A Community of Souls...exploring the mystery of being human
“I awoke,” said Muhammad,” from my sleep and it was as if they had written a message on my heart.”
I toil at remaining asleep.
Preferring even the endurance of deadly,
thundering nightmares
to the awakening and
the reading of the missive upon my heart
which once read,
must be answered.
Donna Piper Leichtling
On This Day…
Shinto World Oceans Day
Photo by Joseph Barrientos on Unsplash
And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.’ In the paradox of the moment, a truth revealed. It is unthinkable no matter how much you think about it. It burns but is not burnt. It moves but it doesn’t move. It’s almost between the out and the in breath, in between the two notes where we hear the music. We live in a universe interlaced with paradox and there are days when what we would have expected gives way to the unexpected and we encounter a marvelous sight….
One of the nine foundations of Christuman: “We seek to marry the vision and the action through a true beloving where the Christos and our daily work unite into the human: all believed and all beloved.” The hardest path to choose is…to traverse the cultural confines of an 8 to 5 job, of a professional position, of a parent, of a teacher immersed in the daily activities and to still make the conscious choice to turn aside, to see the marvelous sight, the visionary, the paradoxical, the creative…to be breathed in and out by the Spirit.
Benjamin Martin
Among the many powerful truths exemplified by Mother Teresa, the one that is most forceful to me now is how she surrendered herself to her call. She was so clear and firm: she surrendered her control and accepted that what would blossom, bear fruit and multiply was what God wanted. It really was that simple; that deeply complex.
Does that mean that she passively waited for God to create what he wanted out of the material of the rest of the world? Obviously and emphatically not! Mother Teresa was proactive (to use a small word for it). She devoted every ounce of will, determination, energy and prayer to ask God to supply the next gab of rice, carton of medicine, house for feeding the poor or shelter for the dying. She accepted that if it wasn’t given God hadn’t meant for it to happen. Then she prayed for guidance about what to do next and moved on….
Mother’s Teresa’s calling isn’t mine or yours. My first and primary task is to listen for my own; to do whatever is necessary to hear God calling me; to let go and let the Holy Spirit move me where it will. That’s my pledge: to make time and space to listen, to be unafraid to hear and follow.
Ben Leichtling
On This Day…
Anniversary of the Christuman Ordination of Alexis Drabek
St. Boniface (675-754): court chaplain to the Emperor of Rome and missionary to Germany, Hungary and Russia
“Who do men say I am?” the Christ asks of his disciples. In answering this question of himself, he says, “I am…the way…the truth…the life…the bread... the fruit of the vine…the door…the good shepherd…the resurrection…the life…the Alpha…the Omega…that which is and was, and which is to come…the root and the Offspring…the origin of origins and the derivation as well…I am always vates…I am always and eternally the bright and morning star.”
“Who do you say I am?” asks the Christ Within. How often do we desacralize the holy name given us at birth as we answer: “I am an accountant, a tax collector, a Roman Prefect, a butcher, a baker, a toolmaker and I count notches on sticks.” How easily we toss the “I Am” about, as if it is powerless in its significance, and settle in comfort for a label: “I am a conservative, a liberal, agnostic; I am busy, tired, fine, angry. I am activity. I am what I eat.”
“Who do men say I am?” asks the Wisdom that was in the beginning. May your “I am” reveal your kinship with the Christ within…always vatic, always revealing the vision, a Word of God sourced in the potential of the way, the truth, the life, the root and the Offspring, the Alpha and the Omega, the always and eternally bright and morning star.
Teri Martin
On This Day…
St. Philip the Deacon: chosen by Jesus’s apostles to care for the needy so that they could be free to preach
The Kingdom of Heaven is within me.
A dialogue of fire and green pastures
where what I do confronts that I am.
What seemed afar off
now calls me out of my routine.
This fearful event—
a death, a disease, a challenge, a burning bush—
addresses me with a voice of fire.
I do not recognize the voice but I recognize it to be holy—
something wholly other than and yet wholly here.
Out of what I know into an expression of what I cannot know.
I stand on holy ground,
my grave and my garden.
And out of this ground I experience the I Am.
Benjamin Martin
On This Day…
Shinto Day of Mourning for the massacre of peaceful protestors in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China (1989)