A seed is a little wonder. It is a tiny microcosm full of possibilities and promise. However, the seed in itself is also no more than that – a promise. Out of its own forces, the forces laid inside the seed alone it can never fulfil its promise, it can never start to grow. The seed needs the forces from the outside. It needs the cosmic forces and the power of the sun. It needs water. Creative forces that are strong and always in movement shaping the world around us. And the seed needs the ground. The earth to be laid into, stable, calm and dark.

Our ‘I’, our human individuality is much like that seed. We are microcosms in ourselves, full of potential and promise. And just like the seed, out of our own merely human forces we can never fulfil that promise. While the seed needs the forces from the outside, we have to reach deep inside ourselves where we can find the flame that is the impulse of the Christ. In Him we find the creative force that makes us grow, become and transform. And through Him we are led to the source of our being. The ground that we came from. The Fatherground of All Being.

In this way we are connected to the substance of the earth and the universe around us. We are connected to divine powers. We become conscious of the presence of the divine at the core of our hearts. And more and more we will learn to understand ourselves and become what we are meant to be.

This contemplation by Rev. Inken Contreras was inspired by John 17.

For the earth, light is a gift. The earth does not have its own light, but becomes radiant by receiving, allowing, and reflecting the light from the sun.

Each and every human being, like the earth, is also destined to become radiant. We too are meant to receive light, open up to, and be filled by what is given us by the Christ sun.

And yet, if it were that simple, none of us would be here at this altar. If it were that easy, we would just open our hearts to the one and only light that we find everywhere, and our problems would be solved, our destiny fulfilled.

It’s challenging because there are many lights. And in our time, at this point in our evolution, the human soul is first called to become conscious of the many different kinds of light trying to fill us. We are called to learn to understand and discern the superficial shine of the shopping mall light that promises pleasure but leaves us hollow; Or the light of the artificial blue glare of the screen that increasingly wants to dominate our attention and make life merely virtual. Or the self-righteous glisten in our eye we shun and dismiss others in favor of what we think is good; leaving our soul with the harsh light of ‘correctness’ but without the warm light of love. Behind each one of these different qualities of light is a spiritual being, a light being, each one vying to become our sun.

However, at Whitsun, we are called to practice knowing and receiving the true light of the world – The Holy Spirit. And when our hearts are lit with the flame the true light, bestowed on us like the light of the sun, we know it is the Holy Spirit because it does not leave us empty, dependent or cold and self-righteous; we know the light of the Holy Spirit because it always leaves us warm, free and always with deeper understanding for one another.

At Ascension Christ is lifted up towards the heavens. He is being received by the clouds. He vanishes and his disciples – human eyes – cannot see him anymore. Where did he go and when will he return? How can we find him again?

Christ was lifted up to the heavens and he was being received by the clouds – and like the clouds, the air, the atmosphere around the earth he is always with us. Whether we see him or not, experience him or not is a matter of perception.

Christ says of himself: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Like the way, the road along which we travel, Christ is never standing still. His very being is creation, evolution, becoming. If we are on the way, too, we will meet him there. Christ also is the truth. In that we become searchers for the truth, he can be with us. As travelers and searchers for the truth we will find a life that is far beyond just being alive. It is a life that we find through becoming and overcoming. He is that life.

Every year through the seasons of the Christian festivals – through Advent and Christmas, through Epiphany, Passion and Easter, through Ascension, Pentecost and beyond, we set out anew on the road, the way that will lead us to Him and to the truth.

This contemplation by Rev. Contreras is inspired by John 14 and Acts 1.

We were walking out from the hospital just the other day. Our daughter had needed treatment. I was carrying her on my shoulders and all of our bags in my hand. We had been up all night and I was at the end of my strength. As we walked it started to rain. ‘How far will you carry me, daddy’, she asked?

In that moment something awoke in my soul that I had not created, something powerful, something that I said yes to. This something was not my strength but made me strong. A profound willingness to carry this child’s destiny at all costs through all pain lit up in my heart. With this simple question from a two year old, my heart was surrounded with a love that carried me as well as her.

‘How far will you carry me, daddy?’  ‘As far as is needed, my love’ I said.

What if we loved everyone in this way? What if we allowed ourselves to be loved by others, loved by Christ, in this way? What if at every moment our heart was filled with a willingness to carry the destiny of everyone connected to us, despite the pain, as far as is needed?

In our gospel today, Christ speaks to the disciples about the Holy Spirit, the one who brings us comfort and spirit courage. For when we are touched by the Holy Spirit, there is nothing more truly comforting than the warmth, strength and gentleness of His presence, walking with us, loving us, carrying us as far as is needed.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans is inspired by John 14-16 and The Holy Spirit.

“Love is higher than opinion. If people love one another, the most varied opinions can be reconciled….This is one of the most important tasks for humankind for today and in the future: that we learn to live together and understand one another. If this human fellowship is not achieved, then all talk of esoteric development is empty.”

At the Gates of Spiritual Science, Lecture 11, Rudolf Steiner

* 1 Corinthians 13

We think of ourselves as independent human beings. We live our own lives, we think our own thoughts. Unlike the plants which root in the earth or the branches attached to the vine we are not physically attached to anything. We move freely. We can go wherever we please.

In our independence it is at times easy to miss that, just as the plants are connected to everything around them; the branches to the vine or the trunk, the whole plant to the soil, the rain, the sun and the care that we give to it – so are we.

Through the food that we eat, the air that we breathe, the sun that is vital to our lives, through the people we love and whose lives we share, we are connected to everything and everything is connected to us. We are not just single human beings, we are part of a great picture. We are interconnected.

This is true also for our spiritual life. Just as the sun stands in the centre of the interconnectedness of all earthly things, giving life, warmth and form, so the spiritual sun – Christ – stands at the centre of our souls. He is the great Uniter, the vine from which we spring, the flowing life that gives us strength, purpose, growth and renewal.

“May thus my own set walls relax their tension
So that your Being may in mine reside,
And my own Being enter your dimension –
That Being, thus, with Being may unite.”

~Christian Morgenstern~

This contemplation by Rev. Contreras is inspired by John 15 – “I Am the True Vine”

Nobody wants to be a sheep; because sheep are followers. They don’t have their own mind, so we say. To be a sheep is to conform to social norms – to blindly believe in authority – to rely on the comfort of a crutch. These are the very things that make us want to run from religion. Because these are the things that hinder our developing humanity, hinder our developing sense of self.

And yet, our gospel today tells us something different. For Christ uses the symbol of the sheep, not to degrade the human being, but to name that part of our hearts that can tell the difference between the voice of the true shepherd and the voice of a fraud. And unlike goats who are eternal slaves to their own whims, sheep follow the call of the true voice. The human being as sheep means that we become able to hear, discern and know the voice of Christ in us. For His voice is sounding in every human ‘I’, every human heart.
But all too often, we would silence our hearts, ignore the call. All too often we would become goats and distract ourselves by following the voice of our own whims and fantasies, follow where our small selves want to go rather than where He is leading. Or worst of all, we believe the voice of the one in us who concludes that there is no truth speaking in our hearts, that there isn’t even a call to hear.

But nevertheless, the True One speaking in us, calling each one of us by name, He is the Good Shepherd. And He walks in the Spirit before us, leading to the pasture of life giving love.

Dear friends, may we enliven our inner sheep, not by blindly following, but by learning to hear, discern and know the sound of His voice in us.
The contemplation by Rev. Evans is inspired by The Good Shepherd and the true meaning of being sheep.

Our hearts are meant to gather all of creation into the life of Christ. For recognizing Him is the source of true joy. And experiencing Him manifested in the world is the task of the Christian initiate.

“A Christian is one who, wherever he looks, finds Christ and rejoices in Him. An this joy transforms all his human plans and programs, decisions and actions, making all his mission the sacrament of the world’s return to Him who is the life of the world.” Alexander Schmemann

” The initiate of ancient times, when in the spiritual world, saw how evolution points the way to the as yet hidden Christ. The Christian initiate, however, experiences the unseen effects of the Christ manifested on earth.” Rudolf Steiner

As any parent knows, holding your newborn child for the first time brings profound joy. And every parent also knows, deep down, that you have done nothing to create such beauty; you feel blessed to receive such a heavenly gift. And the only authentic response to a true gift is gratitude.

And yet every birth must come through suffering, every newborn is the result of deep pain. For profound gratitude for new life is not mere pleasure in getting what we want, profound gratitude comes because the suffering itself was fruitful, the pain of the cross prepared the joy of new life.

Thomas, in our gospel this week (John 20) knew of this profound gratitude for not only did he rejoice in the reality of the Risen One, but by feeling His wounds as proof, he rejoiced in the true meaning of suffering, that it too is a gift, that that the true mission of suffering is always labor. And this is why tears of joy are so truly human. For tears of joy express a gratitude for both new life and the blessing of pregnant pain.

What if the foundation of our life wasn’t the balance on our bank account, or the place where we live or the job that we do – what if the foundation of our life was this kind of profound gratitude? What if everything that we have, everything we receive, like the newborn, is a gift? What if all our pain and suffering is meant to be there because each one of us is actually pregnant with a deeper self? What if tears of joy flowed daily from our eyes? How would we speak? How would we walk? How would we live?

For at the Easter altar, the centerpiece of our spiritual life, we hear proclaimed that each human heart is actually meant to beat with gratitude – to breath joy – to pulse with grace.

This is because resurrection, new life, even for Christ, is always received from the Father. And learning to receive the gift in every moment is what it means to become a human being.

Therefore, dear friends, let us practice this receiving. Let us receive the gift of communion as newborn life and surrender our hearts in gratitude to God.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans is inspired by the Apostle Thomas rejoicing in the Risen One and by the birth of Isla Charis.

Our altar is a well, a well of living water. For why would any of us come to the altar if not to receive something, something living that nourishes our souls? But of course if anyone has ever peered into a well, first there is darkness. First we feel an abyss. And in order to reach the life giving water in the well, we must first enter the deep, dark black. Passiontide calls us to enter this blackness. Passiontide calls us to seek the living water in the darkness.

Within each human heart there is also a place that is deep and dark. This is that part of our hearts where things are unknown, wounded, and where we are alone. It is that part of our hearts that when we enter, we fall to our knees. This is why we hear from the altar during these weeks before Easter ‘…my heart lies lamenting on the ground…’

And yet, anyone who descends into a well does so with trust, trust in what can be found. And this is the most important thing for our journey into the blackness; that we trust even when we can’t see, even when we can’t hear, even when we don’t know! That we trust that in the depths of our emptiness, in the center of our woundedness, there is His living water to be found. This is the path of the cross. This is the path of the Christ in you.

Courage to descend.
A willingness to feel our longing for the Spirit.
Trust, that the living water is in the darkness.

These are our tools for the well. Passiontide calls us to find Him there.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by the passiontide liturgy and Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.