and in your being all whom you have given to me, so that they may be one even as we also are one. 

Antonio de Pareda

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

May 31, 2015

This reading is taken from Jesus’ conversation with his Father the night before He died. It is a summation of the inter-relatedness, the interweaving of the Father and the Son and us. Through this interweaving we can become those human beings filled with the healing Spirit, those out of whom the light of Christ shines. This particular reading is also read sacramentally two other times in a person’s life: it is read at the children’s Confirmation, when their individual souls and destines are born out of the family milieu. It is also read again just before death, at the Last Anointing. Jesus’ words thus can form the bookends of an individual human biography, if they so choose.

This reading also underscores once again the motifs of Pentecost: that each person’s individuality is to be preserved; that we are to live out of the power of our selfhood. And that our selfhood and our destiny, voluntarily connected to Christ, will lead us to the Father  and His unifying Spirit. As the poet John O’Donohue says:

May you recognize in your life the presence,

Power and light of your soul.

May you realize that you are never alone,

That your soul in its brightness and belonging

Connects you intimately with the rhythm of the universe.

May you have respect for your individuality and difference.

May you realize that the shape of your soul is unique,

That you have a special destiny here,

That behind the façade of your life

There is something beautiful and eternal happening.

May you learn to see your self

With the same delight,

Pride and expectation

With which God sees you in every moment.[1]

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[1] John O'Donohue, “A Blessing for Solitude” in To Bless the Space Between Us, p. 112

June Trinity 2007, Forever Give

White Rose, Dore

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

Father, I have revealed your name and your being to all human beings whom you have led through destiny to me. They were yours; they lived out of the powers that worked in folk and family, and now you have given them to me, and into my working that lives in the Self, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus they have recognized how all the spiritual power that you have given me truly proceeds from you; for all the creative spiritual power that you have given me, I have brought to them.

They have taken it up into themselves and have recognized that in truth I come from you, and they have gained insight, and trust that I have been sent by you. I pray to you for them as individual human beings; they who are to live out of the power of the self, as individuals, I pray to you for them; not for mankind in general, but for the human beings which you have given me. For they belong to you, just as everything which is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them [I am revealed in them]. I no longer live in the outer world, but they live in this world.

My whole being is devoted to you. And I am coming to you.  Holy Father, you who give healing to the world, keep in your name and in your being all whom you have given to me, so that they may be one even as we also are one. 

First Trinity Sunday

June 3, 2007

John 17: 6-11

Some types of roses grow in great clusters. Yet this form is created by the ordering of many smaller individual blossoms, each complete and unique in itself.        

          Mankind is a great cluster. Yet the Gospel reading emphasizes that Christ prays to His Father, not for the greater cluster, but for the single individuals who are close to Him. What is important to Him, that out of which He operates, is a relationship of love, active from both sides. He is a Divine Human Being, a Human Divine, who wants an intimately personal relationship with each of us.

          In recent years there appeared a collection of modern Christ experiences.[1] One recurring theme in these accounts was each person’s experience of being seen, known by Christ, and at the same time being deeply loved, in spite of His full awareness of their weaknesses or failings. The overriding experience was of being intimately known, loved and supported. Out of this experience of being known and loved by Christ, we in turn can learn to love others in a similar way.

          Before His total sacrifice of Himself out of His love, Christ prays to His Father: “Keep in your Name and in your Being all whom you gave given to me, so that they may be One, even as we are also One.” John 17:11

How can we be One? The poet suggests a way:

…narrow the gap

Between you and God.

I [we] have many younger brothers and sister

Scattered upon this earth

There are always friends of God in this world.

Find on and offer service

For their glance is generous and cannot help

But forever give. [2]

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[1] C. Scott Sparrow, I Am With You Always: True Stories of Encounters with Jesus, Bantam Books, 1995.

[2] Hafiz, “Narrow the Difference,” in The Subject Tonight Is Love, collected by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 37.

June Trinity 2008, Guiding Spirit

Birds in Flight

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

Father, I have revealed your name and your being to all human beings whom you have led through destiny to me. They were yours; they lived out of the powers that worked in folk and family, and now you have given them to me, and into my working that lives in the Self, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus they have recognized how all the spiritual power that you have given me truly proceeds from you; for all the creative spiritual power that you have given me, I have brought to them.

They have taken it up into themselves and have recognized that in truth I come from you, and they have gained insight, and trust that I have been sent by you. I pray to you for them as individual human beings; they who are to live out of the power of the self, as individuals, I pray to you for them; not for mankind in general, but for the human beings which you have given me. For they belong to you, just as everything which is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them [I am revealed in them]. I no longer live in the outer world, but they live in this world.

My whole being is devoted to you. And I am coming to you.  Holy Father, you who give healing to the world, keep in your name and in your being all whom you have given to me, so that they may be one even as we also are one. 

First June Trinity

May 15, 2008

John 17: 6-11

Mother Nature provides us with examples of what a community looks like. One can watch the flights of flocks of birds – the orderly V-line of migrating geese accompanied by call and response; or the astonishing swoop and swing of a flock of pigeons. How is it that in their sudden turning and wheeling they don’t crash into one another? They act smoothly as an organic whole, tuned into the same guidance. Each bird senses its place in the form. Their working together in fluid movement is a thing of great beauty.

Through Christ and the Guiding Spirit He sends from His Father, human groups can begin to function with something of the beauty and grace we see in the flight of flocks. Attending the Act of Consecration of Man is like practicing migration. One calls; from the two immediately behind come the responses. The whole flock moves together toward a common goal, singing praises. We move as an organism toward the Father, Christ’s words resounding throughout.

The rest of community life can also embody the beauty and swing of a flock – each person contributing their share to the harmonious functioning of the whole, as it wheels and turns, wherein community life becomes a thing of beauty.

We were created to become creators, not only as individuals, but also in groups. Our guide is the Holy Spirit, the spirit of wholeness, whose form is the dove. This guiding Spirit helps us recognize when we are on a collision course with our neighbor. We each have particular gifts to offer to the whole; some offer leadership, some wisdom and insight; some the work of their hands. We are all called upon to be creators, creators together of the nest wherein the dove, the Father’s Spirit of peace, of harmony and of beauty, can find its dwelling. For as the poet says,

Now like a radiant sky creature

God keeps opening

God keeps opening

Inside

of me.[1]

            [ Inside of us.]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Hafiz, “What Do White Birds Say?” in The Gift, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 98.

June Trinity 2009, Raying Outward

June Trinity

The Ascension, Dali

John 17: 6-11

Father, I have revealed your name and your being to all human beings whom you have led through destiny to me. They were yours; they lived out of the powers that worked in folk and family, and now you have given them to me, and into my working that lives in the Self, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus they have recognized how all the spiritual power that you have given me truly proceeds from you; for all the creative spiritual power that you have given me, I have brought to them.

They have taken it up into themselves and have recognized that in truth I come from you, and they have gained insight, and trust that I have been sent by you. I pray to you for them as individual human beings; they who are to live out of the power of the self, as individuals, I pray to you for them; not for mankind in general, but for the human beings which you have given me. For they belong to you, just as everything which is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them [I am revealed in them]. I no longer live in the outer world, but they live in this world.

My whole being is devoted to you. And I am coming to you.  Holy Father, you who give healing to the world, keep in your name and in your being all whom you have given to me, so that they may be one even as we also are one. 

1^st June Trinity

June 7, 2009

John 17: 6 – 11

Some flowers form a single blossom, like the tea rose. Others bloom in clusters, like sunflowers. Although each blossom is beautiful by itself, the whole cluster forms a larger entity. Each blossom in the cluster contributes to a greater whole, a greater beauty, and a greater truth.

This truth is that as beautiful as each of our souls may be, we are come together in order to form a greater whole. And this greater whole is the place where Christ can work differently than He does in single individuals. Single hearts are to become a vessel, a grail chalice, into which is poured the wine of His love. The community is to become the greater vessel through which the wine of His love is poured out into the world. Together we can form a greater, more creative, more potent force in the world. For Christ said:

“…all the creative spirit power that you [Father] have given me, I have brought to them. They have taken it up into themselves…I pray to You for them….They live in the world. Holy Father, You who give healing to the world, keep in Your name and Your being all whom You have give to me, so that they may be one, even as we also are one.” John 17: 8-12

We come together in worship, dedicating our individual selves to receiving the Spirit of the Father and Son. We dedicate, consecrate ourselves as a whole to pouring out their Spirit into the world.  The Spirit that they pour into our hearts is the creative spirit of love, of healing compassion, of service toward all on earth. The love we have received is the love we will pour out into the world. [1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] The illustration is the seed head of a sunflower. Note how the greater pattern, formed by the arrangement of individual seeds in the middle, rays outward.

4th June Trinity 2010, I Am Not I

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

I have made manifest your name to those human beings who have come out of the world to me through you. Yours they were, and you have given them to me, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus they have recognized that everything which you have given me is from you; for all the power of the word which you have given me I have brought to them. They have taken it into themselves and have recognized in deepest truth that I come from you, and they have come to believe that I have been sent by you . I pray to you for them as individual human beings, not for mankind in general. Only for the human beings which you have given me, because they belong to you. Everything that is mine is yours and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them. I am now no longer in the world of the senses. And I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep, through the power of your being, those who came to me through you, so that they may become one, even as we also are one.

4^th June Trinity

June 20, 2010

John 17: 6 – 11

The child is cradled and guided by folk and family. They are the forces that guide the child’s life and form its

character. When the child becomes an adult, s(he) takes over the responsibility for shaping and forming his/her own life. In fact one could say that until one makes one’s own decisions and exercises one’s own strength of character, one remains a child, regardless of age.

In the history of humanity, and in our lives, guidance once came from outside; as adults it comes from deep within the core of our own individual being. It is not always easy to live out of the depths of the heart, particularly if folk and family try to dictate and pressure us otherwise.

In this Gospel reading, strangely Christ says to His Father: ‘I pray to you for them as individual human beings; not for mankind in general, but for the human beings that you have given to me.’ John 17: 9  Living out of one’s core self is often a lonely proposition. But Christ supports our attempts to strive for authenticity. For He carries the pattern of each individual’s true self. He is our silent partner along the path. In Him we live, even when we die. In the words of the poet:

Simeon Solomon

I am not I.

            I am this one walking beside me whom I do not see,

Whom at times I manage to visit,

And whom at other times I forget;

The one who remains silent when I talk

The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,

The one who takes a walk where I am not.

The one who will remain standing when I die.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] “I Am Not I”, by Juan Ramón Jiménez, in Risking Everything, ed. By Roger Housden, p. 19

June Trinity 2012, Mighty Doorways

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

I have made manifest your name to those human beings who have come out of the world to me through you. Yours they were, and you have given them to me, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus they have recognized that everything which you have given me is from you; for all the power of the word which you have given me I have brought to them. They have taken it into themselves and have recognized in deepest truth that I come from you, and they have come to believe that I have been sent by you . I pray to you for them as individual human beings, not for mankind in general. Only for the human beings which you have given me, because they belong to you. Everything that is mine is yours and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them. I am now no longer in the world of the senses. And I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep, through the power of your being, those who came to me through you, so that they may become one, even as we also are one.

1^st June Trinity

June 3, 2012

John 17: 6-11

Wulfing

We each of us have a guardian angel. This angelic being has been with us from the very first chapter of the story of our lives.  It never for a second leaves us. It knows how our chapters want to turn out. And with the tenderest love and encouragement, it stands by, hoping to be called upon to collaborate in the authorship of our lives. It waits to carry the offered substance of our prayers up to God.

God and His angels have also offered us one most precious gift. Out of their love, they give us the gift of our freedom. We can choose, or not, to ask for their guidance and help. The mystics say that one of the saddest sights in the spiritual world are the angels whose charges have left them unemployed.

Communities also have an angel. It watches over and guides the workings of the members of the group. The angels of the individuals collaborate with it, as it gathers the noble thoughts, the warmth of love, and the devoted wills of the individuals joined together in prayer. The prayers of the members form a fragrant bouquet. It is the fragrance itself, offered to God through the angels that nourishes and strengthens them in their work of love. Bread and wine, offered to be the body and blood of Christ, are food for our angels.

Perhaps before going to sleep at night, we might think to our angel:

Through my earth-days, watchful angel,

Thankfully I feel your presence

Knower of my destiny.

When I listen, you are helping.

When I move, your strength is with me:

Birth and death alike you show

Mighty doorways for my spirit—

Never lost, never forgotten

Held before your holy vision

Faithful, patient, hopeful angel.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Angel, by Adam Bittleston, in A Window into Worlds

June Trinity 2013, Unifying Love

Durer

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

Father, I have revealed your name and your being to all human beings whom you have led through destiny to me. They were yours; they lived out of the powers that worked in folk and family, and now you have given them to me, and into my working that lives in the Self, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus they have recognized how all the spiritual power that you have given me truly proceeds from you; for all the creative spiritual power that you have given me, I have brought to them.

They have taken it up into themselves and have recognized that in truth I come from you, and they have gained insight, and trust that I have been sent by you. I pray to you for them as individual human beings; they who are to live out of the power of the self, as individuals, I pray to you for them; not for mankind in general, but for the human beings which you have given me. For they belong to you, just as everything which is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them [I am revealed in them]. I no longer live in the outer world, but they live in this world.

My whole being is devoted to you. And I am coming to you.  Holy Father, you who give healing to the world, keep in your name and in your being all whom you have given to me, so that they may be one even as we also are one. 

1^st June Trinity

May 26, 2013

John 17: 6 – 11

Every school child learns this: we can add single things together to make a greater sum. And we can take things away from the whole and thereby diminish it.

In today’s reading, Christ is conversing with His Father about how they have chosen out of the world a number of individuals, and added them to the sum of those connected with themselves. But in the realm of the Father there is a greater principle: The Father is One. And the number one is itself in fact the great all-inclusive unity containing all numbers. One, the whole, when divided, generates the rest of the numbers: two, three, four…. We are all part of the original One-ness of God.

And in the realm where the Father and the Son are joined, there is another great principle – the sum is greater than the parts. Those joined together with the Father and the Son are no longer merely isolated entities. They have rejoined the greater unifying One-ness from which we have all come.

We are held in the unifying love between the Father, who holds World Destiny in his hands, and His Son, who turns all things toward the good.  The love between them and for the world is the Healing Spirit. When we recognize them, they live in us; we partake in their unifying, healing love. In fact, that is their wish – that we may be One, whole, a greater unity, just as they are One.

www.thechristiancommunity.org