Spring has arrived again in the Northern Hemisphere– and along with it comes hope, as each new flower pushes its way toward the sun. Trees sprouting: as are we renewed in the gift our Master gave to us.
I am contemplating these events as well as our mission here as priests and brothers and sisters. I found myself questioning why at this stage of our lives we would be embracing life changing illness. What was becoming disturbing to me suddenly became clear as day when the answer came that each one is in some way doing more and more work on the other side. Either preparing their own way or the way of other souls for the next steps in growth and development. This incarnation has brought an accelerated opportunity to reverse any negative patterns brought forward as well as to learn to love our neighbor, even in difficult circumstances.
I was comforted in this and remember too that many of the Teachers of the East when they were preparing for transition would take on the illnesses of their students. Although only a very advanced Teacher will take on the karma of others (as did our Master, Jesus), we are reminded to bear each other’s burdens. This reminds me that our mission has not changed in preparing the earth and its peoples for the Illumination of the Planet.
May spring and the risen Christ, guide as in these last days knowing that justice will prevail.
-Rev. Donald Slakie
A man is not called wise because he talks -and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise. –Buddha
From Father Paul— excerpt from class on mind/body
Now the church of Christ is composed of those who have gained the consciousness and are administering to their fellow men. There is a Host and that Host exists, or the “followers of the Way”, it is also called in the Bible; and it is also called “the sons of God”, and this is part of the Host. The White Brothers are another part of this great Host, and they really exist, we know this because we have seen them. And when we reach a point where we become of this consciousness, where we can converse, where we can talk with, when we can work with–in other words, by that time we have gotten our little selves out of the way and our big Self has taken hold, and we are starting to function. For we have learned one great thing: in absolute humility there is tremendous power
Now most people will tell you that they have a very normal mind, and there’s nothing wrong with it, fully developed and adult. Well, I’ve got a great big surprise for ’em. That mind is just developing now, because they have only used just about–well, at the very highest rate–about twenty percent. And it is developing because it is learning to sense the different vibrations in consciousness of things which they have not seen and have not experienced. And the longer they live and the more they experience and the more spiritual experience they gain, and the more they sense, the more the cells are energized in the mind and become conscious of one another–because these cells have to be conscious of one another. Because if they aren’t, they aren’t going to work together, and no part of the human body ever is successful in its operation of this vehicle that does not perfectly cooperate with all other parts. And I’m sure Doc down there will support me on that.
.There has to be absolute cooperation or there is not what we call health. Now why? We learn, here’s why. Because we have three factors in the body. And you will think that I am talking about a spiritual abstraction when I speak of it: and that is light, life and love. Now there isn’t any other words for this, because Light is the basic energy of matter; Life is the development of the Spirit in action, and Love is that pattern through which the God-force works that gives us cohesion and adhesion, and which beings about assimilation and dissimulation, the breaking-down and the building-up. So these three things, the three “L’s”, are the very foundation of the perfect body working with perfect assimilation of food and the spiritual power.
Now in thought we learn that we have a new faculty, one that is talked very little about, and that faculty is imagination… For it is your imagination that cements your vision so that it may be filled with the spirit to motivate it, which will accept the Power of the Father and bring it into a reality. It can bring a train of events, and with all the appearances of reality, and give them a time, a place, event, and so forth. But it is not fancy, this is not fancying something. Because when you imagine, you have placed your feeling in it, which must be motivated by the Spirit…
If the mind is not in balance and the so-called mystic powers of mind cannot be performed, that’s all there is to it. A person who is not mentally in balance cannot use the Law, they cannot use the power of projection. They cannot use the power of association or dissemination. They cannot use the power of their own imagination creatively, because these things then are taken over by other forces which are in the psychic world; and they are then called mentally ill. Now many people develop states of mental illness because they have used imagination persistently, without a recognition of divinity. And thus they have separated the two worlds and they have no balance, they have no control here of all the forces that rush in, and do rush in, which separate themselves from the external realization of the world around them.
Now, how to sense things and visualize is one of the last things that is taught, because it is felt that you should have developed some cosmic consciousness in order to become in some form spiritually balanced so that you can control these things and you will not be falsely creating…
Elderberry Syrup Recipe – A simple elderberry syrup recipe made with dried elderberries, honey and herbs
3½ cups water
2/3 cup black elderberries (dried, or 1 1/3 cups fresh or frozen)
2 TBSP ginger (grated)
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
1 cup raw honey
1. Pour the water into a medium saucepan and add the elderberries, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.
2. Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce to a simmer for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until the liquid has reduced by almost half.
3. Remove from heat and let cool until it is cool enough to be handled.
4. Mash the berries carefully using a spoon or other flat utensil.
5. Pour through a strainer into a glass jar or bowl.
6. Discard the elderberries and let the liquid cool to lukewarm.
7. When it is no longer hot, add the honey and stir well.
8. When the honey is well mixed into the elderberry mixture, pour the syrup into a mason jar or 16 ounce glass bottle of some kind.
9. Store in the fridge and take daily for its immune boosting properties. –from Wellness Mama blog
From Father Paul December 1, 1973
This morning I’m going to take our lesson from the fourth chapter of the Book of Activity, and beginning with the first verse:
“For let it be known that I, the Master Jesus, do hereby declare that no more shall the sorrows of the past age be celebrated, but the victory.”
It is the time and it is appropriate, and it is something which we must get used to, is the accepting, the celebrating and the acting in accordance with the victory; because we will be and we are being victorious over the darkness and those that promote it and promulgate it. We are not his emissaries of sorrow. We are his emissaries of victory, for we are going to change the source of that wisdom which shall bring the Christ and the light of the Christ to man. We are not here as, you might say, missionaries to convert everybody. We are not particularly – we are not too much interested really in whether you’re Mohammedan or whether you’re Buddhists, but we are interested in whether you have the light of the Christ; and this is our purpose. And in this we are going to be victorious. In this we hold the rod of power and the Word to bring it into existence. We are coming into the time of [coughing] (I’ve talked too much this last week, I guess), we are coming into the time of worship, adoration, and we are going to celebrate those things which were considered the time of sorrow, but we are not going to celebrate them as a sad thing.
There’s a difference between those things which are sorrowful and those things which are sad. A sad thing is when we have defeat. A sorrowful thing is something that you go through and experience that isn’t always what you would call a joyful thing, from the standpoint of the world as it looks upon it, but it contains within it the victory. And that’s what we’re going to celebrate in this coming six months is the victory of Christ over the darkness, the wrongdoing and the misconceptions of the world, of those people who have not been brought into the knowledge and the wisdom of our Creator. We are going to try to bring this about so that these people will not have the suffering that they have had right along. We are going to attempt to bring the light to them, and we are going to – if they wish to accept it – and we’re going to bring enough of it so that they’re going to have to make that decision one way or another. It will be their time of decision, and it is almost the same as, you might say, the beginning of a judgment, but we are not going to personally have that to do. They will be their own judges.
It brings a great deal of satisfaction to me this morning to be able to bring this message. I have avoided it for a long time, I guess unconsciously; it probably wasn’t the time. But I want to bring it also in a personal way. Instead of your going through all those sort of changes, and all these sometimes miseries, you might say, and as they used to call them when you had some slight illness, a cold or something like that, you had “the miseries”. You didn’t have a cold, you had the miseries. And that’s an old southern expression, in fact, if I remember correctly. Well, we just don’t want any more miseries! We are not going to have the miseries. We’re going to have the victory, and that’s where we’re going to watch for from now on. This to me is a, this is a chapter of the book that’s totally dedicated to victory, getting things done and going on and doing the next.
“But you shall celebrate the victory of my Father through the Christos.”, through the great Christ.
The fact that His source and power and His love is becoming victorious through the Christ, the great Christ, and through our Lord Jesus who took upon this great mission and brought the atonement to us, this is what we are especially going to think of during this coming six months. Because if we get to be victory-minded we can’t help but draw to us those who would walk that path and don’t mind being happy. Because there are so many people that just can’t stand to be successful, you know, and that’s one thing they’re going to have to learn to do in this order. They’re going to have to learn to be victorious. They’re going to have to learn to be happy and like it. And this sounds strange, but it is not. It is a reality that they have been with the sorrows in the past age so much, in the Piscean age, that these have gotten to be a habit with them.
You see somebody get up in the morning and if they’re very close in the house or where you’re living, and the first thing they do is kind of open one eye and then they look at you, you know, and you say, “Well, good morning, John. How are you this morning?” and they say, “Uh, pretty good.” What a way to start the day.
“For wouldst thou give unto man defeat when the first-begotten Son of God returns this day?” And you know this little passage here is pretty good, a pretty potent thing. “For wouldst thou give unto man defeat when the first-begotten Son of God returns this day?” In other words, if you were to see the great power descending, of the Christ, and Jesus the emissary was to appear in some form, I don’t know what form, but was to appear, would you teach sadness, would you teach defeat, would you teach sorrow?
Well, I can remember back quite a few years ago when the end of the second world war people just went wild in the streets because the war was finished. Now, this was a victory. Not the kind that we’re looking for, but it was a victory and they were joyous over it. Now I wonder what kind of joy and celebration that we can key ourselves to in this day. We have gotten to the point where it doesn’t bother us too much to look happy, anyway. Now I wonder how far and how deep that is within us, that same happiness; and is it just a facial expression that we’ve gotten? Well, that’s better than the other, that I grant you, but let’s get it down a little deeper than that and let us look forward to that one point, and that reality of victory.
“For thou livest with the shadows of my being, and I do glorify my Father as I did in the days of old.” I think we ought to think of that a little bit: “For thou livest with the shadow of my being, and I do glorify my Father as I did in the days of old.”
Now what is a shadow? A shadow is an image that is created by some object or some force through having the light shine upon it and leaving a space where the light does not show. The light does not show, but all around it and beyond it the light is, but in that shadow you have exactly the image of that which is standing between you and the source of the light. Well, now, that’s all right with me if the Christ or the Father’s shadow – I can stand in the shadow of the Father, I think that’s getting pretty close, because if I can see His image I’m going to be in pretty good shape. I’m not going to be worried at all. For this is the way, in long years gone past, we took people with us, our squires and our people, into battle. They always stood your back so that you could, they could work and operate and fight in your shadow, because you were a trained one for battle. It’s always nice to have somebody at your back anyway.
“For thou livest with the shadow of my being.” In other words, it’s getting pretty close now. “And I do glorify my Father,” and he’s talking about himself, the Master Jesus Christ. “As I did in the days of old.” In other words, we are coming into the days of miracles, to the days of the wonders of his emissary, our Lord Jesus.
“For wouldst thou have me belittle my Master and great Lord from whom I took my power?” In other words, the Master is saying to us, “I, too, have a Master; it is my Father in heaven. And wouldst you have me not glorify Him so I get in the way of my plans to bring Him greater glory, greater joy, and greater experience through these people here on earth? For I came to earth bringing His glory and His power with me, and if you’ll just help me so that I can fulfill this, what I started on Calvary, this will bring the victory which we are seeking.”
“Wouldst thou now defeat my work and my gift I gave to you on Calvary?”
He’s saying: “Are you going to take advantage of the atonement? Are you going to take advantage of the confessional? Are you going to take advantage of the power and the Word which I gave to you, and the gifts? For these are the things which I brought with me from my Father in heaven. Wouldst thou now defeat my work when I have gotten it this far? And my gifts I gave you on Calvary? I gave them to you, now all you’ve got to do is use them. You don’t have to create them, you don’t have to bring them into existence; they’re there. You’ve got them. I’ve given them to you. They’re there for you to use. They’re there for you to give thanks to the Father in heaven for that which He permitted me to bring to you as a gift.”
For as a little very interesting little thing here: when Jesus was born, the Wise Men, the three great kings, brought to him gifts. And when he came to earth, he brought gifts of the great King. Very interesting parallel, for he gave to us all the gifts that his Father had given him, and some more, some more. For he said, “ Of all these things which I do, so shall ye do also, and even greater than these.” So he did bring to us not only the gifts that he was endowed with, but others from his Father. And these gifts are up to us to use so that he can fulfill this mission which he has taken upon himself.
“Gifts which I gave to you on Calvary.” See, he had to let go of all of these things. He gave them in the upper room just before he left for Calvary, but he had to let go of all these things himself because he was going to, he was returning to another level of operation where these gifts were not really essential. So he left them for us to use. He told us about them. He showed us all through the Testament how they operated and how they could be used, and now he is telling us and giving to us the opportunity of total victory over ourselves. And this is the thing which many – this very simple thing that many fail to recognize. It’s the total victory over ourselves because when we are victorious over that we are victorious over all.
“For it shall be set in the records of this holy order …” What, the Holy Order of Mans? No, this holy order, “the Way of glory!” This is the Way. “I am the Way.” The Way of glory, glory unto the Creator, that each one as they enter that Way, as they take up that Way, they are victorious over themselves. They are the possessors of the light. They are the possessors of the Christ. They are the possessors of the tools. They have been taught to use them. They have been taught how to use them for him, to bring this glory to earth. They have been taught how to use the tools, if they have listened, to straighten out the troubles of earth and to teach his little ones, his elite and those outside, the Way of Life, the Path of glory.
“For it shall be set in the records of this holy order the Way of glory.” This is the path of victory, not of defeat. This is the path of light, not of sorrow. This is the path of joy, not of sadness.
Go ye forth and let nothing stand in your way.
From Father Paul: excerpt from Book of Activity class on women
I have seen some very beautiful people, – they were not beautiful because they were not living. They were following a prototype, they were following a form that they had set up and accepted, and were living according to that form. They carried their face according to that form. They did their hair; they spoke in a certain manner; everything was according to an exact form. These are not living people; they’re just prototypes. The person who lives has to live from within the mind and the heart, and you know those people, and that is the people that we’re interested in, because the others are of no use to the world in itself.
Now this is just like a man who is called, you know, and he knows he should be a priest or a minister or a brother, or be in religious work, and he knows that he has the ability. But no; he is going to do it another way. Well now, turning down the abilities which you have brought into the world to do a job with is just as much a sin as going out and conking your brother on the head. There’s no difference, because the errors of omission and the errors of commission are just the same in the eyes of the Master.
A heart that cannot express cannot live. A body that cannot move with living vitality cannot speak the Word of God, not really. So the false one, the prototype, is just like the living dead, because they are filling a form which is false, and a false thing according to the Creation is an evil, because it is either natural or it is unnatural. And a thing that’s unnatural is evil; it has to be because God didn’t make it that way. And I’ve never seen too many things that man did that were too perfect anyway, when you come down to it, because we look at this world that we’ve created out here, and that wasn’t such a good job so far; but we will get to it.
“It is right and holy that woman and man should be attracted, both in companionship and marriage.” No exceptions, not pulling any – putting up any fences or barbed wire. It is a holy thing, and he that puts any other connotation to it is evil, and that’s all there is to it. Because you either speak the word of Jesus Christ or you deny it. You can’t go half way. You cannot accept this without accepting him, the whole of it. And if you refuse any part of it, you are refusing him and the creation, and there is no question about it, because you can’t follow a man that you don’t accept his principles. That’s very simple, very simple…
You can’t give people something without them doing something for it. … Right down here in San Francisco, I’ve spoken of this before. About twenty years ago, when I first came here, along about that time, a man stood out on the corner of Powell St. and Market – this is a fellow who was not a millionaire by any means, but he was very comfortable and a hundred or two dollars wasn’t going to cut any ice. He went into the Bank of America and said, “I want a hundred dollars in brand new five-dollar bills.” Then he went out on the corner and tried to give them away. He did this. In fact, the police investigated him. That’s right – investigated him. This was an actual happening. You can find this in records, in the paper. And he had a terrific job trying to give these away. Out of the twenty five-dollar bills I think it’s something like six or seven that he managed to give out to the people. And he just said, “Will you have five dollars?” and they said, “What do you mean, money?” and, “Yes. Here’s five dollars. This is a present; and it’s good. There’s nothing wrong with it. There’s no strings attached. You don’t have to do anything. Just accept it from me.”
“Ah, oh no. No, sir. You’re not going to get me on that old game.”
Well, you know something? That same thing has happened for two thousand years. Jesus Christ came and offered something, but he didn’t have an organization to put it across so he could compel you to do something for it. And that’s one of the reasons that Holy Order of Mans is being successful, because they have a way for which you can pay your debt. And believe me, it’s a big one. Believe me, it is. And it’s the truth. One of the – probably one of the biggest organizations in the world is the Masonic order. And their motto, one of their outstanding mottoes is: “Help man to help himself.”
And it is the way. It’s got a basic principle behind it. Because no one likes to take things from you if they’re going to feel indebted to you, without a way of handling it. … Well, you, women are indebted to God, because for two thousand years you’ve been working for yourself, and you’ve got one big debt to pay. Because as quick as you change your perspective and start to pay off that debt and put God first, and the world – to try to put it back together again that you’ve torn apart, you watch the stock of womankind go up. But you’ve got to forget yourself first; and that’s the truth. And you owe the Master that. And when you start to work on this, peace will come to this earth, because just the idea of the change in the mass of womankind will put it across.
“Again I repeat unto you, seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all these things shall be added unto you.”
He didn’t say that if you seek the kingdom of heaven you can then go out and work for it. He just said they’ll be added unto you. He didn’t say they’d be given to you, that you could take them and possess them. This is going to be a tough one…. They aren’t going to be yours. You can’t possess them but you can use them, and you can have the use of them, and you can enjoy them, and you can have all the powers and freedom that you want. But it’s not yours; God has let you use it. That’s the difference. This is the one thing that has held many back.
A way, a place and the light. A way, a place and the light. The way to go someplace very definitely, and it is well-lighted. Remember this in your prayers, and I want to see those faces start to change in any of you who have any ills. I want to see those corrected because the moment you start to change your thinking and start to give, that’s when it will happen. .God bless you.
Trust your wound to a Teacher’s surgery.
Flies collect on a wound
They cover it,
Those flies of your self-protecting feelings,
Your love for what you think is yours.
Let a Teacher wave away the flies
And put a plaster on the wound.
Don’t turn your head.
Keep looking at the bandaged place.
That’s where the Light enters you.
And don’t believe for a moment
That you’re healing yourself. -Rumi