The curtain has been pulled down on another Olympics. Us sport junkies must not fear, The National Football League for 2024-5 is now in nursery school. Baseball is heating up and a new Mister October may well be crowned. Sports can be, and is a wonderful a medicator, addiction for so many people. When I was growing up my heart, outlook on life was deeply colored  depending on what Cork's hero Christy Ring was accomplishing on the hurling field. As I grew up Rugby was added. " O Meara out to Kyle, Kyle to Henderson, Henderson to ......" were words so dear to the ears of a pre-teen and teen.  Saturday was Rugby,  but Sunday was, Christy's day, and our prayers were directed towards the success of the Cork hurling team. We had no televisions, we were glued to the radio. What simple and uncomplicated days that were gifted to us. 

     Today there are so many  more great fish to fry. Are we the better for it?  What a great fodder for discussion ? Todays talk shows reveals the passions of so many, resulting in cruel, unjust judgements and summary condemnations. We are living in this harsh reality, winning is everything. It has taken  its place in the hearts and souls of so many, it has become everything, replacing The Presence of The Everything, Who comes to us through our experiences of, nothingness. How counter cultural that is, how unacceptable to the present process of evaluation. We must have more, more and still some more is never enough. The people such as I cry from the darkness Enough, is  more than enough. There is always some left over. We experience the miracle of" The Loaves and Fishes'. We do our best, and,  The Great Creative Spirit does the rest, within the realm four nothingnesses and inabilities. " Life is not a problem to be solved, it is a mystery to be lived. In the living out of our mystery we are very slowly introduced to, The Mystery. 

            It has been a great challenge for,over these eons, to come to grips with the " UNS, and, NOTS".  "The unloved, unseen, unappreciated, unwanted, uncared for ......  these have their counterparts in not good enough, (which is a  toxic shame attack, ) not smart enough, not attractive enough,  not powerful not rich enough, not the right color, right gender, or  right  class, .... " ( I got this  in a place that is lost in memory, not retentive enough !!!!!!)  This is a lot to face at any one time. So this can be material for reflection and meditation. We are ALWAYS more that we can see, and way beyond anybody's else vision or understanding of us.  People will see us as they are, never as we are.  

We then are responsible for the development of a  healthy daily  spiritual  practice " examination of consciousness'. This will enable us to face the real realities of our lives and face the need for change. We must do so " calmly, objectively, and  compassionately " ( Rohr).  To put aside the "old man", the false self so as to make room for the evolving "new man", the true self, will take days,  months, years and even decades.  Let us be vigilant in keeping this fact , reality,  front and center, this happens, "one moment at a time". It must be one moment at a time as grace is in the given so we develop the ability to live and  encounter  real and true life, one moment at a time.  Paul "Now is the acceptable time, now, is the time of salvation " Our participation in The Eternal Now, our origin and destiny and the moment to moment mystery. Blessings,Great grandpa Joe.

 

     

           

 I thank you for being very kind in not pointing out any of my mistakes over theses many years. with this effort I am really going to push your understanding and tolerance. You see, I am meeting thsichallenge without my glasses. It is too long since the last post. Well here goes.

         we were introduced again to the fact that The Historical Jesus's The good Shepherd. Whose Presence is ever and always existing in us and through us and with and within us. Along with The Shepherds Presence we also have within our depths the Presence of The Creator God. Now if that was not enough we also have imparted to us The Power of Love, The Creative Spirit. No wonder the "table set before us', is brimming over with Infinite Goodness, Mercy, and compassion.That is the reality of what dwells in our depths, yet, just speaking for myself, we can be overwhelmed with feelings of guilt, fear, and shame, also known as the toxic trinity, in my book. In sports you are asked to focus, focus and focus some more.That coaching works with our spiritual reality as well. That is why it is said so much of sports is 90% head and 10% ability. 

       To shoot a good score in golf without focus on each shot id pretty much impossible. Try chess without focus and you will soon get tired of it. To attain anything worthwhile we need to be connected to Who lies deep in our depths. That connecting effort does not come without long practice, and steady concentration. My dad and I had great chess games. He always wanted to out-concentrate me. That would lead to three hour games, much to my mother's discomfort. Yes my mother loved to chat. Those who know me personally from lived life know that I am definitely my mother's son. 

        The Good Shepherd with The Power-full Power of love are gifted so we apply ourselves to the mysterious challenge of us being contemporary Good Shepherds in place we are planted.  We are all gifted with the call to be in the present moment what The Historical Good Shepherd was in His physical reality.He dwells within us so  when we have the opportunity to replicate His life and actions we are NOT ALONE. There is the voice of the false self who only aim is to distract us from the mission we are entrusted with, and Who it is that is the source "of our Hope and strength".

 We have to face up to how we are being Good Shepherd , first to ourselves and then to the members of The Creators Flock that is our destiny to meet ? There are coincidences in The Creative's spirit's universe. Remember in the old days, say five years ago, we were just focused on the world, now our focus must be on all creation. A  sacred, sacramental creation, which  The Second Vatican Council calls us to be co-creators of. What a mysterious calling. Thank The Creative Spirit that is now directing our thoughts and consciousness to how the word,  interdependence , has now entered more and more, from the depths, where it always was, to slowly emerge as a reality in  present day consciousness. This factual reality is going to increasingly challenge us to answer the call to trudge the roads to new, challenging and exciting horizons. We are so indebted to those who have shepherded quantum thought to its present day dynamic, transformative driving force. Yes as we leave the comforts of what we now know behind, we will be  safely Shepherded along the trails leading to dark valleys, and transformative mountain tops. We must make sure the shepherds are healthy and ready to meet the challenges ahead. May The Creative Power of Love power your moment to moment actions into  a mysterious reality. Whose Real Reality is, "the Kingdom of peace justice and love". Focus on all that is being gifted you, as the beloved, so The Beloved in the depths may be revealed and gifted to the here and now of the evolving cosmos.  Now !!!!! Focus on the developing reality of who you have been chosen to be........ Reverence the evolution !!!!!!! GGPJ.

 

           

 My journey into  the appreciation of the spirituality of The Twelve Steps has been a long one, spanning decades. In Ireland to battle the destructive effects of alcoholism we were introduced to The Pioneer Association. So when I arrived in Phoenix in 1963 I was a blank slate to the workings of alcoholism, and the power of The twelve Steps. It was within the first year my pastor told me to drive to this address, pick up the old man, and take him to Franklin Hospital, which was just down the street fro the rectory. The man was very compliant, and as a result I had no trouble with him. That was first encounter with alcoholism and its treatment. Over the next 60 years my education has progressed steadily. In our Irish Community it was, and is, a constant presence. I read somewhere that back East alcoholism is facetiously named, The Irish Flu.

             I am indebted to Fr. Richard Rohr O.F.M. for a learned introduction into the mysterious workings of A.A.. He has a book "Breathing Underwater" which is a great introduction into the spirituality of A.A. Father has expressed his admiration of the workings of grace in the  lives of those affected and infected with the disease. Alcoholism is a disease. There are no moral issues to deflect from a healthy recovery. The sufferer is " Not a bad person trying to become good, she/he is a sick person trying to get well.". Recovery is a process. A long long journey that can be taken, ONE STEP AT A TIME.  Recovery is lived into, one moment at a time.One receives a daily reprieve from the disease, dependent on ones spiritual condition.There are The Twelve Steps, that are visited again and again during the recovery process. These steps, over time, will guide the alcoholic into "absolute dependence on  Higher Power, into Whose care there is, absolute surrender." Those four words, absolute dependence and absolute surrender, are words one slowly come to the acceptance of. Acceptance is a word that the A.A. member will struggle with all life long. 

 Here is a gift that came to me from Fr.Rohr O.F.M.I get his blog every day. In the following Fr.Richard connects the lessons fro the Gospels and the twelve Steps as life-changing and healing messages that WE can ALL benefit from.

      I am convinced that, on a practical level, the gospel message of Jesus and the Twelve Step of Bill Wilson are largely the same message. The Twelve Step Program parallels, mirrors, and make practical the same message that Jesus gave us, but without as much danger of spiritualizing the message and pushing its effects into a future world.

    Here are four assumptions that I am making about addiction.

     We are all addicts.  Human beings are addictive by nature. Addiction is a modern name and honest description for what the biblical traditional "sin"and medieval Christians called "passions or " attachments ". The both recognize that serious measures or practices were needed to break out of these illusions, and entrapments.

 "Stinking thinking" is the universal addiction......    Substance addictions like alcohol and drugs are merely the most visible forms of addiction, but we are all addicted to our habitual ways of doing anything, our own defenses , and most especially, our patterned ways of thinking and processing reality. These attachments are at first hidden to us; by definition we can never see or handle what we are addicted to, but we cannot heal what we do not first acknowledge.

 All societies are addicted to themselves and create deep codependency.......   There are shared and agreed-upon  addictions in every culture and every institution. these are the hardest to heal because they do not look like addictions. We have all agreed to be compulsive about  the same things and unaware of the same problems. The gospel exposes those lies in every culture.

   Some form of alternative consciousness is the only freedom from addictive self and fro cultural lies......If the universal addiction is to our own pattern of thinking, which is invariable dualistic, the primary spiritual path must be some form of contemplative practice or prayer to break down this unhelpful binary system of either-or thinking and superiority thinking. Prayer is a form of non-dual resting in "what is'. Eventuality, this contemplative practice changes our whole operating system!

Let us sum up, then. These are the foundational ways I believe Jesus and  The Twelve Steps of A.A.  are  saying the same thing but with a different vocabulary:    We suffer to get well. We surrender to win.   We die to live.   We give it away to keep it. 

       This counterintuitive wisdom will forever be resisted, denied, and avoided, until it is forced upon us by some reality over which we are powerless -and, if we're honest, we are all powerless in the presence of full Reality.

         We are all spiritually powerless, not just those who are physically addicted to a substance. Alcoholics simply have their powerlessness visible for all to see. The rest of us disguise it in different ways, and compensate for our more hidden and subtle addictions and attachments.

    Me again. Fr.Rohr sees The Twelve Steps of AA as Americas great contribution to the school of spirituality. This is a school one never graduates from. There are no diplomas handed out, only chips to recognize, the up to the present moment's hard work. 'We do not think our way into a new way of acting, we act our way into a new way of thinking". " Fake it, until you make it."  May your trudge along the road of happy destiny be one of peace, joy and love. Leading to, "a  new freedom and a new happiness".  One out of EVERY three families is infected or afflicted with this disease.

 I am so sorry for the, time between postings. I have been gifted with two new chronic companions for the slog, we also call life. As I sat and listened to The Word being proclaimed I had some really conflicting thoughts. How can Power be present in weakness, loss, death, failure, rejection and the nakedness that is the consequence of living an authentic human life. "We are born human, and we spend the rest of our lives coming to understand and accept what that means."( Bishop Morneau.) Our journey of faith, our spiritual journey leads us to places unknown. We are gently led to an understanding that each places triggers encounters with understandings that contradict the popular beliefs. After each encounter with our powerlessness and impotence we are mysteriously lead to the acceptance of a way of life that before now we avoided like the plague. The road to acceptance is a long and rocky road. With many twists and turns, denying us a look at what awaits us. When am I going to accept this reality, faith is a journey into uncertainty, not certainty". My false self wants clear vision, all we are given is the darkness,  the unknown.  Wow !!! Is not The Unknown another way of expressing our understanding of, The Ineffable, The Divine, God.

 Paul had the experience of encountering weakness where he  mistakenly though he should possess the power to overcome his weakness. His ego, his false self did not want to have to face his continued failures to deal with his particular weakness. We do not know what the weakness was. There have been conjectures, but no certainty. It does mean a hill of beans what Paul was forced to face. In the facing of his weakness and the accounts of his failures, has offer so much hope to all of us who follow in his footsteps. In this revelation of power through failure had within it the font of hope for the many. There is a plan also for our weakness. When we face face failure we must keep before us this freeing reality, from what I am experiencing a wisdom will be taught. A lesson that will not easily be forgotten. This new found wisdom is not for ourselves but to be shared with the person, or persons who will be placed in our paths. As we share this new found wisdom, the pain of our failures, loss, defeats, deaths etc. will be lessened. Joy will come because we have been chosen to be prophets of, The Gospel of Powerlessness. A Gospel the majority are petrified to even consider.  

      For to day's prophets the road is a very dangerous one to travel.  So many of the prophets of Old Testament were killed off, The Prophet Jesus was also killed, so what fate awaits those who dare to challenge conventional wisdom. Which is not wisdom at all, only the road a hell. Hell is the place where Love is not considered as a healthy way of being. It is summarily rejected as the way for the looser, one cannot be successful living a life of dependence on a Power one cannot feel, see, taste or touch. It is the "pig sty' of failure  one comes to the knowledge that in time becomes, the wisdom needed for a truly authentic human life. There are many steps to be taken preparing us for the acceptance. Like all journeys, it is taken, one step at a time. Each step taken is a holy, a  sacred reality. A sacrament, this means what ? 

      Until the next time, peace, joy and love. Great Grandpa Joe.

 

         

" It's Summer time, and the living is easy", great words from Porgy and Bess. It is Summertime and for many millions of people the living is far from easy. It is about survival.   These coming days, weeks and months we will be forced to face  the life and death struggles  of the millions, who  are living, etching out and existence  on or below the poverty. There are the old forgotten ones who will die silently, and alone. What carnage will be wroth on the birds, animals and live stock because of the lack of water. The struggles as seen in the living, in the other world can be seen as the  harsh paradigm of what is happening  in our inner world. This can be very uncomfortable  for those of us who are never exposed to the harsh realities faced by the community who cohabits our common home. A home, I am sad to say is becoming less and less a, comfortable home.  We are being challenged, as never before, to awaken to the harsh reality,  that our inner and outer worlds, need immediate attention. Attention to stave off the sixth annihilation which so many in the science community see happening, right now.

     Memorial Day reminds us, of this fact of life, freedom, is not free. Freedom does not provide the actuality whereby  we are freed of any and all responsibility.  We, with the Creative Spirit of Love are the joint gardeners of the inner and outer, the physical and spiritual creation. There is NO inner and outer creations. there is only, one, creation. A  creation we are struggling to understand. I have had to struggle with this challenging reality over a number of decades. This  struggle is become more intense as I face the stark reality, I am not as young as I used to be. My physical prowess and  athletic abilities are slowly ebbing aware. My awarenesses of the spiritual realities are coming to the surface. What "has been hidden is now being revealed", ever so slowly. Old age has its blessings,  and responsibilities. Do I dare say, "every blessing is a curse, and every curse is a blessing." Thank you Fr. Rohr, O.F.M. for this kernel of wisdom.  These words are  very poor vehicles when it comes for the transportation  of  essential ideas. Those revealed and the daunting number of those hidden and are yet to be revealed. 

    We must not be like the ostrich who keeps hid head hidden in the sand. We must bravely face the Light, and following its unique  invitation to " cast into the deep" and from the depths wondrous emerge. What we are blessed with, must NEVER be seen as something for our private,  individual  use, but always for "the common good", so St.Paul has written. " Look not backward, in anger, forward, in fear, but around in awareness." So Winston Churchill counseled the British in their darkest hour. Now how are you going to apply those words of wisdom, to the faces you are facing today. We are not alone. There is That Gentle Guiding Light ever and always, working in us, through us, and always with us. EMMANUEL is not just a Christmas  word, Its Power resonates throughout It's creation, of which we have been chosen to be  active respondents to the challenge of being "co-creators and co-perfectors" of the emerging cosmos. 

         Have an honest face to face encounter with your true and real self. Give the false self a long, would that it were possible, permanent vacation. You true self, is the one who shares the reality of,  Resurrection Power. With this Power," all things are possible,..... for those who believe. As we are informed recently all that is required is the faith of a mustard seed. Starts out the smallest but ends up as large as you, I, we allow it to grow and spread it's hospitality to all sharing it's cosmic  home. My favorite petition is " I believe Lord, help my unbelief/disbelief." This bromide has gotten me to this point. How I do not know. The miracle of grace is very difficult to comprehend. So, "Life  is NOT a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived." Mystery, in infinite wisdom, has chosen both you and I". My part is done, so that leaves .......??????