LENTEN RETREAT IV
Leave
* Solitude
Silence
Method
Welcome
Session I
PAUSE
Session II
SMUDGE
Session III
LEAVE
are available
by scrolling
down beneath
this posting
++++++
Dear All of Us,
Sounds silly,
but going solo
gets us going social
and vice versa.
It's like the see-saw
of our childhood.
One balances the other.
Well, should!
Too often don't!
That can hurt.
It did me.
As a little guy,
my friend, Danny, wasn't.
He was twice
as heavy as me.
I knew nothing of physics.
He got me on a see saw
and tortured
the living heck out of me.
Really hurt and frightened.
That lack of balance
(moral and corporeal)
ruined any further socializing
with him.
So such much of social life
in our day and way.
Way off balance,
tortures us sick.
The Desert
Mothers and Fathers
saw social sickness
and got out of Dodge.
Went solo.
Leave they desert did,
into emptiness for fullness.
They went solo to be communal.
They stepped away from
the maddening crowd
that was wildly chasing after
nothing and finding just that,
unending nothingness.
In solitude they found
their true selves and
true balance with others.
In the desert solitude
they found
sacred significance of
self and society.
They then founded
communities of such.
For sanity and soul
we sometimes
have to go solo
and get out of Dodge.
It could be
toxic employment,
pseudo church,
poisonous political partizans,
ruinous relationships,
attempting worth
and depth with illusions
of power, possession, prestige,
conspicuous consumption,
going faster and faster
to nowhere,
media adduction,
"gotta have grab,"
dopped, deluded,
stuffed with stuff.
From such stuff
we go solo.
That aloneness
frightens at first.
The quiet of
Solo Spirit
progressively
shows and confirms
our God-Given Self.
It sensitizes us
to realness
in self and in other.
It frees from the allure
of posturing.
It enthuses spirit.
It clarifies our unique self
and our place and pace in
God's weaving forth Creation.
We are readied for balance of
self and community.
That's exactly what
desert solitude
did for those early people
seeking to live
"Essential Christianity"
They became communities
of shared life and support.
This week in our retreat group,
or with a trusted soul friend,
it would be so good to share
- what kind of Dodge
we personally must leave
- like Jesus in the desert
of his Solo Retreat,
how do we tell
The Father of Lies
"To go to hell!!"
- like Jesus, how do
we go solo in
time apart and prayer
- what frightens us about
Spirit Solitude,
about being
who we really are
in and of God,
about waiting
and working for true
Christian community?
- to sensitively and simply affirm
each in our group as we
go solo to go social in Christ.
This week we spend
time and yearning with
Matthew 4:1-11
Desert Testing
The Message
translation
- free online -
The Message Matthew 4:1-11
What was the lure then?
What is the lure now?
How do we life answer?
Real and right,
we are freed
to be
Spirit Self
Together
SOLO SOCIAL
******
Next Edition
Online: Wednesday
March 6, 2024
Email: Friday
March 8, 2024
******
It just gets better and better
as we gather here from there.
This week was a wrap around
of us from fourteen different
homelands -
Luxembourg
to
South Korea
to
Ireland
capped off with
a large group
from Singapore
and of first timers from
Brazil
THE GATHERED
as we together
RETREAT FORWARD
******
SOON AFTER EASTER
a special and rather unique
offering will be coming our way
ELDERCHRIST
******
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
Click title top left
LAST FIVE POSTINGS
Pleas scroll down beneath
the current posting
May we all have a
Lenten Retreat
forward,
a refreshing
PAUSE
See you next week.
Holding one and all
in love and prayer,
John Frank
******
