Thursday, December 31, 2020

RIGHT AT HOME

                        

 Dear All of Us,

"Make yourself right at home."

Lovely sentiment.

Terribly difficult just now.

Where we live and how we live

have really been hammered this past year.

Big Time! Bad Time!

And there are more hammers 

in the toolbox of next.

Homeland and home sweet home soured.

Our home game a win wished,

but sadly a strike out instead.

A murderous pandemic, 

a nation that couldn't/wouldn't take hold of it,

just about everything politicized to a peril,

states of mind and peoples not at all united,

governance on life support,

anger in the air everywhere polluting the peace,

country and culture at war within,

finances flipping ever more to the ten percent

and slamming the ninety percent 

to the floor yet again and maliciously more. 

Many-most stretched to snap.

Yep, hammered! Things not at all 

             RIGHT 

           AT HOME

In one way and too many, 

everyone has been evicted

from an at-homeness desired and lost.


What to do?

How be with all this?

We can kick and scream,

drop into depressions 

of spirit and society,

wait it out in a quarantine of numbing now 

that just won't quickly flow away.

Or we can see things as they are

and adjust to new habitats of 

meaning, manner, mode.

Whatever our reaction and response,

our spiritual living will be effected,

and that in a pervasive, telling way.


Yes, in a lot of ways 

we really are homeless,

at least to what was 

and what is wanted.

We are forced to relocate,

if not physically, 

attitudinally,

spiritually for sure, 

and in many unfamiliar 

and less than easy ways. 

Six feet apart and more than 

six degrees of separation.


    All this raises 

         THE

  SOUL QUESTION

   critical and yet 

 often long avoided:

   Where and how 

   can we really be 

        RIGHT 

     about being

      AT HOME

in a solid spiritual way,

no matter the travail 

of our "Nows" and "Here's"?

Where are we located 

in this right now and here with 

our values, 

our life style, 

our focus,

our preoccupations 

and possessions, 

what we are taking 

and what we are giving?

How really, how radically 

in the best sense of it,

are we living out 

   The Sermon On The Mount 

and making our real home in the

  Kingdom Come and Coming,

     even in the midst of 

        PanProblems

             and 

    Empire's Lies To Life?

       What's our real 

    location and address?

  

Our PanProblems 

can motivate us 

to make sure 

that we have

a home base rock real,

one that gives surety,

a foundation firm,

no matter the trouble and turbulence,

one that stabilizes and strengthens.

It means to 

  simply, 

       actually, 

          practically,

                  for real 

                    be

           RIGHT AT HOME

                   IN

          JESUS THE CHRIST

 "the way, the truth, and the life" (1)

             so truly so that

"I live now not I, but Christ lives in me." (2)

That takes us to a place and way 

of being really "right at home"

no matter the travail and trouble about us:

                "Live in me. 

         Make your home in me 

             just as I do in you...

               I've loved you 

    the way my Father has loved me. 

    Make yourself at home in my love..." (3)

                  RIGHT AT HOME

                     Yes, Yes. Yes!

             Your Home Mate

                John Frank

                  ******

(1) John 14:6   (2) Galatians 2:20

(3) John 15:4, 9 The Message 

                  ******


     If you wish, here are some 

     prompts and supports

    to personalize and socialize 

   what we have shared above.


           PRAY AND PONDER


In a time and a place and a way 

of calm and quiet 

we invite The Spirit

to breeze through us,

to blow out the fetid air of fear 

and of stifling self centeredness,

to flow us clear and clean.


We ponder.

We pray.

Where am I really "right at home"

in my everyday-everyway living?

What's the context and consistency 

of my consciousness?

What constructs fashion 

and fix my habitation,

my fears and hopes, 

my surety and fallibility,

my flaws and forte,

my clarity and my confusion,

my sense of things,

my vice and virtue,

my freedom and growth,

my deepest intimacy,

where /how am I rock solid 

and/or sand soft?

On what foundation

and of what construction

is the house and home 

of my living?

How real and reliable?

How open for expansiveness

in grace and creativity 

and how safe in storm? 

How about all this with a view 

to our shared home 

as a people on a planet 

       - us here -


So let's sense the wisdom 

of our childhood.

Three little pigs in peril.

One constructed a home of sticks.

One constructed a home of straw.

One constructed a home of brick.

The big bad wolf huffed and puffed

and blew down the homes of sticks and straw.

He also consumed pork roast for dinner.

For all the vigor of his velocity 

as he huffed and puffed, 

the home of brick held

and it held that wise little piggy 

safe and secure.


Ill winds buffet us in the best of times.

These times don't come within 

a country mile of best.

PanProblems and Empire 

with their ill winds bang against 

the structure of soul and society.

Any habits and habitations 

of stick or straw

fall apart and fly away,

leaving us naked and homeless.

Are there any sticks and straws

in the structure of my living?

How about sticks and straw in

our shared habitation 

as a national and world wide people?

What are they - in detail and candidly so?

Am I willing to make a move 

to a new and solid home, to be 

      "Right At Home"

as offered by Jesus The Christ?

Am I willing to share 

with others habitation in the 

       Kingdom Come

as we open to the 

     Kingdom Coming,

and that in the midst of Empire 

and its terrifying tornedo of evil?

Does that really draw me?

Does it frighten me?

What can I/we do to better locate 

as a society - specifically - 

where we are and as we are?

Will I labor for a reconstruction of church,

mosque, synagogue, religious grouping?

Will I team up with all sorts of us

for a reconstruction 

of our social system, 

for justice, compassion, equity?

Will I invest me, my time, concern, 

effort and money for these?

Will I have and use less 

so others have enough?


Yes, lots of childhood wisdom 

from which to draw.

And oh what "beyond wisdom" from Jesus!!

This is how he wraps up 

The Sermon On The Mount.

    Matthew 5:1 - 7:28

Let's clear the airwaves 

and hear it again for the first time:

  Everyone who hears these words of mine 

  and acts on them will be like a wise man 

  who built his house on rock.

  The rain fell, the floods came, 

  and the winds blew and beat on that house, 

  but it did not fall, 

  because it had been founded on rock. 

  And everyone who hears these words of mine 

  and does not act on them will be like 

  a foolish man who built his house on sand. 

  The rain fell, and the floods came, 

  and the winds blew and beat against that house , 

  and it fell - 

  and great was its fall!" 

                    Matthew 7:24- 27


There's a torrent of rains, floods,

winds battering where and how we live. 

What's the foundation of how I live -

specially spelled out in a cogent, clear 

one line statement of its essence?

It is critical to see and say it.

What are we counting on to hold up

in the storms of self and society

and to support glorious, 

creative Kingdom Living?

Going over The Sermon On The Mount,

what do I hear Jesus say and The Spirit

speak to my soul right Here in my Now

and those of our society?

This is good for weeks of 

pondering and praying.

If I hear Jesus aright, 

what am I being and doing about it?

There's a couple more weeks of

pondering and praying - at least!!

Have I gotten out of head 

and into heart with Jesus

and Kingdom living?

Have/How do I kick into gear

and practically put into action

the words of Jesus?

( "act on them" )

How much do I really want to be

       RIGHT AT HOME

in and with Jesus and all those

homesteading in 

The Kingdom Here So Far 

and opening up to the limitless, unending  

Kingdom To Come?

Jesus wants me to live with him.

Jesus wants to live with me.

Where am I with that - with HIM - with us?

How am I about moving in 

with all sorts of others in this 

Jesus habitation -

others really "other"??

In what ways can I invite many more 

to move into this Home built on rock?

It's a place of love and justice lived.

Am I "all in" or sort of, or soon, or..?

How much am I really 

       RIGHT

     At Home



Hey! This sure will keep us off the streets

for a while and it sure will send us out 

to the streets in sharing and service.

                 ******


This holyday week there were 

exceptional numbers

of first time visitors joining in with us,

especially from Russia, Portugal, 

Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, 

and of course the USA.

Please make yourselves

    "right at home" 

         here at

   "frankly speaking"

spirituality for the street

- posted by mid-day Thursday

  east coast USA time

  johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

- email delivery Fridays

  sign up above right

- past postings at

  Blog Archive

  right column

                            ******

      All the best in the new year

      and pray that we all are

      really and rightly and truly 

             RIGHT AT HOME

                     in

                   2021

    and make it that way for those 

             other "others."

                 ******

                        PLEASE

Special prayer for those of us here in the USA.

We are entering a week of potential violence

to principle, people and the peace.

May peace prevail.

                Thank You!!

                  ******


           


 



                  

         









     





 











Thursday, December 24, 2020

YES

 


        CHRISTMAS 2020

            


         Dear All of Us,

                  Mary said YES.

                  Look what happened.

         Mary Christmas

           John Frank





Thursday, December 17, 2020

PUZZLE

    This is the tenth in our

      Occasional Series

    FOLLOW THROUGH

          living out

The Sermon On The Mount

          ******




Dear All of Us,

So how are you with puzzling out,

well, puzzles?

Puzzles like 

- how to stay cool reacting/adapting 

  to ever new and forced  "upgrades"

  to your stable of technologies

 (if that sounds a bit elderly, 

 cranky and autobiographical

 well, it sure as irritated heck is!) 

- spending less than a lifetime 

  on a New York Times 

  Crossword Puzzle,

- assembling an IKIA desk

  without uttering 

  even one swear word,

- figuring out how to keep things 

  from igniting a relational bonfire 

  with your mother-in-lawlessness?


So, whatever our skill (or less) set,

let's have a try at this puzzle.

What do traffic lights, refrigerators,

Krups coffee makers,

doorbells, garage door openers,

and our local ATM,  

all have in common?


You're right!!

For all their differences,

each is a non-starter

without electricity.

It takes that surge 

to kick in and make it a go.


Well, it's quite a lot 

like that with all the 

different  behaviors 

catalogued in 

 The Sermon On 

    The Mount

Matthew 5:21-7:27

as we puzzle out 

how to "be' with it, 

how to "do" it.

Things as varied as:

- a peaceful response 

  when you feel like 

  decking someone,

  making him a mailable

       "Flat Stanley"

  ready for immediate posting

- purity and justice when 

  lust, adultery, divorce tempt

- simple, clean truth telling

  rather than truth twisting verbiage

- loving enemies into union 

- discrete, genuine, quiet 

  alms giving, prayer and fasting, 

  rather than self pumping, 

  public performing at it

- a heart for heaven stored treasures 

- an eye for enlightened looking 

- one master and it isn't money,

- "Not to worry" freedom 

- judgement free living

- holding holy high,

-"Yours' for the asking" prayer

-  behavior's gold standard

- narrow door life,

- heads up - you'll know 

  the source by the result

- walk it more than talk it

- building a rock solid life.


All that Jesus points out

in this monumental sermon

is powered by one electrifying

         Source.

It is embedded at the 

core of who we are.

In fact it is

          THE 

Center of our being.

It holds us in Being.

It is dynamic, energizing, pulsating pure 

          GodLove.

We can't generate that kind of current.

We sure can accept it, though, 

and clear way for its 

   surge beautiful 

through us to others.

It's living from the inside out.

It's being right at home

as Jesus invites,

        "abiding", 

in him and embracing him 

        "abiding" 

          in us, 

and that at our deepest self.

It doesn't happen with 

skimpy, selfish, surface living.

It means wonderful, 

deep-in-divine love making.

God is Love and we can be as well.

It's a merged Oneness.

GodLove ever expands 

who and how we are. 

Its current pulsates 

in us and through us.


The particulars of the

  The Sermon On

    The Mount

are not primarily things

for us to do or not to do

      on our own.

That would be a crippling 

     "No Can Do!"

Rather, they are things that God 

would be about in establishing

      The Kingdom.

We disciples are asked to be

the change agents for this, truly be

       "salt of the earth"

       "light of the world"

God making the difference through us, 

Being the Power Source.


The critical thing is to 

      Be There, 

centered in our Center.

That's the core 

of our spiritual life.

Real "at-homeness"

      "abiding"

          in

      GodLove

  powered forth in

  Kingdom living.


  A simple, homey, 

even hokey, metaphor: 

  We are power tools 

completely plugged into 

   Divine Current.


What Jesus teaches us here

is how to puzzle out

the practical, functional,

on the street, living out 

        of the eight

       BEATTITUDES

with which he began this sermon, this 

  Disciples' How To Be and Do.


     Before we go out 

         we go in 

    so we can go out

      real and right.

That resolves 

the puzzling particulars 

in our spiritual living.


It's like a couple so "in" love 

that they can't help but

   LIVE OUT LOVE.

They know what to do 

and are powered to do it.


First for us now is accepting 

       Centered Love,

then the giving of self, 

widening in the giving 

to the other, so that now there is 

                "US"

      God - Neighbor- Self

           

Time  to stop here and go

         CENTRAL

 go to our love chamber 

            to 

   Pray and Ponder

 This Beautiful Puzzle.


   Blessings as we 

     "Go Figure!"

      John Frank

        ******


Again and always, a great big

         THANK YOU 

for sharing with others

our weekly Soul Share here at

       "frankly speaking"

    spirituality for the street

- it goes online by mid-day

         each Thursday

     east coast USA time

  johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

- an automatic email version 

         goes out Friday

      just sign up above

- Blog Archive contains all

         past postings

      right column above


Every week it's a joy to greet 

folks joining in here 

for the first time.

This past week we had 

our first ever visit from Azerbaijan.

You can bet I triple checked 

to make sure I spelled that right!

To one and all visitors,

   WELCOME!!

Please come back 

anytime/all the time.


Here's to  a fruitful week

  Puzzling the Paradox 

        of being

   a change agent,

   a Kingdom disciple,

   one who for real

   FOLLOWS THROUGH,

        living out

The Sermon On The Mount. 

        *************

               



       





 














Thursday, December 10, 2020

RIGHT NOW

 


Dear All of Us,

Webster got it wrong.

There is no reality match for the word 

                   WHEN

No such thing exists. There is only

              RIGHT NOW


        We miss so much of 

             RIGHT NOW

   waiting for the non existent 

                 WHEN

"When I get my Masters..."

"When I loose twenty pounds..."

"When we get this country straightened out..."

"When the mortgage is paid off..."

"When I get my new pick up..."

"When I find the right church (religious group)..."

"When I have the time..."

"When we retire..."

"When we achieve (name your preferred justice issue)"


There are enormous pressures on us all in our 

                   RIGHT NOW  

        a pandemic compounding, 

        governance angry and vindictive,

        cultural chaos, 

        limits and lacks multiplying all over the place.

Not nice!

Those pressures push to a postponed now 

we call when.

There's the real limit, the real danger.

We can't wait!

We can long for lots.

We can work for lots.

We can only do that,

we can only live  

           RIGHT NOW


There is this temptation to count on 

that non existent when to become a now

before we can live freely and fully.

That's a fake out.

It stalls and stymies.

We just cannot wait for things to get better,

for church, government, financial, 

and societal reform to the ideal.

What we get and what we give are

             RIGHT NOW

             or not at all. 


People living in war zones, in dictatorships,

in abject poverty, in loveless families, 

know what we need to learn in our tough time.

         There are hardships 

           and frustrations,

    but you go on in the flow of

                   RIGHT NOW

     We can kick and scream 

            about how it is 

              RIGHT NOW

           but we need to 

       full face it and live it

              RIGHT NOW

       There are all manner 

        of good and delight

          that are current, 

    that can only be embraced 

                in our 

            RIGHT NOW


What Isaiah said to Israel

and Paul repeated to the Corinthians

about their now

we need to heed in ours 

  " See, now is the acceptable time;

    see, now is the day of salvation."

           II Corinthians 6:2


Put another way, now is the only river

to float your boat.


Peasant mystic and philosopher, Peter Maurin,

spoke to the now of living the GodLife.

He said we should not await 

some presumably propitious moment,

some idealized when.

Rather we need to move in that river of now.

       "The future will be different 

        if we make the present different."

That is a flowing now.

Maurin had a "gentle personalism" about him.

He lived a radical Gospel life 

right where, when, as he was.

He teamed up with Dorothy Day to do that, 

opening a house of hospitality 

in the slums of Depression New York. (1)

He didn't wait for a when of better.

He lived a best of now.


Whatever our situation and setting

in this turbulent, treacherous 

             RIGHT NOW

it is the moment, the only moment, 

in the movement of now.

This is where 

          we live out our True Selves, 

          we flow in mystic GodLove

          we companion others in love and service

          we are currents of creativity and justice

We sure don't want to miss the boat.

We open wide to every goodness and grace offered.

We open wide to every goodness and grace we can offer.

We don't wait for a when of better.


John Wesley lived a spirituality of

                  RIGHT NOW

         "Do all the good you can,

          By all the means you can.

          In all the ways you can,

          In all the places you can,

          At all the times you can,

             to all the people you can,

          As long as ever you can."


                 That's ALL for 

                 RIGHT NOW

  (please take that a couple of ways)

                        John Frank

                   ******

Welcome to all new here.

We had first ever visits this week

from folks in Mozambique and 

sizeable groups from Canada,

Germany and Sweden.

Thanks for sharing this right now.

                   ******


           "frankly speaking"

        spirituality for the street


- is posted each Thursday by mid-day

  east coast USA time

  johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

- is delivered by email each Friday

  sign up top left above

- past postings are available from Blog Archive

  right column above

                   ******

          Life can't be put on hold.

       It's an immediate connection.

                   ******

          

(1) See "Introduction," Dorothy Day: 

Selected Writings: By Little and by Little,

ed. Robert Ellsberg (Orbis Books:2005), xxv









Thursday, December 3, 2020

GOD TOUCH


Dear All of Us,

So, here goes -

How do you feel 

about being touched?

       "Never can get enough"
      
       "Don't you dare"      
       
      "Only on my terms"
       
      "They light up my Christmas Tree 
        any time of the year"
       
       "Sort'a, sometimes"
      
      "A touching movie, sure.
       Otherwise make a reservation"
      
      "Want to be touched 
        but feel uncomfortable 
        when touched"

       "Yes...not sure...maybe...
         depends on the day 
         and a heck of a lot more"

        "It's so wonderful'
        
        and umpteen more sensitivities
        about being touched.


Those sensitivities pulsate through us.

They greatly effect 
the feel,
the tone,
the tenor of living.

They reach to the depths 
of who we are, 
to our very souls.


During this Pan Problem Plus
so many of us 
are so out of touch 
in so many ways.

Being in touch,
and that in myriad manner, 
is critical to vigor and health.
This is definitively so 
in our spiritual living  

The Goodness, 
the Love, 
the Rock Reality
we call God
reaches out
to touch
to companion,
to sustain and strengthen.

It's ours to be sensitive to the touch.

God touches us through 
every creature and energy surge in nature,
your pet pouch to summer warmth.

God touches us through each other,
through life and love shared,
be it a ride to the store, friendship, 
a welcome to the neighborhood,
as lover and lifemate.

God touches us through 
all that is good and beautiful.-
supper to symphony.

God touches us through scripture and sacrament,
in the fellowship of spiritual community.

God touches us as we reach out 
in supportive touch to 
the frightened and disconnected.

God touches us in times of 
wonder, need, terror, delight -
always our sustaining Abba.

God touches us in moments 
of surrender to mystical
enfoldment and love making. 

Got asks us to play it forward,
to find all sorts of ways,
appropriate to others,
to reach out and share
        God Touch

That could be sending a card. 
It could mean getting in on 
a ZOOM sharing
(as I did recently 
with boarding schoolmates
of sixty five years ago - 
same basic personalities,
plus pounds, plus wrinkles, minus hair!!), 

We offer assurance of God's closeness and care
in ways without number -
big ways,
little ways, 
always.

A few examples:
    - by surprising a person living alone 
      and in quarantine 
      with an Uber Eats  delivery 
      of a delicious take out dinner
    - by using a trusted intermediary 
      to pay the rent for a struggling family
    - by inviting a few people to join in 
      a weekly virtual prayer group 
    - by organizing an online game night
      or book group with friends 
   - by hosting a weekly 
     Happy Hour via ZOOM -
     share The Spirit with spirits
   - by reaching out to children 
     with story and hobby hours online
  - by supporting our local foodbank
  - by getting active with a political party 
    or political action group to promote 
    people focus and principle 
    in the political process
  - by daily holding others in loving prayer

A host of connects are offered to us
and can be offered by us.
It takes openness and generosity of soul.


During this Pan Problem Plus,
this time of separation 
in so many ways
for so many,
some sectors of society 
are restlessly trying 
to move out of isolation.
Others are firmly captive to it,
and yet others are just now moving into it.
Many of us may be right back in it 
all too soon and severely. 
We are especially important to each other.
in this time of isolation and disconnect.
We need to be in touch,
connecting with a God Touch,
received and given.
Separated but not alone.

We are marvelously and mysteriously
touch sensitive, Soul Sensitive 
and that in a galaxy of needs and powers.
In gentle to vigorous ways, 
          given our gift and grace, 
                           and that of others, 
                                    we offer and share 
                  
                  GOD TOUCH

      So glad we can stay in just that,

                  John Frank

                    ******
     This past week many new folks
              joined in with us.

                WELCOME !!

                    ******

   
               frankly speaking

         spirituality for the street

- is posted each Thursday by mid-day

           east coast USA time

    (johnfrankshares.blogspot.com)

- is available by automatic email delivery
  
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- past postings are available at Blog Archive

  bottom right column.


Please do invite family, friends, colleagues 
and associates to join in with us.

                       ******

  LET'S STAY IN TOUCH FOR GOD'S SAKE