Meditating to Heal

Put away your cell phone; this call cannot be answered on an electronic device. God calls us as individuals; God calls us as community! With a new year beginning, this is a suitable time to renew our relationship with God. Remember, God wants us as much as we want God. When we recognize God in our lives, we begin the purist, flawless paradigm available to us; we see God in our hearts but cannot recognize the Almighty God because His true presence cannot unequivocally be understood.

A good friend of mine to reminded me that God is present to each of us only in our minds and in our hearts without which there would be no God for us. God’s presence and spirituality are here for all; for each He is individually present. God’s Grace flows as a calm river throughout all of creation, all of humanity. As we lay by this gentle river of comfort, we hear God calling us to lift ourselves from the darkness onto the lighted path Jesus shows us every day.

I am absorbed by the flowing river of Love and Comfort when meditating on my relationship with our Almighty. I am encouraged to cherish all life on earth; I am invited to respect all living creatures; and I love my neighbor, all of them. These are such small requests from our Gracious God. I am unconditionally blessed by this stream of water and thought, soaring in God’s promise of Love and Compassion.

We are baptized into the body of Christ; therefore, we are all children of God awaiting His voice in our hearts and souls. Let us join all of the other travelers and listen for God’s voice; He calls all of us to bask in His Love.

© Russell Kendall Carter

Being thankful for the Love and Grace of God.

Saying thank you is really not enough; but it is a good start. When we say thank you and truly mean it, we create and deepen all relationships. This is one of the missions we accept when we pray, when we accept God in our lives. When we are thankful, we allow gratitude to grow both within us and around us, joining others in seeing and learning about appreciativeness and gratitude in society. What a great gift!

When we say, “Lord, hear my prayer,” we share all of God’s blessings and gifts with others. The Psalmist writes, “I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” We truly thank God only when we are willing to thank each other, especially when it is just a thank you for them being in our lives. When we spread our arms in thanksgiving, it is like a cell door opening and freeing us, liberating us from loneliness and prejudice.

God accepts our thankfulness; He asks us to spread our gratitude with others; this means that we must look seeing those who have little in this world. We are thankful for our blessings, and we share our blessings with those in need, realizing the Love that Jesus gave to us. Thanksgiving is for all time, not just one day a year.

I sit at my desk, pray for those on my prayer list and meditate on the words of Jesus. During this time, I often think of my parents and my sister, all have passed, but I am not without them. As I sit here writing about them today, being thankful that I was able to share their lives with mine, they are in the room with my, hugging and wishing me a happy new year as we end 2021. I am truly blessed by family, particularly my wife of 53 years, my two children in their forties, and my three grandsons, ages 19, 3, and 1. Thank you God for a wonderful family.

Lord, hear my prayer; allow me to have the courage and the strength to share my gifts with others. Your gifts are blessings grow and flourish only when shared. Open my heart to share my gratitude and Your comfort for the existence of all peoples.

© Russell Kendall Carter

There is so much to say about the creation of Wisdom. I firmly believe that God created Wisdom before He created all else. And, just to complete this enigma, by means of creation, God created wisdom. God created order out of chaos, out o darkness. We live in darkness until we recognize the light of Wisdom, God offers. With the birth of Jesus, God offers us the Wisdom to live with, to live by.

But we create our own darkness by not recognizing Wisdom as an art of our lives. In one of the daily meditations from the Center for Action and Contemplation, CAC teacher Barbara Holmes writes: “there is the darkness of determined ignorance and hatred, impenetrable and smothering. There is the tiny microcosm of darkness that gave birth to the universe, its new realities, and new worlds. There is the mothering darkness of the womb, and the protective darkness of the ‘cloud by night.’” This is the darkness that is manmade.

This is also the lack of recognition of Wisdom living within us. I remind myself that Wisdom is a feminine noun; Wisdom is the female side of our beloved God. This Wisdom brings us knowledge; this Wisdom also nurtures us as a constant companion of Love. This path of Wisdom, although lighted by God, is a path that when we travel it, we also bring our innate darkness with us. But that is all right. We will make mistakes; we will sometimes be wrong; but, with an open heart and mind, we learn.

Listening to the parables, the teachings of Jesus, we learn a liberation found nowhere else. We recognize that our mortal world is filled with lies, prejudices, and greed. This is our own private “Dark night of the soul.” But when we listen and learn from Jesus, God’s only mortal son on earth, we are touched by true Wisdom; everything changes; and with Wisdom, we share it with others, we teach and nurture them to see same Truth; this same eternal Love.

When we pray, remember that God created Wisdom for us; in our prayers we should pray to walk the path of Wisdom Jesus brought.

© Russell Kendall Carter

I once read an article that said that life is an experience, and all should try it. At first, this sound absolutely laughable, even inane. When I think of it, however, I look at people, even those close to me, and see that what they are living is an existence, not a life. I was like this before I retired to just write, rather than continue teaching. Most of us just plod along, going to work, exercising maybe three times a week, partying, or doing house or garden work on Saturdays. So, I repeat, “Life is an experience all should have!” Try it sometime; you may be surprised.

We need to enlarge the size of our internal tabernacles and stretch our minds to see what beauty there really is to life. So, let’s open up our curtains, spread our spiritual wings to the right and to the left and see a new earth, see a new heaven where there is calm and peace, spiritual rewards, and everlasting love. God calls us every time we awaken in the morning. He is that little voice reminding us that there is something we have forgotten, or it is the voice that really says that all is not well and there is something we are missing but know not what. When we open our hearts and minds to the new heaven and earth, we understand the unbelievable comfort and grace that is there for us, that awaits us.

Each morning, God gives us new life. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Philippians, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” When we really experience life as God offers, we live in comfort, knowing that are loved; we are protected; we are blessed.

So, I repeat, “Life is an experience all should have Try it sometime; you may be surprised.” You will be blessed.

© Russell Kendall Carter

I recently read an email from Cynthia Bourgeault; in this piece, she quotes Abba Poemen: “Do not give your heart to that which does not satisfy your heart.” I believe that in my heart dwells my soul. My soul is the presence of my spiritual perception.

I vision God in every way He wants to manifest Himself to me. I am nothing without His presence within me. In this post-Christmas period, I recognize the light of Christ that fills me, overcoming any darkness I may feel or experience. Jesus as the Christ wants to live in me, as He wants to live in you. It is our holy gift.

All of the Trinity, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, loves us and wants us to share this love with all we meet and all we think about each day, even those who we have not met but have heard of through tragedies in the news. We are all God’s beloveds, just as Jesus taught. I pray that God’s justice and peace to come to earth, restoring us to His holy presence, filling every heart, every soul with these Graces. We are doomed without our submission to God’s presence, and not just the presence that churches too often offer.

All churches must represent God in His true manifestation of Peace and Justice all over this planet we call Earth. By this I mean God’s peace and justice, not man’s; man’s can be and often is corrupted by selfishness.; God’s peace and justice is not; it is for everyone equally.

The only way that we can agree on anything is to allow Wisdom into our hearts and minds. And by Wisdom, I mean holy Wisdom, the Hole Spirit, whom I call Mother Wisdom, because in every language wisdom is a feminine noun, not masculine, boys. True Wisdom brings Grace to all, brings understanding to all, brings God’s Love to all. . . without exception, any exception. This is God’s way! Wisdom leads us to the eternal presence of God, as THE PRAYER says, for ever and ever. I give you this complete reflective quote from Brother Nicholas Bartoli of the Society of Saint John Evangelist, “All is truly well, because God’s Christmas gift of eternal life, of peace and joy beyond understanding, is already ours; we need only notice. The gift of Christ being born in our hearts, like a beautiful flower brought into being within the stillness of desert, is waiting only for us to trust in God, emptying our hearts of all that is not Christ.”

All we have to do is notice this. All we have to do is notice. This is what God asks us to do every day. I question if we have it in our hearts to keep this as our way of life. Greed is too prevalent in our society. There is too much pressure to succeed, to get ahead, to get rich. All of this is material possessions that wither away.

There is hope for us. Life would be worthless without this hope. I live every day in prayer. I share my prayers and meditations because that is all I can do at my age. . . pray and write and share. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, I experienced a wake-up call due to an icy road and a drunk driver. I suffered for a while, but God lifted me back to life, to a life much more productive than my previous life of greed and want. I was angry at first, but when I walked through the door that God had opened for me years before this, I awakened to the beauty and peace that Jesus taught.

I trust! I trust in God! That is all I desire to do.

© Russell Kendall Carter

When I think of spiritual progress, I leave behind the taunts of the material world. My progress is sustainable and encompasses compassion and gentleness. It is only in this way I can achieve spiritual progress and closeness to God. For God is always present as is the Holy Spirit, Wisdom; I merely have to recognize their presence. I have to look at my progress in spiritual terms, because if I just concentrate on the material terms, my progress is at a cost to the planet we all inhabit; this incudes destruction of natural resources, destruction caused by war, and most of all, destruction caused by greed. None of these represent spiritual progress.

As God’s chosen, humanity should dress itself in compassion and humility. Then we can recognize that God is with us, all around us, protecting us from harm and temptation. God asks that we devote ourselves to prayer, remaining watchful and protecting ourselves from the myths of modernism, which are deteriorating all over the earth. When we pray, sometimes a simple thank you is all that is needed; God will recognize our meekness; God will support our spiritual progress. When we focus on the good is us, we get closer to Mother Wisdom and see more of the works of God all over our planet. Mother Wisdom is always present – we just need to open our eyes to Her presence. After I pray, after I listen to God, after I learn from Mother Wisdom, I then experience a deepening closeness to the spiritual side of mankind.

Solomon, in Proverbs, writes that when I listen to God, I experience gladness of happiness throughout my life, and discover God within. I believe that true spiritual evolution brings hope, patience, love, and a sense of deepening prayer within. So, I offer just a simple thank you to God and live my life in His embrace.

© Russell Kendall Carter

Watching, waiting! We have just celebrated the birth of Jesus; our waiting is not stilled. We await His presence within; yet it is always there; we do not recognize it. When Jesus is asking us to seek, and knock, it is for a deeper connection with God. It is our connection with God that truly changes us; this is the message Jesus brought. 

Before Jesus rose to be with God, He promised the presence of the Holy Spirit; God’s Holy Spirit (Wisdom) would be with us, Wisdom, the feminine presence of God. We always need help; and what better way than to have Mother God, Wisdom, be present in our lives. It is in our most challenging times of our lives that the Holy Spirit wraps God’s loving arms around us. God’s spirit is in us, a promised comfort for us.

The Holy Spirit helps us to overcome our weakness. We rarely know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit herself intercedes for us through our wordless moaning. We are wise to listen when Wisdom we are wise when we listen for Her words; we are foolish when we ignore them; only the foolish, the proud, ignores Her. The Holy Spirit, Wisdom, leads to our eternal comfort and happiness.

As we celebrate the rebirth of Jesus, let us open our hearts to the eternal presence of God, the Trinity.

© Russell Kendall Carter

On this Christ Day, let us remind ourselves of the star shining bright in the sky, bringing great joy to all. Visualize the young child with Mary at His side. Let us waken to the true meaning; ask what is it for; ask why He was born and what it means for us today; ask God where it is heading, what is the future.

As we sing: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Remember that God came to us, showing us the sins of society, the sins that still persist today. We are God’s creation and there is no separation between us and God for separation is the great sadness. To quote Oscar Romero, “Let our hearts be open like a cradle so that Christ can be born in each soul tonight and from there flood every heart with light.” In the birth of Jesus, there is light; there is hope; there is love.

On this day of glory and celebration, gift giving and revelation, we remember that God provides more than we can ever know. Whatever our shortcomings, God forgives; whatever our failures, God forgives; let us open our hearts allowing God to enter.

Heavenly Father, as we open our hearts to you, allow us to recognize the love and value of all people in our world. As we celebrate the birth of Your son, allow us to follow in His footsteps, giving love and value to all of Your Creation.

© Russell Kendall Carter

God speaks in and through the flesh. As my priest meditated in our Celtic service, when Mary and Elizabeth met, the baby John leapt inside her womb. This is God speaking to us.

Sometimes we ignore this; we teach our children to be self-centered, to be self-assured, to be special. We build their egos to allow them to compete in a modern world of want and greed. We want them to be recognized for their material achievements; we want them to begin this even as toddlers navigating perilously across the living room floor.

But God calls us to prepare the way in the wilderness of this mortal life of ours to serve others in His name. most of the New Testament accedes to this invitation to peace among men. Instead of building ego strength in our youth (and others we meet), perhaps life would be better if we build community strength instead. This is what Jesus implores when he tells us to treat others as we want to be treated. What a unique way to call for love!

Love is a quality we sometimes forget to teach; we cuddle our newborns with love and neglect to continue this through their early development. We need them to recognize this universal truth, this universal love. Love can only be found by including this od-given gift in the household and neighboring society. If we want our children to be truly happy, to reach the mountain top of spiritual and emotionally holy fulfillment; we must teach love. Our goal is not just to seek the spiritual person, the person who represents the highest level of success, our goal is to seek the minorities, the disabled: the valleys of the lowly, the weak and poor.

When we teach Love our children, and when we do this ourselves, we recognize that God’s Love is everywhere; God’s Love is for all. God speaks to all.

© Russell Kendall Carter

One of my spiritual Rabbis is Cynthis Bourgeault, the master guru of meditation and thought. She writes: “No serious spiritual work is done in one’s comfort zone” and “The opposite of comfort is not discomfort; it is freedom.” When I leave my comfort zone, I am embraced by Love; this is Jesus’s love and is so massive and relentless that people need unique help from God to begin to understand how far this takes us. When we accept our brother, greeting him as family, we talk, we communicate. This s the will of God, for communication is necessary to realize that prayer is communication, and prayer unties us.

We remember Jesus’s teaching, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” I see the wandering stranger, alone, cold in the winter, begging for love, begging for a relationship. . . with a brother As people of God, we invite him to see the light and come in to feel the warmth of God’s love. When we welcome this lost brother, both have found God, both find the love of Jesus, be He in the cradle or on the cross.

As Jesus is born, the Bible tells us that God gives a sign; and a virgin conceives, bearing a son, and calling his name Immanuel. Immanuel, God is with us. God is with us. Not just now, this last day of Advent, but always. . . now and forever. Let us greet the Lord with gladness, hope, charity, and the love of each other.

© Russell Kendall Carter