Dear All of Us,
Where I grew up
a common maxim in
The Lexicon of Parenting
was
"Now, don't be fresh!"
Well, my parents
are long gone and
I've never really
bothered to
grow up
but
I have come
to realize
how important
it is to be
FRESH
not sassy
but
sparklingly,
vibrantly
FRESH
Pilots take refresher courses.
We freshen up before dinner.
We refresh our computer.
We come up with
fresh solutions
for old questions.
Nature seasonally
refreshes itself.
Marriage and friendship
depend on being
regularly refreshed.
Dear old Pope John XXlll
called the church to
"aggiornamento"
urging that we
throw wide
the windows
and let the
fresh air of The Spirit
free flow
to renew, to refresh
a dusty, musty church.
The German people practice
"Luften"
Twice a day, no matter
the season or the weather,
they open wide the windows
to let out stale air
and welcome in fresh.
It so improves health
(body and spirit).
That's what
we are doing
right now in
Lent
and does it ever
improve things.
Stale, fetid, foul air
of soul and society
is blown out
as The Spirit
winds us
clean and fresh,
renewed and reinvigorated.
We're energized free of
lifeless routine and ritual,
of sinful stifling strictures,
of all that pollutes
head and heart,
of poisonous relations
social and interpersonal,
of suffocating injustices,
of faux and phony religion.
Balmy spring days
and bracing fall ones
make Luften easy.
Humid hot summer days and
blustery frigid winter ones
are opposite hard.
So it is in
Lent,
our spiritual
Luften
Hard or easy
we throw open
the windows of
soul and society
for pure real.
On our own
and as community
we test the quality
of the air
that oxygenates
our living.
Two Central Helps
A slow, honest measure of
soul and society registers
spiritual air quality
as we open to all of
The Sermon on the Mount
and the trilogy of love
God, neighbor, self
with their purity and gusto.
Two clear cleansing exercise
and examples:
- "Blessed are the pure of heart
for they shall see God."
Matthew 5:9
Only sparkling purity
at the heart of
who we are
and what we do
will clear the air
pure enough
to see God,
Pure Good.
In Lent
we air out the real
reasons/motivations,
and dynamics that
power our consciousness,
our relationships,
business, politics, religion,
lifestyle and work,
our spirituality.
- The beauty of Lent is that
it puts before us
what often gets lost in the
hurry/scurry of daily life.
We are called to
love
in who we are
and
what we do.
The flow fresh
of The Spirit is
to
Love God
with all our heart,
mind and soul and
To Love
our neighbor
as ourselves
(because they are).
Matthew 22:37-40
In the fullness and
intensity of God Love
we are wind swept
in the surging's of
The Holy Spiritus,
the wholey energy,
for full living,
window
FRESH
******
For those who wish it
LENTEN LUFTEN
Each day of Lent
we open wide
the windows to deep.
We breath in
Spirit Fresh
as it blows clean in the
Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5-7
and
The Love Trinity
Matthew 22:34-40
A Few Prompts/Examples:
- Matthew 5:3
"Blessed are
the poor in spirit,
for theirs' is
the kingdom of heaven."
We don't have to wait for
some long off by ad by.
The kingdom of heaven is
move in ready
right now
if we are.
All it takes is to
completely move out of
every habit and habitation
of significance and security
less than kingdom living.
We vacate
self-reliant,
self-centered
systems and structures
- poverty of spirit -
for the grandness of
residence rich living
right now, right here.
We have a completely new
location and address
and way we address life.
It's the paradox of poverty
clearing the way for
limitless enrichment.
We just need to break
the lease of less.
- Matthew 5:43- 48
" Love your enemies."
Right now people are
mad as hell at each other,
literally "mad"
and "hell" it is.
They are
"loaded and cocked",
attitudinally and
too often more
to do in the
heavily hated/feared
others,
those on the
radically different side
of the hate/fear divide.
Jesus is offering us
a heaven of a deal
for a hell of hatred and fear.
We do not have to accept
the manner and ways of
those dreaded "others".
We do have to
dive deep
through our anger,
fear and hatred,
through their
ideas and actions
to the core
of who they are -
children of God,
temples of the Holy Spirit
and embrace them in love,
the God of love
at their center,
whether they
know it or not.
It's the only way
to peace.
It's hard.
It's also perfection.
Jesus offers it.
We move out of
the hell of now
to the perfection of it
in
The Love That Is God.
- Matthew 22:34-40
Love
God, neighbor, self
with all you've got!
We are what we love.
God wants us to be
in love with
God, neighbor, self.
Love means intimate union.
Love means oneness.
I like shrimp scampi.
I don't dare love it.
I want to be
a lot more than
shrimp scampi.
God doesn't want us
to be in bed with,
in love with,
power, stuff, pleasure,
a pretend, cardboard self,
with anything less than
LOVE
God neighbor self
a
Divine Oneness.
Jesus underscores
this wisdom of the
Hebraic Tradition.
In it we discover that
all creation is neighbor,
proteins to planets,
that other is God
present in
unique diversity.
Then I get to love
shrimp scampi in our
Loved Oneness!!
We get to be in love
with all that is.
That means
peace and joy.
So, as we move
through lent
we breath in
each bit of
freshness in
The Sermon
on the Mount
and
Love of
God, neighbor self.
On Easter Sunday,
we find ourselves
lite lifted
up
freed
FRESH
******
It's a breath of fresh air
being here together each week.
Online Postings
Thursdays
East Coast USA time
A sampler of past posting
is available
by
scrolling well down
beneath
this posting
Thanks to all
who share this blog
with others.
All the best.
See you next week.
Love to all.
God Bless.
John Frank
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogapot.com
******
