CANDLE BRIGHT

Dear All of Us,

So, how about this?

It's a cloudy night.

No moonlight, no starlight at all.

There are seventy-five thousand of us.

We've filled the field and stands at

Yankee Stadium for a rally.

There's a power outage in New York.

Ink dark.

That's an image of our world 

and life just now.

It's a black out.

What can ordinary people 

     like us do about it? 

We feel powerless, stymied, stuck.

We can't stop the slaughter 

     in Ukraine.

We can't get Donald Trump 

     to stop lying about The Big Lie.

We can't deflate inflation.

We can't get insurrectionists 

     to be constitutionalists.

We can't get social media 

     truth tuned.

We can't root out racism.

We can't get Congress 

     focused and functional on

     The Common Good.

We can't reduce the risk of 

     nuclear devastation.

We can't discount pandemics.

We can't reverse

    wholesale earth abuse.

We're just little people 

     in a big bad world.

We can't do anything about it.

Oh yes we can!

Father James Keller used to say:

   "It's better to light one candle 

    than to curse the darkness." 

One candle can be seen 

in darkened Yankee Stadium.

When each of us little people 

lights a candle, deadly dark 

Yankee Stadium glows

       Candle Bright

So it can be with us

 and our world.

       A lot of little 

       means a lot.

Lots of "lit" little people

mean a lot of light 

in a dark world.

But how do we ignite?

How do we get the light?

  "I am the light of the world; 

   the one who follows me 

   will not walk in darkness, 

   but will have the light of life." 

          Matthew 5:16

We don't have to find the light.

We just need to follow the 

     "light of the world"

right where we are,

just as we are.

Sharing that in community

defies dark in 

a blaze of brilliance.

That's what real Church is.

To follow the leader is to live 

   "The Light of the World"

                to 

  "...have the light of life."

Jesus gives us a tutorial on

the how's, way's and why's 

of following him,

of living The Light.

It's simple and clear.

It's counter cultural.

That means it's difficult.

That means it's divine.

That means it's brilliant.

The tutorial is shared in

The Sermon on the Mount.

       Matthrew 5-7

Jesus "enlightens" us, 

his followers, his disciples.

Jesus spotlights:

- attitudes, stances, approaches

  on how to "be" real -

    The "Be"attitudes

- Us as "salt" and "light" 

       for others

- Anger

- Adultery

- Divorce

- Oaths

- Retaliation

- Love of enemies

- Giving to the needy

- Prayer

- Fasting

- Heart treasure

- Seeing clear eyed in the light

- Can't serve two masters -  we get 

        what follows from 

        who/what we follow

- Worry

- Judging others

- Profaning the holy

- Ask, Search, Knock

- "The Golden Rule"

- The narrow gate

- "Thus you will know them 

   by their fruits"

- Self deception

- Hearers and Doers

Talk about 

"spirituality for the street"!!

Jesus puts a lot of flesh 

on the bones of concept!

All of it is living The Light, 

personal, practical, communal.

In short, loving God, neighbor, self 

with all we've got -

high voltage!!

A couple of suggestions and 

a few comments.

This one has a sharp point - 

hopefully helpful like a good pencil.

Beware of large parts 

of organized religion.

Having "Been there, done that" 

for well over fifty years of pastoring, 

I sadly see that too many sectors of 

church are sanctuaries to Empire. 

The ideal was to convert Empire 

to the beautiful life of Christianity, 

but a lot of Christianity 

got converted to the controls 

and evils of Empire.

Be clear and honest about 

what's what ,

just how genuinely tuned 

to the Gospels a church is.

And there are many of them.

Many of the many 

are simple and small.

Most of all and always,

    "By their fruits 

     you will know them."

             Jesus

Watch out for a watered down Gospel, 

one that is conformed (deformed) to 

comfy, casual, "Christianity Lite"

        (not "The" Light).

Dietrick Bonhoeffer warned against 

         "cheap grace." 

He penned the price 

of genuine discipleship in

      "The Cost of Discipleship."

He paid the price with his life.

For those ready for a 

    Spring Retreat, 

a weeks long dwelling with 

The Sermon on the Mount 

       (Mt.5-7) 

would be a blessing.

What is Jesus saying, 

how do we live that light 

in our circumstances?

If there is interest and energy, 

a parallel reading 

of a standard translation and

The Message  translation 

would give a fuller sense of 

all that Jesus shares and invites.

The Message translation is 

online and free.

Twice Plus blessed if we do this

with one or more others.

             Lastly 

(thank you for hanging tight), 

a masterful commentary is 

Richard Rohr's book, 

   Jesus' Plan For A New World Order, 

       The Sermon on the Mount,

franciscan media, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1996. 

We'd have to go far to find better.

        Speaking of going, let's!

        How good for us together 

        to glow bright.

         "You're sons of Light,

          daughters of Day."

          1 Thessalonians 5:5 

               John Frank

                 ******

          A "Springing" Welcome 

                to our visitors

                    here at

               frankly speaking

          spirituality for the street

       johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

                     POSTED

            Wednesday by mid-day

            East coast USA time

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        Happily we don't have 

   to leave our world in the dark.

        See you next week.

               ******

                    

So, how to?

There is also Jesus is the Light of the World.

He wants to spark us, brighten us, enflame us.

He is pure bright - brilliance.

He is actually, in practice, "the way, the truth and the life" -

    the way to go about life

    the truth in which to do that

    the life to live.

 the Love that doesn't know how to go out.

 put poetically  1 Thess

In our day to day world and life

we can get depressed and curse the dark

                         OR

We can also be a

                     Candle Bright

   

 

TOGETHER

Dear All of Us,

Go ahead!

Enjoy!

This is my Grand Son, Ollie

and my Son-in-Love, Nick.

It's also about the best picturing

I can find of our spiritual life.

            

              TOGETHER

   Going where God takes us.

   Going as God takes us.

   Enjoying the closeness.

   Seeing things as God sees them.

   Secure in loving union and care.

   Experiencing Life

            TOGETHER

If it gets cold shiver together.

If it gets exciting get pumped together.

If it gets sunny bask together.

If it gets confusing get lost together.

If it gets rough get rocked together.

If it's a funeral cry together.

If it's a celebration party together.

        Never going it alone.

           All and Always

            TOGETHER

In other and much better words, 

 "Abide in me as I do in you."

              Jesus

            Gotta go.

Here comes Ollie and his Dad

We're going out for a walk.

          John Frank

           ******

PS

   Here's a bonus picturing 

   of our spiritual life. 

              

      HOLY COMMUNION

              ******

         frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfeankshares.blogspot.com

              ******

GOOD

Dear All of Us,

It was Good Friday.

Mickey caught me 

out front of church.

Mickey was a dear, deep,

lovable little boy of seven.

He was also a hurting little boy.

His Mom had died from cancer 

a few months prior.

Mickey was 

Soul Sick and Tired

of pain, hurt and death.

"Father, why do they call this

Good Friday?

They killed Jesus."

Mickey and I had a 

heart hug and huddle 

right then and there.

That was Good that Friday!

There's more than 

a little of Mickey in us all:

           WHY

pain, suffering, death?

What's so good about

all the varied

Good Fridays in life, 

that of Jesus, ours

those of all creation?

Good Friday 

was good because

that's how Jesus brought 

        Reality

       God Love

to the very guts of

where it wasn't - 

    Empire

      Evil

He entered the 

realm of evil 

from its portal 

right where he was 

- his suffering and crucifixion.

We do it one in Jesus 

from right where and how we are -

   betrayal, abuse, conflict, 

   physical/psychic suffering...

No matter the portal, 

they all open to 

the vast vacuum

of no good, no God, 

no Love, no Reality,

of sin, evil, pain -

all absences of good.

Lots of names for 

what's missing.

They present,

and we take them,

as something 

when in fact

they are an absence.

Consider.

Someone gets punched

in the nose.

The root evil there is 

the absence of the 

good use of energy 

(forcing the fist in in face)

and an absence of 

right good order 

in how our nose 

is supposed to be

(not pained and bleeding).

Most of all the absence of 

love, aka God, in the puncher.

Like all vacuums, 

evil sucks us 

into nothingness 

and that hurts like hell

because that's 

just what it is - hell - 

the absence of the real, 

of good, of love, of God.

In one form or other or many -

they lack the 

  Realness 

    that 

    "IS"

  that is 

God Good

Jesus brought 

that Realness, 

The Love That is God, 

where it wasn't, 

suffered the hurt 

of that absence

and kept on going through it 

and beyond it - rising up from it.

That blossomed into atonement.

Atonement isn't taking a hit 

to pay off a ticked off god.

Atonement is

getting us through the pain 

and nothingness of evil 

to oneness,

"at-one-ment" 

      with 

the real and good, 

that is God.

The trouble with trouble 

isn't what it is.

The trouble with trouble 

is what it isn't,

        GOOD 

Jesus embraced all 

that's missing in us,

all our sin and pain.

He suffered through it

in his Realness, 

his Goodness,

the Goodness that is God. 

He fulfilled what was missing.

He was in solidarity with all suffering

and brings us to solidarity with all good.

 

What's good about

   GOOD Friday

is that it we 

don't stay there.

What's good about

   GOOD Friday 

is that it opens to

   Easter Sunday

        down

          is 

       UPPED 

  "Christ is risen"

  and we will too!

  Alleluia Alleluia  

      Allelulia 

      ******

           frankly speaking

     spirituality for the street

 johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

               POSTED

      Wednesday by midday

       East Coast USA time

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               ******

May we and our world rise up in 

              Easter joy.

            And, oh yes.

       Enjoy the jelly beans,

    especially the orange ones.

               ******

FORGIVE

Dear All of Us,

Good Morning, 

Good Afternoon,

Good Evening

to us all 

where and when 

we are in our just nows

on this spinning orb.

My just now is Monday morning 

here in Washington, DC - much prayer 

and three cups of coffee into this posting.

Well, where/when/however we are, 

here we go into 

the home stretch of Lent.

And Lent does "stretch" us,

doesn't it, and 

uncomfortably so at that.

It's a matter of Metanoia,

    a turn round right, 

    a return to Real,

    a letting go wrong heartedness,

    a letting The Spirit take hold and

         steer us straight into the

               Realm of Real

For most all of us, 

really for all of us,

the hardest of 

the hard parts of

    Metanoia 

      of this

  Rewew to Real

is to clear clean access 

to our hearts

by forgiving ourselves 

and others.

Difficult as it is,

Metanoia is only possible 

if we forgive.

Delt dreadfully by another, 

or sometimes by ourselves,

we are in pain for sure.

Just as surly we own it

from then on.

The effects may last, 

but the event is over.

We need to be over it too.

We may need help, even therapy,

to deal with the aftereffects.

Yet fundamentally, soul-wise,

the only way foreword is 

      forgiveness.

It's rough, rock hard.

Yet, forgive we do.

That's because 

the pain inflicted on us

contracts, blocks the 

       Love Flow

into and out of us.

We shut down, close off.

It's like our soul 

having a heart attack. 

It's just that dangerous.

So we seek and accept 

the grace requisite 

to open things up 

for free flow -

to receive and give love.

     Forgiveness 

And that is what God does:

  "Let all bitterness and wrath 

   and anger and clamor and slander 

   be put away from you, 

   along with malice. 

   Be kind to one another, 

   tender-hearted, 

   forgiving each other, 

   just as God in Christ 

   also has forgiven you." 

    Ephesians 4: 31-32

We do as Jesus did.

His last Lenten "stretch" was to be 

physically and psychically 

stretched to broken on the cross - 

betrayed, abandoned, 

horrendously tortured.

His response:

         Forgiveness.

     "Father, forgive them;

      for they do not know 

      what they are doing." 

         Luke 23:34

His openness to forgiveness 

meant the free flow of 

redeeming love for us all.

Like minded, like hearted,

     we turn to hurt in 

       FORGIVENESS

       and its freeing.

For these last days of Lent some

        points and prompts 

follow below should you wish them.

       Blessings on us all this 

          Lenten Stretch,

             John Frank

               ******

      FORGIVENNESS

   A LENTEN STRETCH

Metanoia means getting to

The Heart Of What Matters,

to get Righted Real:

- How much have I asked God 

  for the energy to address hurt, 

  to forgive and heal?

- What is it that another 

   has done to me, or that

   I have done to myself, that

   most blocks the free flow of

   The Love That Is God in me?

 - For how long have I denied, 

   delayed forgiveness?

 - How does that present in my

   attitude and behavior:

    - strife

    - quarrels

    - grudges

    - avoidance

    - passive aggressive tactics

    - jealousy

    - attacks social, physical, occupational,

      financial, political?

    - sulking 

    - moodiness, depression

- Do I need help from a spiritual guide

  to companion me to forgiveness?

Does this piece from Desmond Tutu

and his daughter, Mpho, 

speak to our spirit?

"Forgiveness is the only way 

to heal ourselves and 

to be free from the past...

without forgiveness, 

we remain tethered 

to the person who harmed us. 

We are bound to 

the chains of bitterness, 

tied together, trapped.

Until we can forgive 

the person who harmed us, 

that person will hold 

the keys to our happiness, 

that person will be our jailer. 

When we forgive, 

we take back control of 

our own fate and our feelings. 

We become our own liberator."

    The Book of Forgiving

What light do these scriptures shine 

on my need to forgive?

It's worth noting that there is no 

tit for tat involved.

God can only forgive us 

if we forgive others,

if we are opened up

to the free flow of forgiveness.

It is essentially, necessarily,

a two-way street.

We can only be forgiven 

if we actually embrace 

forgiveness in its fullness.

To buy in we may not hedge,

crop, or "adjust" our buy in.

It's all in or not at all in.

   "For if you forgive others,

    for their transgressions, 

    your heavenly Father 

    will also forgive you.

    But if you do 

    not forgive others, 

    then your Father 

    will not forgive 

    your transgressions."

     Matthew 6:14-15

   "Bearing with one another, 

    and forgiving each other, 

    whoever has a complaint 

    against anyone; 

    just as the Lord forgave you, 

    so also should you."

         Colossians 3:13

   "Be on guard! If your brother sins,  

    rebuke him; and if he repents, 

    forgive him. 

    And if he sins against you 

    seven times a day, 

    and returns to you 

    seven times saying, 

    'I repent,' forgive him."

     Luke 17:3-4

   (To be a Chistian 

     sure does gets us 

     into a lot of love!!)

           ******

This week a very large group 

from Brazil and our 

first ever visitor from 

Saudi Arabia

joined in with us all. 

Thank you and all 

new to our fellowship 

here at

         frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares,blogspot.com

             Posted

   by mid-day Wednesday

   east coast USA time

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   format delivered Fridays

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            ******

May Holy Week be just that - a

         "Whole-ing."

           ******

         

   

 

 

 

BITTERSWEET

Dear All of Us,

So, how are you each and all?

Actually, that's quite a concern 

of my heart.

I think much and pray deeply 

for all of us who gather here weekly.

My little efforts in this blog 

are a try to clarify and encourage 

as we live through the ups and downs 

and all arounds of what we call our 

spiritual lives.

Of course, there's really 

no such thing as our "spiritual lives."

There's just life in its wholeness,

and hopefully its holiness. 

And right now life is 

pretty darn hard

in so many ways 

for so many people 

in so many places.

Please allow me a go at trying to 

clarify and encourage a little bit 

as best I can with my limits.

Like you, I'm in the midst of the mix.

It's so like chocolate   - bittersweet - 

sometimes a lot more 

of one than the other.

Right now there's a burst of the bitter.

We live in lands and societies

quite different all around the orb.

Our specifics vary, but all peoples are

are troubled, some to terror.

The pandemic has taken 

the starch out of our souls, 

   - admitted or not -

It continues to rub our noses

in vulnerability.

Putin's satanic slaughter

is hellish horror

beyond grasp or word,

devastation of people and place.

It has torched the tissue

of international stability.

People on every continent 

are subjected to dreadful

violence and violation -

Myanmar, China, Ethiopia, 

city streets USA,

a few of too many more.

Undergirding flaws are causing 

the floor to give out under 

structures of church, finance, 

civility, safety, education, 

health care, democracy 

and governance,

the common life and good.

We just don't know 

how much will hold up

nor how we are to hold on.

We're all living in some variant of 

a war zone.

Here where I live in the USA:

- a fundamentalist Christian right 

that is neither Christian nor right

prostitutes the Gospel for

social/political dominance

- White nationalism that refuses 

to see and confess the sin 

of racism that is sadly

foundational and corrupting

to our national construct.

It's like the days of 

my RC youth when you carried 

an unconfessed mortal sin

and were thus not admitted 

to Holy Communion.

Confession alone can open 

to reconciliation.

-Truth telling muzzled, 

book burnings, 

curricula white washed,

fact fractured.

-Cynical slander in 

media and politics - 

congressional hearing

of Justice Jackson.

OK, let's take a break 

and a deep breath.

There is a sweet to the 

bittersweet of our living.

-God is joyfully busy, 

unabashedly creating forth in

endless new expansions of love.

Sin will not stop it.

-We have the companionship

and strength-giving of

The Enlivening Spirit.

-We are welcomed to the

     Realm of Real

to living in the Reign of God

and that in company with

each other in holy community,

right in the midst of 

Empire's Madness.

-There are way more people

living God's Love 

than those who are attacking 

Godness and Truth.

See kids learning 

the wonders of life.

See couples lovingly

merged in marriage and

raising beautiful families.

See the champions of

justice and goodness,

locally and globally.

See elderly folks mellowing

into peace and gratitude.

-Happily we can

sing songs, 

speak poems,

cook for feasts,

join the dance.

Folks come together in

        Lived Love 

     and experience

        The Spirit 

      fill their sails.

This time of year we note the

      Springing of Life

after the cold dark of winter.

We recommit to absorption in

the bitter death and 

the sweet resurrection of Jesus. 

        BITTERSWEET

In the words of my long ago 

spiritual director:   

     "Don't let the bastards 

      get you down

      because with God 

      it's power through and up."

Bitter for sure and sweet forever.

Here's hope and prayer

as together we 

suffer the bitter and

savor the sweet.

 Your Brother

  John Frank

    ******

                 BITTERSWEET

                 Two takes/talks

                 Romans 6:3-4

"Do you not know that all of us 

who have been baptized 

into Christ Jesus were baptized 

into his death? 

Therefore we have been buried 

with him by baptism into death, 

so that, just as Christ was raised 

from the dead by the glory 

of the Father, so we too 

might walk in newness of life."  

     (NRSV translation)

"That's what baptism into 

the life of Jesus means. 

When we were lowered 

into the water, it is like 

the burial of Jesus; 

when we are raised up 

out of the water, it is like 

the resurrection of Jesus. 

Each of us is raised into 

a light-filled world by our Father 

so that we can see where 

we are going in our new 

grace sovereign country." 

(The Message translation)

            ******

This week we were joined by 

a visitor from Ukraine.

Thank you for being with us 

and know we are with you 

and all Ukraine

in prayerful support.   

          

         frankly speaking

    spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

Posted by mid-day Wednesday, 

          east coast USA time.

Email format delivered Friday.

              ******

          Together

We support in times bitter.

We celebrate in times sweet.

            ******

      

CHOICE

 

Dear All of Us,

How wonderful when we have

the clarity and courage 

to live out who were really are.

It is wonderfully true as well

for our shared life in community.

God's liveliness is let loose.

The tree of life bursts beautiful.

Of sad course, the obverse is 

tragic, deadening.

In our day and way,

like the ancient Israelites,

we must and do chose:

   "I have set before you 

    life and death...

    Chose life..." 

    Deuteronomy 30:19

It's a life choice between our

         TRUE SELF

         FALSE SELF

individually and collectively.

The choice determines 

how we be, what we do,

where we go, how we go.

Thomas Merton helps us

see the difference and choice:

    We are at liberty 

    to be real, 

    or to be unreal. (1)

    The seeds that are planted 

    in my liberty at every moment, 

    by God's will, are the seeds 

    of my own identity, my own reality, 

    my own happiness, my own sanctity. 

    To refuse them is 

    to refuse everything;

    it is the refusal of my own 

    existence and being: 

    of my identity, my very self. (2)

   Every one of us is shadowed by 

   an illusory person: a false self. (3)

   My false and private self 

   is the one who wants 

   to exist outside the reach

   of God's will and God's love 

   - outside of reality and outside of life.

   And such a person cannot help 

   but be an illusion.  (4)

  Ultimately the only way that 

  I can be myself 

  is to become identified 

  with Him in Whom is hidden 

  the reason and fulfillment 

  of my existence.

  Therefore there is only one problem 

  on which all my existence, 

  my peace and my happiness depend: 

  to discover myself in discovering God. 

  If I find Him I will find myself 

  and if I find my true self 

  I will find Him...

  The only One Who can teach me 

  to find God is God, Himself, Alone. (5)

  The only true joy on earth 

  is to escape from the prison 

  of our own false self, 

  and enter by love into union 

  with the Life Who dwells 

  and sings within the essence 

  of every creature 

  and in the core 

  of our own souls. 

  In His love we possess all things 

  and enjoy fruition of them, 

  finding Him in them all. 

  And thus as we go about the world, 

  everything we meet and everything 

  we see and hear and touch, 

  far from defiling purifies us and 

  plants in us something more of 

  contemplation and of heaven. (6) 

                    ******

      New Seeds of Contemplation

     2007 New Directions Paperbook

  (first published in 1962 as a hardcover)

              (1) p32     (2) p33 

              (3) p34     (4) p 34

              (5) p36     (6) p25

                      ******

           

My true self is me emerging from God.

Me rooted in the Reality and Good of God

and flowering forth.

My false self is the phony me I concoct,

an illusion rooted in the void of the unreal.

Nothing real comes from it.

Through my true self flows God 

in actual, personal, practical manner.

Through my false self flows illusions of reality

in actual, personal, practical, painful manner.

True self is living God.

False self is living a lie.

 

"To be or not to be."

 sure is the question.

 It all depends on 

 where we're coming from,

 on what we're living out from.

 (bad grammar, great truth)

          Truely Yours,

           John Frank

             ******

It's so good to have new folks 

joining in with us each week.

This past week we were blessed

with our first ever participant 

from Guatemala and also with

a large cohort from France.

To one and every

           WELCOME

          Please share

       frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

with family, friends, colleagues.

             Thanks!

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      See you next week.

In the meantime and always 

may we be true to whom

we really are - a beautiful 

emanation of God.

            ******