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Contemplation for Palm Sunday 

 

In light of the gospel reading, Matthew 21

Most each and every one of us over the past week including myself, has woken up at least once at 2 or 3pm, with fear in our hearts, fear of sickness, fear ultimately of death. In this time, we seem to be forced to encounter our own mortality, the potential death of our loved ones, death moving through our community. Every little sore throat, sniffle, headache, we feel perhaps ‘is this it?’. Death has come close to each of our hearts.

And we try to push it away with verses and prayers, but the fear just seems to return. And not feeling afraid just means we are in denial, for this pandemic is meant to confront us with  fear and death creeping into our hearts. It is like a caterpillar, creeping, eating away at our peace-of-mind, eating away at the fruit of our earthly calm.

And yet, the caterpillar is destined to be transmuted and take flight! 

Our fears, the reality of death, like the caterpillar, are meant to be transformed and transmuted. We actually cannot get rid of these friends because they are not meant to leave. The task is to redeem them. We are called to welcome them into the cocoon of our hearts- to wrap them in divine thoughts and wait for their rebirth. For the presence of death is actually meant to be our friend, not our enemy. Death is actually meant to become a true companion, never leaving our side. This thought, this way of seeing and holding the presence of death as true companion, with practice, strengthens our sense of life. It gives every moment a new potency, deeper value. Death as companion then breaks free into our souls- the butterfly takes flight. 

Jesus Christ, in our gospel today (Palm Sunday), entered Jerusalem with death as a companion. He knew His time had come, He welcomed death as a friend, His divine destiny. 

And His only fear was that His body would not last until His divine mission was completed. And this fear that Jesus carried was Holy because it was connected to His sacred mission in the world- the fear of being able to do the will of The Father.

In this way, let us be reminded by Jesus entering Jerusalem of the value of holy fear, for it is a gift that cleanses our hearts of our small-minded selfishness. Normal fear focuses our attention on the loss of our earthly lives, our personal possessions and our selfish desires that we could lose. But if we can lift our gaze to what God is asking of us in this time, to what Christ is calling us to fulfill, however small, then our fear will gradually become the butterfly of devotion to the divine will, the power to sacrifice for the Good. 

Dear Friends, the practice of redeeming death and fear means learning to live close to the threshold. We practice seeing what the angels see. Death and holy fear as companions gives our soul wings to move in the divine air all around us. 

Contemplation by Rev. Jonah Evans

I once went to an arboretum and saw an exhibit of valuable and exotic woods.  Some of the most beautiful of them had swirling twisting grain, or little black marks sprinkled through them.  I learned that these special grains form in a tree where it has been injured.  A burl or gall may form.  One might think that this injury would hinder the tree, that it should be removed, cut off.  But in fact the tree incorporates the wound into itself and grows differently in this area.  These woods are the ones most prized by artists and craftsmen for their uniqueness and beauty.

As human beings, we too have experienced injuries.  Whether they are within or without, whether personal or global, we have been wounded.  We may think that we would be better off without these wounds, we could be so much more helpful and productive without them.  We may want to disown them, to cut them off.  We may wish for them to be removed because they are so painful.
But when we consider who we turn to with our pain and our struggles, we find that they are the people who can say, “I understand.  I have been there too.”  These are the people who have been wounded and have integrated their wounds into themselves, who have grown through them.

And there is One who has experienced the worst of what a human being can suffer, who understands, who has been there too.  In the Risen One we can see that his wounds have become an essential part of his nature.  In artwork we see them depicted with light streaming from them.  They have healing power.  Seeing this, we can begin to accept that we too are wounded and begin to incorporate our wounds into our very being.  We grow through them and they become the most valuable and prized parts of us.  They have healing power.

Contemplation by Jeana Lee, Seminary Student


Dear Friends,

We live in challenging times, apocalyptic times.

Apocalypse means ‘lifting the vail’. It is not so much the destruction that gives apocalypse its meaning but the experience that everything is being exposed, challenged to the core. Apocalypse is that what is on the inside is revealed- both the good and the bad.

Egotism is being revealed. For instance there are individuals buying much needed items and then selling them at high prices, profiting off suffering. Entering grocery stores these days, one can feel the panic in the air as individuals are stocking up for themselves.

And love is arising. The other day I went to our neighborhood park and there were many people talking and asking if we needed anything, if they could help. My neighbor, a Muslim man named Ali, asked if I needed any financial support or anything at all.

What is hidden in our hearts is being called out. But let us strive to cultivate freedom of conscience with each other and refrain from judgement and condemnation. For morality itself must not fall into the abyss. Let us remember that our moral decisions are only valuable for the hierarchies if they are chosen freely. Love can never be dictated, legislated or persuaded. Love can only be revealed, inspired from heart to heart. And only deeds of love are of any use for Christ and The Father. Therefore, let us refrain from dismissing others because they are going against our deepest held beliefs or because they are not being reasonable. We are called to write into our hearts that human beings can only be led by their free conscience if morality is to be real. 

Let us also cultivate everything that can help subdue fear. For fear is unhelpful for our souls and unhelpful for our immune systems. We know that fear is largely snuffed-out in an environment of love and peace. Courage, gratitude, the will to help others despite the actual risk, these are medicine.

We may even choose to reduce our exposure to the fearful images in video games, movies and tv shows that burden our souls. Or we may choose to reduce our intake of animal meat. Many animals have been raised and slaughtered in such a way as to cause tremendous suffering and fear in them and when we ingest them, we also ingest these feelings into our souls. Perhaps it is also important to go into sleep with prayer and divine images as these work against the forces of fear in the environment. For those of us who are choosing to stay home in isolation, let us use this opportunity to go deeply inward, cultivate meditation, study and pray. It can also be a tremendous opportunity to strengthen our relationships with our loved ones and family. All of this can give our hearts strength!

Above all, let us not loose heart. Let us remember that the most important medicine is cultivating the feeling of Christ Jesus’ presence with us. He is offering us peace at every moment. Whether we are able to attend communion service, or whether it is best to stay at home, we can pray whenever possible ‘my heart be filled with your pure life, oh Christ’…..and try to feel His life filling our hearts.

And if we get sick for whatever reason, let us courageously meet it as a way to connect to the suffering of humanity and to Christ. For even though the dwelling is sick, the soul can always be made whole in and through Christ.


Contemplation by Rev. Jonah Evans

 

Relevant Excepts from GA 154, Rudolf Steiner

“….the important point we want to make today is that germs can become dangerous only if they are allowed to flourish. Germs should not be allowed to flourish. Even materialists will agree with this statement, but they will no longer agree with us if we proceed further and, from the standpoint of proper spiritual science, speak about the most favorable conditions for germs. Germs flourish most intensively when we take nothing but materialistic thoughts into sleep with us. There is no better way to encourage them to flourish than to enter sleep with only materialistic ideas, and then to work from the spiritual world with the ego and the astral body on those organs that are not part of the blood and the nervous system. The only other method that is just as good is to live in the center of an epidemic or endemic illness and to think of nothing but the sickness all around, filled only with a fear of getting sick. That would be equally effective. If fear of the illness is the only thing created in such a place and one goes to sleep at night with that thought, it produces afterimages, Imaginations impregnated with fear. That is a good method of cultivating and nurturing germs. If this fear can be reduced even a little by, for example, active love and, while tending the sick, forgetting for a time that one might also be infected, the conditions are less favorable for the germs…”

Steiner continues…”A short time ago, a very dear friend of ours died, and many of us attended his cremation. He would have celebrated his forty-third birthday tomorrow, on May 6. In the final years of his life, he suffered much. I would like to tell here, parenthetically as it were, a wonderful story from his last years as his wife told it to me. During his great suffering, our friend fought not against admitting to himself that he had to suffer, but against saying that he was ill. He was not ill, he said. He suffered, yes, but he was not ill, and he was adamant that such a statement should not be taken as quibbling but as something meaningful. This definition, “I suffer, but I am not ill,” arose from his awareness that what he carried within him as spiritual science, what supported and carried him inwardly, defeated all attacks of illness. He was aware that he suffered, but the health of his soul is so great that, when he compared it to his physical condition, he could not call himself ill. This definition is very important and well-suited to permeate our soul as a feeling.
Anyway, we saw how the person concerned spent his last years on earth in a sick body, in a suffering body. Yet he did not see himself as sick but only as suffering. If we compare that with the spiritual life that has now begun for our friend, we will have a worthy image of what connects our earth existence with life after death. It is a fact of the spiritual world that a series of Imaginations was prepared in his body, a body that showed the symptoms of illness. A series of Imaginations, powerful Imaginations, lived, so to speak, in the sick limbs. He was completely filled with the content of the spiritual worlds. They lived in him in such a way that they worked on all those organs we are usually not as aware of as we are of our brain and nervous system, that is, organs we experience on a more subconscious level. These powerful Imaginations lived in these organs, and all the more so, the more outwardly ill these organs became. They prepared themselves and now face the soul of the deceased as a mighty tableau of the spiritual world. Now he is living in the images that were trapped in his sick organs, especially in his final years. They prepared themselves in such intensity that they now surround him as his spiritual world.
It is impossible to see more beautiful worlds, or to see the spiritual cosmos more perfectly and more beautifully, than those that blossom and unfold in spiritual art, which cannot be observed better anywhere else than through such a situation. Here, on the physical plane, an artist can create in beauty a piece of the world, so that the image on canvas or in marble lets us see more of the world than we do on our own. All of this, however, pales into insignificance in comparison to the spiritual world seen as it is and also as it arises and blossoms forth from the soul of the deceased who has been prepared by his karma in the way I have described. How he was prepared will be clear from his poetic works, which are now being printed and will appear soon. His poetry reveals that this kind of spiritual life and passage into the spiritual world after death are intimately connected with what we have for many years called the Christ-Impulse. The Christ-Impulse, in the sense spiritual science speaks of it, is beautifully alive in our friend’s poetry….”

The Weekly Word

Reflections on The Sunday Service for Children 
By Brenda Hammond

I left my beloved Richmond Hill community to come to Ottawa and give day-care to my grandson, who was about to turn one year old. He is now thirteen, and his younger brother eleven.  They do not attend a Waldorf school, and so don’t experience the soul-nourishment the curriculum would provide. And, of course, they’re very much into video games and all that modern technology offers. 

But once every two months or so, I am blessed by hosting the Act of Consecration in my home. Although my grandsons are the only attendees, Jonah generously agreed to hold the Children’s Service for them.

They arrive early, bringing plenty of youthful energy along with them. When it’s time, and all is ready, they head down the stairs followed by one or two of their parents, to the basement where we have our makeshift chapel.  Reinhard in his long white robes, greets them at the door at the base of the stairwell, takes each one’s hand, looks him in the eye and speaks kind but solemn words to alert them to what they are about to experience.

Two, three or four adults are already sitting, to lend support and participate by listening. 

On the altar, the candles are already lit, glowing golden against a deep purple backdrop. Above hang two pictures: the face of Christ with his hand raised to bless, and a reproduction of the Isenheim crucifixion with Mary and John on either side. 

Silently, expectantly and yes, reverently, the boys step forward to stand side by side before the altar. There, the priest is waiting, clad in his white robes, with a shining silk cloak of the appropriate colours —usually lavender and deep gold— over his shoulders. 

The mood is set.  The service begins. Uplifting significant words, the Lord’s prayer, the Gospel reading. The boys sing… or at least, follow along as best they can while Jonah sings, “The sun is in my heart….”

The service ends with Claudia playing heavenly notes on her lyre, so the mood lingers for a little while.

Now it’s over. The boys scamper up the stairs and soon head out into their world again. But I know that what they have experienced —hearing sacred words, seeing beautiful and holy images, speaking that all-important response to the priest — will work into their souls in a lasting, helpful and meaningful way.

p.s. Also highly recommended for adults!

It is perhaps surprising that the first encounter that the Son of God had on earth, the first meeting that the living creator had on earth was not a disciple, was not even a human being. The first encounter that the Son of God had on earth was with a spiritual being, a fallen angel, the adversary. 

Our gospel this week (Mt 4) then describes that the Son of God denies the will of this adversary and affirms the will of God. In essence, the first action that the Son of God has to do on earth is to say no three times to the voice of the adversary and yes three times to the will of God.

-He says no to the voice of materialism- the voice that says bread and my earthly needs are the most important.

-He says no to the voice of pride- to the voice that says I’m special and God will make manifest all of my personal desires.

-He says no to the voice power- to the voice that is content only when everything is as we would like to be. 

Dear friends, if we are to fulfill our sacred destiny and become Sons of God, we too must learn to imitate Him in the lonely dessert of our lives.

Therefore let us learn to say Yes to the will of God….

-Yes to making The Spirit our lifes’ blood- making the spirit the central focus of our lives.

-Let us learn to love to the feeling of humility before God more than the feeling of being special. 

-Let us learn to say Yes to surrender. Surrendering our personal will to the wisdom working and weaving in our lives.


Contemplation by Rev. Jonah Evans

What are we “worth?”

Sometimes people measure their worth by the size of their income or investments, although we know there are many ways we cannot measure our worth to others in terms of dollars or euros… But it is deeply ingrained in our economic life that income is compensation for labour or merit. Effort, ability, dependability—should somehow be reflected in how we are rewarded. 

Thus is it deeply unsettling and even shocking to hear in this parable from Matthew about how different the kingdom of heaven is from an earthly household! The picture is clear about the householder going out to hire workers at different times—epochs of the day—in the freshness of dawn, in mid-morning, in the heat of noon, in mid-afternoon and as the day cools just before sunset. 

The early workers agree on the value of a day’s work, but the later workers trust they will be paid, or the latest perhaps go to work for the sake of being able to work. And everyone in the end receives one denarius. The one who grumbles that he was not paid more is addressed by the householder (Christ), as “friend.” 

This word translated in the Greek text is “hetairos,” not “philos,” which is also a common term of endearment. Matthew uses this term “hetairos” only three times in the whole gospel, pointing to a subtle significance. The first use of this word is here in Matthew 20:13. The next place is addressing the man who comes to the royal wedding without a wedding garment, Matthew 22:12. And the final use of this word comes at Gethsemane, addressing the betrayer. 

“Hetairos” can also be translated as comrade, acknowledging the importance of being a “co-worker.” And so the workers in the vineyard are not merely workers: they are co-workers with and for God! From this perspective, they are paid with a reward that cannot be more or less. A denarius is a silver coin used by the Romans that is impressed with the name and portrait of Caesar, who gives the value to the coin. The name “denarius” has the number “10” woven into it. It represents Caesar’s saying, “I give worth.” 

The wages for the workers in the vineyard become the power to develop their “I.” The carriers of an “I” given by God will in the future ascend to the 10th rank in the hierarchies, just below the angels.

What are we “worth?” We are worth the love of the Father and co-working with God.


Contemplation by Rev. Susan Locey

What are we “worth?”

Sometimes people measure their worth by the size of their income or investments, although we know there are many ways we cannot measure our worth to others in terms of dollars or euros… But it is deeply ingrained in our economic life that income is compensation for labour or merit. Effort, ability, dependability—should somehow be reflected in how we are rewarded. 

Thus is it deeply unsettling and even shocking to hear in this parable from Matthew about how different the kingdom of heaven is from an earthly household! The picture is clear about the householder going out to hire workers at different times—epochs of the day—in the freshness of dawn, in mid-morning, in the heat of noon, in mid-afternoon and as the day cools just before sunset. 

The early workers agree on the value of a day’s work, but the later workers trust they will be paid, or the latest perhaps go to work for the sake of being able to work. And everyone in the end receives one denarius. The one who grumbles that he was not paid more is addressed by the householder (Christ), as “friend.” 

This word translated in the Greek text is “hetairos,” not “philos,” which is also a common term of endearment. Matthew uses this term “hetairos” only three times in the whole gospel, pointing to a subtle significance. The first use of this word is here in Matthew 20:13. The next place is addressing the man who comes to the royal wedding without a wedding garment, Matthew 22:12. And the final use of this word comes at Gethsemane, addressing the betrayer. 

“Hetairos” can also be translated as comrade, acknowledging the importance of being a “co-worker.” And so the workers in the vineyard are not merely workers: they are co-workers with and for God! From this perspective, they are paid with a reward that cannot be more or less. A denarius is a silver coin used by the Romans that is impressed with the name and portrait of Caesar, who gives the value to the coin. The name “denarius” has the number “10” woven into it. It represents Caesar’s saying, “I give worth.” 

The wages for the workers in the vineyard become the power to develop their “I.” The carriers of an “I” given by God will in the future ascend to the 10th rank in the hierarchies, just below the angels.

What are we “worth?” We are worth the love of the Father and co-working with God.


Contemplation by Rev. Susan Locey


On Becoming a Member of The Christian Community-by Richard Chomko


I’ve been coming to services at the Christian Community in Toronto since before the turn of the century.  I was even married in The Christian Community, brought our children to Sunday school and had them confirmed there.  However, officially, I was not a member.  My wife Elisabeth, would say she had to go to the AGMs because she was a member but, I didn’t think much of it. I thought it was a formality; an administrative matter.

Since the Seminary landed here this past October, I’ve been going to services a lot and, have been generally feeling more a part of things.  Before Christmas, in the Wednesday morning Living with Christ study group, Jonah announced that he was going to do a course that would be for members.  It was enough of a nudge that I asked him a few days later about becoming a member. 

Later, I realized, I would not have been able to attend that course anyway because I would be away, and as it turned out, the course never did take place.  However, I still wanted to proceed with becoming a member. It seemed the right next step. 

I met with Jonah and one other person who was preparing to become a member, on a couple of occasions in January. In these meetings, Jonah explained what was involved in becoming a member.  He went through in detail, unpacking the Creed of the Christian Community which, is read after the Gospel during the Act of Consecration.  It encapsulates many of the central ideas on which The Christian Community is based.

After I affirmed that I understood what he had explained and still wanted to become a member, Jonah performed with me, the ceremony of becoming a member.  Like the Sacrament of Consultation, it involves standing at the altar with the Priest and then ceremonial words being spoken.

Afterwards, walking home, I felt a definite feeling which, I identified as joy.  It was a kind of exuberance.  I felt like running and, I ran a bit on and off, on my walk home.  I’m not someone who’s overly in touch with their feelings, and joy is not something I had been feeling a lot of, so it stood out for me.

For at least a day or two after, I could feel an ongoing flow of some kind of energy or life, which seemed to be most noticeable in the front of my head.  This feeling brought to my mind, the picture of the Christ as the vine and I, myself, as one of the branches.  What I was feeling in my head, corresponded to a flow of “sap” from the vine into the branch. 

At supper that night, my wife Elisabeth asked about my experience of becoming a member and how it felt.  I told her my overwhelming feeling was one of joy and, that on my way home, I began to run with joy!  She smiled, stood up and came around the dinner table to give me a hug and this is what she said, “Now you really are my brother in Christ.”  It was a nice moment. 

When I was first courting Elisabeth thirty-eight years ago, she had asked me if I was a Christian and, she said she wanted me to be her brother in Christ.  Looking back at that time, this is not what I would have had in mind. I may have told her I wasn’t sure if I was really a Christian but, that perhaps I could become more of a Christian in time. 

The Weekly Word

At Epiphany, not only do we celebrate the kings, we also celebrate the great baptism of Jesus. We celebrate the reception of Gods light and warmth coming down. We celebrate the Cosmic Sun-star of Grace gradually descending more and more into Jesus, more and more into the world, more and more into our hearts. 

And when our hearts receive Epiphany, when we have an epiphany, we feel we have received new light, new ways of seeing, new life.

Dear Friends, The reality of Epiphany calls us to become people of the gift, a community of the gift.

And yet, in our epiphany epistle/liturgy in the Act of Consecration, we hear ‘may the hearts light of our prayer, meet yearningly, the world light of the star of grace….’ 

This liturgy, these divine words, show us that the gift of grace that god is offering us all the time, must be met by the light of our yearning heart. To become more and more people of the gift, more and more a community of grace, we are called to practice yearning- yearning for what god is offering. For what Christ Jesus is offering is always peace, joy, love, patience, humility, the fruit of the Spirit. When was the last time we felt a yearning in our hearts for more humility? When was the last time we felt a yearning in our hearts for more love or joy? The Christian heart practices this yearning, this longing to receive, this hoping for light.


Contemplation by Rev. Jonah Evans

The winter solstice brings us the longest night, the shortest day of the year—around
here about 8 hours of daylight. In Nunavut 2000 kilometers to the north, the last sunrise
of the decade was in mid-November, the next sunrise will be the end of January. The
darkness is very present in our lives…outside and inside, on all levels.

In the depths of darkness, a little light—the hope of light—becomes significant. We have
carried over from ancient times looking in the night to the stars for orientation, in space
and also in our lives and relationships. Many ancient peoples celebrated the “Sol
Invictus,” the victorious birth of the sun—the Son God—at the winter equinox.

Altars in Christian churches are orientated to the rising sun, and since the rising place of
the sun swings greatly from solstice to solstice, the orientation in the Middle Ages was
also a dedication to a significant festival, seeking the source of light from the birth (at
the winter solstice) or the death and resurrection of Christ (at the spring equinox). Some
altars are oriented to the summer solstice, seeking inspiration, “prepare the way of the
Lord,” from the birth of John the Baptist. Our altar here shares the same angle of
orientation, 46 degrees north of east, as the great Gothic cathedral at Chartres!
Light gives us familiarity, we know where we are, we can find our way, we can
recognize in the light. And the signs in the sun, moon and stars became all the more
significant. But in the depths of darkness, other senses become stronger as we seek
orientation.

We become very sensitive, for example, to sound. The light was
experienced expressing itself in sound—the Bushmen could hear the songs of the stars,
the sun arose proclaiming, and “the stars spoke once to Man…” At the end of Advent,
the signs of the sun, moon and stars are mute… and in the deepening silence, we begin to hear the beating of our heart. And we realise that we ourselves can speak! We can
speak “the language of the light.” As we orient with the altar toward the rising sun, we
hear the Word from the altar, we turn with the God of peace toward “life,” and put on the
armour of faith and love and hope.

Contemplation by Rev. Susan Locey