Miracles are a gift that science cannot explain. As we once again approach the miracle described in the Gospels of the incarnation of Jesus the Christ, we witness the transformation of all flesh on the earth, through the wine of the spirit infusing each of us, giving us the choice to accept or reject this miracle.
Light festivals take place all over the earth because we grasp the importance of Light, and are infused with Hope and Promise by the spirit-spark incarnating in every willing heart and mind.
Theologians cannot grasp the miracles and want to be taken seriously so they state flatly that we can accept most of the words of Jesus but not the accounts of the miracles that he performed. The loaves and fishes spring to mind; the feeding of the 5,000 in the dessert with 5 loaves and two small fishes (Mark’s account).
What theologians and skeptics dismiss is the miraculous assumptions, growth, and perfection of the universe we live in. The scientist is getting many details of the how, but not the why of creation and its infinite iterations. From an egg or spore smaller than a dot on paper, an infinite variety of animals, plants, and fungi emerge. So much potential in so little “space”! Why is it impossible that the Master Jesus, knowing the principles of assumption and growth, couldn’t use the elements at his disposal to multiply the loaves and fishes to be sufficient for his followers? The key to the mystery is explained by Mary:
And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
These two Christ Beings have given us the key through their living and loving Faith
When our hearts have the living faith, have received Jesus Christ into them, then will the light of the world be born within us as in a humble stable.
Love and Light–Rev. Mary
Excerpts from Class on The Daily Prayer of the Brothers
1969
…Now I didn’t write this prayer; this prayer was given by revelation at the time when the Order started. And it goes as follows:
I strive, O Father–Creator of all,
To be a Nameless Wanderer,
To be perfect and all-sufficient.
So poised, so balanced,
That none but Self can comprehend.
“I’m trying, O Father, attempting to acquire, to attain–this level of consciousness, this level of action, this level of doing. Then we say “Creator of All.” We are taking Him and accepting Him as the God of this Solar System, you see. The Creator of all these things; not just those things of heaven, but also those things of earth. That’s why we make mention here of the Creator and the Father both, because He’s Creator of All.
To be a Nameless Wanderer…
Now what does this really consist of?…it means that you are striving to become anything that is needed… Because, you see, this striving does not have only to do with this life, but also the lives to come. So you’re seeking selfless service. You’re seeking to serve wherever service can be rendered, no matter what that classification of service is.
If I had been Sir ______in King Arthur’s court, it’s no sign that I’m a spotless wonder in this life, or if I’m even supposed to be. But I’m here to serve, just the same.
To be perfect and all sufficient…
Now you notice they bring together these two categories of action and stations in life. “To be perfect and all sufficient” the all sufficient and the perfect are tied together. Now, you might have been a priest at one time and had wondrous perfection perhaps before you passed on, which was absolutely necessary for that particular job. So in that case you would be all sufficient. But what if you had been the king’s jester? Would you have needed the perfection and the consciousness of that perfection to be the king’s jester? All sufficient for the job that we have to do in this life. All sufficient for what we need to attain. Then, of course, we have our own little bit, our own little line. If we have never reached realization, then we will be interested in this. We will be interested in seeking Illumination.
So poised, and so balanced, that none but Self can comprehend.
A person can have poise but they can very easily be thrown off balance sometimes. Or they can be well balanced but they don’t have the poise and the grace of being able to accept the Grace of God gracefully. ..Because it hurts his ego to think he’s getting something given to him through the law of epigenesis or the law of grace that he hasn’t just exactly earned all the way. Because this is something added to; this is the gift of the Father. And boy how they do fight it, to keep from accepting it and especially accepting it gracefully. Because this is true poise in a spiritual way, is being able to accept things, being able to do things, being able to grant things to people, no matter whether it’s money, service, your own personal service, or what it is, but doing it gracefully. This is being poised spiritually. Balanced spiritually is being so situated that you can’t anybody get under your skin. This is balance. Then it goes on to say that:
…none but Self can comprehend.
Well naturally. None but the Self can comprehend these things because only the Self and the soul has the record of the past life anyway. Self is the cell in the Mind of God, where all things are. So this is quite true. But it shows the status on which we strive in this Order to attain things. It shows the endeavor. I didn’t say we’re going to get it right now, or in the next six weeks…but you will have it. You will have it if you strive for it long enough.
All of this was unknown,..
It was unknown. This is the New Age
….and unknowable.
In the Piscean Age it was unknown and unknowable.
All of this was unknown, unknowable,
The greatness, the splendor, the magnificence of all,
with the Majesty of Thy Power
I more than mind of man can conceive.
Now this I is the Self, of course, the inner being
All of this was unknown, unknowable.
The greatness, the splendor, the magnificence of all, with the majesty of Thy Power,
I more than mind of man can conceive.
And it is pretty beautiful, too. Now this is the pattern, you see. Here we have the acknowledgment of God the pattern and then the final; this is the results, what has been created.
For in the beginning, O Father, all-knowing,..
Here we start back in Genesis, you see.
Thou didst speak the word And the Word was with Thee,
And the greatness and the splendor
Of Thy Power didst manifest,Not through mind, but Thy Self.
For then the Word took flesh, andThe great being of the Christos was born In all magnificence and Power.
Here is the birth of the Sun. The material birth of the Sun, The material reality of the Sun.
in the beginning, O Father, all-knowing,..
Well, He’s all knowing because it’s all within Him.
Thou didst speak the word And the Word was with Thee…
It says so in John I.
And the Word was Thee, And the greatness and the splendor
Of Thy Power didst manifest, Not through mind, but Thy Self.
S-E-L-F
For then the Word took flesh, and The great being of the Christos was born In all magnificence and Power.
For Jesus said…Through me shall ye see the face of the Father; and this was after he was Christed. In other words, through the Christ could you see the face of the Father.
And I was just reading a book yesterday where it admits and says that the entire sociological and religious structure of man, regardless of faith, all pointed toward the Christ. Now they didn’t want to say the Christos of course, they didn’t want to differentiate in this book between Jesus and the Great Christ. But in one place they say Christ and the other place they say Christ Jesus. And of course they weren’t going to say the difference. But there it was. The entire realm of civilization is pointed this way. It has to be, because this is the age of the Sun, the ruler of Uranus, the Aquarian Age. The day of man.
For this is the mystery that man has not understood.
Here we have it. This is the mystery that man has not understood because everybody has always been talking about Christ Jesus and whenever in the ancient writings the word Christ came in, or Christos, why, it was always taken to Jesus Christ. But this is not true. You have the Trinity…they’re all one within the Body of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father: the form and the Son that is, in light, life and love; and the Holy Spirit, that which manifests, causes it to manifest. Sure it’s all within the body of One; it has to be.
If you take a cell, a molecule, or an atom, you’ll find that all have a center. And right on down the line, everything runs the same way, it has to have a center. The Christ is there–the Christos. And I’m sure that you’re not going to find anything that’s contrary to the laws of creation and the laws of science in this creation, because it’s God’s creation. It is inevitable. It’s like the law of cause and effect You do something which is wrong and it’s going to have an effect and that’s all there is to it. You short change somebody and it’s going to have an effect; has to, unless you’ve risen above these things and then you won’t bother to short change them, because you’ll have all that you need.
The old Hermetic saying “as above, so below” was long before the Master was ever here. So there has to be a central Sun and this has to be the Christos, the Christ, the First born of God. Now, Jesus was acclaimed a Son of God. Surely, so are you if you gain your spiritual realization and divine sonship. When the Sun burns bright in you, you too will be a Son of God. That’s for sure. So this is nothing mysterious.
For Thy Word Thou spokest once again.
God in great humility
See, He’s saying that He stepped down quite a long ways down that line, in great humility Because He was taking a master teacher and bringing him up to the level of the messianic function, you see.
God in great humility.Sealed in the fleshly body of a little child.
Thus was the Master Jesus born.
He gave sealed within this the divine rights. That he should be ruler of earth, or Lord of earth, as it says in the Testament. So He reached down quite a bit. In other words, He didn’t give it to the Archangel Gabriel or someone else of this kind, the line of the higher realms. And that’s why we find that it’s in here. God in great humility…
My every prayer shall be, and is That in this Holy Family I be received
To be the servant of all. To receive the great call.
Glory, glory, glory,
One, two, three…
Lord God of all.
Amen.
It is said there is one Way but many paths that lead thereto, and we have seen different routes that souls have traveled to find spiritual illumination, each according to the nature or need of the individual.
Looking at the lovely and literal story of Jesus’ birth, one may glimpse a symbolical pattern suggesting different paths whereby the seeker might come to the newborn Light of spiritual illumination.
Those of the inn, which is overly filled with material concerns, have no room to spare and pass up the opportunity.
The shepherds, in their quiet simplicity, are receptive to angelic vision and trustfully obey instructions to find the Light.
Those more learned or highly-placed, through occult wisdom and study of the universe, travel a longer and more arduous route to the Light, but give freely of their goods.
Mary and Joseph have been previously initiated and are already there, as chosen channels to bring the blessed Light to humanity.
Let us not follow vulgar leaders / Who exploit the fear of death, / And promise the bliss of salvation. / If we are truly happy, / They will have nothing to offer.
Some leaders use threats to win adherents. They invoke death to force good behavior and to herd people toward paradise.
Others woo with grand promises. If you have no satisfaction, they offer bliss. If you feel inadequate, they offer success. If you are lonely, they offer acceptance.
But if we do not fear death and are happy, what will such leaders have to offer? Spirituality is an organic part of daily life, not something dispensed by a professional. True spirituality is liberation, not just from the delusions of reality but from the delusions of religion as well. If we attain freedom from the fear of death, a sound way of health, and a path of understanding through life, there is happiness and no need for false leaders.
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from _365 Tao: Daily Meditations_ by Deng Ming-Dao
Christmas sometimes seems like a celebration of gift-giving. The real Christmas gift was the one God gave us all when He reached down and placed part of Himself among mankind as a saving grace. The people at that time were asking for someone to save them from the Roman rule. God does not always give us exactly what we ask for, but He often gives us something better, although beyond our present vision or understanding.
An artist friend tells us that in order to show light on a canvas, one must first apply a dark color, then the light; otherwise the light would not show. Our Christmas lights are like an affirmation, a declaration of light where there is apparent darkness, of warmth where there is cold. It is like the affirmation of health when one feels sick. Jesus came as the Light of the world, to affirm salvation where none was apparent, and God’s love to those who seemed abandoned. A brave declaration of faith where there was no outer evidence. Out of the place of darkness a great Light was born. –RMRB
(Quoted from The Last Barrier, by Rashad Field)
Your body is the Virgin Mary. The Spirit is Christ, the Word that was conveyed through Gabriel, the eternal messenger. The breath is the Breath of the Mercy of God, and it is that breath that quickens the soul. Until the soul is quickened by the Spirit, it is like an unfledged bird.
If you can melt into Mary, the matrix, the blueprint of life, the Divine Mother, you will be formed and shaped in Christ and Christ in you, and thus through the breath of God’s Mercy you will come into being and know Him. For it is the breath of mercy that bestows being. Every moment God appears in living form, never manifesting Himself twice in the same moment.
Mary is the Divine Mother. Mary is in the blue of the flame, and Mary is the matrix of all divine possibility in form, here in our world. It is necessary that she be recognized. Learn to love God with all of your being, every part of yourself, your heart, your mind, your soul, and then we may all be granted the understanding of the meaning of the virgin birth. Learn to pray and your prayers will come back from the very matrix that forms the child.
Mary was chosen to bear Jesus because she kept her purity intact. Simple people call this her “virginity”, but those who know understand that to be pure means to be completely adaptable, to flow with each moment, to be like a running stream cascading from the waters of life itself. To be pure is to spread joy, and joy is the unfoldment of the knwledge of the perfection of God. The “work” that you have been searching for is the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is the Christ which comes to redeem the world. The eternal messenger is always within, waiting to unfold the moment through the Word, and one day when Mary is recognized again, there will be a reappearance of the Christ, manifested in the outer world. Remember who Mary is, and one day, when you are ready and when God so wills it, you will know what I have told you.
One day you will know why she carries the blue wool, and then you will see that the hottest part of the flame, the blue of the flame, is within the center of the fire.
Although I seem to be talking about an historical event, everything of which I speak is within you and is happening at this moment. There is no other; and what happened in our world two thousand years ago is part of the unfoldment of this moment, not that moment, but this very instant. It is neither a question of looking back two thousand years nor of trying to recapture the moment in your imagination. All you have to do is to be awake. Be awake in this moment within yourself, and it will be your own understanding. It may take time to unfold in our world, but the Truth and the unfoldment of the Truth is always there.
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We all enjoy the feeling of being snug and cozy on Christmas day, with our own family all about. But deep inside there is another feeling, that perhaps stems from the first Christmas and its “no room at the inn”, when our hearts reach out and somewhat yearn to be out there with the lonely and forgotten folk, or to somehow include them in our Christmas.
Estonia’s Singing Revolution
A long-standing tradition among Estonians, singing festivals served an important role in the country’s struggle for independence from the Soviet Union
When just a million people lived in this humble county lodged between Russia and Germany (and dealt with tyrants such as Stalin and Hitler), it was a challenge to simply survive as a nation. Estonia was free from 1920 to 1939. Then they had a 50-year German/Russian nightmare. While forced to be part of the Soviet Union, Estonian culture was besieged. Moscow wouldn’t allow locals to wave their flag or sing their patriotic songs. Russians were moved in and Estonians were shipped out in an attempt to “Russify” the country. But as cracks began to appear in the USSR, the Estonians mobilized by singing.
In 1988, 300,000 Estonians gathered at the Song Festival Grounds outside of Tallinn to sing patriotic songs. (Singing has long been a national form of expression in this country; the first Estonian Song Festival was held in 1869, and has been held every five years since then.)
On August 23, 1989—the 50th anniversary of a notorious pact between Hitler and Stalin—the people of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia held hands to make “the Baltic Chain,” a human chain that stretched 360 miles from Tallinn to Vilnius in Lithuania. A Tiananmen Square-type bloodbath was feared, but the country kept singing.
In February 1990, the first free parliamentary elections took place in all three Baltic states, and pro-independence candidates won majorities. In 1991, on the eve of an expected violent crackdown of the Singing Revolution, the makeshift Estonian Parliament declared independence. At that time Moscow was in disarray after hard-line Communists failed in their attempted coup of Mikhail Gorbachev. Suddenly, the USSR was gone, and Estonia was free. -Rick Steves
…Estonia knew it could not win a revolution over its Soviet occupiers by traditional means. It used the one tool it had to sustain the spirit of its people, to organize them and empower them through dark Soviet times — the choral expression of patriotic songs evoking memories of an independent homeland.
Today Estonia’s festival known as “Song of Estonia” continues to be held every five years on Tallinn’s Lauluvaljak Song Festival Grounds, the scene of the 1988 singing revolt. While the most well-known festival of song, it’s not the only one. It’s supplemented by a variety of choral singing events throughout the country including the annual Youth Song and Dance Celebration, the Estonian Night Song Festival and 700 local choirs.
Its Singing Revolution has been memorialized in a documentary. -Ann Randall in Global Comment
Leonard Cohen’s Anthem:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
That’s how the light gets in