finding the key

Everything seems so black or white in our society. For example, Christopher Hitchen's book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, he really sound like a fun dinner guest...right?  My initial response to Richard was to rush to the defense of religion since the institution is attacked constantly. Now it just seems unnecessary.

Upon further reflection he most likely has much in common with Pastor Hagee. While on the other end of the spectrum and still someone I will not be inviting to dinner, Pastor John Hagee the San Antonio, based mega-church leader who claims that it was God's will that Hurricane Katrina be sent to punish the people of New Orleans for their behavior. He also teaches that the Catholic Church is "The Whore of Babylon" spoken of in Holy Scripture. A catchy name..."The Whore of Babylon."

What is the will of God?

The rabbis of the Jewish faith will tell us that the gift of prophecy was lost to Israel after the Romans destroyed the Temple. But we hear the frenzied voices shouting in certain mosques that the will of God is to strap on a bomb and blow up yourself along with God's enemies. Osama bin Ladin surely believes he is doing God's will. Christopher Hitchen's who spends his time trying to convince everyone that he can prove the is no God and therefore no such thing as God's will, Paster Hagee and bin Laden would all enjoy each others company immensely at there own private dinner party.

Spiritual humility will tell us to not tread on God's mystery and majesty by attempting to explain His Universal Mind in some simplistic manner. Blind faith and atheism are both equally stupid. Having the willingness to do God's will is a wonderful way to start. "Just do the next right thing." If we want to turn our lives over to God's will the following passage may be helpful.

Once we have placed the key of willingness in the lock and have the door ever so slightly open, we find that we can always open it some more. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 35

 I telephoned my spiritual advisor and asked, "What is God's Will?" TG answered.
"whats next is God's will." 



Good night TG,

Dave

"they do not know..."

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."

                                                                            Gospel of Luke 23:34

Many of my friends are not followers of Christ and must be mystified by the actions of some claiming His name. True Christianity is the following and nothing more: To love one another and to forgive. Age after age we create divisions and fear one another until hatred breeds war. Our faith tells us that we are The Mystical Body of Christ, so we must crucify Him again and again when we spread hatred for He loves us divinely.

Faith must come before the virtues of love and forgiveness.

Faith that I am loved must come first and then the capacity to love and forgive others is possible. The devil called self hatred must be cast out for our hearts to make room for this divine work among us.

Pax,

Dave

betrayal with a smile

Holy Wednesday thoughts,

Photo taken at a church somewhere in S. Texas in 2009.

Jesus entered the great city on a Sunday with palms laid in his honor before him and by Wednesday his friend plots against him with his political enemies.

As Jesus was sharing and teaching a huge crowd on the Mount of Olives one of The Apostles was plotting against him. Was it greed, ambition, jealousy?  how could a trusted apostle turn on his own Rabbi. The world never found out because his final act of selfishness ended in suicide.

Picture in your mind the boasting name-droppers of our day, the hangers-on, the stupid ones blinded by ego. Here we find our Judas. Betrayal with a smile.  We should look to ourselves, when have we betrayed a friend in small ways? shared in gossip just to fit in or worse, just to boost our own human ego. True this example pales in comparison to taking part in murder of an innocent friend, but these small cuts cry out to the universe just the same. Death by 1,000 cuts is still a death.

Matthew 26:14-16 (New International Version, ©2011)

Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus

 ¹⁴ Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests ¹⁵ and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶ From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

falling bird and swooping bird

                                   swooping mother bird

Experiencing God can be the most meaningful thing in life. The God of my understanding is experienced in my Catholic faith in an actual historical way; we believe that God revealed himself in flesh and blood in a place and time in the personage of Christ.  Through the healing of ancient spiritual principles found in my twelve step program, God is experienced in a personal miracle of sobriety each day.  My cross turned out to be a precious gift.  

It is the most interesting thing in this world; how we each find a Higher Power beyond ourselves. I have friends who only know God as the Great Unknown, Creative-Mind-of-the-Universe.  Even the agnostics seem to find a Power Greater than themselves, although theirs is a difficult road.

Questioning ourselves in self examination:  if religious, are we finding a relationship with God?  Or going through the motions imagining that some formula will work in our lives? If I can only remember the formula?  While others are spiritually egotistical, believing their personal spirituality is so far advanced that it would be a waste of time to contemplate the words of a saint from 500 years ago.

We humans find understanding best sometimes in ordinary experiences like the following.

Earlier this week I was trimming a bush in my backyard and to my amazement a baby bird fell out of its nest, the frantic mother was swooping at my head as violently as possible.  A neighbor helped place the tiny Robin back in the nest and now all seems to back to normal. For Many weeks the mother Robin had been attacking me, dives, swoops and I could never figure out where the nest was located. The father bird mostly just stayed busy searching for worms but attacked a few times. He seemed not as interested in attacking a 200 pound man. The mother was fearless and effective as each day my meditation area had to move.

 We have a 50 foot 90 year old Pecan tree and this bird builds her nest in a 5 foot tall bush directly behind my meditation area. Scanning the yard for weeks to find the was just like finding God; both were found when in the last place I had looked.

Our four year old daughter and the two neighbor girls got to witness the beauty of the baby bird reunited with the mother, father and sibling. The look of awe on their faces said it all. We all were alive and in the moment it was profound.

Religion and spirituality merged in the cathedral of the bird’s nest.

Have a meaningful Holy Week.

Pax,

Dave

America the Poor

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.

Loneliness is the most terrible poverty.

           Mother Teresa

                     Poverty that surrounds our poor land.

She drives alone to work listening to other people's woes and the propaganda men all shouting at once on the radio about the defects of their imaginary foes. In her cubical working furiously for the quasi-religious sect of Chase Bank or Citi Bank...

Locked behind the door of her "beehive existence" in Apt 3216 watching "The Bachelor" her poverty of loneliness is so profound that she does not even know to cry. The TV commercial asking for donations to the poor of Africa should include a message for this lonely soul.

"Can we love our neighbor? do we even know our neighbor?

Our neighbors just want someone to listen, to know they matter. To hear their story. Reaching our hand out to the ones drowning in the unquiet city.

-Dave

St. Ignatius' Examen and the "piece of paper with coffee stains."

                                                                               photo taken in Oklahoma 2010

Spiritual principles seem universal as we travel through this desert land.

St. Ignatius of Loyola the founder of the Jesuits (Society of Jesus) discovered a way to incorporate the teachings of Christ into daily living about 500 years ago and made a simple, but revolutionary addition to the Catholic faith and to anyone desiring a better way to live.

To make a long story short, this is what he taught for a daily plan of prayer and action.

1. Pray for light: Ask God for grace throughout the day.
2. Give thanks: Gratitude for all of God's gifts.
3. Review the day: What happened in your day.
4.What was wrong:  Ask God for forgiveness and how to do better.
5. Look for a better day tomorrow: Where do we need God's help?

A striking simularity to a simple set of ideas can be compared:

When terrified and new in my twelve step program a young man scribbled the following simple things to do everyday on a  torn piece of paper: I have done the same for others dozens  and dozens of times...

1. Pray in the morning (on your knees) for God to keep you sober.
2. Telephone 3 or 4 sober members besides your sponsor.
3. Go to a meeting.
4. Help someone.
5. Evening at night (on your knees) Thanking God for keeping you sober that day and to help you tomorrow.

Our basic text contains the perfect way to start each day.

 On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonesty or self -seeking motives.


A link to Ignatian Spirituality is below.

 http://ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/

Regrets, Road Runners and Rattle Snakes

In the summer of 2007 Jeff and I drove out into the stark mountains of Utah to visit his more remote customers. He was the salesman with my distributor in Salt Lake City and I the manufacturer's representative for the laundry equipment manufacture.  Most of my excitement to work in Utah this week was to see the grandeur of nature in this still untamed land. I was not disappointed as we went through mountains and rivers and desert towns. At the end of the busy week of calls on laundromats by day and fly fishing in the evenings we saw the tiny town on the map where Mr. V owned his modest laundry. Jeff said he really needed new washers and dryers but he was embarrassed to take me to this run down little customer who was in his mid eighties. Something said, go see this man.

I now think of him as "Mr. V" because I cannot remember anymore than his last name began with the letter V. Deep wrinkles wrapped his face like the desert wind that blew sand everywhere. He wore a cowboy hat and had gentle eyes that sent some sort of message into my very soul. Some men have that effect.

He asked if we would like to eat some watermelon as his main avocation was really farming. He and his three grand daughters ate watermelon with us and we all grinned because it was so good. I think they got a kick out of watching these city boys lose all interest in business and gain interest in this simple sublime moment on the tailgate of his beat up Chevy pick up.He bragged on them and said they can out work any three boys in town. Their blue eyes beamed with love for the old rugged man. These young girls were especially close to the old man and especially now as his only grandson died a few months back in an accident of some kind. His face grew ashen when he spoke of this 19 year old young man that spent much time with the old man. Then out of nowhere he looked us in the eye with the piercing soulful stare I can not describe and said something along these lines.

" I spent all my younger days working from early in the morning until late at night, trying to get ahead. Working two farms to make more money, when all my kid's wanted was me. It ain't worth it boys. Don't do it, please don't do like I did. What good did it do me? Now I have a dead grandson and a son I don't even know."

He wound up losing the money anyway. He then showed us the modest laundromat and we discussed some new washers and dryers that will never be installed. We said our good byes and we drove in silence, contemplating what he had said. Now when my own four year old daughter says," papa can you play in the sand box with me?" When my mind is clear enough...the words of Mr. V speak to me from that desert land.
No regrets my son...it comes like a whisper from that dusty land...was he an angel?  A messenger anyway. Many times I do not listen to his wise words for humans tend to forget so quickly, we are a baffled race. Tomorrow is Saturday and the reports and important business documents will sit idle, Carmella and I have sand castles to build and butterflies to chase.

Regrets can stay in the desert land with the scorpions and vultures.

                                                                                   photo by Dave & baby