Meditating to Heal

Doorway to the Universe:

 

When my wife and I move to Fredericksburg Va. In 2009, we immediately began attending an Episcopal Church that had a terrific outreach program. In due time, we became Episcopalians. In the same time, we began working with the small food pantry in the church. By 2011, my wife and the deacon at the church began studying ways to increase this food pantry to be more serving to the population that was in need. In 2012, St. George’s opened what became known at The Table. This was an open market style food pantry based on what Sara Miles was doing in San Francisco. This past year, the budget for the table was $60,000, mostly paid for by donations and grants, serving the people over 250,000 pounds of fresh produce that year. My wife was just celebrated by our local newspaper, along with the other two women who have spearheaded this.

 

I quickly realized that this food market was “not my bag.” I first faced this base reality after a near-fatal auto accident in 1985. When I recovered, I returned to college, then began teaching in high school; by the time we moved into Fredericksburg, I was teaching literature and writing in a local community college. Both in high school and in college, the leaders recognized something in me that I did not see at the times. Many of my students were physically and mentally disabled, and when teaching in college, were war veterans with psychological problems. I spent hours working with these students outside of class time. Many are still friends, even though I have now retired. One of my high school students carved a cane in the shape of a Watchung Indian totem. I have used this cane since 1995. It is a reminder to me that the least of these are in fact the most cherished.

 

I now devote my time as a personal prayer minister and a Stephen Minister, bringing God’s light into the lives of my fellow beings who incorporate the body of Christ. The secrets shared by others in our prayer corner, heard only by the two or three of us and God, are the most wonderful experiences of feeling god within us, growing to the point of healing our minds and relinquishing our fears.

 

Every time I enter the prayer corner, or sit with a care receiver, my personal issues are reduced to insignificance, and the power of God within both of us bring us a sense of calm, a sense of the future of our lives as living representatives of the body of Christ. The brothers and sister who share these experiences bring us both to understanding that we are in fact God’s creations, just as much as Jesus is God’s creation. We are connect to Jesus Christ because we also are God’s children, worthy of al that God’s Grace gives.

 

 

The Path I Walk is the Light of God

God has given humanity the spirit of free will, eyes to see what it wants to see, and ears that hear but do not listen. In all of the Abrahamic religions, man is taught to accept the stranger at the door, to feed the hungry, and to give clothes to the poor.

In the book of Samuel, we are taught to count all the money given to the church, be it alms, or tithing. Then we are to take the money and distribute it to those who work; but we have not done that. The money we receive is all to often given for bigger churches, gold and silver chalices, plush meeting halls, and in some cases our own pockets. The more we ignore the poor, the less we love ourselves.

This is not what God intended. We are caretakers of our brothers; amassing great wealth in or out of the church is not what God wants of us. He wants us to be tending to those in need. From Psalms I read that God’s word is a lamp unto my feet; God lights my way; I am to walk in the path of God’s light. I have taken God’s word as my legacy; I, therefore, cannot overlook my brother begging on the corner for a few dollars to feed his family. If I were richer, I would give more. I shame myself, when I cannot give the poor all I own.

God has given me great gifts over my life; I must share these gifts with others. I want to understand, not just see; I want to listen, not just hear; I want to love, not just to accommodate. This is the light of God that I want to always walk in.

A Lighter Burden

“I have decided to stick with love, for hate is too

heavy a burden to bear.” Martin Luther King

Let us sow our seeds

in the peaceful

rectitude of God

for His wisdom is pure.

Let us be born of God.

Let us go into the House of God

and hold fast to His Grace.

Whomever is born of God

overcomes hardships.

 

Be the light of life,

glory God in heaven,

bring an end to suffering,

raise those who mourn,

bring them into God’s true light.

 

Be gentle and merciful,

become pure in heart,

see God in all His glory,

raise all you meet

from their troubles

 

God is Life;

God is Love;

God is freedom.

God will be my life;

God will be my love;

God will bring me freedom

to conquer sin within

 

Blessed will be those

who follow in His light.

Blessed will be those

who sow their seeds in peace,

for God is pleased

when man holds fast to His Grace.

Trust and Goodness

As I type these words into my thoughts for the day, I often type goddness, not goodness. I then return to correct my misspelling. But as I look at this error today, the words godness and goodness are interchangeable. When we offer goodness to others, we are in fact choosing to offer God to others. When we trust in God, in everything we do, we are doing good. And when we do good things for others, we are in fact fulfilling the desires of God.

When our abiding hearts trust God, our actions cannot be other than offer goodness. We trust God to be with us always; we show this by doing good. I believe that goodness comes from our hearts; this is so because God dwelling within us fills our hearts with love and compassion, patience and understanding.

Dear Creator of all, give me the strength to always speak with the wisdom you offer me, act in the Love that fills my heart, and above all, Dear God, please give me the courage to always fulfill your message as I live my daily life, meeting others who are also your children.

 

Living in the Light

There are many words in the Bible that can be confusing, being misinterpreted by others who have an agenda other than the word of God. I read from Isaiah that when God calls my name, my only response is, “Here I am, Father.” My life is one that rests in God’s hands; I await His presence patiently, so that I can be fulfilled by His faithfulness. His light leads me through the darkness of my mortal life.

When Ruth is told to glean only in Boaz’s field, this does not mean that I cannot pray with people whose religion is different from mine. What I think it means is that we can pray with all those who are true to God, regardless of the name by which He is called. What I cannot do is turn my back on God and reject His presence in my life, by being with those who denounce His presence. I must walk in His light with all who praise His presence in their lives.

For example, those people who misuse their wealth, hoarding everything so that those who are not wealthy suffer in this life, are not true followers of Jesus. When Jesus told a young man to sell everything and follow me, I cannot take this literally. It is very impractical to join the ranks of the destitute and the poor; there is no such thing as Holy Poverty. What Jesus means is that we must use our riches to lift the poor from their hovels, allowing them to reap all of the benefits of God’s bountiful fields.

Every day, I try to treat and respect others for who they are, rich or poor, healthy or sick, lost or on the right path. All are God’s children, and therefore, all are worthy of my prayers. My words I speak with everyone I meet and every prayer I say are heard by God; I want God to be pleased by what I say. After all, when my light shines, it reflects on the goodness and Glory of God.

Compassion and Respect

The Psalmist writes that to be true to God, we must be loyal to those who lift us from the depths of our living. Jesus continues with his admonition against saying or thinking evil thoughts on someone, for the thoughts themselves degrade the importance of God within us. We must be righteous in the eyes of God.

If we are to receive His blessing, we must serve others, especially those who are not as we are. Throughout the Bible, we are reminded that the stranger is to be welcome; more so, the stranger is our brother. To turn the stranger away is the same as turning our backs on our own families. The stranger is our family. We are all children of God. The Psalmist continues with “. . . it is well with the man who is gracious . . .” (112:5). If we reject the stranger at the door, who are we rejecting but ourselves.

God creates all. When I was young, I had dark brown hair; now in my seventies, my hair is white with some dark streaks. My white hair shows my lifelong knowledge, both knowledge and white hair are given by God. God is within us; we cannot seen him; we cannot heard his voice; but when we welcome the stranger, God is in our hearts; and, we are truly blessed by this presence.

Daydreaming. . .

I recently read an article of realizing that God is always with us, when I came to the following question: “Why don’t we daydream a little more and wake up to God being around us in our every day?”

As I sit in my den, I am always in awe of the world around me. I close my eyes and see the beautiful flowers that occupy the beds around the trees; I see the children riding their training wheels bikes, the older children shooting baskets in the playground, their parents on the tennis courts, chasing errant balls.

All is beautiful!

The sun rises over the rooftops, bring God’s light to our troubled world. I pray that our leaders see the world as a beautiful creation of God, discarding the desire to kill, to demolish, to strip the earth of its beauty.

I love the rainbow colors of birds flitting from feeder to feeder, the butterflies from bush to bush. But I know that God’s most perfect and most beautiful creation is man. We are made in His image; but we reject His teachings; we even reject His presence in our lives.

I admit, I daydream about the comfort and beauty of have God surround my living being; this allows me to love as God wants me to love; see the world as God wants me to see. And, accept all of His creations as gifts of a wonderful life.

Won’t you join my reverie?

When a Mother Dies

No matter what age we are, when both are parents die, we are then orphans. Then, when our siblings die, a chapter of our lives is gone forever. We grieve over the loss of each family member. Each one is a tragedy in our earthly life.

But, when a mother dies, an unmatched loneliness occupies the pit of one’s stomach. A mother is special. We are conceived as a seed inside our mother’s womb; we grow from the nourishment of her body; and, we cause great pain and suffering for her during our birth. This pain is replaced by her joy of giving us life. We are forever an extension of her body.

When a mother dies, our only comfort is that she has joined with God; she has returned home to nourish eternity.

Hospitality

One of my favorite blessings is being able to welcome the people I meet as brothers and sisters. Hospitality is a gift from God that allows us to walk in His way on the level path of peace. After all, we are all living in the desert of our modern life, facing difficulties and challenges. None of us can live or survive alone; we need the companionship of others.

I think that if we only stay in our close circle of friends or our own church community, we miss the chance to grow in God’s light, living as his children playing in the light of His love. We are His guests in this world; all that we have are the gifts given by God. We own nothing.

Open our hearts to others and let the light shine in; who knows, the new person we welcome may become a lifelong friend, of perhaps that new person brings something greater to our lives. Perhaps she brings the peace of God.

Christmas day 2019

We rejoice with family this day, exchanging gifts we think will be received with gladness, even if it is an ugly sweater from Macy’s. it is given with the love of the person who purchased it. We accept it gladly.

But Christmas is more than swapping gifts. We have to remember what the meaning of Christmas is. Over 2000 years ago, a child was born; a special child, yet he was homeless when he was born. I think of the significance of this often-overlooked fact. We don’t know what his life as a child was, but watching my own son and my grandson grow, I am sure Jesus was an active youth who constantly pressed the edges of his parents’ good will.

I am thinking of the trip to Jerusalem, when he was twelve; he did not join his parents and after three days, the had to return to Jerusalem to find him. And, when they did, he responded by saying that he was in his father’s house; where else would he be. If I were Joseph, I am sure I would have followed that with a spanking of some sort. But we do not know; the Bible says nothing about that.

But Jesus was special, he grew into a man who expressed and demonstrated the love that God gives all of us. This is what we are celebrating today, by joining with friends and family, exchanging gifts of love. We are in a hotel in North Carolina, and when we went to have coffee in the lounge, all there wished everyone a merry Christmas, spreading God’s love to all in the room.

This is what God wants of us. This is what I try to do all year round. I talk to people I don’t know; this is my way of spreading God’s love. I call them brother or sister, because we are all children of God, as Jesus was. And, God loves us as much as He loves Jesus. Think of God the Father. Think of yourself as a father or mother. Do you love one of your children more than the others. Of course not; they are all equal in your eyes.

Jesus is a special person; and I try to walk in His light every day; but I know God loves me as much as He loves Jesus. This is why I refer to Christmas as a day to share God’s love openly. And, maybe, if we can do this on Christmas, we can do this every day throughout the year.

This is God’s special day; have a wonderful, merry and loving Christmas.