Solstice Greetings to all receptors of the Light,
When people have a heart condition, they may go see their physician and be given a stress test–then a prescription to address the results.
In this present worldwide stress test, the Master Physician has some great prescriptions for us. With His help—(we need to ask)—His prescriptions will give us great healing and relief:
When we are poor in spirit, letting go of our own thoughts, we can partake of the kingdom of heaven.
There is now a great mourning. Great comforting shall be received. Who are the meek that shall inherit the earth? The multitudes who hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall be filled.
O Lord, help us to be merciful that we may obtain mercy. By Thy guiding Light are we purified, and our eyes enabled to see the Way.
When we know God’s love, there is no fear. Let this peace uplift this world.
May the beauty in all people, all nature, reveal to us the love of God.
Thanksgiving and love in Christ,
Your brother, Mark
I think over again my small adventures, my fears,
These small ones that seemed so big.
For all the vital things I had to get and to reach.
And yet there is only one great thing,
The only thing.
To live to see the great day that dawns
And the light that fills the world. –Inuit Song
Sermon Father Paul July 26, 1970:
“If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” No servant can serve two masters; for either he hates one and lovest the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon too.” This is out of the 13th and 14th verses of the 6th chapter of Luke.
Somehow or other in the passing through our experiences on this earth and especially when we have attempted (and I say attempted) to answer the call from within—to seek the reality and to become that which you already are—we somehow start to fight the things within us, because we have an inward knowing of the fact that we are going to become really a channel for those on high to work through.
Some people feel or think that God, through His great love, and our Lord Jesus Christ, through his giving of the atonement on Calvary, never turns his head because the door of reformation is always open…
The Master gave a little warning of the things in this day and this age; he has tried with his greatest efforts to prepare us, that we might awaken to do the bidding of the Father; to follow the Way, to follow the Laws of Nature; to save not just the body, but to save us sad experiences later on, some other place…He said, I shall come like a thief in the night, and woe unto him who has not his cloak in readiness.. For he came like a thief in the night, and there is trouble and many are suffering. And I don’t feel glad; I do feel compassion for them. I feel the reality of what is happening, and I feel that there is rising out of the earth, the angers, the viciousness, the selfishness, and the stupidity and refusal and rebellion of the people who know not our Lord. And it is rising out of the earth, as the earth is expanding and taking on the consciousness and the Light of the Christ; and it is choking them. It is affecting their breathing. They can’t get the life force within them. This is a very serious thing; and I feel great compassion for them; and if I could do anything by going there [Japan] and bringing about a change with my presence (or a dozen of us), I would; but we could do as much here as we could there.
How many of you whom have started to seek our Lord, and the will of our Father in heaven, have had a choking and had great rebellion within their physical body or in the things which they had done previously in and the aspects which they had taken on started to rise. They shut their ears; they shut themselves off; they said, “No I won’t give it a go, I won’t pay the penalty. I won’t work it out!” Then it rose up within them and they suffer greatly. ‘Course they could’ve let go of it, and the redemption and the forgiveness which our Lord Jesus paid on Calvary, would have removed it. But every knee shall bow to the Lord on this planet, be he East or West. How many of you today, when you get out amongst people don’t try to go on and do these things yourself? You try to change them. Don’t you try to change them. You try to tell them; you try to lift them and pass them along.
Mother Ruth wrote something: “just something that came to me”—‘Don’t be a bottleneck in the channel to God…It is your mission to pass them through to Him; not stop them at yourself. This is a two-way channel, and it is up to you to pass down to them his love and his strength and compassion, to help lift them up through the channel.’ And you know…football teams would be pretty worthless if they didn’t have some good passers; and that’s the way the ball gets to the goal, is by passing it…You’ve got to let go of the ball and put all your strength back of it to get it there…but you won’t be driving head on into that main line of scrimmage, no, there’ll probably be an end run.
That’s what so many people do in the Christian church. They try to make that center goal, where all the resistance is. Well Jesus took that away when he was crucified. He gave us the atonement. All we got to do is make the end run and pass the ball. And we have got to be the receivers and the passers. ‘Cause we of ourselves haven’t anything to give. All we have is the Word and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Just AS THEY ARE! Not purported upon our opinion, or a dogmatic teaching or anything of the sort. Just as they are and if we’ll pass these to the next fellow and give him a boost, he’ll make it all the way. But if we try to buck the line and be the star performer to break through that line, to show our strength, we’re gonna’ have a long fight down that field. That is where it sets, that if we’re going to fight all of the sins of the world, which I don’t intend to, because I’m going to pass them along. I’m going to make the end run. I’m not going to look for resistance and I’m not going to have it. You see, that’s what we have done here in the Order and not gone out for the glory. We’ve gone out to do the work, and we get it done.
And if we will but just look at our brother and see what we can pass to him, and what we can receive from him, receive from the Master…just keep quiet long enough and listen for the signals, and when we hear the signals, then act on them; and we will find that the graciousness and the grace and the peace of Jesus Christ will be with us all through the week. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, so let it be done. Amen.
Living through Covid 19 and embracing the Vow of Poverty
People are reacting in fear and confusion regarding the current world wide pandemic, but the eternal wisdom teaches us how to respond to every crisis and every health emergency. I am mindful of that phrase in The Golden Force: “we cannot teach you anything; we can only help you to remember.” So, a reminder of what we already know about health, healing and living simply.
Clean house, no matter how big or small. Get rid of unnecessary items and clear out the cobwebs. Repair things that are broken, give away what you don’t need, and simplify. Most of us no longer have all our personal possessions in one drawer and 3 closet hangers, but we certainly have accumulated a lot that attracts dust and the stagnation that goes with it!
Clean your inner home of negative thoughts (most of them didn’t originate with us anyway). Negative judgments against others, anger, bitterness, fear, and misplaced guilt accumulate like unneeded possessions–and that stress adds strain to our physical vehicle. During intense periods of inner growth, we are stripped down and focused on eternal things that matter; our burdens are lifted and all the inner baggage is removed.
Deep belly breathing and concentration on the breath several times a day is very helpful in clearing out those inner cobwebs. Focus on things of value and aspirations for building community and sharing what goodness and mercy bring. Get out in nature whenever possible, as the universe and sunshine are healing and energizing. We naturally know how to evolve with the microbial world, but we must do our part to embrace the Universe and the Creator who brings Light, Life and Love to us every day.
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Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have always been, and before you nothing has been. There is no one to pray to but you. The star nations all over the heavens are yours and yours are the grasses of the earth. You are older than all need, older than all pain and prayer.
Grandfather, Great Spirit, all over the world the faces of the living ones are alike. With tenderness they have come up out of the ground. Look upon your children, with children in their arms, that they may face the winds and walk the good road to the day of quiet.
Grandfather, Great Spirit, fill us with the light. Give us the strength to understand and the eyes to see. Teach us to walk the soft earth as relatives to all that live.
Help us, for without you we are nothing.
-Black Elk, Lakota
“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head” (Revelation 12:1).
Mary—who some believe was Lord of Earth in the last Age and known by the Egyptians as Isis—gave full acceptance and cognizance of her mission as the mother of the Messiah at the Annunciation. Knowing that this mission would take her to the foot of the cross and continue as Divine Mother for all of earth’s children, and lasting through the present Age. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this mission, but by her constant intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. In mystical terms, she can be called upon for aid and healing, as she resides as a mediator between earth and heaven. In 1950 by Pope Pius XII, who wrote in Munificentissimus Deus:
“Hence the revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages”
Jesus entrusted Mary to the care of Saint John (see John 19: 25-27). In the Book of Revelation – the final book in the Bible – John recalls a vision he experienced on the island of Patmos where he saw a woman “clothed with the sun”; this woman is Mary, according to the Catholic Church. In mystical terms this woman also refers to the highest spiritual aspect of the human soul, uniting with Self and overcoming the dragon of desire and the beast of emotion. Mary represents this purified soul both enhancing our evolution through time and space as well as transcending history; planting the seed and beginning of the Kingdom of God on earth.
In the encyclical letter, Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum, Pope Pius X wrote:
“A great sign,” thus the Apostle St. John describes a vision divinely sent him, appears in the heavens: “A woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head.” Everyone knows that this woman signified the Virgin Mary, the stainless one who brought forth our head…John therefore saw the Most Holy Mother of God already in eternal happiness, yet travailing in a mysterious childbirth. What birth was it? Surely it was the birth of us who, still in exile, are yet to be generated to the perfect charity of God, and to eternal happiness. And the birth pains show the love and desire with which the Virgin from heaven above watches over us, and strives with unwearying prayer to bring about the fulfillment of the number of the elect.
As Jesus and Mary are present in this day and Age and represent the Father’s great Gift to the planet, we can look to them with full trust and faith to bring our gifts to the forefront, and help us to become better servants of the Nameless One.
Visualize the light going to all members of the races, breaking the tendencies of our mass mind idea of separateness and self- interest, but more especially carrying out the will of God. KNOW THAT ALL ARE CHILDREN OF GOD.
May 25, 2020 marked 10 years since Justin Pletcher became a police officer. In a lengthy Facebook post, he shares how — after graduating college, joining the army and serving in Kuwait and Iraq — he returned to Minnesota hoping to join the Minneapolis police force. Instead, due to a “financial crisis,” he ended up joining the Columbia Heights PD.
“For the next ten years,” Pletcher shares in his post, “I learned what it was to truly become a police officer. It wasn’t about the tickets and the arrests, it was about the partnerships you made. Don’t get me wrong, I love the action of the job but it’s not what fuels me to make this world a better place.”
He then goes on to share how — on the same day he celebrated 10 years as a cop — a Minneapolis man of color George Floyd was murdered at the hands of police. “There’s no other way to put this; this was a murder,” he says. “I’ve watched the video so many times now, just trying to find some justification for the actions these men took, but I can assure you there are none…”
Pletcher shares how on his first day back at work he could barely drag himself out of bed and put on his uniform, of how upset his fellow officers were and the conversations that ensued throughout the day. And then, Pletcher’s post takes a beautiful turn as he shares a story from his day on patrol:
My second dispatched call of the day today was a phone call. I called the number and a man named Calvin answered. Calvin said that he was a health inspector and that he would be inspecting some neighborhood homes today. Calvin said, “I’m a big black man with dreads,” and he wanted to make sure that police were aware in case we got a call about him walking around the neighborhood. Calvin asked that I come out there to verify his employment so I could squash any calls before they became something bigger. I obliged and I apologized to him for this even being necessary, but I told him I understood. Anyway, I arrived and we exchanged pleasantries when I noticed he had an Omega Psi Phi bracelet on, which is a black fraternity known as “Q.” I told him my roommate in college was a Q, making the hand gestures, and that one of my officers now was a Q. Calvin smiled, I smiled, and all of a sudden the apprehension in the air immediately dissipated. He ended up knowing my college roommate pretty well, and we decided we would spend the next hour walking the neighborhood together. Calvin was about 15 years older than me, but we talked about how we both loved to travel and about our kids. We spoke about George Floyd and police brutality, and how it’s a different world for black men. We talked about the importance of getting to know people and how racism is borne of fear and ignorance. Calvin spoke and I listened…
At the end, we both said almost simultaneously how much we needed this today. We were both hurting and this was a small ray of light into a darkness that had covered us. We would have hugged but, being that we both believe in doctors and science, we elbow-bumped instead. We exchanged information and took this picture. An hour later my old college roommate texted me saying he heard I met Calvin and how happy that made him. Calvin then texted me a few hours after that saying that he believed things happened for a reason and that we would see each other again. I believe him. I’m not a religious guy and I mostly chalk things up to chance, but it really seemed that the universe was communicating today – at least to Calvin and me.
Pletcher concludes his post with an exhortation to all: listen.
I met Calvin today and I listened, and because of this I gained an ally and a friend. I know enough about change to know that you can’t tell people what to do, you need to listen to them and build change together.
Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 8, 1897, the third child of Grace and John Day. Her nominally religious family moved to the San Franciso Bay area and then to Chicago where she was baptized in the Episcopal Church. She attended the University of Illinois at Urbana and became interested in social causes as a way to help workers and the poor. In 1916, she left the university and moved to New York City. While covering the 1932 Hunger March in Washington, D.C. for some Catholic magazines, she prayed at the national Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that some way would open up for her to serve the poor and the unemployed. The following day, back in New York, she met Peter Maurin, a French immigrant and former Christian Brother, who had a vision for a society constructed of Gospel values. Together they founded the Catholic Worker newspaper which spawned a movement of houses of hospitality and farming communes that has been replicated throughout the United States and other countries.
At the Catholic Worker, Dorothy Day lived a life faithful to the injunctions of the Gospel. Often the newspaper quoted G.K. Chesterton’s famous observation that Christianity hadn’t really failed — it had never really been tried. Day’s life was spent trying. She was shot at while working for integration, prayed and fasted for peace at the Second Vatican Council, received communion from Pope Paul VI at the 1967 International Congress of the Laity, and addressed the 1976 Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia. Her pilgrimage ended at Maryhouse in New York City on November 29, 1980, where she died among the poor.
And now the world must face its Armageddon. But he who holds the standard which I raised, Even though he be a minority of one,
Finding another one who is like himself, Can save the world—they and Me together;
For even a few so gathered in My name,
Can bring about the greatest of miracles,
That is, if I be really Lord of Heaven,
That is, if I am an example to the world.
–Murshid Samuel Lewis, excerpt of his poem: What Christ? What Peace?
FELLOW TRAVELOR
Fellow travelers know you all
Have you ever heard a brother’s call?
Know you that this lodge is so great
That the Sun never sets on its Golden Gate.
When through the door you pass
There will be one to greet you
To help you stand fast.
When the night is long
As you pass through the weary throng
There’s a Brother near you, so just sail along.
Hold high your head,
Knowing you are always led,
That within you lies the power
That is with you every hour.
Look in the mirror, is your Rose there this hour?
For there are those with Roses everywhere. -EWB