[Cartoon with medical doctor “in the face” of a fat patient about 60:] “What fits your busy schedule better, exercising one hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day?” ~Randy Glasbergen, 1998, glasbergen.com
Do you think the patient got the point? Saying yes to reality is good, even if you want to clobber the messenger. ~jpc
Truth can set us free. Namaste.
[T]here are few examples in history in which the freedom men and women crave is delivered through outside intervention. In almost every successful social movement of the last century, from Gandhi’s campaign against British rule to the Solidarity movement in Poland to the antiapartheid movement in South Africa, democracy was the result of local awakening. ~Barack Obama, “The World Beyond Our Borders,” The Audacity of Hope, p. 316, via Randy Williams
True, and yet today there is more profound global and planetary consciousness (or deeper, what Teilhard was pointing to with the “noosphere”). Thus, what we imagine and do in “River City” catalyzes local awakening in Faluga. ~jpc
We are in a new world now. Namaste.
image: Bombay, two-mile-long rally protesting the arrest of Gandhi, 1930 www.kamat.com/kalranga/freedom/movements.htm
It is by the replacement of vocation with economic determinism that the exterior workings of a total economy destroy the character and culture . . . from the inside. . . . It is by way of the principle and practice of vocation that sanctity and reverence enter into the human economy. It was thus possible for traditional cultures to conceive that “to work is to pray.” ~Wendell Berry, “The Idea of a Local Economy,” Orion Magazine, Winter 2001 (oriononline.org, Nov-Dec 2007)
To fathom and live vocation as the deep key to prosperity. Namaste.
image: www.cisa.com/.../L/UK/IDPagina/1911
Ours is not a time for despair; it is a time for action. Not short-term remedial action, but action aimed at bringing about fundamental trans-formation. ~Ervin Laszlo, The Chaos Point, via Janice Ulangca
I am struck with the comprehensive strategy and honoring style of Gen. Abizaid as he field-commands U.S. forces in the Middle-East, Asia, and Africa. He says the despair rubs off when one’s in Washington talking to leaders and listening to the U.S. news 24/7 – not so being with the forces in the field. ~jpc
Transformative action is called for whether or not it transforms our despair. Namaste.
Journer: Why does spirit come and go?
Nez: It doesn’t. You do. Spirit’s always present.
Journer: It sure doesn’t feel like it.
Nez: As one* of my students loved to say, “Let this presence settle into your bones.”
______
* St. Teresa of Avila
image: adapted http://www.artofthemix.org/FindAMix/getcontents.asp?strMixID=72132
The old ideas were taught to us a long time ago, and repeated over and over. But those old ideas don’t align with my current reality, so I try to stay alert. I strive to avoid jargon, pat phrases and clichés. (Still, they fall off my tongue so easily.) To the best of my ability, I use my words consciously, especially when I am speaking from a position of authority (i.e., teaching or preaching). I take full responsibility for saying what I mean, one word, one thought, one prayer at a time, and for meaning what I say. There is power in the words we speak. ~Marilyn Muehlbach, “Saying What We Mean (And Meaning What We Say),” Fall 2006 Jesus Seminar Paper, via David Zollars
To say what we mean and mean what we say. Namaste.
image: Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaks the word "forgiveness" with power. www.hinduonnet.com/.../2005121400840100.htm
What oppresses us in the hour of death is not the life that has been lived and loved, but rather the life that has not been lived and that has neglected its possibilities. Only the passion of love makes a person alive right down to the very fingertips. ~Jürgen Moltmann, Passion for Life, p. 26, via LLC
This solves our problems: we can’t name a situation where there’s not someone or something to love. ~jpc
The passion of love is always possible. Namaste.
image: granddaughter Clara
Thanksgiving . . . transfers something that belongs to the secular world into the sphere of the holy. . . . Every created thing can be a bearer of holiness, an object of thanks, of consecration. There are no limits to thanksgiving. ~Paul Tillich, “In Everything Give Thanks,” The Eternal Now, pp. 179-80
As we reflect today on “thanksgiving,” let us look and see what is at hand and give hearty thanks, and remember it will take the rest of our lives to give thanks for “every created thing.” ~jpc
“Come, ye thankful people, come.” Namaste.
image: LLC pulling up a rutabaga that she’s very thankful for; I'm very thankful for her thankful style.
[Thomas Altizer’s] God began giving himself to the world at its creation and ultimately died through Jesus Christ, whose earthly demise in turn poured the spirit of God into the world. . . . [T]hrough God’s death, the sacred becomes profane, and vice versa. . . . [T]he very absence of God signifies God’s presence. . . . ~Paige P. Parvin, “The Revolutionary,” Emory Magazine, Autuum 2006
I was a grad student at Emory during Altizer’s announcements of the “death of God.” The debates caused me to rethink my theology. The poured-out presence of God’s spirit in the world is what it’s all about. ~jpc
I am thankful for debates about the profound meaning in this world, this life. Namaste.
Evil does not exist, or at least it does not exist unto itself. [As darkness and cold are the absence of light and heat] evil is simply the absence of God. . . . God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man [sic] does not have God’s love present in his heart. ~attributed to Albert Einstein, via Ann Shafer
Operating outside the bounds of spirit’s love, what is evil today? ~jpc
To dedicate ourselves to transforming evil. Namaste.
image: Ebensee concentration camp, Austria
When all things that come and go are simply seen to come and go, the everlasting appears. Dis- illusionment with the temporal is the grand and empty space within which Spirit birth takes place. ~Gene Marshall, 2006 sermon, “Disillusionment as the Pathway to Glory”
Spirit is strange: it appears often at the death of a false god in which we had faith. ~jpc
When the storms of life are transforming my little-faith, Namaste.
image: sculpture by Kristin Lindseth-Rivera http://pacificartleague.org/PALArtistDir/lindseth/lindseth.html
Journer: I really struggle with the creeds and unbelievable stories of my faith.
Nez: And . . .
Journer: Sometimes I wonder why bother.
Nez: One* of my students had a good reason. He said, “Myths and creeds are heroic struggles to comprehend the truth in the world.”
______
* Ansel Adams
image: "Burning Bush," Michael Bogdanow www.michaelbogdanow.com/Detail.bok?no=393
The greatest obstacle is simply this: the belief that we cannot change because we are dependent on what is wrong. That is the addict’s excuse. ~Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers
How does this apply to me, my family, my tribe? What are we addicted to? ~jpc
Freedom is ours. Namaste.
[T]he issue of spirit, and its manifestations within human beings, is what Jesus was all about. . . . Martin Luther . . . wrote that “God is a Spirit” and encouraged confirmands . . . to believe that Jesus was Spirit incarnate. ~David J. Pope, Interrupting Behavioral Evolution (October 2006), pp. 41, 46
I like this more than arguing about whether Jesus was “very God” or the “only son of God,” etc. He was honest-to-god spirit man, one who was so in touch with spirit that things changed when he was present. ~jpc
Spirit is always already present and spirit’s journers prove it. Namaste.
image: www.e-village.jp/.../9905may/html/000123.html
Religious leaders led the movement to abolish slavery, to enfranchise women, and to achieve civil rights for all Americans. This is the tradition of faith in public life. We of the Middle Church [Synagogue, Mosque, etc.] are people of faith whose traditions lead us . . . [in] mission or [we] risk the sacrifice of the poor, of peace, and of all God’s creation. ~Bob Edgar interview, author of Middle Church (9/2006)
Who is leading which movements today? ~jpc
We would be of the middle way. Namaste.
image: www.dearchurch.com/disillusioned.htm
What Zen is, is . . .
Infinite gratefulness for all that is past
Infinite care for all that is present
Infinite responsibility for all that is future
~Huston Smith, The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith (B. Moyers, PBS, 1996), via Carl Larsen
Hopefully this is at the heart of any curriculum being taught today, religious or secular. ~jpc
Let us listen to the sages. Namaste.
image: www.zen-leipzig.de/
Minister at N.C. Baptist Convention on homosexuality issue: “But if we’re going to start asking everybody about everything going on in their lives . . . where are we going to stop? What about divorce? Are we going to narrow it down so only the ‘righteous’ can come?” ~Nancy H. McLaughlin, “Baptists Could Make History with ‘Sin’ Policy,” news-record.com, 11/12/06
A list of “sins”? Absurd, for “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23). What would Jesus do and say after driving the righteous from the Convention in rage? ~jpc
Let us pray/work for the transformation of religious institutions. Namaste.
image: Jesus drives money changers from the temple, Alexandre Bida, from Christ in Art
when squirrels have holed the nuts
and all the leaves fall down
we’re glad elections are up:
we’ll see who’s who by what they do
and not by what they say and don’t
hoorah the hoopla’s over
we’ll watch – but dare not wait –
how the elected do:
we the people will step forward
and take democracy back
~jpc, 11/8/06
These are the times / We are the people. Namaste.
image: from cover of Peter Kowald Global Village cd
Journer: I don’t know how to pray.
Nez: Sure you do.
Journer: What do you mean?
Nez: As one of my students* said, “Prayer . . . is a longing of the soul.” What are you really longing for these days, Journer?
______
* Gandhi
image: www.swarthmore.edu/.../pictures/paintings.html Edward Hicks, "Peaceable Kingdom" (1834, Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)
[T]hose . . . ranging from agnostics to “spiritual” types for whom religion is not so much a metaphysical proposition as it is a way of life, illustrated by stories and enhanced by rituals . . . , might take consolation in the wise words of . . . Peter De Vries . . . : “It is the final proof of God’s omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.” ~Jim Holt, “Beyond Belief,” nytimes.com, 10/22/06
The mystery of God drives us moderns crazy, but aren’t we glad mystery’s at the heart of faith? ~jpc
We give thanks for mystery. Namaste.
image: www.bibletruths.org/salvation/proofgod.html
And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue; and falling at Jesus’ feet he besought him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. (Luke 8: 41-42)
I don’t understand.
We served, we prayed, we believed,
yet our daughter died.
What is the meaning?
What does Jesus save us from?
Not physical death.
To follow God’s plan
we know our lives end in death,
whenever it comes.
Jesus saves us from
refusing to live our lives,
to die before death.
Our daughter lived life
with exhilaration and joy,
regretting nothing.
She also taught us
how to live through her dying.
Jesus did save her.
We were left behind,
crazed by our separation,
but we, too, were healed.
~Jenelle Dove
(the mother of Shelley, of whom she writes)
Namaste.
image: www.womeninthebible.net
As humans we are born of the Earth, nourished by the Earth, healed by the Earth. [She] tells us: I will feed you, I will clothe you, I will heal you. Only do not so devour me or use me that you destroy my capacity to mediate the divine and the human. For I offer you a communion with the divine, I offer you gifts that you can exchange with each other, I offer you flowers whereby you may express your reverence for the divine and your love for each other. ~Thomas Berry, Evening Thoughts, his new book, p. 139
Happy 92nd Birthday, Thomas.
The children are called to care for their Mother. Namaste.
image: Thomas' new book (see a new web site http://www.thomasberry.org)
There is no set form for grief, and no “right” way to express it. . . . I presume that many . . . would point out that by keeping busy we avoid “healthy” grieving. To hell with that; the void left by our loss is just too deep. For now, focusing on what we do for one another is the only consolation we can find. ~Amitai Etzioni, “Good Grief,” nytimes.com, 10/7/06
What would we say to or do for this father who lost his wife and his 38-year-old son – a husband of an expectant wife and father of a 2-year-old? (Or what about a man who lost his wife and small child in a Baghdad bombing yesterday?) What have we learned in our grieving that might help? ~jpc
O to be agents of authentic consolation. Namaste.
“When we play, there is something more going on than your typical game,” linebacker Scott Fujita said. “It’s unspoken. It’s given. But I feel it. We all feel it. It’s become part of our subconscious. It’s with us all the time.” The [New Orleans football team] Saints are constantly referring to Hurricane Katrina without specifically mentioning it. ~Lee Jenkins, “Emotional Rescue: Coach [Payton] Inspires Saints and a City,” nytimes.com, 10/29/06
Real inspiration: mostly reality and part of our subconscious, but also big parts leadership and team solidarity with the ones who suffer and pay the bills. May the soon-to-be elected U.S. leaders be thus inspired. ~jpc
We pray for government of, by, and for the people and the earth. Namaste.
Note: Let us keep in consciousness the two-week UN Climate Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
. . . There is no box
made by God nor us
but that the top can be blown off
and the sides flattened out
to make a dance floor
on which to celebrate life.
~Ken Caraway,* Alive Now, March/April issue, 1974
The last time I celebrated life was. . . . ~jpc
We give thanks for freedom in our box. Namaste.
* Note: our minister in Galax, VA
image: "Boxed," www.deviantart.com/deviation/32341746/
Journer: Have you ever been absolutely surprised?
Nez: Do you mean what one of my students* meant, “. . . felt like a man who, chasing rainbows, has had one of them suddenly turn and bite him in the leg”?
Journer: I guess. Have you?
Nez: Absolutely.
______
* P. G. Wodehouse
image: www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/...
I was drawn to the power of the African American religious tradition to spur social change. . . . Out of necessity, the black church rarely had the luxury of separating individual salvation from collective salvation. It had to serve as the center of the community’s political, economic, and social as well as spiritual life; it understood in an intimate way the biblical call to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and challenge powers and principalities. In the history of these struggles, I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death; rather, it was an active, palpable agent in the world. ~Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope, time.com, 10/15/06, via Randy Williams
“Works without faith” and “faith without works” are dead, a la Paul and James. ~jpc
Grace is our source of palpability. Namaste.
image: www.ylm.org/news.html
If you are fortunate, someone with moral authority will ask you that question [What do you want to be remembered for?] early enough in your life so that you will continue to ask it. ~Peter Drucker, The Daily Drucker, 2004, via LLC
This is like “What do you want on your tombstone?” These types of questions keep us visioning what we’re about with the one great life each of us has to give. ~jpc
We give thanks for spiritual questions. Namaste.
image: http://www.jjchandler.com/tombstone/ to create your own epitaph in imaginal form
Seeing. One could say that the whole of life lies in seeing – if not ultimately, at least essentially. To be more is to be more united. . . But unity grows only if it is supported by an increase of consciousness, of vision. . . . See or perish. This is the situation imposed on every element of the universe by the mysterious gift of existence. And thus . . . this is the human condition. ~Teilhard de Chardin, The Human Phenomenon, p. 3
Seeing and not seeing makes up our condition. When we really see, reality unfolds before our eyes and we are fulfilled, even with fear and trembling. ~jpc
May we start by closing our eyes – for however long it takes – and opening them to see much more than we saw before and be more united. Namaste.
image: "Sacred Moment/Cosmic Hand," Ellen Howie
Meaning is all we want.
Choices are all we make.
Relationships are all we have.
~Sandy Schuman, ed. IAF Journal, via Beret Griffith
In the life journey context, let’s start with the last: our relationships with the human, nonhuman, and the eternal through them both; we can choose to bow to them as thou, which gives meaning. ~jpc
Life is absolutely meaningful (including meaninglessness). Namaste.
image: www.samtsai.com/p318 (right, largest star in our solar system, Arcturus; left dark dot, Sun; Earth dot is not even visible by comparison of size) via Jerome Hunter
