16 March 2020
Dear All of us,
It's Monday morning.
Time to start the blog.
The start is always the hardest part.
This week way, way, WAY more so.
On top of that, by the time
this is posted Thursday evening,
it may need a complete restart.
Next to nothing is set and settled
in this time and experience of our
Pan Problem.
So many and much is upset,
upended like never before.
The only thing predictable
about this global
Pan Problem
is that there's going to be
a lot more of it -
a lot more that will unmoor us
and how we try to live
settled, safe and secure.
A lot of us are going to get sick.
Some of us are going to die.
Many of us are going to see
our financial fitness fade to flaccid.
Society is scrambled
in structure and by paradox
(trying to be communal
through social distancing).
The poor will be poorer.
Governments, medical establishments,
financial systems, industries,
transportation networks,
social support structures
are spun out and having
a turbulent time trying to curb,
much less control,
this spiral to who knows where.
We stay on the surface spiritually
to our peril.
It will mean stress to desperation.
We not only need to deep clean,
we need to
Deep Soul.
Right now our spiritual lives
need to be deep,
as in profound,
or they just won't hold up.
We're having a
Soul Shake.
Hopefully it will shake off
things false, casual,
inattentive or superficial
in our spiritual lives,
and shake us free
all the way to our
Soul Core.
An uncomfortable blessing.
So shaken, moved and refocused,
we will be spot on, secure in the
Source and Center
of all that is and has no bounds.
So centered we are empowered:
"I can do all things in Christ
who strengthens me."
Philippians 4:13
So strengthened in Christ,
there's a lot to do:
- surrendering supposed control
and sureties that aren't
- supporting the fallen
- suffering the demise of illusions
- seeing structures bend and break
- stepping up to a life of courage
in the face of unknowns and difficulties
- seeking shared ways to a renewed
"spirituality for the street".
Many good and healthy things
- real gifts -
are threatened/compromised
by this
Pan Problem:
- health
- farmers' markets
- education
- socializing
- employment
- libraries
- hospitals/medical care
- religious services
- baseball games
- transportation
- commerce
- a beer at the local pub
and so many manys in the galaxy of our
God Gifts.
Sometimes we miss the giver for the gift.
Missing the gift for a while
can be another uncomfortable blessing.
It can makes us seek and see
The Giver
anew and gratefully.
It can make us go right to the
Source and Center
of all that is and has no bounds.
It can make us spot on,
Soul Strong
and do we ever need to be
just that just now.
Thursday Morning
19 March 2020
Well, "restarts" for this week's blog
there have been - aplenty -
and here's another.
Restart and rewrite after
restart and rewrite.
It's been struggle
morning, noon and night
to get it right - whatever that is.
That's been the dilemma.
What needs to be said,
and what does not need to be said?
Like so much of what so many of us
are experiencing
- confused, powerless -
- prayer and waiting -
Then in the wee hours this morning
a peaceful awareness that
we are experiencing
- really going through -
The Paschal Mystery
death and resurrection
in our now and here.
This Lent it's not
routine, ritual, reading.
It's real.
Real death- real resurrection.
Right now the death part.
Death to supposed control,
invulnerability, invincibility.
Our bodies and our body politic
are sick and some are dying.
What was isn't, can't be.
What is is suffering.
What will be is new life in a new way.
It's Winter about to Spring.
And it's one hell of a hard winter right now,
no matter what the calendar says.
How do we power through?
Certainly not on our own.
That's a power outage.
We accept, embrace,
connect with,
are jump started
and juiced by the
Power Source
at the
Center of Things,
that "IS" the very
Center of Things -
The Center
With No Circumference.
We are
Center Sourced
and no matter
the deadliness
of the moment,
there's no stopping us.
Death Be Dammed!!
In those blessed moments
this morning in the wee hours,
clarity and empowerment.
It was resuscitation,
heart to heart.
The Spirit was all over me,
pulsed, powered all through me.
Enlightenment in the dark of night
seeing, hearing, feeling, accepting
the embrace offered in truly
Good News
Gospel for Sure
I spent a lot of time and soul hearing
THE WORD'S WORD
John 14 -17
It's so now.
Whatever season, day, time
it is where you are around
our shared orb,
please
hush your head,
open your heart,
let The Spirit get all over you,
pulse, power all through you,
resuscitate,
enlighten in the dark of now,
see, hear, feel, accept the
Embrace
The Good News
Gospel for sure
THE WORD'S WORD
John 14-17
PLEASE
It will take time.
It will give life.
We have one hell of a
Pan Problem
We have one heaven of a
Pan Power.
A few Soul Supports follow
for the coming week.
"God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble."
Psalm 46: 1
With you all as we
hurt, hope, hear,
John Frank
*****
SOUL SUPPORTS
Suggestions, resources, supports for this week and later as well.
- Richard Rohr's daily online meditation for today, March 19th. on COVID-19.
Go to Center For Action And Contemplation.
Richard sure is a Soul Brother. He speaks Spirit.
- For your kids, grandkids, neighbor kids, any kid connects:
What Do You Do With A Problem?
Kobi Yamada and Mae Besom
Compendium, Seattle, WA
2016
ISBN: 973-1-943200-00-9
Says it simple.
The Good Egg
Jory John and Pete Oswald
HarperCollins Children's Books
New York
2019
ISBN 978-0-06-286600-4
How to be good when things go wrong.
- The Road Less Travelled
M. Scott Peck
Simon & Shuster
1978
Avoidance avoids resolution.
The only way ahead is straight through.
Another saying of death and resurrection.
*****
THE WORD'S WORD
John 14 -17
Yes, that's a spread.
So, let's
Go Slow In The Spirit.
For starters:
- be in a quiet/comfortable place and way
- don't look for anything
- see surprise
- clear the lens of consciousness to quiet
- identify what/how you are/feel just now
- unload/decompress
- stretch body/mind/feelings to calm
- breathe gradually slower/deeper - in/out to calm
- breath air, breath Spirit to a still fullness
- ask for presence - yours to The Spirit
- speak you heart - all of it
- listen as The Spirit speaks - heart to heart
- see/hear The WORD's WORD
- freely stop when stopped to ponder
- context:
Jesus was in the beginnings of his Pan Problem
He was getting ready to suffer through bad to good
He was about to die through to new life.
He spoke to his followers on how to follow.
He speaks that to us in our here and now.
Hear Him.
Hear as he speaks to your now.
Hear as he speaks to our shared, social now.
Ponder it.
What's he saying?
How does that touch who/how you are right now?
Let The Spirit set the pace.
Here are a few prompt for prayer, understanding, application.
Please use/not use them as is best for you.
Please focus on your own prompts as you sense The Spirt Say.
John 14
vs1
- what are our troubles?
- at heart how troubled am I?
- separation/loss/a new now - how am I doing with all that?
-"believe" is more a lived experience than a head proposition/position-
it is to "be-life" in God/in me - how much do/don't I accept the offer?
vs2 - 14
- place of union/intimacy promised going forward
- Thomas/us - a question of direction
- offer: a way to go, foundational truth, real/unlimited life - my response?
- Father and Son tight - invited into their enterprise - yes/sort of/check with me latter?
- how big an "ask" will I make?
vs 15-17
- love so close we're on the same page
- The Spirit of truth: how much do I want/will I live the real and right?
- do I invite the Advocate to take my case?
- today's Pan Problem and "the world" not accepting - what do you see?
vs18-24
- what does "orphaned" say to me?
- "because I live you, you also will live": am I a "YES" to this and the other words of intimacy/union here?
vs 25-
- will I hear the Advocate in the particulars and practicals of this now?
- "peace" so unique - Jesus's ordering and harmony of life -
will I go with his flow?
John 15
vs1-26
- connection - a shared life energy
- "abide in me as I abide in you" - have we moved in together?
- will I accept this BIG LOVE of Father and Son?
- am I hearing unto joy?
- so, how about loving others as Jesus loves us - ready for the intensity?
- how cool to be "chosen" for the team!!
- how am I with the hatred of the world coming my way as I go Jesus' way?
John 16
vs 1-19
- will I hear and stay standing, or no,t and stumble?
- fair warning about the heat for daring to follow Jesus,rather than the world/Empire
- a promise that the Advocate will make the winning case
- a promise that the Advocate will explain as we go
vs 20-24
- "this is gonna hurt" but oh what a delivery!!
John 17
vs 1-
- "eternal life" - am I invest in a timeless share?
- "what's the word?" the world can't/won't hear?
- a tight team - a "one" - unity
**************************************************************
In a sense what is going on right now is
like the shock of being in reality therapy,
the fright when we lose power
and things go dark.
Globally in scope and geography
we are going through a shared
Dark Night of the Senses,
Dark Night of the Soul.
It is uncomfortable to threatening.
It calls for spiritual strength and solidarity.
It clears for a new brilliance.
John of the Cross could see in the dark.
He called The Dark Night
Luminous Darkness.
That's a paradox to ponder for sure and long.
In the dark,
seeking the light,
we draw close
in mutual love and support.
As hard and frightening
as things are right now
Pan Promise of Jesus:
