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

              ******

    

    

 

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

             ******

             

 

SPEAK UP

      Dear All of Us,

As a boy back in the 1940's

(and is that ever BACK!)

my Mother taught us that

it was impolite to say, 

        "Shut Up".

   These days of 

     Empire's

darkening danger

   it's critical 

 that we don't 

  "Shut Up".

   These dark days it is imperative 

                 that we 

                SPEAK UP

                    in 

           word and action.

   

    To Shut Up is to say OK to 

              Empire's 

           foul depravity.

            Jesus didn't

        in his day and way. 

            We dare not

              in ours.

  As his followers, we model our 

             Response 

              on Him.

              Jesus 

              Lived 

              God 

            and then 

          Spoke Up 

       Godly Corrective

                to 

            Empire's 

       Godless, Loveless,

           Depravity. 

          There it is.

     Live it then talk it

     in word and action.

All this was in bold relief 

for me a week plus ago.

    Here in the USA

        Empire  

broad cast bombast.

It was an hour 

and forty minutes 

         of 

  UNREALITY TV

       in a 

bilious, buffoonish

travesty of truth,

       and 

 denial of love -

 The State Of The 

Dis-Union Address

That evening and 

the next day

I witnessed response, 

      SPEAK UP

lived and spoken 

in word and action 

Over dinner a dear friend 

shared that his daughter, 

a high school senior

planning to be a nurse,

is already taking 

nursing courses 

while in high school.

She recently went to one of 

those horrid, God-awful 

nursing homes of neglect.

She visited a very old man. 

He mentioned that 

he had not had a shower 

in a long time.

She took it upon herself 

to gave him one.

Then she decided 

to change his sheets.

They looked like 

they had been 

on the bed 

since the Civil War. 

The next day 

that old man died.

He died anointed in 

God's Love Lived,

administered by 

a high school student.

That old man 

was a victim of 

selfish Empire.

That young girl 

   "actioned" 

         a 

   SPEAK UP 

        of 

God Love Lived

     It talked.

The morning after the travesty of  

The State Of The Dis-Unity Address

two thousand United Methodist

from around the country 

gathered on Capitol Hill

here in Washington, DC. 

            They

talked-prayed-walked a

        SPEAK UP

             a

     God Corrective

to the current abuses in 

  migrant deportation.

It was peaceful and pointed. 

They then proceeded to  

congressional offices to claim

humane treatment of migrants.

            It talked.

Harry Truman remined us that 

those who don't know history 

are bound to repeat it.

We need to remember that

the sinful silence of Germany's

two major Religions,

  Roman Catholic 

        and

    Lutheran,

was tacit acceptance

that green lighted

the rise of Naziism.

It culminated 

in the hideous

        twin horrors 

             of

Holocaust and World War.

The times bid us

     Beware

  Speake Up

Three articulations

we have to 

       Speak Up

   in the midst of

       Empire's

rapidly metastasizing

    bedevilment 

         are 

 -  Be all in on 

     personal 

        and 

    communal

  Gospel Living.

         A

   Light Bright 

   in the midst of

   Dark Empire

      like the 

high school student.

  Living Witness

      It Talks.

       AND

 - To peacefully,

    lovingly do 

    what those 

dear Methodists did, 

    find ways of

Faithful Resistance,

clearly, peacefully, 

   animated by 

   Godly Love.

       AND

- Speaking of 

  SPEAK UP

 we do so in 

   prayer.

Individually 

and as a 

community

we pray that

"Thy kingdom come, 

 thy will be done 

 on earth as in heaven."

    Matthew 6:10

We are one in 

God's will and way 

for all Creation.

We praise.

We thank.

We hold in 

God's Love

all those 

damaged, hurt, 

violated by every 

form and instance of

      Empire.

We hold in that prayer

all those working 

the evils of Empire.

We pray that 

our shared life

as a society

be purified of

lust for 

power,

acquisition, 

dominance,

selfishness,

victimization, 

injustice, 

scapegoating,

militarism,

materialism,

aggression,

dishonesty and

distortion of truth.

We pray for the world

The Fruits of the Spirit:

"...affection for others, 

exuberance about life, 

we develop a willingness 

to stick with things, 

a sense of compassion 

in the heart, 

and a conviction that 

a basic holiness permeates 

things and people. 

We find ourselves involved 

in loyal commitments, 

not needing to force 

our way in life, 

able to marshal and 

direct our energies wisely."

   Galatians 5:22-24

     The Message

We have 

a lot to say 

   and 

not just in 

words or church.

       

People of honest, 

palpable spirituality,

cannot help but do things like

give an old man blessed comfort,

march to Capital Hill,

pray kingdom come,

        always as 

lived words and ways 

       of Jesus, 

       ways to

      SPEAK UP  

       ******

      

      WELCOME

 Online Postings

Thursday mornings

East Coast USA time.

A few past postings 

are available by

scrolling well down

      beneath 

      this one.

"Speak up 

for the people 

who have no voice, 

for the rights of all 

the down-and-outers. 

Speak out for justice! 

Stand up for 

the poor and destitute!"

Proverbs 31: 8-9

  The Message

Empire explodes

all across the

Middle East.

From our hearts 

let us pray 

that somehow 

order and peace 

will take root 

and blossom

in the Middle East

and while we're at it,

in all places,

for all peoples.

See you next week

    Love to all.

    God Bless.

    John Frank

         frankly speaking

    spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

                     ******

 

       

                

BOTHER

Dear All of Us,

"Oh bother!"

 Winnie the Pooh

sure pegged things

    gone wrong

       right.

They more than

      qualify

        as

    BOTHER

In these torturous times

    

    all sorts of wrong

  bothers the liv'n heck 

       out of us!

    

Well, not always "out."

We can get bogged down

          "in" it,

         literally

     be-deviled by 

      the evil of it.

 

 Currently and tragically, 

        the heinous 

           wrong 

             of

 

          Empire

      bothers many 

            into

     Moral/Spiritual

          Inertia.

     "Why bother!"

    "There's nothing 

 

     I can do about it" -

Putin, XI Jinping, Trump,

environmental dangers,

"Rupture" of the

Western Alliance,

Gaza, Ukraine, Iran

AI, economic fragility,

cartels, gestapos,

most for the few,

some for a select some,

not nearly enough

for most worldwide.

"There's nothing 

 I can do about it."

  "Why bother?"

  Au contraire!

     There's 

mountains much

     we all 

can do about it.

So, let's go to 

God's First Bible,

     Nature 

 and check out 

those mountains

      much

and see positive 

     Bother

Zillions of zillions 

beyond count of

miniscule molecules

      BOTHER

 to stick together.

 

They are rock solid

      in union

   and we have 

     The Alps.

  No one molecule 

   can be what 

  The Alps are.

  Molecules fused 

  in community

        are 

  monumental.

So it is with us

    in these 

difficult days of

    Empire

days more like 

deadly dark night.

  We can let 

  

  The Spirit

   fuse us 

        

     ONE

    in the 

  rock-solid 

 community 

   that is

    The 

 Kingdom 

  

     of

 

    God

  right in 

the midst of

Evil Empire -

a whole 

new range 

of living.

We adhere 

to each other 

    living 

 God's love

 practically, 

where we are, 

as we are.

 That shared 

   dynamic

       is

local and vital.

We look out 

for each other 

and "others" 

beyond our 

community of 

  God Good 

  Cohesion.

    "Nice-Nice" 

     feel good

      religion

 has flunked out, 

     doesn't

 cut it, count 

       or 

  

    qualify.

We're talking here,

    not words 

    but actual, 

     for real

  action based,

  experienced

  

 living together 

         as 

The Body of Christ.

As a community 

  we joyfully 

      and

practically live 

  The Sermon

 On The Mount.

 We learn live 

    together

     those 

  Beatitudes

We take a pass, 

indeed bypass, 

as in heart bypass,

anger, lust, 

an eye for an eye. 

As tough as it is,

we love our enemies.

We are subtle humble 

in giving to the needy.

We don't waste on worry 

nor judging others. 

   Matthew 5-7

We enter Kingdom Living

through the narrow gate 

        of actuality 

       rather than 

       spin out at 

   "wide the gate 

 and broad the way 

that leads to destruction" 

     Matthew 7:13

 

We gather for 

prayer, scripture, 

reflection,

Communion.

We are a village 

raising our children.

We regularly

gather for meals.

We share space

and means.

We weave in 

single parent 

families,

the alone elderly,

isolated singles.

We fit in misfits.

We share tools,

table, gardens,

stories, song,

celebrations.

We shovel out 

those unable  

in snowstorms.

We gather for 

the arts 

and learning.

  We do 

life together,

  God Life

 One day all this 

   positive plus

     BOTHER

  will molecule 

   by molecule

   overspread

   and replace

 the rot rock of

  monumental 

    Empire 

       by

  God's Love 

     Lived

In the meantime,

 we've "got a life,"

   we give a 

    BOTHER

   

   

   Eventually 

   the night

       of 

    Empire 

 will be over 

 and all that 

 will be left 

      is a 

Land of Light,

The Kingdom 

        of 

      God 

come on earth 

as in heaven.

We can make 

the difference

It sure is worth 

       the

    BOTHER

    ******

               

               Speaking of

                "BOTHER"

             

 We experienced one last week 

when our email editions of this blog 

             did not go out.

Supposedly the hitch is cleared up

and last week's missing post,

               FRESH

is being posted with this one.

In any case, if the email edition 

does not arrive on time Fridays, 

please go online for it at  

       frankly speaking

  spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

    Thanks for your patience.

What a goodness 

that we all bother 

to be together here 

    each week.

ONLINE POSTINGS

Thursdays

East Coast USA time.

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     All the best.

       See you 

     next week.

     Love to all.

     God Bless,

     John Frank

         

       ******