Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, November 1, 2007
Feast of All Saints
My soul can find no staircase to Heaven
unless it be through Earth's loveliness.
- Michelangelo, artist, whose
Sistine Chapel was opened to
the public on this day, 1512
I was in the Sistine Chapel for the first time the day that the Pope died. Unfortunately, the place was jammed with wall-to-wall people - all of whom were in Rome waiting for the Pope to die! But at least I could stand and look up at that glorious ceiling and the apse without worrying about falling over. I was “in Heaven” for a half-hour - and of course, being a birder, I had my binoculars with me. The detail was superb.
I absolutely agree! I feel exactly as Michelangelo felt. I have always rejected, even as a young person, that this world and our bodies and all the loveliness of the Earth was in any way to be despised or rejected. It just didn’t make any sense to an INFP intuitive like me And believe me, there have been a lot of religious people and certainly Christians throughout history who have taught such nonsense. Such an attitude flies in the face of one of the few aspects of the Judeo-Christian Creation Story (or at least, the interpretation of It) I agree with - that “God looked and saw that it was very good”.
We would have no concept of the loveliness of things Heavenly were it not for the loveliness of things Earthly. Heaven can only be described with the human language of glory and beauty, in word and in art and music, and through the experience of Earth’s beauty. Heaven is Earth-writ-large - and by some magic, we sometimes manage to reach the sublime.
Let us not destroy the Earth in our greed and our carelessness.
Our soul will have no staircase to the vision of the Divine wonder of existence.
Brian+
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Eve of All Saints; Eve of Samhain
The imperfect health [of soul], that is to say, the imperfect love,
of the dying brings with it, of necessity, great fear; and the smaller
the love, the greater is the fear. (14)
- The Fourteenth of the 95 Theses of Martin Luther,
published on this day and nailed to the door of
Wittenburg parish church, 1517
I read through all the 95 Theses today. First time I’ve done that. Principally of course, Luther inveighs against the selling of pardons (indulgences) by the Pope or the Church. Not very interesting - except that Luther rightly and boldly attacks the absurd idea that pardon can be bought from an “earthly” source. No wonder Erasmus (quoted in an earlier Reflection) sighed at how money/gain in his time could be squeezed out of anything either secular or religious.
It is good to be reminded that it is Love that conquers fear, including the fear of death. Isn’t it nice to think that the more energy we spend in loving, the more surprised we will be when the moment of death arrives?! It will sneak up on us, and all we will be able to say is “Oh” before we slide over. The idea is, of course, firmly anchored in Scripture. 1 John 4: “love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.”
And there’s another point. I suppose that many people fear death because they are afraid that they are going to be punished. To which I only have to say (and here I resonate with Luther, who might have felt at least a little twitch at contradicting the Pope) - God does not punish anyone. That is not in the nature of the God who is Love. If there is any “punishment” after death (and I’m not at all sure there is), it is self-imposed.
So let’s Love, and a pox on Death and all it’s minions!!
Brian+
Eve of All Saints; Eve of Samhain
The imperfect health [of soul], that is to say, the imperfect love,
of the dying brings with it, of necessity, great fear; and the smaller
the love, the greater is the fear. (14)
- The Fourteenth of the 95 Theses of Martin Luther,
published on this day and nailed to the door of
Wittenburg parish church, 1517
I read through all the 95 Theses today. First time I’ve done that. Principally of course, Luther inveighs against the selling of pardons (indulgences) by the Pope or the Church. Not very interesting - except that Luther rightly and boldly attacks the absurd idea that pardon can be bought from an “earthly” source. No wonder Erasmus (quoted in an earlier Reflection) sighed at how money/gain in his time could be squeezed out of anything either secular or religious.
It is good to be reminded that it is Love that conquers fear, including the fear of death. Isn’t it nice to think that the more energy we spend in loving, the more surprised we will be when the moment of death arrives?! It will sneak up on us, and all we will be able to say is “Oh” before we slide over. The idea is, of course, firmly anchored in Scripture. 1 John 4: “love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.”
And there’s another point. I suppose that many people fear death because they are afraid that they are going to be punished. To which I only have to say (and here I resonate with Luther, who might have felt at least a little twitch at contradicting the Pope) - God does not punish anyone. That is not in the nature of the God who is Love. If there is any “punishment” after death (and I’m not at all sure there is), it is self-imposed.
So let’s Love, and a pox on Death and all it’s minions!!
Brian+
Monday, October 29, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The Banks of the Oise, 1877/1878
Alfred Sisley, French impressionist painter, born on this day, 1839
Alfred Sisley was born in Paris. I envy him! I first went to Paris when I was 58. It was cold as we birded in the Bois de Bologne - and I really don’t like the cold! The next time, it was warmer. I set off to spend a day by myself, waiting for friends to arrive. Rounding a corner on the Left Bank, I saw a charming little restaurant, free of people. I sat outside, looking over the Seine, read my novel, and ate ….. sweetbreads! Does Life get any better!
So, here is a Sisley painting. A critic said of Sisley that he “painted a world of tranquility”.
So, take a moment to gaze at the picture. Have a little tranquility before you take on the day!
Brian+
p.s. Apologies and regrets to those who can’t get emailed pictures!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, October 29, 2007
The ancient masters were profound and stable.
Their wisdom was unfathomable.
There is no way to describe it; all we can describe is their appearance.
They were careful as someone crossing an iced-over stream.
Alert as a warrior in enemy territory. Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice. Shapable as a block of wood.
Receptive as a valley. Clear as a glass of water.
Do you have the patience to wait
until your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action rises by itself?
The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things.
- Loa-tzu, Chinese teacher
Well …………………… ah, No.
I’d like to be able to say Yes, I can “wait until the mud settles”. But, not as a conscious principle, alas. Not most of the time anyway. I most often want to act quickly, because I’m a terrible procrastinator, and I will feel even more guilty if I do nothing.
But! Procrastination has ironically helped me. While I fight within myself, time goes by. And you know what? 95% of the time, things just “go away”. And the 5% that doesn’t, I usually have to do something about - and by then I and it/they have “cooled down” somewhat and am more ready to work things out a little more cool-headedly.
It’s “your mud” (i.e., my) that has to settle. So the situation can be seen as clearly as possible, particularly the way in which I myself am muddying the waters and obscuring the clarity of a solution or response. This I hope that I can learn.
I’d better get off my procrastinating rear end and get at it!!
Brian+
The ancient masters were profound and stable.
Their wisdom was unfathomable.
There is no way to describe it; all we can describe is their appearance.
They were careful as someone crossing an iced-over stream.
Alert as a warrior in enemy territory. Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice. Shapable as a block of wood.
Receptive as a valley. Clear as a glass of water.
Do you have the patience to wait
until your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action rises by itself?
The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things.
- Loa-tzu, Chinese teacher
Well …………………… ah, No.
I’d like to be able to say Yes, I can “wait until the mud settles”. But, not as a conscious principle, alas. Not most of the time anyway. I most often want to act quickly, because I’m a terrible procrastinator, and I will feel even more guilty if I do nothing.
But! Procrastination has ironically helped me. While I fight within myself, time goes by. And you know what? 95% of the time, things just “go away”. And the 5% that doesn’t, I usually have to do something about - and by then I and it/they have “cooled down” somewhat and am more ready to work things out a little more cool-headedly.
It’s “your mud” (i.e., my) that has to settle. So the situation can be seen as clearly as possible, particularly the way in which I myself am muddying the waters and obscuring the clarity of a solution or response. This I hope that I can learn.
I’d better get off my procrastinating rear end and get at it!!
Brian+
Friday, October 26, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, October 27, 2007
Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such
a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature,
whether sacred or profane, out of which profit
cannot be squeezed.
- Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch scholar, author,
and philosopher, born on this day, 1466
So, nothing new, right! Here we are, 600 years later. And what Erasmus observed of his time is uncannily descriptive of ours. I’m reading an interesting book called “Journey into Islam”, by Dr. Akbar Ahmed. Here is what he says about the effects of globalization: “Poverty kills thousands of people annually through the lack of health care and food; about one billion people earn less than a dollar a day; and, as if to mock these figures, 358 individuals own more financial wealth than half of the world’s population collectively. ….. Admittedly, societies have faced the … problems cited earlier …. Excessive interest in amassing material wealth (Ah, our Erasmus!) … (but) it is the scale and scope of globalization today that, without restraint or balance, places humankind at a dangerous point in its history.”
Have you heard about the Theology of Abundance (or “Blessing”)? It says that if you love God you will get rich (at some level). So, does that mean that all the radically poor - shall we say half of the world’s population – does not love God, and so God is punishing them?? You see (I hope!) the idiocy of such thinking. And could any so-called “theology” be more of an affront to a poor carpenter’s son, a naked saint, a Buddha with a hut for a home, a Sufi poet?
And yet they all thought themselves rich beyond imagining - and they were.
I consciously adopted a way of reminding me of where my riches lie. I give many things away. And when I move, I sell everything or give it to someone. I keep only a few treasurers of the heart and a few beautiful things. But in 40 years, my dear friends have gone with me in heart and spirit, and they constitute my riches - along with those who taught me how glorious the World can be, and how exquisitely beautiful, from a Laurentian lake to the Arizona desert.
Many seek profit out of the sacred and the profane. “Globalization” will churn its inevitable way, for I have little faith in Faith these days to teach balance and generosity.
But I’m going to try and follow the path over whose gate is written the words, “Store not up for yourselves treasures on earth”.
Brian+
Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such
a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature,
whether sacred or profane, out of which profit
cannot be squeezed.
- Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch scholar, author,
and philosopher, born on this day, 1466
So, nothing new, right! Here we are, 600 years later. And what Erasmus observed of his time is uncannily descriptive of ours. I’m reading an interesting book called “Journey into Islam”, by Dr. Akbar Ahmed. Here is what he says about the effects of globalization: “Poverty kills thousands of people annually through the lack of health care and food; about one billion people earn less than a dollar a day; and, as if to mock these figures, 358 individuals own more financial wealth than half of the world’s population collectively. ….. Admittedly, societies have faced the … problems cited earlier …. Excessive interest in amassing material wealth (Ah, our Erasmus!) … (but) it is the scale and scope of globalization today that, without restraint or balance, places humankind at a dangerous point in its history.”
Have you heard about the Theology of Abundance (or “Blessing”)? It says that if you love God you will get rich (at some level). So, does that mean that all the radically poor - shall we say half of the world’s population – does not love God, and so God is punishing them?? You see (I hope!) the idiocy of such thinking. And could any so-called “theology” be more of an affront to a poor carpenter’s son, a naked saint, a Buddha with a hut for a home, a Sufi poet?
And yet they all thought themselves rich beyond imagining - and they were.
I consciously adopted a way of reminding me of where my riches lie. I give many things away. And when I move, I sell everything or give it to someone. I keep only a few treasurers of the heart and a few beautiful things. But in 40 years, my dear friends have gone with me in heart and spirit, and they constitute my riches - along with those who taught me how glorious the World can be, and how exquisitely beautiful, from a Laurentian lake to the Arizona desert.
Many seek profit out of the sacred and the profane. “Globalization” will churn its inevitable way, for I have little faith in Faith these days to teach balance and generosity.
But I’m going to try and follow the path over whose gate is written the words, “Store not up for yourselves treasures on earth”.
Brian+
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, October 25, 2007
God can make you anything you want to be,
but you have to put everything in his hands.
When you sing gospel you have a feeling
there is a cure for what's wrong.
- Mahalia Jackson, Gospel singer,
born on this day, 1911
I think I had every record that Mahalia Jackson made when I was young. I remember one album cover (remember “albums”??) as if I still had it in front of me. A black & white photograph of her from the shoulders up, eyes characteristically closed - but they were never tight closed as I remember. They were closed in a way that looked as if they were going to flutter any minute, and open, and joy come pouring through! I have no recollection of how or why I “found” Mahalia. But obviously something of this African-American woman reached out to this Canadian kid. I think now that I saw authentic Belief in her face, and heard it in her beautiful, sometimes-dark-sometimes-soaring, moving voice. Long before I discovered Liturgy and Sacraments, she represented a deep relationship with a wonderful God. And that there’s a “cure for what’s wrong”.
“Putting everything in God’s hands” is not, I repeat not, an excuse for refusing to take responsibility for our own life - for failing to “work out our own salvation in fear and trembling”. Oh no. God gave us, at minimum, what the Tin Man and the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion were in search of. They represent each of us in our Life’s journey. A Heart and a Brain and Courage - those are the basics we all need. “The Wizard of Oz” is a parable, of course. We are tempted to think that some mysterious being will give us those things. But we already have them - and that’s what the Wizard reveals. “God” won’t mind me comparing Her to the Wizard. God appears huge, scary, but when we look behind the curtain, there is a gentle soul saying “Look inside. What you seek is there.”
And Dorothy? Little Dorothy from Kansas? To me, she represents each of us saying bravely, “I am going to find that Wizard and find my way home, and get me and my friends what they need!”
“Putting everything in God’s hands” is the absolutely necessary Step One. It means saying, “To be human is to love. I will love, and let myself be loved, and believe in Love”.
And then we are off dancing down the Yellow Brick Road, determined to do what we must do to claim our Life, singing arm in arm as we go.
Brian+
God can make you anything you want to be,
but you have to put everything in his hands.
When you sing gospel you have a feeling
there is a cure for what's wrong.
- Mahalia Jackson, Gospel singer,
born on this day, 1911
I think I had every record that Mahalia Jackson made when I was young. I remember one album cover (remember “albums”??) as if I still had it in front of me. A black & white photograph of her from the shoulders up, eyes characteristically closed - but they were never tight closed as I remember. They were closed in a way that looked as if they were going to flutter any minute, and open, and joy come pouring through! I have no recollection of how or why I “found” Mahalia. But obviously something of this African-American woman reached out to this Canadian kid. I think now that I saw authentic Belief in her face, and heard it in her beautiful, sometimes-dark-sometimes-soaring, moving voice. Long before I discovered Liturgy and Sacraments, she represented a deep relationship with a wonderful God. And that there’s a “cure for what’s wrong”.
“Putting everything in God’s hands” is not, I repeat not, an excuse for refusing to take responsibility for our own life - for failing to “work out our own salvation in fear and trembling”. Oh no. God gave us, at minimum, what the Tin Man and the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion were in search of. They represent each of us in our Life’s journey. A Heart and a Brain and Courage - those are the basics we all need. “The Wizard of Oz” is a parable, of course. We are tempted to think that some mysterious being will give us those things. But we already have them - and that’s what the Wizard reveals. “God” won’t mind me comparing Her to the Wizard. God appears huge, scary, but when we look behind the curtain, there is a gentle soul saying “Look inside. What you seek is there.”
And Dorothy? Little Dorothy from Kansas? To me, she represents each of us saying bravely, “I am going to find that Wizard and find my way home, and get me and my friends what they need!”
“Putting everything in God’s hands” is the absolutely necessary Step One. It means saying, “To be human is to love. I will love, and let myself be loved, and believe in Love”.
And then we are off dancing down the Yellow Brick Road, determined to do what we must do to claim our Life, singing arm in arm as we go.
Brian+
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, October 25, 2007
In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling
and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
- John Steinbeck, author, who won the Nobel
Prize in Literature on this day, 1962
Yes, we are, as a World community, at that stage. The “grapes of wrath” are growing in the hearts of people. In the hearts of many, if not most, peoples. Why? Because the very rich and powerful of the World, having gained dominance and control, now know that if they relinquish that control, they are vulnerable. And they know it.
That includes the “rich” nations keeping an economic and technological vice-grip on the “poor” nations . But a bunch of passionate Vietnamese patriots defeated the vast power of both the French and the Americans. Same for the Afghans and the Russians. And for the Shiites so long brutalized by Saadam Hussein. The “powerful” fear the “vintage” that is “growing heavy” in the resentful hearts of their former slaves. I heard an African diplomat say of China on NPR the other day, “We are being re-colonized by China”. They know what is going on.
World terrorism is the radical response of resentment, resentment being the soil and sunshine in which the “grapes of wrath” flourish. Most people are not terrorists. But they resonate - which is why it is difficult to get any Muslim, as an example of many, to condemn terrorism outright.
The “Great Commission” of the Gospel called “Matthew” - to go and “baptize all nations” - is a colonialist propagandist agenda, added to Matthew by an early Christian Church that was seeking to establish itself in a position of power. If the “Commission” is to be interpreted in any way consonant with Christ’s Message and Self-Giving, it can only mean that Christ’s followers must, must, Love Radically. That means, not recruit Christians, but recruit radical lovers for the Way of respect. Compassion, and justice for all human beings. This is what Jesus implied when He said that His Kingdom was “not of this World”.
The Grapes of Wrath are filling with a venomous vintage that may soon burst and drown the World in a poisonous hate - and death. If we take the Gospel seriously, let Christians be willing to die with their Saviour, for love of all of God’s children, in affirmation of the divinity of us all.
Only then can there be the “Peace that passes all understanding”. Or a World Community that honours the “dignity of every human being”.
Brian+
In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling
and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
- John Steinbeck, author, who won the Nobel
Prize in Literature on this day, 1962
Yes, we are, as a World community, at that stage. The “grapes of wrath” are growing in the hearts of people. In the hearts of many, if not most, peoples. Why? Because the very rich and powerful of the World, having gained dominance and control, now know that if they relinquish that control, they are vulnerable. And they know it.
That includes the “rich” nations keeping an economic and technological vice-grip on the “poor” nations . But a bunch of passionate Vietnamese patriots defeated the vast power of both the French and the Americans. Same for the Afghans and the Russians. And for the Shiites so long brutalized by Saadam Hussein. The “powerful” fear the “vintage” that is “growing heavy” in the resentful hearts of their former slaves. I heard an African diplomat say of China on NPR the other day, “We are being re-colonized by China”. They know what is going on.
World terrorism is the radical response of resentment, resentment being the soil and sunshine in which the “grapes of wrath” flourish. Most people are not terrorists. But they resonate - which is why it is difficult to get any Muslim, as an example of many, to condemn terrorism outright.
The “Great Commission” of the Gospel called “Matthew” - to go and “baptize all nations” - is a colonialist propagandist agenda, added to Matthew by an early Christian Church that was seeking to establish itself in a position of power. If the “Commission” is to be interpreted in any way consonant with Christ’s Message and Self-Giving, it can only mean that Christ’s followers must, must, Love Radically. That means, not recruit Christians, but recruit radical lovers for the Way of respect. Compassion, and justice for all human beings. This is what Jesus implied when He said that His Kingdom was “not of this World”.
The Grapes of Wrath are filling with a venomous vintage that may soon burst and drown the World in a poisonous hate - and death. If we take the Gospel seriously, let Christians be willing to die with their Saviour, for love of all of God’s children, in affirmation of the divinity of us all.
Only then can there be the “Peace that passes all understanding”. Or a World Community that honours the “dignity of every human being”.
Brian+
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 24, 2007
All the mistakes I ever made were when
I wanted to say 'No' and said 'Yes'.
- Moss Hart, dramatist, born
on this day, 1904
“Merrily We Roll Along”. “My Fair Lady”. “Camelot”. A postage stamp in his honour. Moss Hart certainly enriched the arts. He was a closeted Gay man, though succumbed to marriage to Kitty Carlisle. His death, it is opined, was hastened by deep depression, mood swings and emotional distress caused by the repression of his sexual orientation. Sad, very sad. Perhaps he was thinking about all this when he made the quoted words.
I’m a big “Yes” sayer, when I should say No. It’s a disease of many clergy. We seem to have a terrible desire to please people (though I have known a few clergy who worked from the exact opposite stance!) We simply “forget” that saying Yes to people when we should say No only prolongs a pile of negative and unhelpful results. Many people I know should have said No to getting married. The resulting horror was ….. well, horrible. There are several marriages I agree to officiate at and shouldn’t have. I’ll answer for that!
The Scripture wisely says, “If you mean Yes say Yes, if you mean No say No”. Anything more is of the devil.
Next time, think carefully. “No” can be a very loving response, gently, firmly, lovingly said.
Brian+
All the mistakes I ever made were when
I wanted to say 'No' and said 'Yes'.
- Moss Hart, dramatist, born
on this day, 1904
“Merrily We Roll Along”. “My Fair Lady”. “Camelot”. A postage stamp in his honour. Moss Hart certainly enriched the arts. He was a closeted Gay man, though succumbed to marriage to Kitty Carlisle. His death, it is opined, was hastened by deep depression, mood swings and emotional distress caused by the repression of his sexual orientation. Sad, very sad. Perhaps he was thinking about all this when he made the quoted words.
I’m a big “Yes” sayer, when I should say No. It’s a disease of many clergy. We seem to have a terrible desire to please people (though I have known a few clergy who worked from the exact opposite stance!) We simply “forget” that saying Yes to people when we should say No only prolongs a pile of negative and unhelpful results. Many people I know should have said No to getting married. The resulting horror was ….. well, horrible. There are several marriages I agree to officiate at and shouldn’t have. I’ll answer for that!
The Scripture wisely says, “If you mean Yes say Yes, if you mean No say No”. Anything more is of the devil.
Next time, think carefully. “No” can be a very loving response, gently, firmly, lovingly said.
Brian+
Monday, October 22, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, October 23, 2007
When fascism comes to America it will be
wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.
- Sinclair Lewis, American playwright,
whose play “Main Street” debuted
on this date, 1920. Lewis was the first
American to win a Nobel Prize for Literature
Could anyone be more an American than Sinclair Lewis?
My friend Connor told me decades ago that America would eventually be a Fascist country. I doubted him. I was wrong. If we use the criterion of Sinclair Lewis, I think we have reached that stage. The flag has become, for many, the symbol of a patriotism that includes only militarism and power and force in pursuit of American world hegemony. Well, politics is politics, and fear of social collapse is fear of social collapse. I regret that the flag has been confiscated by one special interest group - and more, that this travesty has somehow been permitted. Listen to the news. Americans now have to protect themselves against covert widespread government invasion of their freedoms.
Of course, I am more concerned, being a Christian, about the “cross”. The Klan burned crosses on the lawns of the victims of their racial and religious bigotry. The cross has been confiscated, at least in popular “religious” media, by those who stand for things that I believe would be tant amount to re-crucifying Jesus. Jesus stood for God’s unconditional love, Mercy, Justice, “new revelation” through the Spirit of Truth. No self-respecting Christian dares put a cross or Christian bumper-sticker on their car anymore - it stands, in the eyes of the majority of Americans, and especially young Americans, for bigotry, violence, exclusion, narrow-mindedness, judgmentalism, hate. How God must weep.
The flag stands for the universal rights of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Justice and Liberty and equal rights under the law for ALL. The Cross stands for Divine unconditional Love, the dignity of every human being, the supremacy of Compassion, the generosity of blessedness, the humility of redeemed sinners, the rejection of coercion and ignorance.
If you are a true American, reclaim the Flag and the Cross for their true meaning. Reject the flowering Fascism that is spreading its ugly, inhuman shadow over the Land.
The alternative is enslavement, and fear ….. and, in the words of the Hebrew prophets, “the destruction of the land”.
Brian+
When fascism comes to America it will be
wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.
- Sinclair Lewis, American playwright,
whose play “Main Street” debuted
on this date, 1920. Lewis was the first
American to win a Nobel Prize for Literature
Could anyone be more an American than Sinclair Lewis?
My friend Connor told me decades ago that America would eventually be a Fascist country. I doubted him. I was wrong. If we use the criterion of Sinclair Lewis, I think we have reached that stage. The flag has become, for many, the symbol of a patriotism that includes only militarism and power and force in pursuit of American world hegemony. Well, politics is politics, and fear of social collapse is fear of social collapse. I regret that the flag has been confiscated by one special interest group - and more, that this travesty has somehow been permitted. Listen to the news. Americans now have to protect themselves against covert widespread government invasion of their freedoms.
Of course, I am more concerned, being a Christian, about the “cross”. The Klan burned crosses on the lawns of the victims of their racial and religious bigotry. The cross has been confiscated, at least in popular “religious” media, by those who stand for things that I believe would be tant amount to re-crucifying Jesus. Jesus stood for God’s unconditional love, Mercy, Justice, “new revelation” through the Spirit of Truth. No self-respecting Christian dares put a cross or Christian bumper-sticker on their car anymore - it stands, in the eyes of the majority of Americans, and especially young Americans, for bigotry, violence, exclusion, narrow-mindedness, judgmentalism, hate. How God must weep.
The flag stands for the universal rights of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Justice and Liberty and equal rights under the law for ALL. The Cross stands for Divine unconditional Love, the dignity of every human being, the supremacy of Compassion, the generosity of blessedness, the humility of redeemed sinners, the rejection of coercion and ignorance.
If you are a true American, reclaim the Flag and the Cross for their true meaning. Reject the flowering Fascism that is spreading its ugly, inhuman shadow over the Land.
The alternative is enslavement, and fear ….. and, in the words of the Hebrew prophets, “the destruction of the land”.
Brian+
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, October 22, 2007
The great secret that all old people share is that you
really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years.
Your body changes, but you don't change at all.
And that, of course, causes great confusion.
- Doris Lessing, author, winner of the 2007
Nobel Prize for Literature, born on this
day, 1919 (born in Persia)
Well, what do the “old people” think?? Is Doris correct?
I’ve thought about what she said. In essence, personally, I believe she is right. My body is collapsing - but my inner sense of self is, on one level, the same. I have the same delight in the beauty of the World, the same appreciation for fun, the same wonder in the universe, people, myself, many many things. Maybe enhanced some, but it’s an ebb and flow. The freshness is still there, sometimes sharpened a bit, sometimes softened.
Where I might disagree is this: I’d like to think that my inner spirit has grown. That I’ve learned some things, enhanced some learnings, maybe gotten a little better at living out the learnings. But, actually, I’ve known those things for a long time. Just needed to activate them. And I go up and down.
So, I guess I haven’t really changed much.
A pleasant indication of Eternity perhaps!
Brian+
The great secret that all old people share is that you
really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years.
Your body changes, but you don't change at all.
And that, of course, causes great confusion.
- Doris Lessing, author, winner of the 2007
Nobel Prize for Literature, born on this
day, 1919 (born in Persia)
Well, what do the “old people” think?? Is Doris correct?
I’ve thought about what she said. In essence, personally, I believe she is right. My body is collapsing - but my inner sense of self is, on one level, the same. I have the same delight in the beauty of the World, the same appreciation for fun, the same wonder in the universe, people, myself, many many things. Maybe enhanced some, but it’s an ebb and flow. The freshness is still there, sometimes sharpened a bit, sometimes softened.
Where I might disagree is this: I’d like to think that my inner spirit has grown. That I’ve learned some things, enhanced some learnings, maybe gotten a little better at living out the learnings. But, actually, I’ve known those things for a long time. Just needed to activate them. And I go up and down.
So, I guess I haven’t really changed much.
A pleasant indication of Eternity perhaps!
Brian+
Friday, October 19, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, October 20, 2007
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 poet, born on
this day, 1854
Ah yes, yes! How we avoid happiness, we human beings. Sounds crazy, right? But it’s true, I perceive. Forever setting up barriers to being happy. We are taught, or we teach ourselves, to believe that “action” will bring us happiness, spending huge amounts of energy trying to manipulate the World and others (and often our inner selves). Delusion, or, to put it in the words of the Hebrew Scriptures, “a chasing after wind”.
But I think Rimbaud really hits the nail on the head with “Morality is the weakness of the brain.” Think of what we have done to each other in the human race under the guise of morality! I have an archetype in my mind of how the human perversion of morality works. Remember that scene of the judge, in Harold and Maude, fulminating about the fact that Harold (age 18 or so) and Maude (age 80 or so) might have made love? That fat, red, flushed, slavering visage of disgust? Completely failing to see the happiness of love at any age, wanting to regulate and control and forbid. How we use so-called morality as a way of shielding ourselves, in fear, from the happiness of caring, loving relationships. And in doing so, create vast legions of emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually warped human beings.
I side with Rimbaud’s insight. We are, by nature, “fated to happiness”.
God has gifted us. We reject the gift at our peril.
Brian+
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 poet, born on
this day, 1854
Ah yes, yes! How we avoid happiness, we human beings. Sounds crazy, right? But it’s true, I perceive. Forever setting up barriers to being happy. We are taught, or we teach ourselves, to believe that “action” will bring us happiness, spending huge amounts of energy trying to manipulate the World and others (and often our inner selves). Delusion, or, to put it in the words of the Hebrew Scriptures, “a chasing after wind”.
But I think Rimbaud really hits the nail on the head with “Morality is the weakness of the brain.” Think of what we have done to each other in the human race under the guise of morality! I have an archetype in my mind of how the human perversion of morality works. Remember that scene of the judge, in Harold and Maude, fulminating about the fact that Harold (age 18 or so) and Maude (age 80 or so) might have made love? That fat, red, flushed, slavering visage of disgust? Completely failing to see the happiness of love at any age, wanting to regulate and control and forbid. How we use so-called morality as a way of shielding ourselves, in fear, from the happiness of caring, loving relationships. And in doing so, create vast legions of emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually warped human beings.
I side with Rimbaud’s insight. We are, by nature, “fated to happiness”.
God has gifted us. We reject the gift at our peril.
Brian+
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, October 19, 2007
"God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks —
his fingers. Therefore it is an insult to Him to substitute
artificial metallic forks for them when eating."
- Condemnation of the fork by the Roman clergy
I read somewhere that there was a “Feast of the Fork”, celebrating the use of the fork in Europe, 1098. (I suspect it was Garrison Keillor.) From where came the fork into Europe? No one is sure. I think all the “facts” here are dubious. But I like such dubious things!
There really are, however, words of condemnation from the Roman clergy, as quoted above. And there lies a caution. Often, people who “believe in God” are sure that they speak for God. (Priests are often special culprits.) And often such people condemn new understandings, new ideas, as ungodly. God’s followers have caused the deaths of millions throughout history, most often in a vain attempt to preserve their power and authority.
From my perspective, a determined effort to preserve the status quo is always suspect. “God” is not essentially about the preservation of the status quo. God is essentially about transformation and change. Which is why it “is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God”. When I hear people condemning a “new thing”, I’m on my guard. And I’m excited! To me it’s a sign that God is about Her usual wonderful mischief, pointing me to a new possibility. As soon as a Hindu tells me that there has to be a caste system, I know what God is whispering. Women as inferior. Galileo excommunicated. Slavery justified. A male-only priesthood. I feel the fear, and I know where to look for the Light.
“Behold I have begun a new thing!” When I sense that call to newness, or hear the condemnation of the “establishment”, I perk up and get ready for the divine adventure.
Brian+
"God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks —
his fingers. Therefore it is an insult to Him to substitute
artificial metallic forks for them when eating."
- Condemnation of the fork by the Roman clergy
I read somewhere that there was a “Feast of the Fork”, celebrating the use of the fork in Europe, 1098. (I suspect it was Garrison Keillor.) From where came the fork into Europe? No one is sure. I think all the “facts” here are dubious. But I like such dubious things!
There really are, however, words of condemnation from the Roman clergy, as quoted above. And there lies a caution. Often, people who “believe in God” are sure that they speak for God. (Priests are often special culprits.) And often such people condemn new understandings, new ideas, as ungodly. God’s followers have caused the deaths of millions throughout history, most often in a vain attempt to preserve their power and authority.
From my perspective, a determined effort to preserve the status quo is always suspect. “God” is not essentially about the preservation of the status quo. God is essentially about transformation and change. Which is why it “is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God”. When I hear people condemning a “new thing”, I’m on my guard. And I’m excited! To me it’s a sign that God is about Her usual wonderful mischief, pointing me to a new possibility. As soon as a Hindu tells me that there has to be a caste system, I know what God is whispering. Women as inferior. Galileo excommunicated. Slavery justified. A male-only priesthood. I feel the fear, and I know where to look for the Light.
“Behold I have begun a new thing!” When I sense that call to newness, or hear the condemnation of the “establishment”, I perk up and get ready for the divine adventure.
Brian+
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, October 18, 2007
Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
- Thomas Alva Edison, inventor, who died on this
day, 1931, age 84
Oh good. This gives me the chance to quote yet again the wonderful sign at the end of the counter at Nonnie’s Café in Orleans on the Cape. I used to go there early for breakfast while all my lazy friends slept. Great pattie (is this spelled correctly?) sausage, sourdough toast, yokes perfectly runny, and the best - the best - crispy homefries!!
The sign said, “All things cometh to those who waiteth – as long as those who waiteth work like Hell while they waiteth”. I suspect it was put there by those 50-something ladies who waitheth-ed on the tables - and certainly did work like Hell on those packed summer mornings. (There was often a line waiting for the 6am opening, and still one when I left.)
Prayer answers itself. That’s the way prayer works. Prayer is, in a sense, the Edison-esque hustling you do while you are waiting for your heart or your spirit or your brain (maybe the body too) to “get” the answer. Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in my name will be given to you”. This was not a magic formula. It means the hard work of bringing our will and heart and mind into line with God’s. And that can take some hustling! It’s hard work, shaping oneself into the “image of God”. Very hard work - we all know the tremendous resistance that the Ego and the pride can put up.
Trying to conjure up an “answer to prayer” is useless. The “answer” already exists - since the God we know has only the best answers ready for what we need. Prayer is Hustle. It’s “Working Like Hell” to clear away the often huge clutter of “spiritual” debris that has come crashing down around us by our unloving behavior and self-delusions. When we clear the dust and clutter, the Answer awaits.
All the joy and peace we want awaits. Hustle!
Brian+
Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
- Thomas Alva Edison, inventor, who died on this
day, 1931, age 84
Oh good. This gives me the chance to quote yet again the wonderful sign at the end of the counter at Nonnie’s Café in Orleans on the Cape. I used to go there early for breakfast while all my lazy friends slept. Great pattie (is this spelled correctly?) sausage, sourdough toast, yokes perfectly runny, and the best - the best - crispy homefries!!
The sign said, “All things cometh to those who waiteth – as long as those who waiteth work like Hell while they waiteth”. I suspect it was put there by those 50-something ladies who waitheth-ed on the tables - and certainly did work like Hell on those packed summer mornings. (There was often a line waiting for the 6am opening, and still one when I left.)
Prayer answers itself. That’s the way prayer works. Prayer is, in a sense, the Edison-esque hustling you do while you are waiting for your heart or your spirit or your brain (maybe the body too) to “get” the answer. Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in my name will be given to you”. This was not a magic formula. It means the hard work of bringing our will and heart and mind into line with God’s. And that can take some hustling! It’s hard work, shaping oneself into the “image of God”. Very hard work - we all know the tremendous resistance that the Ego and the pride can put up.
Trying to conjure up an “answer to prayer” is useless. The “answer” already exists - since the God we know has only the best answers ready for what we need. Prayer is Hustle. It’s “Working Like Hell” to clear away the often huge clutter of “spiritual” debris that has come crashing down around us by our unloving behavior and self-delusions. When we clear the dust and clutter, the Answer awaits.
All the joy and peace we want awaits. Hustle!
Brian+
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Three influential Republicans Senators are condemning President Bush for claiming
he has the authority to ignore a new law banning the torture of prisoners during
interrogations. Bush signed the torture ban just last week. But he also quietly issued
what is known as a signing statement in which he lays out his interpretation of the new
law. In this document Bush declared that he will view the interrogation limits in the
context of his broader powers to protect national security. Legal experts say this means
Bush believes he can waive the anti-torture restrictions.
- News item, Oct 17, 2007
Is torture, for any reason, a Christian “value”?
Brian+
Three influential Republicans Senators are condemning President Bush for claiming
he has the authority to ignore a new law banning the torture of prisoners during
interrogations. Bush signed the torture ban just last week. But he also quietly issued
what is known as a signing statement in which he lays out his interpretation of the new
law. In this document Bush declared that he will view the interrogation limits in the
context of his broader powers to protect national security. Legal experts say this means
Bush believes he can waive the anti-torture restrictions.
- News item, Oct 17, 2007
Is torture, for any reason, a Christian “value”?
Brian+
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, October 15, 2007
I have an everyday religion that works for me. Love
yourself first, and everything else falls into line.
- Lucille Ball. “I Love Lucy” debuted on TV
on this day, 1951
Can you believe it?!! I can’t really hoist it in. Fifty-six years ago! I was five years old. But I wouldn’r have missed I Love Lucy for anything. That one room flat with the door into the kitchen. Ricky’s carrying on and his Baba-Loo. Grumpy Fred and Ethel the perfect foil for Lucy. But Lucy best of all - with all those wild schemes and her perfect timing. They are eternal – they are hilarious and bang on today. I love Lucy most because she was always up for a crazy adventure. So am I!
Whatever else Lucille Ball may have meant by her comment on her “everyday religion”, she is, I think, on the money about loving yourself. However you get there - and most of us probably have/had a hard time of it! - we must get there if we are ever going to be able truly and authentically to love beyond ourselves.
I’ve known a lot of people who were brought up to believe that they had to love others, and/or God, first, and to “forget” themselves. They might have done helpful, or caring, or kind things, but I suspect that it never becomes authentic Love until they also love themselves. Unless you love yourself, or have been shown that you can love yourself, you are never playing with a full deck. And if you will pardon the mixed metaphor, love of self clears the deck for a generosity of self-giving that nothing else can fully match.
And besides, Love takes bravery and freedom - and it is often a very brave and freeing thing to love yourself. When we do, “everything else falls into line”.
Brian+
I have an everyday religion that works for me. Love
yourself first, and everything else falls into line.
- Lucille Ball. “I Love Lucy” debuted on TV
on this day, 1951
Can you believe it?!! I can’t really hoist it in. Fifty-six years ago! I was five years old. But I wouldn’r have missed I Love Lucy for anything. That one room flat with the door into the kitchen. Ricky’s carrying on and his Baba-Loo. Grumpy Fred and Ethel the perfect foil for Lucy. But Lucy best of all - with all those wild schemes and her perfect timing. They are eternal – they are hilarious and bang on today. I love Lucy most because she was always up for a crazy adventure. So am I!
Whatever else Lucille Ball may have meant by her comment on her “everyday religion”, she is, I think, on the money about loving yourself. However you get there - and most of us probably have/had a hard time of it! - we must get there if we are ever going to be able truly and authentically to love beyond ourselves.
I’ve known a lot of people who were brought up to believe that they had to love others, and/or God, first, and to “forget” themselves. They might have done helpful, or caring, or kind things, but I suspect that it never becomes authentic Love until they also love themselves. Unless you love yourself, or have been shown that you can love yourself, you are never playing with a full deck. And if you will pardon the mixed metaphor, love of self clears the deck for a generosity of self-giving that nothing else can fully match.
And besides, Love takes bravery and freedom - and it is often a very brave and freeing thing to love yourself. When we do, “everything else falls into line”.
Brian+
Friday, October 12, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, October 13, 2007
Don't let that horse
Don't let that horse
eat that violin
cried Chagall's mother
But he
kept right on
painting
And became famous
And kept on painting
The Horse With Violin In Mouth
And when he finally finished it
he jumped up upon the horse
and rode away
waving the violin
And then with a low bow gave it
to the first naked nude he ran across
And there were no strings
attached
Lawrence Ferlinghetti , who on this day
in 1998 became Poet Laureate of
San Francisco.
For your Saturday enjoyment and meditation! My thoughts? When it comes to living your Life, don’t listen to nay-saying “mothers”. See things the way you see them. I am the violin gripped in God’s mouth. She will bring me to the naked nude of pleasure - of heart, mind, spirit, body. Life has been given with no strings attached - and honouring all beauty repays the Gift.
Brian+
Don't let that horse
Don't let that horse
eat that violin
cried Chagall's mother
But he
kept right on
painting
And became famous
And kept on painting
The Horse With Violin In Mouth
And when he finally finished it
he jumped up upon the horse
and rode away
waving the violin
And then with a low bow gave it
to the first naked nude he ran across
And there were no strings
attached
Lawrence Ferlinghetti , who on this day
in 1998 became Poet Laureate of
San Francisco.
For your Saturday enjoyment and meditation! My thoughts? When it comes to living your Life, don’t listen to nay-saying “mothers”. See things the way you see them. I am the violin gripped in God’s mouth. She will bring me to the naked nude of pleasure - of heart, mind, spirit, body. Life has been given with no strings attached - and honouring all beauty repays the Gift.
Brian+
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, October 12, 2007
We must begin to make what I call "conscious choices,"
and to really recognize that we are the same. It's from
that place in my heart that I write my songs.
- John Denver, singer, who died on this day,
1997, age 53, in a plane crash.
Yes, John did write his songs from “that place”. From a heart that understood that “we are the same”. That is, brothers and sisters in the family of the God of Love.
Christians must start living our lives from that place. Because too many of us don’t. Too many Christians are subverted by their culture and their politics. But that is very often a culture of tribalism, and a culture of the politics of the Kingdom of This World - which is, we are reminded by the Bible, the Kingdom of Satan - and not the Kingdom of God. The “church” exists only to build God’s Kingdom.
Love is the basic “conscious choice”. It is an act of the will. Just like Jesus, we choose to love, even when we are faced with betrayal and with evil and with the “sin that lives so close” in us. Every one of us has the capacity to side with “Satan”, i.e., the path of anti-Love. But into every age comes a prophet, a seer, a Child of God, a Truth-teller, who reminds us of who we truly Are - Glorious Beings of Light and Good, who boldly calls us to be faithful to our true nature. Yes, that “true nature” lies deeply hidden at times - but that only makes its voice more powerful! After a thousand betrayals, but one hard word of Truth cancels all the voices of deception. Jesus heard the voice of Satan in the Wilderness - and rejected it as Lies. Love of “Christ” - i.e., of Divine Love, manifest in so many Beings and Faiths, anchors us in the path of Good News.
Life is Politics. That’s a given. We must make “conscious choices” about the character of our politics. For Christians, our politics are grounded in the Cross. In a Love that transcends Self for the other.
And so are the songs we sing.
Brian+
We must begin to make what I call "conscious choices,"
and to really recognize that we are the same. It's from
that place in my heart that I write my songs.
- John Denver, singer, who died on this day,
1997, age 53, in a plane crash.
Yes, John did write his songs from “that place”. From a heart that understood that “we are the same”. That is, brothers and sisters in the family of the God of Love.
Christians must start living our lives from that place. Because too many of us don’t. Too many Christians are subverted by their culture and their politics. But that is very often a culture of tribalism, and a culture of the politics of the Kingdom of This World - which is, we are reminded by the Bible, the Kingdom of Satan - and not the Kingdom of God. The “church” exists only to build God’s Kingdom.
Love is the basic “conscious choice”. It is an act of the will. Just like Jesus, we choose to love, even when we are faced with betrayal and with evil and with the “sin that lives so close” in us. Every one of us has the capacity to side with “Satan”, i.e., the path of anti-Love. But into every age comes a prophet, a seer, a Child of God, a Truth-teller, who reminds us of who we truly Are - Glorious Beings of Light and Good, who boldly calls us to be faithful to our true nature. Yes, that “true nature” lies deeply hidden at times - but that only makes its voice more powerful! After a thousand betrayals, but one hard word of Truth cancels all the voices of deception. Jesus heard the voice of Satan in the Wilderness - and rejected it as Lies. Love of “Christ” - i.e., of Divine Love, manifest in so many Beings and Faiths, anchors us in the path of Good News.
Life is Politics. That’s a given. We must make “conscious choices” about the character of our politics. For Christians, our politics are grounded in the Cross. In a Love that transcends Self for the other.
And so are the songs we sing.
Brian+
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, October 11, 2007
Vegetables are a must on a diet.
I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread,
and pumpkin pie.”
- Garfield the Cat (Jim Davis)
I’m with Garfield! In my family, we rarely had vegetables that were fresh, as I remember (probably selectively). Sometimes, in the 60’s, we had frozen. No, we liked tinned veggies. My favourite? Petit Pois - lovely little sweet peas in a tin from, I think, Del Monte - but that part I may be making up!
On this day, in 1919, food was first served on a commercial flight - from London to Paris. I have tried to find out what was served, but to no avail. Petit pois, I hope, with mashed and fois gras and Beef Wellington, just to celebrate the two cultures! Ugh, most will say. But I must say that I really like heavy English food (like suet pud) and rich fatty French food like Sweetbreads.
Spiritual diets must include the right “foods”. The sparse, “scandalous” food of the Body and Blood of the Christ. Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, with Solemn Sung Evensong - the carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie of liturgical falderal, in my humble opinion - as done of course at St Thomas, Huron Street, Toronto in “the old days”. Once, in my naïve youth, I sang the Great Litany at St. Thomas, vested in a grand cope, incense billowing around me, not of course having studied the text too well, and suddenly finding myself singing the line, “From the bishop of Rome and all of his detestable enormities, Good Lord, Deliver Us!”. Embarrassing - and I have a loud voice that can be heard in every far corner!
An antipasto of challenging, rational, mystical books. A palette cleanser of Taize chant. A dessert of an annual 4 day retreat at Mt. Calvary Retreat House, inhaling jasmine in the central garden, homemade monks’ bread, sunsets over English Bay (if I have got my directions right).
Spirituality can – and probably should, most of the time – be a gourmet’s delight!
Don’t stint, dear friends. Don’t stint.
Brian+
Vegetables are a must on a diet.
I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread,
and pumpkin pie.”
- Garfield the Cat (Jim Davis)
I’m with Garfield! In my family, we rarely had vegetables that were fresh, as I remember (probably selectively). Sometimes, in the 60’s, we had frozen. No, we liked tinned veggies. My favourite? Petit Pois - lovely little sweet peas in a tin from, I think, Del Monte - but that part I may be making up!
On this day, in 1919, food was first served on a commercial flight - from London to Paris. I have tried to find out what was served, but to no avail. Petit pois, I hope, with mashed and fois gras and Beef Wellington, just to celebrate the two cultures! Ugh, most will say. But I must say that I really like heavy English food (like suet pud) and rich fatty French food like Sweetbreads.
Spiritual diets must include the right “foods”. The sparse, “scandalous” food of the Body and Blood of the Christ. Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, with Solemn Sung Evensong - the carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie of liturgical falderal, in my humble opinion - as done of course at St Thomas, Huron Street, Toronto in “the old days”. Once, in my naïve youth, I sang the Great Litany at St. Thomas, vested in a grand cope, incense billowing around me, not of course having studied the text too well, and suddenly finding myself singing the line, “From the bishop of Rome and all of his detestable enormities, Good Lord, Deliver Us!”. Embarrassing - and I have a loud voice that can be heard in every far corner!
An antipasto of challenging, rational, mystical books. A palette cleanser of Taize chant. A dessert of an annual 4 day retreat at Mt. Calvary Retreat House, inhaling jasmine in the central garden, homemade monks’ bread, sunsets over English Bay (if I have got my directions right).
Spirituality can – and probably should, most of the time – be a gourmet’s delight!
Don’t stint, dear friends. Don’t stint.
Brian+
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy,
and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that
he has to grow up...a lot of people don't have the courage to do it.
- Helen Hayes, artist and actress, born on this day, 1900
Grow up. Hmmmm. I have to agree with Helen. I have been a priest for 35 years, and “in ministry” for over 40. I have been committed to trying to help people - including myself - to grow up. Helen says that “a lot of people” don’t have the courage to grow up.
She is wrong, by my experience. Most people don’t have the courage or the desire to be adults. They resist change and transformation like the plague. Huge numbers of people just want to rest in the status quo. That’s why, among those who “go to church”, very very few ever go to events that will challenge their rote ideas, disturb their comfort zones. I’ve been a “preacher” for decades. One of the phenomena that has most astounded me is how people hear only what they “want” to hear - and it usually isn’t what I actually said! Because usually what I have to say challenges childish understandings of God and Life.
I am constantly amazed by the numbers of church-goers who hold on to a childish (not childlike, as Jesus defined childlike) ideas of God. No wonder they harbour unspoken doubts. They were taught as children that God would “make everything better”, give them what they asked for, arrange the Universe and Reality to their magical views. And what amazes me even more is that, when God does not do any of those things, they have the ability to live in profound Denial, often blaming their “bad behaviour” for God’s unresponsiveness. All that accomplishes is a huge community of people who remain stunted in their development as human beings created in the image of God.
The Gospel gives people the courage to Grow Up. Jesus was a Grown-up, who knew what was important, and could choose a path that had the integrity of His beliefs, even if it meant death on a cross. He loved the poor, the oppressed, those falsely maligned, the rejected, the feared, the different - as we shall hear in the Gospel about the healed lepers next Sunday.
It is a great human tragedy when we can’t grow up. It is people stunted in childhood who wage wars, build ghettos, enthrone false gods, ignore the dispossessed and the needy. Mature men and women see all people as their family, and do their best to nurture that family.
“Original sin” - the capability of evil - is everyone’s given. Grownups choose Compassion.
Brian+
Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy,
and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that
he has to grow up...a lot of people don't have the courage to do it.
- Helen Hayes, artist and actress, born on this day, 1900
Grow up. Hmmmm. I have to agree with Helen. I have been a priest for 35 years, and “in ministry” for over 40. I have been committed to trying to help people - including myself - to grow up. Helen says that “a lot of people” don’t have the courage to grow up.
She is wrong, by my experience. Most people don’t have the courage or the desire to be adults. They resist change and transformation like the plague. Huge numbers of people just want to rest in the status quo. That’s why, among those who “go to church”, very very few ever go to events that will challenge their rote ideas, disturb their comfort zones. I’ve been a “preacher” for decades. One of the phenomena that has most astounded me is how people hear only what they “want” to hear - and it usually isn’t what I actually said! Because usually what I have to say challenges childish understandings of God and Life.
I am constantly amazed by the numbers of church-goers who hold on to a childish (not childlike, as Jesus defined childlike) ideas of God. No wonder they harbour unspoken doubts. They were taught as children that God would “make everything better”, give them what they asked for, arrange the Universe and Reality to their magical views. And what amazes me even more is that, when God does not do any of those things, they have the ability to live in profound Denial, often blaming their “bad behaviour” for God’s unresponsiveness. All that accomplishes is a huge community of people who remain stunted in their development as human beings created in the image of God.
The Gospel gives people the courage to Grow Up. Jesus was a Grown-up, who knew what was important, and could choose a path that had the integrity of His beliefs, even if it meant death on a cross. He loved the poor, the oppressed, those falsely maligned, the rejected, the feared, the different - as we shall hear in the Gospel about the healed lepers next Sunday.
It is a great human tragedy when we can’t grow up. It is people stunted in childhood who wage wars, build ghettos, enthrone false gods, ignore the dispossessed and the needy. Mature men and women see all people as their family, and do their best to nurture that family.
“Original sin” - the capability of evil - is everyone’s given. Grownups choose Compassion.
Brian+
Monday, October 8, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, October 9, 2007
When men make gods, there is no God!
- Eugene O’Neill, playwright, whose
play “The Iceman Cometh”
opened on Broadway on this day,
1946 (3 months after I was born!)
Was it Cole who wrote the song “Let’s Fall in Love”?? Everybody does it, right?
Well, everybody “makes God in their own image”. 99% of the “God” that exists today is “(wo)man made”. Let’s be honest. I do it. I believe that I have met God. That God is Unconditional Love. God is Truth - “truth” being always Love, and a willingness to acknowledge Love in every person and relationship. God is Justice - where we are called to make sure that every person has the means to Life that God wishes for all. God is Mercy - Oh God, how wonderful to know that we will not be judged by any other criterion than Understanding of our Human Nature, forever struggling with Good and Evil. Knowing that every person is my brother or sister. Bone of my bone, Flesh of my Flesh.
God, however, laughs. God finds ways to “tell” us that we can’t “make” Her. God continues to resist our prejudices, our fears, our rigidity, our narrowness (both of ourselves and of the World). And God waits. Waits. Waits for us to shake free of our little boxes, where we think we want to live with our limitations, our fears. But, when we break apart, we are free, free, free! Christ’s vision of a Unity envelopes us. And that’s the way we want to live. The way we want the World to be.
Let’s have the courage to embrace the “real” God. Be Kind. Be Thoughtful. Be Gentle. Is this not what people said of Jesus? Do not make God “in your own image”. If we do, there is no God.
God is God. I like the God who Is, beyond my prejudices and fears.
Brian+
When men make gods, there is no God!
- Eugene O’Neill, playwright, whose
play “The Iceman Cometh”
opened on Broadway on this day,
1946 (3 months after I was born!)
Was it Cole who wrote the song “Let’s Fall in Love”?? Everybody does it, right?
Well, everybody “makes God in their own image”. 99% of the “God” that exists today is “(wo)man made”. Let’s be honest. I do it. I believe that I have met God. That God is Unconditional Love. God is Truth - “truth” being always Love, and a willingness to acknowledge Love in every person and relationship. God is Justice - where we are called to make sure that every person has the means to Life that God wishes for all. God is Mercy - Oh God, how wonderful to know that we will not be judged by any other criterion than Understanding of our Human Nature, forever struggling with Good and Evil. Knowing that every person is my brother or sister. Bone of my bone, Flesh of my Flesh.
God, however, laughs. God finds ways to “tell” us that we can’t “make” Her. God continues to resist our prejudices, our fears, our rigidity, our narrowness (both of ourselves and of the World). And God waits. Waits. Waits for us to shake free of our little boxes, where we think we want to live with our limitations, our fears. But, when we break apart, we are free, free, free! Christ’s vision of a Unity envelopes us. And that’s the way we want to live. The way we want the World to be.
Let’s have the courage to embrace the “real” God. Be Kind. Be Thoughtful. Be Gentle. Is this not what people said of Jesus? Do not make God “in your own image”. If we do, there is no God.
God is God. I like the God who Is, beyond my prejudices and fears.
Brian+
Friday, October 5, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, October 6, 2007
When Autumn Came
This is the way that autumn came to the trees:
it stripped them down to the skin,
left their ebony bodies naked.
It shook out their hearts, the yellow leaves,
scattered them over the ground.
Anyone could trample them out of shape
undisturbed by a single moan of protest.
The birds that herald dreams
were exiled from their song,
each voice torn out of its throat.
They dropped into the dust
even before the hunter strung his bow.
Oh, God of May have mercy.
Bless these withered bodies
with the passion of your resurrection;
make their dead veins flow with blood again.
Give some tree the gift of green again.
Let one bird sing.
- by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, born (not on this day!) in Sialkot, India, 1911 (Translated by Naomi Lazard)
What we go through in our lives! As a priest, I have sat with or visited many people in illness, people facing fear, people despondent, people stunned into incomprehension. All sorts of challenges to mortal life, to hope. I have found it difficult at times. Because I am a “realist”. A wise mentor once told me, never say false stupidities to people. Be honest about our fragility. Speak of the Mystery, of the gift of Life miraculously extended, only “God knows” how or why. Yes, with myself too. When facing serious surgery, I center myself to live or die, to be thankful should I awake. Every time I have, I am even more determined to rise from the “withered body” and enjoy Life and Being.
Enjoy the poem. Give thanks for the “gift of green again”, for the one bird singing. For you. For another.
Brian+
When Autumn Came
This is the way that autumn came to the trees:
it stripped them down to the skin,
left their ebony bodies naked.
It shook out their hearts, the yellow leaves,
scattered them over the ground.
Anyone could trample them out of shape
undisturbed by a single moan of protest.
The birds that herald dreams
were exiled from their song,
each voice torn out of its throat.
They dropped into the dust
even before the hunter strung his bow.
Oh, God of May have mercy.
Bless these withered bodies
with the passion of your resurrection;
make their dead veins flow with blood again.
Give some tree the gift of green again.
Let one bird sing.
- by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, born (not on this day!) in Sialkot, India, 1911 (Translated by Naomi Lazard)
What we go through in our lives! As a priest, I have sat with or visited many people in illness, people facing fear, people despondent, people stunned into incomprehension. All sorts of challenges to mortal life, to hope. I have found it difficult at times. Because I am a “realist”. A wise mentor once told me, never say false stupidities to people. Be honest about our fragility. Speak of the Mystery, of the gift of Life miraculously extended, only “God knows” how or why. Yes, with myself too. When facing serious surgery, I center myself to live or die, to be thankful should I awake. Every time I have, I am even more determined to rise from the “withered body” and enjoy Life and Being.
Enjoy the poem. Give thanks for the “gift of green again”, for the one bird singing. For you. For another.
Brian+
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, October 4, 2007
I want to love all the children of God - Christian, Jew,
Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist - everyone. I want to love gay
Christians and straight Christians.
- Anne Rice, author, born on this day, 1941
This, from the woman who said, “I broke with my religion in college.” Somehow I doubt it. She sounds like she found religion when she broke with religion. Strange: more and more people are having the same experience. This is, I think, a good thing.
We live in such “interesting times”. Remember the ancient Chinese proverb about that. I think we are in a “time”, an “age”, of disintegration. This is like dying. And this is Good. The Gospel is clear that embracing death leads to New Life. And so I choose to believe that we are headed - God knows how long it will take - towards New Life. And we all must decide how we are going to respond.
Ann Rice may have broken with religion - but she found (in my perspective) the Heart of the Christ. Love everyone. Do not judge. Do not pre-judge. Do not assume that your prejudices or your cultural background are reality. The Christian Faith is all about transformation. About change. We may, as children, be taught tribalism, exclusion, fear. Legion are the people I know whose childhood religion taught them these things - and many of them are becoming Episcopalians these days as a rejection of what they were taught. They learned that Christ calls us to leave the bitter, fear-filled places and enter into the Light.
“I want to love all the children of God.”
Good plan.
Brian+
I want to love all the children of God - Christian, Jew,
Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist - everyone. I want to love gay
Christians and straight Christians.
- Anne Rice, author, born on this day, 1941
This, from the woman who said, “I broke with my religion in college.” Somehow I doubt it. She sounds like she found religion when she broke with religion. Strange: more and more people are having the same experience. This is, I think, a good thing.
We live in such “interesting times”. Remember the ancient Chinese proverb about that. I think we are in a “time”, an “age”, of disintegration. This is like dying. And this is Good. The Gospel is clear that embracing death leads to New Life. And so I choose to believe that we are headed - God knows how long it will take - towards New Life. And we all must decide how we are going to respond.
Ann Rice may have broken with religion - but she found (in my perspective) the Heart of the Christ. Love everyone. Do not judge. Do not pre-judge. Do not assume that your prejudices or your cultural background are reality. The Christian Faith is all about transformation. About change. We may, as children, be taught tribalism, exclusion, fear. Legion are the people I know whose childhood religion taught them these things - and many of them are becoming Episcopalians these days as a rejection of what they were taught. They learned that Christ calls us to leave the bitter, fear-filled places and enter into the Light.
“I want to love all the children of God.”
Good plan.
Brian+
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Preach the Gospel at all times - and when necessary use words.
- Francis of Assisi, who died on this day, 1226
Jesus stood before Pilate. He said nothing in His defense. No need, even if Pilate could not understand.
I remember visiting an English priest friend with my mother. After one day, at breakfast, my friend said to my mother, “Mrs. McHugh, I can tell that you are by nature a kind, giving, gentle person ….. unlike your son, who has had to be softened by Grace.” Well, I did have the grace to laugh.
Bottom line: we can talk all we want. It’s who we are, how we behave, that reveals the truth.
For it is in giving that we receive;
Preach the Gospel at all times - and when necessary use words.
- Francis of Assisi, who died on this day, 1226
Jesus stood before Pilate. He said nothing in His defense. No need, even if Pilate could not understand.
I remember visiting an English priest friend with my mother. After one day, at breakfast, my friend said to my mother, “Mrs. McHugh, I can tell that you are by nature a kind, giving, gentle person ….. unlike your son, who has had to be softened by Grace.” Well, I did have the grace to laugh.
Bottom line: we can talk all we want. It’s who we are, how we behave, that reveals the truth.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Brian+
Brian+
Monday, October 1, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Quotes and Comments from me on Sting, artist and musician, born on this day, 1951.
Fascinating, talented, complex human being.
I can't really change my life to accommodate people
who are jealous. I don't see why I should.
Joseph didn’t. You remember Joseph - of the coat of many colours? His jealous brothers sold him into slavery because they were jealous of their father’s love for Joseph. Joseph claimed himself - and was able to help his family and a whole nation to survive. There’s an obvious lesson there. God loves those whom the socially acceptable throw away. They are planting the seeds of their own destruction.
I come from a family of losers, and I've rejected
my family as something I don't want to be like.
I come from a Family of Losers. It’s called the Human Race. We all do. Jesus “rejected” His family, in a powerful metaphorical sense. People came to Him and said that His family were outside where He was teaching and wanted to see Him, and take Him away because they thought He was mad.. Jesus looked around and said, “Those who do my Father’s will - to love - they are my mother and father and brothers and sisters”. We all must reject the Family of Losers for the Family of Lovers. And the God I know embraces us all as Her Family.
I was brought up as a Catholic and went to church
every week and took the sacraments. It never really
touched the core of my being.
I’m not surprised. My father and all of his eight brothers and sisters, raised in the Roman Catholic Church, left it and, as far as I know, never went to any other religion. They spoke of the meanness of nuns. Of being asked for money not to support a spiritual home but money to buy a place of acceptance. They rebelled against religious oppression and hypocrisy. I must have inherited their spirit. They were, in my perspective, people of integrity.
I've only paid lip service to a spiritual life.
Nonsense. Sting is a man of the Spirit - at least in my view. He has graced to world infinitely more than most of the vicious Robertsons, Dobsons, Osamas, Schlaftleys, Bryants, Jeffs, mullahs, sheiks, Romneys, and so-called “holy” (wo)men, all of whom have only betrayed the founders of their faiths.
Sting: Thank you.
Brian+
Quotes and Comments from me on Sting, artist and musician, born on this day, 1951.
Fascinating, talented, complex human being.
I can't really change my life to accommodate people
who are jealous. I don't see why I should.
Joseph didn’t. You remember Joseph - of the coat of many colours? His jealous brothers sold him into slavery because they were jealous of their father’s love for Joseph. Joseph claimed himself - and was able to help his family and a whole nation to survive. There’s an obvious lesson there. God loves those whom the socially acceptable throw away. They are planting the seeds of their own destruction.
I come from a family of losers, and I've rejected
my family as something I don't want to be like.
I come from a Family of Losers. It’s called the Human Race. We all do. Jesus “rejected” His family, in a powerful metaphorical sense. People came to Him and said that His family were outside where He was teaching and wanted to see Him, and take Him away because they thought He was mad.. Jesus looked around and said, “Those who do my Father’s will - to love - they are my mother and father and brothers and sisters”. We all must reject the Family of Losers for the Family of Lovers. And the God I know embraces us all as Her Family.
I was brought up as a Catholic and went to church
every week and took the sacraments. It never really
touched the core of my being.
I’m not surprised. My father and all of his eight brothers and sisters, raised in the Roman Catholic Church, left it and, as far as I know, never went to any other religion. They spoke of the meanness of nuns. Of being asked for money not to support a spiritual home but money to buy a place of acceptance. They rebelled against religious oppression and hypocrisy. I must have inherited their spirit. They were, in my perspective, people of integrity.
I've only paid lip service to a spiritual life.
Nonsense. Sting is a man of the Spirit - at least in my view. He has graced to world infinitely more than most of the vicious Robertsons, Dobsons, Osamas, Schlaftleys, Bryants, Jeffs, mullahs, sheiks, Romneys, and so-called “holy” (wo)men, all of whom have only betrayed the founders of their faiths.
Sting: Thank you.
Brian+
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