Daily Signet

It is Christmas time and the “Peace on Earth…” quotations are all around us. But what was meant by the original? What is truly meant by Jesus whose birth this quotation celebrated when he said later, “I am come not to send Peace, but War?” or as stated in the King James, “I came not to send Peace, but a Sword.”

We are so afraid of wars that kill bodies (the only wars we really oppose) and overlook or even applaud those wars against minds, against minds of the heart and even against souls—against the spirit. All such wars dehumanize us far more than wars that kill bodies (in these we often become more human). But in wars against the most human spirit, we are materialist at its worst. We fear the bullets that kill the body far more than we fear the sins of man that kill the spirit. Peace is not the absence of bullets.

…Peace must be in us and only in us before it can be built around us—before it can have any hope in our world.

What we are saying is simple and clear. Only the spiritual can live in peace.

Challenge, stress, even violence are necessary to material man. They purify him; they cleanse him and they strengthen him. Without them in this less than spiritual world, he becomes weak and he becomes polluted. Peace destroys him. Peace turns heroes into victims. Peace becomes the enemy…

What we are saying is so simple and so clear. Only the spiritual can live in peace.

Don’t declare peace. Become spiritual; then true peace will become the generated child born out of this spirit in the animal of you. It is as the Credo says.

Willam Boast

On This Day…

St. Francis Xavier: 16C Basque who met Ignatius Loyola while studying at the University of Paris and became one of the first seven men to take Jesuit vows. Spent a lifetime as missionary in the East

Joseph Conrad born 12-3-1857 in Ukraine: great novelist remembered for Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim and The Shadow Line. Died 8-3-1924
Quotes: “The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” “Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.” “Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to see through. Face it.”

Daily Signet

O Beloved Spirit,
I seem so far away from the star, 
so far after its light that I may
never be virginal enough to be born.
I seem so far away from the star, O God,
So far below its light that I may
never reach the death I need to die.
I seem so far away from the star, O God,
and I can’t even tell if it’s so far behind
or so far ahead. How can I find the Babe?
I don’t seem close enough to the earth
to hear it from the angels,
nor do I seem close enough to the heavens 
to map it in the skies.
Yet, from my youth the tides of my heart 
have been pulled by its light.

And so I look in places 
where one would not expect: 
as in a manger for a King
or in a stable for a God
or in the day-to-day for a Birth.
Renew my hope, guide my search,
teach me to trust the star’s pull.
In your image.  Amen.                 

Benjamin Martin

On This Day…

Remembrance of the El Salvador martyrs: in 1980, Maura Clarke and Ita Ford (Maryknoll nuns), Dorothy Kazel (Ursuline nun) and Jean Donovan (lay Catholic missionary) were raped and murdered by the security forces of the El Salvador government for their resistance to the regime and their aid to the oppressed people

Daily Signet

We have glimpsed the star, O God. It calls us to its Birth.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Our striving with polarity, with paradox,
with the mysterium tremendum of the Holy
generates newness of life, 
a gift of grace carried to us by the Christ within:
all believed and all beloved.

The Enneanean 

On This Day…

Shinto Suijin-Matsuri:  rite honoring the Kami of water

Shinto World AIDS day: a day of prayer for the healing for all those suffering from AIDS and HIV

Daily Signet

O God,

We’ve lost anchor
and have no hold.
The darkness folds in
upon the light
and bounds our days 
with the uncertain.

We seem left with less
and full of loss,
at a time when we need 
so much of more.

And while we know 
all the places that it is not,
we carry the worry
that that’s all we can ever know.
Time squeezes us tighter toward 
shortened margins of light.

This advent — must it be
one toward ever-darkening days
or is there birth in its midst?

Dispel our fear.
Embolden our hope.
Deepen our love
that we might realign our days
to the birth in this season;
to the renewal of light in our hearts.
In Your Image. Amen.

Benjamin Martin

On This Day…

Remembrance of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary

Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) born 12-8-65 BC in Venosa, Italy: Roman poet in the time of Augustus, known for his Satires, The Odes, and Carpe Diem. Died 11-27-08 AD
Quotes: “A picture is a poem without words.” “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” “If you would have me weep, you must first of all feel grief yourself.”