4th Advent 2014, Yes

1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24

About time spans and right moments, dear brothers, I have no need to write to you. You know very well yourselves that the Breaking of the Day of Christ comes like a thief in the night. When people say, ‘Now peace reigns, and all stands secure, then suddenly catastrophe breaks upon them, like the birth pangs of a woman with child, and there will be no escape for them.

Christ the Divine Physician

You, however, dear brothers, are not to remain in darkness, so that the breaking of day will not surprise you like a thief. For you are sons of light and sons of the day. Our being is not filled with night and darkness. So let us not sleep like the others, but rather cultivate an alert and sober state of mind. 

Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk are likewise of nightly nature. But since we belong to the brightness of day, let us be sober, clothed with the breastplate of faith and love, our head armed [protected] with the hope of healing….May God himself, however, the source of all Peace, hallow and heal your whole being. May your complete and undivided being, Spirit, Soul, and Body, remain pure and unclouded at the coming in the spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord. You may trust in him who calls you. He it is who also lets you reach the goal.

4^th Advent

December 21, 2014

1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24

You may have had the experience window shopping: you see the reflection of others in the glass; and you may have a particular experience of someone; perhaps one arouses a bit critical. And suddenly you are shocked to realize that you are looking at yourself.

At this season of the year we may be inclined think that somehow our deepest desires will be fulfilled; that we will be surrounded by the warmth and love of family and friends; that we will be contented. And so we may be surprised or even shocked that we may at the same time feel ourselves to be intensely alone, isolated and unfulfilled. And one of the uncomfortable revelations comes from catching an objective glimpse of ourselves.

What comes to our aid is our own objectivity. We can be helped by shedding light on the untruthfulness of our own illusions and delusions, on our own deceptive egotism. And we can set our sights instead on the image of the Coming One. The One who was present at the creation of the human being, who walked the paradisal garden amid the freshness of creation, He who is our higher self and our true being, He is drawing near. He is willing to enter into our tarnished circumstances. He is willing to enter the fallen domain of the heart, just as He once was born into degraded surroundings on earth. For he came, he continues to come, to hallow and to heal. The poet says:

Let the stable still astonish.

Straw–dirt floor, dull eyes,

Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;

Crumbling, crooked walls;

No bed to carry that pain,

And then, the child,

Rag-wrapped, laid to cry

In a trough.

Who would have chosen this?

Who would have said: “Yes,

Let the God of all the heavens and earth

Be born here, in this place?

Who but the same God

Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms

Of our hearts

And says, “Yes,

Let the God of Heaven and Earth

Be born here –

In this place.[1]

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[1] Leslie Leyland Fields, “Let the Stable Still Astonish”

Two Marys, December 18, 2014

In the Gospels we have two descriptions of the Mother of God. The feeling-tone of each is different. The one is described in Luke; she is the one to whom the angelic messenger announces the coming of God’s son through the inseminating power of the Holy Spirit. She is humble and open, experiencing an other-worldly event.

The Mother in Matthew’s Gospel receives royal gifts. She must flee to Egypt to save her little Son from Herod’s persecution. In John’s Gospel she stands under the cross. Mother’s innocence has become bitter experience. But she also partakes in her Son’s subsequent rise from death.

Bernhard Eyb

At this time of the year we can picture the otherworldly Mother. If we could see her now, in winter, we would see the moon element spread out below the earth’s surface. From her human form, we see a heavenly Earth-Star, raying out into the cosmos from her head.  At her breast the sun’s rays, forming itself out of the clouds, condensing into the child, all in a rainbow-hued background. She is the woman formed out of the clouds, endowed with earthly forces under her feet, sun radiance in the middle, head crowned with stars—the woman of Rev. 12. She is arising out of the cosmos itself. In winter, when we ourselves are most strongly connected with the earth, we see the Mother arising in the cosmos, in the interplay between the earth and the stars.[1]

Summer Imagination, Margarete Woloschin

At the opposite time of the year (and in the opposite hemisphere now) another Mother can be seen. A sparkling silver blue rises from the depths of earth, bound up with human weakness and error. It gathers into the picture of Earth Mother in the depths. She is Mater, materie.  Above her is the flowing golden-red creative form of Uriel and the Spirit dove, the Spirit Father. Between them, between Spirit Father and Earth Mother, we behold the Son. In the summer we breathe ourselves out into the cosmos; but we strongly perceive the Father above and the Mother below. We are made aware of human error. [2]

As we move through the course of the year, we ourselves move between these two counter-poles—cosmic mother, earth mother. During the twelve days and holy nights of the Christmas season, from Christmas to Epiphany, we experience this polar movement in miniature, in the picture of the two Marys. The Christ, the Child reconciles these two poles. In Luke the Child is born in a cave in the earth, in midwinter (not in summer). Although he is in a cave in the earth, he and his mother are innocent and humble. We read his gospel story from the altar early Christmas morning.

On January 6, we read of the Matthew Mother in her regal queenly aspect. She receives royal gifts, moves forward through experience, grappling with Herod’s evil, fleeing to Egypt where the mysteries of death were understood.

Cordoba

In this movement between these two poles, the two mothers represent the overall movement of the human experience. It is a movement from humble innocence to earthly experience, being crowned with the earth-star and at the same time finding and maintaining (again) a connection to the starry cosmos. 

Mary represents the human soul, operating between the two poles and moving through them over and over again in the course of the years. 

She also represents a kind of aggregate of all human souls, a spiritual entity we could call the Soul of Man, as it evolves over time.  From humble innocence we are born out of the summer of stars, generated by the union of Sky Father and Earth Mother. Gradually the Soul of Man is evolving toward becoming a being radiant with experience, clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, crowned with the stars of earth winter.

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[1] Image from Rudolf Steiner, “The Christmas Imagination”, in The Four Seasons and the Archangels.

[2] Image from Rudolf Steiner, “The St. John’s Imagination”, in The Four Seasons and the Archangels.

3rd Advent 2014, Be Still

Simon Marmion

3rd Advent

1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18

We will not leave you in ignorance, dear brothers, about how it is with those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the others who have no hope.

As surely as our heart knows through faith that Jesus broke through death into resurrection, so sure may we also be that God will lead to the same goal those who have fallen asleep united with Christ.

This we announce to you as a word that comes from Christ: we who live, and are preserved as living till the time of the return of the Lord, will have no precedence over those who are asleep.

So will it once be: when the call resounds, the voice of the archangel thunders again, and the trumpets sound which are heard out of the world of the Spirit, then will Christ, our Lord, descend out of the spiritual heights. Then there will be awakened in the spirit first those who have died in Christ. And afterwards we who live and tread paths of earth will be taken up with them into the living world of the spirit, to an encounter with Christ in the realm of the soul. Then shall we be inseparably united with Him, the Risen One. With thoughts of this kind shall you mutually uphold, encourage and strengthen each other.  

  

3rd Advent

December  14, 2014

1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18

Helen Chamberlain

 At every sunset, the light disappears; but though we may fear the dark, we trust that it is only temporary, for we know that the sun will rise again in the morning. Every year we sense the growing darkness as we approach the longest night. And yet in confidence we celebrate the slow return of the Christ-Sun from the greater darkness of the year.

Christ was born on earth a long time ago. He died. Today he is coming to us again. The archangel is announcing His arrival. He is drawing near, and the mighty gates of heaven will open and we will approach Him in spirit-awareness. The light of Christ will be born within us, illuminating us from within.

In the inner and outer darkness of our times, we may feel both besieged and forsaken. Yet we may also cultivate fortitude and bravery in facing our inner and outer demands. Our fortitude and courage in our trials allow us to develop our presence of mind. We stay present; we neither flee nor rage. Rather we hold ourselves still and awake, so that we can remain standing when true spiritual reality breaks in upon us.

In Psalm 46 the Creator says:  “Be still, and know that I am… I will be honored among the nations, I will be honored in the earth.” Christ is the true power within us. Our personality has limited power over outer circumstances; yet outer circumstances have limited power over us. For He, Christ, is the true power in us, because He is our true being on the earth. 

2nd Advent 2014, Barren Souls Impregnated

2^nd, 3^rd or 4th Advent

Luke 1: 26-38

Fra Angelico

During the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a maiden engaged to a man named Joseph of the descendants of David, and the maiden’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said her, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

But she was confused at those words, and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call him Jesus.

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the most High,

And the Lord your God will give him the Throne of David your father.

And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever;

And his kingdom will have no end. “

And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have never known a man?”

And the angel answered and said to her,

 “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;

And for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your kinswoman Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.  For no word is spoken in the worlds of the spirit that does not have the power to become reality on earth.”

 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the Lord’s handmaid; may it be to me according to your word. “

And the angel departed from her.

2nd Advent

December 7, 2014

The Awakening, Thomas Gotch

Luke 1: 26-38

Today we hear the story of the pure soul of humanity. The angel announces that she will be over-lighted by the power of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Love. This warm light, shining into her soul, will define what will be born of her. What issues forth from her will be the Son of God. This will come about because God’s Word, which is also God’s Son, has the power to create earthly realities.

The virginal soul has its legitimate earthly questions: how shall this come about? But the angel makes clear that there is a higher order and purpose at work in this event. Even barren souls can become fruitful. And so she submits herself to a higher ideal. And she humbly says yes to the working of the Word of God within her.

Once again, at this time of the year, the angel approaches our barren souls. For each of us has, deep in our hearts, a pure and innocent core. Once again the angel speaks to all of us God’s words of His approach, of His wish to enter us. Individually and collectively we are called upon to be impregnated by God’s Spirit of Love. In hope the angel awaits our response: May it be unto me according to Your Word.

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1st Advent 2014, Insistent Grace

1st Advent

Luke 21:25-36

And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars; and upon the earth, the nations will be constricted with anxiety and doubt with the advent of these spiritual revelations, as before a roaring sea and waves. And men will lose their inner strength of soul out of fear and foreboding of what is coming over the living earth: for the dynamic powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, in the sphere of life, with dynamic power and great radiant glory.

And when these things begin to happen, stand upright and lift up [raise] your soul to the spirit, for your deliverance draws near.

And he gave them a comparison, saying, ‘Observe [behold] the fig tree and all the trees when they burst into leaf. Seeing this, you know yourselves that summer is near. So also when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

Amen, the truth I say to you: this present age of Man’s being shall not pass away until all has happened.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Guard yourselves lest the perceptive power of your hearts be smothered by excess of food and drink and by over-concern with the cares and worries of life, and the light of these spirit events break upon you suddenly like a snare…for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. So be awake in the spirit at all times, praying, so that you may have the strength to live through all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.

1st Advent

Luke 21:25-36

When a seed is planted, the first thing to happen is a kind of cataclysm, a disintegration. It swells; the hull cracks; the seed itself splits apart as the sprouts break forth, one diving down to root itself in the earth, the other rising into the light.

This is what life does. Real life, real progress and evolution break us apart. They change us, sometimes fundamentally. Life pushes us out of our comfortable place of the merely potential into the uncomfortable stretching and growing toward fulfillment.

At this time of the year, humanity is God’s Bride. He has impregnated us with His hope for us; with His trust in us; with His love for us. We are to grow and carry His Spirit-Child within us, His Son who will be born into our hearts at Christmas. Like any other fruitfulness, this brings us both joy and discomfort. The poet describes how it is for us:

There is a grace approaching

Thomas Cooper Gotch

it is the completion of our birth.

It does not come in time,

but in timelessness

when the mind sinks into the heart

and we remember.

It is an insistent grace that draws us

to the edge and beckons us surrender

safe territory and enter our enormity.

We know we must pass

beyond knowing

and fear the shedding.

But we are pulled upward

none-the-less

through forgotten ghosts

and unexpected angels,

luminous.

And there is nothing left to say

but we are That.

And that is what we sing about.[1]

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[1]  Stephen Levine , “Millennium blessing”  in Breaking the Drought

4th November Trinity 2014, Creating All Anew

4th November Trinity

Revelations 21: 1-27

And I beheld the events in the spirit out of which a new heaven and a new earth proceeded. For the earlier heaven and the earlier earth were gone, and the billowing ocean is no more. And further I saw the Holy City, untouched by the earthly, coming forth out of the being of God, descending out of the spiritual worlds: the New Jerusalem. She appeared in her beauty like a bride who has adorned herself for the bridegroom. And I heard a powerful voice coming from the throne that said: “Behold the Dwelling of God in the midst of humanity. For He will indeed dwell in your midst, and the people will be His people. God himself will be with them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eye. There will be no more [bodily pain, nor soul pain, nor any other burdens of the inmost being] death, nor sorrow, nor weeping [uproar] nor any other sound of pain, for the old world is gone.” And He who was seated on the throne said: “Behold: I am creating all anew.”

And He said, “Write, for it is these words that shall make faith and knowledge into true reality.” And He said to me: “It is accomplished! I AM the Alpha and the Omega, World Beginning and World Goal. To the thirsty I will give from the springs of the waters of life, outside the workings of destiny, as grace. He who overcomes, he shall inherit all this. ‘I will be His God, and to me He will be like a son.’

“Those however who were cowardly [the spineless], and who had no trust [the faithless, unbelieving], who were servants of evil and perverted the image of Man [the despicable, vile, foul], who wanted to destroy the sacred [murderers], who went along impure paths of soul [sexually immoral, whoremongers], who worked with forces of evil [witches, practitioners of the magic arts], who bound themselves to evil beings [idolaters, idol-worshippers]—and all who served the Lie [liars of every kind]—their share will be on the lake which burns as with fire and sulfur; that is the second death, the death of the soul [the death after death].”

And there came to me one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls filled with the last seven plagues of the world; and he spoke with me and said, “Come, I will show you the eternal Feminine, the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”  And he carried me in spirit-form up to a great high mountain, and let me see how the Holy City, Jerusalem, the City of Peace, descended out of the spiritual worlds, coming forth from the being of God, wrapped in the most intimate splendor of the revelation of God.

Her shining [gleaming] is like that of a precious gemstone, like the stone jasper, clear as crystal.Her walls are of mighty size and height; she has twelve gates and at the gates stand twelve angels. On the gates are written the names of the twelve sons of Israel; three gates from the East, three gates from the North, three gates from the South, and three gates from the West. And the wall of the City rests on twelve sacred foundations, and the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb work in them.  And he who spoke with me carried a golden measuring rod, in order to measure the City and her gates and her walls. And the City is spread out in a square; her length is the same as her width. And he measured the City with the measuring rod. It measured twelve thousand miles; the length and breadth and height were alike. And he measured her walls at one hundred forty-four cubits [ells], the measure of a man, which now the angel was using.

The covering of her walls was of jasper, and the City herself of purified gold, clear as glass. And the sacred foundation of the wall were adorned with every precious stone:

the first, a jasper,

the second, a sapphire,

the third, a chalcedony,

the fourth, emerald,

the fifth sardonyx,

the sixth, carnelian,

the seventh, chrysolite,

the eighth, beryl,

the ninth, topaz,

the tenth, chrysoprase

the eleventh, hyacinth,

the twelfth, an amethyst.

The twelve gates were twelve pearls, and each of the gates made of a single pearl. And the city was of purified gold, like a transparent crystal. I did not see a temple in the City, for the Lord God, Ruler of All, is her sanctuary, and the Lamb. And the City needs neither sun nor moon, for she shines from within; for the shining revelation of God is streaming brightness in her, and her light is the Lamb. And all nations shall walk in her light, and the rulers of the earth will carry their spiritual treasures into her. And her gates will never be closed by day, for there, night will be no more.  And all the shining treasures of the revelations of the world, and all the spiritual worth of the nations and all achievements of the soul will be brought into her.  And nothing can enter which is not spiritualized [consecrated], nothing which perverts the image of Man, nothing which remains under the power of the Lie, but rather only those who are written into the Book of Life of the Lamb.

4^th November Trinity

November 23, 2014

Revelations 21: 1-27

We have arrived at a kind of seam in the cycle of the year. This is the last Sunday of the liturgical year; next Sunday starts a new beginning. The reading offers both comfort and joy. At the end of the cycles of time, God will collect all our tears of suffering. Like the Prodigal son returning we will be showered with the grace of the living waters, filled with God’s living essence. And the meaning of all our lives will be revealed to us. For we will see the Great City of Peace, built out of human suffering. Our tears will be transformed into gates of pearl. Suffering becomes the gateway. The interior of the city will also be built by human virtue, ‘all the spiritual worth of nations and all achievements of the soul.’ Rev. 21:26 And it will be illuminated by the transparent gold of the Light of Christ.

We have come to the end of the year’s cycle. But the end also always signals a new beginning. For Christ is always ‘creating all anew.’  Rev. 21:5 A mighty vista of our future home has been revealed to us. And here we are graced with yet another cycle, another year in which to continue to work to build the divine city, the city in which we will all dwell at the end of time. 

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3rd November Trinity 2014, New Flowers

3^rd November Trinity

Throne of God

November 16, 2014

Revelations 7: 9-17

Next I looked and saw a great crowd beyond anyone’s power to count, from every nation and all races and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb draped in garments of white and with palm branches in their hands, and they shout with a great voice saying, “Healing and help [salvation] to our God who sits on the throne and through the Lamb.”

And all the angels were standing in a ring around the throne and the elders and the four living beings, and they fell down in front of the throne upon their faces and adored God saying,

Yea, so be it. Amen. [To our God be blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength for an age of ages. Amen.”]

All the blessing power of the Word, that creating permeates the world, all the revealing might of the spirit, that enlightens the senses appearance, all the light of wisdom that leads us to true knowledge, the secret of transformation which gives worth to all being, that brings the world forward, and all the strength and power of the spirit –they belong to our God from aeon to aeon. Yea, so be it, Amen.

And one of the elders spoke up, asking me: “These people draped in garments of white, who are they and where did they come from?”

And I said to him, “Good sir, you yourself know.”

And he said to me:

These are the ones just come from the great Suffering. They washed their garments clean, and made them shining white in the blood of the Lamb.

That is why they can stand here before the throne of God

And serve him day and night in his temple.

The One who sits on the throne shall settle down upon them [dwell upon them].

They shall not hunger ever again, nor thirst again;

The sun shall not bear down too hard upon them, nor anything burn them,

Because the Lamb, in the midst of the throne, will be their shepherd

And guide them to the springs of the water of life,

And God will wipe away each teardrop from their eyes.

3^rd November Trinity

November 16, 2014

Revelations 7: 9-17

In life we experience the events and conditions of the world; we receive the actions, the words and thoughts of others. And we suffer because we are open to being acted upon.

One pre-Christian response to this fact of our existence was to remove oneself from suffering by cultivating non-attachment. This is perhaps not a bad start, for we frequently suffer because we are over-attached to outcomes; we may be egotistically trying to spare ourselves. Yet Christ, the God made human, taught us that suffering can have redemptive power, especially when undergone willingly and for the sake of others. Suffering can be a real eye-opener.

Hardship and adversity can have a purifying effect on our egotism. It can cleanse us of our prideful sense that we can control our own universe. Adversity endured can teach us that there are gracious gifts to be found in places we do not wish to go, gifts we didn’t know we wanted. It can teach us that suffering can lead to transformation.

Necessary suffering well encountered washes our soul garments clean. ‘Thy greater Will be done,’ can lead us to recognize that there is a greater purpose than our everyday minds can know. In suffering we can find the comfort and consolation of a God who intimately knows what we are going through. For He has been there Himself. Indeed, He continues to occupy the precincts of suffering so that He will be there for us when we find ourselves there.  He will help us to make something out of it. The poet describes this process:

…And if, in the changing phases of man's life

Snowdrops in Snow

I fall in sickness and in misery

my wrists seem broken and my heart seems dead

and strength is gone, and my life

is only the leavings of a life:

and still, among it all, snatches of lovely oblivion, and snatches

of renewal

odd, wintry flowers upon the withered stem, yet new, strange flowers

such as my life has not brought forth before, new blossoms of me

then I must know that still

I am in the hands of the unknown God,

he is breaking me down to his own oblivion

to send me forth on a new morning, a new man.[1]

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[1] D H Lawrence, “Shadows”