CONNECTED

Dear All of Us,

Most mornings it's coffee and Rohr.

That's Aldi's Classic Roast and Richard Rohr's daily email meditation.

Sometimes the coffee tends to strong and so does Richard.

That was the double header in spades this morning. (1)

BAMM!!!!   BAMM!!!!

Between the two of them they curled what little hair I have left.

I don't know how to digitalize the coffee for you, 

but here's Richard's "Waker Upper", 

and watch out for your hair: 

     I'm convinced that beneath the ugly manifestations
     of our present evils - political corruption,
     ecological devastation, warring against one another,
     hating each other based on race, gender, 
     sexual orientation, religion, or nationality - 
     the greatest dis-ease facing humanity right now
     is our profound and painful sense of disconnection.
     We feel disconnected from God, certainly, 
     but also from ourselves (especially our bodies),
     from each other, and from our world. 
     Our sense of this fourfold isolation is plunging 
     our species into increasingly destructive behavior 
     and much mental illness.



Forget more coffee.

I was almost tempted to head for the bed,

connect with my pillow,

pull the covers over my head 

and wait to wake up in heaven.

How 'bout you?



Actually, that's not the idle question it might seem.

Richard is right about the wrong that threatens us.

"Us" is  civilization and planet.

Do nothing and we're done.

The threat is this lethal disconnect he cataloged above.



                                       DISCONNECT

Disconnect life support and we're dead.

Disconnect a phone call and we can't communicate.

All the more,

   - Disconnect from ecological correction and the planet fails.

     (The scientist tell us we have less than a hundred years on that one).

   - Disconnect from The Common Good and it's all sorts of hateful militias, 

     poisonous politicians and sick social media  prying us away from

     our basic oneness, destroying our unity - civilization cancelled. 

   - Disconnect from each other and we sentence ourselves 

     to a solitary confinement and its certain madness.

   - Disconnect from our bodied selves and we go into 

     self loathing and perverse acting out. 

   - Disconnect from God and we have no Being in which to "be."

                            "To be or not to be". 

                         That sure is the question.

                     How will we "be" based or not?  
          
        

Holy Cow!!!

Should we take time out for a coffee break? 

Better and hopefully let's continue with Richard's meditation:

     Yet many are discovering that the Infinite Flow of the Trinity  -
     our practical, felt experience of this gift - offers the utterly grounded
     reconnection with God, with self, with others, and with our world
     that all spirituality, and arguably, even politics, is aiming for, 
     but which conventional religion and politics fail to access.


Let's be among those rediscovering that Infinite Flow of the Trinity.

It will give us a solid base, centers and rights us.

It will connect us to our true, fullest, freest self and to All that Is.

There is this absolutely divine inner cohesion, 

infinitely loving connection within God,

and God is The Ground of our Being.

That's where we want to be.

It's the only place where we can actually "be".

Awaken to this and we don't have to go back to bed, 

pull the covers over our head and wait to wake up in heaven.





OK, OK, I hear you!

How do we do that?

Well, check this out.

Way down deep in us and in all of creation 

there is already and forever bedrock 

           CONNECTION.

It's what we are and what holds us in existence.

It's the Infinite Flow of Love.

It's the Infinite Flow of the Trinity

It's there, but are we?

We simply need to wake up to it,

accept it,

go deep into it,

be centered there,

live out from there.





That's not happening a lot for a lot.

The Captains of Empire have tricked 

so many so much into living on the surface,  

rendering them baseless, disconnected - chaotic.  

It also gives the Captains of Empire 

the power and money they crave 

and by which they disconnect us even more. 

They seduce with appeal 

to superficial satisfactions -

bread and circus, non-stop trivia, 

stuff, soul self sold for sensations,

trashing truth and each other.

It's a self and social stupor that blinds 

to the profound Godness at our core 

and at the core of all that is,

the core where in our very "being" 

we all are one, divinely

            CONNECTED.

See it, celebrate it, be at home there, 

radiate out from there

and everything begins to go real and good.





So, that means:

     - being counter-cultural

     - often and deeply going quiet in prayer so God

       can show us ourselves and all else as one 

     - in that prayer letting God draw us 

        to the limitless depths where in reality we all are

                     CONNECTED

     - practice to see that in right here, right now awareness

     - touching a rose petal unto felt oneness

     - looking at a really disgusting person and see yourself another way

     - look at a really gorgeous person and see yourself another way

     - singing a song with the wind and "winding" into oneness

     - walking along the beach and blending with the power of wave 

       and the immenseness of horizon

     - mixing it up it up with the marginalized and making margins dissolve

     - soaking in sacred writings as they reveal ever more all as

                            CONNECTED

     - picking the politician of your greatest displeasure 

       and keep looking til you see God and yourself there

     - caring so much about others that we only take 

       what we need of food, vacations, clothes,

       entertainments, stuff, adult toys -  not what we want,

       and not what the Captains of Empire want us to want and grap 

       so that we loose touch with the realness of being

                            CONNECTED

     - have dinner parties or cookouts and invite others 

       who really aren't - Jews, Muslims, Conservatives, Liberals, ,

       the noisy neighbors with the trashy yards

     - find a spiritual home community that isn't fixated on

       Church ABC's (Attendance, Buildings, Cash)

     - find a spiritual home community that is focused on

       Church D and E's ( Discipleship and Evangelism) - 

       Discipleship as in learners of a way and life - that of Jesus, 

       Evangelism as in sharing that Good News 

       not by marketing but by lived to believable witness, 

       community and service.

     - when sick and suffering realize solidarity with the sick and suffering

       spanning globe and history and see that Jesus, The Suffering Servant,

       suffers in solidarity with all, and that in a redemptive way.



Maybe after all we've dealt with here today, 

it's time not for a cup of coffee, but rather for a glass of wine 

to celebrate our woven wholeness, our "being" together, our  basic 

                                CONNECTION.

                 


                             Grateful that we are 

                                

                                  John Frank


                                    *****


                     FOR PRAYER AND REFLECTION


Jean Vanier recently died. He spent his life connecting special needs adults 

and helpers in loving, family communities around the world.

Here's a little something he wrote about "being" blessed 

in a woven wholeness, about "being" 

                              
                                CONNECTED



        We feel small and weak, but we are gathered together 

        to signify the power of God who transforms death into life. 

        That is our hope, that God is doing the impossible: 

        changing death to life inside each of us, and that perhaps, 

        through our community, each one of us can be 

        agents in the world of this transformation

        of brokenness into wholeness, and of death to life.
          
                                            From Brokenness to Community 

                                 *****

(1) Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, Center for Action and Contemplation, Tuesday, May 7, 2019

                                 *****


We are so fortune to have had new folks join with us this past week.
A special welcome to our first time participation from Taiwan.
You are welcome and we are happy to be CONNECTED.


                                     *****

The next posting will be online from Friday, July5, 2019 
to Friday July 12, 2019.
Postings are mid-day, east coast USA time each Friday.

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                     Thank You!

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