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.