Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Ascension II, Seed-Force


Ascension
John 16:22-33

William Blake 
So you have to suffer pain now. But I will see you again, and then your hearts will be filled with joy, and no one can take that joy from you. Up to now, you have not prayed in my name. Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart, that your joy may be fulfilled.

All this I have given to your souls in imagery. But the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in pictures but will tell you openly and unveiled about my Father, so that you can grasp it in full, knowing consciousness. Thus will I proclaim to you the being of the Father. On that day, you will ask out of my power and in my name. And no longer will I ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father himself will love you because you have loved me, and have known in your hearts that I have come forth from the Father. I have come forth from the Father, and I have come into this world.

I leave the sense world again and return to the world of the Father, of which you say that it is the world of death.”

Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking in clear thought and without imagery. Now we know that all things are revealed to you and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

Jesus answered, “Do you now feel my power in your heart? Behold, the time is coming and has already come, when you will be scattered, each to his own loneliness. You will then also leave me alone. But I am not alone, for the Father is eternally united with me.

All this I have spoken to you so that in me you may find peace. In this world, you will have great fear and hardship. But take courage. I have overcome the world.”
  
Ascension II
May 27, 2020
John 16:24-33

Jan de Kok
The blossom opens itself to the sunlit air. In doing so, its beauty and fragrance expand outward. It sends out its pollen and in turn it receives the warm impregnating power from without. Through this fertilization, it becomes fruitful. At its core, seeds of new life begin to form.

The deepest core of our humanness lies in our heart. As we open our heart, we can stream forth the fragrant beauty of our gratitude for all that we have received. Through opening in gratitude, we continue to receive what we need for our future existence. We receive from the future the force that engenders new life, a force that enters and settles into our inmost core.

Christ’s love is that impregnating power for new life that fertilizes our open, thankful hearts. He is the gentle fire of love, creative of being. His power engenders in us new, future life. His love in our hearts is the seed-force for a new earth.




Sunday, May 24, 2020

Ascension 2020, Embrace What Is



Ascension, around 1030, Codex Aureus
Ascension
John 16:22-33

So you have to suffer pain now. But I will see you again, and then your hearts will be filled with joy, and no one can take that joy from you. Up to now, you have not prayed in my name. Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart, that your joy may be fulfilled.

All this I have given to your souls in imagery. But the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in pictures but will tell you openly and unveiled about my Father, so that you can grasp it in full, knowing consciousness. Thus will I proclaim to you the being of the Father. On that day, you will ask out of my power and in my name. And no longer will I ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father himself will love you because you have loved me, and have known in your hearts that I have come forth from the Father. I have come forth from the Father, and I have come into this world.

I leave the sense world again and return to the world of the Father, of which you say that it is the world of death.”

Ascension, Ninetta Sombart 
Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking in clear thought and without imagery. Now we know that all things are revealed to you and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

Jesus answered, “Do you now feel my power in your heart? Behold, the time is coming and has already come, when you will be scattered, each to his own loneliness. You will then also leave me alone. But I am not alone, for the Father is eternally united with me.

All this I have spoken to you so that in me you may find peace. In this world, you will have great fear and hardship. But take courage. I have overcome the world.”


Ascension
May 24, 2020
John 16: 22–33

Contemporary Resurrection Icon
At night we may be troubled with bad dreams. But in the morning, we rise into our day-waking consciousness.  Our awareness overcomes the dream state and we understand that what troubled us was only a dream.
Our earthly lives can have something of the quality of a dream. We may be troubled by an occasional or even continuing ‘nightmare’ situation. But we can make efforts to awaken, to rise beyond even our ordinary dream-like day-consciousness.

Christ lived the nightmare. He suffered and died. He descended into hell. He rose on the third day. And then at His Ascension, he rose even further—and descended even deeper. For at His Ascension, His loving consciousness, His Life, spread out over the whole world. The Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield said, “The unawakened mind tends to make war on the way things are.” Christ the Awakener has aligned Himself with the world, in loving acceptance of what is. That is the first step toward transforming the way things are into the way they can be. 

Ascension, Sombart
In our moments of earnest prayer, we rise toward Christ, who stands embracing the world with His peace. “Pray from the heart and it will be given to your heart,” He says. “Feel my power in your heart….so that you may find peace.”(John 16:1, 31, and 33) Only by awakening to a higher level of awareness can we, like Christ, embrace what is, in love, and with courage. With Him we can recognize that our own lives are enmeshed ultimately with the life of the whole world; and that only through Christ’s power of transformation can the nightmare be overcome.



Thursday, May 21, 2020

Ascension Thursday 2020, Rising Like Incense


Ascension
John 16:22-33


So you have to suffer pain now. But I will see you again, and then your hearts will be filled with joy, and no one can take that joy from you. Up to now, you have not prayed in my name. Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart, that your joy may be fulfilled.

All this I have given to your souls in imagery. But the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in pictures but will tell you openly and unveiled about my Father, so that you can grasp it in full, knowing consciousness. Thus will I proclaim to you the being of the Father. On that day, you will ask out of my power and in my name. And no longer will I ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father himself will love you because you have loved me, and have known in your hearts that I have come forth from the Father. I have come forth from the Father, and I have come into this world.

Stephen B. Whatley
I leave the sense world again and return to the world of the Father, of which you say that it is the world of death.”

Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking in clear thought and without imagery. Now we know that all things are revealed to you and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

Jesus answered, “Do you now feel my power in your heart? Behold, the time is coming and has already come, when you will be scattered, each to his own loneliness. You will then also leave me alone. But I am not alone, for the Father is eternally united with me.

All this I have spoken to you so that in me you may find peace. In this world, you will have great fear and hardship. But take courage. I have overcome the world.”


Ascension
May 21, 2020
John 16: 24-33

Observe a rosebush over time, and you will see how its leaves appear with

rhythmic frequency—one set, a pause for the rise of the stem, the next leaf, another rise. The leaves appear as pulses of the rose’s life, as beats of the heart of its life, ascending heavenward.

Our prayer life is like that. Prayer creates a living form in the garden of God. Christ advises us to pray from the heart. We can imagine that praying from the heart creates a kind of rose tree in His garden. As we pray, we are regularly sending out the leaves on this spiritual rose tree. As we pray, the stems rise higher. As we pray, Christ and his angels guide and tend and nurture what we create, drawing us upward.
       
Like the rosebush, sooner or later, the intervals between the leaves become shorter, the leaves more compressed. The time of transition, of the great change, is near. Christ knows how it is. “In this world, you will have great fear and hardship.”

Charles Andrade
But as we continue praying, straining to keep on rising, ascending, struggling to transform, we can also hear His words echoing: "Take courage. Do you now feel my power in your heart? Take heart."

And as we labor through the transition, something new begins to happen. Amid the deepest trials, the heart blooms. The roses of peace appear, opening to the light of the Spirit Sun. And Christ, the Spirit Sun, in turn, sends His encouragement: “All this I have spoken to you so that in me you may find peace. In this world, you will have great fear and hardship. But take courage. I have overcome the world.”

And in the light of his encouragement, our hearts blossom forth roses of peace, their fragrance rising like incense to fill the atmosphere around us.
                                                                                               


Sunday, May 17, 2020

5th After Easter 2020, A Sweet Death





5th Sunday after Easter
John 14:1-31  

Durer 
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in the power that leads you to the Fatherly Ground of the World and me. In my Father’s house, there are many rooms. If it were not so, how could I have said to you, ‘I go there to prepare a place for you?'  And when I have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come again and take you up into the realm of my being and working, so that where I work, you also may work. And you know the way where I am going.”

Then Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I myself am the Way—the Truth— and the Life. No one finds his way to the Father but through me. If you had known my Being, you would have recognized my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen Him.”

Then Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father; that would satisfy our deepest yearning.”

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Does your heart’s voice not tell you that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. But the Father, who lives eternally in me, continues to do his works in them. Build your faith on the power of my Being that lets you know: I in the Father, the Father in me. Or at least learn to trust through looking at the works themselves that have arisen.

Truly, truly I say to you, whoever trusts in my Being will also do the works that I do --and greater deeds will he do because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask for in unity with me, I will do it, so that the deeds of the Father may be revealed in the working of the Son. When you turn to me in prayer in the power of my name, I will be the Creating One in all your works.
Jan von Kalkar
If you truly love me, you will share in my spiritual goals. And I will ask the Father, and He will send to you another Counselor, who will stand by you forever, even the Spirit of Truth. The earthly world cannot receive this Counselor, for it cannot perceive his working and does not recognize him. But you know him, for he will live with you and will work in you.

I will not leave you desolate—I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. On that day, you will truly know what it means that I am in the Father, and you in me and I in you.

Whoever bears my spiritual goals within himself, and brings them to revelation in his working, is one who truly loves me. And whoever truly loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

Then Judas (not the Iscariot) said, “But Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the people who are in the world?

Jesus replied, “Whoever 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]. Whoever 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.

These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the health-bringing Spirit, the Counselor whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled nor let them be afraid.

You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater 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 ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me.

But I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me so that the world may know that I love the Father. Do the same. Arise, let us be on our way.


5th after Easter
May 17, 2020
John 14:1–35

Plant one seed, and in time it will produce hundreds of seeds, all replicas of itself. In this way, the living entity that produced the seed maintains itself through cycles of time.

Christ the Gardener Tapestry, Coxie or da Cremona
Out of the Father Ground of all Being, who is existence itself, there emerged the first seed. That seed was (and continues to be) the Logos-Word, the I AM. This Logos-Word spoke, and all of creation came into being. Into all creatures, especially into us, He placed a seed of Himself, an I AM. This seed germinates as we are born, blossoms when as a small child we begin to say “I”. This little but all-encompassing “I” continues to blossom and engender seeds throughout our life. The seeds of myself are my words and my actions. I am what I say. I am what I do.

In an ordinary plant, form and seeds are fixed by type. We human I-AM-beings, however, have the capacity to create various types of seeds. For we have choices in speaking, choices in doing. And these choices can create seeds of magnificence and nourishing beauty. Or they can create seeds of weeds and thorns.

Our words and deeds are the seeds from our own Selves. God will reap what we have sown. And in the afterlife, the quality of the word- and deed-seeds we have produced will be what we bring to Him for the future.

The poet Rilke speaks to God and says:

We stand in your garden year after year
We are trees for yielding a sweet death.*

Christ the Gardener and Magdalene, Burne-Jones
Christ is the gardener who watches over our growth and progress. He is the Water of Life. He feeds here, prunes a bit there, trains toward the Light of Himself. He is the Way, and he hopes for a harvest of words and deeds done in His Spirit, done in love, in truth, and from goodwill. For He will plant the seeds we produce, the seeds of our Selves, and we will germinate again with Him in His garden, in another place, in another season. And so we may pray with Rilke:

God, give us each our own death,
The dying that proceeds
From each of our lives:
The way we loved,
The meanings we made,
Our need.**

*Rilke, The Book of Hours, translated by Macy and Barrows, pg. 133.
**Rilke, The Book of Hours, translated by Macy and Barrows, pg. 131.


Wednesday, May 13, 2020

4th after Easter II, The Great Death


4th Sunday after Easter
John 16:1-33 (adapted from Madsen)

“All these words I have spoken to you so that you will not go astray.  For they will exclude you from their society, and the hour will come when those who kill you will think they are doing God a service. They will do all this because they have recognized neither me nor my Father. I have said this to you so that when the time comes, you will remember that I told you about it. In the beginning, I did not need to say such things for I was with you. But now I go to him who sent me; and none of you asks me, “Where are you going?”  Now that I have said these things to you, sorrow enters your hearts.

Mary Reardon
But, I tell you the truth: it is for your salvation and healing that I leave you, for if I did not go away, the Comforter, the giver of spirit-courage, would not come to you. When I now go away, I will send him to you. When he comes he will call humankind to account for the decline into sinfulness, for the working of Man’s higher being and for the great world separation; for the decline into sinfulness, because they did not fill themselves with my power; for the working of Man’s higher being, because I go to the Father and you see me no more; for the great world-separation, because the decision has already been made about the ruler of this world.

I have yet much more to say to you, but you cannot bear it now. But when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will be your guide on the way to the Truth that Embraces All. he will not speak out of himself, but what he hears he will speak, and he will proclaim to you what is to come. 

he will reveal me, for what he draws from my being, he will proclaim to you. Everything that the Father has is also mine. That is why I can say, ‘He will draw from my being and proclaim to you.’

Yet a short time, and you will see me no more, and again a short time, and you will see me.”

Way to Emmaus, Janet Brooks-Gerlof
Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean 'A short time and you will not see me, and again a short time and you will see me,’ and ‘I am going to the Father?’ They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a short time’? We do not understand his words.”

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, and he said, “You are wondering that I said, ‘A short time and you will see me no more, and again a short time and you will see me.’  Yes, the truth I tell you, you will weep and lament while other people will be happy. You will be sorrowful, but your grief will be turned into joy. A woman giving birth must suffer pain; for her hour has come. But when she has born the child, she no longer considers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

So it is with you. You have to suffer pain now. But I will see you again, and then your hearts will be filled with joy, and no one can take that joy from you. On that day, you will have no need to ask me anything.

Yes, I say to you; from now on, what you ask from the Father, He will give you in my name. Up to now, you have not prayed in my name. Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart so that your joy may be fulfilled.

I have said all this to you in imagery. But the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in pictures. Then I will speak openly and plainly to you about the Father. On that day, you will pray in my name. I do not say that I will pray the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I come from the Father. I went forth from the Father and came into the earthly world. And now I leave the sense-world again and go to the Father.”

Then his disciples said, “See—now you are speaking plainly and openly and not in pictures. Now we recognize that all things are revealed to you. You do not even need anyone to question you. And so our hearts confess that you come from the Father.”

And Jesus answered, “Do you now feel my power in your hearts? See—the hour is coming; it has already come, when all will be scattered, each one to his own loneliness. Then you will then also leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.

I have said these words to you so that in me, you may find peace. In this world, you will have great fear and hardship. But take courage. I have overcome the world.”

5th Easter

May 13, 2020
John 16:1-33

When the wind blows, we feel it on our skin; we see its effects on the trees. But it may be astonishing to realize that we cannot see the wind. The wind itself is invisible.

There are many things we experience that are invisible. As with the wind, we perceive their effects, but not the entities themselves: love, goodness, beauty, truth are such things. We have felt the embracing warmth of love, the nobility of goodness, the radiance of beauty, the impartial strength of truth. But their real essence is invisible. Those of our loved ones who have died still exist, but like the wind, like love, their existence is invisible to us.

Our own souls are another of those invisible entities. In fact, there is more of our being that is invisible than not. Most of our true being resides in the realm across the threshold of visibility, in that realm where truth and goodness reside, in the realm of those who have already died, in the realm into which we will withdraw at our own death when what is visible of us falls away.

Christ is Someone whose being also resides in the invisible. But we can still perceive His presence—in the love that shines forth from others, in the strength of human dedication to the truth, in the noble promptings of conscience.

Vincente Juan Masip
Christ calls us to enter the invisible world consciously while still on earth and to open here the eyes of our souls, to become aware of the Invisible Ones, face to face. Perhaps this is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a 20th-century martyr, meant when he said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” To ‘die’ means to awaken in the invisible realm, the realm to which we will fully return at our own death.

On earth, Christ takes on a visible form to help remind us of the reality of His mostly invisible existence. He takes on the form of circles of bread to nourish our invisible souls, the juice of the vine to strengthen our invisible spirits. His real invisible essence keeps us alive in the realm of the Invisible.

For [as the poet Rilke says] we are only the rind and the leaf
The great death, that each carries inside,
Is the fruit.
Everything enfolds it.*

* Rilke, Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, p. 132




Sunday, May 10, 2020

4th Sunday after Easter, Not to Falter


4th after Easter
John 16:1-33

All these words I have spoken to you so that you will not be offended because you discover what destiny falls to you through being connected with me. For they will exclude you from their communities, and the hour will come when those who rob you of your earthly existence and kill you will think they are offering service to the progress of the world. They will do so because they cannot raise their knowing to knowledge of the Father, nor to knowledge of my being and working. All these words I have spoken to you so that when the time comes you will remember that I said them to you. I did not speak to you in this way in the beginning because I was with you. But now I am going away to him who sent me; yet, none of you has yet the strength and courage to ask me about the realm into which I now enter. Your hearts are full of grief and therefore closed to the things I have said to you.

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is for your salvation
and healing that I go away, for if I did not go away, the Comforter, who will
Stephen B. Whatley

stand by you in all trials, the Spirit upon whom you can call for assistance at any moment, would not come to you. But because I go, I will be able to send him to you. When he comes, he will bring to the world a consciousness of how the nature of the sickness of sin works, of how people can be reconnected with the divine world in which there is no sin, and of how the decision about human error can be brought about. Sin is human beings not really being able to trust in my being and in that which works out of my being within them. The balancing of sin holds sway in my going to the Father and in not remaining limited to appearing outwardly. Judgment works in the decision that has already been made about the prince of the outer world.

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But only when the Spirit comes, through whom the Truth can reveal itself to the world, will he lead you to the Truth that Embraces All. For he will not speak only out of himself, but he will speak what he hears in the realm of the Spirit, as the speaking of the eternal reality, and he will tell you what is yet to come. Thus will he reveal me among men, for out of what he takes from my being he will proclaim to you. In the realm in which my Father works, there I also live. That is why I can say, ‘He will take from my being and proclaim to you’.

In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

Ascension, Sombart
Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more’, and then, ‘after a little while you will see me’, and ‘because I am going to the Father’? They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not understand what he is saying.”

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “You are wondering what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.’  Amen, amen, the truth I say to you, you will weep and deeply mourn, and the world will rejoice in this. You will be filled with sorrow, but this your sorrow will be turned into unceasing joy. A woman giving birth must bear pain, for her difficult hour has come. But when the child is born, she no longer considers the anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

So it is with you. Now is your time of grief. But this your grief will become the power of Spirit-Birth, for I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day, you will be so deeply united with me that you will no longer need to ask me anything.

Amen, amen, I tell you the truth; from now on what you ask of the Father in my name, He will give to you. Until now, you have not been able to ask anything in my name. Ask and you shall receive, and your joy will be complete.

Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart so that your joy may be fulfilled.

All this I have given to your souls in imagery. But the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in pictures but will tell you openly and unveiled about my Father, so that you can grasp it in full, knowing consciousness. So will I proclaim to you the being of the Father. On that day, you will ask out of my power and in my name. And no longer will I ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father himself will love you because you have loved me and have known in your hearts that I have come forth from the Father. I have come forth from the Father and I have come into this world.

I leave the sense world again and return to the world of the Father, of which you say that it is the world of death.”

Stephan B. Whatley
Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking in clear thought and without imagery. Now we know that all things are revealed to you and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

Jesus answered, “Do you now feel my power in your heart? Behold, the time is coming, and has already come, when you will be scattered, each to his own loneliness. You will then also leave me alone. But I am not alone, for the Father is eternally united with me.

All this I have spoken to you so that in me you may find peace. In this world, you will have great fear and hardship. But take courage. I have overcome the world.”

4th Sunday after Easter
May 10, 2020
John 16:1-33

Stephen B. Whatley
When we know that we will be separated from a loved one, we may give them a photo, to help them remember us. Before He died on the cross, Christ gave his disciples images of himself. He knew he was going away for a time, and so he gave them word-pictures of himself: I am the Good Shepherd of Souls. I am the Doorway into the heavenly realms. I am the true Vine, connecting, and holding you all. I am He who shows you the pathway to Truth in Life, the Way to real, true Life.

 He hoped that in their time of grief and sorrow after His death, his disciples would remember the pictures and would find comfort and trust in them.

These images have been repeated again in the gospel readings since Easter. And just as they were given to the disciples beforehand, as a comfort for the impending events on Golgotha, so do they now precede yet another death, another loss. For on Ascension Thursday, Christ’s Resurrection Body, the body in which he appeared to his disciples for forty days after his death, that body would undergo yet another change of form. It would become another kind of body, expanding to become the true life, the living Vine of the whole world. And his disciples would lose sight of Him yet again.

We too do not always see Him. In fact, most moderns have not yet seen Him. This, as He says, is humanity’s time of separation and grief, our time of laboring and pain. But He assures us that our labor is not in vain. Our suffering can bear fruit.

As the poet Rilke compares us to trees in an orchard. He says

… even though the burden
should at times seem almost past endurance.
Not to falter! Not to be found wanting!

Thus must it be, when willingly you strive
throughout a long and uncomplaining life,
committed to one goal: to give yourself!
And silently to grow and to bear fruit.*

* Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Apple Orchard.”



Friday, May 8, 2020

Onto a Vast Plain, Rilke


“Onto a Vast Plain”

by Rainer Maria Rilke
Translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows



You are not surprised at the force of the storm—
you have seen it growing.
The trees flee. Their flight
sets the boulevards streaming. And you know:
he whom they flee is the one
you move toward. All your senses
sing him, as you stand at the window.

.
The weeks stood still in summer.
The trees’ blood rose. Now you feel
it wants to sink back
into the source of everything. You thought
you could trust that power
when you plucked the fruit:
now it becomes a riddle again
and you again a stranger.

.
Summer was like your house: you know
where each thing stood.
Now you must go out into your heart
as onto a vast plain. Now
the immense loneliness begins.

.
The days go numb, the wind
sucks the world from your senses like withered leaves.

.
Through the empty branches the sky remains.
It is what you have.
Be earth now, and evensong.
Be the ground lying under that sky.
Be modest now, like a thing
ripened until it is real,
so that he who began it all
can feel you when he reaches for you.