Whitsun 2012, Creative Love

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whitsun I

May 27, 2012

John 14: 23-31

Continuously the sun streams its warmth and light onto the earth. It stimulates and supports the life of the plants. It warms and sustains both bodies and souls. For the warmth of the sunlight is the vehicle for the light of God’s life-giving love.

On the first Pentecost, or Whitsun, the disciples are sitting together, mourning the loss of their Beloved at his Ascension ten days earlier. In his expansion into the universe, He was lost to their view. On Whitsunday, at first they experience a movement of air, the sound of a mighty wind. And then a fire descends, which divides itself into single flames. A flame comes to rest on each one of them. And they are filled with God’s Spirit of connecting love.

There are times in our lives, too, when we have our Whitsun moments. A flame of warmth descends; we sense it, we open to it—the fire of a creative love. We become vessels for God’s love, His light, His purpose for the earth. We become suns on earth.

There are words to a hymn that express this wish of ours, to be a vessel:

Come Down o Love Divine

Seek thou this soul of mine

And visit it with thine own ardor glowing

O Comforter draw near

Within my heart appear

And kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

…For none can guess its grace

Till he become the place

Wherein the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] “Come Down, O Love Divine”, words by Bianco da Siena, translated by R. F. Littledale, set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

3rd Whitsun 2014, Healing Spirit's Light

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whituesday III

Raphael

June 10, 2014

John 14: 23 – 31

When God created the world, his living spirit of love created an order to the world and purpose, a plan for us. This plan involves our learning to love; learning to choose to love others and the world through our won free choice. Eventually the Father sent his eternal Son, his Creating One, to the earth. Christ came as a human being in order to teach and to heal. Ultimately he also came to suffer, to die and to rise to life again.

He demonstrates how we are to live. We are to live in peace; we are to live without fear; for only so can we learn to love.

Aligning ourselves with Christ allows the Father’s all-encompassing love and his plan for us to live and work in us’ working in us it is the healing, holy spirit. The healing spirit brings us the warmth of compassion, the light of understanding. It brings us the light of an awareness that we are all sons and daughters of God. We all, like Christ, are spiritual beings having a human experience. We are all human beings learning to love, to live, to be aware of the divine in everything. This is the healing spirit, the truth that embraces all.

May we in our human state grasp the healing spirit, the spirit of love, the spirit of understanding the shining, living truth. For as David Whyte says:

 ….You were there in the beginning

you heard the story, you heard the merciless

and tender words telling you where you had to go.

Exile is never easy and the journey

itself leaves a bitter taste. But then,

when you heard that voice, you had to go.

You couldn't sit by the fire, you couldn't live

so close to the live flame of that compassion

you had to go out in the world and make it your own

so you could come back with

that flame in your voice, saying listen...

this warmth, this unbearable light, this fearful love...

It is all here, it is all here.[1]


www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] David Whyte, “ In the Beginning” in Fire in the Earth

Whitsun III 2013, Reaching Infinity

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whit-Tuesday

May 21, 2013

John 14: 23 – 31

At the end of the day children often have a meltdown over something relatively minor. The parent knows that the child is experiencing this because he is tired and hungry, or maybe even getting ill. The light of the parents’ awareness reaches higher and more broadly than the child’s. The parent knows that the child needs comfort, nourishment, and rest, not whatever it is that sparked the tantrum.

The divine Father’s Spirit also has this quality of higher and broader awareness. He knows that we are experiencing disasters because we are tired and overwhelmed. He knows that we suffer under the sickness of sin.

And so the Father sends His healing spirit, the active messenger of His love, to help heal us. He comes to comfort us, to nourish us, to give us the solace of his love.

The spirit of Love that operates behind the evolving situations in our lives knows what we need; it sees and operates out of a broader and higher level of awareness. It comes to heal the evils we face.

The poet imagines a bird asking a human being a question:

What's it like to be a human

the bird asked

…. it's being held prisoner by your skin

while reaching infinity

being a captive of your scrap of time

while touching eternity

being hopelessly uncertain

and helplessly hopeful

….

it's being on fire

with a nest made of ashes

eating bread

while filling up on hunger

it's dying without love

it's loving through death

That's funny said the bird

and flew effortlessly up into the air.[1]

---

[1] Anna Kamienska, “Funny”, in Astonishments: Selected Poems of Anna Kamienska,

 ed. and trans. by D. Curzon and G. Drabik

Whitsun II, 2013, Be Ignited

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whitmonday

May 20, 2013

John 14: 23 -31

To grow a garden, there are a few requirements. First one needs a living seed, for one cannot plant stones and expect something living to emerge. Then one needs to plant the seed at the right time, according to its nature. For it needs the  warmth and light of the right season in order to enkindle. And a garden needs the warmth of our loving attention.

We are all living seeds planted in God’s garden. For the Father’s creative spirit is life. He has chosen the right season for us, so that we will receive the light we need. For the Father’s spirit is light. And He lovingly tends us, so that we will grow to blossom and nourish the world. For the Father’s Spirit is love.

As Mary Oliver says:

All summations have a beginning

All effect has a story

All kindness begins with the sown seed.

Thought buds toward radiance.

The gospel of light is the crossroads of—

Indolence or action.

Be ignited, or be gone.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Mary Oliver, “What I Have Learned So Far”, in New and Selected Poems, Volume Two. Picture artist unknown.

Whitsun 2013, Warmth of a Star

Pentecost

Mengs

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whitsun

May 19, 2013

John 14: 23 -31

In a children’s story, the element of fire asks the Son of God how it can serve Him. He tells the fire that in order to serve Him, it must cease to burn, cease to consume; it must die, so that the Son of God can awaken it to a new life of service. So the element of fire dies down, and is extinguished. Then it is resurrected, rekindled as warm flames of love for God in the hearts of those who love Him.

In our own lives, our hearts can burn for many things. Our desire life can consume us, consume our resources, consume our relationships.

But drawing Christ’s power of sacrifice into our hearts can help us to bank the fires of desire, extinguish them so that they can be transformed into love; the warmth of a love that serves others, that serves Christ in his evolving of the world. For Christ’s love, His heart, is a fire at the center of the world. His is the fire that generates an existence beyond time.  As a poet said,

Listen, I've light

in my eyes

and on my skin

the warmth of a star,

…..  And

everything alive

(and everything's

alive) is turning

into something else

as at the heart

of some annihilating

or is it creating

fire

that's burning, unseeably, always

….[1]


www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1]  Franz Wright, “The Fire” in God's Silence

2nd Whitsun 2014, Christ's Life

El Greco

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whitsun II

Botticelli

June 9, 2014

John 14: 23 – 31

A son is engendered, brought forth, through his father. Before anything yet was, God, the living Source, cradled all things in the universe in his heart. When he wanted to give it all physical form, he spoke. And the first thing to emerge from his speaking was the Word, the Logos. This was his son, Christ born in eternity. Christ is the spirit power of the word, the speaking of the father who brought everything to life. He spoke, “let there be…” and gradually the world came into physical being.

Eventually Christ, too, lived on earth as a human being, in Jesus. He came to create the kingdom of his Father here on earth, in human hearts. He came to help ensure that we would not only have physical lives on earth; he came so that we could so immerse ourselves in the Father’s love that we would build a house of love to continue to live in after we die. This was the Father’s purpose in sending him.

William Penn said:

They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it.

Death cannot kill what never dies.

Nor can spirits ever be divided, that love and live in the same divine principle, the root and record of their friendship.

This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.[1]

May God the Son create this love in us.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] William Penn, from More Fruits of Solitude

1st Whitsun 2014, Father's Love

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Blake, Ancient of Days

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whitsun I

June 8, 2014

John 14:23 – 31

Our creed speaks of an almighty divine being we call our Father.  A father precedes his children; he is there before they are born and provides a home for them, what they need to live and grow. He provides for them because he loves them.

Our heavenly Father was there before us. He poured out his being, his essence, his substance into creating the world. He did so in order to provide a home for us, to give us what we need to live and grow. Here on earth he provides what we cannot so easily acquire in heavenly realms: the often difficult lessons of love in freedom that only mortality can bring. This is the kind of learning we can only acquire here on earth. God created all this for us because he loves us.

Although we are all sons and daughters of the Father, He sent his first born son to us for a particular reason. Christ came so that through him we would remember our Father.  Christ came so that we would learn to love the world the way God the Father and his Son do. Christ is here to help us learn such lessons of love because they build for us an eternal dwelling place for us to be in the heavenly realms with the Father when we die.  Allen Ginsberg said:

Nicoletto Semitecolo

The weight of the world

is love.

Under the burden

of solitude,

under the burden

of dissatisfaction

the weight,

the weight we carry

is love.[1]

 May the Father’s love be in us.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1]  Allen Ginsberg , “ Song” in Collected Poems 1947-1980