"Be, as a page that aches for words, which speak on a theme that is timeless". 

        "Sing, as a song in search of a voice that is silent" Neil Diamond.

         "Blessed are the people The Lord has chosen to be His own" Psalm 3

"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called out to go to a place..not knowing where he was to go"

         "Come Holy Spirit, and fill the heart of this, faithless one"(hij")

         Well !!! Well !!! I am wondering what is going on within you now ? What are your thoughts ?" Have these words stopped you, and are carrying you to, where ? Maybe to, silence ? Or has the phone been hung up ? Each person will have her or his, own very unique, response to the above words. These words are intended not just glanced over, but are allowed entrance to your depths, where they are intended to go. The above words are sacramental, and given to you and I, now. In this now moment they are given as a nourishing challenge. A healthy  spiritual stretching, which will enable us to go beyond we can go the familiar, the comfortable, the nonthreatening, the place  where our false self luxuriates. 

  This is a placed of,  indifference, prejudice, starvation This is the place where our true selves, the one where the Great Creative Mercy-full embraces us, just exactly as we are. We do have to "put on a show", to show our Infinite Beloved that we somehow deserving of unconditioned, unlimited, unrestricted love. That boat has long sailed, and is not available for boarding. Let me be very ,clear the false self is ever so comfortable on that vessel of  comfort,  selfishness, prejudice, self occupation ,denial, and death. 

 There is that page, that place within you, which is waiting for your unique song, sung in silence. In that sacramental, sacred silence your uniqueness is being revealed to you. As we are told, "Silence is God's first language" in our silence our unique story is written. Whether that ,ever sacred story ever reaches it's intended destination depends SOLEY on our free will. What an awe-full gift free will is. The Awe-full, All Power-full One, cannot force us to to anything we do not want to do. We are getting the message that, love is freeing. We life our lives in thee freedom of being, the beloved daughters and sons of ,THE BELOVED. Our belovedness is a gift we must recognize  and claim, a thousand times a day. Why so many ? We are be aware of this frightening statistic, we ABORT, our souls, a thousand times a day. 

 Like Abraham we are being called to go forth traveling, one step at a time, into the darkness of the  unknown, where in the tabernacle of  silence, The Unknown, is  patiently waiting. Waiting so that we will consent our eternal destiny of being cocreators of an evolving, mysterious, ever greening,  cosmos. What a dignity that is imprinted on our souls. Never to be lost,  removed or obliterated. Dare to embrace your unique choice of song. Do not just sing it, rather shout it out. An empty world is waiting for that sound. Can creation continue to it's authentic evolution without your unique , constructive contribution?  Love, prayers and blessings is my gift to you all. May The Gracious Great Spirit continue the work that has already begun with in, and because of the exercise of you creative freedom. Great grandpa Joe.

      " May the gracious, (kind), care of The Lord, our God, be ours."  Ps. 90.It is ours. Let, our moment to moment actions, reflect this living mysterious truth. 

    " Come, Holy Spirit come, and fill the heart of this faithless one."

    " Today, if (when,) you hear the voice of God, harden not your hearts"

   " The denunciation of injustice implies ,the rejection of Christianity, to legitimize order."G. Gutierrez

  " Today, if (when) you hear the voice of God, harden not your hearts." It has been just over the last number of years I have begun to see the need to change the "if", which for me denotes uncertainty, to "when" which forces me to concentrate on "the here, and now". Corinthians reveals to us that "now is the acceptable time, now is the time of Salvation." Here and now, ALL , that The Gracious, Creative Spirit, in infinite Wisdom, knows I need to be an authentic co-creator is being channelled into me. NOTHING, but NOTHING is missing from this sacramental,  grace imbued moment. Nor, from THIS sacramental , and this, this.... ad infinitum.  As is was in, eternity ,so it is ,now, and ever shall be.

     I, we, must make " Lord, that I may see", " Your will be done, and not mine", are spiritual bromides  I must bring to consciousness again, and, again. Then, at least for me, this acceptance of my  innate powerlessness, to do anything on my own, results in the emergence of a reality, way beyond anything I would ever be able to imagine. I am getting to be in deeper acceptance of what I heard Fr.Rohr  first say, many decades ago, " The powerlessness of power, and the power of powerlessness". I have been growing in the acceptance of this challenging spiritual truth, not through any successes I may have. 

      The mysterious truth of this bromide comes  ONLY , through loss, failure,  suffering, rejection,  and isolation. This is the spirituality of imperfection, the apophatic way so many of us have been chosen to tread. Is it not great to know we are never alone on this slog. Yes, strength is found within the bonds of  those , the community who are  embracing the challenging of living  in daily living, depth reality of the Paschal Mystery. This community is vast. To consider  Christian Nationalism, is to consider embracing a contradiction.  It is too restrictive in its outreach and vision. Of it's essence, it is powerless!! 

    As Gustavo Gutierrez writes, we must denunciate a Christianity which ties to legitimize injustice, exploitation, dehumanization, denial of the basic needs of the human person. This can be applied, unfortunately, most certainty in our day and age. Is this not both sad, and embarrassing in a country that is looked on as educated, enlightened?  I even read recently " once there is talk of "social justice' the "privileged begin to resist." 

I have from my own experience seen people,  walk out, loudly disagree, and in one case be invited to seek a transfer to a " colored parish'. The word colored was not used, the repulsive, denigrating word was hurled in anger. I asked the person,  who encouraged my immediate  transfer, if he had  received  The Eucharist? The reply was a very definite, "yes". It was then, I hung up. I was early on in my journey in the priesthood.  Boy!! did that  initially both shocked, and rattled me. On the other hand, my resolve to face  the social,  financial ,and other injustices was strengthened from that moment on. There are some things you do not challenge an Irishman with. Especially if he comes from County Cork and was raised the many exploits of Michael Collins. We share some of the same DNA !!!!