BABEL

Hi There !

So,

       BABEL

     is a new try

     at an old limit.

        BABEL

is the latest thing in

language learning programs.

I sure could have used it the other day.

I was trying  to buy a new I Phone.

The store staff were young,

lovely and eager to help.

But did we ever have a devil

of a time trying

 to communicate about

an instrument of communication.

It was pumped up paradox.

The staff were in their 20's and

I am precious, if not perilously,

close to 80.

We speak different languages.

They talked about megabytes.

I puzzled over what

really big mosquito bites

have to do with a new cell phone.

Those lovely young staffers lost me

when they asked if my old cell was

     "backed up in The Cloud."

I wondered if that was some sort of

"Blessed Assurance" about stored up

sanctifying grace in the heavenly realms.

Somehow we stammered, stuttered,

gestured,"metaphored" along and

I was able to walk out of the store

with a new phone.

It all ended well.

In fact, twenty of those

lovely young staffers

walked me to the door

and waved as I departed.

Silly, but true story.

Well maybe embellished just a bit,

or is that byte ??



In a wider sense, we all find ourselves

tongue tied at the base of today's

        Tower of  Babel.

We find it distressingly difficult

to communicate and cooperate:

politics, governance, economics,

social and environmental issues,

life style and gender matters,

The Common Good and on and on.

Right at the top of the list is our

articulation of what life is all about,

communicating about

the core of reality  -  Soul Share.

So sadly often

trying to communicate

about the spiritual life ends up

a confused, often conflicted,

and failed try at communication.

So many say it so variously.

So often we just don't get it,

and too often we even get it wrong.

We speak so many

different spiritual languages.

That language problem can

frighten and frustrate.

It can lead to a spiritual mud fight

 or worse -  the ultimate

      communication

conflict and contradiction,

         a so called

         Holy War:

       " My religion is the only
         true religion."

       "Those (Catholics, Muslims -
         fill in the blank -
         (...........................................)
         are all going to hell
         in a basket."

       " Those.(.................................)
          are spooky and suspicious."

          A young white male
          shooting up a black
          Bible Study in Charleston,S.C.
                      (2015)

          Planning board blocking
          the construction of a mosque.
         (Basking Ridge, NJ 2011-2017)


         The jihadist massacre
         of 300 worshipers
         in the mosque
         at Rawda, Egypt
         (December 2017)



Our survival and prospering

depend on learning

each other's spiritual language.

World wide we need to invest in

the latest and best

language learning program, a

         BABEL

to free up our babel,

one that will enable us

to decode our current

Tower of Spiritual Babel,

our communication confusion.

Then we can Soul Share.

There is just so much good

to give each other.

It's costly, though:

       - open minds, hearts and doors,

       - respect

       - sensitivity

       - the conviction that God, Being

         The Ultimate, Reality

         - chose your preferred name-

          is way too vast to be

         seen and said in only one way

       - comfortableness in our own

         spiritual articulations matched

         with joyful, even eager,

         readiness for a wider hearing

         and voicing of Goodness.



I can personally vouch for

the  widening of

our spiritual broadband.

I am a grateful and happy Christian.

I have been wonderfully

deepened, widened, lifted

by the Soul Speak of Jewish,

Buddhist, Hindu,

Native American and many more

articulations of the spiritual.

They have a slant and say

on things spiritual I don't.

Finding a way to communicate

has brought all of us into

a much fuller, indeed

a holy, communion

with each other and with What Is.





Richard Rohr shared two magnificent

helps in all this.

They appeared in the August 5, 2018

issue of his daily email

and follow here in our

MEDITATION MARKERS.

They are a treasure trove

from which to draw

in prayerful meditation

during the course of the next week,

and hopefully often thereafter.




Thanks for the joy of your company.

         I hold you and all in

          God's Dear Love,

              John Frank

                 *****



  MEDITATION MARKERS


 As we ponder let's ask:

     - What does all this mean

        to where I am spiritually,

        to where I can go spiritually,

        to where we are and can be as a people?

                      *****



From the Jewish mystical teacher

Rabbi Rami Shapiro:


To me, religions are like languages:

no language is true or false;

all languages are of human origin;

each language reflects and shapes

the civilization that speaks it;

there are things you can say

in one language that you

cannot say as well in another;

and the more languages

you speak, the more nuanced

your understanding

of life becomes.

Judaism is my mother tongue,

yet in matters of the spirit

I strive to be multilingual.

   http://rabbirami.com

               *****



From Mirabai Starr:


Taoism offers context for

the entire spiritual enterprise

in the opening lines of the

Tao Te Ching:

         The Tao that can be told

         is not the eternal Tao.

 Buddhism affirms

that there is only one of us,

and therefore we are each

responsible for every link

in the web of being.

Christianity offers us

 the unconditional mercy

of an incarnational God

who permeates the whole

of creation with love.

Judaism urges us

to demonstrate our love

for God in the way

we treat each other

and care for creation.

Hinduism kindles the fire

of devotion for reunification

with the Beloved who is

no other than our own true self.

Islam shares the peace

that comes with

complete submission

to the One.


  The World Wisdom Bible:
  A New Testament for a
  Global Spirituality,
  Rami Shapiro, ed.
  (Skylight Paths Publishing: 2017),
  vii-viii

             *****



A warm welcome to our newest

     participants here at

     "frankly speaking"


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          online offering.

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