Thursday, March 26, 2026

HOW - PART THREE

 

       
    HELLO ALL

      
    This week 

    (belatedly) 
 
  we wrap up our

  three-part focus 

  on the core of 

       Jesus' 

     teaching

       and 

shared experience -

        Love 

God, neighbor, self

       It is our

        HOW

       for the

        NOW 

        of it.

   
    This week 

we center on love 

         of 

     neighbor 

      and of

       self.

  If interested, 
  
  please click:

  Blog Achieve
 
        for

   HOW - PART l

January 21, 2026

        and

   HOW - PART ll

February 5, 2026

     Thanks!

     ******






Dear All of Us,

God's as close as 

a mirror or 

a co-worker.

Self and Neighbor,

God waiting 

to be loved.


The radical 

spiritual reset

needed for these 

tough times means

to flat out love 

   The Trinity Of 
 
        ONE

God Neighbor Self.



     

    LOVE 

NEIGHBOR


Love means to

notice,

respect,

care,

share.

It means ever

deeper degrees 

       of 

   cohesion 

      and 

     unity.




Just about 

everyone 

in our orbit

these dicey, 

dangerous days,

is frightened and 

could use 

a generous dose 

of our love.

Their fright 

runs from 

patently obvious

to not at all so,

yet most all are 

fear fraught.

It manifests as  

clear and conscious 

all the way to 

ducked and denied. 

But it's there and 

it's operative.



Critically important 

        it is 

to get a read 

on this as we seek 

to love the other,

the frightened other.

That kind of fright
 
       tempts   

fight, flee, freeze.



Our social circles are 

scare on steroids.

Reactions are:

- hide and hope 

  no danger seeks,

- bunker with 

  bank accounts 

  to bullets,

- spin in a spiral 

  of agitation,

- sink in depression,

- harden the 

  contours of contact,

- be combat ready 

  with plans, supplies,

  to armaments,

- be a deer 

  in the headlights,

all reactions to

    Empire's

 block buster evil.




Our loving of others 

in this deteriorating time

across our various nations

calls for sensitivity and

wisdom of heart.

What do others

most need from us 

and how do we 

best respond?

Sometimes 

no response 

is the only 

appropriate response,

just quiet presence.

Sometimes 

extensive presence 

         and 

  generous support

      are the 

appropriate response.



Going forward

is like driving in reverse

these spin around days.

As there is more disorder,

loss of social stability,

employment turmoil,

financial fragility,

violence in 

governance and street,

scarcity of comforts 

to essentials,

wars not at all fair!,

autocratic dominance,

vapid to failing religion,

AI rupturing reality,

much mind and 

culture control in

media, libraries, 

to education.

People will need 

our heroic loving,

God loving them

through us.

There's the key.

What seems to be

what God would do 

     through us 

  while we avoid 

 a temptation to a 

   fix everything, 

 a savior complex.


Our care 

will run from 

a smile 

to a dinner,

to listening,

to demonstrating,

to sharing shelter,

sustenance,

spiritual companioning,

emotional and 

financial support. 


In all this 

it is essential 

that we be integral 

to a vibrant, 

spiritual community,

that we be and 

live together as 

The Body of Christ.

From there 

we are loved 

and love neighbor.

To put it strongly,

a lone wolf 

is a dead wolf 

in today's world.




        LOVE 

        SELF


We exercise our strengths

and face our limits.

We appreciate and 

get comfortable in 

our own God Given skin.

Centered in God's love,

we open to its 

free flow 

through us

for others and

from them to us.

We live our

uniqueness.


As Bonaventure said,

we are not God and

we are not, not God.

We live the gift 

and paradox of that 

and do so with gusto.

We help others 

through our 

God given 

put together

of talent and

temperament.

We do what we can 

as we can.

We do not try to do 

what we cannot do

or be what we are not.

We accept and embrace 

God in us, as us.

In other words,

we join God 

in being quite fond of us.

We actively accept 

Gods love of us as us

and join God in the delight.

We refuse to let 

fashion or other social pressure

talk us out of ourselves.




We live our manner of 

       God Self

freely and with vigor.

Some stay home 

and raise kids.

Some take 

to the streets 

to demonstrate

for justice.

Some write poetry.

Some shelter 

the needy.

Some accompany 

the distressed.

Some are gentle quiet.

Some are the life of the party.

Some are a loving mix of both.

We work our work 

creatively and generously.

What is ours 

to be and do

we be and we do:

     "The gift 

 you have received 

 give as a gift." (1)



 

Worldwide,

   Empire 

is convulsing 

in a spasm of 

deteriorating,

destructive,

devastating 

     evil. 



How do we live

Kingdom Life 

    in this 

hellish horror?


In this three part series
 
we have addressed 

  the absolute need

   that it requires

           a 

 radical spiritual 

        reset

    individually 

        and 

    communally.

    


        We chose 

         to take 

  to heart and daily life

        actually

       practically

     the direction 

           of 
          
         Jesus

        To Love 
  
          God 

       Neighbor 
 
          Self

flat out and no less.


"Do it and you'll live."(2)

            Jesus
   
     
    We have considered 

    attitudes and ways 

    to live and love like that.

           That's our 

             NOW

             HOW

           ******


(1) 1 Peter 4:10

(2) Luke 10:28
      
     The Message
    
      ******



 HELLO AND WELCOME

           to all

 new to our fellowship.

   You're a blessing 

           and 

   we are delighted.

        ******


 ONLINE POSTINGS
  
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       ******


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       THAT'S A 

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THANKS MANY MUCHES

         ******

      
     I pray for you.

  Please pray for me.

        Together 

     let's pray for a

radical spiritual reset

      individually 

         and 

     collectively.

     Love to all.

 See you next week.

     God bless,

     John Frank

       ******


       frankly speaking
  spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspor.com

             ******
  


















     




   

     



Thursday, March 19, 2026

CAUGHT

       Dear All of Us,

Years ago my wife used to 

tuck a tiny love note in with

our kids' school lunches.


A generation later, 

our daughter

does that for little,

four-year-old, Ollie.


The other day when she

opened her lunch at work,

tucked in was a 

little scrap of paper. 

There were three hearts drawn  

and in a four-year old's squiggly,

             O l l i e

      Love is contagious.

            Love is

           CAUGHT


       "GOD IS LOVE"

          I John 4:8


How wonderful 

for many of us 

to be enlivened 

by people and 

spiritual communities

with a highly 

communicable, 

pervasive, 

expanding

outbreak 

    of 

God's love.

Love is contagious.

Love is  

      CAUGHT


How vital for us and others  

to mix it up

in social circles of 

really loving people.

For them and for us

Love is contagious.

Love is 

    CAUGHT 


What a joy for us to be people 

overflowing with love for others.

We are hot with God's love.

We are "in" love and that

Love is contagious.

Love is 

    CAUGHT


The love we're 

talking about here 

is caught from

      Jesus

"As the Father has loved me 

 so I have loved you.

Abide in my love...

("abide" - be right at home).

Love each other 

as I have loved you."

(John 15:9&12)


Now, that's one 

heaven of a love!!

Absolutely divine.

Highly contagious.

It is a Love that is

      CAUGHT

by us and from us.


What Thomas Merton said 

about other religions

sure does apply to us.

He said that if you want 

to find out about Buddhism,

don't study its theology.

Go find a holy Buddhist.

You'll catch on.


May we keep catching on

from Love Lites in our midst.

May others catch on from us.


God love 

is first of all

a matter 

of the heart, 

at the heart

of our spiritual lives.

The head "figurings" 

about God follow

and it's a distant follow.


An informative promo about

Cape Cod doesn't even 

come in a distant second 

to a week in a

seaside cottage

at Truro

("abide" - be right at home).


It's just like our 

falling in love

with another.

We are 

attracted, 

engaged

by their 

"loveliness."

It's 

   CAUGHT

We want to

"abide" with them.


Then comes all the 

facts and figures

about it - 

when's your birthday,

are you into 

Blue Grass or Bach,

is it meat and potatoes

or Blue Zone 

for dinner,

what's your family 

and friends like,...?


So, too, 

all the theology

we have.

It can be good, 

but will never peg God.

It follows the lead of

love lived, of

love's primacy.


Remember the old bromide,

"You're the only Bible

 some people will ever read"?

Actually, we are the only Bible 

that other people will 

ever really believe. 

because 

God's love 

is first 

         CAUGHT  

       then taught 


I know of what I speak.

I initially caught God 

from my Mother,

then from others 

and blessedly

from my wife.

It's never 

an "ology"

at all.

It always a 

joyous, 

generous,

actuality, 

an experience of 

Oneness Divine,

lived real,

beyond words,

God Love,

delightfully

 CAUGHT


When Ollie 

grows up

I pray 

he will be in

communities 

of contagious

God Love,

God Love that 

he is now catching 

from his Mom

(and for sure from his dad!).


May he and we 

continue so 

and be darn divinely

contagious in sharing

God's Love,

        CAUGHT

        ******



Thanks for being here.

Thanks also for sharing

    frankly speaking

      with others.


Online posting

Thursday mornings

East Coast USA time


A few past postings 

are available by 

scrolling way down 

      beneath 

    this posting.


   Our focus here 

       is living

The Love That Is God.

We do that in a time

of much hard, cruel 

      unlove.

Together let's hold in 

heart and prayer all those

suffering in war, genocide,

hunger, fascism, dislocation,

family separations.

Let's do what we can 

for them' e.g.

A group of young mothers

at a local church here in DC,

quietly outfitted the children 

of a large immigrant family 

for school -

quietly, discretely, 

given the frigid, 

hardness of ICE.

Those Moms caught on.

They are Love Contagious.

             


See you next week.

May we all contract and be

beautifully contagious in 

God's Love Lived.

That love to all.

God Bless,

John Frank


       frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

              ******



    




    







 



Thursday, March 12, 2026

WAR AND PEACE

Dear All of Us, 

Well, and it isn't,

it's war more.

The despots of

     Empire

      pitch 

the nations into 

hellish violence,

the peoples into

devastating pain,

       foul 

  land, sea, air,

     shatter

peaceful living.


War may stop an evil.

It will never birth peace.


I found that out in the 60's

during the Vietnam War

while ministering at 

Walter Read Army Hospital 

to ward upon ward of 

late teen and 

twenty something

non-coms.

Their bodies, 

minds and souls

were shattered from 

shattering those 

of opposites in combat.

I realized that

the killer dies.


Jesus put it way clearer:

"Put your sword back 

 where it belongs. 

 All who use swords 

 are destroyed 

 by swords." 

Matthew 26:52 

 The Message.


The sword 

cuts two ways.


One of countless horrors

still paining my heart

from those back ward days

at Walter Read 

is the nineteen-year-old 

kid from Baltimore.

He had worked 

in a gas station, 

had a girlfriend - 

ordinary as can be.

He didn't have 

the money or

connections 

to duct the draft.


First time out in combat 

he blew the head off 

a young Vietnamese solider.

At that he screamed,

dropped his gun 

and broke down,

deeply down and out.


When with him 

in the hospital

he would 

laugh hysterically

and then 

cry the same.

He kept pleading

over and over,

"Father, tell me

 I'm not crazy.

 Tell me 

 I'm not crazy.""

But he was, 

shattered, 

psychologically

dead on arrival 

at the border 

of adulthood.


The sword

cuts both ways.


The same deadliness 

rebounds on 

waring nations.

The Vietnam War 

did not bring peace 

to Vietnam or to 

the United States.

Just the opposite.

Division and conflict.


The sword cuts 

both ways.


Way back when,

Jerimiah challenged

Empire's fault fraught 

chieftains and their 

phony claims of war 

begetting peace:

"Peace, peace, 

there is no peace"

Jerimiah 6:14, 8:11

No peace, 

just more war.


As Richard Rohr says, 

the only way to peace 

        is peace.


  Augustine saw that

    "Peace is the 

 tranquility of order."

Peace is Creation flowing 

as God gives it.

Peace is people 

thinking and acting, 

soul and society, all

love based and lived -

the tranquility of 

God Good Order.


Jesus assures that

"Blesses are 

 the peace makers.

 for they shall be called 

 children of God."

    Matthew 5:9


The Message 

puts it this way:

"You're blessed 

 when you  

 can show people 

 how to cooperate 

 instead of 

 compete or fight.

 That's when 

 you discover 

 who you really are, 

 and your place 

 in God's family."

       Positive 

putting things together.

    The tranquility 

      of order.


Regrettably, 

there really isn't 

a whole lot of peace

      just now

around town or globe.


War on the battlefield 

is a metastasis 

of cultural war

in town.

There is economic 

warfare between 

The Have's Most Of It,

The You Get Enough 

   To Keep You Quiet's,

The Have's Not 

Nearly Enough's.

There is the warfare 

between religions, 

social classes and castes,

far out lefts and 

not at all rights,

media moguls 

perverting mind and soul,

democracy and despotism

slugging it out, so too

social barbarity 

attacking civility.  


So, what do we do?


We do Jesus.

More specifically,

we let Jesus 

do us, gift us 

  peaceful.

"In everything, 

 therefore, 

 treat people 

 the same way 

 you want them 

 to treat you, 

 for this is the 

 Law and 

 the Profits."

Matthew 7:12


The Message 

again:

"Here is a simple, 

 rule-of-thumb guide

 for behavior.

 Ask yourself what

 you want people 

 to do for you, 

 then grab 

 the initiative 

 and do it for them. 

 Add up God's 

 Law and Prophets 

 and this is 

 what you get."


Put pointedly:

You don't want 

to be beat up,

so don't beat up.

You want the best.

Give the best.

Everybody scores.

Nobody loses.

What a plus 

arrangement 

for everybody.

Tranquility of order.


The UMPH for this 

comes compliments of 

Jesus:

"Peace I leave with you. 

 My peace I give to you, 

 not as the world gives 

 do I give.

 Do not let your heart 

 be troubled,

 nor let it 

 be fearful."

    John 14:27


WOW!!

What a wonder.

We can take that 

to the bank and

bank on it we can.

The Rightness,

The Integrity,

The Verve

The Vigor

The Vitality

 of Jesus' 

own peace 

being our peace.

It's not the

transactional paste 

that the world 

passes off as peace.

This is pure rightness,

divinely dynamic.

And we can be as well,

and well it is.

No hearts troubled,

no fear faintness

      for us.


The peace of Jesus

doesn't mean 

trouble free.

It does mean

freely robust

in facing troubles

peacefully.

It does mean

deep soul trust that 

ultimately peace will prevail.


So, we clear clean,

open wide, 

our hearts

to the gift of 

Jesus own peace.


We live Jesus' own

tranquility of order

in the sweaty-sweet

of our place and time.

We're patient with

the complexities

and imperfection 

of daily life.

Given a rock 

we offer a rose.

We bring a 

calm strength

to unraveling 

the knots of 

community life

and Nature Care.


We realize 

we can do little

about the 

outrageous evils of 

Empire's waring.

We can and 

do commit to 

harmony and peace 

with family, at work,

in our communities,

driving, dealing with 

difficulties of difference,

a tranquility of order.


War there is.

Peace there can be,

The Peace of Jesus.


If each of us is a 

peace plant

the world will

one day be 

peace blanketed.


In the meantime,

"Don't fret or worry,

Instead of worrying, pray.

Let petitions and praises 

shape your worries 

into prayers,

letting God know 

your concerns.

Before you know it,

a sense of 

God's wholeness,

everything 

coming together

(tranquility of order)

for good, will come 

and settle you down.

It's wonderful 

what happens

when Christ 

displaces worry 

at the center 

of your life.

Philippians 4:8-9

  The Message


Peace is the tranquility of order,

           God's order

      Creations free flow.

       "Peace be with you."

              Jesus

             ******


              WELCOME ALL



Online postings

Thursday mornings

East Coast USA time



A Sampling of Past Postings

         is available

              by

    scrolling well down

          beneath 

        this posting


See you next week.

       Peace.

    Love to all.

    God Bless,

   John Frank



        frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

             ******