The Gift, Part 3

In the celebration of The Holy Trinity, we are drawn into an ever deepening understanding of who is The Family that has chosen our bodies, to be their dwelling place. The Family of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have out of their Triune love for each one of us, have chosen us to live within, "the prisoner of our finiteness." We have within us here on earth, here in our earthly existence, what is present in the life of Heaven. We are temples of the living God. A God who is in reality, a family, living in loving unity. They live within us, so we can make our dwelling with them, as they dwell within us. In that way, we can have here on earth a taste of the life of Heaven. Pretty neat!!! There is this Celtic prayer that has been around for many, many centuries:

'I arise to-day

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of

the Trinity,

Through belief in the threeness,

Through confession of the oneness

of the Creator of Creation.

In time, with grace, can this bring about the change necessary so we will have Guests to visit, rather than PRISONERS to be feared???

The Gift, Part 2

Pentecost Sunday is the first of three celebrations that reveals to us our great calling, our deep mysterious reality. The celebration of Pentecost is followed by two celebrations of equal mystery and majesty. They are The Feast of The Blessed Trinity and The Feast of Corpus Christi. In the celebration of Pentecost, we will celebrate The Spirit that has descended, has come to bring the new Spirit leading to a new way of living for a community that was discouraged, and doubtful. They needed a new unique spirit to live the new life that was now theirs. This Spirit was to be the living, vitalizing presence of Him who loved His own, and loved them to the end. He left but promised not to abandon them or leave them orphans. That promise is directed toward you and me, as we are their successors and the inheritors of that same promise. "As it was, so it is, and ever shall be." This Spirit will lead us to all truth, as has been promised. We will not ALWAYS like or embrace the Truth. Real Truth will always challenge us, to reach beyond what is easy, and comfortable. I personally do not like this. Then I am told, I do not have to LIKE it. However, I will be led in time to the wonderful promised land of acceptance.

The Gift

Birthdays are times of gift giving. We, as the church are having a birthday.  This is contained in a fuller understanding of The Feast of Pentecost. Have you had a conscious celebration of this ever new event in your life, and in the continuing life of The Body of Christ? When we do not have a conscious celebration of a significant event then we are not drawn into its deeper meaning. When that is our modus operandi we will not see our lives through the lenses of awe, and wonder. We will never see or come to appreciate the life that is both hidden and revealed in the mystery we call daily living. We will then complain how dull and boring life is. There will be nothing to trigger the awe and wonder that is essential to living life and living it to the fullest, which is our Father-God's dream for you and me. This is a dream we have had to claim again, again, and again.

Religious celebrations allow us to celebrate the deepest reality within us. The purpose of religious practice is not to give us religion, rather it is intended to help us celebrate that which is already present. You do not put religion into a person, it is our challenge to provide the opportunity which allows the person to come to an awareness of what our Gracious God has already placed within each and every person. Regardless of how we see, or what we see in an individual, that is the reality hidden deep within all human beings. This is the in-depth reality which is hidden within each human being. We have at this time of year, three celebrations which provides us with an ever new awareness of this reality.

Motherhood, Part 3

The road to psychological and spiritual health is a long process.  Unfortunately there are many who never get into recovery, and so the dysfunction is passed on to generations to come.  It is essential to take the challenging necessary steps  to claim our essential goodness and lovableness.  We need to be loved for who we really are, in all our human messiness,  and not for what we do or what we have achieved.  That recovery, like all recovery, is not easy.  Toxic shame will fight us each and every step of the way.  Toxic shame which wants to communicate that we are not okay., somehow not "good enough," has to be faced.  We are all more than we do, or have or achieve.  We therefore need the unconditioned love, undeserved, unlimited "first love" to become a reality.  In this way, while we are still pilgrims, having no lasting home, we are somehow secure in the knowledge that our God is always nourishing, ever creative, ever comforting, and always ever mercy-full.  Why?  Because we have experienced all within the lives who reveal the Mystery within mothers and motherhood.  Mothers, you are the living sacrament of our living God.  Be healthy so, we your children can have a healthy understanding of, and a healthy relationship with The Source, The Origin, Love Itself.  We will then find ourselves living the aisling, the unique dream  our Mother/ Father/Creator/ God has for each one of us.  Where there is a void an emptiness resulting from the absence of a healthy mother presence, we need to own that reality.  Into that void we must welcome God, Higher Power to fill up the that which is missing.  We first admit we are sad, angry, and then say these words  "God fill up this emptiness with Your love" again and again until you find yourself  at peace.  This is road tested, and has become the daily practice of so many people.  All we have to do is just repeat those words.  We do not have to mean them, just say them.  God, Higher Power always responds to our healthy desires as that is The Holy Spirit working from the depths.

As I get older, and journey deeper into powerlessness, spiritual bromides  are an essential component of my spiritual nourishment.( I believe Lord, help my unbelief/disbelief,"  "I can"t we must,"  "Out of the depths I cry unto You O lord, Lord hear my cry for..mercy-full love..compassion..forgiveness,..strength…")  In that deepest place The Blessed Trinity is having a party.  A party to which all have been invited to attend.  It takes continuous hard work to get there but the celebration is AWE-Full.

Motherhood, Part 2

It is never-ending, so we must be open to ever new, life-enhancing, life-enriching revelations.  Speaking of revelation, the scriptures have some wonder-full passages offered for our nourishment and encouragement.  Our Father/Mother God, in Isaiah 49:15 "Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?  Even should she forget, I will never forget you."  So we are forever present in the minds of God, and to a lesser extent to our mothers.  There are times when we will be absent from the conscious thought of our mothers, after all, they do have their own lives.  In the mind of God, we are always present to Him, as we journey with Him, and to Him.  Our Father/Mother God is our origin and our destiny.  "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" Psalm 110:3, "from the womb before the day star, I have begotten you."  Our place of origin then is the womb of God, Who is infinite love.  We leave that place of infinite love, comfort and security and journey into the uncertainty that is this life.  No wonder we have something to cry about when we arrive.  Welcomed with a slap on the butt!!!  We have temporarily left the Womb of Infinite  Love, but we are destined to return to that place of safety.  Before that return God never abandons us.  This is one of the impossibilities of life. He has prepared  for us a life-presence .  A life-presence designed remind us of Who it is we came from, and The Love which is our origin. 

The loving gaze of mothers is the loving gaze of God,  enfleshed for us, less we forget. This is this physical living loving presence we can feel, hear, and above all be touched by. This soothes the pain of the seeming loss of our First Love.  Part of the vocation of mothers is to mirror the First Love and to be a living sacrament of that Love !!!!! WOW ???   The best of plans do not always work out, not even God"s "plan A."  Wherever there is light there is also the opposite darkness.  This hard reality has to be faced again and again.  We are forever encountering and becoming reconciled with the shadow in our lives.  We cannot run away from it.  I saw a little kid on the web trying to get away, even run away from his shadow.  No matter he did the shadow was ever present.  There is the shadow side, which is the side of every mothers and motherhood.  The ideal, being the sacrament of God"s love, in so many cases is never actualized.  The result is many innocent children do not live life but subsist  in a "living hell."  Because of abuse, some women's essential inner wholeness has been broken, and in some cases destroyed by the toxic shame that has permeated their lives.  These women were denied a healthy living environment to mature within. They were not blessed with healthy mothers, so were not exposed to healthy ways of mothering.  One cannot give what one does not have.  These mothers are not at fault, but they do  have the responsibility to work long and hard to become healthy.  This demands that toxic shame be faced, processed.  This is a process that extends over many months and years. Family secrets are so very difficult not only to face but actually own by sharing.  There are those brave pioneers gifted with the courage to say "this sickness ends with me,"  and went in search of a solution. There are so many books written that tell the story of "Daughters without Mothers" and the steps taken to develop the skills necessary to be a healthy mother. There are many sons without mothers as, well.  Thank God for the courage of those authors who tell their stories and offer hope to those who have to face this reality in their lives.