The human being has so much power today, more than at any time in history. We have the power to organize almost our whole lives through a screen in the palm of our hand. We have the power to make 500 people fly through the air in a metal machine. We have more military power of destruction than ever before.

And yet, at the same time, even with all this power, human hearts have never been more anxious and empty. Anti-anxiety pills have become the norm and are the most profitable and growing drug today. The paradox for the human heart in our time is that the more outwardly powerful, in control and dominant we become, the more empty, anxious and fearful is our heart.

What if our obsession with power is really the longing for an outdated all-powerful tyrant God? What if the anxiety and fear that lives in our hearts is there because we keep trying to find our identity in control and power, when the source of our true being lives in a vulnerable powerlessness God of love?

For in Christ, God has let go of His power and become powerless, even unto the death on the cross. The challenging spiritual secret of today is that God is not all powerful anymore; he has given that up to be all loving, all sacrificing. And through practicing letting go of our own quest for power, our own need for control, we come closer to our divinity, closer to the source of our true being. For our truest humanity only awakens in Christ, in vulnerable powerless love toward all.

Dear Friends, God is not out there, pulling strings, aloof and in control. And to worship that fraudulent tyrant of a god is to unknowingly fill your cup with anxiety. For the true God is here with us in all that we do, walking with us, suffering what we suffer, overjoyed when we freely love one another. He has let go of His power so He can experience what it means to be human, so that He can, not dominate the world, but love the world.
This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by John 19 and the God of Love.

Yesterday, to my surprise, an aloe-vera plant showed me how to practice being human! He just sits there rooted in his pot, on my counter, in my kitchen. And in the midst of his rootedness, all his branches reaching toward the window- his green arms striving toward the light. Even though he never leaves his pot, never leaves my kitchen, He is always reaching to the sun.

Like the plant, every human spirit is designed to reach- we are actually made to reach-out to the spiritual sun through all that we do. We are not actually meant to touch the Son, or be the Son, for we would not be able to bear His heat and light. Like the plant, every human spirit is also called to practice accepting the pot and the room and the window that we have been given, always turning to The light from where and what we are.

Dear friends, inner peace is the art and practice of imitating an aloe-vera plant near a window on a bright afternoon- letting go of our desire that our pots should be different, that our windows are not big enough, and learning to love the reaching- in all that we do- always reaching for the warm healing Christ-Light of the world.

A great Saint once said, “ I saw the devil’s snares set like traps all over the earth, and I groaned and said, “What can pass through them, what is it that can protect us?” And I heard a holy voice softly saying, “Humility, Humility.”

It is astounding to think that our greatest armour against all the dangers that we face, our greatest protection against all of the darkness of this world, against all the hate and fear and anger and egotism that would snare our hearts at every turn, is not swords or guns, it is not armies or bank accounts, it is not even esoteric knowledge, or clairvoyant capacities; our greatest weapon against the  the adversary is humility, simply humility.

For within each one of us there is a humble heart. This humble one in us is able to let go of blame, and send warmth to those who cause pain. The humble one in us knows that we actually cannot attain humility, but can only let go of our obsession with self and serve what is being asked in this moment. And the humble one is not the one in us who wants to win, to defeat our adversary, but humility actively lets go of winning altogether, knowing that powerlessness is the very doorway to Him.

For Christ’s Love is our protection, and humility brings Him close.

Our children are not our own. They come from The Spirit through us, not from us. Our children choose us because we give them what they need for their journey, both wound and medicine. Children are gifts for the world, and their destinies shine into the darkness like starlight- light that shapes us parents too just as it shapes them. And even though we say ‘my children’, we would do well to remember that they do not belong to us.

And just as our children are not our own, our lives too do not belong to us. For we live because God gives us life, our efforts only ever take hold of what has already been given. Our various bodies are on loan, on loan from the angels and from the earth. Our destinies are tapestries woven by the hierarchies. Even our our core, our spirit itself, is a gift from the Elohim.

And yet, so often we forget. So often we forget what has been given. We forget because we fall into the illusion that it is only my will, only my thoughts that create reality. We forget because of how challenging it is to feel gratitude for all that we have. We forget that our life is a gift because we get so caught up in darkness that we don’t remember look up at our star.

Dear friends, at Epiphany we are called to remember The Star of Grace– to remember that our lives and our children and our destinies are meant to be exactly the way they are, for they are gifts given by the wisest of givers.
This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by his children.

Outside nature has wilted away. With few exceptions all the flowers have gone, leaves have fallen. Nature stands before us barren, brown and seemingly lifeless. Life has gone to sleep underground and inside the seeds and is now waiting for the blanket of snow. And yet, beneath the sleep of nature, behind the shortening days and the growing darkness, forces of life and light are at work, moving toward a new birth of the light, moving toward a resurrection of all life in spring.

It is no coincidence that it is this time of the year – when everything seems asleep, even dead – that we wait for a spiritual light to be born. When we look at a spiritual seed that is laid into the earth to overcome death.

Advent invites us to wake up to another realm of the world. Fall has been a busy time for most of us and we are often focused intensely on our material lives and on what is going on in the outside world. We are awake in this outside world but in another realm we are deeply asleep. Then Advent arrives and with it a growing realization that the spiritual forces that lead us to Christmas are speaking to our inner being. They want to lead us inside. We are urged to wake up to an inner light that wants to be born.

Advent is a time of awakening, of realizing that our existence in the outside material world is a form of sleep. And we are encouraged to wake up to a light-filled reality in the spirit – as Paul expressed it in his letter to the Ephesians nearly 2000 years ago:

“Awake, you who are sleeping,
Arise from the dead,
The Christ shall be your light,”

This contemplation by Rev. Contreras was inspired by Advent

Listening to the CBC the other day, there was an interview with a person, a member of the band performing at the Bataclan stage in Paris during the terrorist attacks. He said how in the midst of the massacre, a lot more people died then could have. He said that the reason so many more died was not because of the killers but because so many were throwing themselves in front of their friends, sacrificing themselves in love for their friends, rather than running in fear.

Within every human soul, within every human spirit there lives this power to overcome fear with love. And even though most of what we hear on the news is all the about the killing, and the fear, this story shows us that in the midst of the darkness we can find a hidden light of love overcoming fear. And today like no other, we are called to develop deep trust and faith in this hidden love, in this hidden courage that is actually the most powerful thing on earth. For no bombs, no guns, no government, no terrorist can overpower the human spirits capacity to love.

And yet, to become aware of this love working in the world, working in ourselves, is not easy, it is not natural, it is not automatic, for our egotism fights it at every turn. This is why strengthening the capacity in us that can see this love, this Christ in us and in others is and will be a struggle.

But if we can begin, for example, to see sacrificial love shining through the horror at the concert in Paris, if we can begin to see the power of Christ in and through the destructive forces of this world, then we become the seeing souls of our gospel today (Luke 21: 25-36), who stand upright before the Son of Man.

And practicing this is Advent, this is HIS new coming!

May we continue to have the courage to behold the light in the darkness!

This contemplation by Rev. Evans is inspired by Advent and the coming of Christ in the Etheric.

Every human soul is like soil – deep dark soil. It is deep because the depth of the human soul is limitless. It is dark because the darkness of the soul is like a great abyss, a dark reservoir holding all that is unknown in our being. And while this dark soil of our soul hides the source of our true being, it also hides the source of our fear. For there is a deep reservoir of fear that lives within every human soul, that inspires our egotism and so often remains hidden, goes unnoticed. But in times like ours with horrible acts of terror like in Paris, Lebanon and Syria, with Isis, with the migration of countless human beings fleeing wars and countries in ruin, and most of all with our media’s ability fabricate and exaggerate our fear, all this results in that the fearful darkness in the soil our souls is taking hold of and motivating our humanity today like never before.

And yet, we all know that if you plant a seed in the deep darkness of the soil – if you care for the seed and water it, eventually it will grow, blossom and bring fruit.

Christ and His Angels are calling each and every one of us to plant a seed in the dark soil of our souls. And even though we may feel that there is no solution for the dangers of our time except violent retribution which is always born of fear, we are called to plant the seed of trust in the midst of our dark fears. For trust in God, trust in the divine wisdom guiding our destinies, even though it is difficult, is the only antidote for fear.

And if we choose to take a stand in real faith, if we choose to tend and water the shoots of trust in our hearts instead of reacting out of fear, if we choose to be inspired by St. Paul and realize that this is not a battle of ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ but a battle of fear vs. faith in our souls, then the seed will grow, the seed will blossom and eventually faith will become much greater than our fear. For in the eyes of God, fear is the problem, not people.

May we not let the spirits of fear take our hearts!

This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by the recent events in Paris, Lebanon and Syria

We all know that if we have a job and don’t produce something, we get fired. We all know that if we simply lay on our couch or do whatever we want all day, the world will bring consequences. Even if we decide to ignore our spiritual impulses, difficulties in our destiny arise. The realities of our world are stern.

Our gospel today also proclaims a stern reality. The parable of the Talents proclaims to humans souls that we are not to just maintain what we have, we are not just to sit on the talents and capacities that we have been given. Our gospel today proclaims that the divine world demands something more.

This is because within everyone of us, within every human spirit there is a potential creator. The creator in us is that which can make more from what we have been given. The stern reality is that it is not enough for the divine father that we remain the way we are; for we are not meant to be mere creatures, we are called to become creators! And whatever we manage to create out of what we have been given, no matter how glamorous or how unseen, the divine father is overjoyed.

And yet, becoming creative is risky. For to become creative, we must confront the fear of failing. To become creative, we must confront the fear of what it would mean for our lives to succeed. Becoming a creator is risky because we must confront the fear that what we give is not enough, the fear that our creative offering is not important.

And so, dear friends, let us remember what we have been given. Let us not fall to the fear. Let us worthily fulfill our destiny by continually transforming the creature in us into creator – through Him who creates in all that we create.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans is inspired by the Parable of the Talents

When the call reaches us to be alert, to be prepared, we usually associate this with a negative event. It could be an emergency, a potential danger or an impending disaster that requires our full attention. Even worse when this call reaches us in the middle of the night. Do we have to be prepared for a natural disaster, do we have to keep watch in case of an enemy invasion?

Today’s Gospel (Matthew, Chapter 25), though, which tells us: “Be alert, you do not know the day or the hour”, does not talk about impending doom. The ten maidens that respond to this call of alertness and preparedness are waiting and watching throughout the night for the coming of the bridegroom.

They are told to be alert and prepared for joy, for goodness and for love.

We know that the best things in life need a significant amount of preparation. Going on a journey, a marriage, the arrival of a child need more forethought than bringing an extra bottle of oil for our lamps.

And some of the most significant events that find us are not outward events at all, but spiritual, inner events that only send their echo into the physical realm.

Many of these events occur during the hours of the night.

The night is were spiritual powers replenish our life’s forces. It is where thoughts and problems we have struggled with in our waking hours mysteriously fall into place when we “sleep on it”.

The night realm is part of yet larger events: The star that leads the Three Kings, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, the birth of the Christ-Child. Even the Resurrection takes place in the dark.

These are spiritual, cosmic events that reach potently into our soul life and our soul events.

We do not know when revelations and shifts in our soul life will happen. All we can do is prepare for them throughout our waking life. In the words of the Gospel: To gather our lamps, to take with us an extra bottle of oil, to be in the right place at the right time. Thus we prepare our soul and work on the spiritual aspects of our being. We follow our path and our destiny. And when the bridegroom of our earth existence arrives, we can be ready to receive him.

This contemplation by Rev. Contreras is inspired by the Parable of the Ten Maidens.

The powers that we are fighting against throughout our lives, powers that we encounter in our own souls and powers that we face in the outside world, are not powers of flesh and blood – so this week’s Gospel tells us (Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 6). The real powers that we fight are, just like their beneficial counterparts, spirit beings. And just like the powers that help and guide us, these powers, that we call “adversary”, are deeply involved in the course of human history and evolution.

If we at times are unsure how to tell good forces from the bad, the helper and guide from the adversary, we can look toward Michael and the gifts that he brings us. He is what the adversary is not.

The Michaelmas epistle tells us: “…how for moments he changes the sternness against the power of the enemy, and his hand formed to beckon he shows man: Follow me.”Michael is not a spirit to exert pressure, to push and shove humanity where he wants us to go. He is respecting our freedom and our choice, willing to work with us through our weaknesses and failings. And in doing that he gives us the greatest gift of all, the armor of God that he carries and that we may carry, too:

The willingness and preparedness to lead our feet wherever we can fulfill our destiny

The truth that ‘girds our loins’, that holds us together and wells up from our deepest being.

The shield in our hands that is the faith in the good forces that aid us.

The breastplate of our feeling of love, righteousness and justice for all living things.

And the helmet of our thinking that does not turn toward the dark places but toward the certainty of a healing that will change the earth.

Thus we are armed to meet any adversary. And thus we carry in our hands not the sword as a physical weapon but the Word of God as a deed – as a force for the good.

Michaelmas is not happening only at this time of year. We can carry the gifts that Michael gives us
always. We can put on the armour of God wherever we go. It will protect us.

This contemplation by Rev. Contreras is inspired by Eph. 6