St. Theresia of Avila once said,

‘No one can come near to God unless he has prepared a bed for you. A thousand souls hear his call every second, but most everyone then looks into their life’s mirror and says, “I am not worthy to leave this sadness.”’

This saint said this because she knew that each one of us is actually destined, not for sadness, but for Joy – our hearts are meant to become joy! But the journey to joy is not like climbing a ladder, where every rung is the same, where progress comes through pulling ourselves up. No. Our journey to His Joy is always a looking into our life’s mirror and letting go of some unworthiness; an intimate and unsettling decision to allow a unique sadness that we have come to identify ourselves with, perhaps even come to cherish, to fall away. We are called to let go of the sadness of our desperate loneliness, the sadness of our constant self-criticism beating ourselves down, or most of all, to let go of the sadness that our life isn’t the way we think it should be. We must die to all of these to be born anew in joy.

Dear friends, as a striving Community of Christians, may we all keep learning to die to our used-up sufferings that keep us locked into old selves, for there is no god that can do this for us. And then, the courage to receive Gods joy-filled-grace at every moment, makes us worthy.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by John 3 and St. Theresia of Avila.

We all know that plants give us oxygen. They do this by taking in the poison of carbon dioxide that we breath out and then, with the power from the light of the sun, changes the poison into life-giving medicine. Plants transmute poison from others into the breath of life for the world.

Each one of us, every human heart, is also meant to breath new life into the world – we are actually meant to become plant-like. However, our destiny is to learn to convert the soul-poison of humanity into soul-medicine. But unlike the unconscious plant, our task is to freely, consciously, take on the poison that comes out of our mouths and the mouths of others.

But for this to happen, we must learn to receive The Spirit. For just as the plant can only do this by taking in the light of the sun through photosynthesis, we can only transform poison by learning to take in the healing power of the spiritual sun of Christ!

And yet, so often we forget how turn to His ray. Our minds get stuck on the problem, the issue, the poison. We search and search for the ‘why’, but forget that it is only The Light that transforms. Or, on the other hand, we fall to the temptation of affirming that the spirit-light should do it all for us, avoiding the painful responsibility of really taking up the poison.

In our gospel today, John is the first to bear witness to the Archetypal Ideal of our humanity, He ‘who takes the sin of the world upon Himself’.  For He is our future hope, that we too can become in the image of Him; taking up poison, the sin of the world, and like the plant, transmuting it with the rays of God, into new Life.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by the life of the plant and John 1.

Just like feeling the suns rays breaking through the clouds, we all have tasted true humanity in our lives. We have glimpsed the rays love, hope, real selflessness, shining from ourselves; raying out from others. These glimpses of the guiding spiritual-sun of what is truly human gives us hope and show us the way.

But as everyone knows, the sun sets; darkness descends. The events of Fridays killings in France, Kuwait and Tunisia are a picture of the light of our humanity growing dark, the sun-guide of our true being disappears.

But when the sun sets, the stars are meant to shine. And this is our challenge, this is our calling at St. John’s tide; that we, like a star, learn to shine on our own! Can we take the Spirit that was given us at Whitsun and learn to shine even when it is dark? And this is why there are individual spirit-flame stars on the back of the chasuble at St. John’s tide. Our own hearts must become guiding lights.

This is because we are in a battle. There are beings in this world who do not believe in our humanity- beings who do not believe that we can evolve to become true human beings.

But lets be clear, our battle is not with flesh and blood, not with human souls, our battle is with spiritual beings of darkness enticing us to become beastly. These beings would tempt us to put out our star-light by deciding that these killers who acted on are truly evil and that true evil deserves to be wiped out. We are tempted to fight what is beastly by becoming beasts ourselves. For the beast wants to replicate itself in human souls by awakening in us the same mindset; if something is evil, God wants it exterminated.

But the spiritual sun of our humanity, Him who inspires our star-light said in our gospel, “There will come a time when those who kill you will think they are doing God a service…” (Jn 16). This battle is expected. The battle with the beast is meant to be here.

Therefore we must fight. We must fight not with the sword but with the Spirit, strengthening the light in us that can love our enemy and renounce the mindset that if something is evil it must be violently destroyed.

May human souls have the courage ever and again to shine-out what is truly human, die to what is of the beast in us, that human hearts glisten even in the darkness.

This contemplation by Rev. Jonah Evans was inspired by John 16 and how to battle the forces of evil in us.

The butterfly must break out of its cocoon in its own time. It is an amazing fact that if you rush the butterfly out of the cocoon, breaking its cocoon, it will not be strong enough to fly, it will die. Patience is needed until the time is right and the creature is ripe to break free from its shell- transformed into a being that lives in the heights.

Every human heart, every human being is also destined to become something heavenly, something that lives in Spirit. For we are not meant to just know about spiritual things, we are meant to live Spirit, and in time become Spirit. But like the butterfly in the cocoon, we too must have patience with our progress; we too must ripen before we are strong enough to break free, transformed.

And yet, so often what we find in our souls is anything but patience. We find the burning desire to be there already, to be perfectly enlightened and spiritualized today! Or on the other hand, we find a crippling self-pity that would deem us unworthy for Spirit.

But to to have patience with ourselves and others is to become strong. And the butterfly teaches us to value where we are at, to value the challenges that are right in front of us. For patience with our cocoons will allow us to be able to live our ideals, to become the truths we long for.

This contemplation by Rev. Jonah Evans was inspired by Mark 4 and how to make progress is Christ.

Hiking or climbing up to the top of a mountain on a clear day one is rewarded by a wonderful view. To the north and south, the east and west the landscape below presents itself.

Let us imagine for a moment that four people would climb the mountain, but each one of them would only look in one of the directions. What would they tell each other afterwards? Maybe the first one would say: “I saw a river flowing into the sea.” The second: “I saw the river, too, but you are quite wrong about the sea. You do not see it from the top of the mountain. There is a great city built on both banks of the river.”
Then the third one would speak up: “While you are both right about the river, otherwise you must be half-blind. The river runs through a vast plain. There is no sea nor city in sight. And finally the fourth one: “You are all either delusional or lying. All you can see from the top of the mountain are snow covered peaks, as far as the eye can see.” Every single one of these four people knows with absolute certainty what he saw, and that he is telling the truth, and yet, they will be unable to reconcile their differences.

This story says much about the state humanity is in nowadays. We are fighting endless wars about our opinions, our differences and about our varying perceptions of the world and the cosmos we are living in.

But just like there is only one landscape, there is also only one truth. Like the well-known experiment with the colour wheel, that, when spun fast enough, lets all colours appear as white, the one truth can appear in a thousand different shades of colour. We all see a different landscape. We all represent a different colour, but we can look beyond that to the representative of the white, of the one truth, Christ the great Unifier, who will bring us together in all our differences and in freedom. Who will help us to perceive the truth behind all opinions and appearances.

The 13th century poet Rumi expresses this with following words: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.”

This contemplation by Rev. Contreras is inspired by Christ as the being of Truth

One of the most profound substances on earth is compost. Waste is gathered up and mixed together is a particular way. And then, forces of warmth and heat beyond our power break down and transform the waste into nourishing life giving substance; waste becomes medicine for the earth.

Each one of us, every human soul, like compost, is also destined to become life- giving medicine for humanity and the earth. And yet, much of what we find in our souls, if we are honest, is waste; judgmental thoughts, egotistical emotions; desires and impulses that we would rather not have; soul-waste that so often we would like to just throw away in the garbage!

But if we ignore the waste in our souls, if we don’t take responsibility for the poison in our hearts, it cannot transform into medicine.  We are called to build within ourselves an inner compost pile.

For it is precisely the waste that we transform in ourselves, precisely the waste that becomes soil in our souls that fulfills our destiny.

Therefore dear friends, let us take responsibility for our inner garbage; the blame, resentment and self-righteousness that comes out of our mouths, let us break it down and get to know it, and most importantly allow the spirit power of HIS warmth and heat to change it into medicine.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by John 3 and being born of water and spirit.

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.