One Spirit, Many Wells - Chapter 10 (Part II)

More quotes from the Chapter on Meditation and Mindfulness

When you want to lay yourself open for the divine
like a snare that is hollowed out to its depth
like a canopy that projects a shadow
from the divine heat and light
into your soul,
then go into your inner place physically,
or to that story or symbol that reminds you of the sacred.
Close the door of your awareness to
the public person you think yourself to be.
Pray to the parent of creation, with your inner sense,
the outer senses turned within.
Veiling yourself, the mystery may be unveiled through you.
By opening yourself to the flow of the sacred,
somewhere, resounding in some inner form,
the swell of the divine ocean can move through you.
The breathing life of all reveals itself
in the way you live your life.
- Jesus, Matthew Ch 6, translated directly from the Aramaic

[I]f children were told from their birth:
"You are eternal, you have a place in you that is full of wisdom, full of strength, full of blessedness," this truth would become a power in their lives even when they grow up and other negative influences begin to prevail. . . . A wonderful beauty of appearance and of character comes to you.
- Swami Ashkananda

Empty your mind of all thoughts.
Let your heart be at peace.
Watch the turmoil of beings,
but contemplate their return.
Each separate being in the universe
returns to the common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.
- The Tao Te Ching

To know Tao
meditate
and still the mind.
Knowledge comes with perseverance. . . .
When enlightenment arrives
don't talk too much about it;
just live it in your own way.
- Loy Ching Yuen

God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.
- Meister Eckhart

In the pursuit of knowledge,
every day something is added.
In the practice of the Tao,
every day something is dropped . . .
True mastery can be gained
by letting things go their own way.
It can't be gained by interfering.

If you want to be given everything,
give everything up . . .
If you open yourself to loss,
you are at one with loss
and you can accept it completely.
- Tao Te Ching

If you think of yourself as something,
then God cannot clothe himself in you,
for God is infinite.
No vessel can contain God,
unless you think of yourself as Ayin . . .
Think of yourself as Ayin and forget yourself totally.
Then you can transcend time,
rising to the world of thought,
where all is equal:
life and death, ocean and dry land.
- The Kabbalah

The recollection of God makes the heart calm.
- The Qur'an

Secretly we spoke,
that wise one and me.
I said, Tell me the secrets of the world.
He said, Sh . . . Let silence
Tell you the secrets of the world.
- Rumi

Enjoy! :-)

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Luther

I just finished watching the movie Luther - a story about the life and teaching of Martin Luther, the German Augustinian monk who sparked a cultural, political and theological revolution during the 16th century.

Watch it. Rent it. Buy it.

Become enraptured with the sumptuous images of the period. Become embroiled in the life and inner ruminations of a man who followed God and his conscience to a fault.

Luther is the kind of theologian I dream about becoming - someone passionate about their faith, knowledgeable about Scripture and theology, dedicated to the vision granted him by his angelic muse.

I pray that one day I will have the courage, passion and will to serve God and imitate Christ as Luther imitated and served.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Be C.H.R.I.S.T.

So I had a random idea the other day (actually about 2 months ago) as I was teaching a religion certification course for yet another cute "let's take a word and make it something religious" idea (like WWJD - What Would Jesus Do; PUSH - Pray Until Something Happens; FROG - Fully Rely on God, etc.).

I liked C.H.R.I.S.T., but instead of making it into a sentence, I assigned words to each one. This is what I got:

C - Congruent
H - Holistic (or Holy)
R - Relational (or Radical)
I - Incarnational (or Inspirational)
S - Sacramental (or Sacred)
T - Transparent

Congruent
Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines congruence as being in agreement, harmony, or correspondence. Gandhi had a quote that went to the effect that you find true happiness when what you believe, what you say, and how you act are all in accord. My boss likes to say that as Christians we should walk the walk, not just talk the talk. All of these fall under this idea - that we should act as we name ourselves: followers of Christ Jesus.

Holistic
going back to Merriam-Webster, I find that holistic means relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts. When we become followers of Jesus, one of our tasks is to take all the disparate parts of ourselves - mind, body, soul, spirit, thought, sexuality, relationality, etc., and integrate it. We are called to imitate Jesus, and Jesus is imaged as being fully integrated - not suppressing or repressing parts of his psyche/soul, but being in harmony with himself. We are called to take care of ourselves in all aspects, to care for ourselves as living temples of the Living God.

Relational
St. John says that we cannot profess to love the God we cannot see if we cannot love the people around us who we can see. God invites us as individuals to become part of a greater whole. Hence the way we relate to others is a direct measure of how we relate to Divinity. Especially for Christians (but Buddhists also stress this), then, Church (community) becomes a place where we get to see how fully we have become like Christ. We are called to be in relation to those around us because they are images and reflections of Divinity.

Incarnational
I think many people have trouble with this one. They want to leave this messy, materialistic place for a more spiritual plane. But we tend to forget that God was one of us - Jesus ate, drank, sweated, used the restroom, had bad hair days, needed to bathe, etc. Our world is full of the grandeur of God - the heavens proclaim the glory of God. The Gospel of Thomas says it thus: lift a rock and you will find me; split a piece of wood and you will find me there (loosely quoted - can't remember the exact quote and too lazy right now to look it up!). We are called to be people that love our earth and love those around us and love ourselves because God has placed us here for our enjoyment and his glory. This is not a bad place, this is not just a waiting place until we get to something better - this is a place of divine purpose and sacred beauty - a place of wonder and awe where God can break into our lives at any moment through the vehicle of his creation.

Sacramental
Pretty much what I said in Incarnational :-)

Transparent
Similar to Congruent, we should live our lives and pray our lives in such a way that we remember that God knows us through and through. We should strive to put away our duplicitousness - the need we have to lie to ourselves and others, the need we feel to try and justify whoa and what we are because we're not sure if other people will like/accept us. We should live lives that will be broken open at the end of time for all to see. We should live lives that we can be proud of - moment to moment, year to year, lifetime to lifetime.

Enjoy! :-)

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Who Am I

Two posts in one day! :-)

Here is the real me! :-)


Which OS are You?


Which File Extension are You?

Enjoy! :-)
Hugo

Untitled

i wrote this in high school . . . i still like it . . . enjoy :-)


silence reigns, the heart is still
but peace, far from everlasting, is ephemeral
for eyes that see and hearts that hear
for a soul so longing to render aid . . .

watching . . .
slowly withdrawing to an inner place
far from the prying eyes and soundless talk
inner contemplation seeks a guide
to the suffering on the outside . . .

yes, it is there
no matter how much materialistic people deny it
no matter if stone-covered hearts refuse to see it
it is there

in a neighbor--a listless smile
a relative--a gloomy face
a friend--the quietness that comes from the depths of a
soul yearning for a love and peace that is always
just one step away
one horizon further
one prayer ahead
but that never reaches them and drives them to an even
deeper despair
than at first

yet i pretend that all is well
as my soul cries out for justice

trapped by walls that have no boundaries
save those set in my mind
i wait
and listen
and watch

while the sickness that spreads over our world
corrupts and eats at the vitality of others
like a cancer

yes, there must be suffering . . .
through it the world is being cleansed . . .
yet, "why do the weary have to walk so far?"

better yet, why doesn't the mass of humanity respond?
in the face of such suffering they turn their thoughts inward
and forget their family

because of selfishness, tinged with fear--
of being themselves
of baring their hearts
of being hurt--
they turn a blind eye and a deaf ear
to the struggles of their friends

a mask of contentment is worn for all to see
people say "things are great--no problems here"

yet inside, they are as dark as their companions
who willingly show a distraught face . . .

who is the stronger?

and where is the aid that should be freely rendered
as we bear each others' burdens?

why is it so hard to love?

i look to Christ . . .
i know my answer lies within, as
Paraclete gives boundless wisdom
as Healer heals, and Lover loves
and Peacefulness yields his life for all
yet why must we remain so ignorant?
the suffering of one redeems us all, yet recognition . . .
love is twisted
faith destroyed
hope, lessened until it is no longer . . .

yet Christ
he loves so much
dying as he did of a broken heart
a heart filled with all the pain that was
that is
that will be
he cries out in the form of every single person who is hurting

he stares at us every day, desperately seeking
our aid . . .
yet we beg off--
too much work, not enough time
"i come before you do--fix it yourself"
the excuses are endless, the pain evergrowing
by refusing to help a soul two are worse off
i cry out to Justice, yet Justice, it seems, hears not

but i forget . . .

without Good Friday there is no Easter Sunday
without a crown of thorns there is no crown of glory
without dying there is no life

dear God forgive me for doubting . . .
"against You only have i sinned"
for it is during our weakest moments
it is during our trials and tribulations
it is while our heart is in pieces
shattered by the pain that assails us
that we draw near to You
that You enfold us in Your arms of love
that You carry us
that You let us feel the love You have for us
it is then that we are most fit to love and be loved . . .

One Spirit, Many Wells - Chapter 10

Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation is stopping, calming, and looking deeply.
-Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ

Thus any feeling whatsoever - past, future or present; internal or eternal; blatant or subtle, common or sublime, far or near; every feeling - is to be seen as it actually is with right understanding: "this is not mine. This is not myself. This is not what I am."
- The Buddha

In dealing with pain and negative experience, meditation helps us also. When it comes to fear, for example, I recommend people talking to fear as if it were a being (which it can be). Ask it questions: "Mister Fear, why are you here today? What are you here to teach me?" If we don't befriend fear (Jesus said, "love your enemies"), fear might take us over. It might become a demon or a boogie man in our psyche. Chodron recommends approaching what you find repulsive, help the one thing you cannot help, and go to the places that scare you. This begins when we sit down to meditate and practice not struggling with our own mind.
- Matthew Fox, quoting and expanding on Pema Chodron, Buddhist Nun

The heart is said to be in the midst of the person. Since God dwells in our hearts, God is said to be in the midst.
- St. Thomas Aquinas

When all the images of the soul are taken away and the soul can see only the single One, then the pure being of the soul finds passively resting in itself the pure, form-free being of divine unity, when the being of the soul can bear nothing else than the pure unity of God.
- Meister Eckhart

Meditation is about returning home, returning home and finding the greatness that was thee all along. As Eckhart put it: God is at home; it is we who have gone out for a walk.
- Matthew Fox

My Creed

Another piece I wrote for my class. This is our opening prayer on the last day of class - each student composes a Creed of their own, modeled (if wanted) on one of the Catholic-Christian creeds (the Apostle's Creed or the Nicene-Constantinople Creed).

I believe in God our creator
in his undying and steadfast love
in her ready forgiveness
abounding generosity
and boundless mercy
in the goodness of a creation shaped and molded by his hands
in the vigilance and protection she has for us

I believe in Yeshua ben Joseph,
the Christ of God,
the sacrament of God
Redeemer of the Cosmos
I believe we can look to him as the center of our Church
as the model for our faith
as the bearer of the Good News of salvation
as the bridge between heaven and earth

I believe in the brotherhood and sisterhood of all humanity and all creation
one in Christ
brothers and sisters all
I believe in the goodness and holiness of all humanity
symbolized in Mary our Mother and Joseph her husband
I believe in the sanctity and holiness of the family
heaven's presence here on Earth

I believe in the power and ever-presentness of the Great and Sacred spirit
our Sanctifier
God's own life breathed into us at the moment of our conception
I believe in the animating and transforming power of this Spirit
and in the gentle and stormy ways it leads us closer to our Father and Creator

I believe in the inherent goodness of each and every person
I believe that Grace - God's own life - is part and parcel of our Church
I believe in the sacramental reality of our faith and our lives

I believe God speaks and works through us . . . and that we are still very much connected to our loved ones that have passed away . . . and that God's work is greater than any one of us

I believe because it's akin to breathing - without my faith, I would surely die.

Why I Am Catholic

I wrote this for a class I teach on the Catholic-Christian Creed. My students are supposed to compose this for the last day of the class, and this is the one I wrote. Thought I'd share with everyone else! :-)

Here are some thoughts, grace notes, musings, meanderings, and intimations as to why I am Catholic . . .

1. I like belonging to a church that can encompass both sides of the political & theological spectrum.
2. I like belonging to a church that affirms the goodness of all creation, that affirms the sacramentality of all that is, that realizes that all of creation (including us!) is handcrafted by God and wonderfully and beautifully made.
3. I like belonging to a church that can express the same gift of God – the Eucharist, celebrated in sacred liturgy – in a variety of forms, with different languages, different cultures, and different actions.
4. I like belonging to a church that has fed me throughout my life, at the different stages I was at, in different ways that spoke to me, nurtured me, and healed me.
5. I like belonging to a church that can take the best of other Christian denominations and the best of other world religions, that can see the hand of God and the breath of God in all people of good will.
6. I like belonging to a church that uses created objects to help us draw closer to the divine.
7. I like belonging to a church that is not perfect - a church where I can fit in, seeing as I am not perfect, either.
8. I like belonging to a church that officially loves all people – not discriminating by ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, gender, or economic status - a church where we are all considered equal in the eyes of God.
9. I like belonging to a church that accepted me even before I was sure if I still wanted to be a part of it.
10. I like belonging to a church that has mysteries that we cannot fully explain, because all of life is mysterious!
11. I like belonging to a church that encourages us to live out our spirituality with other people, whether in our churches, or with our sacraments, or in the countless prayer groups, youth ministry activities, CCD settings, and what have you that make up our church – I like knowing that my faith is shared, not something I made up on my own!
12. I like the length of history of our faith, which gives us a groundwork to stand on, and our Sacred Tradition, which complements our Scripture well. We know that we are grounded in the living word and in the living faith of our ancestors and our contemporaries.
13. Finally, I like the people that are part of my faith, both at home, in my family, and in my workplace – they are the ones that challenge me, encourage me, and love me, and they are the way God’s presence is most powerfully in my life.

One Spirit, Many Wells - Chapter 9

The Divine "I Am": Humanity's Share in Divinity

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every one who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me
Christ in every ear that hears me.
- The Deer Cry
- St. Patrick's Breastplate

I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams and eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.

I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice - and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.

All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.
- St. Patrick, Another Link

The incarnation accomplished the following: that God became human and that human beings became God and sharers in the divine nature. The only-begotten Son of God intended to make us "partakers of his divine nature." For this reason the Godhead did take our nature on itself and became human in order to make humans gods.
- St. Thomas Aquinas

Wherever two or three gather
in my name and light,
in my experience of
the vibrating, shining cosmos -
then the "I Am" is already there
around, among and inside them.
- Matthew 18:20, translated directly from Aramaic

Short selection of quotes from the book for this chapter, though I really like the theme it explicates.

Jesus tells his followers that we will do equal or greater things then he did if we but trust in our own power and in God's power flowing through us. St. Paul reminds us constantly that we are already saints - we have only to act like it so that we can match the reality that God sees.

As we get ready to celebrate the season of Advent (which the Catholic & Orthodox denominations celebrate, and which some mainline Protestant denominations celebrate), we prepare ourselves for the birth of Jesus, for the breaking in of divinity into time and space. We remind ourselves that divinity entered completely into our experience, being born a naked, vulnerable, trusting child; growing through early childhood and adolescence; moving into his full humanity, and finally suffering and dying for a cause and sake greater than anyone would realize at the time.

We are reminded that God has infused us with his own life and spirit, his own breath and energy. We are filled to overflowing with the Great and Sacred Spirit that moves us, animates us and in which we live and have our being. We are living temples built of love and trust that house the ineffable mystery of Divinity.

We are earth, fire, air and water - soul and spirit, body and mind - and God has told us we are made in his image. All of us - the countless billions of people who have lived, who are living, and who will live - are the Image of God.

I can only hope that we will realize - soon - this common bond, and stop looking at the petty things that separate us - culture, societal standing, religion, politics . . . Only when we are courageous enough to face that which is unknown and attempt to recognize it within us, then will we truly be able to say that we have fully helped realize the Reign of God among and within us.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

And now for something completely different . . .

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone! :-)

I couldn't find the book I had been blogging about, and I couldn't find the time to blog, so my blog had pretty much died . . .

Now I finally found the book (in our spare bedroom, otherwise know as The Library, of all places!), but I thought I'd post 2 essays I wrote while in college. Notice how they both end the same way - I guess I wasn't above re-using material for different assignments / classes!

This first one is from the World Youth Day event in Colorado.
I like this one more than the second one. :-)

Pilgrimage: a journey to a sacred place for reasons of cultic celebration, penance, and/or devotion (definition mine).

Have you ever had a hierophonic experience? One in which your total biorhythmic, ectotheric, psycho-spiritual, holistic mode of being was in some way transformed, transmogrified (to quote Calvin), and/or cosmogenized? Such an experience was offered to a lowly grasshopper as myself when I serendipitously discovered that I would be one of many to make the long pilgrimage to bask in the Presence of the Sacred One, as mediated through the Servant of Servants, the Pope. After much financial difficulty, much praying, much agonizing (both individual and communal) and certainly much anticipating, we were off.

We were a small band of eight, representing several universities individually and the NCSC team collectively. The drive over there was pilgrimage enough (22 hours!), but being led as the Israelites were in the desert, we made it.

Once there we were gifted with our sanctum sanctorum, the apartment of friend and Lake alumni Dee Messersmith. From this center we daily went out to do battle with the (gasp!) thousands of other pilgrims and natives who were also on the road.

However, all our difficulties were as nothing compared to the fun we experienced! There was music (Michael W. Smith, John Michael Talbot, DC Talk, The Newsboys, Wynona Judd, and more!), speakers from all over the world, people from all over the world, and, of course, the main man himself, Pope John Paul II, live and in the Spirit.

While John Paul was never larger than my thumb, huge video screens gave us a closer look at him. His messages were clear and to the point, leveling the harshest criticism at the materialistic attitude of the West. Still, it wasn't so much his speeches that got to you: it was his presence. Even at the distance I was at, it was apparent that here was a man of great personal holiness and spirituality. His love for us all was clearly evident, and the Presence of the Spirit made the camp grounds where we were at burn with the life of God: we were on holy ground.

I came back from that trip refreshed, renewed, and inspired to greater depths of spirituality. St. Paul, in one of his letters, challenged us to imitate him as he imitated Christ. In the person of John Paul we hear intimations of that same challenge: follow me as I follow Christ; imitate me as I imitate Christ; live a life of simplicity, of trust, of compassion, of intimacy, of integrity, even as I do, even as Christ did; take up your cross; lay down your life; forgive those who have hurt you; love those who you despise or who despise you; transcend yourself, and in so doing become one with the Infinite.

His challenge calls out to all people everywhere . . .



This one was written after a week-long trip to Rome.
A few things stand out from the Rome pilgrimage to pass on the World Youth Day cross to the young people from the Philippines. Come to think of it, pilgrimage definitely sums up the heart of the experience that I was a part of during this past week. Now, Pilgrimage can be defined as a journey towards a particular sacred time/space for reasons of dramaturgical celebration, penance, and/or devotion.

The sacred space was, of course, Rome. Seat of the head of the Latin Rite, Western Roman Catholic church. We had three separate encounters with Pope John Paul II, each one giving us an insight into the kind of person he is. Our first encounter with him was at an audience he was holding with young people from Italy which we attended. He gave an extemporaneous homily which garnered enthusiastic responses from the audience. He came across as someone genuinely concerned with the fate of the young people in Italy and in the whole world.

A more intimate encounter happened Saturday morning, when we were invited to John Paul's personal chapel for a private Mass. He was the primary celebrant, and the whole liturgy was done in English (a concession, no doubt, to us as American delegates and to the Filipino delegates). He gave no homily, but his presence spoke eloquently of his dedication to prayer; it was apparent to all that we were in the presence of a man of great personal holiness and spirituality. His love for us all was clearly evident, and the Presence of the Spirit made the chapel where we were at burn with the life of God: we were on holy ground.

Finally, there was the Palm Sunday Mass, which would definitely constitute the sacred time we went to go experience. Here were 200,000 people all celebrating the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, even as we were celebrating the fact that the WYD experience would now be triumphantly entering another phase of its life. At the same time, however, the majority of us felt saddened; we felt, inexplicably, a loss. This emotion was incarnated when we handed over the WYD cross to the Filipino young people. All of the work put into this, all of the experiences shared: it was almost as of we were losing them. The tours, the preparation, the food, the whole Rome experience: it all paled before this testament of faith, hope, and love that we were passing, as it were, from one community to another. Many of the feelings that coalesced at that moment, and upon seeing the Holy Father walk up to us and speak with us a moment, are indescribable.

I came back from that trip refreshed, renewed, and inspired to greater depths of spirituality. St. Paul, in one of his letters, challenged us to imitate him as he imitated Christ. In the person of John Paul we hear intimations of that same challenge: follow me as I follow Christ; imitate me as I imitate Christ; live a life of simplicity, of trust, of compassion, of intimacy, of integrity, even as I do, even as Christ did; take up your cross; lay down your life; forgive those who have hurt you; love those who you despise or who despise you; transcend yourself, and in so doing become one with the Infinite.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

One Spirit, Many Wells - Chapter 8

Form, Formlessness, Nothingness

Love God as God is a not-God, a not-mind, a not-person, a not-image.
- Meister Eckhart

There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the universe.
For lack of a better name,
I call it the Tao.

It flows through all things,
inside and outside, and returns
to the origin of all things.

When you have names and forms,
know that they are provisional.
When you have institutions,
know where their functions should end.
Knowing when to stop,
you can avoid any danger.

Look, and it can't be seen.
Listen, and it can't be heard.
Reach, and it can't be grasped. . . .
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.
- Tao Te Ching

A scholar comments: God is one, his glory multiplying in many forms. The Vedas teach that there are two forms of Brahman: the embodied and the bodiless, the mortal and the immortal, the stable and the moving, the tangible and the intangible. A tension is acknowledged between the God of forms and the God beyond forms. The problem of the relationship between the unconditioned Brahman and the phenomenal universe can never be completely solved.
- Matthew Fox

[Divinity] is nameless, for no one can know or articulate anything about God. . . . God is a being beyond being, a nothingness beyond being who consists of a changeless existence and a nameless nothingness.

God is nothing. It is not, however, as if he were without being. He is rather neither this nor that thing that we might express, He is a being above all being. He is a beingless being. . . . God is nothingness, and yet God is something.

The mystery of the darkness of the eternal Godhead is unknown and never was known and never will be known. God dwells therein, unknown to himself/herself.

The naked God is without a name
and is the denial of all names
and has never been given a name
and so remains a truly hidden God.

Be silent and quit flapping your gums about God. . . . the most beautiful thing which a person can say about God would be for that person to remain silent from the wisdom of an inner wealth.
- Meister Eckhart

Through creatures God is both hidden from us and made manifest to us.

Every name imposed by us onto God falls short of God. . . God is inaccessible light, surpassing every light that can be seen by us either through sense or through intellect.

Concerning God all things can be affirmed and denied. Yet the Divine One is above all affirmations and denial, for God is beyond our entire intellect, which composes affirmations and denials.

The cause at which we wonder is hidden from us.

We are united to God as to one Unknown. . . . God alone knows the depths and riches of the Godhead, and divine wisdom alone can declare its secrets. The mind's greatest achievement is to realize that God is fat beyond anything we think. This is the ultimate in human knowledge: to know that we do not know God. . . . By its immensity the divine essence transcends every form attained by human intellect.

Divinity is incomprehensible. It can be neither embraced nor designated by a name.

God is said to be non-being (non-existens) not because God is lacking in being but because God is beyond all beings.
- St. Thomas Aquinas

We have to rid ourselves of all notions of God in order for God to be there. The Holy Spirit, the energy of God in us, is the true door. We know that Holy Spirit as an energy and not as notions and words.

It is impossible to use our concepts and words to describe God. . . . It's very wise not to say anything about God. To me the best theologian is the one who never speaks about God.

In the phenomenal worlds, we see that there is birth and death. There is coming and going, being and non-being. But in nirvana, which is the ground of being equivalent to God, there is no birth, no death, no coming, no going, no being, no non-being. All these concepts are transcended.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

The difference between theism and nontheism is not whether one does or does not believe in God. It is an issue that applies to everyone, including both Buddhists and non-Buddhists. Theism is a deep-seated conviction that there's some hand to hold: if we just do the right thing, someone will appreciate us and take care of us. It means thinking there's always going to be a baby-sitter available when we need one.

We all are inclined to abdicate responsibilities and delegate our authority to something outside ourselves. Nontheism is relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment without reaching for anything to protect ourselves.
- Pema Chodron, North American Buddhist nun

I stress to people I teach that any image, any title, any conception we have about God is necessarily limited. God is infinite, Divine - we are mortal, human. God is perfection; we are imperfect. Any conception we have of God will be partial, incomplete - we will only be able to grasp the full wonder and beauty of God when we stand in awe of the Name at the moment we surpass death.

If we could take every image and notion about God and put them together, still we would not have a complete image of God.

That knowledge, I hope, will lead us to humility about our conception of God, and a respect for those who see God differently than we do.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

One River, Many Wells - Chapters 6 & 7

The Feminine Face of Divinity

God is understood as mother in the medieval Christian tradition. Mechtild of Magdeburg said: God is not only fatherly, God is also mother who lifts her mother's cloak wherein the child finds a home and lays its head on the maternal breast. Hildegard of Bingen offers images of a curved Divinity. We are surrounded with the roundness of divine compassion, she writes. Divinity is like a wheel, a circle, a whole. Meister Eckhart describes God as mother when he says: From all eternity God lies on a maternity bed giving birth. And, What does God do all day long? God gives birth. Acknowledging and desentimentalizing the work of Mary at the same time, he declares that we are all meant to be mothers of God.

English mystic of the late fourteenth century Julian of Norwich most developed the theme of God as mother.

Just as God is truly our Father, so also is God truly our Mother . . .
The deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother. In her we are all enclosed . . .
[God is] our true Mother in whom we are endlessly carried and out of whom we will never come.
God is the true Father and Mother of Nature, and all natures that are made to flow out of God to work the divine will be restored and brought again into God.
God feels great delight to be our Mother.
- Matthew Fox, Ch. 6


Wisdom: Another Feminine Face of the Divine

All people are equal, as equal as the teeth of a comb. There is no claim of merit of an Arab over a non-Arab, or of a white over a black person, or of a male over a female.
He who honors women is honorable, he who insults them is lowly and mean.
He who has a female child and does not insult her and does not prefer his sons over her, will be ushered by God into paradise.

I urge you to treat women kindly. They are a trust. Be in awe of God's trust.
- Muhammad (founder of Islam)

The heart is a sanctuary at the center of which there is a little space, wherein the Great Spirit dwells, and this is the Eye. This is the Eye of the Great Spirit by which he sees all things, and through which we see him.

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this.
- Black Elk, from the Native American tradition

You thought yourself a part, small;
Whereas in you there is a universe, the greatest.

That is to say, you think of yourself as a small thing, whereas in you there is hidden the biggest of the universes. . . . The meaning of the Qur'anic verse becomes clear to the Gnostic: "Wherever way you turn, there is the face of God.
- Ibn Al-Arabi, in the Islamic tradition

Enjoy - haven't updated for a few days - been busy - now it's time to out my son to bed as he's having trouble falling asleep by himself. :-)

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

One River, Many Wells - Chapter 5

Names for God

All the names which the soul gives to God it receives from the knowledge of itself.
- Meister Eckhart

We call divinity by many names. We might call Divinity God or Allah or Yahweh or Buddha or Christ or Tao or the Goddess or the Great Spirit or Creator or Redeemer or Liberator or Supreme Being or Rama, or Ground of All Being or Ra or Aten or Vishnu or Brahmin or Godhead or Nothingness or Mooramoora or Mystery or Beauty or Justice or Goodness or Wisdom and many more. The Hindu tradition says that there is only one Rama [God] and he has a thousand names. Still others say that there are an infinite number of names for God. . . . they reveal, as Eckhart says, something of our own souls. And they make it possible to reimagine ourselves and to let Divinity continue to evolve and cease making Divinity into our own projection.
- Matthew Fox

In the Christian mystical tradition, Meister Eckhart offers the following prayer: I pray God to rid me of God. What images and projections of Divinity do we need to more beyond and let go of?
- Matthew Fox

Matthew Fox goes through a litany (list) of names for God that St. Thomas Aquinas took from Scripture (almost 50 titles/names - too many to list here!). He then goes on to say: But Aquinas adds another and very powerful caveat: And the Divine One is none of these things insofar as God surpasses all things. Thus in Aquinas' view, God can be named by any being in the universe because God is the cause of every being in the universe. But Aquinas also warns us to live with this dialectic - that God is named by all beings and by no beings. To live this way is to dance the dance of truth. No name, absolutely no name, suffices for Divinity. Which is also to say that all names suffice for Divinity - but on a limited scale only.

The One Existence the wise call by many names.
- The Rig Veda (part of the Hindu Scriptures)

God has a million faces.
- Baghavad Gita

We all have images of God lying around in our heads and hearts. Even for Catholics, we have numerous images through which we approach the divine: the Sacred Heart, the Divine Mercy, the Holy Spirit, the Father, etc. The way we imagine God will necessarily color the way we pray, how we worship, and who and how we believe God to be.

However, it's always good to remember that when we speak about God - when we give God names and attach images to God, we are always using limited language - we are using metaphors and symbols to approach Divinity. Since we are created, finite creatures, our language will never be able to fully comprehend or utter the infinite majesty and splendor that is God. We can only offer ourselves in humble worship of the Lord of Creation that graces us with his loving-kindness.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

One River, Many Wells - Chapter 4 - My Comments

So here go my comments on the quotes I posted earlier . . .

I firmly believe that a community is needed for there to be any kind of development in people, whether that development is spiritual, social, psychological, etc. As I am fond of telling my students, it's easy to be a practicing Christian (or Buddhist, or Wiccan, or whatever) when it's just one person alone. If I were to live in the middle of a forest with just my little furry animal friends for company, I could probably be on the fast track for sainthood! No cars cutting in front of me as I drive (more or less!) the speed limit, no lines to wait in at the bank, no annoying people calling/beeping/emailing/faxing me, no distractions, no nothing!

But that would not be the most authentic expression of faith. Faith (trust) is tempered in the fires of our relationships. No relationship is ever perfect, and that gives us material to chew on as we struggle to define ourselves and our relationships to others and to the cosmos.

So we grow to the degree that we are with others. For Catholic Christians (but this goes for others whose faith traditions are especially rooted in community) especially, we are bound to a parish community. No one in that community is perfect. Lest I seem ambiguous, I'll spell it out: the priest, the assistant priest, the nuns that may work there, the youth minister, the DRE (Religious Education director), the catechists, the volunteers, the secretary, the maintenance people - everyone will make mistakes, everyone will have bad days, everyone will be hypocritical at one point or another.

And that's a good thing. We're not perfect, but sometimes we expect our church and everyone in it to be perfect - to be living saints.

As if we're given this special waiver to make mistakes while no one else can relax.

Our church will always make mistakes . . . always. And that's fine. We learn patience, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, greatness of heart and soul by rooting ourselves in our imperfect parish communities.

Sort of like our families - there is no perfectly happy family. There will always be that one uncle, step mother, grand parent, cousin, whatever that will get on our nerves, rub us the wrong way, maybe even nudge us towards hateful, murderous thoughts. :-)

But they're still family, and when they need us or when we need them, hopefully we're there for each other.

And so I stake my claim that in order to reach perfection we need relationships.

One last note - deep relationships are usually reserved for a select few family and friends. I can count only a few people that I would consider my closest companions . . . though I count many who I am proud to know. It's usually that way for most people as well. Learn to treasure those soul-companions you meet along your spiritual journey - they are truly heaven sent.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

One River, Many Wells - Chapter 4

Community & Interdependence

Community is the basis of much spirituality around the world . . . [a]and yet so much sense of community has been lost in the modern world. Loneliness in its many guises replaces community. Loneliness often speaks its sad story through addictions of alcohol, drugs, shopping, food, sex. For the human heart was not meant to be cut off from other hearts, either human or other than human.
- Matthew Fox

The loneliness of the seeker for community is sometimes unendurable.
- Howard Thurman

An individual reaches the level of personhood only in social relations, a person grows and develops through social relations with other persons.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I really want to underscore the next two because of the beauty and wonder I felt when I first read them - I hope they are as moving to you as they were to me.

There is one who sings the song of his soul . . . who sings the song of his people. . . . Together with her, he sings her song, feels her anguish, delights in her hopes. . . . There is one whose soul expands until it extends beyond the borders of Israel, singing the song of humanity. . . . further until he unites with all of existence, with all creatures, with all worlds, singing a song with them all. There is one who ascends with all these songs in unison - the song of the soul, the song of the nation, the song of humanity, the song of the cosmos - resounding together, blending in harmony, circulating the sap of life, the sound of holy joy.
- The Kabbalah, a Jewish mystical text/way

A Jew never worships as an isolated individual but as a part of the Community of Israel. Yet it is within the heart of every individual that prayer takes place. . . . every act of worship is an act of participating in an eternal service, in the service of all souls of all ages.

Our kinship with nature is a kinship of praise. All beings praise God. We live in a community of praise. The cosmos is a congregation in need of a Cantor. . . . It is man who is the Cantor of the universe, and in whose life the secret of cosmic prayer is disclosed. When we sing we sing for all things. . . . The universe is a score of eternal music, and we are the cry, we are the voice.
- Rabbi Abraham Heschel

We have, in my view, created a society in which people find it harder and harder to show one another basic affection. In place of the sense of community and belonging, which we find such a reassuring feature of less wealthy (and generally rural) societies, we find a high degree of loneliness and alienation. Despite the fact that millions live in close proximity to one another, it seems that many people, especially among the old, have no one to talk to but their pets.
- The Dalai Lama

All believers are brothers; so make peace between your brothers, and be mindful of your duty to Allah that you may be shown mercy.

The Believers are like a single man; if his eye is affected, all of him is affected, and if his head is affected all of him is affected. . . . None of you have believed until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. . . .All creatures are God's children, and those dearest to God are the ones who treat His children kindly. He from whose injurious conduct his neighbor is not sage will not enter Paradise.
- The Qur'an

I'll post my thoughts on these quotes later on today - right now, it's time for a late breakfast - my family & I are hungry! :-)

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

One River, Many Wells - Chapter 3

Light

We now know that matter is trapped light: slow-moving light; or "frozen" light as physicist David Bohm puts it. Yet, because for every particle of matter in the universe there are one billion particles of light, we are amazed to learn how special matter is, how rare matter is, what a rare gift it is to be flesh or matter, that is, slow-moving light. Matter is light. It is very special light
- Matthew Fox

Yahweh, how great you are!
Clothed in majesty and glory,
wrapped in a robe of light!
- The Psalms

The word "glory" ("doxa" in Greek) bespeaks light, radiance, and splendor. Nature is filled with the glory of God, who is king of glory and has poured out the divine radiance into Creation. We hear that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims His handiwork.
- Matthew Fox, commenting on the passage from the Psalms

The human body is a wick, and a light is kindled above. . . . The light on one's head needs oil, the oil of good deeds!
- The Zohor, a Jewish mystical text

I am the light of the world;
anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark;
he will have the light of life.

As long as I am in the world
I am the light of the world.
- Jesus, John's Gospel, New Testament

The Word was the true light
that enlightens all men;
and he was coming into the world.

All that came to be had life in him
and that life was the light of people,
a light that shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower.

The Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us,
and we saw his glory [doxa],
the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
- John's Gospel

God is light; and one who approaches this light is illuminated.

God puts into creatures, along with a kind of "sheen," a reflection of God's own luminous "ray," which is the fountain of all light . . . Shining reflections of the divine radiance must be understood as the sharing of God's likeness and constitute those "beautifying" reflections that make beauty in things. The being of things is itself their light and the measure of the being of a thing is the measure of its light.
- St. Thomas Aquinas

There is no Creation that does not have a radiance. Be it greenness or seed, blossom or beauty. It could not be creation without it. All Creation is gifted with the ecstasy of God's light.
- Hildegard of Bingen

I like the theme of light (why else would I put it up here?!) - it reminds me of my high school years. . .

I started seriously re-attending Mass in High School as a freshman - I started playing trumpet with our choir, which is the way I believe the Spirit led me back home. I also started reading the Bible as a freshman, after a Senior that I knew challenged me to explore my Christianity more fully.

After this, I started attending a prayer group in a neighboring parish. Shortly thereafter, I clearly remember one night not being able to sleep. I was staring up at the bottom of the bunk bed (my younger brother slept on top), and I just could not sleep. So I started praying - talking to God. I started by telling him how I was doing, what was going on with my life. I then started praying for different things in my life, which led to praying for the people in my life. The more I talked, the more people it seemed I had to pray for - prayers of thanks, prayers of petition, prayers of wonder and awe. I talked with God that night for about three hours straight, sometimes crying, sometimes laughing, all the time marveling at the conversation.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt like some of the people in the gospels - like a veil had been removed from my sight . . . like a haziness had been blown away . . . like the dawn was over and the true light of the sun had finally flooded in.

I felt like a new life had started in me - like I had been flooded with the Spirit of fire & light and that it had transformed me just as Jesus had transformed at his transfiguration.

So I like the image of light. Quite a bit. :-)

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

One River, Many Wells - Chapter 2

Creation- All Our Relations

The ultimate end of the divine will is the divine goodness, and the nearest thing to that among created things is the good of the whole universe. . . . Thus, among created things, what God cares for most is the order of the universe.

The whole universe together participates in the divine goodness more perfectly, and represents it better, than any single creature whatever.

Every creature participates in some way in the likeness of the divine essence. All things love God. All things are united according to friendship to each other and to God.
- St. Thomas Aquinas

Creation is allowed in intimate love
to speak to the Creator as if to a lover.
- Hildegard of Bingen

Creation is the extension of God.
Creation is God encountered in space and time.
Creation is the infinite in the garb of the finite.
To attend to Creation is to attend to God.
- Ancient Rabbinic teaching

We all possess a little fragment of the first bit of life on earth. Consequently, everything that's alive is related - and a microscopic part of us all is three and a half billion years old.
- David Brower, scientist

When we look into the heart of a flower, we see clouds, sunshine, minerals, time, the earth, and everything else in the cosmos in it. Without clouds, there could be no rain, and there would be no flower. In fact, the flower is made entirely of non-flower elements; it has no independent, individual existence.

One thing is made up of all other things. One thing contains the whole cosmos. . . . A piece of bread contains sunshine. . . . Without a cloud, the wheat cannot grow. So when you eat a piece of bread, you eat the cloud, you eat the sunshine, you eat the minerals, time, space, everything.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Every hydrogen atom in our bodies has been in existence for fourteen billion years - imagine how many stories they have to tell us alone. What a pity when culture distracts us from this deep self-awareness by its titillating bon-bons.
- Matthew Fox, commenting on Thich Nhat Hanh's quote

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of the sun,
Radiance of the moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.
- St. Patrick

One of the Natural laws is that you've got to keep things pure. Especially the water. Keeping the water pure is one of the first laws of life. If you destroy the water, you destroy life. All life on Mother Earth depends on pure water, yet we spill every kind of dirt and filth and poison into it.

Another of the Natural laws is that all life is equal. That's our philosophy. You have to respect life - all life, not just your own. The key word is "respect." Unless you respect the earth, you destroy it. Unless you respect all life as much as your own, you become a destroyer, a murderer. Man sometimes thinks he's been elevated to be the controller, the ruler. But he's not. He's only a part of the whole. Man's job is not to exploit but to oversee, to be a steward. Man has responsibility, not power.
- Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation

I like the sacramental worldview espoused by my Catholic Christian faith - that all of creation can become a vehicle for God's grace, God's presence in our lives. Viewing the cosmos (all of creation) as a vehicle for God's continued self-revelation should, in theory, awaken us to the destruction we're scaring our home with. It should help us remember that we are stewards, not kings - workers, not the boss. Unfortunately (to paraphrase from the Fellowship of the Ring), we crave power, and one of the best ways to get power in our time is through wealth - and if that means destroying the planet, well - so what? We're only around a couple of years - the future generation can deal with it, right?

We are destroying God's life as surely as we are destroying our own, and in the process we are making it harder for our children and our children's children to live healthy, joyous lives.

May God grant us wisdom and humility to know better and, even more importantly, to act on that knowledge.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Interlude

Found another quote I liked, from a book I'm planning on buying called Dark Nights of the Soul by Thomas Moore.

Here it is:
Every human life is made up of the light and the dark, the happy and the sad, the vital and the deadening. How you think about this rhythm of moods makes all the difference. Are you going to hide out in self-delusion and distracting entertainments? Are you going to become cynical and depressed? Or are you going to open your heart to a mystery that is as natural as the sun and the moon, day and night, summer and winter.

Enjoy! :-)

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

One River, Many Wells - Chapter 1

More quotes :-)

Deep Ecumenism and the Universality of Experience

The truly wise person kneels at the feet of all creatures.
- Mechtild of Magdeburg

The great religions of the world are not competitive but complementary. One religion is not the enemy of the other, but all religions are faced by common enemies: skepticism, atheism, and perhaps worst of all, severe indifference. Only if the religions of the world stand together will they preserve themselves [and] help to bring about a new manifestation of the world spirit.
- Nikhilananda, Hindu scholar

The worship of the different religions,
which are like so many small streams,
move together to meet God, who is like the ocean.
- Rajjab, Hindu mystic

All religions,
all this singing,
is one song.
The differences are just
illusion and vanity.
The sun's light looks a little different
on this wall than it does on that wall . . .
but it's still one light.
- Rumi, Sufi poet & mystic

Through the practice of deep looking and deep listening, we become free, able to see the beauty and values in our own and others' tradition. Yet, to get to the point of seeing the beauty and value in others' traditions, one must look and listen deeply into one's own. One must practice some path along the journey that leads to depth. One must enter the well of mystical experience.
- Matthew Fox, quoting and expanding on Buddhist practitioner Thich Nhat Hanh

When you touch someone who authentically represents a tradition, you not only touch his or her tradition, you also touch your own.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

It is my belief that in the Presence of God there is neither male nor female, white nor black, Gentile nor Jew, Protestant nor Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, nor Moslem, but a human spirit stripped to the literal substance of itself before God.
- Howard Thurman, spiritual mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Every truth without exception - and whoever may utter it - is from the Holy Spirit. The old pagan virtues were from God. Revelation has been made to many pagans.
- St. Thomas Aquinas, 13th-century theologian & Doctor of the Church

As a practicing Roman Catholic, I especially like the last quote from Aquinas - it reminds me that even in my own faith tradition there have been those individuals who have so deeply touched the heart of God that they no longer have to fear other religious traditions - they can affirm God's own Spirit blowing where it will and speaking to all people of authentic good will.

Enjoy - more quotes forthcoming!

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

One River, Many Wells - Introduction

I'm re-reading a book I got about a year ago called One River, Many Wells by Matthew Fox. I really like some of the quotes from the book, so I'll post here for the edification of those that read! :-)

From the Introduction

Humanity will find that it is not a diversity of creeds, but the very same creed which is everywhere proposed . . . . Even though you are designated in terms of different religions, yet you presuppose in all this diversity one religion which you call wisdom.
- Nicholas of Cusa, 15th-century theologian, scientist, mystic and Cardinal

If one starts with doctrines, the arguments are endless . . . . But when one comes to the level of interior experience, that is where the meeting takes place. That is the challenge.
- Fr. Bede Griffith, Benedictine monk, speaking of sharing our faith with others of different faiths

Divinity is an Underground river that no one can stop and no one can dam up.
- Meister Eckhart, Catholic mystic

There is one underground river - but there are many wells into that river: an African well, a Taoist well, a Buddhist well, a Jewish well, a Muslim well, a goddess well, a Christian well, and aboriginal wells. Many wells but one river. To go down a well is to practice a tradition, but we would make a grave mistake (an idolatrous one) if we confused the well itself with the flowing waters of the underground river.
- Matthew Fox, commenting on the quote above by Meister Eckhart

The biggest obstacle to interfaith sharing is people's unhealthy relationships to their own faith.
- The Dalai Lama

All paths lead to God, for God is on them all equally for the person who knows.
- Meister Eckhart

The book is divided into 4 sections (Relating to Creation, Relating to Divinity, Relating to Ourselves, and Relating to the Future), with 18 total chapters subdivided into those 4 categories.

Matthew Fox aims to provide source quotations from all of the worlds spiritual/religions traditions in order for the reader to start to see how the 18 themes he proposes cut across religious boundaries and make up a human longing for the divine, for God.

For this introduction, I would only add a caution, one which is touched on in the quotations I gave but which I would to like make explicit: In order, I think, to fully appreciate the beauty and wonder that each and every world religion can give us, we need to be fully rooted in our own faith. For example, I cannot share the beauty and richness of my Catholic Christian tradition if I do not know it well. I cannot give to others what I do not have. I can make connections with other faiths to the degree that I have already connected with my own faith. If I never go deeply into my well (to extend Meister Eckhart's metaphor from above), I will never by able to share deeply with others. We can only share our experience and grasp of our own faith. If we sample too many wells but never delve deeply into one of them, our spirituality, like our well-delving, will be shallow - easily uprooted and blown away with any obstacle that comes before us.

So take time to get to know your spiritual/religious tradition - what you learned as a child growing up in your household. For some reason - your to find or create - God put you into that household, that faith - see if you look through the eyes of Divinity and find the wonder, the richness, the Spirit-filled exuberance that all religions have to offer. Then and only then will you be ready to learn from other faiths, and to share what you yourself know as well.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Why Not?

I had a conversation with a friend about sexual intercourse before marriage . . . here are some of the thoughts I had (names have been ommited to protect the innocent!) :-)

Ok - I hate to be the bringer of bad news, so I'll preface my comments with my standard disclaimers: most of what I tell you will be true for most of the population, which means (in my head) that 99% of what I will type is 99% applicable to you and your significant other (and the rest of the world!).

So here goes . . .

1. Long distance relationships are hard - extremely hard. And love alone can't sustain a relationship. I know that sounds terrible and terribly stupid, but it's a pretty well established fact. When two people are apart, the longer they are apart the more chance there is that one or the other will start liking someone else. It's also hard to sustain romantic, passionate feelings when the object of affection is not there. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I am saying it's pretty difficult, even with two people who start out very much in love.

2. > Do we really HAVE to wait until marriage for sex?

The short and easy answer - no. (Shocking, isn't it!) :-) (I'll explain more in a bit)

> I
> know you're probably a little
> disappointed in us, that we're actually thinking about
> it.

I'm not disappointed - I want to make that very clear - almost all people struggle with this question at some point in their lives, and your teenage years, especially if you're involved in a romantic relationship, tend to bring the question up to the front of your brain :-)

On to some kind of answer now . . .

1. Having sex - making love - sexual intercourse - it almost doesn't matter what you call it - the end result is the same.

You also mention that both of you had already decided to wait until marriage, but now the question has an added time urgency to it (as she's leaving for college) - and you both want to put a physical act to your emotions.

As if you hadn't guessed, I'll challenge y'all to wait again - wait *until* you get married. And I'll tell you why :-)

If you have sexual intercourse right now, you will bond yourself to each other, moreso that you already have. However, you will not be totally truthful with each other.

Sexual intercourse should take place in within a committed, loving relationship. A *publicly* committed relationship, which is what marriage is in our culture. It sends a public message that you and your spouse will do whatever it takes to stay together,
for the good of your relationship, for the good of any kids that come your way, and for the good of the stability of our cultures/nation/groups.

Yeah, it's a far cry from romance, but marriage has always been more about the future of our race, and economics than love (kinda sucks, huh?) :-)

But back to the point - if you engage in sexual intercourse, you will be telling each other that you are committed to each other. Notice that there's no "public" involved there - no sense of commitment to others. It will be far easier to discard each other
(break up) later on, even if you have had sex, because no one else knows about it.

And think about that for a sec - no one else knows . . . most of the time, if we're getting ready to do something others shouldn't know about, it's an action that we already have a sense is wrong. After a wedding, everyone knows that the couple will go home and have sex. The couple knows it (and is prob looking forward to it!). No onw actually talks about it, but it's understood, accepted, and encouraged. But when
two people decide that they're gonna have sex before marriage, no one knows, and for the most part, they don't tell anyone - it's a hidden, secret thing - not the best way to celebrate one of the best gifts God has given us.

And like I've said before, physical intimacy should not happen until there has been emotional, mental & spiritual intimacy. Quite a lot of it. Until people have talked about all their hopes & dreams, their good points & bad points; until they've seen each other at their best & at their worst; until they've laughed with each other, at each other; until they've cried together; until they've fought and made up; until
they've prayed together; until they've met each others families and friends; until they've talked about how many kids they want, where they will live, how & where
they will spend holidays, who will work and who will stay home, how chores will be divided up in a marriage . . . etc.

Once all of that's done, then you're ready for sexual intimacy.

What's more, each and every act of sexual intimacy should be open to having children. You are definitely not ready to have children.

And condoms are only about 50% effective when teenagers use them (when adults use them the effectiveness goes up to about 90%, but since teens are usually nervous and in a hurry to get to the good part, the condom ends up going on incorrectly, or too late, or is forgotten in the passion of the moment).

And it only takes one time to get pregnant . . . and if that happens, your life will be
totally changed, and the life you bring into this world will get shortchanged, because you are not ready for a baby.

So in short - you don't have to wait - you don't have to do anything you don't want to . . . but think about this decision - really think about it - think about it when you're not together, when you're not thinking about how much you'll miss each other. Think about how you'd feel if your parents found out - think about how you'd feel if God were in the room with y'all when it happened . . .

But mostly remember what you wrote "I don't think we're ready" - that tells me, more than anything else, that you're not. You may want to - desperately, enticingly want to - and that's normal with someone you love, it's the way God made us, to want to have physical intimacy with the one we love the most . . . but if you're even having a ghost of a thought that you're not ready, then you're not.

And you need to decide *now* what you'll do - don't be thinking about it when you're alone, and you've already been kissing & what not - at that point your bodies will take over and you'll be done before you know it.

This kind of decision must always be made *before* you get into a situation where you need to decide. Choose now, and then help each other stick to that choise.

One last thought - the first time you have sexual intercourse, it's usually not all romantic and perfect like you see in the movies. You'll both feel awkward, your bodies will be awkward, it'll hurt (for the girl). Especially if you're in a car, or in someone's house where a parent may come in at any time, you'll both feel pressured and a little guilty . . . it's not the best way to have a first time sexual experience.

And if you don't end up getting married, you'll have to tell your future spouse that you didn't wait . . .

Please - don't go through with it. I've talked to too many people, both older teens and
adults, who have so many regrets about a pre-marriage sexual experience. I want your first time to be with the person you have married, not the persin you *may* marry.

You're both too special to give in to your longings . . . wait . . . and I guarantee that if you both wait, it'll be a much more satisfying experience, both because you'll be going crazy for each other, and because you know that God is smiling and approving as you celebrate his love and your love with each other.

Some food for thought,
Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

8th Grade Retreat

Hey all :-)

Our 8th graders from the school where I work at are graduating tomorrow night (Wednesday).

Yesterday (Monday) about 40 of them went to a retreat at a local camp. It was a pretty laid back day - we sat around and talked for a while. A former teacher came back to visit them for the day, and the 8th graders were really glad to see her. I think she was just as glad to see them, to reconnect with them.

One of the things the 8th graders were supposed to do was reflect on how they had changed in their 14 years of life. When asked what one of their greatest fears was, several of them said that death was - either death in general or the specific death of a loved one.

So in no particular order, some random thoughts on death & dying . . .

I remember that St. Francis used to call death his sister, a gentle sibling that would come when you needed her most and take you to heaven.

And I wonder if their views on death will change as they get older, as they have other people in their lives die.

Some people, IMNSHO, withdraw from others, choosing lives of quiet desperation so that they can become inured to the death around them. They seem to want to hide from the inescapable fact that everything dies. They think that if they have no close friends, no human contact, no emotions, no intertwined fragments of their lives then they will not have to hurt - they will not have to go through the death of a loved one.

The Buddha taught that all life is suffering. He taught that we suffer because we cling to illusion of permanency - we want to believe that the people, places and things in our lives will be around forever - that *we'll* be around forever.

But that's a lie - everything is impermanent - everything dies. Our universe is slowly dissolving into chaos, towards chaos. Our lives are always winding down, sometimes cut short when least expected. Our toys break down. Relationships end.

And the Buddha understood that - looked at it with clear understanding and taught that we should not freeze our hearts because of that one fact.

He said that once we understood that all of life was fading and ephemeral, we would start to let go of our illusion of control and immortality. We would start to engage the people, places and things around us in a detached sort of way - living life to the fullest, always aware that at some point the place we love to go visit, the person we love to spend time with, the hobby we now have - everything would eventually fade away.

That wasn't supposed to make you withdraw, however - it was supposed to spur you to action *now* - action in *this* instant, in *this* moment.

Jumping back to my own Catholic faith, we are taught that death is nothing more than the twinkling of an eye - there is no such thing as death. Either we are alive here on earth or we are alive in resurrected bodies in heaven or hell.

Death is not something to be feared. It hurts, of course, but not for the person dying. They are beyond the earthly realm. It hurts us who are still alive, because of our attachment, our longing to be with the one who has died.

And that is part of our human makeup - we hurt because we love, and we love because we are made in the image of a God who *is* love. We are made to love, we are made for love, we are made of love.

Anyways, I may ramble on some more on the topic, as it's in my head at the moment. But for now, I will enjoy my life to the fullest by eating of the migas that my wonderful wife has cooked.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Like my background?

I found my background here - there may be some you enjoy as well! :-)



Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Why ShadowMage?

Hey y'all! :-)

So why is it called ShadowMage's Domain?

I've been playing the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons since I was in junior high (I'm 32 now). A few years ago I played one of my all-time favorite characters - a shadowmage named Sol'kanar ShadowStalker. (For those in the know, we were playing 2nd Edition, using all the Skills & Powers books; for others in the know, yes I stole his first name from a 4th edition Magic card).

I have fond memories of my PC using his shadowblend power to meld into shadows and cast spells from there, all in relative safety . . . the rest of the party hated him :-)

This is my first attempt at a blog - I may update regularly to semi-regularly.

Enjoy! :-)

Blessings & Peace,
ShadowMage