Friday, November 16, 2018
YOU COUNT
Hi There !
You count.
You really do!
So does the way you count.
Too often, though,
neither counts for much
in our digitized culture.
In some ways most of us
are more a number
than anything else,
more than even a name,
much less a noteworthy "One."
Our Social Security number is used
to officially identify us
even before our name,
before anything about
the "One" we actually are.
In the doctor's office, or at the pharmacy,
computer at hand, the first question is
the numbers of our birth date.
Then of course, it's the numbers of our
credit, health, ATM cards that identify us.
All this adds up to a deficit.
The net effect of being a number
causes a deep down,
often barely conscious sense
that we don't count for all that much.
Facebook and it's media cousins
make their money
by providing a platform
where a lot of people
who feel discounted can perform a bit,
strut their stuff in an effort
to count for something,
to count as a significant some-"One."
For all the impersonality
of our numbered culture,
we all count beyond count and cosmically so,
even if we can't count on our numbered culture
to factor us in as of divine significance.
It's essential to regularly take
some Soul Time with that,
to meditate and sense how we really do count
and what that means, means for us,
and what we mean for creation, for others,
and what we mean to God.
John Duns Scotus,
the medieval mystic and theologian,
emphasized that each "One" of us
is deliberately and uniquely created
on purpose by God as the "One" we are.
Now, that sure counts!!!
There was an attempt to cancel out Jesus,
reduce him to a zero,
yet no "One" ever counted more
in all of human history.
Think how much "One" woman counts -
the "One" who brought us to life.
A healthy, authentic spirituality is founded
on the divine worth of each "One" of us.
It is also based on the divine worth
of every other "One."
We find ourselves uniquely "One"
and essential "One" with all other "Ones"
in the the spaciousness of God's
ONENESS.
There's marvelous mystery
and divine paradox
all over the ledger of reality,
(or should that be
"the spread sheet" of reality?)
There's a dear tale that says it
better than I know how.
It's as simple as the integrity of "One."
It seems our dear friend, Augustine,
sinner and saint, thinker, theologian,
was walking along the ocean shore
way over there in long ago Northern Africa.
Countless star fish had been washed up
on the shore and were dying on the beach
in the bright sunlight.
A young boy was picking them up one at time,
wading into the sea a bit
and returning each one there
and to continued life.
Given the sheer number
of stranded star fish on the beach,
ever pragmatic Augustine asked the boy
what good was returning this one
and that one to the sea.
The boy smiled and said,
"It's good for each one saved."
Each "One" counted,
and so did that "One" boy
and his counting.
On the shore and in the sea of our living,
we count, and so does how we count.
Thanks for your good company, every
"One."
Holding you in
God's Dear and Oceanic Love,
John Frank
*****
A pleasant and delicious
Thanksgiving
to you and your family.
*****
MEDITATION MOMENTS
"So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up
that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret
that will not become known...
Do not fear those kill the body
but cannot kill the soul...
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
Yet not one of them falls to the round
apart from your Father.
And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
So do not be afraid...
(Matthew 10: 26, 28a, 9, 31a)
*****
How good to have new folks joining in each week here at
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street.
Welcome.
Thank you for choosing to be with us.
If you can spare the time,
please take that time with
What's Going On Here?
and
Consider Your Source.
Both are in the right column of the online posting.
They would give a bit of orientation to
"frankly speaking".
* It is posted each Friday at online at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for ready access.
* It is available each Saturday be automatic email delivery.
The sign up is at the top right of the online posting.
* Past postings are available at Blog Archive,
lower right, online posting.
Thank You
*********************************************************************************
Friday, November 9, 2018
ATTENTION
Hi There !
"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.
It's been a week since my last confession.
These are my sins.
I had impure thoughts many times every day."
That was a typical lead for the "soul script"
of teenage boys when I was a young priest
hearing their confessions.
Their "impure thoughts"
were sexual images and fantasies
sprung from pubescent "hormonal upheaval."
Well, this old confessor needs to confess
that I too am plagued with
"impure thoughts many times every day."
Do I have your attention???
You see, that's my problem:
ATTENTION!!
My attention to God is blurred to blindness
at times by an impure haze over my spirit.
Its pollutants are pride, selfishness, fear,
laziness, and a batch of
not a bit likeable "impurities."
It's a terrible play in too many acts:
* Feigning attention while
not a bit interested in a person
* Smiling as a defense rather than
as a soul stretch
* Saying the right thing
for a totally wrong reason
* At worship wondering
about other things
rather than being in wonder
* Listening to music
while mentally planning
tomorrow's schedule
* Reading the Bible
to anchor my points
rather than be treated
to refreshing revelation
* Pretending to fully listen
to another while busy
lining up my responses.
These "impurities" and
their smudged cousins
cause a
disconnect between my
Soul Self
and the
God of Right Here,
Right Now.
That God of Right Here, Right Now
is so purely present in prayer, people,
sacred writings, service, work, nature,
the arts, science, learning -
in everyone and everywhere I go.
The trouble is I'm not!
My"impurities" haze over
real attention to the
God of Right Here, Right Now.
Paradoxically my "impurities"
became quite clear to me the other day.
I was doing spiritual direction.
There is a lot of God,
God Right Here, Right Now,
in that wonderful man.
I missed most of it it because
I was trying to score some points,
posturing as a wise sage and saintly soul.
Inattentive and impure
in the presence of
such pure Godness
right there, right then!!
Well, that's about it
for this edition of
"True Confessions."
Here's the hope:
* To purely,
to really give attention
to "God Present"
wherever, however
the pure presence.
* To give "soul attention"
(i.e. center self )
to people and place,
to God Right Here, Right Now
so present there
* to give myself
a reality check
every morning,
noon, and night -
an examen -
"How purely am I present?"
* To regularly thank God
for waiting til I get there!!
Here it is
Scripture Straight:
THE POLLUTION:
" There are those who are pure
in their own eyes and yet
are not cleansed of their own filth."
Proverbs 30:12
THE PURITY:
" Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God."
Matthew 5:8
Hey, let's
cleans the lens!!
Holding you all in
God's Dear Love,
God Right Here, Right Now,
John Frank
*****
Each week we are gifted by new folks
joining us here at
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street.
This week that new participation came from
Thailand.
Welcome!
We are blessed by your presence.
To get a sense of what we are all about here,
please give a little prayerful time and attention to
WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
and
CONSIDER YOUR SOURCE.
They are to the right, online posting
"frankly speaking"
-is posted online each Friday at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for ready access
-is available by automatic
email delivery each Saturday
Sign Up, top right, online posting
-past postings are available at Blog Archive,
right column, online posting.
Thank You.
**************************************************************************
Friday, November 2, 2018
VOTE
Hi There !
.
So, how are you going to vote?
None of my business you say?
Sure it is.
Why?
Because how you vote will effect me and
everybody else
BIG TIME!!
Bet you're thinking this is about politics, right?
Not at all.
Look, every time we
think,
talk
emote,
act,
react,
don't act
We Cast A Vote
and
Our Vote Really Counts.
That's because these "votes" have a telling impact on
the lives and living of all kinds of people and places as well.
Cumulatively they effect the condition of society,
the course of history, indeed all of creation as it unfolds.
Sound a bit much?
Well, the leaders in Quantum Physics are now convinced that
absolutely every pulsation of energy actually has
cosmic ripples and effects.
That includes all pulsations of energy, every one of them
from having a positive thought about someone
to an ice field cracking open in the Arctic.
Sound far out?
That's the point !!
Everything that is has far reaching effects,
is a pulsation of energy in one form or a constellation of them.
Some are physical, some psychic, some intellectual,
some emotional, some spiritual, some ethereal/atmospheric,
some stellar, some elemental, some we can notice,
most we can't because they are beyond our comprehension and count.
For all of that, they
"are."
They "are" a dynamic of,
a pulsation of,
The Energy Field
that is
Existence,
Being,
Reality,
Love,
Goodness,
however we name it,
the one more popularly called
God.
.
They are God
"being"
and
"happening"
and actively so,
mysteriously, creatively so,
- pulsating -
We are part and parcel of all this.
As
God Energy,
"Being,"
passes trough us,
pulsates through us,
we are invited to be
real and beautiful
in the transmission of it, of
"Being."
Everything we are and do is a
"vote."
"To be or not to be..."
- to "Be" or not to "Be" -
that is the question
we're voting on
for sure.
Our positive "votes,"
the ones that affirm,
transmit positive, creative pulsations of
" Being."
Negative "votes" transmit
positive energy twisted
into destructive form and effect.
See the effect of our "votes":
*a smile contrasted to a scowl,
*a truth contrasted to a lie,
*choice for The Common Good contrasted to
selfish grab and dominance,
*Creation Care contrasted to environmental trashing,
*pure love contrasted to lustful looting,
*contemplative awareness contrasted to absorption in
media's trite tired hazing of consciousness.
So, how are you going to vote?
It really counts.
It has a cosmic consequence.
"Be imitators of God...
live a life of love...
Be very careful,
then,
how you live...
making the most
of every opportunity." ( Ephesians 5 )
( of every pulsation of who you are )
( of every vote you cast into the cosmos ).
For sure this posting is pretty "spacey."
That's because everything is so far reaching.
Thanks for your company.
Holding all and every bit of each in
God's Dear Love,
John Frank
*****
Greetings and gratitude at new participation
from Kazakhstan this week.
Welcome!
To get a sense of what we are about here,
please do give Soul Sight to
- What's Going On Here?
- Know Your Source
They are in the right column of the online posting.
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
-is posted online each Friday at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for ready reference
-is available for automatic email delivery each Saturday
Sign Up
top right column online posting
-past postings are to be found at
Blog Archive
lower right column online posting
Thank You
************************************************************************************
Friday, October 26, 2018
SEA CHANGE
Hi There !
So, here we go !
Halloween happens next week,
and it happens Big Time for sure.
It rivals our other Fall High Holy Day - Thanksgiving.
Last year the average per person amount spent on
candy, costumes, gore, ghosts, skeletons, and such
"freight for fun" was $86.13.
Cumulatively that comes out to 9.1 billion -
a mass of money for the macabre.
So, get the kids (of all ages!) their costumes.
Keep Hershey and M & M Mars stock on a sugar high.
Put the porch light on and it's Show Time !!
A not so High Fall Holy Day gets pretty much lost
in the shuffle and shadow of this scary show.
It's the day after Halloween/All Saints Day.
It is so "after" that few notice and fewer bother.
November second is
All Souls Day
the remembrance/commemoration of
the faithful and not so faithful departed.
In fact, as a young priest, to spring
the "not so faithful" from Purgatory to Paradise,
on All Souls Day I used to don black vestments
and celebrate three Masses in a row for them,
as was the custom at the time.
Three portions of sacramental wine before breakfast!!
What were we (not ) thinking?
Right there on the altar were rubber banded packets of
black and white envelopes listing the names of departed family and friends -
All Souls holy enough not to go to hell,
but still too sinful to pass through those pearly pure gates
and be home safe with All Saints.
As a consequence, they were doing time (and torture)
there in Purgatory suffering off those sins and stains.
So we tried to rustle up some merit and indulgences
to cover for their transgressions with our Masses,
and all sorts of devotions with high yield
rewards programs attached to them.
The thinking (???) behind all this goes all the way back
to Gregory I and Bede ( 672/673 - 735) followed by
all sorts of subsequent Christian authors.
They taught the dead need to undergo a "purgation"
of suffering for their sins so as to be pure enough to enter heaven.
That is Purgatory.
Prayers, penances, and later the indulgences of others
on earth would shorten their suffering in Purgatory,
help make up for their sins, pay off that sin dept.
In the 11th. century All Souls Day became liturgically observed
at the Abbey of Cluny in France.
The doctrine behind it was defined
by the Councils of Lyons ( 1274),
Ferrara-Florence (1438-45), and Trent ( 1545-1563 ).
All this is a bit about the background, understandings
and experiences of my earlier days vis-a-vis
All Souls.
Most of the world's religions have their own take and tactic
on dealing with death and the transition to the after life.
There is a spacious span of understandings,
expressions and experiences.
Long ago I put away the black vestments
and indulgence "merit-a-thons."
I would like to share a story that speaks
my sense and spirit now in old age.
Please hear this with way more than doctrinal ears.
It draws from both Eastern and Western mystical traditions
as it tells of our true essence and transition.
It comes to us from Anthony de Mello,SJ (1931-1987),
a masterful story teacher from India.
It goes like this.
A salt doll spent years and miles on its life journey
until it finally came to the sea.
The salt doll was fascinated by this strange moving mass,
quite unlike anything it had ever seen.
"Who are you?" said the doll to the sea.
The sea smiled replying, "Come in and see."
So the salt doll waded in.
The farther it walked into the sea the more it dissolved into the sea.
The doll exclaimed in wonder,
"Now I know what I am."
A wonderful, freeing sense for All Souls and our eventual transition
as one day we exclaim,
"Now I know what I am,"
and dissolve into the
SEA OF ALL.
Being very much an Old Salt myself, I can't wait for the
SEA CHANGE.
With affectionate love, holding All Souls
on our way to the Sea in
God's Dear Love
John Frank
*****
Welcome to all of you who are joining us for the first time.
Thank you for your company.
A look at
WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
and
CONSIDER YOUR SOURCE
(right column online posting)
will hopefully give you a sense of what
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
is all about.
It is posted online each Friday at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for easy access.
It is also available by automatic email
every Saturday - Sign Up top right online posting.
Past Postings are available at
Blog Archive,
right column online posting.
Thank You!
************************************************************************************
Friday, October 19, 2018
TYPE
Hi There !
So, how is it with you?
Is the glass half empty or half full?
Anticipating a party, do you hope it will last forever,
or have you planned the earliest exit possible, and that
a good three days before the party even starts?
Allowing for both, what tips your scale: facts or feelings?
Do you pay your bills the day they arrive,
or just get around to it whenever?
Not only are there "different strokes for different folks,"
there are all sorts of different folks - all types of us:
competitive imaginative logical
bold emotional procrastinating
quick caring out going
sensitive practical reserved
boxes and bushels more.
As things play out in life, we are a mixture
of various personality types
with one configuration being predominant.
"Typing" people is science and art teaming up.
Their shared enterprise helps us understand, embrace and excel
at being the type we are.
It enables us to extend the favor to all the other types of people
we encounter along the street of everyday living.
Typing is a mixture of science and art that is neither
rigid measurement (science) nor full expression (art).
Like all good science and art it says a little of a lot more.
It is not an exact science nor finished art.
It is a most helpful indicator when under the direction
of wisdom and good, old fashioned common sense.
While we all are "one of a kind," we all are also contoured
with a distinctive and discernible personality type.
Type is not so much who we are.
It is more how we are, how we function.
Type is our operating system.
It is how we engage living, our own and that of other types of people,
and all of creation.
God's Spirit flows through us, through our particular personality type.
It is critical that we are open to both the flow and the flow contoured
by our personality.
Both are gifts of God.
Two of the best "typologies" of person that I know are:
THE MYERS-BRIGGS PERSONALITY PROFILE
It registers
how we are centered
introvert/extrovert
how we catch on
sensate/intuitive
how we decide
thinker/feeler
how we expedite
judger/persever
There are sixteen combinations possible.
Our particular configuration is our personality type.
THE ENNEAGRAM
It describes nine distinct personality types:
The Reformer
The Helper
The Achiever
The Individualist
The Investigator
The Loyalist
The Enthusiast
The Challenger
The Peacemaker
For more information and details about these two indicators please see
the Addendum to this posting.
It is not only alright to have a particular personality type,
it is essential to understand it, to treasure it, to live it,
and that robustly.
Otherwise we get all blocked up, twisted out of shape,
crisscrossed, compromised, confused and confusing.
A left handed pitcher really needs to throw with his left arm.
If you are trying to broadcast on the AM frequency
and use FM technology, it's all static.
It often takes clarity and courage to be the type you are.
Some are more preferred and popular than others
in particular settings.
Some are neither.
I know!!
In terms of the Myers-Briggs Profile I am an INFJ -
an introvert, intuitive, feeler, get it done yesterday judger.
Not only that, but the extreme of each.
In the USA exactly 1% of the population are INFJ.
It's lonely out here!!!
I'm not easy to know deeply or figure out easily.
However and forever, I wouldn't trade my type for anything.
It's how I'm wired by God and the Life/Love Who is God
flows quite fully and freely through those wires.
As a sample of type, here's the thumbnail description of being wired
as an INFJ from the online offering of The Myers and Briggs Foundation:
Vision and meaning oriented.
Quietly intense.
Insightful.
Creative.
Sensitive.
Seeks harmony, growth.
Serious.
Loves language, symbols.
Persevering.
Inspiring.
It's a marvelous way to engage existence.
And every bit as much is your wonderful type.
All the best to us all as we more and more understand and live out
our way of being a person,
our wonderful personality type.
For God's sake, be true to type.
For your sake, be true to type.
For others' sake, be true to type.
For creation's sake, be true to type.
Thanks for letting this little old INFJ try to share and encourage.
Holding each and every type of us in
God's Dear Love,
John Frank
*****
ADDENDUM
Online: The Myers and Briggs Foundation
Print: Please Understand Me -Character and Temperament Types,
David Keirsey, Marilyn Bates, Prometheus, 1984
*****
Online: The Enneagram Institute
Print: The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide
to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the
Nine Personality Types,
Don Richards and Russ Hudson, Bantum, 1996
*****
From the heart here is a welcome to those joining us in the last week.
Thank you for blessing us with your presence.
For a bit of orientation, please do take a touch of time and spirit with
- What's Going On Here?
- Consider Your Souse
both a located in the right column, online posting
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
-is posted each Friday at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for ready access
-is available for automatic email delivery each Saturday
Sign Up
right column online posting
-past postings are available at
Blog Archive
right column online posting.
******************************************************************
Friday, October 12, 2018
SEASONED
Hi There !
No doubt about it.
Food is way better for being well seasoned.
So is life.
Seasonings accent both.
Right now the season of Fall
("autumn," if you're from uptown)
is a fine example as it offers
its own crisp, unique flavoring to our days.
Seasons of the Year are a quartet of flavorings.
Each gives variety, piquancy, to our everyday living.
( haven't used "piquancy" in over five years -
needed to take it out of storage and dust it off!!)
As a kid my buddies and I loved to go skinny dipping.
We also loved to build igloos.
Seasons had a lot to do with how we experienced our
boyhood freedom and liveliness.
No skinny dipping in January!!!
Each season has a distinctive zest to it:
*Spring brightness warming new life,
*sultry Summer maturing growth,
*harvest fullness in Fall,
*Winter's bright stillness
and frozen deep dark.
On the inside of our living
there are ever changing
Seasons of the Soul.
As they change,
we change -
*word prayer to
wordless enfoldment,
*stylized meditation to
contemplative awareness,
*ritual to
realized experience,
*study to
wisdom,
*service and solitude
blended,
*wondering to
wonder,
*activity and Still Point a
unity.
Climatologist of the spiritual atmosphere describe triune
Seasons of the Soul.
From Evagrius (d.399)and Pseudo-Dionysius (c.550)
up to just now, one way and many, they detail those three
Seasons of the Soul:
The Purgative Way
The Iluminative Way
The Unitive Way.
The Purgative Way:
*Beginner Stage
*stirrings, desire for wholeness
* some soul sense and seeing
*a purgation of limiting negatives
*clearing and seeding the soulscape
*spiritual disciplines
*prevenient grace
The Illuminative Way
*Soul Summer
*light blazes
enlightenment
seeing like never before
*grounding and rootedness
*growth and maturing
*fecundity
*contemplation
*getting it right
*justifying grace
The Unitive Way
*Soul Harvest
*lovers' oneness
*inter-mingled
*mystic merge
*always one,
one in all ways
*soul seeing beyond eye or mind
*God and Soul:
two streams an ocean oneness
*sanctifying grace
Soul Seasons, like the Seasons of the Year,
are sequential and progressive.
Unique to them, though, are their
overlapping and intertwining.
It can snow in July!!
At times there is the
paradox of
*verdant freshness
and scorching aridity,
*warming comfort and
frozen hardness,
*sunny seeing
and
dreadful darkness,
truly a
Dark Night of the Soul,
a luminous darkness
*gentle breezes and
violent winds,
sweeps of
The Spirit
*wholesome yet impure
*great grace and sin sick.
We don't cause or control the seasons of the year,
nor of the soul either.
We deal with what is given,
go with it,
work with it,
grow with it.
Of course we can chose to ignore or resist
what is given,
let the weeds grow,
go to seed,
drown or burn to death.
In any season the weather can be
unseasonably pleasant
or
unseasonably dreadful.
So, too,
The Seasons of the Soul.
There are times of
"You couldn't buy this it's so good"
- consolation -
There are also times of
"Will this ever let up"
- dark agony -
Agony and Ecstasy.
Spirit Powers that
lift, stretch, deepen.
It's a big help in living
our spiritual lives
out here on the street
of everyday life
to be weather wise,
to be soul savvy,
grateful to be well
SEASONED.
.
Thomas Moore was a saint.
He weathered all sorts of life/soul climates -
power, prestige, position, wealth,
conflict, misunderstanding, betrayal,
ultimately death for conscience.
Truly
"A Man For All Seasons."
Here's a prayer and hope
that we each and all may be such like.
Holding the very same each and all in
God's All Seasons Love,
John Frank.
*****
Thomas Moore is wonderfully portrayed in
A Man For All Seasons
the book, the play, the film.
*****
Regularly and repeatedly
we are gifted by new folks
joining in here each week.
Welcome and thanks
for your good company.
To get a sense of what
we are about here,
please do give a bit of
time and attention to
* Consider Your Source
* What's Going On Here?
They are in the right column,
online.
"frankly speaking'"
spirituality for the street,
* is posted each Friday at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for ready access
* is available by automatic,
weekly email on Saturdays .
Sign Up at the top right online
* past postings are available at
Blog Archive, right column online.
******************************************************************************