JOYFUL WANDERING -- 77

+ I wonder what I will offer here in this post as I write this on April 5, 2022 at 3:19pm ESDT.  

+ I think I will begin where I left off in JW -- 76.  Baseball.  The 2022 season was delayed by a week due to a strike which got resolved.  The season will begin on April 7 and the Red Sox will meet the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.  So, right off, the great rivalry between these 2 teams is re-ignited.

+

+ During the Wilde Family Reunion in Pittsburgh in August 2019, we celebrated two 50th wedding anniversaries: Jeanette & Stewart Long (June 28) and Mary & John Wilde (July 12). We all went to see the Pirates play the Cubs on a very hot afternoon.  Fortunately our seats were in the shade.  The Cubs won behind the great pitching of Jon Lester who was a huge factor in the Cubs finally winning a World Series in 2016.

+ My other 2 blogs are somewhat organized.  This one is definitely not. Enjoy! 

But if you want the more organized ones, here are the links:

• The Abundancetrek Blog
• The Abundancetrek Travel Blog

The OUR AMAZING JOURNEY posts are on The Abundancetrek Blog. The latest one is OUR AMAZING JOURNEY -- 21.

 

+ I have been discovering a variety of mantras and chants and songs lately.  Here are links to a few:

• Heart Sutra sung by Julia Elena
• The Angels are Listening (Suni-ai) sung by Snatam Kaur
• Om Mani Padme Hum sung by Imee Ooi
• Water of Your Love sung by Snatam Kaur
• River by GuruGanesha Singh

+ I have been a blogger for 2 decades.  From 2002 to 2007 I offered MESSAGES FOR THE TREK.  Here is the one I posted on January 19, 2005, my 58th birthday:

A MESSAGE FOR THE TREK 1/19/05

+ Do you often experience life as a feast?  I do.  I didn’t always but now I do.  It takes fasting and other kinds of purification. It takes meditation and contemplation and prayer.  It takes all kinds of experiences and relationships.  I got to this point through many years of spiritual effort.  Now I am writing about the abundance and joy I am experiencing. Possibly this will be helpful to you. My growing awareness that life is a perpetual feast is based profoundly on the practice of stillness. Over and over again, I need to be still and allow my body, mind and soul to become centered and grounded again.  I have resisted mightily and I still resist but I have gotten past many of the blocks and I’m getting past a few more as I continue to be on this journey of discovery and delight. 

     In stillness I come into contact with everything there is.  It’s awesome.  It’s amazing.  It’s fantastic.  It’s delightful.  It’s heaven.  Yes, it’s heaven.  I’m in heaven and I’m enjoying being here in heaven a lot.  Are you?

     In no particular order the practice of stillness opens the door to the glorious experiences of silence, solitude, simplicity, detachment, discernment, devotion, delight, humility, healing, holiness and, finally, heaven.  Heaven is the experience of abundance, joy, wisdom, beauty, love, truth, peace, justice and freedom.  These are the nine characteristics of heaven.  Everyone of them could be called love.  God is love. 

     “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10a) 

     Know that I am love!  Know that I am beauty and truth.  Know that I am abundance, joy and wisdom.  Know that I am peace, justice and freedom.  What a feast God has made for us.  We’re all invited.  We’re all wanted.  We’re all cherished.  It’s a happening.  It’s happening now here.  Do you experience it? 

     Begin.  Be still.  Breathe deeply.  Breathe fully.  Be glad all over.  Celebrate.  Enjoy.  Lighten up.  Loosen up.  Be centered.  Be grounded.  Be yourself.  Begin again.  Be still.  Breathe deeply.  Breathe fully.  Be ... and the wheel of life keeps turning, turning, turning.  It’s a delightful journey and it’s simple, too.  Very simple.  Very simple and very good.

     There are many tools and techniques out there for becoming still, becoming you.  I have benefitted and continue to benefit from: Chi Lel Chi Gong (easy to learn from a videotape and workbook), Centering Prayer (quite easy to learn), Yoga (Erich Schiffman’s book and website and video makes this pretty easy, too), the twelve pathways to higher consciousness, chakra or energy work, working with archetypes and many others which I will cover in future messages or elsewhere at Abundancetrek.com.  Perhaps you already have an effective practice going. Please share.

     I am convinced that we can never get very far on our spiritual journey in isolation.  We are meant to be one unit which we might call a family or a community or a village or a tribe or a nation or a church.  These terms are not that important.  The main thing is to realize that we are intimately and intricately connected to each other and to the source.  There is really no separation at all.  In the practice of stillness this becomes totally clear.  But there are no words which can even come close to describing this mystery, this truth, this abundance, this joy, this love, this beauty, this freedom, this peace.  I believe this mysterious and wonderful oneness extends beyond earth to the whole universe.  I believe that the biblical event which possibly brings the most light to this mystery is the encounter of Moses with the burning bush during which God says: I AM has sent you.  I AM!  Moses possibly experienced this as a voice coming from beyond himself but it is never really beyond us.  It IS us.  I AM!  This is the holy name of God.  It’s God’s name and it is your name and my name.  Practice stillness faithfully and see for yourself.

     God is everywhere and God is complete wherever God is.  So, my experience of God is not an incomplete thing.  It is complete.  I’m not asserting here that I am God when I am living my life as this particular human being.  My particular life lacks all kinds of experiences and relationships which God encompasses.  When I practice stillness, though, I get in touch with the wholeness, the holiness, in a mysterious and wonderful and indescribable way.

     I believe that God is now creating the new church for the new age here on earth.  We have become a planet best described as a global village.  We can no longer hide from each other the way we once could hide behind mountains and oceans and jungles and deserts.  We thought and unfortunately continue to think that violence is necessary for our protection and security.  We have convinced ourselves and continue to convince ourselves that there is not enough to go around, that it is necessary to divide us into haves and have nots.  We have erected huge barriers which are looking pretty ugly in our global village.  There is the barrier between the rich and the poor, between the various races and religions and nations and cultures, between the healthy and the sick, the popular and the unpopular, the powerful and the powerless.  These barriers need to come down and that’s what God is doing by creating the new church for the new age.  The new church for the new age is Christian and Jewish and Islamic and Hindu and Buddhist and Taoist and lots of other wisdom traditions.  This is the church Jesus really wants, not an exclusive dining club but an inclusive one.

+ This is a link to all of the MESSAGES FOR THE TREK.

+ Thanks to the virtual Silent Retreat I was at today, April 9, I discovered a wonderful song to encourage us to get up and move > https://youtu.be/fCZVL_8D048.  It was good to get my body fully into this wonderful contemplative time.   

THE O ANTIPHONS ARE ARE AN ANCIENT AND TRADITIONAL ADVENT LITURGY

"The 'O Antiphons,' one of the oldest liturgical rituals in the church, are prayed around the world during the final days of Advent. For the seven days before Christmas, we recall in these prayers a quality of Christ that must be realized before the presence of Christ can consume the world."

The great Advent hymn, O COME, O COME, EMMANUEL is based on the O antiphons.

There is one O antiphon for each day from December 17 to 24. They are all here > http://www.benetvision.org/news_pages/oantiphons.html

.

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+ updated at 5:34 EST on Thursday, January 9, 2014

+ The Washington Post offers "Church shouldn't be this hard" by Tom Ehrick. Excerpt: "An assembly that should relax into the serenity of God’s unconditional love shouldn’t be so filled with hatred and fear." | Read it all

+ Love IS the answer. Sing Along!

+ Robert Reich offers "Why The Republican’sOld Divide-and-Conquer Strategy — Setting Working Class Against the Poor  — Is Backfiring." Excerpt: "Republicans told the working class that its hard-earned tax dollars were being siphoned off to pay for “welfare queens” (as Ronald Reagan decorously dubbed a black single woman on welfare) and other nefarious loafers. The poor were “them” — lazy, dependent on government handouts, and overwhelmingly black — in sharp contrast to “us,” who were working ever harder, proudly independent (even sending wives and mothers to work, in order to prop up family incomes dragged down by shrinking male paychecks), and white." | Read it all 

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+ updated at 11:11am EST on Monday, January 6, 2014

+ Hey, friends, remember the book we are working on? I NEED you. Let's begin again. Here is Page 1 > http://abundancetrekblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-amazing-journey-page-1.html 

What are your thoughts about these ideas? You can post in Comments here or at https://www.facebook.com/abundancetrek/posts/10202086005284056

Today being Epiphany and the beginning of a new liturgical season ... please share what's happening in your spiritual journey, or your life adventure or whatever you want to call your quest for joy and meaning and purpose.

 

Breathe Deeply. Breathe fully. Be still. Be silent. Be centered. Be grounded. ighten up. Loosen up. Let go. Let God. Celebrate. Enjoy. Be glad all over!

 

I like to exhale on "Breathe Deeply" and inhale on "Breathe Fully." Same with "Be Still" and "Be Silent" and all the other pairs. Sometimes I use beads and sometimes just my fingers to keep track. Then I will go into my sacred word as taught by Thomas Keating in his Centering Prayer method. 

 

My sacred word hasn't changed for about a decade but you can change it from one Meditation Session or Prayer Session or Contemplation Session to the next if you want to.

+ Today is Epiphany when we celebrate the revelation (appearance, manifestation) of Jesus as the Son of God come into the world.  It is the wise men who first proclaim this truth to the world. Other events in the life of Jesus marking this wondrous revelation are celebrated during this season of the Church Year including the Baptism of Jesus and his first miracle, turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana.  Churches in Cana, near Nazareth, are often included in Holy Land pilgrimages.

Here are some Epiphany resources:

• Epiphany comes from the Greek, epiphaneia, which means appearance or manifestation. The feast commemorates the day when the three wise men found the Christ child. < http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/briefing-epiphany-1.129910
• The Epiphany, or revelation, of the baby Jesus as the Son of God come into the world, is traditionally celebrated on the 6 January. < http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/worship/festivals_and_dates
• Old St. Paul's Church: At High Mass on Sunday 5 January at 10.30am, the traditional gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh are carried in procession to be offered to the Child in the manger. Gold symbolises the Kingship of Christ, frankincense represents priestly service, and myrrh symbolises healing power. In the evening, Blessing of the Light precedes Solemn Evensong and Benediction at 6.30pm. On succeeding Sundays, we celebrate further revelations of the Christ: on 12 January, the Feast of the Baptism, a voice from heaven proclaims him the Beloved Son; on 19 January, the second Sunday after Epiphany, John the Baptist recognises him as Son of God, and on 2 February, the Feast of Candlemas, he is acclaimed by Simeon as the Light to lighten the Gentiles. < http://www.osp.org.uk/index.php/news/entry/epiphany_at_old_saint_pauls/
• Spirituality and Practice Naming the Days Resource > http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/days/features.php?id=16401 / Practices: Devotion, Gratitude, Wonder. A Suggested spiritual exercise for today is offered by Christopher Hays: Step outside this evening and look up at the over 200 billion stars that blaze in beauty in our galaxy alone. The splendor of it should cause you to pray as did the Magi in adoration of God." 
• Here is an Epiphany verse from the Revised Common Lectionary: Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. (Ephesians 3:8-9) < http://www.presbyterianmission.org/devotion/revised-common-lectionary/2014/1/6/
• A thought of my own! > There is stuff going on in your mind right now which is far more amazing than what you are thinking right now.
• The Presbyterian Church (USA) offers this at 
  

  http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/worship/epiphany/ > Epiphany is the celebration of God’s manifestation or self-revelation to the world in Jesus Christ. In particular, we celebrate the revelation of God’s promise and purpose to the nations of the world, as the magi came from the East to worship to the Christ child, and God’s covenant of grace is extended to all who believe the good news of Christ Jesus. The symbolism of light is important: not only because of the star that guided the magi, but as it relates to the bright dawning of God’s self-revelation in Christ. / An excerpt from the Companion to the Book of Common Worship (Geneva Press, 2003, 94-95): The word “epiphany” (from the Greek epiphaneia or theophaneia) means “appearance” or “manifestation” of God, and has roots in the word for sunrise or dawn. In ancient times, an epiphany meant either a visible manifestation of a god or the solemn visit of a ruler venerated as a god. / For Christians, Christmas marks the coming of God to us; Epiphany celebrates the appearance of the Lord in the midst of humanity. The Christmas stories of the birth of Immanuel declare the divine entry; Epiphany extols the revelation of God to the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. / In our celebrations of Christmas and Epiphany we rejoice in the dawning and the arising of Light in darkness. … Epiphany not only discloses the Savior to the world but also calls the world to show forth Christ, to be witnesses to God’s true Light. The timeless mystery of the incarnation, God in flesh, leads us forth to show and tell of Christ as God’s gift of grace and salvation for all persons. Some call this ongoing epiphany the work of Christmas.

  
   

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+ It's the Twelfth Day of Chjristmas and it is the Second Sunday after Christmas in the Church Year. 

Here is a verse from the Lectionary for the Second Sunday of Christmas:

With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:8b-10)

Here is a verse from the Daily Lectionary for the Twelfth Day of Christmas:

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:14)

Here is today's Spirituality and Practice Christmas quote for the day, the last one:

 

“From joy I came, for joy I live, in sacred joy I melt.” -- Paramahansa Yogananda in Autobiography of a Yogi

Here is today's Gratefulness Word for the Day:

 

"Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint.  -- Henri Nouwen

Since it is still Christmas.  It is a feast day: St. John Neumann for Roman Catholics. In the UK this was the Feast of St. Edward the Confessor, King of England. The rest of Europe celebrated St. Julian the Hospitaller on this day. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas

Finally, here is a link to some information about Twelfth Night traditions

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night_(holiday)

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+ updated at 12:39pm EST on Saturday, January 4, 2014

+ On Facebook, Robert Reich shared: "Several of you thought yesterday's post arguing that Congess's first priority when it convenes next week should be to restore unemployment benefits for the record number of long-term unemployed was a weak palliative for what's really needed. "We don't need unemployment benefits," wrote Burr Hubbell, for example, "We need real jobs." Mr. Hubbell and others raise an important issue. In fighting for measures that alleviate symptoms of a failing system -- whether chronic joblessness, increasing poverty, widening inequality, or ever greater economic insecurity -- are we staving off more fundamental reform? Or are we taking the only humane approach available until such time as fundamental reform is politically feasible?"

+ On Facebook, J. Barrett Lee shared: (DISCLAIMER: This is in response to an anonymous commenter on my blog, not anyone I know in real-life or Facebook)
 
I think I'm going to start responding to the phrase
"Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out."
 
with:
 
"Don't be so close-minded that you blow other peoples' brains out."
History has many more concrete examples of the latter, I'm afraid.

+ Eleventh Day of Christmas
A verse from the Daily Lectionary:

May God grant your heart’s desire
and fulfill all your plans.”

Psalm 20:4 < http://www.presbyterianmission.org/devotion/daily/2014/1/4/

At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas we are informed that today is the feast day of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint according to the Roman Catholic Church. In medieval times this was The feast of Saint Simon Stylites.

Here is the Spirituality and Practice Christmas quote for today by the great Sufi poet, Hafiz:

A Suspended Blue Ocean

There is only one rule
On this Wild Playground,

For every sign Hafiz has ever seen
Reads the same.

They all say,

"Have fun, my dear; my dear, have fun,
In the Beloved's Divine
Game,

"O, in the Beloved's
Wonderful
Game."

Hafiz in The Subject Tonight Is Love by Daniel Ladinsky

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+ Ninth Day of Christmas + How about some Rumi wisdom? >

How will you know the difficulties
of being human, if you're always
flying off to blue perfection?

Where will you plant your grief seeds?
Workers need ground to scrape and hoe,
not the sky of unspecified desire.

Love is the way messengers

from the mystery tell us things.

 

Love is the mother.

We are her children.

 

She shines inside us,

visible-invisible, as we trust

or lose trust, or feel it start to grow again.

Source: THE SOUL OF RUMI: Translations by Coleman Barks, pages 32-33

+ It's a Feast Day (of course) > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Basil_the_Great

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+ Eighth Day of Christmas + First Day of 2014 + "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." + 1 January: The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Before the Second Vatican Council it was also observed as the Circumcision of the Lord. 

+ Breathe deeply. Breathe fully.
Be still. Be silent.
Be centered. Be grounded.
Lighten up. Loosen up.
Let go. Let God.
Celebrate. Enjoy.
Be glad all over!

+ This is provocative. Most of us have lost income and wealth since 2009 including most of the people who voted for Obama.  The system must change.  The wealthy must not be allowed to continue to destroy the middle class. > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcH6kGd3XQs&list=UU1yBKRuGpC1tSM73A0ZjYjQ&index=7

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+ Seventh Day of Christmas > S & P Christmas Quote > Gift, Sharing, Joy > I think we need a new word — "comjoyment" — as a companion to "compassion" to remind us that our greatest gift to the world may be in sharing what gives us the greatest joy. -- Sam Keen in Learning to Fly

 < http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/quotes/quotes.php?id=20440 | More Advent & Christmas Quotes are at http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/blogs/maps.php?id=20474

+ Seventh Day of Christmas >“I think this is how we are supposed to be in the world--present and in awe.” -- Anne Lamott

+ Seventh Day of Christmas > Day 7, 31 December: Pope St. Sylvester. In Scotland this day is known as Hogmanay. In Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Slovenia, New Years Eve is still referred to as Silvester. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas

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+ Third Day of Christmas + Wikipedia has some great information about all of the Twelve Days of Christmas > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas

 

Spirituality and Practice offers an inspirational quote for each day of Advent and the 12 Days of Christmas > http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/blogs/maps.php?id=20474 

 

Here is the Spirituality and Practice Christmas quote for today > "To find joy in another's joy, that is the secret of happiness." --  Georges Bernanos in Joy by Beverly Elaine Eanes  <

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/quotes/quotes.php?id=20436   

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+ Christmas + Day 2 + God, Panentheism, Joy > Here is the Spirituality and Practice Christmas Quote for today: "The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything." -- Julian of Norwich (Meditations with Julian of Norwich by Brendan Doyle) | See more S&P Advent & Christmas quotes

 

+ Today is the Feast of St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr. Here is an excerpt from The Theological Wanderings of a Street Pastor blog, Barrett Lee's fantastic blog : "Folks think of deacon’s work as charity, but that was certainly not the case according to Acts.  The office of deacon was created as a ministry of social justice to overcome racial inequality and ensure a just distribution of resources."

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+ Advent: Day 23 > Last of the 7 O Antiphons for Advent AND the SpiritualityandPractice Advent Quotes (You can scroll down to today’s):

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, hope of the nations and their saviour: come and save us, O Lord our God.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

O Emmanuel,
Rex et legifer noster,
expectatio gentium,
et Salvator earum:
veni ad salvandum nos,
Domine, Deus noster.

SpiritualityandPractice Advent Quotes > http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/blogs/maps.php?id=20474

 

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+ Advent: Day 22 > O Come, O Come Immanuel and The O Antiphons and The Magnificat

Here is Enya singing O Come, O Come Immanuel > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPHh3nMMu-I

O Come, O Come Immanuel is sung as part of the ancient and dynamic tradition of the O Antiphons which are said and sung from December 17 to December 23 in many Western Christian churches. The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) is the Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Advent as we dwell on the need for willing servants of God and particularly a Messiah who will be a peacemaker and usher in era of justice. We continue to long for such an era and wait for the Messianic age to take hold.

Here is a Choir singing The Magnificat, or Canticle of Mary > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN2Q-vKY4CU

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+ Advent: Day 20 >

Jesus says,

Why did you come out into the desert?

To see a reed blown by the wind?

To see a man clothed in soft garments

like your kings and those in power?

Indeed, they are clothed in soft apparel,

but they know nothing of the truth

(Gospel of Thomas, Logion 78)

We need to keep remembering that Advent clearly keeps us aware of our need to protest the ways of the world when they are in conflict with the ways of heaven. The gap is huge.  The birth of Jesus of Nazareth made a difference but we must have a new birth of compassion, peace, justice and sustainable abundance.

I am gaining a lot of inspiration and information from the e-course on Advent and the Gospel of Thomas at www.spiritualityandpractice.com

Today is the fourth day of the O Antiphons said and sung traditionally in the week before Christmas. The O Antiphons said and sung are here > http://www.discerninghearts.com/?page_id=1941

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+ Advent: Day 19 > During Advent we are called to remind ourselves that the values of heaven and the values of the world are in conflict.  Soon, on the upcoming Fourth Sunday of Advent, the people in many churches will hear The Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55) which includes these words:

He has shown strength with his arm;

   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

  and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

   and sent the rich away empty.

 

A modern day prophet advocating for economic justice is Robert Reich who points out that much of the tax-deductible charitable gifts the rich give are not necessarily so charitable. Read:  http://robertreich.org/post/69833627613

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+ Advent: Day 17: Throughout most of Advent, the focus is not on Christmas. The focus is on the Kingdom, or the realm, of God which is deep within us and near us and beyond us and not here yet. The “not here yet” is the main concern during Advent. That’s why John the Baptist has the leading role. According to scripture and tradition, he is more like Adam than Christ. And, unless we are born again as a heavenly being focused on heavenly things far more than a human being focused on earthly things, then we too are stuck all too often in the “not here yet” which we are called to examine so closely as we perceive and practice Advent as intended, a time of deep reflection and repentance.

+ Here is an excerpt from this week's Inner Frontier Inner Work: "Our many relationships seem to define who we are and rightly so, because what we are does not stop at our skin. Through our social intelligence, we all deal with variable relationships of many kinds, fleeting or long-term, superficial or intimate. We treat these as being between us and someone else, between two discreet people. This is our ordinary world of separateness, governed by the rules of morality, etiquette, and courtesy. But there are deeper levels to every relationship .... There is sameness, there is uniqueness, and there is unity, three qualities at three different levels." Read it all.
 

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+ Second Sunday of Advent

Great wisdom here > http://teilhard.com/2013/12/07/second-sunday-of-advent-december-8-2013-burning-away-what-divides-us/

Excerpt 1: "The readings can be found here. The beautiful first reading is from Isiah and talks about the vision where the things that divide us are eliminated and all of Creation is brought together in Unity. The Gospel includes a speech from St. John the Baptist that talks about the need for God’s purifying fire to break down our divisions before this Unity can occur."


Excerpt 2: "This week’s reflection comes from Fr. Ron Rolheiser and St. Louis University reflections. I encourage you to read the entire reflection here but set forth below is an ...  excerpt:

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once suggested that peace and justice will come to us when we reach a high enough psychic temperature so as to burn away the things that still hold us apart. In saying this, he was drawing upon a principle in chemistry: Sometimes two elements will simply lie side by side inside a test-tube and not unite until sufficient heat is applied so as to bring them to a high enough temperature where unity can take place.That’s wonderful metaphor for advent. What is advent?Advent is about getting in touch with our longing. It’s about letting our yearnings raise our psychic temperatures so that we are pushed to eventually let down our guard, hope in new ways, and risk intimacy.

 

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+ Parker Palmer has so much wisdom and compassion. This is worth your time and thoughts.

http://www.couragerenewal.org/blog/103/629#sthash.8e4iERoM.dpuf

Excerpt: "... one of the most important sources of social change, political-economic change in world history is social movements. It’s not taught much in higher education or in our schools. But half of the history of the world has been written not by institutional power but by people who had no power, no external forms of power. They didn’t have money. They didn’t have institutional access. They didn’t have leverage on financial or political institutions."

 

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+ On The Abundancetrek Blog I offer a brilliant statement by Barrett Lee on the importance of building a just society. He offers it in response to a quote by Jimmy Carter and a Facebook conversation which I highlight.

+ The God's Politics blog offers "Ten More Cliches Christians Should Avoid" by Christian Piatt. Here's one:

Love the sinner, hate the sin.
This is a backhanded way to tell someone you love them, at best. It also ignores the command by Jesus not to focus on the splinter in our neighbors’ eyes while a plank remains in our own. Bottom line: we all screw up, and naming others’ sin as noteworthy while remaining silent about your own is arrogant.

+ Truthdig offers "We Are All Aboard the Pequod" by Chris Hedges. Excerpt: "The self-destructive fury of the quest, much like that of the one we are on, assures the Pequod’s destruction. And those on the ship, on some level, know they are doomed—just as many of us know that a consumer culture based on corporate profit, limitless exploitation and the continued extraction of fossil fuels is doomed." | Read it all |

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+ “Religion Beyond the Right" by Frank Bruni is an outstanding NY Times Op Ed column pointing out that there really are a lot of biblical values associated with the Left and the Center.  Bruni focuses on the controversy surrounding the Boy Scouts ban on gays. Excerpt: "'I find it perplexing the way the "moral values" phrase is used,' said the Rev. Mark Greiner... (a Presbyterian pastor)... 'Concern for the environment, concern for workers’ rights: those are moral values,' he told me. 'But the phrase ends up being limited to matters of human sexuality, as if Jesus was primarily concerned with what people did with their reproductive parts. It’s crazy-making.' Greiner wants the ban on gay scouts and leaders lifted." | Read the article