Brian's Almost Daily Reflections

2012-01-27T09:18:00.001-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, January 27, 12

. . . .When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer –
say traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when
I cannot sleep - it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best, and most abundantly.
Whence and how they come, I know not, nor can I force them...

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, on the 256th anniversary of his birth (in 1756)

Here is what I wrote on the Mozart’s 250th birthday in 2006:

God wants us to know and value our uniqueness. To understand and to rejoice in our aloneness. Only then can we contribute fully to the human race. Only then are we free to be enriched and matured by others.

God wants us to be of good cheer. As Mozart experienced, such cheer comes from simple things.

As Jesus said, Good fruit cannot come from a bad tree. When we honour ourselves and the being of others, we flourish ourselves, as a mustard seed bush provides a home and shelter for all.

Having just moved with Dennis to NM and starting a new adventure (and up to my ears in giant boxes!) I thought I would see what I said six years ago. Though I might have gone off on another tangent, and perhaps expressed it differently, I still hold to what I thought then in 2006.

“Alone and of Good Cheer”. I wish you all a solid sense of Who you Are, and a bright optimism graced by Reality.

Brian+

2012-01-24T19:58:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Cauld blaws the wind frae east to west,
The drift is driving sairly;
Sae loud shrill`s I hear the blast,
I`m sure it`s winters fairly.

CHORUS:
Up in the morning`s no for me,
Up in the mornings early;
When a` the hills are cover`d wi` snaw,
I`m sure it`s winter fairly.

The birds sit chittering on the the thorn,
A` day they fare but sparely;
And lang`s the night frae e`en to morn,
I`m sure it`s winter fairly.

CHORUS:
Up in the morning`s no for me,
Up in the mornings early;
When a` the hills are cover`d wi` snaw,
I`m sure it`s winter fairly.

Robbie Burns, Scottish poet; he was
born on this date, 1759, in Alloway

What can I say!? I am a hopeless Scotophile. My paternal grandparents were Scottish, my grandfather born in Dundee, and my grandmother Elspeth Orrock (whence comes one of my names, and my email address) born in Forfar. But. My paternal great-grandparents were Irish, from County Sligo. It so annoyed one of my great-uncles - known as Edward MacHugh the Gospel Singer - that he changed his name from McHugh to MacHugh lest anyone think he was Irish! My family, when I was a kid, visiting my uncles and aunts, were very Scottish ….. but I never had haggis, or for that matter anything I think of as being Scottish ….. except fabulous shortbread from my Auntie Ann. I made her recipe this Christmas ….. it was superbly delicious! ….. she always made it with brown sugar instead of casting sugar. If she was making shortbread when I went to her house for tea, she would let me score the cakes with a fork.

I’ve been to Alloway, and sat in the garden and pondered Burns, and read his poetry there ….. oftentimes with the guidance of my oldest and dearest friend Martin, whose mother was also from Forfar, and who is a scholar and speaker of Scots.

Burns is simple but therefore elegant, and he speaks with a power that comes from clarity. In this simple poem, he touches me in my heart, with a feeling I can identify with, being born in Canada but with an eternal hatred of cold. “Up in the morning’s no for me” ! I see this as a spiritual principle, believe it or not! It says, “Learn to find your natural place in the flow of Life”. Don’t try to “force” Life; sense it’s movement and be energized by finding your natural place in it. There lies Joy.

Brian+

2012-01-23T20:05:00.001-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, January 24, 2012

It may be that the deep necessity of art
is the examination of self-deception.

Robert Motherwell, artist; he was
born on this date, 1915, at Aberdeen WA.

I often have discussions with others or with myself about the “value” of “art” - and whether something is art or not. I really like the thought that Art has such a lofty essential use! Beauty is highly personal and subjective ….. you can “like” Monet or Rembrandt or Caravaggio … or not. But just think that every piece of Art you see is an invitation to see, to learn, how to detect self-deception. To me, that makes Art invaluable.

Consider Faith/Religion. I think that the faithful practice of Religion is a great Art. And I would say that one of the most valuable things Religion does for us - and is of “deep necessity” - is the exposure of self-deception. I remember a phrase from the Book of Common Prayer that says something like, “we deceive ourselves, and there is no health in us”. We human beings can be masters of self-deception! Authentic Faith challenges self-deception at every step. If we have the courage to submit ourselves to its gaze, we are given deep inner health.

Brian+

2012-01-22T18:44:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, January 23, 2012

Who is it that can make muddy water clear?
No one.
But left to stand, it will gradually clear of itself.

Lao-Tzu
Tao Te Ching

I think that this “parable/teaching” is about being an integral part of the Mystery of Life, and it is about Stillness.

We human beings can be an arrogant lot! I see this demonstrated in the way that (we) Christians have interpreted the Genesis story of Creation as meaning that “we are in charge and can do what we want”. If one thinks that, it indicates that we have opted out. We have anointed ourselves godlets, controlling things from “without”. I don’t agree with that understanding of our role as humans in the structure of Existence.

We may think of ourselves as “at the top” of the pile ….. but we are a part of the structure of Being. If we reject our part, refuse to contribute as a part of the Whole, everything goes askew.

In other words, our proper “work” is not to make the “muddy water clear”. It is to behave appropriately as an integral part of Life ….. and eventually Life will “clear of itself”.

One of our important actions as intelligent, caring, powerful beings within the Structure of Being, is Stillness. Pray. Think. Meditate. Act graciously, judiciously, compassionately, without arrogance.

Eventually, the water will “clear of itself”. If we try to dominate, the waters will stay roiled, muddy.

Brian+

2012-01-17T19:20:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, January 18, 2012

I think that making love is the best form of exercise.

Archibald Leach; he was born on this day, 1904,
at Bristol, England.

I agree! When I go for my daily 1/7 mile walk, I apparently work off about 150 calories or more ….. I walk at a pretty brisk rate. I read somewhere that a vigorous “bout” of love-making works off about 150 calories. I vote for the latter.

Mr. Leach was either Gay or Bisexual. So say most of his friends and biographers. He lived with the actor Randolph Scott for 12 years. Stories abound.

“Making Love” is absolutely the best form of exercise towards being a wholesome, healthy human being. For the Body, yes; it helps ….. and is FUN. But much more importantly, for the Spirit, for the Mind, for the Heart. The message of Jesus, of the Gospel, is that if we do not love, we “wither and decay” … on every level. Like everything that humans do, “making love” physically is a sacramental symbol: it points to the truth that loving oneself, “God”, and one’s “neighbour” enhances Life. Not loving shrivels us.

Dare I suggest that one should make physical love with one’s Beloved (which engages of course many other levels) often ….. and then extend it to a deep loving of all human beings, and then further extend it to affirming and honouring every human being whom one is privileged to encounter in Life?

Of COURSE I do!

Brian+

Archibald Leach?? Google him!

2012-01-16T02:41:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, January 16, 12

“Life is change. If you aren’t growing and evolving,
you’re standing still, and the rest of the world is surging
ahead. Most of these people are very immature, They
lead “still” lives, waiting.”
“Waiting for what?”
“Waiting for someone to save them. Expecting someone
to save them or at least protect them from the big, bad
world. The thing is no one else can save them because
the problem is theirs and so is the solution. Only they
can get out of it.”

The character Myrna in Louise Penny’s book,
“Still Life”.

I pondered these words at 1am ….. found unexpectedly in a “mystery” novel that my dear friend Amma Donna gave me (she knew it would engage me because it is set in Montreal where I was born, and in the Eastern Townships).

Now, I have pondered Mystery and Life for a long time now. One Mystery, in the religious tradition I have “followed” nearly all my Life, is that of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. I can’t think how many times I’ve written or preached about it.

And then, at 1am, age 65, a sudden clarity washes over me. And I “see” it. One can “see” the Death and Resurrection of Jesus as “He who came to save you and protect you from the big bad world”. I have to say that in my many decades of priesthood and ministry, I have seen little salvation for those who expected and sat around waiting for Jesus/God to get their lives organized. Or, one can see the Death and Resurrection as a Path for one’s heart, mind, and spirit. Once we make the Mystery a reality in our own Life, once we see that we must “die and rise” – change in ourselves what has brought us to stagnation – then we Live.

The process of Living is a constant for every moment of our days.

And the key is: Change, Change, Change. Change is finding the dynamic God within. No one else – not even God – can change us until we see that God and we are One. We are the problem, and the solution.

Brian+

2012-01-14T20:09:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Sunday, January 15, 2012

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.
And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom.
A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense
than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

A riot is the language of the unheard.

An individual has not started living
until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns
to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Martin Luther King, Jr.; he was born on this date, 1929;
he was assassinated in Memphis, age 39

In 1967, age 21, I came to live in the United States to join a religious order. Very quickly I came to see just how pervasive racism was, over 100 years since emancipation; just how profoundly America had been shaped by slavery. And still is. That was 45 years ago and, while some things have greatly changed and improved, I am still shaken by the daily evidence today of how powerfully racism manifests itself. Rarely does a day go by that racist acts are not reported, whether it be a black man dragged to death behind a pick-up, or Republicans (the spiritual/political descendents of the original American colonies in the Deep South and Tidewater) trying to pass laws on voter ID that will clearly negatively affect the African-American community (among others), or the deliberate targeting of African-Americans for sub-prime mortgages, or other more “subtle” insults and discriminations.

Whatever propagandists try to do to distract us, the bottom line is that Dr King died in service of and love for freedom, for the whole of American society, and as a witness to the God of Justice and Compassion.

I am a member, in America and in the World today, of a minority discriminated against, scapegoated, deprived of the equal rights promised to all in the Constitution, and often the victim of violence - witnessed to just today by the falsely-called “Christian Evangelicals”, many of whom head anti-Gay hate groups, and who today endorsed Rick Santorum. With deep personal reverence, I honour Dr. King today and give Thanks for him and his non-violent witness for equality, dignity, and freedom for all.

Brian+

2012-01-12T18:18:00.001-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, January 13, 2012

It began in mystery and it will end in mystery,
but what a rare and beautiful country lies in between.

Diane Ackerman

The Mystery before and after is indeed intriguing. But I have to confess that they have not interested me very much. Thoughts about them are fascinating of course ….. because human beings and the human imagination are fascinating. All the way through reading Joseph Campbell’s tomes on mythology I kept thinking, “How amazing human beings are that they can think up these things!”

“A rare and beautiful country”. I’ve logged those words as the title of a poem I will eventually write. I have never been much interested in “where I came from” or “where I am going”. The Past, and Heaven, hold little attraction. I seem to have sensed somewhere along the way that this “Rare and Beautiful Country” is the test for everything else. I sense that if we don’t take this part of the Journey with utter seriousness, both the Past and the Future are meaningless. To put it another way, if we don’t learn Love here, the Past will have been useless and the future empty.

Each morning, at this time of the year on the beautiful Central Coast of California where we have been privileged to live for 4 years, I awake in the dark and look west towards the Pacific. I see Canis Minor still above the horizon, sitting on top of the Winter Triangle, and the constellation of Cancer above it, and the Sickle above it. Every single morning I am struck dumb with the glory and beauty and wonder and Mystery of the Universe ….. and of my own Life. And yours.

We live in a Rare and Beautiful Country, physically and spiritually. As much as we disfigure it, its beauty and rarity at the heart are not destroyed. It will survive and endure until the human race honours it again ….. and then it will flower with the kind of beauty that only something deprived of nourishment for a long period and then showered can do.

Actually, the flowering exists in my own being ….. for which I am deeply grateful. Each day I am aware of how I have been blessed by Love and Friendship and Adventure. And if I have a “daily prayer”, it is that this flowering be in every human soul.

Just think what a “Rare and Beautiful Country” the World would then be!

Brian+

2012-01-10T20:30:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The Soul of man is made an article of merchandize
by his fellow man and can such a land be happy?
No! Happiness does not dwell in any land that is
scarred by the blighting curse of Slavery.

Ezra Cornell, educator and founder of Cornell
University; he was born on this date, 1807.

It had not occurred to me until I was pondering the words of Ezra Cornell ….. but we are, in America, in a new age of Slavery. In my opinion, so is most of the World. If I may wax slightly dramatic, it has been a tussle for many decades between the God of Love and Mammon (sometimes known as Filthy Lucre) ….. and Mammon is now winning. The interesting thing is: Mammon has had great skills of wiliness and, as is so often true of attractive deities, has been very subtly able to enlist the partnership of countless human accomplices - many of whom are not really aware of just how profoundly they have been co-opted and duped. Among them, politicians, entrepreneurs, advertisers, religions, and hoards of people who have been seduced into thinking that if they abet Mammon, they too will some day join the ranks of the privileged. They never realize that in the end, they are always pawns in the hands of the rich and greedy.

I suddenly “saw” how most of us have colluded in allowing ourselves to be Slaves, “articles of merchandize”. But as Dr. Cornell wisely said, “Happiness does not dwell in any land that is scarred by the blighting curse of Slavery”. I see America as a very unhappy land ….. where only the 1% see Life getting “better”. In the supposedly richest and greatest country on Earth, tens of millions of children and adults live in poverty, have no health care, are hungry, are poorly educated, and one of our few growing industries is the building of more and more prisons. Meanwhile those who govern are so well off and insulated that their souls have been stripped of all human sympathy ….. and they are so self-deluded that they believe their policies to be “for the good” of the country. Including the majority of our Supreme Court who, by declaring corporations “persons” have set a course for the destruction of “government by the people and for the people”.

This is the character of public life in America today ….. and it is just, in my mind, like the times of the prophet Amos and, later, of Jesus, and in 1789 in France at the time of the French Revolution, and in Russia in 1917 - and in Tunisia and Libya and Syria. Occupying Movements are growing, and eventually rage will set societies alight.

Slavery to Money and all it symbolizes is a blighting curse for America and so many other peoples. Our crisis is a “spiritual” crisis, a struggle for the human soul, a clash between Love and Power. Do not think that if the Powerful win this round, America will grow greater. No, it will slowly be eaten alive from within until it dies in a fetid pool of decay.

If we want happiness in our land, we must reject Slavery. And only Love frees.

Brian+

2012-01-09T19:30:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, Jan 10, 2012

Every being is an abode of God,
worthy of respect and reverence.

Hindu Scripture

It is interesting, is it not? Almost all religions say that “God is Within”. The Gospel says, “You are the temple of the Holy Spirit”. Hindus (and I think Buddhists) greet each other with “Namaste” – the God in me greets the God in you. Christians, at the Eucharist, greet one another with the words of the Peace: “God’s peace be in You”.

I think that we live in a time of a loss of honour for the human person. Put in the Christian context, each of us is a “Christ”, a daughter or son of God ….. but we have lost the ability to recognize this. In America, this can in part be ascribed to the present inability to teach spiritual values ….. a policy with which I presently adamantly agree, since Christians with political influence insist on playing the “We are right and you are wrong” card. This creates hostility, and a spiritual arrogance at which I believe God weeps.

No one religion is “right”. We are all struggling to understand the mystery of Life. We are all wrestling with the issues of conflict and of personal insecurity and of fear and of alienation. This is an eternal struggle. I am now praying for the appearing of a great spiritual leader, who will transcend all the pettiness and stun the hearts and minds of all the peoples of the Earth and turn us to Love and Mutual Respect, and to an attitude of Reverence for all things.

Oh: we have had many. But they are co-opted for sectarian purposes. I think it is time for Another. And I would prefer a She!

Brian+

2012-01-08T19:52:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, January 9, 2012

Praying is like a rocking chair –
it'll give you something to do,
but it won't get you anywhere.

Gypsy Rose Lee, American Striptease
artist; she was born on this date, 1914,
in Seattle

First, Miss Lee is absolutely right! (Read on: there is a “Second”.) She gives me the opportunity to mount one of my favourite hobby horses and expound ….. yet again! Bottom line: There is no “God” sitting somewhere “out there” who listens to all our prayers and makes decisions about “granting” them based on some inscrutable moral or spiritual code. As a matter of fact, there is no “God” without You or Me. Without You or Me, “God” is just a fiction ….. because the second bottom line is that Deity is not possible, except in an ephemeral, fantastical way, without Us. “God” and “We” are One ….. and we can’t Be without Each Other.

If there is to be “answer to prayer”, it’s only going to happen in the love affair between Us and God. God is not a Celestial Autocrat, tweaking Existence to Her delight or whim. The enterprise of Prayer is a child born of a passionate marriage between the Great Mystery called Humanity and the Great Mystery called “Divinity”. Miss Lee, consummate striptease artist, is a grand theologian …. clergy take note!

Second: Miss Lee is absolutely wrong! Prayer, rightly understood, will get you EVERYWHERE! Prayer is essentially the striving to become One with the great Mystery of Life. And learning to Pray is a lifetime Art! I know what it is to pray. I’ve been at it, in my own strange way, for more than 45 years, layperson, monk, and priest. Boy, did I have to unlearn a LOT! Prayer is not Magic. Nor is it the politics of out-maneuvering God. Nor is it the abdication of the glory of being human ….. for, any God who would demand such an abdication is not worthy of worship. Prayer is the art of “coming round right”. And it can be a long process ….. because Prayer demands the rejection of every single delusion and illusion about Self. Suffice it to say, we human beings do not make this Journey easily or for the most part gracefully. Prayer has no “answer” until we stand naked and real, before “God” and before ourselves. Only at that moment is there an “answer to prayer” ….. because the God of Love would NEVER collude in falseness.

To my mind, Prayer is the art of arriving at the moment when there is no differentiation between Us and God. It is hard work! Well, perhaps not “hard”, so much as requiring the surrender of Self to the unimaginable Compassion of Existence. When that happens, it is like being swept into a spiritual Black Hole ….. out of which we emerge into Joy.

The first step is: make no step in Life without Silence.

Brian+

2012-01-07T19:22:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Sunday, January 8, 2012

[ Epiphany I – Feast of the Baptism of Christ ]

Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

Matthew 3:13-17; for the 1st Sunday of Epiphany,
Revised Common Lectionary, Year B

[ The full texts can be found at: http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Epiphany/AEpi1_RCL.html ]

I always wonder ….. with little hope of “fully knowing”! ….. why the shapers of the Gospel (in this case “Matthew”) have John baptizing Jesus, and Jesus requesting it. John baptizes as a preparation for something else to come ….. the baptism of the Spirit. Perhaps this is the reason?: It is not possible to become a Daughter or a Son of God if we have not done the preparation, have not “prepared a place for God to come and dwell”? Personally, I think so. The message seems to be that we can’t become fully human, i.e., infused with “God” ….. which means become fully human ….. unless we have “let every heart prepare Him room”. I “get” this. Because I know how often my heart and mind and spirit and body are not ready to BE a fully human person, as defined by the standard of Jesus. Not that this means that we have to have reached some level of “perfection”; but we do have to be open to growth.

If we are Ready (which is what I think is meant by the image of Jesus coming to John at the Jordan) , the Dove can descend. In the story, Jesus is Ready. He comes to John, the prophet of His Coming, humbly. So, here Jesus is the figure of each one of us who is longing to be made fully human, a person who has looked inside and “cleansed the heart” of things that reject this transformation. As a priest, officiating at baptisms, I have often asked myself, “What are we doing here?”. The imagery is stark; it is put in terms of Death and Life: We “die with Christ, in order that we might live with Him”. In other words, we are ready to enter into something New.

Christian Life IS something New! Oh, it doesn’t mean that we will suddenly become a completely loving, compassionate, just, merciful person! But it does mean that we have heard the call to that Path ….. and that we sense a longing and desire to go that Way. Baptism is not a” perfecting”; it is a commitment of the will towards a destiny ….. and there will be many successes and failures, for that is the human way. And we will depend on many things to keep us on the Path: the Community, the Worship, the Sacraments, the Practice of Love.

At Baptism (and this is a ritual practiced in many religions), the “old way” of selfishness is “drowned”. We rise from the waters hearing a Voice which says, “You are my Daughter, my Son; I am so pleased with you!” In other words, there is great joy for Life when we make the choice to strive to be like “God”: full of Love, Generosity, Sympathy, Compassion, Caring, Unity. I chose to be a Follower of Jesus because He is a living spirit of such a Calling.

It does not matter what inner path you follow in Life. Whether we know it or not, we all are on a Path. What matters is that we hear that Love is the way, and are embraced by something that guides us. That is why Friends are so important ….. and why Jesus insisted that His disciples were, foremost, to be called His friends.

Know this day that YOU are God’s Friends, God’s Daughters and Sons.

Brian+

2012-01-05T20:15:00.001-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, January 6, 2012

[ Feast of the Epiphany in the Christian Kalendar ]

A thorough knowledge of the Bible
is worth more than a college education.

President Teddy Roosevelt; he died on this date,
1919, at Oyster Bay NY, age 60

I mourn for the Bible every day. It died a long time ago, in my humble opinion ….. though there are still some who keep it’s memory alive and vibrant.

Actually, the Bible was murdered ….. by Literalism. Most of the early great Mothers and Fathers of the Church did not take the Bible literally, or at least did not understand the literal (so-called “factual”) level as being the heart and power of the Bible. Augustine, Origen, so many others, delved deeply into the metaphorical and symbolic and mythical meaning, and found there a connection to the great eternal Life-giving stories of humankind. But ….. as if so often the case ….. the lust for power intervened, and the 3rd and 4th C western Church ignored Jesus’ clear statement that His Kingdom was not of this World, and made the Church a worldly political power that still exists today in some quarters (and not just Christian), once described as “the ghost of the Roman Empire on a deathly throne”.

Think of the people in politics in America (and other places) today who profess Christianity. I can only describe their simpering drivel as appallingly shallow ….. as well as mean. If only Teddy’s spirit could arise today like a modern-day Marley and drag them off to garner a deeper understanding of the richness of the Bible by living in a community which strives to live the Gospel of Peace, of Justice, of Compassion, of Self-denial! Perhaps he would have had them Louie Crew’s course at Rutgers on “The Bible as Literature”!

Archeologists and historians have pretty much debunked all the literalist clap-trap of the Hebrew Bible - the factual existence of Abraham, Moses, etc, and the claims of the Jews having been given the Promised Land by “God”. And the same for Jesus and the trumped-up stories of who He was historically. And now we are finally getting back, slowly and only in some places, to the heart of it all: the great understanding that each and every human being in infused with the amazing, “divine” power of that greatest of all Mysteries: LIFE. “Ye are gods, sons (and daughters) of the Most High, all of you”, says the Psalm.

About time we started acting like it, don’t you think? We are all in this together ….. and we sink or swim together. Right at the moment we are on a sinking cycle ….. but I have great faith that God/Love will begin to ignite again in the human heart, in every “tribe and language and people and nation”.

I’m going to try my best to be a living witness of Holy Love. As my bumper sticker says, “God blesses everyone - No Exceptions” !

On this feast of the Epiphany, the Magi remind us that the star comes to rest in every human heart.

Brian+

2012-01-05T10:14:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, January 5, 12

Bronnie Ware on November 30, 2011
She worked in palliative care for many years.

When [patients] were questioned about any regrets they had
or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.
It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.

This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.
By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.
We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying. It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again. When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.

Bronnie says: Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.

To which I say: Amen!

Brian+

2012-01-03T20:11:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, January 4, 2012

I also believe that government has no business telling us how we should live our lives.
I think our lifestyle choices should be left up to us.
What we do in our private lives is none of the government's business.
That position rules out the Republican Party for me.

Jesse Ventura, former professional wrestler,
he was sworn in as the Governor of Minnesota
on this date, 1999

The Governor of Minnesota said to the people of Minnesota on his election: “Congratulations, you have a sense of humor. And to those who didn't: Go stick your head in the mud. “ And if you look up his comments, he said some pretty crazy and funny things. It would be interesting to be able to look into the corporate minds of the people of Minnesota as they elected Jesse!

I find politics and politicians (and America!) fascinating. And I used to write a “political” blog ….. and might start again, though I already spend a LOT of time on the Internet! But, on this blog my primary concern is “spiritual” ….. our “inner life” and the things that influence it.

On the one hand, I am inclined to agree with Jesse: government has no business telling us how we should live our private lives. But it’s a complicated issue. Like it or not, a people’s “spiritual lives” are intertwined with our common life. Nothing is unconnected with everything else ….. something I have always believed. At the present, the problem in America is that Government is not protecting the rights of all the citizens. It is viciously partisan ….. and “in favor” of a small group of narrow-minded, Biblical literalist (or other-religion-influenced), Puritan-and-patriarchal-influenced, hypocritical (yes, hypocritical) Americans. They profess “righteousness”, but are cravenly against all of the principles of the Gospel as I see it.

As a Christian, I want a government which protects the rights and responsibilities of ALL Americans to whom the Constitution promises “equal rights” under the Law. Government must not kow-tow to any specific form of religion or religious prejudice ….. which is tantamount to “establishing” a religion. Our founders knew better.

Let me say this clearly: I do not see a shred of the Gospel in the political so-called “religious right”. They are invested in power, self-righteous, ungenerous, unloving, uncompassionate, judgmental, bigoted, exclusive. None of which has anything to do with Jesus and the Gospel. And the majority of Christians do not agree with them.

The “religious right” and the politicians who suck up to them for venal political reasons are not interested in a caring, loving, “love thy neighbour” America. They are interested in power for power’s sake ….. usually to the demeaning of their and our humanity. The worst thing is: they have convinced themselves that God agrees with them. They are wrong.

As Walt Whitman said: “Re-examine all you have been told. Reject what insults your soul.”

Brian+

2012-01-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2012

'God's plan' is often a front for men's plans

and a cover for inadequacy, ignorance, and evil.

Mary Daly; feminist scholar and theologian;

she died on this date, 2010, age 81

Mary Daly taught at the Jesuit Boston College from 1967-99. She was denied tenure, probably because of her book “The Church and the Second Sex”. Male students signed a petition in support of her ….. women were not admitted to the liberal arts division at Boston College until 1970. She was reinstated, with tenure.

I could wax eloquent (I hope!) on her words. But suffice it to say, I agree with her. It is my hope that 2012 will be a year in which the understanding that the absolute equality of women will spread like wildfire across the Earth. I am utterly convinced that until this happens, Humanity and Religion will remain a backwater of ignorance and of the diminishment of the World’s potential.

Patriarchy is a mill stone imposed on themselves by men. If they only understood how much their lives would be blessed by renouncing it. I do ….. and I feel immensely liberated.

Brian+

2011-12-29T20:21:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, December 30, 2011

The degree of freedom from unwanted thoughts

and the degree of concentration on a single thought

are the measures to gauge spiritual progress.

Ramana Maharshi

I love the way Easterners think. But. Like a lot of all “spiritual” thinking (and, of course, Scriptural thinking) it tends to exaggerate in order to make its point. Which is a problem. Because it tends to modern ears to sound ….. well, exaggerated and nonsensical. Anyway, once you understand this, you can then begin to explore the depths of meaning.

So: I would say. All this elegant principle says is, Try To Concentrate. Don’t think that you will ever arrive at a state when you will be able to do this consistently. And let me tell you, I can relate. I am constantly doing a hundred things at the same time ….. or trying. When I’m sitting at my computer, I am jumping back and forth with a lot of things I’m responding to. When I’m writing a sermon, I have learned that my mind is going to be on a million things ….. and that my sermon is NOT going to be written until that stops. So, I’ve learned to “go with the flow” and not “worry” ….. and then the moment to write arrives and the sermon gets written. It is fail-proof. I just have to be present and available to the moment.

There will always be “unwanted thoughts”. It’s impossible not to have them. But I agree that one indication of “spiritual progress” is being able to hold onto one thought for a bit ….. and then to pull that into one’s vision for who you want to be.

We all have the power to exclude “unwanted thoughts” for a bit ….. and in that moment of freedom, to take a leap forward and advance on the road to Being You.

Brian+

2011-12-22T10:17:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, December 22, 2011

Each minute of life should be a divine quest.

Paramahansa Yogananda

These kinds of statements often make it sound as if we human beings are something other than human. Mystics write that we are to “become divine”.

I would say: There is only one goal for a human being: to become a Human Being. There’s the rub. What is a fully evolved Human Being? We could ponder that today, on this Solstice when we ponder the Light growing.

The mystics of many religions and “paths” speak about becoming Divinized, becoming “God”. What do they mean? One thing they certainly don’t mean is that we will become the power of Life in the Universe. That power is Eternal ….. and we human beings are mortal and transitory, at least in this earthly form. But they do mean that there is a resemblance, an intimate connection between “God” and us. In essence, we humans have invented God. And one of the things we have done is to invest God with all the characteristics that we have come to think would constitute the kind of Beings we would like to be at our “best”: Loving, Kind, Gentle, Wise, Just, Vulnerable, Caring.

One premise of much religious thought is that we cannot be fully human unless we are infused by “God”. (be “born again”) The Torah and the Gospel propose this. Putting aside all the tortuous theological gymnastics, fundamentally I agree. But the question still remains: What does it mean to be a “fully actualized” (well, on that path, at least!) person?

One thing I think it means is that we become more and more ….. simple. Which is not to say that we won’t always be “complex” - that’s part of being an evolved life-form. Simplicity is what I think the Beatitude means by “pure of heart”. To desire one thing. The Gospel proposes that it be LOVE. That’s good and simple … at least as an organizing concept. I like to think of Love as The Great Benign Black Hole: regularly you just let yourself get caught in its gravity, get sucked in, get molecularly reassembled, and pop out the other side ready to give it another go!

So: off you go! Good luck, and enjoy the ride!

Brian+

2011-12-20T20:48:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Education is a weapon whose effects depend

on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.

Guess Who?

Jesus had something to say about this. He called the Pharisees, who were supposed to be the upstanding and most “devout” Jews of the day, the teachers/educators, “whited sepulchers”, i.e., painted on the outside to look good, but rotten and putrid on the inside. Jesus clearly did not think that the rabbis of His day were educating the people in the ways of the Torah, especially by their actions.

Jesus also spoke about the “good shepherd”. “Bad” shepherds, i.e., bad leaders, misled people as to what it meant to be a follower of God. “Good” shepherds protected, gave their lives for the sheep; the sheep knew the shepherds voice - compassion, justice, unconditional love, a passion for the truth - and trusted him.

We are sorely beset by bad shepherds and bad teachers in America and in the World these days, in spades. Many are pretending to be followers of the Judeo/Christian God or the Buddha or the Prophet ….. but their actions belie them. We need to be clear about this and call them on it. I could list several “Christian” leaders and churches that are betraying, in my view, the “sheep” ….. but I think you can do that for yourself. The worst is, these people are leaders and “educators” ….. and as the quote intimates, it is held in hands that deny the essential character of the God of Love, and is aimed at people who were brought up to respect religious teaching but who have been misled by it.

Make no mistake: these religious leaders - and politicians who hypocritically mouth their warped teachings - are destroying trust in each other and breaking down human compassion and connectedness. The man I’ve quoted was a master at it.

This man once said: “Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs.” That’s a sign of the utter cynicism of so many politicians and religious leaders today.

The quote is from Joseph Stalin, who was born Josef Dzhugashvili in Gori, Georgia, on this date, 1879. “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.”

Stalin also once said, “Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union”. I think they would have been better off if that had been true! La!

Brian+

2011-12-19T20:11:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Do your best and then relax.

Let things go on in a natural way, rather than force them.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Now, let me think. I can do this now. My partner Dennis was unemployed for 1.5 years. He would apply for jobs, but nothing happened. But, we didn’t “panic”. [Remember those T-shirts a few years ago that said simply, “Don’t Panic!”? ] And we had a wonderful time being together and going birding and doing fun things. We relaxed into prayer, and “gave it all up” to the Universe ….. and lo and behold he got a great job that uses all his great skills as a chef and inn-owner and over 20 years of working in food service ….. and only 14 miles from our property in NM where we wanted to retire! To enter fully into the Great Metaphor, “God is Good”!

However, in my own personal case, I have to admit that “waiting upon God” is congenital with me. And I’ve had a help-meet all these years: the Goddess of Procrastination. I’m just built to procrastinate ….. and I’ve found over the decades that if I just wait, things resolve. This is VERY good for someone who loathes conflict and competition with a passion! [OK, OK, there have been some instances where I have had to “confront” …. but it was under severe duress!]

But: we are not a culture that teaches or honours the process called from the glorious 60’s (and I mean that!) “Going with the Flow”. We are taught to compete, and to engage, and to do whatever we can to make things work out the way we want ….. even if it means trampling others to mush in the process. And in all that, we co-opted Jesus as our guru ….. remember the book “Jesus is my CEO”?? Puh-leeze!

Anyway: maybe the young in general can’t manage the “Go with the Flow” paradigm? If you aren’t out there shaping the World so that you get want you want/deserve, you a branded a wimp. But I think this is clearly a defective spiritual principle. I don’t see the Buddha or Jesus as an example of the “Take the World by the Throat and Wrestle it into Submission” approach.

“Forcing” things, generally I think, leads inevitably to failure, as well as lots of conflict, stress, bad health, and possible heart attack and death ….. oh dear, is this why I’m writing about this?? The propensity for War is an example: it rarely leads to a solution to anything, and it gets a lot of people killed and horribly maimed.

Nope. I’m for “Going with the flow”. Getting in synch with the Universe, knowing we are an integral part of its “flow”, and waiting expectantly for the moment in time when our boat joins the flotilla.

Sounds very “new age”, I know. All I can say is, I’ve done it all my Life ….. and I can’t complain! At 65, we are off on a new stage of the delicious Adventure of “Going with the Flow”.

Brian+

2011-12-18T20:10:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, December 19, 2011

There's many men forget their proper station 
And still are meddling with the administration 
Of government; that's wrong and this is right, 
And such a law is out of reason quite; 
Thus, spending too much thoughts on state affairs, 
The business is neglected, which is theirs. 
So some fond traveler gazing at the stars, 
Slips in next ditch, and gets a dirty arse.

from Poor Richard’s Almanac; it was first published
on this date, by Benjamin Franklin, 1732

Ha! Do you think that some spirit was channeling Ben and came and whispered in my ear a few minutes ago??? Just to make the point that Ben Franklin still has something relevant to say to us today?

With all due deference to my “conservative” friends (I don’t really understand what “conservative” means, do you??), it seems to me that lots of men (and women) are forgetting “their proper station” (i.e., as compassionate and conservative persons, as they have claimed for themselves since G. Bush claimed to be a “compassionate conservative” years ago now) and are “meddling with the administration of government”! And let me tell you something: I was talking with Jesus just this morning and, as the incomparable bumper-sticker said years ago, “He is coming ….. and boy is He pissed”. Himself confirmed this with me in the Hour of Prayer this morning.

Lots of Americans these days, Americans who were brought up to “gaze at the stars” of the American Dream and hope for a good Life, are finding that they have slipped into a “ditch”, and found themselves with a “dirty arse” …. that is, a really miserable life. They are the 99% ….. and the 1% seem above it all …. many of them claiming that they are devout Christians. Jesus is ….. well …. shocked.

Jesus told me this over a Black Russian (it was, after all, after Noon! - and He goes to enormous lengths to make a guy feel comfortable) that He originally blessed the 1% so that they would be able to assist the 99% of His “sheep”, since after all He had made an enormous effort to rescue 1 (%) of the sheep that had wandered away from His Gospel Path. Jesus is astonishingly kind and caring, I have to say! He is not easily provoked to nastiness, alas as I would easily be! (beast beating, “mea culpa, mea culpa”)

So, I am delivering the message Himself asked me to deliver to the many men and women who have “forgot their proper station” for the “business which is theirs”:

Love your neighbours, and see that they have what they need for a decent Life.

Or: Karma being Karma (yes, there is a Christian version of this ancient truth!) you will soon have a “dirty arse”!

Humbly, Brian+

2011-12-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, December 16, 2011

Someday I suspect, when Jesus has definitely
got me for a sunbeam,
my works may be adequately assessed.

Noel Coward, songwriter, actor, singer,
piano player, entertainer;
he was born on this date, 1899

I could have chosen Margaret Mead, the famous anthropologist; she was born on this date, 1901. Or noted the fact that on this date 1773 occurred the Boston Tea Party. Or Gregory Rasputin (hmmmm …. name sounds a lot like …), the infamous Russian monk; he was murdered on this date in 1916. Or the superb head of the Southern Poverty Law Institute, Morris Dees, who is 75 today. But, nope. I couldn’t resist Noel, for many reasons, including that it’s near No-el, and because of the “sunbeam for Jesus”!

It took me back! Sunday School at about age 5 at First Presbyterian Church, Verdun, Quebec. Mrs. Clegg playing the piano – a lovely old-then Presbyterian lady – as we impressionable kiddies sang:

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam / To shine for Him each day
In every way try to please Him / At home, at school, at play
A sunbeam, a sunbeam, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam
A sunbeam, a sunbeam, I’ll be a sunbeam for Him.

Yes, I’ve remembered the words and music for 60 years (and I haven’t sung it since those days). If I were tech-savvy enough, I would have made a little YouTube video with my phone singing it for you and attached it!

I wonder if Mr. Coward learned that song as a little boy? Anyway, I think he is poking fun at the things kids get taught in Sunday School, and at perhaps the ideas that many churchfolk have that if they can just be a “sunbeam for Jesus” they will have (deserve?) a life which will be “adequately assessed” by others.

Maybe. But it’s often not the case.

Well, whatever else this little song may bring to your mind, I would just comment: Jesus, to me, points to the proposition that love of God, self, and others is the heart of being human. I remember the words of Fr. James Huntington, OHC, founder of the Order of the Holy Cross: “Love must act, as Light must shine, and Fire must burn.”

Act. Shine. Burn.

Brian+

2011-12-14T19:59:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, December 15, 2011

I've never really taken anything very seriously.

I enjoy life because I enjoy making other people enjoy it.

God

Kidding, just kidding! Tim Conway actually said those words. He was on Laugh-In, and the Carol Burnett Show. He was born on this date, 1933, and is 78 today. He said, “My career is pretty much over. I'm out in the Valley eating soft-boiled eggs.” I had to chuckle ….. because while I am 13 years younger than Tim and have good teeth, I absolutely LOVE soft-boiled eggs, lubricated with a little butter, salt and pepper, and eaten from a 19th C Wedgewood egg-cup! It doesn’t take a lot to make me happy!

What a vocation, to make other people find enjoyment in Life! I can’t think of anything better. As to God, well, we could speak a paradox: in my view, “God” has never taken anything “seriously”, and God always takes everything seriously. Especially bringing Enjoyment to people. At least, the “God” I have a relationship with does. I have absolutely no truck with a “God” who isn’t in the business of Enjoyment. One of these days I am going to have to write a book about this God ….. because I’m pretty tired of the nasty God that is portrayed by a lot of the most vocal of American so-called “Christianity”. God has no earthly lawyers to defend Her against all the slander and libel leveled against Her ….. so maybe I’d better get busy.

To enjoy Life because we make it possible for other people to enjoy it.

What could be better?

I’m ramping up my determination to peddle Enjoyment of Life, starting now! God’s little Christmas elf!

Brian+

2011-12-13T22:09:00.001-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, December 14, 2011

When, according to habit,

I was contemplating the stars in a clear sky,

I noticed a new and unusual star,

surpassing the other stars in brilliancy.

There had never before been any star in that place in the sky.

Tycho Brahe, scientist, astronomer; he

was born on this date, 1546, in Denmark

A star that “had never been” there before. Hmmmmm. A charming, delightful, and profound metaphor, pointing us to the story of the Magi and the Star ….. a part of our Christian Myth, of our “Truth Story”.

In the Story, the Star leads the Magi to the manger, to the infant born to be King of the Jews. For the Christian Church, this was God’s Son and, later, God Himself, come to take human form and to share human life.

This is the Story which tells us who we are. We are “dust of the Earth” into which the “Breath of God” has come to give Life. Each human being is divine spirit, given a home in mortal flesh. For three score years and ten or more – if we are fortunate – we shall blaze in time and space, each a unique epiphany of the Mystery we call God.

But. We must “listen” to Tycho Brahe if we would find the star that leads us to our Self. We must, “according to habit”, be “contemplating the stars in a clear sky”. In other words, it must be a part of our daily path to strive to live a “pure” Life ….. a life focused on the Mystery called God as the source of our Being. Only then are we likely to notice the new, unusual, brilliant “stars” that appear where they were not before …… when we weren’t aware or paying attention. Life is full of “brilliant stars” - of Holy Wisdom from many sources which, if followed, lead us to the Child Who is our own true Self and a spark of God.

The place where the Star comes to rest is You, is I. Each of us occupies a place no one else can occupy. All Humanity - represented by the Magi - comes seeking this “child”. Will we be, “according to habit”, in the right place and see the various new Stars which appear above the manger of our birth as a Daughter or Son of God?

We are offered countless opportunities to be a “new and unusual star” ….. to deepen our humanity, to be “as Christ”, to manifest the divine in the World. And new “stars” appear “in the sky” where they have never appeared before.

Advent says, “Stay Awake”! Go where the Star leads.

Brian+

2011-12-12T19:45:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Leonardo da Vinci

“Sophistication” has somewhat a whiff of snobbery, of classism, of elitism, yes? In modern usage, yes. But look at the root of the word. It is rooted in “Sophia”, meaning wisdom. It relates to the character of the Holy Spirit in the Judeo-Christian tradition. And to the character and name of the Greek goddess of Wisdom.

What about “simplicity”. The root meaning I like the best is “freedom from pretense or guile”.

So: the implication from da Vinci, one of the most rich and subtle thinkers of the 16th C Renaissance, is that Simplicity has to do with a wise choice of lifestyle which is free from pretense and guile. Simplicity of Life, then, means choosing a way to live which avoids either over-ornamentation which distracts from the basic beauty of human life (think Rococo) , or from trying to hide the basic enriching truths about Life from others behind subtle or not so subtle subterfuge. (Think of the ultra-rich “spiritual gurus” who hide multiple Rollses and Riviera villas from their followers.)

Jesus once said that it was hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom. I don’t believe he was condemning the rich per se. He was simply saying that riches tempt us to ornamentation, to pretension, to guile. Especially in the “inner Life”. The Judeo-Christian Scriptures are full of injunctions not to be puffed-up, not to think “more of ourselves than we ought”.

The “teaching” is that the more simple we are in our self-understanding, the more authentically we will reflect God, Who is Simple Love. In the end, Jesus was to try and make the same point by in a sense abrogating all the other commandments and teaching simply, “Love one another … as I have loved you”. There in one sentence is the most “sophisticated” way to live.

The Quakers got it right: “ ‘Tis a gift to be simple, ‘tis a gift to be free / ‘Tis a gift to come down where you ought to be / And when you’ve come around to the place just right / You’ll be in the valley of Love and Delight.

Love and Delight. The most simple, ultimately wise way to live.

Brian+

2011-12-11T20:25:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, December 12, 2011

God Invented baloney

so some people could be full of it.

Jay Red Eagle, Tsalagi (Cherokee);

the Tsalagi Chief Stand Watie

was born on this date, 1806

There was a wonderful New Yorker cartoon recently that I loved. A man is standing before St. Peter, who is looking at a computer screen on his desk. St. Peter is saying to the man, “Well, you say ‘meek’ ….. but our online personality record on you says ‘passive aggressive’.

I have a picture in my mind of God sitting on Her comfortable divan-like throne listening to all the confessions floating up to Her from all over the World ….. and She is muttering, ‘Baloney’!

Anyway, I ‘got the message’ from Jay Red Eagle’s words. It’s about knowing the truth, especially about oneself. Chief Stand Watie may not have said ‘Baloney’, but he spoke eloquently of the truth of the perfidy of the White Man as they broke treaty after treaty with his people.

I’m hoping that I’m maturing a bit ….. in that these days I am more aware when I am full of baloney. Lying to myself, rationalizing, justifying my self both to myself and trying to deflect others from seeing the truth. I have to admit that I have often been uncomfortable in my skin and in the company of others through my Life ….. and the reason comes down essentially to the baloney stuffing in my personality.

So, appropriately for Advent - but of course for every day - I shall concentrate today on baloney-detecting ….. urged on by knowing that dispensing of inner baloney is both exhilarating and de-stressing. When I get to St. Peter, I want to hear him say, “Honest? It’s a match!”

Cheers!

Brian+

2011-12-11T06:39:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Sunday, December 11, 2011

Among you stands one whom you do not know,
the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy
to untie the thong of his sandal.

John the Baptist, from the Gospel called “John”,
chapter 1, appointed for Advent III B RCL

[ The full text is at: http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Advent/BAdv3_RCL.html ]

“One whom you do not know”: despite the great longing and hope of the Israelite people for the Messiah, despite all the synagogue Shabbat readings, they did not “know” Him.

We’ve started a new liturgical year. Each one starts with Preparation and Self-Examination, and moves through the Great Mysteries of our entering fully into Life. And, as the Collect for today reminds us, it a daily thing!

So, I have a suggestion, as I suddenly “saw” (again!) Being “ready” for Life. A simple format for daily life, based on the yearly liturgical cycle of the Mysteries. It can take as little as 2-3 mnutes

At the beginning of the day, structure it.
Sit quietly for a few moments
Think:
Advent: I wish to be prepared for Life
Incarnation: I am One with the Great Mystery of God
Epiphany: I will manifest as Love today
Lent: I will work to be always free to love
Resurrection: I am freed to live fully, following the path of Love
Pentecost: I am filled with the Spirit of Love

And if you want (since we all need/want a practice that suits us), we can pinpoint the flow of our day by focusing on one of these steps as the day flows.

As the Collect today says: “May Your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us”!

Blessings!

Brian+

2011-12-08T19:36:00.001-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, December 9, 2011

A heartfelt smile gives warmth
enough for three winters.

Mongolian Proverb

Ode on a Mongolian Proverb

a exhilarating, brilliant
Providence fall afternoon.
i slid into tommie’s room
in the aids hospice
to find his former-Marine lover
by his bed
flowers on the table
Tommie asleep …
leaking fluid from his legs
as usual
eyes and cheeks
puffy from meds and edema
breathing unevenly.
i took his lover’s hand
we talked quietly
over all that tommie
was going through ..
and his own stress and depression.
tommie’s eyes opened
he looked at ted
and then at me
and through the utter weariness
and pain that morphine
couldn’t assuage
leaking as it did
out of his bloated and edemic legs
tommie said
hi father
great to see you
light a candle for me
will you?
and then he smiled
the smile of one
who knows Love.
three winters?
no
that smile has filled
my life with light
for near thirty years.

Brian+

2011-12-07T19:17:00.001-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, December 8, 2011

It is better to have loafed and lost,
than never to have loafed at all.

James Thurber, author, humourist; he was
born on this date, 1894, at Columbus, Ohio

Iknow. I get “too serious” at times. But you know, I’m really a fun-loving person who loves to enjoy Life. I have to admit though: now that I’m retired, I “work” a bit, and I play a lot! A feel a bit guilty. I feel I “should” be out with the Occupiers, and with the Human Rights Campaign supporting young Gay kids, and with the Southern Poverty Law Center battling racism and bigotry. After all, a 66 year old priest in a long cassock and cross makes newsworthy arresting!

I supported those things, and urged my parishioners to support them and many other things. And I delight to see the younger people today who are working towards those things which I believe the Gospel is all about.

So, while I have limited my social justice interests, I still support when I can, and I still spend lots of time being available to all kinds of people, in person and on line.

But I want to fess up: I’m a really great loafer! In my day is usually a 1.7 mile walk, a swim, 15 minutes in the hot tub (all in our Senior Park), a morning lie-in while I read in bed, and often an afternoon nap, and often a nice lunch with a glass of wine! And we often go to the beach for a walk, and wander the California Central Coast bird-watching, and have lunch with friends.

And so I say: LOAF! Even if you aren’t old. Even the young and busy can get in a bit of loafing each day. It greatly improves health and disposition on every level.

Brian+

2011-12-05T21:39:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, December 6, 2011

[ The Feast of St. Nicholas of Myra in the Christian Kalendar ]

The direction and constancy of the will
is what really matters, and intellect and
feeling are only important insofar as they
contribute to that.

Evelyn Underhill, Anglican “mystic”;
she was born on this date, 1875

I’m always glad to find an ally! I’ve been going on about the importance of the will, in sermons and writings, for a long time now. It’s nice to have such a well-respected personage as Ms. Underhill agreeing with me. [ ☺ ]

“Your intellect overpower us”? Nope.

“Your feelings overwhelm us”? Nope.

“Your Will be Done” ….. Yes!

The personality of “God” gets pretty complicated in the Scriptures. One minute God’s saving and loving everybody, the next “He’s” having every man, woman and child destroyed. Very confusing ….. of course because human beings’ feelings and prejudices and fears are getting in the way, and human beings, while trying their best, can’t keep their own issues out of the picture of God they are trying to paint.

I would not be alone in saying that God’s Will is “what really matters”. God’s Will is that His Kingdom of Love, Justice, Wholeness, and Peace should “come”. This is reflected in our human lives and relationships. It is not feelings and intellect which ultimately determine the character and faithfulness of our relationships, but our WILL to Love, to make peace, to honour, to respect, to forgive, to heal.

The old hymn says, “Have thine own way, Lord / have thine own way”. Another way to say it is what Jesus said in Gethsemane: “Not my will, but yours.”

Over all else, let us Will Love. I have discovered it is the path that leads Home.

Brian+

2011-12-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, December 5, 2011

You have to pick the places
you don't walk away from.

Joan Didion, author, crone. She was born
on this date, 1935, at Sacramento, CA

I “fell in love” with Joan Didion as a writer when I first read “Slouching Towards Jerusalem”, which I read by candlelight at the home of a friend I was visiting on the Cape one warm and long-ago-and-young summer. I haven’t found her latest writing as engaging, but I deeply respect her for her honesty and for her incisiveness and for her surgical way of expression.

I think Ms. Didion is right about picking the places we don’t walk away from. This is one of the critically important skills for achieving an authentic Life. Every human being needs to be taught how to make the ethical, spiritual, and emotional choices which lead to development as a fully-realized human being. The problem is, this requires courageous choice ….. and courageous choice demands courageous teaching. And that we do not have in America, or in many parts of the World. Most of the Americans and most of the other people I have met in my travels are woefully educated ….. and the major reason is Religion. I find Religion (there are some exceptions) to be essentially adverse to shaping persons who are equipped to engage the deepest questions of Life.

In Jesus, for example, I see a man who learned how to make these choices. Did he learn them from his contemporary religious tradition? No. He opposed that tradition on many fundamental levels. He learned them by tapping into the “God Within”, and listening to the voice of the Spirit of God. That Spirit lives in each of us, waiting to be heard ….. and Her voice is one with the innate character of being authentically human.

Most Religions today protect their power, their particular “rightness”. That is a rejection of their nature, I believe. ALL religions exist in order to show us, together, “the places you don’t walk away from”. For a start, read and ponder Eknath Easwaran’s book “”God Makes the Rivers To Flow”. There you will read the wisdom of all the great spiritual traditions.

Today I’m making a List of those things I can’t walk away from if, as I wish, I want to be my Highest Self. I’m grateful for the teachers. I want to love as the Christ. I want to be free of delusion as the Buddha. I want to dwell in the Holy as the Torah teaches. I want to honour the oneness of the Deity as the Prophet teaches. I want to be one with “God” as all the great mystics taught by their lives. I want to be Peace, as the Dalai Llama practices. I want to hug away pain, as Amma does.

There are, I believe, “places” on the path to being human from which we don’t walk away.

May we have the teaching and the courage to pick them.

Brian+

2011-12-01T19:37:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, December 2, 2011

Love is so much better when you're not married.

Maria Callas, opera diva; she was born on this date, 1923

Well, Maria said some very provocative ….. and very funny! ….. things. I was tempted to choose one of those. But, I opted for this more serious quote. To make a comment or two.

I think that much of contemporary Christianity has tended to make marriage sound like a bore. “Marriage counseling” tends to sound like a course in petty rule keeping ….. and it tends in many Christian settings to perpetuate patriarchy and its negativity (are there any positive aspects to patriarchy in our time and cultural context???). And it still, I think, tends to perpetuate an abysmal and crushingly dull and limited understanding of human sexuality.

So here’s my point: it’s about time that Christianity got its act together about this “love and marriage” thing ….. including the dear Episcopalians ….. who in general project (except for the tight-assed ones) an enlightened view of all this. It’s about time that we got together and devised a “marriage counseling curriculum” that really was able to affirm and to celebrate human sexuality, human imagination and creativity, human innate intelligence, and the integrity of human feeling and freedom.

I know personally that Love is better when you are “married” - when there is a connection of the heart and body AND, critically, an understanding intellectually and spiritually of the true nature of Love which Christianity (as well as other faiths) at its best manifests by its Life and by the teachings of its Founder.

Maria Callas is, I think, an example of a human being who lacked good spiritual teachers.

Occupy your Pew, as it were. Challenge your spiritual community and its leaders to become really good guides to both Love in general, and to “Love and Marriage” in particular.

Brian+

2011-11-30T20:21:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, December 1, 2011

My storehouse having been burnt down,
nothing obstructs my view of the bright moon.

Masahide, Zen poet

Delicious! Vast wisdom expressed in fourteen words. I am SO envious! But - Ha! I have to laugh at myself because I am so wordy!

I can give you and example from my own life of a burned storehouse and the bright moon: One day, I realized, tangibly felt in my being, that my partner’s happiness and hopes for the future were more important to me than my own (rather limited) desires for myself. That I would enter into a larger, more imaginative Life if I embraced it. My ‘storehouse’ burnt down ….. and in my inner solar system a “bright moon’ rose dazzling in the sky.

Oh, I wish you conflagrations of storehouses, and stunning visions of bright moons on your journey of Life!

Brian+

2011-11-29T21:15:00.001-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, November 30, 2011

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile,
hoping it will eat him last.

Winston Churchill; he was
born on this date, 1874

Churchill was, I suppose, thinking of those who “appeased” Hitler …. and with which he then had to deal as Prime Minister of Britain through the utter horrors of WWII.

I think of his words as a brilliant spiritual metaphor. Our “destiny” is to become a fully realized being ….. understanding that every religion has their concept of what that is. Christianity – at least the sensible and not the wackos of which we have so many these days, alas! – is clear: we are to “be as Christ”.

I see it this way: there are many things that work to keep us from becoming a fully realized being. Those are the crocs! It would be reasonable to think that we would not feed these crocs ….. but we do! I’m not so sure that I can say why we do this. Perhaps it is because it requires work to become human? That becoming fully human can’t happen without our embracing our destiny and committing ourselves to the journey? And that we human beings are by nature spiritually lazy ….. a deliberate design factor, an evolutionary dynamic, pushing us to commit our energies, without which we will fail?

My own besetting crocodile is Anger. At the burning core of my anger is my rage at the way Gayfolk – and I - have been abused and mistreated and lied about in human history. I have of course experienced this, and it has come from society, from the Bible, from Church, from every direction. Over the years, I have learned to “understand” ….. intellectually. I have learned to try and respond rationally to it all. But inside I seethe. My mind and my gut are not aligned. And I feed this crocodile. I keep track of all the discrimination. I don’t seek out ways of dialogue. I am “secure” in who I am, but I have yet, after decades of Christian life, been able to see homophobic people with an understanding eye. I can’t see their imprisonment, or be compassionate. While of course, being a follower of the Gospel of Jesus (as I understand it), Compassion is my path.

I guess I think that if I feed this crocodile, it will “eat me last”. But inside I know that this is not true. This is “the work of the devil”. Self-delusion. While I offer it food, this crocodile eats me. And I am kept from advancing towards my fully realized being ….. from manifesting the Christ within.

So: what is your crocodile? Advent is a time to bring the crocodiles into the light. I have often said that God can’t do anything to heal us unless we acknowledge both the sickness and our desire to be made whole. When the Feast of the Incarnation arrives on Dec 24/25th - that day when we celebrate God’s self-pouring into our Being - we need to be carrying the honest truth into that moment. If we’re not, the crocs will devour us.

Today is Spiritual Crocodile Day. Prepare to wrastle!

Brian+

2011-11-28T19:44:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, November 29, 2011

WARNING……WARNING: ADVENT VIRUS
Be on the alert for symptoms of inner Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to this virus and it is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions. This could pose a serious threat to what has, up to now, been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world.
Some signs and symptoms of The Advent Virus:

• A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences.
• An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.
• A loss of interest in judging other people.
• A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.
• A loss of interest in conflict.
• A loss of the ability to worry. (This is a very serious symptom.)
• Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.
• Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.
• Frequent attacks of smiling.
• An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen
• An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it.

Fears. Well, I’m less fearful. I’ve been pretty good for quite a while at enjoying the moment ….. even in the face of criticism. Judging people ….. could be a little better. Ditto with “interpreting the actions of others” ….. this is a real challenge. Conflict? ….. I’m agin it. Worry ….. work to do. Appreciation ….. doing good! Feeling of Unity ….. Big Time! Smiling ….. I’ve never been good at it ….. but caught unawares at moments I’m known to smile. I’m much better at “going with the flow”. Love ….. It’s my Life Work.

Hey! I think I’m getting into this Advent Agenda! Hope you are too.

Brian+

2011-11-27T20:02:00.001-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, November 28, 2011

I am in you and you in me,
mutual in divine love.

William Blake, poet; he was
born on this date, 1757.

Yes. I agree. We have to make choices in this life. All pretenses to Truth are relative and arbitrary. Everyone has their opinions ….. and they are simply opinions, based on what each considers “the Truth”. And there are as many “truths” as there are human beings.

Blake’s words are like the Golden Rule. If we treated each other as if we were “mutual in divine love”, the World would live in Peace and Compassion.

Today I’ll try to live mutuality in divine love. I believe it intellectually. I need to make it visceral.

Brian+

2011-11-26T19:51:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Sunday, November 27, 2011

[ Advent Sunday in the Christian Kalendar ]

Therefore, keep awake-- for you do not know when
the master of the house will come, in the evening, or
at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he
may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And
what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.

From the version of the Gospel called “Mark”,
chapter 13 [ appointed for Advent Sunday, 2011 ]

[ The full text can be found at http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Advent/BAdv1_RCL.html ]

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

[ The Collect for Advent Sunday ]

“When will God be born in me?” Christian spirituality sees this as one, if not “the” essential question for every human being. It lies at the heart of the human longing to discover, to experience, the full meaning of being alive.

Christianity recognizes this by making the Incarnation, the birth of Jesus the “son of God”, the first of the Great Mysteries it celebrates in the yearly liturgical journey. On the surface, the Incarnation seems to be about God’s Son born in human form. But it is far more! It is about the immense mystery we call Life manifesting Itself in you, in me. The Biblical Creation stories use another rich image to speak to the same issue: God breathing the Spirit of Life into the inert dust to make human beings.

The liturgical season of Advent, meaning “to come to”, prepares us for this Coming, this In-Breathing of Life. First, with an apocalyptic vision of the End Times and of Christ’s Coming. Secondly, with the appearance of John the Baptist, proclaiming the Coming of the Messiah. Thirdly, John the Baptist’s call to Be Prepared - how to be open. And Fourthly, Mary, representing all human beings, told that God, Life, will come and be born in her ….. reminding us that we each are Theotokas, God-bearers.

For me, the possibility that at some End Moment of Time the Son of Man will come to judge, to reward or punish, is imaginative, thought-provoking ….. but mostly irrelevant. My concern, my passion, is: “now, in the time of this mortal life”, am I awake to Life’s “daily visitation”? We understand “God” to be the Fullness of Being, and that we human beings participate in that Godlikeness. We have Life to live it fully.

For that to happen, we must Be Awake. We must learn what Life is about, what constitutes fullness of humanity. And, as the great 17th C Jesuit spiritual teacher Jean Pierre de Caussade once said, “God speaks to us in everything that happens to us”. Are we paying attention?

The season of Advent tries to awaken our heart, mind, spirit, body, everything that constitutes our human nature, to God’s Coming ….. to the journey to fullness of Being. And the liturgical year keeps pulling us back to the Mystery.

May we “Keep Awake”.

Brian+

2011-11-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, November 23, 2011

[ In Anticipation of Thanksgiving Day ]

All this hurrying soon will be over.
Only when we tarry do we touch the holy.

Rainer Maria Rilke
[ In Praise of Mortality, translated and edited by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy ]

The Thanksgiving Day holiday/”holy-day”. Dennis and I are keeping it with a dear friend and some other friends old and dear and some new. Thanksgiving is, relatively speaking, a holiday that hasn’t been commercialized and contaminated with money (except for food extravagance – but you don’t make too much on a turkey!) No presents, etc. And thank God we don’t have to hear music for it months ahead, like Christmas! (I can’t help speculate that Americans must be very depressed if they need to ratchet up a little jollity two months before the holiday!)

Thanksgiving is a day on which we “tarry” and touch what truly is holy. Yes, we overeat ….. but the real generosity of people comes out, in that at Thanksgiving we do try to make sure that those without have a feast.

But here’s the cliché – and by God it’s OK for Thanksgiving to be a cliché! We tarry with friends and family ….. and if we are lucky, with strangers drawn into our Life and whom we now recognize as in some wonderful way family or friend. So much of Life is hurry, hurry, hurry. And Rilke is right, it will soon be over. Remember Scrooge? He almost got to the end as a miserable, lonely human being. Around food and drink, we are together primarily for two things: to see, really see, how people have made our Life holy; and to recognize what is important in this Life and what is not.

And let’s face it: too few people in our World have reason to be thankful when it comes to material things. But Love! If anything is going to make a difference - to sustain us - family and friends and their love is at the core. I think about the Thanksgivings I’ve celebrated. Some serving food at a “soup kitchen”. Some in another country, with fellow Americans or Canadians grateful for a shared experience. Some with blood family. Some with the Gayfolk who were and are so much the friends and chosen family who upheld me with their Love and affirmation, and I them.

We have this glorious Mortal Life to live ….. and it flies by. We can’t afford to waste any time! We are here to learn what is important for Life, to learn what is Holy. Christians and other religious communities gather every Sabbath to acknowledge the Holy at the Heart – God, and each other.

Of course we should enjoy the “turkey and all the trimmings”! But on Thanksgiving Day we gather to enjoy and respect and Give Thanks for each other, in all our weirdnesses and delightfulness.

I wish you all tomorrow a holy tarrying, full of laughter, delight and Love.

Brian+

2011-11-18T05:53:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, November 18, 2011

Once upon a time
the world was sweeter than we knew.
Everything was ours;
how happy we were then,
but then once upon a time
never comes again.

Johnny Mercer, American songwriter; he
was born on this date, 1909, at Savannah

“.. for there is nothing either good or bad , but thinking makes it so.” “Hamlet”, Act ii, scene ii. Well, wrong; there are good things and bad things, I think. However, the spin we put on things ….. that makes a huge difference in how we live in this World. And it’s interesting how one “good” thought can alter the effects of “bad”. Silver linings, “God”, Attitude, grasp of reality, all that sort of stuff.

Today, this is what I think. There is always a “sweet World” ….. some-“where”. Finding it, or creating it, or imagining it, there’s the work of each of us. Frankly, I think it’s critically important for us to be able to envision a “sweet World”. “Heaven” is one of those imaginings which supports living.

There never was and never will be a time when “everything was ours”. And, there is a time when everything is ours. Life is chock full of such dualities. There are ways to experience “everything is ours” ….. that is our spiritual work.

I’ve been happy. I know how blessed I am to be able to say that! Discovering what makes us happy ….. that too is the work of a Lifetime. Lucretius said (De Rerum Natura) that the pursuit of Pleasure was humanity’s first work. He is right ….. as long as we understand what Pleasure is (and it isn’t, he says, just hedonism).

“Once upon a time” - that is, when all was perfect - never was and “never comes again”. Johnny’s right. But. While I long ago gave up “perfection”, I’ll never give up the Pursuit of Pleasure, as Lucretius and I think all the great thinkers of the ages understood it.

Pleasure - for oneself and all beings - is the life-giving fire of the Soul.

Brian+

2011-11-16T19:45:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, November 17, 2011

People, even more than things, have to be restored,
renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed;
never throw out anyone.

Audrey Hepburn

Now, that’s real love. In the process of Life, we learn about love. We come to know it’s not essentially about feeling, but about commitment and will. We hold to it because we have come to see what it takes to be the kind of human being we respect and value - and because we have understood the “Golden Rule”: if I know what makes me happy, then I know how to treat others.

As a person, and as a priest, I have been blessed to be given the opportunity to work on and from these principles all my Life. I’m still working on them!

And I have to say that the Christian religion, as I have been taught and have lived it, is just what Audrey says. See the Christ in everyone, and do your best to honour each person as a Christ, as a manifestation of the God Who is Love. So, it may not work all the time; but it is the place to start, and to hold to for as long as possible. That’s what “until death do us part” is all about ….. in the many and various ways that that commitment operates in human relationships.

I’ve been restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. I’ll bet you have too.

Do Unto Others.

Brian+

2011-11-14T19:07:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The principal thing in the world

is to keep the soul aloft.

Gustave Flaubert

Apologies for not being in touch over the last few days. We have been in New Mexico birding. And later this week it will be time with the tens of thousands of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes (and the Hummers) at Bosque del Apache. What a glorious sight to see them all in flight as they return at dusk! Birds are amazing beings! They are definitely one of the things that “Keeps my Soul Aloft”.

Is that not a superb poetic phrase! And image! “To keep the soul aloft”. “Soul”, to me, is not a separate part of us. It is the essence of Being ….. that mysterious force that propels us along in the enterprise of Life; fills us with hope, courage, and vision; picks us up when we have been dashed to the ground.

My List for keeping the Soul Aloft would be endless! On top is Love (often called God), Beauty, Friendship, Generosity, the Universe. Somewhere in the middle: Laughter, Birds, Memories, Good Books, Warmth; towards the bottom: my iPad, Black Russians, Steak & Kidney Pie, Scotch Meat Pies, Empire Biscuits, tea (with milk and sweet), Tuscany, chiming key-wind clocks.

For awhile, I’m going to make this my succinct “morning instruction” when I awake: “Brian, Keep the Soul Aloft ….. yours and whomever else’s you can assist.”

If your or my soul sinks, it pulls the World Soul down with it.

Brian+

2011-11-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, November 10, 2011

When I grow up I want to be a little boy.

Joseph Heller, author; on this date, 1961, his
satirical, anti-war novel “Catch 22” was published.

Canadians in 1961 didn’t hear much about American books. After all, it was before the Internet, etc. And we Canadians were being “patriotic”. I was 17 when I read “Catch 22”, in 1963. Being a little Gay Christian, I was opposed to war, and I loved the book ….. though with humility I have to say that unless I had been told beforehand, I probably wouldn’t have “got it”.

In one famous scene, Jesus tells his disciples that, unless you become as a little child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And he tells Nicodemus the same thing: you have to be “born again” ….. in a sense, become a child again.

I am hoping, now that I am in my 66th year, that I am on the path to becoming “a little boy” again. I am so aware that decades of my Life have been consumed with all kinds of “stuff” - questioning, and reevaluating, and questioning, and doubting, and examining, and questioning, and formulating, and adjusting, and reshaping, and “sophisticating”, and abandoning.

The implication seems to be that children have an innate sense of Truth. Well ….. I’m not so sure I believe that. But I think I do believe this: that after decades of struggling with Life, we eventually can “let go” of the struggle. And then we can become “a little boy” or girl again. Not as we were then, but informed by our decades of engagement with all that Life is. I think the best way to approach Death, that great Mystery, is as a little boy or girl ….. looking at it all with the openness and wonder of childhood.

Start as early as you can! Let go as soon as you can of the cynicism and pain and closedness of heart, mind, and spirit. Expand! Meet Life with wonderment.

Grown-Ups who have come back die the best.

Brian+

2011-11-08T20:24:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, November 9, 2011

The universe seems neither benign
nor hostile, merely indifferent.

Carl Sagan, scientist, philosopher;
he was born on this date, 1934

I loved Carl Sagan. He was such a charming man. And I could listen to him for hours talk brilliantly and clearly about the wonder of the Universe, its beauty, its Mystery. Everything he said made sense to me.

Many people of faith have such an annoying habit of anthropomorphizing the Universe. Worse, of transferring to the Universe the anthropomorphized “personality” of “God”. And even worse, of blaming the Universe – or God – for the sufferings we human beings undergo as mortal creatures living on a still-growing and developing planet. But, I agree with Dr. Sagan. The Universe is morally, ethically neutral. The Universe just IS. It is neither “for” us or “against” us.

And I would venture to say that “God” is morally and ethically neutral as well. The moral and ethical policeperson is a trait that we human beings have foisted upon this Devine Being, Whom we have created in the various images of our own fears, needs, and yes hopes. Some of the ethical images we have foisted upon God I agree with, mythically speaking; and many I do not.

But, since I accept that it is a perfectly understandable thing, given the amazing capacity of the human mind and spirit, to endow God with ethical characteristics, I accept that God is primarily defined as Loving, Compassionate , Just, Merciful, and determined to demand that we humans be so too. What defines God defines us. We and God are One, insofar as I understand Christian mystical theology.

The Universe is not against us. What we have to struggle with, especially the things that cause is suffering and pain and anxiety, just are. What is critical for our Life and our happiness is what we do with the deck we are dealt, both individually and, perhaps more importantly, together.

But let’s not forget the wonder and joy. It isn’t all bad by any means. Ponder the old Inuit song:

I think over again my small adventures, my fears, those small ones that seemed so big, all those vital things I had to get and to reach, and yet there is only one great thing: to live and see the great day that dawns, and the light that fills the world.

Brian+

2011-11-07T20:44:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Will you ever understand
how near God is to you?

Lalla, fourteenth century C.E.

She was a mystic Islamic poet and saint from the 14th C, born in Indian Kashmir. She wrote:

“God does not want meditations and austerities ;
Through love alone canst though reach the Abode of Bliss. 
Thou mayst be lost like salt in water ;
Still it is difficult for thee to know God.”

Lalla is, I think, right. “It is difficult for thee to know God”. And human beings had better remember this if we do not want to fall into delusions of grandeur leading only to destruction.

For most of my life, various “teachings” – especially those in preparation for my ordination to the priesthood some 39 years ago – misled me. On the other hand, perhaps we need to be misled ….. until we come to that point where we have the inner courage and learning to acknowledge the truth. And so I say, Thank God for age!

Now I know how near God is ….. to me and to you and to all of us. In fact, inseparable, indistinguishable. Until we know this, any deity we think we have discovered will be false.

And our humanity will be defective.

As we see.

Brian+

2011-11-06T20:33:00.000-08:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, November 7, 2011

I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war.

As a woman I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.

Jeannette Pickering Rankin; on this date, 1916, age 36, she was
elected Republican Congresswoman from Montana, the first
woman elected to Congress, and the first woman elected to a
national legislature in any western democracy. She was the only
legislator to vote against war.

Ms. Rankin was elected 4 years before the passage of the 19th Amendment, forbidding restricting the vote on the basis of gender. The first quote is from her vote re the USA entering WWI, four days after taking office. The second was her vote re entering WWII, after she had been re-elected. In between, she worked tirelessly for Women’s Suffrage, and for Peace.

I think her first vote expresses her principles, including her feminine perspective. (I would have voted to enter WWI; but I deeply value her patriotic stand against war.) And the second, her frustration at the, to the present, continuing refusal to see women for what they are by nature and should be by cultural and political reality: Equal.

But there is a profound Christian dimension, from my point of view. War is unacceptable to any God Whose essence is defined as Unconditional Love ….. in other words, the God of the Gospel of Peace. War may be a fact, but War is never morally or spiritually acceptable, and we must face into our failure.

Our culture (and our religion) is chock full of – in my view - false heroes. To me, whether she so deliberately intended to support the Gospel or not, Jeannette Pickering Rankin is one of my spiritual heroes. When I think of her, and of all she suffered because of her votes, I can only number her among the those of whom Jesus spoke in the Beatitudes when He said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for my sake”.

I wish she were here today.

Brian+

2011-11-03T20:41:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, November 4, 2011

America and Islam are not exclusive and need
not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and
share common principles of justice and progress,
tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

President Barack Obama; he was the first African-
American to be elected (the 44th) President of the
United States on this date, 2008.

I agree that America and Islam need not be in competition. But, America being what it is, that needs to be demonstrated.

Personally I do not see, from the behaviour of many either Muslims or Christians, that we share “common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings”. Is this because extremists dominate in the media? Fundamentalist Christians, and most Muslim media voices, dominate the airwaves – and this is because Americans support, by what they view and by what the corporations support, the view that division and hate and violence “make money” ….. and making money is the defining force in American life. Where in the media are the moderate voices of either Christianity and Islam?

I would agree that both Christianity and Islam - AS UNDERSTOOD AND INTERPRETED BY ENLIGHTENED AND SPIRITUALLY EDUCATED PEOPLE - “share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings”. So, why are these voices from both religions not heard in the media? Because the media in America is in the servitude of GREED. Why is it that we hear ad nausea the opinions of Muslim and Christian wackos on the “evening news”? Why are there no responsible media types who go to sensible Christian and Muslim clerics and layfolk and broadcast their views?

If all we have to listen to are Muslim extremist feudalist narrow-minded tribalist clerics shouting at Friday prayers against American “values” (some of which need to be questioned), and racist, homophobic, sexist Christians railing against everyone with ideas that are in fact contrary to the Gospel of Jesus and the Unconditional Love of God, what the hell do we expect our country is going to be like?

My point? Complain! Tell the media to stop this! Stop buying and listening to their propaganda. Occupy American Media. Occupy your church or mosque. Yes, of course, the Bible and the Qur’an have at their core the words of a Holy and Compassionate God. But both Scriptures have been corrupted by the humans and their agendas who shaped them, and by the clerics who continue to misuse them for their own unholy purposes.

Say NO to this in every way you can. Be true to yourself as a being of Grace, Compassion, and Truth. Let’s go to our Christlike Christian fellows and to our true followers of the Prophet and hold each other up in witness to their holy teachings.

Brian+

2011-11-02T19:40:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, November 3, 2011

I consider myself to be a pretty good judge
of people... that's why I don't like any of them.

Roseanne Barr, comedienne; she was born on
this date, 1952, in Salt Lake City, Utah

When I was in the Order of the Holy Cross, we had a consulting psychiatrist. He was reported by his colleagues to be “one of the best in the World” ….. and crazy as a loon! Though he once told me something interesting: that whenever he had a dream in which he was a participant, he went back into therapy; it was a clear sign that he had lost his “objective distance”. I greatly respected him for one observation he made at our Chapter; he said, “I have never met a group of people who say that they want to live under the vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, who are absolutely determined to have everything they want, have sex with anyone, and who, from the newest postulant to the Superior, not to be told what to do by anyone”. He was indeed brilliant, and he had us to a “T” – then; I’m making no assessments about now.

But, the thing I remember the most was his comment, “People come to me for help, and I tell them what to do to get well, and they say they wouldn’t like it; I tell them, “I didn’t say you have to like it, you just have to do it!” (This in his thick Viennese accent.)

We may not “like” a lot of things in Life: people, and the things we have to do for the sake of Love and self-respect and dignity and commitment and faithfulness. Jesus, I’m sure, didn’t like what He went through in order to be faithful to His God of Infinite and Unconditional Love.

But Dr. Holt was right, I think. “Like” is not a category by which to guide our Life. No one likes the suffering that can come from some of the hard choices we have to make, nor the unpleasantness we feel. “Feeling” is a minute dimension of authentic Love. Love is essentially an act of the will.

Spiritual maturity teaches us to do what is just and compassionate, whether we like it or not.

Brian+

2011-11-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Government is a contrivance of human
wisdom to provide for human wants. People
have the right to expect that these wants
will be provided for by this wisdom.

Jimmy Carter; on this date, 1976, he was
elected President of the United States.

I’ve been writing these Reflections now for over 7 years. There are nearly 1500 of them. Today I want to reflect on WHY I write them.

I write them as my principle form of Prayer. Which is the same reason I love preaching, which I do far less now that I am retired. Five to six days a week, I ponder an enormous range of comments and thoughts from a mind-blowing group of people and sources. I use these to think about human Life, about “God”, about Religion, about Art, about Good and Evil, about body and spirit and mind. About everything. Prayer, for me, is the way I open myself to Wisdom, however Wisdom is communicated.

I write them to Learn. About myself. About the World. About human beings. About emotions. About ideas. About Love and Hate and Mystery and Confusion and Desire and Despair and Elation and Freedom and Slavery and Frailty and Courage and Failure and Success and Sex ….. anything that pertains to being Human.

I write them to hear Wisdom and Graciousness. And to try and understand.

I write them to “train up” my Being. I’ve been at it for decades (along with preaching), and I still believe that at 65 I have lots to discover, and lots to affirm, and lots to let go of.

I don’t write them to tell people what to believe or what to do. I express my thoughts, with the recognition that we all have the freedom and responsibility to engage with Life and to learn its lessons.

I deeply believe that Jesus is not “sectarian”. Jesus is one of many Wisdom Teachers that Life has given to us, given to us by the deep deep Mystery we call “God” to help us to become fully human ….. and I equally believe that that fullness of humanity has to do ultimately with becoming a blazing flame of Love.

Jimmy Carter is, I believe, correct about Government ….. and I passionately hope that we in America will learn this again before we destroy ourselves. And I would paraphrase his words to say, “GOD is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants”.

I would like to think that America is a vehicle for this Wisdom. And that we will heal ourselves ….. soon.

Brian+

2011-10-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, November 1

[ All Saints Day ]

If in my youth I had realized that the sustaining
splendour of beauty with which I was in love
would one day flood back into my heart, there to
ignite a flame that would torture me without end,
how gladly would I have put out the light in my eyes.

Michelangelo; on this date, 1512, his paintings on the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel were exhibited to the
public. [I first saw them, cleaned, the day Pope John
Paul II died.]

Michelangelo. Passionate. Dramatic. Poetic. Good artists are like that. And great human leaders.

Today we, the human race, need a “flood back” into our hearts of the “splendour of beauty” about Life, there “to ignite a flame “. But. The last thing that I want for any of us is that “the light in my eyes” of the “splendour of beauty” should be “put out”. Oh no. The opposite.

That light is vastly dimmed and flickering. And along with it our humanity.

I’m trying to think of a way I can contribute to the brightening, to the brilliance. That’s what I was thinking as I gazed up at the Sistine Chapel ceiling that afternoon, shining anew after centuries of smoke and darkening.

To live the life of the beauty of Divine Love may seem like torture to some. But it did not seem so to Jesus and it did and does not seem so to the saints.

I would like to have the courage to share in that Life. I would like to have the flame ignited! And I would desire not to have any light put out ….. but to be flooded with it, even if it engulfs me.

Brian+

2011-10-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, October 31, 2011

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
…..
Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

John Keats, poet; he was born on this date,
1795, at London. (He died in Rome, age 26);
from his poem “A Thing of Beauty”

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Of course. There could not possibly be “beauty” that every human being thought so to be. But, if you put all of us together, might that encompass all beauty?

The picture is of John Keats’ house where he died, in Rome, to the right of the Spanish Steps. Dennis and I gazed on it early on a sunny Roman June morning, and pondered the young man dying of consumption, faithfully tended by the poet Percy Shelley. In the sadness there was, is, a tenderness and a poignancy about the fleetingness of human life which spoke of its own beauty.

On the eve of All Saints, I always think of those, friends, and those to whom I ministered, who died of AIDS. So so different! Some so edgy and difficult, some so winsome and attractive! Most both. One of the greatest things they all taught me was how beautiful every single one of us human beings is. They opened my mind and heart to my own richer humanity as well.

You. I. Everyone. “A thing of beauty and a joy forever.” It’s a revelation that changes everything. God dies every moment to be born a thing of beauty in every human soul.

Brian+

2011-10-29T20:39:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Sunday, October 30, 2011

[ Year A, Proper 26, RCL ]

Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father-- the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted."

Matthew 23 [ the Gospel reading for Sunday, October 30 ]

We have a lot of people around us today who “talk the talk” but who don’t “walk the walk” – especially politicians and business leaders, but including many religious “leaders”, who are more into palaces and Rollses than servanthood to their Wisdom teachers and their disciples.

So, think about this today. But. I think the principle “warning” from the Gospel today is directed at each one of us. First: don’t get distracted. You can call your dad or your male priest “father”. You can call those who instruct you “teacher”. As long as those persons meet the criterion: are the “fathers/mothers” Godly, and are the teachers “Messianic”. In other words, are your fathers/mothers and your teachers speakers and doers of the Truth? Do such claim honour because they “lord it over” others, or do they deserve honour because their greatness derives from service to the rest of us?

You and I must be responsible for where we give our allegiance. And for discerning to whom we justly give honour. The quality of our society is up to us. Those who “exalt themselves” must be humbled by us, by our refusal to grant them authority or power. Those who “humble themselves” must be exalted by our granting to them authority. We the people determine to whom honour is due as authentic leaders and teachers.

Where our “treasure” is, there our heart will be also.

Brian+

2011-10-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, October 28, 2011

A peaceful man does more good than a learned one.

Men are like wine - some turn to
vinegar, but the best improve with age.

See everything, overlook a great deal, correct a little.

The feelings of my smallness and my
nothingness always kept me good company.

The true and solid peace of nations consists
not in equality of arms, but in mutual trust alone.

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, Patriarch of Venice;
on this date, 1958, he was elected Pope, and
took the name John XXIII

I love this man! If I had to name anyone who deserves the recognition as a true reflection of the God of Love and of Jesus of Nazareth, John XXIII is “at the top of the heap” (as he once jokingly said of himself). He's one of my greatest heroes.

Aside from his great wisdom, his great heart, his great compassion, and his great simplicity, I love his sense of humour and his authentic humility. He once said, “It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope!”

In my view, this man was a true reflection of the Christ, and greatly blessed the World. I leave you with his words to enrich you day.

Brian+

2011-10-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 26, 2011

God can make you anything you want to be,
but you have to put everything in his hands.

Mahalia Jackson. She was born on this date,
1911, in New Orleans

I had every album of hers! And I loved the picture of her, eyes closed, head raised, “in touch” with what she was singing. As a young Canadian adolescent, I had no first-hand knowledge of what she was singing about. But I knew it was hurt and power and sorrow and hope and faith ….. and after I came to live in the USA 45 years ago, then I “knew” it.

I agree with Mahalia. God can “make you anything you want to be”. But. You have to know Who and What “God” is. The little tin-pot tyrant, out there punishing and loving conditionally, claimed by various groups as “their” God who excludes others, with whom so many of us were raised? Nope. Not a chance. Serving that God, you will only be a narrow, ungenerous, limited, shriveled version of what it means to be human, by definition made in the Divine Image.

Once you discover the God of unconditional Love Who is co-terminus with you, the nucleus of every cell of which you are made, Who manifests that you are One with every other Being, core-defined by the Mystery of Compassion/Love ….. when you “put everything is his hands”, i.e., consent to be who you are in Reality ….. you know God. And you are whole, “saved”.

“God” never “makes” us do anything, be anything. God just waits to be recognized.

God is All. And we each are of the All.

Brian+

2011-10-24T21:04:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, October 25, 2011

It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly
and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were,
we would millenniums ago have disappeared
from the face of the earth.

John Steinbeck; on this date, 1962, he
was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature

I know that I am often cynical. I do express my discontent with “the human condition” and with human behaviour probably more than I ought. After all, I could attribute the fact that human beings have not yet disappeared from the face of the Earth to our belligerence, penchant for aggression, etc. However, I won’t.

Nope. Today I praise the potential and actual goodness of human beings. We can be miserable bastards, true. But for every Hitler there have been millions of Schindlers.

Do we hear about good people and about goodness in the news? Rarely. So, tomorrow (though we don’t watch much “news”) I am going to take note of what I see reported about us human beings in the media, and I’m going to email or write to them and let them know that I don’t want to hear or see the “ugly and quarrelsome” more than 5%; that 95% I want to hear about people doing wonderful, kind, thoughtful, helpful, generous, loving things for the human race and for our planet home.

99 Percenters and Occupiers I place in the latter category, in general. Real heroes, in my book.

And, since I’m in a very slight sense “media”, I make the following report: our neighbour Barbara, bless her heart, brought us a bag of Red Delicious apples from her tree ….. and she was right, they are definitely better than the store-bought one! Thanks Barbara!

Brian+

2011-10-23T20:44:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, October 24, 2011

One must have chaos in oneself in order
to give birth to a dancing star.

Friedrich Nietzsche

One day, when I was a monk, Br. Robert came by my cell and stood at the door staring at me. I loved Robert! He was a drunk, and eventually alas died young of alcoholism. He was brilliant. He had a wicked sense of humour, and a natural ability to “speak the truth in love”, a gentle smile on his face.

I looked up from my desk. Robert said, “I have been by your cell every day for the last several days. Every day, your fountain pen is in the exact same position on your desk, your sandals are in the exact same place on the floor by the window, and your bed is immaculate. You, Brian. Are. An. Obsessive. Compulsive. Wacko!”

Then he smiled winsomely and said, “Happy Hour. My cell. 4pm. I’m only inviting the best people. Bring a glass.”

I will concede that order and organization - even some low-level obsessive-compulsive behaviour - can be useful at times, especially if one has a “full” Life. But. Giving birth to a dancing star! Now THAT’S a worthwhile goal for one’s Life! It’s one of the reasons that I left the Presbyterian Church and became an Anglican. I found the Reformation approach to Life too “in the head”, as a foundation. My Being stirred more to a good mixture of Primordial mystical chaos!

I’ve opened up over the last few years to more Chaos, or, more accurately, loosened the chains of OC behaviour. On all levels. I’m still in the stage of being a Yellow Dwarf, but I am looking forward to the Red Dwarf stage, and perhaps even a finishing-off stage of White Dwarfism after a spectacular collapse ….. but not too long! Just long enough to be remembered as a gentle spreader of calm cool light!

Cheers!

Brian+

2011-10-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, October 21, 11

Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee,
Whether the summer clothe the general earth
With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch
Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch
Smokes in the sun-thaw ; whether the eave-drops fall
Heard only in the trances of the blast,
Or if the secret ministry of frost
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,
Quietly shining to the quiet Moon.

…. from ‘Frost at Midnight’, by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, English poet; he was
born on this date, 1772,

Coleridge is speaking to his infant son in his cradle, and about God; he says,

so shalt thou see and hear
The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible
Of that eternal language, which thy God
Utters, who from eternity doth teach
Himself in all, and all things in himself.
Great universal Teacher ! he shall mould
Thy spirit, and by giving make it ask.

I’m putting aside for today (at least) all my anguish about the World, about the sillinesses people say about “God”, about strife and hate and division, about the utter venality and stupidity and shocking meanness of politicians, and blah blah blah.

I’m just going to bathe in the simplicity of Coleridge’s wish for his son as if for us all. For you my friends (and “enemies”), known and unknown: I profoundly wish

‘All seasons shall be sweet to thee’.

For a moment, for eternity.

Brian+

2011-10-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, October 20, 2011

I saw that all beings are fated to happiness:
action is not life, but a way of wasting some
force, an enervation. Morality is the weakness
of the brain.

Arthur Rimbaud, French author;
he was born on this date, 1854

Hmmmm. Interesting words to ponder today! Of course you will print them out, and whip them out of your “borso” (my Italian word for any little bag or clutch one might carry – my borso is from Perutti in Firenze) for your 5 daily times of meditation, yes?

Are we all “fated to happiness”?? Do you think you are? I didn’t, a lot of my Life ….. though sometimes I did ….. and it turned out I was!

I find a wisdom in Rimbaud’s words, “action is not life”. We all have to act, But: first must come Be. Then the action is not a waste of force, but a true expression of a Self that has finally emerged.

“Morality is a weakness of the brain”. Oh, I am SO sick of morality these days. Morality has degenerated into finger-wagging, petty, sex-obsessed infantilism. You can’t have morality – or Compassion - without self-awareness.

Brian+

2011-10-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 19, 2011

I think one of the reasons this show has survived
is that it has a big heart at its center. Other cartoon
shows have people crap on each other and make
racist jokes. But I don't think people tune in for that.
I just don't think a show lasts for 10 years without a heart.

Trey Parker, producer, one of the creators, along with
Matt Stone, of “South Park”. He was born on this date, 1969.

I am an unabashed, proud, devoted fan! We own all the complete seasons on DVD ….. and we watch them frequently. I wear my South Park shorts most of the time at home, and for our daily walks. I treasure my Mr. Hanky baseball cap. Cartman is my Evil Twin – and I have a sticker of him on the back window of my car.

Why? Because South Park is uncompromisingly and fearlessly Real. And I am a huge fan of Reality. Especially since we are surrounded by so much Unreality in every area of Life ….. and especially in American Life. I have lived here for nearly 45 years; I’ve travelled extensively here and in the World at large. In my view, America wins the Oscar for fantasy and for refusing to acknowledge what Life and People are really like ….. though I must admit that in the last 10-15 years, a lot of the World is catching up!

So I thank God for Eric Cartman and Kenny and Stan and Kyle and Butters, their families, and all the characters of South Park. They are like prophets, speaking the truth to society. And while they are course to the max at times (in some peoples’ view), they are to me a modern version of Biblical parables. Granted the Parables are far more “subtle”. But both the Parable and the South Park gang explode the truth right in your face ….. if you have the courage and humility to listen. They fearlessly take on every prudery and hypocrisy and prejudice and stupidity and deceit and ignorance and self-righteousness.

In my view, South Park is a Gospel. Good News. And the Good News is what Trey calls the heart that has kept people watching for 10 years. Oh yes, lots of the worst of humanity is exposed. But almost always, at the end of the episode, usually Stan gets 30 seconds in which he calls us all to see and acknowledge what can be glorious about human beings at their best. Only once, that I can recall, has Cartman’s evil ever “won out” … but in his “winning” he condemned himself.

South Park ruthlessly unveils, as does the Gospel, the Reality that we would so prefer to hide about ourselves. But at the heart of both is a deep love and compassion for human beings and their struggles.

Kenny gets killed almost every episode ….. but he is always resurrected. Kenny’s a sign of hope for us all.

Brian+

2011-10-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Bring me the sunflower
Bring me the sunflower so I may transplant it
in my native soil burnt by the sea-salt,
let it display all day to the mirroring blue spaces
of the sky the anxiety of its yellow face.
Obscure things tend towards clarity,
bodies dissolve themselves in a weightless flow
of colors: these then into music. To vanish
is thus the supreme fate of all fates.
Bring me the plant that points to where
pale transparencies rise to the heights
and life itself evaporates like air;
bring me the sunflower crazed with light.

Eugenio Montale
[ translated from the Italian by Margaret Brose ]

My father was the youngest of 12 children, 9 of whom lived beyond childhood. I had 8 aunts and uncles on that side - they are all dead now. What a bunch of characters – 7 born in Scotland and 2, including my father, born in Montreal. And so I had/have LOTS of First Cousins. The oldest alive is in his mid-eighties, and the youngest in her fifties. I’m in the middle at 65.

One of my First Cousins, Norine, age 84, is approaching death to this earthly life, age 84. She has an aggressive lymphoma. We have chatted every month or so for years, talking about the family. She has always been fascinated by the McHugh family - and we have often laughed at the craziness, and talked about shortbread recipes, and Friday night card parties in Verdun, Seagram’s rye and ginger ale being the grown-ups’ very Canadian drink preference. By rights, given all the serious health issues I’ve had, she could easily have outlived me. But probably she won’t. I will miss her, and especially her sense of humour and joie de vivre.

“To vanish is thus the supreme fate of all fates”. The blue sunny sky is a symbol of the place to which we, those “pale transparencies”, all move, where “life itself evaporates like air”. The greatest freedom is to be free, as soon as possible in this mortal life, of the downward pull of the fear of Death.

We are each the “sunflower crazed with light” ….. or so we are meant to be. Displaying “all day to the mirroring blue spaces of the sky the anxiety of its yellow face”. We know we will die. But we face to the Light. We live every day given fearlessly. Jesus and so many others teach us to deny Death any power over our Living.

My prayer today, as I think of Norine: “Give us Life. Make us ‘the sunflower crazed with light’.

Brian+

2011-10-16T20:40:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, October 17, 2011

Give therefore to the emperor the things that are
the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's.

Matthew 22 [ the Gospel reading for October 16, RCL ]

[ You can see the full text at: http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/AProp24_RCL.html ]

In the version of the Gospel story called “Matthew”, this encounter is turned, as is often the case in “Matthew”, into a put-down of the corrupt Jewish religious power structure. And it’s brilliant, for that! What a zinger; a spiritual Taser ! One of the best comebacks in the Gospel. But of course, that version is an attempt of the early 2nd C Christian “Matthew” community to politicize the story.

One could, however, look at it this way – a little simplistic though it may be: inside every human being are set two thrones. On one sits “the Emperor”, on the other “God”. Think of “God” as representing everything that is eminently worthy of being a person made in the image of Love, and think of “the Emperor” as representing choices which renounce Love and everything that Love includes in the Christian understanding of Love/God.

Jesus is simply saying that every human life is lived in the context of community, politics, social responsibility, relationship to authority, etc. But that we must be clear of the heart out of which we live and make our decisions and take action. Jesus said the same thing in another lovely image when He said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If we are not clear, everything else will go askew ….. and the scheming, mean-spirited Pharisees represent the warped human heart.

As I look back on my Life, I see the Wisdom of Jesus’ teaching. Behind every unloving act and its consequences lies a decision made in collusion with “the Emperor”. And the “Empress” always exacts her “tax” ….. immediately or somewhere long down the road.

It’s a wise thing to remember those two thrones, and to be attentive to whom we give our first allegiance.

Brian+

2011-10-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, October 14, 2011

Humanity I love you because when you're hard
up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink.

e.e. cummings, poet; he was born on this
date, 1894

Spoken like a true appreciator of irony! I’ve loved reading cummings since I was a high school student.

I proclaim today “Appreciation of the Charming Silliness of Humanity Day”. I mean, here we are with this big brain; with self-consciousness; with creativity; with wit and humour; with all kinds of amazing skills and talents. And yet we do the damnedest, the stupidest things!

I tend to be quite a cynic about humanity. Including about myself. But today cummings reminds us not to be so hard on ourselves. Or on each other. Reality is: big brains not withstanding, it’s part of being human to do stupid, ridiculous, harmful, not-smart, screwy things. Alas, at the present time, we all seem to be in the same boat at the same time. Very trying and very frustrating!

One great human characteristic is to be able to love each other despite it all. So, today is the First Annual LOSS Day - Love Our Silly Self Day. Today I’m going to scan the World and just shake my head and try my best to put aside everything else, and just appreciate the whole human bunch of us because we Are.

It’s a God’s Eye view. If we all do it, maybe our vibes will work a little magic.

Brian+

2011-10-13T07:53:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, October 13, 11

Every day people are straying away
from the church and going back to God.

Lenny Bruce, comedian; he was born
on this date, 1925 (and died at age 40)

OK. Let this be said. I can only say so much in my short Reflections ….. and I’m usually exaggerating to make a point ….. and yes there are lot of people in lots of churches, temples, mosques, etc trying their best to be holy and do good. Some are better than others ….. and the definition of “good” and of “holy” are for better or for worse in the eye of the beholder.

That said: I’m with Lenny. Many (my brain wants to say most) religious organizations, and especially their polities and their leadership structures, definitely could use a re-think. Yes, I would say that about my own Episcopal Church too. To refuse a man ordination as a bishop because he practiced Buddhist yoga and held positive views about other religious theologies, or to defrock a priest because he wanted to have dialogue with Muslims in church - what utter rubbish! Well I remember a former Roman Catholic who became a member of an Episcopal church I was serving. I asked him why he switched. He said, “Fifteen years of anti-abortion and anti-Gays ….. what kind of spiritual life is that!” He joined the two Jews who worshipped with us, who were more interested in God than “church”.

One thing I can say about my years of parish ministry, which had a lot of faults: everyone in those congregations knew without a doubt how magnificent is the Love of God and how spectacularly they were loved. And I would say that if there was ever any strong motivation to repentance or goodness or justice or healing, it flowed from that knowledge.

The God of Compassion, Love, Justice, Kindness, Mercy comes first. “Church” second. And I would say that the first “work” of any “church” is to make sure that the “church” is made in the image of God and not the other way around.

Brian+

2011-10-11T20:53:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 12, 2011

But in the next world I shan't be
doing music, with all the striving
and disappointments.
I shall be being it.

Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer,
musician; he was born on this date, 1872

I was “raised” in the Anglo-Catholic (and, I would like to think, central Anglican) theological understanding that the essence of being a priest is not in what one DOES, but in what on IS. Well do I remember my ordination to the priesthood in 1973, and particularly the words as the bishop laid on hands and prayed, “Make him a priest”. I definitely had the sense that I was becoming something I hadn’t been before. A “new creation”. And it was definitely connected with Jesus, the “great High Priest”. (We won’t at this point get into all the complicated ramifications of this!)

What is true of the “making of a priest” is also true of every one of us.

My comprehension is that “this World” and the “next World” are the same thing, in the context of having been baptized into the Kingdom Life. All artificial barriers dissolve. (All. Think about it.) Which means that here in “this Life” we are called not to DO but to BE. To be what?

To be fully Human. To be “as Christ”. To be “divine”. To be “eternal”. To be “free of the power of sin and death”. Oh, there may be some sense that it is not possible to be “perfected “ in this mortal life. After all, this is just one of an infinite number of stages in the great Mystery of Being!

I would like simply to suggest (notice that I do NOT split infinitives!) that we all concentrate on BEING, not DOING. Just BE Love. Just BE Compassion. Just BE Justice. Just BE Kindness. Just BE Joy. Just BE Simplicity.

To me, this is how we will best understand what Jesus meant when He said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden light”.

Brian+

2011-10-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, October 11, 2011

On the question of relating to our fellowman - our neighbor's
spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else
we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already,
since God is love.

Edith Stein. A Jewish woman, she converted to Roman
Catholicism, and became a Carmelite nun. She was killed
at Auschwitz. On this date, 1998, she was canonized as a
saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

Authentic “saints” always transcend boundaries. In modern times, the Carmelites, at the powerful pressure of Pope John Paul II, were allowed to build a convent near Auschwitz. Jews worldwide objected ….. and in my view rightly so. It was clearly a political move on the part of the Roman Catholic Church, designed to use a Jewish convert for propaganda. Shame. If the Roman Catholic Church were being faithful to Edith Stein, they would have understood her words that our “neighbour’s spiritual needs transcends every commandment”, and recognized that it was contrary to Love to deflect the World’s attention from the horror of the Holocaust for the Jews. And I say this as a Gay man and a Christian, many of whose Gay sisters and brothers suffered at the hands of the Nazis.

Jesus said, “Love one another”. Because to experience God is to know that God is Love. And Love is never restricted by partisan religious politics. Love can have no conditions. Love erases Self, and all of Self’s petty self-interests.

This is what the Christian Church needs today: the renunciation of partisan dogma and self-preservation in order to be faithful to the self-renunciation of Jesus. Jesus did not die for the “salvation of Christians”; He died for the gathering of all people, through the power of Love, into the Community of Compassion and into the one family of Love.

“Our neighbour’s spiritual need transcends every commandment”. Do you think that if we followed this path, the Christian or any other religious community would decrease?

No. We would envelope the World in Love.

Brian+

2011-10-09T20:43:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, October 10, 2011

… when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who
was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, `Friend, how did
you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless. Then
the king said to the attendants, `Bind him hand and foot, and throw him
into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
For many are called, but few are chosen."

The Gospel called “Matthew”, chap 22 (read for Sunday, October 9, 11, RCL)

[ The whole text, for your pondering, is found here: http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/AProp23_RCL.html ]

First: do Jews or Muslims (of whatever stripe) have a lectionary that is followed for worship? Are there websites where they can be found? I’d appreciate knowing..

So: a Kingdom Parable. The central dynamic of the Gospel is to call human beings into the “Kingdom of God”. What is It? Simple: It is the community that Lives Divine Love. Most sensible Christians believe that all human beings are called into the “Kingdom”, and that the Christian Church is called to be a living symbol of this truth.

People often get sidetracked by the passage I’ve quoted. Misunderstood, it sounds very unfair. One must understand this “man without the wedding garment” in the context of the story, which powerfully speaks of the nature of the Kingdom of Love, of its inclusivity, of its importance for the well-being of the human community.

Many things can keep us out of the Kingdom Community. Excuses abound, as the parable relates. The man without the wedding garment is each of us. I once read that at fancy weddings in ancient Middle Eastern times, everyone invited was given a wedding garment. This man reminds us that each human being has been given a garment and invited into the Feast. In other words, to be a loving, compassionate, kind, just human being is of the essence of being human/divine. The “violence” of the man’s being cast out is to remind us that the greatest “sin” is to deny our essence and our destiny ….. to refuse the wedding garment.

Home for us all is in the community of Divine Compassion.

The parable says to us all: Come Home.

Brian+

2011-10-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, October 7, 2011

Insurrection is an art, and like
all arts has its own laws.

Lev Davidovich Bronshtein; he was born
on this date, 1879, in Yanovka, Ukraine.

My whole being tells me that it is time for a religio-theological insurrection. On a world-wide basis.

The word “insurrection” was not used in English until the 15th C. It derives from the Latin verb “insurgere”, meaning something like “to gush up from within”. And from Within is where this must surge.

To put it another way: it is time for the shift to begin of which Nicholas Wade writes - a shift from the age of Homo Sapiens to the age of Homo Universalis. It is time for the human race to start thinking and acting from a different centre if we are to survive as an evolutionary experiment and not just peter out as yet another failed evolutionary branch. The path we are on right now seems on every level to be leading to that failed end. However, being an optimist, I express my hope that the human race could, if it chooses, manage to prolong our “experiment”. My problem is, I have this absurd hope that the Inner Light within us can lead this change ….. but my mind knows that the Inner Light has so often been enslaved by what we call “organized religion”, by the religious equivalent of the Corporation, an entity warped by self-interest, greed, and the enslavement to Power.

An example of how the movement of Divine Compassion and Justice can be thwarted? Today is the 80th birthday of (in my opinion) one of the greatest men to understand and live the Gospel: Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Dalai Llama was invited by him to come to South Africa to share in the event. The South African government did not grant His Holiness a visa. They said that it had nothing to do with pressure from the Chinese government ….. which any intelligent person will know is a patent lie. Mammon rules in our World.

It is time for the emerging Homo Universalis - and especially those who partake in organized religion - either to reform or to do away with all the religious corporations which have perverted the spiritual core of what it is to be Human or to be made in the image of the God of Love.

It is time for us to develop the Art of Religious Insurrection: to move from fragmentation to Unity, to honour the paths by which human beings have sought to understand Compassion, and to learn what it means to give of ourselves that we might all live in Holiness and Peace.

[ Who was Lev Davidovich Bronshtein? Leon Trotsky. ]

Brian+

2011-10-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, October 6, 2011

When you’re blind to your own nature, the Buddha is an ordinary being.
When you’re aware of your own nature, an ordinary being is the Buddha.

Huineng

At this moment in time - and God knows things change! - I firmly believe that there is no “ultimate truth” which says what is true about human nature. Every group of people who thinks about it eventually comes up with their own “truth”, and this becomes enshrined in their culture, religion, literature, philosophy, etc. I do not believe that there is “one way”, and that every one else is wrong. For example, “traditional Jews” believe that they are God’s “Chosen People”. (Reconstructionist Jews do not believe this, nor do they believe that God “gave them” the land now called Israel.) And it seems by their pronouncements that the Roman Catholic Church believes it is the only “true religion” by which one can be in a “saving” relationship with God. And it seems that Muslims believe that their Muhammad is the last “prophet” through whom God will speak. In my view, such views are the work of Evil in the human heart, causing endless bloodshed, hate, prejudice, division, and all manner of wickedness in the life of the human community.

These days, I am deeply intrigued by the question of our identity and our nature as human beings. There are endless propositions about this. My choice - a choice which I believe every human being is responsible for making - is expressed by Huineng, and I believe by Jesus: What we call “God” is the source of all Life ….. and all Life is a manifestation of God. I do not believe that “God” is entirely “the Other”, entirely different from all else that Exists. I choose to believe that Jesus prayed for oneness with God because there is no other truth, no other path by which we know who we essentially are. God is God, we are human ….. and we are One.

If I do not know that I am One with God, and that every human being and all other creatures are therefore part of me, I will be tempted to treat other humans with dishonour. The result can only be the misery we are experiencing in the World these days. But if I know that I am One with God and with all other things, I will honour all Existence as Divine ….. and Peace and Compassion will define us.

Personally, I know that I am One with God, that You are I. What I seek day by day is the integrity to act on this truth.

Brian+

2011-10-04T20:15:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 5, 2011

As long as you're green, you're growing.
As soon as you're ripe, you start to rot.

Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds;

he was born on this date, 1902

Hmmm. Ray Kroc became one of the richest men in the world because he gave people, as he said himself, what they loved. From my personal point of view, he have the world a lethal killer. I rarely ever ate anything from McDonalds, and I have never eaten anything from McDonalds since the day I discovered over 20 years ago that a kid was thrown off his high school wrestling team for drug taking ….. only to discover that it came from the steroids that he ate everyday in McDonalds’ beef. I probably wouldn’t be quoting Ray Kroc, if it weren’t for the fact that his wife, in her will, left millions to NPR in order to make it more independent of political money.

The quote is a little questionable and confusing in terms of its usefulness. The whole point of a plant is to ripen and then to provide full rich nourishment! Yes, if you don’t use it then, at the ripened point, it loses its value. So what has this image to say about being fully human?

To me, it speaks to the wisdom of knowing when to be planted, to die, and then to produce a rich harvest. Yes: that deep wisdom Jesus spoke of. The skill and art of living on that elegant balanced point between vigourous “greenness”, of growth, and of ripeness before rot begins to set in. This, I think, is the art of Love. We must always be growing in Love - and when at any point our Love ripens, we must be willing to “die”, to give it away so that it can nourish and sustain. And out of every giving away, new Love will sprout and grow.

Life is about always being “green”, about ripening, about never allowing the ripe fruit of Love to rot unused. I don’t want to push the metaphor too far - but the cross, in the Christian story, is of a rich fully developed Love poured out at the fullest moment in order to give Life to the World.

In a life of Love, artfully lived, there is freshness and ripeness. Nothing is left to rot.

Brian+

2011-09-28T20:16:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, September 29, 2011

I like not to know for as long as possible because then
it tells me the truth instead of me imposing the truth.

Michael Moschen

I’m old enough to know that if I’m caught up in “imposing the truth”, I’m shutting out Life. Is it a characteristic of youth to need to exert control ….. to put parameters around Existence so as not to feel overwhelmed?; so as to be able to manage? Is this what lies behind prejudice, and control, and tribalism, and all the other things that prevent people from seemingly being able to enter into Oneness with all things? Is this why Jesus, and other great spiritual teachers, tried to teach the Unitive Way ….. with not much success?

I guess it’s not as simple as that. Churches are full of older people ….. but I don’t see that these older people are much better at being open to the truth Life has to teach us. As a matter of fact, I would say that most of the people I know who are open to being taught by Life aren’t part of “organized” religion.

Well, I’ll think more about that. But I have to say that in the last few years of my life, I have less and less interest - or need - to “know”. I want to listen to Life. I have this deep sense that I have missed so much in trying to “master” Life. That I have diminished my life by trying to “impose the truth”.

I feel like I have become a child again, holding off for as long as possible, expecting marvelous things.

Brian+

2011-09-28T08:11:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Pick the Strawberry

Wisdom of the Tao

There is a Taoist parable. A man, running from a tiger, comes to a cliff. He grabs a vine and climbs down. Halfway down, he looks up: the tiger is waiting - his Past. He looks down: another tiger at the bottom - his Future. And one white and one black rat are chewing the vine - Day and Night, for mortality looms.

He looks, and there on the cliff is a lush, red, ripe strawberry. With one hand, he reaches out, plucks the strawberry and eats it.

You get it, right?

Pluck the strawberry! It’s the Reality you have.

Brian+

2011-09-26T20:44:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, September 27, 2011

God exists ……… right???

Brian Orrock McHugh

Both the question and the answer are …..complex.

Question: can God exist without conscious human minds? My answer: No. For better or worst, as the old song goes, “You can’t have one without the other”. If this were not the case, Jesus would be unnecessary.

We can look back into History and concoct various explanations for the “existence of God”. All are interwoven with cultural and intellectual development. Slowly, we have been working towards an understanding of God which is not based on a God who fills in the gaps of Ignorance. To my mind, this is great progress. God surely cannot be a by-product of anything, especially Ignorance.

Does God exist apart from us (human beings)? No. Not in this manifestation of the Universe.

Is God currently being diminished by the present economic, religious, and political state of the World? Without a doubt. The more human beings are trashed, demeaned, insulted, the more the concept of God is devalued. The same thing can be said about the relationship between Science and God.

God is reported to have said, “Your ways are not my ways, nor your thoughts my thoughts”. We’d best pay attention.

My thought: God and Human Beings create each other. We are not separated. We cannot exist without each other. And if we would know anything about “God”, that knowledge must come from within each, in a relationship of Love.

Things for pondering.

Brian+

2011-09-25T21:57:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, September 26, 2011

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've
planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

Joseph Campbell

Ooof!

Brian Orrock McHugh

It’s been a month. And I have felt like hell through it, believe me! Howard (my surgeon) said it would be hell, fixing 2 abdominal hernias one the size of a softball and the other twice as big, having to clear out the mesh and adhesions from the last supposed “fix”, laparoscopic, which didn’t work. All that inner reorganizing worked well (Howard has the reputation of a god around here), and by 2 weeks it was ok. No MRSA caught in the hospital, Thank God. However: 4 weeks of totally exhaustion, 24/7 headache, bouts of breathless gasping for air, numb lips, and (ugh!) a nauseous stomach into which any calories had to be forced. (I lost 15 pounds.) Howard said it could be Fight/Flight adrenaline tension, after the terrific assault on this aging body … and the fourth time the gut has been slashed open on the same fault line.

After tests that showed no blood issues, and an xray showing no blockage, I called Howard and said, “I would like a tranquilizer; my body needs help to cal down.” Bless his heart, he took my advice. Today, after two days of Ativan, I feel 100 % better, and was able to take the two liurgies and preach today. So, we are on the way ….. but I shall remember my dear body’s warning!

I had lots of prayers …. which for me are whispered expressions of love and blessings that filter through the One Consciousness in which we all share, carrying mysticons of peace and love. Thanks! I am on the mend ….. and thinner, a disgusting bit of vanity on my part.

This month’s journey has also reminded me of Campbell’s wisdom. Thinking one can go back to the “status quo” is a fantasy. Many of us get trapped in the dark unhappiness of that delusion, from youth to old age. I know that my four weeks (perhaps a bit more) is a “heads up”: Life is God, and God has more for us that we can “ask or imagine”.

Brian+

2011-08-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend, Sat, August 28, 2011

[NOTE: I shall be having major surgery on Monday at 7am to repair two abdominal hernias. I’ll be in the hospital for a couple of days, and I shall resume the Reflections when able!]

Then Jesus made it clear to his disciples that it was now necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, submit to an ordeal of suffering at the hands of the religious leaders, be killed, and then on the third day be raised up alive. Peter took him in hand, protesting, "Impossible, Master! That can never be!" But Jesus didn't swerve. "Peter, get out of my way. Satan, get lost. You have no idea how God works." Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for? “Don't be in such a hurry to go into business for yourself. Before you know it the Son of Man will arrive with all the splendor of his Father, accompanied by an army of angels. You'll get everything you have coming to you, a personal gift. This isn't pie in the sky by and by. Some of you standing here are going to see it take place, see the Son of Man in kingdom glory."

Matthew 16: 21-28 [The Gospel for this Sunday, Proper 17A]

God bless Dr. Peterson and his great work of “translating” the Gospel into modern idiom… so well! Just read this and ponder.

I think the key phrase is; “You have no idea how God works.”; and “Self-sacrifice is the way”. That’s what the Way of the Cross is. And it is the path to full personal fulfillment and to joy.

I “know” that the compilers of the Gospel, some 40-70 years after Jesus, redacted the now “Scriptures” to include their own theology and belief and experience. And perhaps it was even edited as late as just before Nicea (325). It is important to understand this. But here I agree: the words that are put in the mouth of Jesus here are spot on when it comes faithfully to interpreting the Gospel Message.

We must understand “how God works”. God’s message is of Radical Love. It is the utter nature of God, and of human beings if we have the courage to seek it. The Darkness has almost succeeded in eviscerating this Truth in the World today. But we all long for the life of Radical Love, and for the peace it brings.

Christ must lead ….. and we all know, whoever we are, what that means: Pour out Love, and embrace everyone.

Brian+

2011-08-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, August 26, 2011

Not everyone shares this sympathy of mine for hope. Nietzsche, for example,
calls it the “virtue of the weak”. … In the course of the centuries there have
also appeared from time to time affirmations and tendencies of Christians that
were too pessimistic with regard to man. But these affirmations were disapproved
by the Church and were forgotten, thanks to a host of joyful and hardworking
saints, to Christian humanism, to ascetic teachers … and to a comprehensive
theology. St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, puts among the virtues jucunditas
or the capacity of changing things heard and seen into a cheerful smile … When
St. Thomas declared that joking and making people smile was a virtue, he was in
agreement with the “glad tidings” preached by Christ, and with the hilaritas
recommended by St. Augustine. He overcame pessimism, clothed Christian life
in joy and invited us to keep up our courage also with the healthy, pure joys,
which we meet on our way.

Pope John Paul I. He was elected Pope on this date, 1978; He died 33 days later.

A long quote, I know. I regret few things ….. but I regret that this man had such a short pontificate. Something tells me that he would have joined Pope John XXIII as one of my heroes.

I find such a grimness in so many communities of faith today. They seem to have lost their way, mired in ugly politics and the preservation of worldly power and in the ugly theologies that rationalize them. I wish there were some way that I could send these words of John Paul I to every person of faith for them to meditate on today, as I hold them up to myself and to you.

I had a lovely moment today. Dennis and I took Holy Communion to one of our fellow parishioners. His caregiver Michael was there, and was wearing on a chain around his neck a small picture of a smiling woman. It was Amma, known as the “hugging saint”, of whom Michael is a devotee. She smiles and hugs people with loving devotion; it’s her life and work ….. but she also gathers millions to help the poor and destitute. She changes peoples’ lives.

Simple “healthy pure joys” that instill hope. I’m with John Paul I; I share his sympathy for Hope as a light to the human spirit. And for the way that Hope stirs us to compassion for each other.

Jucunditas and hilaritas. I’d like to be known for them both.

Brian+

2011-08-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, August 25, 2011

True affluence is not needing anything.

Gary Snyder, American poet, writer,
teacher

This is like a little koan ….. not surprising, since Gary lived in Japan in a Zen monastery for some years. So, like my Reflections (say I defensively), it’s not meant to encompass “all truth” and voice every aspect of an issue. It’s meant to get one thinking.

I’ve trained myself on the Principle of Non-Need ….. and “Need” is what essentially Gary is talking about. My friends chuckle about all my stuff, from piles of elegant Limoges china to 19th C antique Italian carnelian intaglio rings to an iPad, iTouch, and MacBook. Perhaps my 15 years in a monastic order guided me in this. I’ve collected all sorts of things ….. and I’ve given them away, or sold them when I moved, or exchanged them for something else ….. or for nothing. And I have enjoyed every single thing I’ve had, used it, and appreciated it. And delighted in knowing that someone else was enjoying them when they were gone.

But I don’t need them, and I certainly don’t need them in order to be “happy”. We’re not talking here about the basic things that all human beings need and should have, like a place to live and enough to eat and appropriate clothing ….. and I would add the ability to enjoy the wonders and beauty of creation, and a community. It’s the “accessories” I’m talking about. I can be as delighted by a good toasted bagel with real butter as a fabulous lunch at Benoit in Paris.

“Affluence” implies contentment. “Need” connotes dissatisfaction. I’ve been fortunate enough to have the basics (and more at times!). But on the whole, I can be as delighted and charmed by a meadow full of California poppies as I can by an elegant hotel on the Amalfi Coast.

Knowing what’s important is the key. I’ve found that pursuing perceived needs usually leads to an aching kind of poverty. Appreciating whatever comes along brings the peace of simplicity.

Brian+

2011-08-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Taste every fruit of every tree in the garden
at least once. It is an insult to creation not to
experience it fully. Temperance is wickedness.

Stephen Fry, English actor [Wooster & Jeeves] and writer;
he was born on this date, 1957, at Hampstead, London

Yes, I agree [in general, which is to say that the Rule may be proved by a few exceptions depending on our individual makeup]. Mothers who said, “At my table, you will at least try every food once” I am totally in agreement with. I am very glad that my own mother - within the limits of lower-middleclass Verdun Scottish/English cookery - had me try kidneys (YUM! – especially in Steak & Kidney pie with a luscious crust made with lard, and eaten with HP Sauce!); beef liver; Brussels sprouts (served soaked in butter); bread fried in bacon fat (bless my father!); Blood Pudding (fabulous when fried crispy, and served with friend eggs); the Spanish make it with raisins ….. such clever people; I love a little sweetness!; snake (in Liberia); dog fried in palm oil (sorry, it was very tasty; cultures are different.); Haggis (utterly fabulous!); Black Russians; Poppers.

There are some foods I’ve tried ….. just once, and have no need or desire to try again: tripe; beef tongue; head cheese (thoroughly disgusting); fried locust in Morocco (well, maybe again); raw living conch; sea cucumbers (utterly revolting); Scotch.

Moving to a more “spiritual” level, I could make the same kind of list about Religions/forms of worship. For fear of being stalked and killed in my bed by fanatics, I shall refrain from naming them. Some are FAR better than others ….. Just Saying! And, I can say the same thing about sexual experiences; Propriety restrains me.

The World is chock full of absolutely amazing things, and people and ideas of stunning variety.

Be adventurous. Giv’em a Go! Narrow-mindedness is just a form of Fear, which is, like Temperance, wickedness!

Brian+

2011-08-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of
Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.

Mark Russell, American comedian; he
was born on this date, 1932, at Buffalo NY.

The theological theory I like the best is that God sat down and wrote the Bible and had it transcribed by human scribes ….. into Hebrew and Greek! Everyone can use a good laugh now and then ….. and this theory provides me many a good belly laugh! It is about as plausible as Mark’s theory of the rings of Saturn – and just as frustrating as the aggravation of lost luggage!

One of the things I love about reading the Bible is the insight It offers into human nature. The Bible is relentless at poking fun at us – and this is even funnier when we recognize that we mainly composed it ourselves! Every one of our human foibles: our egomaniacal self-importance, our deviousness, our charming naïveté, our wickedness, our self-delusion, our lovely hopes and dreams, our beauty - they all surface in the text of the Bible. Without realizing it, we gave ourselves the great gift in the Bible of a mirror in which to see our true selves with all our warts and our wondrousness.

Awareness of the truth about ourselves is one of the primary tools to freedom, health, and wholeness ….. and towards peace and enjoyment of each other. God is very clever. She knows, understanding how we are made, that it is in walking the clear-eyed path of self-knowledge that we shall grasp the truth, and that doing this ourselves holds out the greatest possibility of our breaking free into a Life as wild and wonderful as whirling around like a bit of lost luggage in the rings of Saturn!

Brian+

2011-08-18T20:13:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, August 19, 2011

You must descend from  your head into your heart. 
At present your thoughts of God  are in your head.
And God Himself is,  as it were, outside you, and 
so your prayer and other spiritual  exercises  remain
exterior. Whilst you are still  in your head,  thoughts
will not easily be subdued but  will always be whirling
about, like snow  in winter or  clouds of mosquitoes
in summer.

Theopan the Recluse 1815-1894

I’ll be preaching about this on Sunday; the Gospel reading is about Jesus asking, “who do people say the Son of Man is?” And Peter’s response: “You are the Messiah, the Son of God”. I’ll be helping us to explore what all this means.

But I want to deal with a critical point here. And that is this: God cannot be “outside you” and be real.

There is no separation between the “God” of which human beings have conceived and ourselves. Jesus prayed that there would be Oneness between God and us, as there was between Him and His Heavenly Father; it is presented in the Gospel of John as Jesus’ deepest longing.

As long as God remains “outside”, God is not real. We know this when we stop “thinking” about God and we “connect” with God, become bonded with God.

But there is another more radical dimension to this, and it is this: God cannot be real until we understand that we and God are the same thing. God is given Life when any human being glimpses the truth that God is born when God is incarnated in any human heart. That is why Theophan says what he says about descending from our head into our heart ….. and why God must be, mythologically speaking, “born of the Virgin Mary”. God can only exist at the core of you and me.

God cannot manifest until we experience the moment Peter had: “You are the Messiah, the Son of God!”. This has nothing to do with church politics! - with the establishment of a church and a church hierarchy. Peter suddenly understood that Jesus was a full human being created in God’s image – and that so was he. Peter knew at that moment that Jesus had saved him from living a limited, truncated Life. And hence he saw Jesus as the Messiah, God’s Anointed Messenger. I think it is clear in the Scripture that if Jesus saw Himself as the “Messiah”, it was as this sort of Messiah, Saviour, a Giver of the Gift of Live and not a political or military one.

Jesus is You and I become whole. When we “see” that, we have the “keys of the kingdom”. In that Kingdom, we can unlock wholeness for all.

Brian+

2011-08-18T05:35:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, August 18, 2011

O my Lord,  if I worship you  from fear of hell,
burn me in hell.  
If I worship you  from hope of Paradise,
bar me from its gates.  
But if I worship you  for yourself alone,
grant me then the beauty of your Face.  

Rabi'a 717-801

Rewards. Oh we human beings: we want “our just due”, what we deserve”. It’s related, of course, to the path which leads to our claiming our full humanity and our own particular unique personhood - where “I” and “Love” are One ….. or at least striving towards it.

For Rabi’a, the Face of God is Love – and we must love the Face of God for what it is and for no other reason. Otherwise, we will fail of our destiny. We don’t love to “get something” (Paradise). We don’t love because we are afraid. We don’t love to “be good”.

We love because it is who we are, and who we long to be. The true reward of Love is Love itself. It’s all we need.

Brian+

2011-08-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, August 17, 2011

He who hesitates is a damned fool.

I always say, keep a diary and someday it'll keep you.

I like a man who's good, but not too good –
for the good die young, and I hate a dead one.

I speak two languages, Body and English.

I've been in more laps than a napkin.

It's not the men in my life that count, it's the life in my men.

Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.

You Know Who; she was born
on this date, 1893, in Brooklyn

Hey! It’s Laugh Wednesday!! And who better but …..Mae West. What a character! Last time I wrote a Reflection about Mae, a friend gave me a marvelous collage. On the left is Mae, in a skin-tight silver-satin dress and fabulous fluffy boa, long blond hair cascading. On the right, above her signature (anyone want to make a bid???) are three pictures: her in a tight dark floor-length dress and long-trained feather coat, surrounded by four men in tuxes; her and two tuxed men kissing her cheeks; and her in high white father turban surrounded by eight buffed muscled men in bathing suits ….. very 40’s! Very Mae!

Marlene Dietrich’s daughter once told me that, when Mae had a dressing room across from her mother and her mother was away, Mae would steel the flowers that had been left! Good for her! I would have too.

Remember George Burns in “Oh God”? That movie was great, because it reminded us that laughs and humour are part of the character of the “Gods” we humans imagine ….. and that’s as it should be. God is Life - and Life would be sorely diminished without laughter. One of the things I have always loved about Gay men is their camp humour! They can make even death from AIDS funny ….. and it’s healing. I remember someone being trained as an AIDS buddy asking one of our trainers how to deal with a person who was really nasty. Bob, with an arching of the eyebrow, prefaced his remarks with, “Remember honey; asshole before AIDS, asshole after Aids!”. We cracked up ….. and compassion shined.

God we humans are funny! I’m going to look for that today, in myself and in others.

Brian+

2011-08-15T20:58:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Doing defines being. A religion must be
judged on the basis of its adherents' behavior.

The Rev. Harry T. Cook (a colleague
and valued friend I’ve never met
in person – but we will!)

Harry may think that I could have found more “profound” things he’s said to quote! Anyway, I urge you to Google him; I think you would find his writings and musings very stimulating.

I think about all the things that I have said or written in over 40 years of preaching. I would guess that there might be less than 10 of those things that anyone has remembered. What people remember is what I’ve done. You knew my name at the altar rail the first time I came to Communion. You appeared at midnight at the hospital when my son was hit by a car, even though you didn’t know us. You received the quilt that I made for my lover who had died of AIDS, and I’ll always remember your hug. You gave the blessing in Italian at our wedding, something my inlaws have never forgotten. You’ve remembered by birthday for the last 23 years!

Pope John XXIII is a personal hero; I don’t remember a thing he said or wrote. I remember that he gave fake baptismal certificates to hundreds of Jews to get them away from the Nazis.

When it comes to what makes a difference, people may not remember the things that God has purportedly said; they will remember that they are unconditionally loved.

Many of America’s politicians these days play the god-card to the hilt. Ultimately, they – and their God - will be judged not by what they said but by their compassion for those they wish to lead.

Brian+

2011-08-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, August 15, 2011

Let it be to me according to Your will.

The Blessed Virgin Mary; her feast
day is today (variously called “The Feast
of the BVM (spare, non-committal; how
Anglican!); the Assumption (how Roman!);
the Dormition (how Orthodox!) The
Protestants don’t keep it (how Protestant!)
Who knows when she was born,
if born, how born; IMHO she is, at most
profound, an eternal Myth of the God
potentially given birth in each of us.

O, what a tangled web we weave
when first we practice to deceive!

Sir Walter Scott, poet, novelist; he was
born on this date, 1771, in Edinburgh
(God, I love Scotland!)

A closed mind is a dying mind.

Edna Ferber, she was born on this
date, 1885, in Kalamazoo MI

All religions have been made by men.

Napoleon, Emperor; he was born on this
date, 1769, on the isle of Corsica

August 15. What a Bonanza! So, here’s a hodge-podge.

The BVM. If anyone asks you, you heard it here folks! Here’s the skinny. The Mystery of what it means to be Alive has occurred in you and in me and in every existing thing. You are Mary, I am Mary ….. IF we assent to be Theotokoi – bearers of Life. Our choice.

Scott: Truth is the ultimate source of Freedom, Peace, and Joy. First step: self-knowledge.

Ferber: Minds can be fueled by Fear or by Wonder. Choose Wonder.

Napoleon: Religion is the structure humans build around Mystery. They mustn’t be confused; the mistake is fatal. Religion is only a (wo)manmade tool ….. and if we mis-shape the tool, the end can only be profoundly deforming. Look around.

Living is ecstasy. So I find it, more and more as I age. Dennis’s smile leaves me breathless!

Brian+

2011-08-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, August 12, 2011

Faith is not belief.
Belief is passive.
Faith is active.

Edith Hamilton, classisist, mythologist;
she was born on this date, 1867.

I think that Edith Hamilton got my imaginative life (and therefore what I think of as my “real” life) going. I was quite young when I read “The Greek Way”, “The Roman Way”, and “Mythology”. Though I did read “Peyton Place” under the covers with a flashlight, I was more likely to be reading Hamilton. And I think I will start reading all three again. (I’ve just downloaded “The Greek Way” to my ipad.)

Hamilton is, I believe, correct. “Faith is not Belief.” I’ve been a priest for nearly 40 years. For most of those years I have detested the Nicene Creed barging it’s way into the Sacred Liturgy. I have always thought of the Liturgy (the Holy Eucharist) as a great mythological poem weaving us into the life of the great Mystery we call God, enlivening us as part of the whole matrix of Being, and shaping us into active living epiphanies of Divine Love. The Nicene (or Apostles’) Creed, with its beginning “I/we believe”, always seemed to me an intrusion of politics, proclaiming our club membership and ensuring our loyalty to a 4th C definition of the institution of the “Church” (a definition I always find suffocatingly narrow and dry).

Not only is Faith active rather than passive, it is dynamic. It changes and grows, and pushes, entices us to grow and change as well. “Belief” seems to me designed to fixate us forever in one dead place. To my mind, this is particularly evident in World religion today. Belief is often exclusive; Faith is inclusive.

The “Hellenization” of the Christian story is often decried. Personally I give thanks for Paul of Tarsus’s Greek grounding, and his faith in the universal Mythic Christ. It lifts us Christians into unity with the eternal God in whom all human beings find our Glory.

Brian+

2011-08-10T21:08:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, August 11, 2011

Either you deal with what is the reality,
or you can be sure that the reality is
going to deal with you.

Alex Haley, author [“Roots”]; he was born on
this date, 1921, in Ithaca NY

Almost every great spiritual teacher will tell you that fantasy, denial, self-unawareness is one of the surest paths to misery. I agree.

Since the time I left Canada in the late summer of 1967 to come to Holy Cross Monastery to “try” my vocation as a monastic, I have identified that as a “guidance of the spirit” in leading me towards wholeness and health and strength. And I am grateful. It was successful. Holy Cross gave me a life centered in a beautiful God Who loved everyone, and a diverse community of almost all Gay men who mentored me, intentionally or not. (Some were closeted.)

Here I was: this fat 21 year old. Who knew that he was sexually and emotionally attracted to men when he was eight years old. Who knew intuitively that he was called to be a priest from an even earlier age. How the hell does this stuff happen to a kid living in Verdun Quebec in the 50’s??? Now I know how it happens: There is a Great and mysterious Spirit of the Universe that seeks to guide each of us to the full Life we are destined for. My greatest disappointment is how almost every culture I have been a part of seeks to quash that destiny. When I try to think of how that can be changed, I sigh in sadness. Living in America today makes it exponentially more difficult.

Alex Haley is right. Reality will out. Like it or not. Reality can’t be suppressed. It eventually will sneak up on you and demand recognition - and the more you ignore it, the more hell you will go through.

Jesus was a Master at calling people to Reality. (The Israelite prophets were too.) The Israelites on their interpretation of “The Law”. Individuals on their loony concepts of Truth. His disciples especially on their self-delusions ….. including those of us who follow millennia later.

There is no way to become whole without dealing with Reality. We have to be ruthless at it. God bless AA for the way that they demand it of each other! Would that the Church were as fearless!

Reality is one of our best friends. Hold it close.

Brian+

2011-08-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, August 9, 2011

As for doing good; that is one of the professions
which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and,
strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does
not agree with my constitution.

Henry David Thoreau; on this date, 1854, he
published “Walden”, of his time spent on the
pond. I lived near there for 18 months.

Do-gooders. Hmmmm. I’m with Thoreau; “doing good” in and of itself “does not agree with my constitution”.

I have often thought of Jesus’ rather sharp response to the person who called him “good”. “Why do you call me good?!” I think He wanted to make the point that Goodness, arrogated to oneself, is just abominable pride, as well as a failure to recognize that Goodness can only authentically manifest itself when it is a reflection of a human being’s unity with the character of Divine Love. Goodness is a charism of humility; a do-gooder lacks love, as well as self-awareness.

Do-goodism think itself better than others. It “puffs up”. It is like that Pharisee who gave thanks that he was “not like other men”. Meaning, better.

None of us is any better than anyone else. Authentic Goodness flows from those who grasp this truth.

Brian+

2011-08-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, August 8, 2011

1. Don't try to tear down other people's religion
about their ears. Build up your own perfect
structure of truth, and invite your listeners
to enter in and enjoy it's glories.

2. Honest hearts produce honest actions.

3. We should never permit ourselves to do anything
that we are not willing to see our children do.

Brigham Young. He was chosen to lead the Mormons
on this date, 1844, after Joseph Smith was killed

I am “using” Brigham Young today to reflect on the differences between what “founders” say and what their followers do. To reflect on how difficult it is to remain true to what those Founders taught and lived in their lives. And to reflect on how difficult it is to interpret what the Founders meant. As an example, John and Charles Wesley did not intend to found another Christian church; they remained Anglican clergy. But their followers had other ideas. It is my own opinion that Jesus did not intend to found a religion beyond a Judaism He wished to reform; but his followers had other ideas.

Re. 1: Eventually every religion comes to the point of thinking that it alone has the “truth”, and it begins to denigrate and vilify all others. (Hinduism may be an exception.) More to the point: almost every religion eventually demands of its followers that it conform to the established doctrine, and begins to suspect and to expel those who do not agree with the church’s doctrine/dogma. An almost fascist conformity to purism develops. Then a suspicion of disagreement. Finally a pathology and a fear of disagreement – and before you know it, the wisdom of the Founders is rejected. In my view, almost everything that Jesus taught about Love and Compassion and Justice and Sisterhood has been denied at times by the churches that profess to follow His Gospel. We forget that the best witness and evangelism is, as Young says, living your path faithfully and offering it to others by the example of your life.

Re. 2: It was with dishonest hearts that the Mormon Church spent millions of dollars to fight and defeat Proposition 8 in California. As well (along with many others) deny rights to women and Blacks. Even one of their own Elders eventually publically said so and apologized – deceitfully so after their money and prejudices had denied equal rights to their fellow American citizens. They may have been promoting what they believed. But they were denying the validity of other religious groups in the country who supported Prop 8, and sought by money to impose their will. They were not “inviting”; they were imposing.

Re. 3: I would hope that Mormon parents today would not want their children to deprive fellow Americans of their legal and constitutional rights. More to the point, would not want others’ children to deprive THEM of their legal and constitutional rights, or subject them to mistreatment and hate that they themselves would not wish to experience, as Joseph Smith did.

There are many (not all, thank Goodness) religions in America today, including particularly Christian (including the largest Christian denomination) and Mormon and some Islamic, and the peculiar brand of Christianity called “Evangelical” (what a travesty of the blessed Compassion of the Gospel proclamation of the four Scriptural Evangelists!) which are seeking to deny the religious freedom of their fellow citizens by imposing their political will through the vast amounts of money thy control. They buy and threaten politicians.

Most religions today run on fear and on a will to power, contrary in most cases to the vision of their Founders. It is time it stopped.

Brian+

2011-08-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, August 5, 2011

A human being - what is a human being? Everything
and nothing. Through the power of thought it can
mirror everything it experiences. Through memory
and knowledge it becomes a microcosm, carrying the
world within itself. A mirror of things, a mirror of facts.
Each human being becomes a little universe within
the universe!

Guy de Maupassant, novelist, short-story writer; he was
born on this date, 1850, at the château de Miromesnil,
near Dieppe.

That is the Big Question, isn’t it? Who am I? Who are we? What are we here for? I used to think about this when I was a child (in the way of a child, of course!), lying in our rowboat out on the lake in Montfort in the dark of a mountain country night, watching the Milky Way above. I think that this is the Question that most motivates us on all levels. It is the fountainhead of art, inquiry, religion, emotional maturity, relationships. It is the Mother of God ….. where the idea of “God” is born.

It has been proposed by scientists (some very ancient) and philosophers and psychiatrists and theologians that all things are connected: all part of a One; all part of The One Reality of Being; part of the One Universe. St. Paul was to use this idea in speaking of the nature of the Christian Community and, by extension, of the nature of the human race: we are the parts making up one Body. In my life, I have come to see that “Christ”, as the manifestation of God, is Being - the Universe. And that we human beings are not only a “part”, but that we are the fullness of Being ….. as de Maupassant says, “a little universe within the universe”. When St. Paul talks about “putting on the mind of Christ”, I understand him to be trying to get us to see that we are God in some mystical way. There is no separation.

I think that so much of the trouble in the human community these days - as it has been so often throughout Time - is that we have such a diminished perception of Who we Are. We hold a “low doctrine” of our self and of each other. But what of we were taught to think of ourselves as one Universe encountering another Universe, with all the vast beauty and majesty and wonder and power that one sees from the bottom of a rowboat on a clear Laurentian night! Soon we would not be able to look into each others’ eyes without Love.

I can hope, can’t I? And try to live the vision.

Brian+

2011-08-03T21:22:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, August 4, 2011

"O gentle child, beautiful as thou wert,
Why didst thou leave the trodden paths of men
Too soon, and with weak hands though mighty heart
Dare the unpastured dragon in his den?
Defenceless as thou wert, oh, where was then
Wisdom the mirrored shield, or scorn the spear?
Or hadst thou waited the full cycle, when
Thy spirit should have filled its crescent sphere,
The monsters of life's waste had fled from thee like deer.

Percy Bysshe Shelly, poet; this is a stanza from
“Adonais”, his elegy for Keats. Shelly lived in Rome
with Keats and nursed him as Keats died from
consumption. Shelley was born on this date, 1792.

[ The complete poem can be found here: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/adonais/ ]

Dennis and I went to the Spanish Steps in Rome at about 8am a few weeks ago. I had been there several times, but not at that early hour. When I’d been there, it was packed with people, local and tourists. This morning, we were almost alone. I took this picture (above) of the little house in which John Keats died, where Shelley cared for him, and which is now the Keats and Shelley House. (Byron stayed there too.)

The first time I sat on the Spanish Steps and gazed at the house, I had with me a copy of “Adonais”. I was about 30 – four years older that Keats when he died. It was that morning, as I sat there reading Shelley’s “Adonais” that I became consciously aware that I was a Romantic. That I first understood Melancholy! It was a life-changing moment, spiritually and emotionally.

I remember reading:

For he is gone, where all things wise and fair
Descend; -oh, dream not that the amorous Deep
Will yet restore him to the vital air;
Death feeds on his mute voice, and laughs at our despair -

and consciously pondering death for the first time, the “not-knowingness” - something which deeply shaped and affected my life as a priest, and my sense of how important living every moment was.

We know not how much time we have. It would be well to live it fearlessly – and to know Why!!

Brian+

2011-08-02T21:37:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, August 3, 2011

There comes a time when every scientist,
even God, has to write off an experiment.

P. D. James (Baroness James of Holland Park),
writer of “detective stories” (she said herself!);
she was born on this date, 1920, in Oxford,
and is 91 today.

We are “created in the image of God”. That’s a fairly widely-held theological concept amongst most Christians. In general, it means that human beings are to be Compassionate, Loving, Kind, Just, and a few other core things which characterize the Divine nature of the Judeo-Christian God.

I am both a theological optimist and pessimist on this issue of being “made in the Divine Image” at the same time. On the one hand, I work to live my Hope and Trust and Faith in the Divine character of human beings. On the other - like these times in which we are living - I really think that Baroness James is right: God should give up on His experiment! Human beings “like God”? No way Jose!

But then. Dennis and I were in New Mexico this past week, setting up a trailer as a temporary home on our land there. (It will later become the Guest Casita!) It was complicated. But! A delightful bulldozer operator (who looked like Onslow in “Keeping Up Appearances”!) came and tidied up the land; he did a fine job – and said just to pay when we could. The delightful woman from whom we bought the trailer did everything possible to help us get that organized, including finding a persosn to haul it. She and I had a great conversation as that was being organized. A tire had to be changed – and Mike the garage man lent us his big car jack, no problem. Charlie, who moved the trailer, was as helpful “beyond the call” as he could have been. The young man in the Do It Store, where we bought paving stones and a chain to lay across the driveway went out of his way to help ….. and was as pleasant as he could be. The man in the Ace Hardware store was the same when we went to buy duct tape and a lock. Two guys at breakfast one morning told us about their decades-long hobby of discovering and studying bugs ….. yes, bugs! (And if we had not talked, we might easily have made unwarranted assumptions.) And when I wondered what saint it was depicted in a wonderful large painting in the Jalisco Café where we had a couple of fine lunches, the server went off and found out for me (St. Michael the Archangel – even though it looks like a woman).

So: politicians and terrorists and fundamentalists go on making havoc and suffering for many. Love and Religion fail or, worse, actively make suffering worse. It would be easy to be a pessimist about God’s “human experiment”.

But: there were these wonderful, interesting, helpful people.

I learned my lesson. And recognized the Gift I was given. The Experiment continues.

Brian+

2011-07-31T20:17:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, August 1, 2011

An act of love that fails is just as much a part
of the divine life as an act of love that succeeds,
for love is measured by its own fullness,
not by its reception.

Harold Loukes

I have often thought that God is deeply disappointed that all that God did/does to draw the Human race to a life of holy love seems to have been and continues to be such a colossal failure. All that compassion, concern, outpouring of love, gift of the Christ in the person of the Son, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection - the Christian Story lays it all out there in an anthropomorphic manner by which we can be touched and moved and transformed.

Nope. God is up there sitting on the Sapphire Throne; Handel leading the orchestra and chorus (Tina Turner and her band are in another soundproof area, and everyone can choose what they want to hear); mounds of heavenly shrimp rest in huge silver ice buckets; cool water and crisp Riesling (God is partial to a little sweetness!) are to the ready. The Holy Ghost is a little cranky at not being able to be there, but She is keeping busy trying to push the human race along on the Path of Divine Love, nothing of not persistent. All the Saints have come carrying huge baskets of golden crowns which they cast in reckless abandon as tokens of their delight.

Yes, today waves of pain have washed over the vast Throne Room - the wails of all the poor of America, of aging workers deprived of so much of the benefits they paid for in health care and a decent living in retirement because of a need to finance war, drenched in the contempt of the gloating super-rich and politicians and corporations benefiting no one but themselves. Yet again the reception of Divine Love has been rejected. In an unprecedented action, God, weeping, called for three hours of Silence ….. unprecedented since the Crucifixion. A muting of celebration has been called for the duration.

But “love is measured by its own fullness, not by its reception”. Failures occur; God knew this would be the case from the beginning of the experiment.

God will go on loving ….. always hoping that the human race and the American experiment will soon come up to speed. And God will continue to bless all who seek to live the Life of Compassion and the Way of Justice and of Peace, the Life of “bearing one another’s burdens” and so fulfilling the Law of Christ. (Gal.6)

Brian+

2011-07-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend, Sat, July 30, 2011

Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them
something to eat." They replied, "We have nothing here but
five loaves and two fish." And he said, "Bring them here to me."

The Gospel called “Matthew”, Chap 14
[ for Sunday, July 31 – Pentecost VII – Proper 13A - RCL ]

[ The full text(s) can be found at: http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=153 ]

This is from the story usually called “The Feeding of the Five Thousand”. I think it is essentially a story about becoming/being a fully-functioning human being. It is, therefore, about discovering, unearthing, what we call the Divinity Within.

Human Beings who do not make the Inward Journey to the throne where sits the Fountain of Life are like the normal use of the human brain: we are firing on only a couple of the potentially available number of cylinders - “five loaves and two fishes”. We are like Adam the first Human in the second Genesis Creation Myth, before the Divine Breath enters him. A sack of stuff. An empty vessel.

Mind, Heart, and Spirit must flower for us to become a true and Living Being.

“Bring them here to me.” The story in Matthew appears to be Jesus taking material things, making more material things by Divine power, and physically feeding people to sustain their hungry bodies. But the story is really about Jesus taking the material of human nature, binding it to Himself and therefore to God, and transforming the crowd into complete human beings.

This, I think, is what each of us is being invited to today.

If we “have ears to hear”, then let us hear.

Brian+

2011-07-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Don't take life too seriously.
You'll never get out alive.

Bugs Bunny; he made his debut
in the Warner Bros. animated
cartoon "A Wild Hare", on this
date, 1940 (Imagine! 71 years!)

Bugs. Very wise! Of course I used to watch him on our Westinghouse (or was it RCA?) black & white TV when I was a kid in Canada. Munching, note, on his healthy carrot! No Cheesy Poofs for Bugs!

Not taking Life too seriously is, of course, a paradox. The less seriously we take it, the more seriously we do, because we’ve fathomed one of those magical principles of Life. I’ve certainly seen that being able to laugh at the crazinesses and weirdnesses of people is the first step towards being liberated to love them - and it certainly changes how we “see” each other and respond to each other.

We may “default” - though why that should be a bad thing for a country that has to borrow over 14 trillion dollars just to manage is beyond me - people who owe a hundred thou on a house keep getting deprived of their homes, so why not the United States of America? (I know, I know: I OBVIOUSLY don’t understand world economics, right?)

So, each morning after Dennis brings me (bless his heart) my tea in bed, I listen to about 3 minutes (not more, or I get stoked up in anger) of way-too-serious politicians puffing out their ideological chests and acting like Wiley Coyote or Yosemite Sam, and chuckle. Then I get on with prepping myself to do my best to be a caring, thoughtful, compassionate person.

Financial default might just be a spiritual blessing in disguise! Carrots instead of Starbucks at $3.50 a pop and $5.00 muffins. Yum! I can already hear my intestines rumbling their roughaged thanks!

Brian+

2011-07-24T22:01:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, July 25, 2011

Paradoxically, we achieve true wholeness only by embracing
our fragility and sometimes, our brokenness. Wholeness is a
natural radiance of Love, and Love demands that we allow the
destruction of our old self for the sake of the new.

Jalaja Bonheim (in Aphrodite's Daughter)

Hmmmm. I work on the principle that the Universe, Life, the World, the Mind, whatever, offer us various wisdoms and principles by which to live. Gazillions! Even given the fact that there are various processes that try to organize all this into categories we can deal with - religion, philosophy, art, fiction, etc - the fact remains that it is quite a job to test them out and make our choices. At least I find it so. But eventually we have to choose a path ….. or not, I suppose - and I often wonder which group is the most successful.

Bonheim offers three Principles here. Where am I with them? Where are you? In the limited way of 65 years and of an only rather modest capacity for courage and risktaking, I’ve tried all three out. Without going into all the gory or lurid details, Do I find useful, practical wisdom in “Wholeness is a natural radiance of Love”? Yes. I’ve satisfied myself, my own desires, my longings; that has been somewhat pleasurable. When I’ve loved and cared for others, I’ve felt more whole - more like what I wish to be.

“Love demands that we allow the destruction of our old self for the sake of the new”. Yes; I agree. I’ve resisted change and I’ve embraced change ….. and found that one must change in order to mature as a person. The “old self” is designed to self-destruct. No destruction, no butterfly, metaphorically speaking.

“Paradoxically, we achieve true wholeness only by embracing our fragility and sometimes, our brokenness.” I have tried at times in my Life to eliminate, deny, ignore, repress my fragility and my brokenness. No luck. Eventually, it sneaks up and smacks you up the side of the head. Fragility and brokenness (think of Jesus on the cross, a core metaphor of this truth) is Who We Are. Wholeness must include everything.

What’s the message? As I see it: Be Real. Reject nothing that we discover is part of being Human. Love all that is, perhaps especially the brokenness, the fear, the helplessness, in ourselves and in others. I think there is enough evidence that this leads more to wholeness and peace and serenity than not.

Brian+

2011-07-23T20:44:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend, Sat, July 23, 2011

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed …..
is like yeast …..
is like treasure hidden in a field …..
is like a merchant in search of fine pearls …..
is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind …..

The Gospel [Proper 12A, Pentecost VI, Year A];
from the Gospel called “Matthew”

[ The full texts can be found here: http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=152 ]

So. What is “IT”? The mustard seed. The yeast. The treasure. The fine pearl. The net.

IT can be thought of as a soul open to Radical Love. IT is the seed of that Love.

Radical Love knows: Things change. Human beings … and God … change . Human beings have the capacity to sense when we can expand the wonder of being human. It is a sense of “pleasure” in mind, body, spirit. It has to do with power, yes; but not the deceptive power that derives from control. Rather from the pleasure of seeing oneself in others and sensing shared Life.

Radical Love gathers all in ….. like the mustard tree. Radical Love expands the capacity for Life ….. like the yeast. Radical Love is so valuable for being fully human that we must desire it above all things ….. like the treasure hidden. Radical Love is worth giving all for ….. the pearl of great price. Radical Love draws in every aspect of living and experience that makes Life luscious and mouthwatering and rich.

Some editor of the Gospel version called “Matthew” added the apocalyptic business with its typical “end times” focus. Often these additions detract. But in this case, I think it can be helpful. They remind us of the urgency, in terms of living Life fully, of understanding the critical importance of embracing Radical Love as the path to Joy, of Ecstasy, of inner Peace.

I think the Gospel teaches that Radical Love is the heart of being Human. Jesus’ life tells us to die to anything less.

Brian+

2011-07-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, July 22, 2011

Honesty has come to mean the privilege of insulting
you to your face without expecting redress.

Miss Manners

No. It is not the birthday, death day, or any other significant day in the life of Miss Manners (aka Judith Martin), the inimitable doyen of modern day good manners and etiquette. But it is the birthday, in 1908, of Amy Vanderbilt, the self-appointed earlier such doyenne to another age. I couldn’t find anything really interesting to say about Amy, but it was (well, for me anyway!) a natural segue to Miss Manners!

You know the classic “old joke” yes, about ingenious segues? A priest preached always about confession. An annoyed group of parishioners determined to sidetrack him, so they asked him to preach on a Biblical text, which would be placed in the pulpit just before the sermon time. He agreed. The text the priest found was , “Now Joseph was a carpenter.” He announced the text and said, “… and Joseph made church confessional boxes, which leads me to my theme for the day.”

In general, I agree that “Honesty is the best policy”. But there are exceptions to every rule, yes? The New Testament says, “Speak the truth in love”. This adds an important if not critical dimension ….. presuming one wishes to be both honest and kind. Then there is the old adage, “If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all”. One can speak the truth “nicely, i.e., with respect and caring. And there is the wonderful Buddhist/yoga saying concerning “mindful speech” oft quoted by Sai Baba: “Before you speak, ask yourself, is it kind, is it necessary, is it true.” This assumes one wishes to be mindful of the feelings of others.

And if you should get caught in a tense moment when you wish not to lie but also wish to be kind, remember the line of a husband whose wife, wearing a hideously ugly dress, asked him how she looked as they prepared to go out for the evening; he said, “You’ve never looked better!” This can be adapted to great advantage. (Just kidding, just kidding!)

But the bottom line is: Insult is not a privilege of Honesty. As well, it is not practical – for most of us do not hear Honesty if it devoid of thoughtfulness, respect, or love.

Hope you have a delicious weekend!

Brian+

2011-07-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, July 21, 2011

Death is just life's next big adventure.

Humans have a knack for choosing precisely
the things that are worst for them.

I really don't believe in magic.

Indifference and neglect often do much
more damage than outright dislike.

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

J. K. Rowling, author; her final Harry Potter novel
[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows] went on sale
on this day, 2007

I don’t do this very often ….. but can I do a stereotypical Gay male riff here?? Rowling is going to be 46 years old on July 31. She is fabulously rich (even more rich that the Queen of England) , after being homeless and living in her car. She is wildly successful. She is smart. Do you not just hate this “b**ch ??!!

OK. I’m recovered. I am thrilled for her. And while I have pangs of it, I’m not jealous ….. really. So, here are some of Rowling’s thoughts. Good thoughts! Think on them today. And here are my short but pithy remarks.

What gets you to the point of being able to say “Death is just life’s next big adventure”? I’ve worked on this for decades. I am at the point presently where whatever comes after this earthy Life - be it Nothing or a tasteful Palladian mansion in Heaven or something in between - I’m OK with it. I’m just hoping that getting to the dispatch moment won’t be filled with too much pain. I’m a coward.

Boy, do we ever have the knack for choosing the worst things! Why is that?? Did some Deity design it that way? And if so, why? Do we humans only learn from disaster?? My experience says No; we really learn from success. So, it behooves us to help each other to succeed.

I don’t believe in magic either. “Magic” is a metaphor for Imagination. I think that Imagination is one of our greatest gifts. It allows us to “see” possibilities. And if we’ve paid any attention, and been taught well, we know that we humans have the capacity to figure anything out!

The opposite of Love is indeed ….. Indifference. Not caring is inhuman.

Actively Living is the Goal. But dreams help.

May you have a wildly uncontrollable loving day!

Brian+

2011-07-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Often have I wondered with much curiosity as to our
coming into this world and what will follow our departure.

Petrarch, poet and scholar; he was born at
dawn, on la Via del Giardino, Arezzo, 1304

Haven’t we all!

Some think they have it all locked down, whether it’s golden streets or the bosom of Abraham (who says you have to be a Christian to get to Heaven?!) or golden harps on cloudy cushions. I may have entertained such glitzy ideas of Heaven when little, though I have to say that I remember very little being said in Presbyterian Sunday School about Heaven. But from my teens on I seem to have understood that “Heaven” was a metaphor for being gathered into the arms of Love, being safe, free from any lasting burden of sorrow and suffering.

Just when I came to understand that that state was a creation of the Imagination, that there were many such imaginings, and that they were a sublime method for coping in this Earthly Life, creating hope and trust and the courage to grasp hold of Life and live it as freely as possible, I don’t know. It wasn’t by study, of that I’m sure. It came by a subtle seeping into my Being of some mysterious working of the Universe. I now believe that it came at my conscious and unconscious bidding ….. the bidding of a young man needing an anchor that would “hold in the storms of life”. Somehow I knew I was going to have a struggle!

If there is a Heaven, it is, now to my mind, frosting on the cake. I hold in my heart, mind, body and spirit its promises – the same promises I heard told of in my childhood: unconditional love, joy, peace, delight, a welcome into the eternal community of Life.

These are the tools I need to live this earthly Life, tools that banish discouragement and fear. When I die, I will need them no more. Yet, I stay open to the Mystery of what yet may be revealed.

Brian+

p.s. We lift a glass to Neil Armstrong, on the 42nd anniversary of his being the first human being to set foot on the Moon.

2011-07-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow,
but only saps today of its strength.

A. J. Cronin, Scottish physician and novelist;
he was born on this day, 1896, in Cardross,
Dunbartonshire.

Worry is, I think, a consequence - self or other-inflicted - of the failure to grasp one’s own power . It is also a way of refusing or of being unable to live with the Truth. I remember all the times in my Life that I refused to see what was right in front of my face, or was overcome by the conviction that things were not right and there was nothing I could do about it.

But, I was blessed enough to have stumbled my way to an inner path that would lead to both some courage to see the Truth and to a willingness to trust myself ….. and to take risks, in trust. I left my homeland and family at age twenty-one in pursuit of “holiness” ….. though I didn’t consciously know that was what I was doing at the time. Over the course of forty years, there would be three times that I looked the Truth in the face and knew only I could take responsibility and do something about it ….. and that the health of my soul depended on it. As I look back, the positive far outweighed the negative.

We need teachers! Teachers in how to face Truth, especially about ourselves. Teachers who not only show us the importance of examining our lives, but leave us our freedom and integrity to make our own choices. That is why I have always loved the story of the encounter between Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler. Or when Jesus tells His disciples that they can leave Him if they wish. They all had to have sensed, however fearfully, their power. And I know what a freeing thing that is. Many might think that it frees one to be irresponsible. I have found the opposite to be true: it freed me to want to be a person of integrity.

“Worry” derives from the Middle English “werien”, and the Old English “wyrgan”, to strangle. Worry does strangle our Life Force.

If you find yourself succumbing to Worry, I would say that this is a sign that you have forgotten who you are. You are a person in whom dwells the Living God, the completing “Christ”, the Spirit who reshapes and makes new. Life always has its sorrows and worry does not banish them; rather the reverse. I am glad that Cronin has reminded me that I have power to stare down what is false, exile those demons, and live every day as strongly as I can.

We all do. And each of us is hopefully an instrument of this strength for each other.

Brian+

2011-07-17T20:50:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, July 18, 2011

“Ah! bleak and barren was the moor”

Ah! bleak and barren was the moor,
Ah! loud and piercing was the storm,
The cottage roof was shelter'd sure,
The cottage hearth was bright and warm—
An orphan-boy the lattice pass'd,
And, as he mark'd its cheerful glow,
Felt doubly keen the midnight blast,
And doubly cold the fallen snow.

They marked him as he onward press'd,
With fainting heart and weary limb;
Kind voices bade him turn and rest,
And gentle faces welcomed him.
The dawn is up—the guest is gone,
The cottage hearth is blazing still:
Heaven pity all poor wanderers lone!
Hark to the wind upon the hill!

William Makepeace Thackery, poet,
novelist; he was born on this date,
1811, in Calcutta, of Anglo-Indian
parents.

A perfect metaphor - or parable - for thought and reflection today. In a sense, we are all “orphan-boys” or girls. I was thinking about my childhood in Verdun. Of course I had a home, and parents. Except for a couple of instances, I felt I had a safe home, where I was wanted. But I was a lonely child; I often felt “out of it”, not a part of my “peer group”. But, I could go to my maternal grandmother’s after school and drink tea with milk and sugar, and she would give me a dollar to go buy ice cream. I could go to my aunt Elsie’s for tea and watch the budgies she raised. I could go to my Auntie Ann’s and drink tea and eat her terrific Scottish shortbread. I could go to my dear friend Martin’s house and his dear mother would serve me tea while I waited for him to get up and get ready for school. I could go to my aunt Molly’s and drink tea and be coddled. I’ll never give up tea with sweet and milk; it is a profound symbol of being cared for! In many ways, there have been those through my Life who have, mostly unawares, been the “kind voices” and “gentle faces” who have seen that inner part of me that was/is the “orphan boy” and have “bade me turn and rest”.

I think in many ways we are all, in some way, “poor wanderers alone”. Yes, we are all part of the Human Community, yes, we are assisted (hopefully) by friends and family. Yes, there are those who walk with us through Life. But it is also true that we must each walk this Life alone, things that we must do that no one can do for us. And we must in the end leave those who wait with us and Journey with Death alone. Often, “bleak and barren” is the “moor”.

I have been blessed in being shown, and then in having nurtured and shaped for myself, a Mystery. A Mystery with which I am One. A Mystery that is I. A Mystery that is Being and Life. A Mystery in which I am held and in which nothing can demean me. It is like the “cottage hearth” that is “blazing still” – and it always will. It’s hearth will always be there to welcome me in from the cold.

And it is for us all. I hope you have found it.

Brian+

2011-07-15T06:53:00.001-07:00

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, July 15, 2011

I daresay anything can be made holy
by being sincerely worshipped.

Dame Iris Murdoch, author, poet; she
was born on this date, 1919, in Dublin

“Worship” has its roots in the Old English concept “to give worth to”. When we worship something, we - yes, we - assign it its worth. Anyone remember the marriage vows in the 1662 marriage rite?: “with my body I thee worship”. At its fullest, it was meant to indicate that, in marriage, two people acknowledge and create the worthiness of each other.

God, or The Holy, is what we make it. We human beings forget that we have this power. And we must not. Because Murdoch is, I think, correct. We can make Goodness Holy ….. or Evil “Holy”.

There are a lot of people these days giving worth to Unholy (in my view) things. Including Ignorance, Hate, Unkindness, Prejudice, Discrimination, and more.

As we go about our day today, what will we be worshipping? What Gods will we be making?

Brian+