Dear All of Us,
SOMETHING OLD and SOMETHING NEW
Yearning for a new way will not produce it. Only ending the
old way can do that.
You cannot hold onto the old, all the while declaring that you
want something new;
The old will defy the new.
The old will deny the new;
The old will decry the new.
There is only one way to bring in the new. You must make
room for it.
Neale Donald Walsch
Hopefully a NEW year.
John Frank
Dear All of Us,
My oldest daughter
just had a birthday.
She asked our family
for a unique present.
Would each of us gift her
with a time and place
to be together,
to just be present to each other.
I invited her for a leisurely Sunday stroll
through the National Arboretum here in DC.
The present of presence.
The birth of Jesus is God asking us
for a unique present,
to be together,
to be present to each other.
The present of presence.
MERRY PRESENCE
John Frank
******
Dear All of Us,
A lot of us older folks
have a hey of a time
convincing our computers
to keep it simple.
Old, young or mid-drift,
("The devil made me do it!')
many most of us
have a hay of a time
getting our spiritual lives
to keep it simple.
Yet simple they are.
Our spiritual life
is simply to
NOTICE
is simply to
NOTICE
UNTO UNION
To do that we calm
into to our deepest.
That takes settling,
stilling, quieting of
all the hurry scurry
that keeps us stuck
on surface stuff.
We disrobe.
The drapings of the
False Self
- fear, arrogance,
puffy posturing,
disconnectedness,
defensiveness,
disregard,
callous individualism -
slowly fall away.
We let go figuring,
construct, control.
So freed, comfortable
in our naked beauty,
we rest secure, safe in
What Is
in the embrace of
The Love That Is God
(1 John 4:8)
The Ground Of
Our Being
(Paul Tillich)
We slowly,
gently,
more and more
become aware of
our existence base,
NOTICE
God gazing
at us
in sheer delight.
In delighted response,
we join the gaze.
We see as we are seen.
It's a mutuality unto
Oneness
Progressively:
We see God.
We see ourselves in God.
We see as God sees.
We see God in all we see.
"But the basic
reality of God
is plain enough.
Open your eyes
and there it is!
By taking a long
and thoughtful look
at what God has created,
people have always
been able to see
what their eyes
as such can't see:
eternal power,
for instance,
and the mystery of
his divine being,"
(Romans 1:19-20 )
The Message
As we noted last week:
"Seeing as one with God
we see others, nature,
all creation, as they are
in God's sight.
We see them in their
fundamental freshness,
purity and goodness."
Happily our spiritual life
is simply to
NOTICE
unto union
ALL THAT IS
We then see
so much more,
ever so much more.
We "see" with all five senses.
We "see" with intellect, intuition,
reflection, experience, memory,
prayer and meditation, ritual.
To
NOTICE
unto union
- we employ a gentle life pace
- we eschew the blinding,
distracting glare of
trivialized activity
- we welcome, wide-eyed,
WHAT IS
- we cleanse the lens
of perception
- we look within and beyond
and all about
- we open our eyes to surprise
- we notice so openly that we merge
- we notice God in all and all in God
- we eventually notice the mystery,
the paradox, that we and all that is
are God creatively unique in
ONENESS
We notice the intricate
designs and varied textures
of trees, leaves, flowers,
fruits and vegetables.
We notice the energetic glee
of children at play.
We notice the dynamism
of sea and storm.
We notice the wisdom of elders.
We notice the marvels
science sees and shares.
We notice the profundity of
scripture and sacred writings.
We notice the consideration
and care of a patient physician.
We notice the majesty of music.
We notice the weave and feel
of a new coat.
We notice from 35,000 feet
the hard harsh beauty of the
Grand Canyon.
We notice the vigor
of a hearty red paired
with fresh sauce and linguini
(al dente of course)
We notice the day to day
and loyal companionship
of our life partner, dearest friend,
parents, children.
We notice Empire and its citizens
perverting and polluting creation.
We notice how absolute
the need to bond tighter in
the "Kin-domain of God",
the "Rain Shower of God."
We notice our shared call
to be about reclamation.
We notice those devastated.
We enfold and nurture them in
the healing of resurrection care.
We notice so much that we merge.
The surname for
NOTICE
is
CONTEMPLATION
It is the aperture opening to
ONENESS
as
GOD IS ONE
and all is
One in God.
It's "ONE-der-full"
for us to be here together,
seeing God in all,
seeing as God sees,
to simply
NOTICE
John Frank
******
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
******
Dear All of Us,
When it comes to a vote,
"The ayes have it."
When it comes to
our spiritual living,
"THE EYES HAVE IT"
Truly
"It all depends on how
we see things."
Looking at things in
fear, anger, lust,
greed, arrogance,
dims to darkness
how we see and
what we see.
We stumble
in that darkness,
limited and limiting,
hurt and hurting,
lost and losing.
Seeing things as
God sees them,
or if you prefer,
seeing things
in the light of
Reality,
opens our eyes
to the brightness
and splendor of
ALL THAT IS
and our oneness
in that
ALL
So how do we
get our vision
adjusted and
corrected to
20/20
We go deep within.
We open the eyes
of our soul
of our inner awareness.
We see ourselves
centered in
Reality
centered in
Existence
centered in
Being
centered in
what makes us
and what
makes us go,
centered in
All That Is,
centered in
God
So centered
we see God
"..closer to us
than we are
to ourselves"
as Augustine reflects.
Meister Eckhard said that
between God and the soul
"...there is neither
strangeness nor distance."
This oneness with and in God
is affirmed and clarified
in scripture:
"For by these He has granted
to us His precious and
magnificent promises,
so that by them
you may become
partakers of the divine nature..."
2 Peter1:4
"...your life is hidden
with Christ in God."
Collassians 3:3
In this centered Oneness
we see God gazing at us
in delight.
We accept
that gaze,
that seeing.
We join it.
We see as
we are seen
in
The Love
Who Is God
This is so clear in
my little grandson.
His parents spend
lots of attention
gazing at him in love,
smiling in delight.
Little as he is,
he gets it - literally!
He gets their
delighted gaze
so really that he joins in,
and all smiles,
gazes back at them.
It's a mutuality,
a shared vision,
couple and child,
"a delight to see you"
times two unto
ONE
At the deepest level,
"THE EYES HAVE IT"
Through Paul we see how
our eyes open to God
and God's seeing:
"We don't yet see things clearly.
We're squinting in a fog,
peering through a mist.
But it won't be long before
the weather clears and
the sun shines bright!
We'll see it all then,
see it all as clearly
as God sees us,
knowing him directly
just as he knows us!
But for right now,
until that completeness,
we have three things to do
to lead us toward
that consummation:
Trust steadily in God,
hope unswervingly,
love extravagantly.
And the best
of the three is love."
1 Corinthians 13: 12-13
The Message
Living and looking
like that
we'll see things
so wonderfully
real and right.
We'll progressively
see as God sees,
sharing God's sight.
That will mean
we bask secure in
God's delighted gaze
at us.
God approved, we are
self-accepting, delighted.
No need "to act out"
or "act up" trying
to prove anything
or get approval.
Seeing as one with God
we see others, nature,
all creation, as they are
in God and in God's sight.
We see them in their
fundamental freshness,
purity and goodness.
We also see
evil and perversion
violating this beautiful creation.
We see people and nature
suffering that.
We see them and other people
working to right it.
We see them as agents of
God's redemption and salvation
- the work of loving recreation.
There's marvelously more to see.
Next week let's look closer
at seeing as we open wide
the aperture
of
NOTICE
Our spiritual life is
Seeing Eye To Eye,
Heart to Heart
God and us,
taking all in together
and seeing all as together.
Yes,
"THE EYES HAVE IT"
Thanks for the chance
to take this look together.
John Frank
******
Please do invite
family, friends,
and colleagues
to take a look at
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
Thanks!
See you next week.
******
Dear All of Us,
Trying to figure forward, we puzzle:
How do you get there from here?
It could be planning a trip,
considering a career change,
designing a project at work,
building a tree house for a child,
planning a dinner party.
The biggest of the big, of course,
is how do we figure forward
in life itself so that it turns out
to be real, genuine, good,
what it's meant to be.
"How do you get there from here?"
The night before he died
Jesus huddled with the team,
pulled them in tight,
a whole communion,
sharing with them and us
how to figure forward
so that life is real, genuine, good,
what it is meant to be, clarifying
How do you get there from here:
"I am the way,
and the truth,
and the life;
no one comes
to the Father
but through me."
John 14;6
WOW!!
So that's how to figure forward,
not just in our heads,
but in our total selves,
and all our living.
So that's how to be in community,
sharing life in the Kin-Domain,
the Rain of God's Way.
Jesus models and shares
how we get there from here.
We live him.
We have a way to go.
We have bedrock truth.
We have a life.
Out here on the street
of everyday life
we go about it the way
Jesus taught and lived,
how Jesus offers to live in us
in our here and now.
He is how we figure forward.
We live him.
He is our way of life
our grounding in truth itself,
the life that enlivens us.
Our value system, life style,
work, relationships, recreation,
are those of Jesus
lived in the particulars of
our here and now.
With us it's not just WWJD,
What Would Jesus Do.
With us it's
What Jesus Wants To Do
in and through us.
Everything is involved.
What kind of housing we have.
What we drive.
What we ware.
What we do with
our time and money.
What we do to work
peace in our place.
What we do to reverence
the planet.
What of ourselves
we share with others.
What forgiveness we ask and give.
What we read and watch.
What way we vote.
What we put into living
in a spiritual community.
What we let go of and
allow God to in-fold us in
the deepest of intimate love.
What disciplines and sacrifices
we embrace to be open
to God's Love coming to us and
to sharing God's Love with others.
What times and ways open us
to a contemplative life.
Jesus figures us forward in life itself
so that it turns out to be real,
genuine, good, what it's meant to be.
In him, him in us, we fall in love,
we live love, we become love.
We love God, neighbor and self,
most personally and practically
moving forward out here
on the street of everyday life.
That's how we get from our here
to our forever there.
So grateful we can
figure forward
together,
John Frank
See you next week here at
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
******
We figure forward,
move on in life
immersed in the truth,
the realness of Jesus.
That's how we connect with
Ultimate Reality - God.
We come alive living
the life that is Jesus.
Dear All of Us,
"Wait a minute"
is usually a lot more wait
than it is a minute.
We're a
"Hurry Up,"
"Right Now"
"Amazon Prime"
kind of people and waiting scores
a minus million and more with us.
Yet wait we do on checkout lines
behind sweet souls slowly doling out
wads of coupons, at the airport,
in the doctor's office, trying to get
our new phone to be smart,
pondering ever more portals,
waiting for over-stayed company
to go home so we can go to bed.
Waiting is part and parcel of life.
It's woven into the deepest depths
of our experience all the way out
to being stuck in traffic.
As such it is very much
a dimension of our spiritual lives.
Let's wait a bit here and Soul Sense
The Spirituality of Waiting.
Waiting tells us to be in
the here and now as they are,
not as we demand they be.
It's a reality check,
a humility billable.
Waiting means presence
to what is, as is,
preferred or decidedly not.
Waiting is participation in
God's Eternal Just Now
as it is manifest in this moment
of our awareness of it.
God is transtemporal and
paradoxically quite "timely."
God simply
IS
God is
THE ETERNAL NOW
What's going on in our
time-bound perception of it
is real and really limited.
Waiting means dealing with
Reality
Existence
Being
Is-ness
as it occurs in our experience of
Right Now
Waiting overrides our
clocks and calculations.
Waiting means being there
as there is just now.
There
may be the unfolding of
God's Creation
in our just now
and require waiting
of us.
We wait nine months
for birth.
We wait a season
for crops to mature.
Look at the wait as
the Grand Canyon
was carved out.
Humanity waited
millions of years
to begin understanding
a bit of astrophysics.
There
may be the evolution
of persons and peoples and
mean protracted waiting.
Sarah waited a long time
to conceive.
The enslaved Israelites
waited generations to be freed
and forty more years
trying to get their
spiritual GPS functional.
We wait to find our life mate.
Most of us wait a long time
to see and accept
God's Unlimited Love of us and
God's Unlimited Love as
the true dimension of our being,
the bedrock of Actuality.
We're still waiting to get
Church right and real.
We wait bushels of
years and experience
to mellow into maturity.
Worldwide we are in
a dangerously long wait
to structure our common life on
The Common Good.
There
may mean waiting in
a very bad place
or circumstance
as health and justice
get worked out.
See Jesus on the cross.
See the months it took waiting
for a Covid vaccine.
See the waiting still
to admit and correct the evils
of genocide and enslavement.
See the waiting for a loved one
to work free of addiction.
Oh yes and for sure,
The Spirituality of Waiting
is dealing with
what is,
as is,
in our just now.
It means seeing
where God is in it
and where we are
with God in it.
So we pray for all those
stuck with us in traffic.
We stick with our life mates
in their spin outs.
We wait it out with
the forty something at work
who has the emotional maturity
of a six year old.
We stay the course with
our church that is more
institution than
a community in Love.
We stay open with ourselves
even when we shut down in sin,
waiting for a season of strength,
of restoration, and of freshness.
Things negative and things positive
require that we wait it out
as God works it out with us
and our world.
It means a lot more wait than
just a minute.
But then we have forever
NOW.
Thanks for waiting it out
through this less than sexy part of
spirituality for the street.
Out here with you on the waiting line,
John Frank
******
"Wait for the Lord;
be strong,
and let your heart
take courage;
wait for the Lord."
Psalm 27:14
******
Every good wish
as many of us celebrate
Thanksgiving
I am deeply thankful for you
and our weekly sharing here at
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street.
This posting marks our
fifth anniversary.
Over these five years
we have had community
with sisters and brothers
from
one hundred homelands.
That's not a boast.
That' a blessing.
Thank You!
See you next week.
I can hardly wait.
******
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
******
Dear All of Us,
"Build Longer Tables
Not Higher Walls"
Jose Andres
Jose pegs it perfectly.
Sadly, many don't,
can't, wont.
We're more and more
walled in and walled out.
We have walls
within walls and
walls around walls
and they just keep
getting higher
and higher,
harder and harder-
territorial,
political,
racial,
religious,
social,
economic,
international,
local,
cultural,
educational,
health care ones,
red ones,
blue ones,
school board ones,
environmental ones...
The Body Public
is fractured into
walled segments
of isolation.
And they are getting
more and more
weaponized.
Things have gotten
exceedingly dangerous.
We cannot go on like this
if we are to go on at all!
It's just that terrible
and potentially terminal.
It's walled hells
of our devising.
The tragedy of our
plight and peril
right now is that
we are like fingers
that insist on
being severed
and independent
from the body
and we wonder
why we hurt and
why we are in danger.
That throws us into panic.
So we wall and weaponize
ourselves in and others out.
It doesn't have to be so.
There is another way if we will
accept it,
embrace it,
share it,
live it.
It is the only way.
It is the only way.
It means recognizing
the powerful, spectacular
paradox and goodness
that we are
unique in unity
That's bedrock,
ultimate reality,
The Reality
that is
God
and that we are in
God
with all that is.
We are not free floating
entities unto ourselves.
We are individual
presences of the
Oneness
that is God and
"God is love."
1 John 4:8
We hear Jesus anew:
"I am the vine.
You are the branches."
John 15:5
Same life shared
in different ways.
Either we are
in God as God is,
or we fail and fall
into nothingness.
We are created
by Love,
in Love,
for Love,
unique in unity
Asked what is the
foremost commandment,
Jesus said,
"The first in impotence is
'Listen Israel:
The Lord your God is one;
so love the Lord your God
with all your passion
and prayer and
intelligence and energy.'
And here is the second:
'Love others as well as
you love yourself.'
There is no other
commandment
that ranks with these."
Mark 12; 29-31
The Message
translation
Our only reality is to be
passionate lovers of God
and all that is in God.
Instead of walling in and out,
we joyfully build
ever longer tables of loving,
vigorous inclusion
where we feast together
in our shared life and love.
We delight in taking our place
at the table and making room
for every other one of us in
THE ONE
that is God.
The only way to save
people and planet
is to get passionate in
Love
Then One in the
Love Who Is God,
we cannot sever, slice
and box into nothingness
ourselves nor others.
So we welcome
every sort of person
to the table just as
the sort of person
we are is welcomed.
Once we catch on,
fire up, we sizzle
as we welcome
to the table of shared,
practical daily life
the brilliant
the hurt,
the gifted,
the different,
the black, brown and white,
the understood and the puzzling,
the newborn to the dying,
the quiet and the exuberant,
All
unique in our unity
Politicians, pundits,
power brokers,
popularity, riches,
military might
can't save
people and planet.
Only passionate lovers can
as we keep extending
the family table, freely,
vigorously sharing
everyday life.
In reflective prayer
we see how to be and do that,
how to extend the
table of fellowship:
- how re-orientate
our reference points
understanding and practices
- how this passionate loving
shapes our life style
and activities
- how we deal with the difficult,
- how we gather in those lost
in loneliness and pain.
- how we welcome
our polar opposites
in a mutuality of enterprise
- how red and blue blend
to royal purple
- how we seek spiritual guidance
and community
- how we champion justice
in our daily doings
- how to fully free creativity
in ourselves and each other
Our current walled off world
is not far from collapse.
Do let's see that.
We are invited into
full fellowship with all in
ALL
to passionate loving.
Do let's see that.
We are privileged
to build to ever longer tables
of inclusion and communion
and exuberant creativity.
All this is far from
light and feel good fluff.
It is far from a game of
Trivial Pursuits or a
spirituality hobby.
It's dead serious,
or it's life real.
As it says in Deuteronomy,
" I lay before you
life and death...
Choose life
so that you and
your children may live..."
Deuteronomy 13:19
"Build Longer Tables
Not Higher Walls."
Happy to be sitting here
next to you!
John Frank
*****
For Reflection::
Please see
Marcella Kribal's
website
for her beautiful painting
"Build Longer Tables
Not Higher Walls"
If you have time and interest,
please Google Jose Andres
and see the wonderful ways
he builds longer tables.
******
A heartfelt welcome
to our visitors.
Thanks for joining in
here at
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
POSTED
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******
Looking forward to us all
being together here at the table
next week.
******
Dear All of Us,
My daughter caught a cold.
When nursing six month old
Ollie The Younger,
she puts on a mask.
A plus health-wise,
but not so otherwise.
Ollie loves being held
and nourished by his Mom.
He also delights
in looking at her
and her looking at him.
Love Look
So, Ollie started reaching up
trying to pull away the mask.
The wisdom of the pure.
With a significant twist,
there's a reverse parallel
in our spiritual lives.
We love being in
God's embrace.
We delight in our
Face to Face
Love Look
God to us, us to God.
But masks get in the way.
The terrible twist is that
God isn't masked at all,
but we too often
fabricate masks
that we then impose
on God or ourselves.
(Technically, well really,
it's idolatry - fashioning
our own version of God and
our presence and openness
to God as God "IS"
and we actually are ).
Those masks frustrate our
face to face love with God.
They come in all sorts of
sizes and compositions.
What kinds of masks
do we and our culture
put in front of God's face
or our face?
It would be freeing
to regularly look in
our spiritual mirrors.
Some examples:
- Civil Religion,
God masked in a flag.
- Dense Denims of "Ism" -
me-ism, militarism,
consumer/consumption-ism?
- Drapings of superficial,
surface preoccupation
and stimulation
in our life styles,
dulling to opaqueness.
- Framing God in overly dogmatic,
ritual laden religion.
- Self serving feel good religion.
Just a few mask types that block
Love Look
Let's take a radically real look
at how we and our culture
haze over God and our
readiness for clear channel
Love Look
Let's do as Ollie does -
pull away those maskings
that get in the way.
Then we can clearly see
to share in God's
Love Look
Love isn't a controlled or
camouflaged encounter.
Love is face to face
union and rapture
and
"God is love."
( 1 John 4:8 )
So we pray and follow
the lead of the psalmist:
"You have said,
"Seek my face."
My heart says to you,
"Your face Lord,
do I seek."
For sure!
( Psalm 27:8 )
The Lord bless us
and keep us;
The Lord make his face
shine upon us,
and be gracious to us;
The Lord lift
his countenance
upon us,
and give us peace"
(Adaptation of
Numbers 6:24-26)
John Frank
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
POSTED
Wednesday afternoons
East coast USA time
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Looking forward to us all
gathering here next week.
******