frankly speaking: THE DOOR

Dear All of Us,

You know what?
Sometimes, the stars actually do line up just right.
You ever so reluctantly agree to a double date
and end up meeting the love of your life.
Your twins graduate from their colleges a week apart.
Neat!

Well, things haven't been all that neat,
and certainly not a bit tidy,
around here this week.
Things were not lining up at all right.
Example: my back gave out big time,
and did so with a dump truck of pain.
Example: I couldn't find one.
Any kind of apt example, illustration, suitable simile,
for this week's "frankly speaking"
just hid out, refused to show up
on mind or monitor.
Nada!! Lots and Long!! Nada!!

In the meantime,
which was just the opposite of mean,
comes this lovely watercolor original,
a gift from its painter.
Painting and painter so beautiful!!
Pictured is an arched oak door,
centered in a gray white stone wall,
cascading greens above,
a terracotta planter flowed full to the side,
red pavers happily hosting
tiny green immigrant greens between them
(yes, that was on purpose!!).

Well, I get excite about beauty.
That beautiful painting just had to be placed prominent.
As I set it up in my "shop" (cell/study),
the stars just popped into place,
lined up just right.
There it was - the longed for example/illustration/simile:

THE DOOR

Our soul has a door.
Everything hinges on it opening both inward and outward,
otherwise The Spirit is locked out.
Our spiritual life can never be one directional
and be at all viable.
There is an in and an out to it.
Our Soul Door opens to deep inside.
Our Soul Door opens to far outside.
Duo dynamic.

A few lites from that starry alignment,
shedding light on the sacred swing
of our Soul Door inward and outward.

We leave behind and shut out the moment's "busies,"
its preoccupations, absorptions, distraction and concerns.
We enter the still, sacred sanctuary of inner self.
In that still sacredness we yield to
The Love Who is God,
to the passionate embrace, penetration blending us One.
In that still sacredness
The Love Who Is God
yields to our passionate embrace, penetration blending us One.
It is an intimacy divine, beyond image or word.
We are literally and actually "in" Love.

That Love is hot stuff, intense, dynamic,
doesn't know how to sit still, doesn't stay put.
So off we go, swinging our Soul Door outward.
God-Us is out and about for run and romp.
It's a heaven of a great time seeing, sensing, savoring as One
the goodness in God's Creation Garden.
Together we delight in:
- a Bruce Springsteen concert
- a Sicilian pizza
- a day at Longwood Gardens
- the observations and thoughts of evolutionary cosmologist,
Brian Swimme in The Universe
- getting down on the floor and playing with a one year old
( those of us "plused" of years may need a lift from that lift)
- a week hiking in the mountains
- the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins
- taking kids to a baseball game and having altogether too many hotdogs
- getting lost in the art of Giotto
- star struck at the planetarium
- a free fall in the swell and lift of a Bach chorale
- and the endless venues, experiences, manifestations
of simply divine creativity.

That Love is hot stuff, intense, dynamic,
doesn't know how to sit still, doesn't stay put.
So off we go, God-Us swinging our Soul Door outward to:
   - see and serve those pushed to the margins
   - those needing notice and nurture
   - the lonely longing for inclusion
- lifting those laid low by life's trouble
   - comforting the damaged and violated
   - actively advocating for them,
   and that in a personal and practical way:
So, I urge each of us to vigorously oppose the contemporary abuse
that separates migrant children from their parents, terrorizing,
even deadening their young psyches, often forcing them
to live in squalid encampments, setting too many up for sexual abuse.
The effects of this inhuman and evil violation of family and children will haunt and harm for life.
Migration is a global issue that the nations are far from addressing,
much less working to a new synthesis.
There are political as well as moral matters to a hugely complex concern.
These incarcerated children are innocent victims of failed governmental
approach and policy.
Their plight is not essentially a political matter.
It is essentially a moral matter.
   I would doubt our love union with God if we sit by
in the comfort of middle class living and do nothing for them.
After lots and lots of love and prayer, we need to get busy contacting
our legislators, heads of the government agencies involved and most of all
President Trump. He lives on Pennsylvania Avenue with his child
in a manner far from those children in location and quality.
Let's tell him we are praying for, "campaigning for," his change of heart.
Lovingly and ever so clearly let's remind him

- "Whatever you do to the least, you do to me." (1)

   - "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." (2)

   Jesus Christ

   "We have been given eyes to see,
but the question becomes,
do we let our hearts
be broken by that reality,
and then do we act?"

   Dorothy Day


References for the contacting the governmental leaders cited above can be found in the Addendum at the end of this posting.(3)

Our spiritual realness and health depends on the openness of our Soul Door.
So we open it wide and invite into the sacred sanctuary of self
the "in breathing" of The Holy Spirit through:
   - sacred writings and wisdom texts
   - times of meditation and prayer
   - the counsel of a spiritual director
   - shared worship and sacrament
   - living in the presence of God
   - a contemplative notice and gratitude
   - the lived experience of a genuinely spiritual community.

Jesus highlights just how indispensable inward/outward openness
is to soul viability and vigor.
When we open our hearts to love even our enemies
our hearts are really opened to be loved.
So, too, forgiving others from our center,
opens the way for us to be forgiven all the way in.
Not judging others out there means
not being judged in here at soul center.
What a deal!!
I'm in!!

   "The measure by which you measure

   will be measured back to you." (4)

   Jesus

To have our Soul Door open
is a two way dynamic for sure.
It's sort of like electricity.
Current flows if we have two poles.
So we open The Door
inward and welcome.
So, we open The Door
outward and welcome.
It's electrifying.
We are juiced.
We are hot wired.
The current flows.
We are ablaze in
The Love Who Is God.

So, you know what,
sometimes the stars
really do line up just right.
They sure do
as our Soul Door opens
inward and outward.

Thanks for your openness.
Holding one and all in
The Love Who Is God.

John Frank

*****

FYI

Three quite different and quite good

supports to living our spiritual lives

out here on the street of everyday living:

   - Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations (email).

   Spiritually spacious awareness and practice.

   Go to Center for Action and Contemplation,

   click Daily Meditations to sign up.

- Joe Cece's: eCatholicism.

Resources and reflections for any

with a truly "catholic" ("universal") spirit.

eCatholicism.org

   - Rob Bell's The RobCast - weekly podcast.

   deep wisdom in a right now way.

https//robbell.podcast.com/

   *****

   ADDENDUM

(1) Matthew 25:45
(2) Luke 6:31
(3) Google:
   Elected Official/USA Gov
   Executive departments-USA.gov
(4) Luke 6:38

   *****

What a gift to welcome new folks
to our weekly sharing here.
We celebrate first time sharing here
from Cyprus this past week.
Thank you for you!!

   "frankly speaking"
is posted online each Friday,
mid-day east coast USA time
and remains up til the following Friday.

Please do invite family, friends,
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to our gathering here.
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   THANK YOU!

*********************************************************

Friday, July 5, 2019

THE DOOR