Connection...

Hello all, this just popped up for me. It's completely out of season but speaks to the sense of connection we all need in these times. When the time is right, you might have some friends quietly hum Silent Night as you read the words out loud. 

Bless you all,

Richard

Christmas Evening, by Paul Stookey

And it came to pass on a Christmas evening
While all the doors were shuttered tight
Outside standing, a lonely boy-child
Cold and shivering in the night.

On the street every window
Save but one was gleaming bright
And to this window walked the boy-child
Peeking in saw candlelight.

Through other windows he had looked at turkeys
Ducks and geese and cherry pies
But through this window saw a gray-haired lady
Table bare and tears in her eyes.

Into his coat reached the boy-child
Knowing well there was little there
He took from his pocket his own Christmas dinner
A bit of cheese, some bread to share.

His outstretched hands held the food and they trembled
As the door it opened wide
Said he "Would you share with me Christmas dinner?"
And gently said she "Come inside."

The gray-haired lady brought forth to the table
Some glasses two and her last drop of wine
Said she "Here's a toast to everyone's Christmas,
And especially yours and mine!"

And it came to pass on that Christmas evening
While all the doors were shuttered tight
That in that town the happiest Christmas
Was shared by candlelight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLrKJH-ACas  

For Sunday May 29th, 2022

Hello all, Tom Sawyer once asked, "Where do you use a flashlight?" The answer is of course, "You use it in a place which needs more light." So here we are, stuck between the material world, that great amorphous cloud of what we know, and spirituality, that grand mysterious cloud of the unknown. Our job is to take what we do know of spirituality on one hand, and bring it into the material world on the other hand – cloud to cloud lightning so to speak.

We've been born into this time and location for exactly that purpose, willing to take on the chaotic, tumbling storm of life in hopes of bringing light.

May we be willing to accept our fears, frustrations, and frailties as the price of admission. We need only to realize the difficulties we all face and smile honestly at least, and sometimes that's the best.

 
Thank you all,

Richard

Prayer Request for May 25th, 2022

Hello and a huge, tearful hug to all of you. It's been 23 years and 554 dead children since the first school shooting in Columbine HS. How much can anyone's heart break? What might open people's hearts if not the unneeded deaths of innocent children?
Throughout all of it I've heard from my own relatives, who I know to otherwise be good decent people, the parroting of the cold, self-serving comments of some politicians. 

Nothing that has happened, nothing I've ever said, has ever gotten through. It can be so incredibly difficult to bring someone to their own heart.

But we try.

 
The world depends upon getting people out of their heads and into their hearts, and we keep being presented with opportunities, more and more horrible as we go along.
May we find some time to pray that God's will be done, for the children, for their families, for all who are lost.

Thank you all,

Richard

For Sunday May 22, 2022

Hello to all, among the people we see or meet, look for the positive attributes of contentment, satisfaction, and compassion. As all healing is a matter of matching the vibrations of body and mind to those of Source, these are elemental.

 
With that, whenever we meet or assist someone else in matching those vibrations it brings us better understanding as well.

May we sit this evening to see, comprehend, and come to a fuller understanding of our distractive foibles, our desires. Once they are seen and known, they can be bypassed along our path.

Blessings to all,

Richard

For Sunday May 15th, 2022

A beautiful springtime hello to all of you. The fresh innocence of spring calls to us, reminding us that a quality of openness is essential in matters of spiritual unfoldment.

As our understanding moves from the controlling of our desires, to an understanding of desire itself, to the releasing of desire, we find we have left ourselves open. The fear of being vulnerable may then be sat with as well.

May we sit with ourselves this evening, with mature knowledge of our frailties, the courage of children learning to walk and talk, and the inner drive which calls us all forward.

Xapis,

Richard

For Sunday May 8th, 2022

Hello all, our individual karma can be changed from an application of penal law to that of grace and mercy by how we live our lives, by how well we listen and abide by the inner voice of the Source. As we do this we give helpful attention to our physical and mental healing as well.

Attuning our thoughts, attitudes, and actions to our spiritual heritage supports our physical structures. It may not replace medical interventions, but gives great inner assistance. 

May we sit this evening to listen within, to apply ourselves to our futures and our present. May we ask, "Thy will be done."

Thank you,

Richard

For Sunday May 1st, 2022

Hello everyone, spirituality gives us opportunities to love, to have love, to express love, to be loving. It's up to us to bring it forth in this world. Sometimes these are viewed as tests, sometimes as rewards, but the opportunity is for something loving to occur.

 
With our free will we are allowed to act upon these opportunities to the extent we see fit, or as we see ourselves called to do. But it's an opportunity, the work involved is yet to be done.

May we sit this evening for the awareness of opportunities. May we act upon them as befits our lives. May we bring forth as much love as we are able.

Thank you all,

Richard 

For Sunday April 24th, 2022

Hello to all, it's understood by many that we on Earth are all involved in a remarkable spiritual transformation of humanity. Those who are actively pursuing a more spiritual lifestyle are forging a way forward, in a manner which befits them. Those who cling tightly to personal desires of lust and power are demonstrating the ultimate fruitlessness of material pursuits.

The material side sells fear, anger, etc., while the spiritual side may experience frustration. It's important to not be caught up in any of that but to see the struggle as a needed cleansing. Horrifying as it is, humanity apparently refuses to learn in any other way.

May we sit this evening as loving observers of the ultimate struggle. May our own flare-ups of anger, frustration, and such be as gusts of wind; rocking our world in the moment, but passing on unattached. May we find that inner peace which is not fought for but simply allowed to be.

Thank you all,

Richard

For Sunday April 17th, 2022

Hello and a gracious Easter to all of you. As we've been told, "Be a light unto oneself. Being a light unto yourself carries a marvelous sense of freedom – because there is no shadow in that light."

In this season of resurrection, of buds on branches and chirping birds, may we rekindle the light within.

 
This Sunday, may illusions be seen through, no matter how staunch. May the shadows of sorrows and regrets lighten, withering to nill. And may distractions be released in our all-encompassing light.

Thank you all for your entire lives,

Richard

For Sunday April 10th, 2022

Hello all, love is, loving gestures are never wasted, hugs can hold forever, smiles can linger a lifetime – love is.

In this world of temporal experience love holds true – whether we are aware of it or not.

May we sit this evening with the intention to release that which blocks us. Whatever we may achieve or not, that loving self-intention will be. It will hold till we are ready, as our loving intentions upon others will hold also. The world needs our love, and at some point the time will be ripe for fruition.

 
Thank you all,

Richard

For Sunday April 3rd, 2022

Hello everyone, E=mc2 says that at the core of all matter is the energy it was made from, just as at the core of ourselves is the energy we were made from – in His image. The releasing of matter into energy can be explosive, just as the releasing of ourselves into spiritual energy can be explosive, but it can also be incremental.

 
May we sit Sunday evening for the awareness of, and connection to, our spiritual core. May touching the Love we find there uplift us. May holding that Love uplift the world.

Thank you all,

Richard

For Sunday March 27th, 2022

Hello again all, there seem to be a couple of different understandings of the word 'repent' in use today. One is to maintain an aspect of regret or remorse for past words or actions. Another is as a demand of self, or others, to cease and desist such actions. Still another is to go about publicly proclaiming the first two.

 
Yet the origin of repent is from metanoia, meaning to 'go beyond the mind' or 'go into the larger mind.' This indicates a transformation of the self (with a lower case 's') into the higher Self, as is needed for spiritual transformation.

May we sit this evening for the greater meaning of repent. May we see into the larger mind. May we raise our self into Self.

 
Thank you all,

Richard

For Sunday March 20th, 2022

Hello everyone, the great teachers have often told us that what we need spiritually may be massively uncomfortable to endure. With all that's happening in the world right now, pandemic and horrid war, it's important that we witness – 'be with' in our hearts – those who suffer, even if it's only for 20 minutes.

 
May our energies uphold them in their trials. May we lighten their hearts, if only for a bit. May we assure that we are with them as one human family.

Thank you all,

Richard