Friday, October 26, 2018
SEA CHANGE
Hi There !
So, here we go !
Halloween happens next week,
and it happens Big Time for sure.
It rivals our other Fall High Holy Day - Thanksgiving.
Last year the average per person amount spent on
candy, costumes, gore, ghosts, skeletons, and such
"freight for fun" was $86.13.
Cumulatively that comes out to 9.1 billion -
a mass of money for the macabre.
So, get the kids (of all ages!) their costumes.
Keep Hershey and M & M Mars stock on a sugar high.
Put the porch light on and it's Show Time !!
A not so High Fall Holy Day gets pretty much lost
in the shuffle and shadow of this scary show.
It's the day after Halloween/All Saints Day.
It is so "after" that few notice and fewer bother.
November second is
All Souls Day
the remembrance/commemoration of
the faithful and not so faithful departed.
In fact, as a young priest, to spring
the "not so faithful" from Purgatory to Paradise,
on All Souls Day I used to don black vestments
and celebrate three Masses in a row for them,
as was the custom at the time.
Three portions of sacramental wine before breakfast!!
What were we (not ) thinking?
Right there on the altar were rubber banded packets of
black and white envelopes listing the names of departed family and friends -
All Souls holy enough not to go to hell,
but still too sinful to pass through those pearly pure gates
and be home safe with All Saints.
As a consequence, they were doing time (and torture)
there in Purgatory suffering off those sins and stains.
So we tried to rustle up some merit and indulgences
to cover for their transgressions with our Masses,
and all sorts of devotions with high yield
rewards programs attached to them.
The thinking (???) behind all this goes all the way back
to Gregory I and Bede ( 672/673 - 735) followed by
all sorts of subsequent Christian authors.
They taught the dead need to undergo a "purgation"
of suffering for their sins so as to be pure enough to enter heaven.
That is Purgatory.
Prayers, penances, and later the indulgences of others
on earth would shorten their suffering in Purgatory,
help make up for their sins, pay off that sin dept.
In the 11th. century All Souls Day became liturgically observed
at the Abbey of Cluny in France.
The doctrine behind it was defined
by the Councils of Lyons ( 1274),
Ferrara-Florence (1438-45), and Trent ( 1545-1563 ).
All this is a bit about the background, understandings
and experiences of my earlier days vis-a-vis
All Souls.
Most of the world's religions have their own take and tactic
on dealing with death and the transition to the after life.
There is a spacious span of understandings,
expressions and experiences.
Long ago I put away the black vestments
and indulgence "merit-a-thons."
I would like to share a story that speaks
my sense and spirit now in old age.
Please hear this with way more than doctrinal ears.
It draws from both Eastern and Western mystical traditions
as it tells of our true essence and transition.
It comes to us from Anthony de Mello,SJ (1931-1987),
a masterful story teacher from India.
It goes like this.
A salt doll spent years and miles on its life journey
until it finally came to the sea.
The salt doll was fascinated by this strange moving mass,
quite unlike anything it had ever seen.
"Who are you?" said the doll to the sea.
The sea smiled replying, "Come in and see."
So the salt doll waded in.
The farther it walked into the sea the more it dissolved into the sea.
The doll exclaimed in wonder,
"Now I know what I am."
A wonderful, freeing sense for All Souls and our eventual transition
as one day we exclaim,
"Now I know what I am,"
and dissolve into the
SEA OF ALL.
Being very much an Old Salt myself, I can't wait for the
SEA CHANGE.
With affectionate love, holding All Souls
on our way to the Sea in
God's Dear Love
John Frank
*****
Welcome to all of you who are joining us for the first time.
Thank you for your company.
A look at
WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
and
CONSIDER YOUR SOURCE
(right column online posting)
will hopefully give you a sense of what
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
is all about.
It is posted online each Friday at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for easy access.
It is also available by automatic email
every Saturday - Sign Up top right online posting.
Past Postings are available at
Blog Archive,
right column online posting.
Thank You!
************************************************************************************
Friday, October 19, 2018
TYPE
Hi There !
So, how is it with you?
Is the glass half empty or half full?
Anticipating a party, do you hope it will last forever,
or have you planned the earliest exit possible, and that
a good three days before the party even starts?
Allowing for both, what tips your scale: facts or feelings?
Do you pay your bills the day they arrive,
or just get around to it whenever?
Not only are there "different strokes for different folks,"
there are all sorts of different folks - all types of us:
competitive imaginative logical
bold emotional procrastinating
quick caring out going
sensitive practical reserved
boxes and bushels more.
As things play out in life, we are a mixture
of various personality types
with one configuration being predominant.
"Typing" people is science and art teaming up.
Their shared enterprise helps us understand, embrace and excel
at being the type we are.
It enables us to extend the favor to all the other types of people
we encounter along the street of everyday living.
Typing is a mixture of science and art that is neither
rigid measurement (science) nor full expression (art).
Like all good science and art it says a little of a lot more.
It is not an exact science nor finished art.
It is a most helpful indicator when under the direction
of wisdom and good, old fashioned common sense.
While we all are "one of a kind," we all are also contoured
with a distinctive and discernible personality type.
Type is not so much who we are.
It is more how we are, how we function.
Type is our operating system.
It is how we engage living, our own and that of other types of people,
and all of creation.
God's Spirit flows through us, through our particular personality type.
It is critical that we are open to both the flow and the flow contoured
by our personality.
Both are gifts of God.
Two of the best "typologies" of person that I know are:
THE MYERS-BRIGGS PERSONALITY PROFILE
It registers
how we are centered
introvert/extrovert
how we catch on
sensate/intuitive
how we decide
thinker/feeler
how we expedite
judger/persever
There are sixteen combinations possible.
Our particular configuration is our personality type.
THE ENNEAGRAM
It describes nine distinct personality types:
The Reformer
The Helper
The Achiever
The Individualist
The Investigator
The Loyalist
The Enthusiast
The Challenger
The Peacemaker
For more information and details about these two indicators please see
the Addendum to this posting.
It is not only alright to have a particular personality type,
it is essential to understand it, to treasure it, to live it,
and that robustly.
Otherwise we get all blocked up, twisted out of shape,
crisscrossed, compromised, confused and confusing.
A left handed pitcher really needs to throw with his left arm.
If you are trying to broadcast on the AM frequency
and use FM technology, it's all static.
It often takes clarity and courage to be the type you are.
Some are more preferred and popular than others
in particular settings.
Some are neither.
I know!!
In terms of the Myers-Briggs Profile I am an INFJ -
an introvert, intuitive, feeler, get it done yesterday judger.
Not only that, but the extreme of each.
In the USA exactly 1% of the population are INFJ.
It's lonely out here!!!
I'm not easy to know deeply or figure out easily.
However and forever, I wouldn't trade my type for anything.
It's how I'm wired by God and the Life/Love Who is God
flows quite fully and freely through those wires.
As a sample of type, here's the thumbnail description of being wired
as an INFJ from the online offering of The Myers and Briggs Foundation:
Vision and meaning oriented.
Quietly intense.
Insightful.
Creative.
Sensitive.
Seeks harmony, growth.
Serious.
Loves language, symbols.
Persevering.
Inspiring.
It's a marvelous way to engage existence.
And every bit as much is your wonderful type.
All the best to us all as we more and more understand and live out
our way of being a person,
our wonderful personality type.
For God's sake, be true to type.
For your sake, be true to type.
For others' sake, be true to type.
For creation's sake, be true to type.
Thanks for letting this little old INFJ try to share and encourage.
Holding each and every type of us in
God's Dear Love,
John Frank
*****
ADDENDUM
Online: The Myers and Briggs Foundation
Print: Please Understand Me -Character and Temperament Types,
David Keirsey, Marilyn Bates, Prometheus, 1984
*****
Online: The Enneagram Institute
Print: The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide
to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the
Nine Personality Types,
Don Richards and Russ Hudson, Bantum, 1996
*****
From the heart here is a welcome to those joining us in the last week.
Thank you for blessing us with your presence.
For a bit of orientation, please do take a touch of time and spirit with
- What's Going On Here?
- Consider Your Souse
both a located in the right column, online posting
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
-is posted each Friday at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for ready access
-is available for automatic email delivery each Saturday
Sign Up
right column online posting
-past postings are available at
Blog Archive
right column online posting.
******************************************************************
Friday, October 12, 2018
SEASONED
Hi There !
No doubt about it.
Food is way better for being well seasoned.
So is life.
Seasonings accent both.
Right now the season of Fall
("autumn," if you're from uptown)
is a fine example as it offers
its own crisp, unique flavoring to our days.
Seasons of the Year are a quartet of flavorings.
Each gives variety, piquancy, to our everyday living.
( haven't used "piquancy" in over five years -
needed to take it out of storage and dust it off!!)
As a kid my buddies and I loved to go skinny dipping.
We also loved to build igloos.
Seasons had a lot to do with how we experienced our
boyhood freedom and liveliness.
No skinny dipping in January!!!
Each season has a distinctive zest to it:
*Spring brightness warming new life,
*sultry Summer maturing growth,
*harvest fullness in Fall,
*Winter's bright stillness
and frozen deep dark.
On the inside of our living
there are ever changing
Seasons of the Soul.
As they change,
we change -
*word prayer to
wordless enfoldment,
*stylized meditation to
contemplative awareness,
*ritual to
realized experience,
*study to
wisdom,
*service and solitude
blended,
*wondering to
wonder,
*activity and Still Point a
unity.
Climatologist of the spiritual atmosphere describe triune
Seasons of the Soul.
From Evagrius (d.399)and Pseudo-Dionysius (c.550)
up to just now, one way and many, they detail those three
Seasons of the Soul:
The Purgative Way
The Iluminative Way
The Unitive Way.
The Purgative Way:
*Beginner Stage
*stirrings, desire for wholeness
* some soul sense and seeing
*a purgation of limiting negatives
*clearing and seeding the soulscape
*spiritual disciplines
*prevenient grace
The Illuminative Way
*Soul Summer
*light blazes
enlightenment
seeing like never before
*grounding and rootedness
*growth and maturing
*fecundity
*contemplation
*getting it right
*justifying grace
The Unitive Way
*Soul Harvest
*lovers' oneness
*inter-mingled
*mystic merge
*always one,
one in all ways
*soul seeing beyond eye or mind
*God and Soul:
two streams an ocean oneness
*sanctifying grace
Soul Seasons, like the Seasons of the Year,
are sequential and progressive.
Unique to them, though, are their
overlapping and intertwining.
It can snow in July!!
At times there is the
paradox of
*verdant freshness
and scorching aridity,
*warming comfort and
frozen hardness,
*sunny seeing
and
dreadful darkness,
truly a
Dark Night of the Soul,
a luminous darkness
*gentle breezes and
violent winds,
sweeps of
The Spirit
*wholesome yet impure
*great grace and sin sick.
We don't cause or control the seasons of the year,
nor of the soul either.
We deal with what is given,
go with it,
work with it,
grow with it.
Of course we can chose to ignore or resist
what is given,
let the weeds grow,
go to seed,
drown or burn to death.
In any season the weather can be
unseasonably pleasant
or
unseasonably dreadful.
So, too,
The Seasons of the Soul.
There are times of
"You couldn't buy this it's so good"
- consolation -
There are also times of
"Will this ever let up"
- dark agony -
Agony and Ecstasy.
Spirit Powers that
lift, stretch, deepen.
It's a big help in living
our spiritual lives
out here on the street
of everyday life
to be weather wise,
to be soul savvy,
grateful to be well
SEASONED.
.
Thomas Moore was a saint.
He weathered all sorts of life/soul climates -
power, prestige, position, wealth,
conflict, misunderstanding, betrayal,
ultimately death for conscience.
Truly
"A Man For All Seasons."
Here's a prayer and hope
that we each and all may be such like.
Holding the very same each and all in
God's All Seasons Love,
John Frank.
*****
Thomas Moore is wonderfully portrayed in
A Man For All Seasons
the book, the play, the film.
*****
Regularly and repeatedly
we are gifted by new folks
joining in here each week.
Welcome and thanks
for your good company.
To get a sense of what
we are about here,
please do give a bit of
time and attention to
* Consider Your Source
* What's Going On Here?
They are in the right column,
online.
"frankly speaking'"
spirituality for the street,
* is posted each Friday at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for ready access
* is available by automatic,
weekly email on Saturdays .
Sign Up at the top right online
* past postings are available at
Blog Archive, right column online.
******************************************************************************
Friday, October 5, 2018
CONTEXT IV
THIS IS THE CONCLUSION
OF
OUR FOUR PART SERIES
ON
CONTEXT CONDITIONS.
FOR THOSE NEW TO US,
PLEASE DO TAKE THE TIME
TO PRAY/PONDER
OVER
THE POSTINGS OF
THE PAST THREE WEEKS.
JUST GO TO
BLOG ARCHIVES,
LOWER RIGHT
OR
SCROLL DOWN HERE.
I REALIZE THAT'S
A FAIR BIT OF READING,
BUT I SUGGEST IT
WOULD GIVE A HELPFUL
"CONTEXT"
FOR CONTEXT IV.
IN ANY CASE,
DELIGHTED WE ARE HERE.
TOGETHER,
IN
COMMUNITY.
*****
Hi There !
So, on a blistering hot day
we go swimming.
On an icy cold day
we go ice skating.
It's the same water,
but the context
sure makes a difference
whether
( intended!! A pun plant!!)
we do one or the other.
CONTEXT
CONDITIONS.
It conditions
attitude and action.
Context doesn't alter
who we are.
It does effect how we are
and what we do,
and how we do it.
Of course,
that then does have
a lot to do with
who we become,
who we are,
doesn't it?
We are trying to make
our way spiritually
( and every other "...ly" )
out here on the street
of everyday living.
Our context has changed,
BIG TIME,
and promises
( threatens )
to change even more
and not at all
in a good way.
See "The American Civil War, Part II,"
by Thomas Freidman, NYT, 10-03-18.
It is cogent, clear and frightening.
The atmosphere is dark.
It's so hard to see where
you are going.
Direction ????
There's collision of:
Ideas, values, principles,
economic advantage/disadvantage,
nationhood, guns and bombs,
environmental concerns,
religious practices,
international arrangements,
spiritual and sexual orientations,
minorities and elites,
marginalized and more than
a bit of "affluenza" for the few
and not nearly enough for the majority.
The mood out on the street
is one of fright and anger.
Terra firma isn't at all that "firma."
Rock solid foundations crumble -
ideological, societal ones.
This context conditions
how we make
our way spiritually.
Right now it is a
difficult and dangerous
"way to go.
SOME
REFLECTION PROMPTS
for
A WAY FORWARD.
* In Regard To Public Officials:
Consider our base:
"Do unto others as
you wish done to you."
"Love your neighbor
as yourself. "
The "other" is us
in a different way.
The "other" is an
absolute contact
with the Ultimate,
with God:
"Whatever you do
to others you do
to me."
Communicate with
public officials
in a non-hostile way.
Urge them to always reference
* human made regulation/law
as just that,
human and limited,
* The Common Good,
* the natural order of things
* the effects of their governance
beyond those directly addressed
For example:
Immigration is a complex,
many faceted matter.
But, it must not be worked out
by the mass devastation
and life long traumatizing
of innocent children.
They are neither guilty parties,
nor must they ever be
political pawns.
In the natural order of things
and in terms of
The Common Good,
children belong with their parents.
The family unit is
to be honored and protected.
There are exceptions,
e.g. abusive parents,
but then the exception
proves the rule.
2300 migrant children
were severed
from their parents
at our borders
earlier this year.
416 of those children
have not been reunited
with their parents.
Those families
that have been reunited
are suffering
all sorts of trauma.
See
"US government accused of
'devastating damage'
to families separated at border,"
The Guardian,
September 14, 2018.
Beyond this there are currently
13,000 migrant minors
in the custody of the US government.
Many are children and teens
that came on their own.
Recently 1600 of them were removed
from shelters or foster care,
settings that were licensed
and monitored by state welfare authorities.
Schooling was provided.
Neither is the case as the minors were shipped
to a new tent city in the Texas desert.
See NYT, 10-01-18,
"Migrant Children Moved Under Cover
of Darkness to a Texas Tent City."
We need to remember
and not repeat
the atrocities of
the forced relocations
of the First Americans,
the internment of innocent
Japanese American citizens
during World War II.
It's a moral matter,
a humanitarian matter.
Violation here is
horrendously sinful.
* Help them remember that
human law can be flawed -
slavery was once
law in this country.
When such happens,
higher law
must prevail and
public officials
need the courage
to respect that
in their practice,
no matter the political
or career consequences.
Pontius Pilot was
a government official.
He found no case
against Jesus,
washed his hands
of responsibility
in this case of
that innocent man,
"Do what you
will with him,"
effectively
sentenced Jesus
to one of the cruelest
and most painful forms
of death ever devised.
It was perfectly legal,
perfectly legal!.
* Ask them to consider what
"Do unto others..."
would mean to those public officials
if they were to have their children
taken from them and shipped off
to devastating disconnection.
*An excellent resource and guide is
the newly published
"Sacred Resistance,"
by Ginger Gaines-Cirelli,
2018, Abington Press
It' is a vision for living out
God's way of justice.
by the pastor of
Foundry United Methodist Church,
Washington, DC.
*"Love your neighbor as yourself":
Recently Pastor Rob Myallis, of
St. Paul's Lutheran Church,
in Lititz, PA,
got at that so well.
He pointed out that
we live a touch screen life
way more than a life
with a personal touch.
He referenced Jesus as consistently
being in touch with people,
having real touch,
personal touch.
He cited the woman
with twelve years of hemorrhaging
and the dead daughter of Jairus.
( Mark 5;21-43 )
Jesus' touch healed and revivified.
So will ours, if we really are
personally "in touch":
* with those "others"
whom we see as really "other,"
and not comfortably so,
and/or those those "others"
returning the disfavor -
not easy but essential -
we can't stay away
and be in touch
* it helps to remember
that walking is
the symmetry
of opposites,
of a left and a right,
not the exclusive venture
of a solo left or solo right
- left and right opposites
may not always attract,
but they sure can help us
and our society keep balance
and move forward together
* what does that mean for being
personally in touch
in the realms of
church, politics, government,
cultural expression,
family, neighborhood,
business and finance?
* it also helps to remember
that we are not the trustees
of total truth in all its forms,
nor are others,
even if they think they are.
* to be in a true healing,
vivifying, personal touch
means reconsidering
our means -
as noted in Part I
of this series,
more and more
people worldwide
want to live
like we do and
for the whole world
to live as we do
in the USA would take
the resources of
4.1 planet earths,
but we have one
* to do unto others as we want done to us,
to actually and practically and personally
love our world neighbors as ourselves,
are we willing to significantly adjust
our life style and our life of privilege ?
* does heart/soul direct spending?
* how avoid being a Cadillac Christian,
a talk liberal, but not be in
the stretch of sharing,
the sharing of too much for the few
and not nearly enough
for the many?
* probably the two best ways
to be present and
personally in touch
with others/neighbors
is to work together
and to eat together
* let's get together with those
we most dislike/disagree with/fear
and find ways to work together
for yet others, for those in need, for
The Common Good.
* working together,
shoulder to shoulder
is "together,"
does put us "in touch" -
*here are a few connects
to touching,
to working together,
to being shoulder to shoulder:
- together establish and
tend a community garden
to feed the poor and homeless
in our immediate area
- together take
inner city/poor children
camping, canoeing,
hiking, swimming
- together set up and staff
after school shelters
for latch key kids
- together renovate the houses
of the needy
- together organize
neighborhood/block/building
parties
- together celebrate holidays,
birthdays, anniversaries
around a table
of nourishing variety
and fellowship
- together go to ball games
and have a few beers
- if that's a touch too plebeian,
get together for wine and cheese
and then go to the philharmonic !!
- together develop groups of four
to regularly visit shut in's
and sing to them,
have indoor picnics with them,
play board or card games,
and ask the shut in's
to tell you what
it was like seventy/eighty
years ago, be prepared to stay
and pay attention as they do it,
and that likely at some length
- in other words and ways,
get together for others with others,
agreeable/not so agreeable,
but get together
- working, eating,
- helping together
will put us together,
personally in touch
- it will make it
harder and harder
to hate and hurt
- just the opposite
- it will heal and vivify
-it will be
COMMUNITY
A
RECONDITIONED CONTEXT.
*In his book, Exclusion and Embrace,
Bosnian theologian Miroslav Volf
writes so rightly that,
It may not be too much
to claim that the future
of our world will depend on
how we deal with
identity and difference."
*"By their fruits
you will know them"
(Matthew7:16-20)
Sure enough.
That's the litmus test
Jesus gives us.
We need to evaluate
context,
community,
conduct
by it:
social media, religion,
political talks and tweets,
spiritual communities,
our words and actions,
governmental policy
and practice, life style,
finance and commerce,
ecology, entertainment,
community,
- in all these areas
are we doing unto others
as we would have them
do unto us?,
- are we loving our neighbor
as our self?
- since what we do to others
we do to God, what are we doing?
"By their fruits..."
Among the "downers," "the fallen "
Fruits of the Flesh
that spoil and rot are
"... enmities, strife, jealousy,
anger, quarrels,distensions,
factions, envy..."
By contrast are
The Fruits of the Spirit:
"...love, joy, peace, forbearance,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self -control."
Galatians (5:19 and 22-23)
*The fruits of a life of love for neighbor
and of doing to others
as we wish done to us
are spelled out by Paul:
" Love is patient; love is kind;
love is not envious or boastful
or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice in wrongdoing,
but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never ends."
( I Corinthians 13: 4-8 )
It would be good
to read those wisdom words
before opening our mouth,
using social media,
making decisions.
*"Whatever you did
to the least of these
you did unto me"
Jesus
( Matthew 25: 45)
Sure enough.
"By their fruits
you will known them."
What a litmus test!
It clarifies and guides.
How are we doing here?
What kind of fruits
are we serving up?
We've heard these scriptures
so often that there can be
a tendency to zip through them.
Given the context of our world
just now, we'd do well
to spend a month with these scriptures
and then come back every week forever.
* "I tell you, on the day
of judgement
you will have to give
an account for
every careless word
you utter;
for by your words
you will be justified,
and by your words
you will be condemned."
Jesus
( Matthew 12: 36-37 )
* " Let no evil talk come out
of your mouths,
but only what is useful
for building up...
Put away from you
all bitterness
and wrath and anger
and wrangling and slander,
together with all malice,
and be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving
one another as God
in Christ has forgiven you."
( Ephesians 4: 29- 32)
* "Let your speech be gracious,
seasoned with salt,
so you may know how you
ought to answer everyone."
Colossians 4: 6
These are tones and touches
of community,
of how to be and do
in the distress of
our world's current context
by living a
RECONDITIONED
CONTEXT.
*****
Friends, these four weeks
on how context conditions,
and a non-blinking look
at our current context,
as well as a call for
COMMUNITY
and
RECONDITIONED
CONTEXT
are hard to write
and I'm sure
they are hard to read.
We all know that what
we need to be and
what we need to do
are even harder.
Hear the honesty,
and commission,
and challenge of Jesus:
"SEE, I AM SENDING
YOU OUT LIKE SHEEP
INTO THE MIDST
OF WOLVES;
SO BE AS WISE
AS SERPENTS
AND AS INNOCENT
AS DOVES."
( Matthew 10: 16)
"LET ANYONE
WITH EARS
LISTEN !"
(Matthew 11: 15)
OUR PRAYER
AND
ACTION PLAN
ARE
"THY KINGDOM COME
ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN."
(Matthew 6:9-13)
AMEN AMEN AMEN
Holding each and all in
God's Dear Love,
John Frank
*****
Each week we are blessed
with folks new
to our gathering here.
We welcome you
and we thank you for joining in.
To best get the sense of
"frankly speaking,"
please check out
"Consider Your Source"
and
"What's Going On Here?"
They are on the right
of this posting.
"frankly speaking"
*is posted each Friday at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked
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* past postings are available
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