LIGHTEN UP

    Dear All of Us,

    Grand Pa me

    wants to tell 

    dear all of you

     the latest

     Ollie-ism

For those new here

        Ollie 

is my five-year-old 

    GRAND SON

  and is he ever!

The other day:

"Mommy, you are

 the best Mommy

 in the whole world,

 except when

 you make me 

 go to bed."

Why ever 

would I start 

a "spirituality" blog

with a simple

Soul Smile Story?

Simply because 

we all need to

 LIGHTEN UP

  Our world 

and too much 

  our spirits 

      are 

sober stark dark.

     Sure,

  the world is 

 a sorry mess

with mess more

   at the door.

Dangerous Dark

And surest of all:

 "I am the 

  world's light.

  No one who 

  follows me 

  stumbles around 

  in the darkness. 

  I provide 

  plenty of light 

  to live in." (1)

In it, life is a go

     and the

      Light 

  overcomes 

 the darkness. (2)

       That

      LIGHT

     wants to 

      ignite 

        us:

"We're here 

 to be light,

 bringing out the 

 God-good colors 

 in the world.

 God is not 

 a secret 

 to be kept. 

 We're going 

 public with this,

 as public as 

 a city on a hill. 

 If I make you 

 light-bearers, 

 you don't think 

 I'm going 

 to hide you 

 under a bucket, 

 do you?

 I'm putting you 

 on a light stand. 

 Now that 

 I've put you 

 there on a hilltop,

 on a light stand -

     shine!

 Keep open house; 

 be generous 

 with your lives.   

 By opening up 

 to others, 

 you'll prompt people 

 to open up with God

 your generous Father 

 in heaven." (3)

Time Out!!

Let's stop here.

Let's give Jesus

a real listen,

    let him 

    get us 

   to really

 LIGHTEN UP.

I urge this 

because 

so many 

church people, 

so many

spirituality sorts,

are stymied still, 

despondent,

in a dark world.  

I gotta tell you,

it's both

liberals and

conservatives

hanging out in

shadows dreadful -

Downer Dons, 

Depressed Donnas:

 "It's just so awful."

 "They'll make us all

  communist."

 "They're hell bent on

   forcing fascism."

 "Will the grid give?"

 "The supply chain 

   is snapping."

  "This AI borrowing is a

    balloon of delusion

    about to burst us broke."

   "Billions upon billions

    for wars that

    don't work while

    millions upon millions 

    starve, suffer and die."

   "AI is poising to take over

    everything and everyone,

    if not even turn off 

    the lights altogether."

   "The world

    is going to hell 

    in a basket!'

     Sure it is!

Empire is imploding.

Danger and suffering

   drag dark to 

   Main Street.

And that's exactly 

      where 

    The Light 

   of the World

  wants to shine

   right bright 

   through us.

Quite frankly 

it is time for us 

to move from 

fret to faith,

to actually warm 

to Jesus, 

  "I provide plenty 

    of light to live in." (4)

I more than realize 

that my words here

are hard and 

uncompromising.

But brothers and sisters, 

we need to get off 

the couch of 

dark desperation

and walk in the 

Light of the World.

   So, 

PLEASE,

right now

all of us,

let's go back to the 

Light Language 

of Jesus quoted above.

Jesus is talking to us.

How do we hear unto

  ENLIGHTENMENT?

      

        A PAUSE

We prayerfully ponder 

the words of Jesus above.

      WE CONTINUE

Dark there is 

and will be.

Light there is

and can be.

We can't count on

money, military, 

markets, governments,

any branch of Empire.

Jesus needs us 

to get his light shining

on main Street:

  "You're here 

    to be light...

    We're going public

    with this...

        SHINE" (5)

We defy the dark

and live the light.

We model our living 

on the words and ways 

of Jesus.

We dedicate

ourselves 

to sharing 

rather than 

to excessive 

accumulation.

We delight in 

God given diversity -

like God we relish 

every kind of flower 

in humanity's

varied garden.

We let little children's

kid talk tickle us free.

We nurture Nature,

house plants to

environmental

respect and protection.

We let the Holy Spirit 

form our words and 

fashion our lifestyles.

As members of 

The Body of Christ

we are vigorously active in

our spiritual communities.

In our sphere we meet 

The Son of Man 

by finding ways to:

  feed the hungry,

  (starved for attention)

  quench thirst,

  (desperate for a break)

  inviting in the stranger, 

  (befriending a foreigner)

   clothing the naked,

  (sharing our closet)

   looking after the sick,

  (staying close to a

   depressed friend)

  visiting the imprisoned

  (helping a coworker

  break a work addiction) 

             (6)

We are plugged tight into

contemplative seeing 

and divine intimacy, 

and it sure will

     SHINE

     as we

 LIGHTEN UP

   ******

"All the darkness 

 in the world 

 cannot extinguish 

 the light of 

 a single candle"

 Francis of Assisi

(1) John 8:12

     The Message

      Translation

(2) John 1:4

(3) Matthew 5:14-16

(4) John 8:12 

       The Message 

       Translation

(5) Matthew 5: 14-16

(6) Matthew 25: 34-36

        The Message 

        Translation

Hope I got this right.

I'm not a numbers guy.

Gave it five redo's!!

Patience appreciated

                     

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   SEE YOU NEXT WEEK

        LOVE TO ALL

        GOD BLESS

       JOHN FRANK

       frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

             ******

        

    

RIGHT NOW

Dear All of Us,

We who 

gather here 

every week 

are from umpteen 

lands and time zones 

around our shared orb. 

How is it in your 

land and zone

  Right Now?

How Right is the 

     Now 

    there?

For us here 

in The States 

it's time 

to tinker with time

yet again, 

the semi-annual 

rock-the-clock, 

Spring Forward, 

Fall Back. 

It confuses our 

circadian rhythms, 

scrambles our schedules, 

throws us off stride, 

makes our Now 

not at all just Right.

In a vastly broader way, 

we tinker with time

to the peril of 

our spiritual lives.

It upsets, throws into 

confusion and conflict 

our Right Now when

   we pile on past,

   we fuss with future

be they minutes, months, 

           years.

   Neither is native to 

          NOW.

          Right Now 

is the only NOW there is.

Yes, 

we need

to reference the past 

and anticipate the future. 

Right now 

I can pay the rent 

(as crazy as it is here 

 in Wahington, DC!!)

because in the past 

I saved for my 

future retirement.

Yes, 

"Those who 

cannot remember 

the past 

are condemned 

to repeat it". 

  George Santayana

Worldwide we're

painfully relearning 

the reality 

of that in a not so 

Right Now.

Future Fuss 

does the same thing  

the other way round.

It trys to take us 

where we can't go.

And that is 

a frustrating 

contradiction.

Past or future belong 

there not here.

Compulsions

to relive past,

pre-live future,

crowd out, deplete, 

stall, stymie, steal 

our Right Now.

Upshot: 

     We're like Gulliver, 

     Stop Strapped Supine.

     In our case, 

     we get immobilized by 

     strands upon strands of 

     preoccupations past, 

     frettings future.

A CAVEAT:

Past trauma,

future anxiety, 

      are

psychological 

concerns.

They need to be  

to be God addressed

with professional help

in our Right Now.

We exist in God's

Eternal Now.

We experience it

moment by moment.

That's why 

it is essential 

   To Live 

In The Moment,

In The Now.

If we drag 

all sorts 

of moments 

from the past and

anticipated ones

from the future

into our now 

we miss 

the moment 

of God's

Right Now

To miss God's 

 Right Now

      is

   to miss

 what God 

   would 

 be and do

in it with us.

We find ourselves

tied down 

by inert strands 

that lack 

currency,

vitality, 

that don't allow 

the dynamic 

flow of God 

in our

Right Now.

There are other 

time traps that 

restrain us 

from presence 

in our Right Now.

Multiplying 

attention centers

at the same time

limits now focus to near 

spiritual/psychic blindness.

- taking on the phone 

  while checking 

  an article online,

  cooking supper, 

  having a glass of wine,

  supervising 

  a child's homework,

  checking on 

  the cloth's dryer,

  scanning texts,

  all at the same time.

  That blinds us to our 

  Right Now.

  Our bodies are there

  but we aren't.

- unfortunately, 

  that's not 

  as much of 

  an exaggeration 

  as it might seem.

Media addiction

is unbodied, 

fluff at best, 

but mostly it is

faux folly and

sinister dishonesty. 

It dopes us dull, 

scatters our souls

blocking clarity to 

the actual 

in real time

Right Now.

  

A good part 

of the ascetics

in our spiritual life

is to discipline away

those distractions, 

to stay in the moment.

That's where 

God is and as God is. 

That positions us 

to be one with God. 

We do everything 

together:

cook supper,

drive to work,

pay bills,

care for the earth,

work for justice,

read a novel,

are patient with a

run at the mouther,

do Lectio Divina,

are generous

with the needy,

put heart and soul 

into our 

spiritual community,

hike, paint, sing,

close the door and pray,

write a spirituality blog

every week,

rock a baby to sleep 

 -  Read this blog 

    out loud and

    the baby will be in 

    slumberland 

    within one minute,

    just like many older 

    reader/dozers-

    guaranteed :) 

We don't find God.

We accept God

in the moments 

      of the

  RIGHT NOW.

        To live in

The Presence of God

is to live in the present

       HOWEVER 

  IT WRAPS ITSELF

"This is the day 

  the Lord has made.

  Let us rejoice and 

  be glad in it."

  Psalm 118: 24

  Not yesterday

  Not tomorrow

      Today

  Our moment 

     in God's 

   Eternal Now

   RIGHT NOW

      ******

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 TO THOSE CLOSE

 IN OUR SHARED 

   RIGHT NOW

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       LOVE TO ALL 

       GOD BLESS

       JOHN FRANK

       frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

             ******

  

TRANSLATION

Dear All of us,

Guess what?

It's official.

God has a favored

 TRANSLATION

  of the Bible.

    IT'S US

God counts on us 

to translate

what's scripted

in the Bible

of God Goodness

to lively reality

in the idiom and moment

of our here and now.

The Bible itself

encourages us.

So let's 

SlowSoul, 

SpiritSoak

here;

   "Watch what God does,

    and then you do it,

    like children who learn

    proper behavior 

    from their parents.

    Mostly what God does 

    is love you. 

    Keep company with him and 

    learn a life of love.

    Observe how Christ loved us.

    His love was not cautious 

    but extravagant.

    He didn't love in order 

    to get something from us 

    but to give everything 

    of himself to us.

    Love like that." (1)

    WOW!

That's how to 

authentically 

translate

Sacred Script

from page to practice.

- watch: contemplative attention

- do: copy right 

- learn: God coached

- keep company: partnership

- learn a life of love: lifelong love learner

- extravagant love: self-giving on a spending spree 

- not get but give: transformative not transactional

- give everything: be a bonanza for others

- Love like that: full court press loving

            Be a page turner 

                 ******

          (1) Ephesians 5:1-2

              The Message

               Translation

          WE HERE ARE MANY 

                  FROM 

       MANY LANDS AND WAYS

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                 JOHN FRANK

              frankly speaking

         spirituality for the street

      johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

                      ******

            

 

TEARS

Dear All of Us,

Guaranteed.

We'd all love her.

I sure do.

       Sarah 

is thirty something.

delightful, 

effervescent,

deeply spiritual,

a leader in her 

religious community,

a sought after 

children's therapist.

Sarah is distressed.

Why is there so much 

evil and hurt in our world?

Why are more people not

joyous and caring? 

It's so much more 

beautiful and better.

Sarah's soul aches.

I shared with Sarah

the wisdom of Virgil:

   "Lacrimae Rerum"

   "The Tears of Things."

"There are tears 

at the heart of things." (1)

At our deepest 

we weep 

bitter tears

at the horrors 

in life.

At our deepest 

we weep 

tears joyous 

at the beauties

in life.

Such our 

spiritual lives

for now.

I also shared with Sarah 

two examples

of my own recent 

flood of tears, my own

  Lacrimae Rerum

Stephen Miller 

is the chief 

White House 

designer and director

of the administration's

Immigrant Removal Program.

(I almost typed Pogrom!!)

They recently purchased 

a less than stellar warehouse 

in Roxbury, NJ.

near my former home.

It was to be a new 

Detention Center.

The contractor they hired 

was confident 

he could make it livable 

with basic comforts.

He was told "NO".

Stephen Miller wanted it to be

as rough and uncomfortable as 

humanly tolerable! (2)

Ripped away people 

treated as animals.

Getting closer 

and closer to a Nazi 

Concentration Camp

in suburban USA.

There are 

wretchedly more

across the land.

And we let it happen.

And we let it happen.

I weep bitter tears.

I am eighty-six and 

mostly homebound.

The other day 

my daughter 

took me

for a ride.

What a treat!

We had to stop 

at a large, popular

religious shrine 

so I could use 

"The Necessary". 

    The spirituality of 

     necessity!

I depend on my

four wheeled walker

to get around.

As my walker and I 

struggled to negotiate 

the heavy door of 

"The Necessary"

a thirty something 

young Latino man 

stepped in,

smiled, 

said nothing

     and 

held the door 

for me 

to roll through.

I thanked him.

When I was finished

   (and that takes 

    us older guys 

    a lot longer 

    than it used to)

unbeknown to me

the young man 

was still at the door 

patiently waiting 

there for me

all that time! 

Still smiling 

he again 

held the door 

for me.

I thanked him

from deep 

in my heart.

I wept tears of 

joyous gratitude

there as well.

Light Bright Beauty!

Jesus wept over Jerusalem

        Luke 19:41-44

            Sorrow

      Jesus went to bat 

      for little children, 

   gathered them close in,  

embraced and blessed them

        Mark 10:13-16

 I'll bet he teared up happy.

              Joy

Our souls sense so much.

We weep at hurt and evil.

We weep at good and dear. 

It's often in our eyes.

It's always deep in our heart.

            So it is

            for now.

Our souls mature to that. 

When they haven't yet, 

we look again and again 

until they do.

Our tears are not

one or other,

joy or sorrow.

Our Lacrimae Rerun

are both and.

 

They are  

our soul's

first responders.

They immediately 

show us 

what's going on,

what needs 

to be done.

They teach

     and 

  direct us

    in our

  Kingdom

   Living.

Sarah is maturing 

        into 

     the gift of 

       TEARS

     May we all

       as well

          til   

  "Thy Kingdom" 

     has come

        and 

  we weep only

    unending

      TEARS

         of

        Joy

     ******

(1) Seamus Heaney

     2008, BBC Radio

     Greek and Latin Voices

(2) October 8, 2026

     National Public Radio

     ALL THINGS CONSIDERED

     Jasmine Garsd

     Article  Pictures  Transcript

              ******

  

       A PROMISE

He'll (God) wipe away 

every tear from their eyes. 

Death is gone - tears gone, 

crying gone, pain gone - 

all the first order of things gone. 

The Enthroned continued, 

"Look! I'm making all things new."

         Revelation 21:4

          The Message

           Translation

   A RECOMMENDED READING

        The Tears of Things

        Prophetic Wisdom 

     For An Age Of Outrage

          Richard Rohr

             Convergent

                2025

MANY AND MUCH THANKS

FOR ALL THE AFFIRMATION 

       SENT MY WAY

ABOUT LAST WEEK's BLOG,

       CONNECTION.

        IT AND YOU 

            ARE 

  MUCH APPRECIATED

A GOLDEN AUTUMN WELCOME 

      TO ALL NEW HERE.  

    IT IS SO GOOD TO BE 

          WITH YOU

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         PLEASE JOIN ME 

         IN DAILY PRAYER 

                FOR 

         STEPHEN MILLER

         AND HIS GROUP

       LOOKING FORWARD 

             TO US ALL 

     BEING TOGETHER HERE 

             NEXT WEEK

               MAY WE 

              RESPOND

                   to 

           WHAT WE SEE

             THROUGH

     THE TEARS OF THINGS

            LOVE TO ALL

            GOD BLESS

            JOHN FRANK

           frankly speaking

       spirituality for the street

   johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

           ******