The Weekly Word

I was speaking with a friend of mine the other day who is the CEO, Chief Executive Officer, of a successful company. And I asked him, ‘What makes a good CEO, what makes a good leader of a company?’ He said, ‘The secret is, whenever something goes wrong, a good leader takes responsibility for it and doesn’t blame anyone else. And whenever something goes right, a good leader praises and thanks everyone but himself.’

Within every soul, within each one of us, there is also a good leader – an inner, spiritual CEO. This spiritual CEO in us is the one that can let go of the  temptation to blame others for our sufferings and take responsibility for the conditions of our lives. The spiritual CEO in us has the courage to say yes to our personal failures, and the strength to extend responsibility beyond ourselves. The CEO in us works in the world as though everything depends on us.

And yet, at the very same time, the CEO in us knows that we can do nothing on our own, that it is by the efforts of others and the grace of God that we live. Therefore, humble gratitude is the rightful response for everything good that comes into our lives, overcoming the temptation of pride to take credit for our blessings. The CEO in us works in the world as though everything depends on God.

Dear friends, may we always find in us these true riches of our inner CEO, these spiritual treasures that will not rust or be eaten by moths, that no one can steal; the inner strength and courage to take responsibility for everything that comes into our lives, and the humility and wisdom that knows all blessings, all fruit, are gifts from God.

A great Saint once had a vision, “ 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 protection against all the difficulties and dangers that we face, all darkness, hate, fear and egotism of this world that would snare our hearts at every turn; it is astounding to think that our greatest weapon against all of this is not swords or guns, it is not politicians or large bank accounts, it is not even esoteric knowledge, or clairvoyant capacities – our greatest weapon against the adversaries is humility, simply humility.

And within each one of us there is this protection, there is a humble heart. This humble one in us is the one who can let go of blame, ask for forgiveness when we have wronged, protecting ourselves from prison of self-righteousness. The humble one in us can surrender to divine will, saying yes to whatever arises in our lives with patience and presence, protecting us from the pride that we know best. And like the good Samaritan in our gospel today, the humble one in us gives to those in need who have fallen down in our path- protecting our hearts from hardening. 

Humility is our protection because it opens our hearts to what is, it opens our hearts to love. 

The Weekly Word September 2, 2018

“The power issuing from the Mystery of Golgotha does not achieve redemption in an automatic fashion. Men are not redeemed through it whether they will or no. In every instance man must set this redemption in motion through his free assent; in other words for redemption to become effective, man’s “faith”is required. The gradual re-entering of the divine into the earthly world is a process in stages. The “coming” began with Christ becoming Man. It continues with mankind becoming Christian. Gradually we are to become capable of beholding Christ’s etheric Light-form. He himself gave the promise that He will come again in ‘gloria’–that is to say, in radiant etheric light.”

Rudolf Frieling; one of the original founders of the Christian Community, from ‘Hidden Treasures of the Psalms’

Creating Altars, Becoming Priests

Our sacred service, our practice here of communing with the divine, it all centers around the altar. Not only is the altar the very place where we offer ourselves to God, it is traditionally a tomb made of stone. The altar is a heavy stone, un-moveable, dark, and at the same time, it is the very place where we turn our hearts to Christ.

Within each one of us, within every human soul there is also an altar, an inner altar. We come to this inner altar the moment we find something made of stone in our souls, something heavy and un-moveable. And just like the altar in our chapel, our inner altar comes alive when, instead of angrily hammering at that un-moveable stone in us, we use it as a place to turn to Christ’s healing light.

For so often do we experience in life stones that cannot seem to be moved, changed. Illnesses, life circumstance, struggles in our relationships, recurring fears and above all weaknesses in ourselves that we stumble over again and again no matter what we do. We whip ourselves because of these inner stones, judging ourselves and others because of shortcomings- promising, never again!- but to no avail.

And yet the Christ power in us knows that stones belong in the river of our lives. The divine in us does not want to escape or destroy. The Christ Path seeks to use our heavy stones as altars, use our weaknesses and shortcomings as the very place from which we humbly turn to Him.

Dear Friends, our weaknesses and failings are not there to make us merely angry, ashamed or afraid. Our heavy stones are there to remind us to bow and pray. They are there to remind us that we are actually priests, inner priests who with humility and devotion learn to transform mere stones in our souls into altars to Christ.

Thomas Aquinas once wrote,

“I said to God, ‘Let me love you.’ And He replied, ‘Which part?’ ‘All of you, all of you,’ I said. ‘My dear,’ God spoke, ‘you are as a mouse wanting to impregnate a tiger who is not even in heat. It is a feat way beyond your courage and strength. You would run from me if I removed my mask.’ I said to God again, ‘Beloved, I need to love you – every aspect, every pore.’ And this time God said, ‘There is a hideous blemish on my body, though it is such an infinitesimal part of my Being – could you kiss that if it were revealed?’ ‘I will try, Lord, I will try.’ And then God said, ‘That blemish on my body is all the hatred, evil and cruelty in this world.’

The New Jerusalem, the spiritualized, supersensible world of which we here in our gospel this week is actually being built now by this kind of love. It is being built by the faith, hope, patience, long suffering, endurance, courage and peace of heart that it takes to love God, fully in every aspect, even into the darkness of evil. For God is in all and with all and can be known only insofar as He is loved.

May our practice at the altar, may our practice of communing with Him who is love, give us true strength, true power – that even when we are betrayed, hated, falsely accused, or in some way come face to face with evil, we find a way to see through the mask. For the truly human task in not to eradicate darkness, but to redeem it by loving God in and through this night.

This contemplation is by Rev. Jonah Evans and is inspired by Apocalypse 22, the New Jerusalem.

The purpose of the Christian path is to awaken  in our earthly ego the free power to determine what we unite ourselves with- either that which enriches the Kingdom of God on earth or that which hinders it. Goethe speaks of this free power.

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people only as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”   Goethe

The purpose of the Christian path is that the entire human being, including our ego, become a unique vessel for the Holy Spirit. These words, by Rudolf Steiner, are inspired by this truth.

“Formerly, when a human being was placed amidst the sorrows and sufferings of earth, he only had to call forth within him the state in which he could be transported into the Divine-Spiritual worlds. He was not obliged to endure suffering, for when it came to him, he could at once seek the state in which he was filled with the spirit, God-filled, and in that state — severed from his ego — he could find balm for the sorrows and sufferings of earth. Christ Jesus had to proclaim that this time too was now over. Those would now be blessed, or God-filled, who, while they could no longer look outside for help for their sufferings, might through the strengthening of their own ego seek within themselves the power to find the Holy Spirit in their inner being. ‘Blessed (God-filled) are they who do not banish sorrow by ecstatically raising themselves to the Divinity, but who endure it, developing the power of the ego whereby they can find within themselves the Holy Spirit who reveals himself through the ego. Even Buddha in his time did not recommend that sorrow should be endured, but that it should be thrown off, with all the thirst of earth. Even six hundred years before Christ Jesus, Buddha described sorrow and suffering on earth as the worst consequences of the longing for existence. Six hundred years later, in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ in the second Beatitude proclaimed that sorrow must not be done away with in that way, but must be endured, that it was a trial through which the ego might develop the strength it can find within itself: the inner support of the Holy Spirit.”

In the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 6) we are told: “And why do you worry about clothing? Learn from the lilies of the field – see how they grow without any effort and without weaving their garment […] If God clothes even the grass of the field like this, which grows today and is burnt tomorrow, will he not much more clothe you?”

In this week’s Gospel (Mt 22) we hear about another kind of garment. We hear about the man who appears at the wedding feast not wearing the proper wedding garment and, as a result, is cast out.

Our first reaction to this parable might be: Is he not unjustly treated? Maybe he didn’t have the means to purchase a garment but still wanted to go to the wedding? As it is so often with the pictures we are given in the bible, also this one I not about the conditions we meet in the material world. It is not a parable about clothes or about money. On the contrary – there seems to have been a custom in the ancient world that if you were invited to a celebration the proper garment to wear would have been given to you as a present, too.

The truth is: We have all been invited to the wedding, the union between this world and the spiritual realm. And we have all been given our wedding garments. They consist of the spiritual world’s vast grace that has been bestowed on us in ‘the deed of life and death on Golgotha’.

There are plenty of moments in our life where we are sure that we have lost both the invitation and the wedding garment. In those moment when the true knowledge of who we are and what has been given to us forsakes us, it is good to just have faith. Faith in, that the grace we have been given is there, even if we don’t see it. Faith in, that just like the lilies of the field can have the certainty that God will provide for them – so can we. If we want to go to the wedding, if we go toward the spirit with respect in our hearts, committed to the truth, mindful of the sacrifice that was made for our sakes in ‘the deed of life and death on Golgotha’ – and with love – then we have the wedding garment that we need. We will then not stand speechless before his countenance, we will be admitted into the light.

This contemplation is from Rev. Contreras inspired by Matthew 

While the altar is the foundation of our spiritual life together, the golden chalice that sits on the altar is the focus of our activity. We uncover the chalice, raise it to the heavens, we fill the chalice with substance. And the chalice becomes the place where His grace pours in.

Within every human heart there is also a chalice, an inner chalice. This inner chalice is our spirit, our attention, the very core of our sense of self. And just as we lift the chalice at the altar as an offering to God; our sacred service teaches us that if we are to become true human beings we must also learn to turn and lift our spirits to Him, to the divine that lives and weaves in every moment. For our spirits are like empty cups, they are filled with whatever we pour into them.

But so often, in our daily lives, the cups of our spirits are turned downwards, filling them with things that would distract us from the divine. We fill our spirits with worries, judgments, media, and malls. We are drawn to shiny things that promise a better life, and yet leave us drained and hollow, filled with a substance that leads only to further craving.

This is why the Act of Consecration and our inner life of prayer is so important to the human soul. For our service is a training ground where we learn to turn the chalice of our spirits to that which fills us with a substance that truly nourishes, truly sustains. For the hope is that one day communion penetrates our whole lives, that every human spirit becomes priest. This is because the deepest desire of the human spirit, the chalice of the heart, is to be constantly filled with God in whatever we do, wherever we are.

May He fill us!

This contemplation by Rev. Evans is inspired by our Eucharist practice.

Our sacred service, our practice of communing with the divine, all centers around the altar. Not only is the altar the very place where we offer ourselves to God, it is traditionally a tomb, a symbol of death. The altar is a heavy stone, un-moveable, and at the same time, the very place we use to turn to Christ.

Within each one of us, within every human soul there is also an altar, an inner altar. We come to the inner altar in us the moment we find something in our souls heavy and un-moveable, something in us we cannot seem to change. And just like the altar in our chapel, the inner altar comes alive in us when we feel the need for Christ’s healing power, when we cry out for His presence.

For so often do we experience in life, things that cannot be changed. Circumstances, relationships, fears and above all worries that seem to come again and again no matter what we do. Worries for our children, our security, our livelihood.

And yet the Christ power in us does not seek to escape or run from these heavy stones in our souls; the Christ way would use these feelings as altars, the very place from which we call out to Him.

Dear friends, may the Act of Consecration, our sacred service, teach us all to become priests at our inner altars- that whenever we find ourselves worrying or afraid; beset with feelings that follow us like shadows, that we use these feelings as reminders to turn to Him, that we use these feelings as inner altars, asking Him to come close. The shadows in us then do not necessarily leave but are redeemed, transformed from merely un-moveable stones into the very place where He draws near.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans is inspired by Matthew 6: 25-34