In this newsletter:

1. News, notes, and needs. 
2. Contributions from the Community: Rita Roxas and Ann Matthews. 
3. Thoughts about the Trinity (part II).                      
4. Gospel Reading.
5. Contemplation by Sanford Miller.

 

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Helen Lubin
 

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  You are invited to an open-air conversation based on a selected excerpt from the work of James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time.  Written in 1963, the voice of this powerful African-American leader continues to speak to and challenge us today.
   This conversation will be held next Saturday, August 22 at 10:30.  We will meet at the Fair Oaks Library and find a shady place to sit.  BRING CHAIR.  It would be helpful to know if you plan to be there.  Please email: cmartine12@icloud.com.

 

Cheryl Martine and Luis González


 

 

   This painting is inspired by Steiner’s design for the Golden Windows of the Rudolf Steiner House in Stuttgart. His idea was to express the threefold experience of the senses being opened through eye, ear and hand. However, my idea is more about the Apocalyptic Seal #4 depicting the red and blue columns, the tree of knowledge and the tree of life, red blood and blue blood with the eye of God in the center. And the yellow spiritual being represents the spiritual sun. Or, you could see it as the Trinity, with the eye of God.    

                                                                                                                                                             Painting and text by Rita Roxas

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   The cool air drifted into my room bringing early morning refreshment. It is often quiet outside, especially in the mornings. At first I noticed the gentle familiar sounds of birds coming from far away. I heard, sometimes ever so faintly, the occasional chirp or tweet of a bird passing by. Sometimes I could hear a call from a bird seeking a friend or a mate. His song seemed louder and more persistent.
     I love to stretch my ears into the distance to listen to as many birds as I can hear. Sometimes it is hard because there are other sounds of life that block out the gentle singing of these feathered friends - cars, planes, lawn mowers and many other human created sounds. But whenever I remember to listen to the creations of Mother Nature, there is often a special thing that happens.
    Suddenly in the tree just outside my window it seemed as though many birds must be there. I heard the familiar song of many of my favorite birds, and I heard also some new sounds that I had not noticed before. There were cheeps, trills, twits, peeps and even warbles. Then came chatters, chirrips and shrill calls arriving at my ear one after another.
    Eagerly I looked out to see all these birds that I had imagined, but there was only one.  Yet it sounded like there were so many birds with him! He must be a special one of God’s little feathered singers.  He must have travelled far and wide. He must have excellent ears and knows how to listen well.  How else could he have learned so many different songs from his brothers and sisters? 
    Then, I noticed that his singing was not so loud and I guessed that he had flown off to a neighbor’s tree.  He sang from there for a while, and then, as quickly as he came, he flew away, taking his beautiful melodies with him.  
   Do you know what he is called? This bird is called a Mockingbird. It is a special gift from God to have one visit you.  If you are lucky, you may notice when he finds you.  It might be in the middle of a busy day, it might be when you are taking a walk.  You might not be listening at the time and miss him, but he will return to sing for you, if you are lucky.
 

 

    “Our whole being, our substance, our existence has its origin in the Father God. Lifting this spiritual fact into our awake consciousness means becoming aware of our spiritual origin again.
    As Christ, in his connection with God, approaches the end of his earthly life, he says: ”I am going to the Father.” But he says it as God’s Son become human. Because of this, we have been given the possibility in our humanness also to develop such a relationship to the Father again.”
 

 
 

I am from God, as all existence, born
I go to God, with all that’s mine, to die
I go back home, O God, to live as Thine.
 
First I was from your Ego,
Then must I learn this gift divine
To lift, breast on breast, to You.
 
In the midst, pride tried it all to spoil
I was to you, and You, to me were lost
Until You exorcised in power my soul.
 
Then I was born another time to You:
For I understood for the first time how to die,
I felt for the first time how to live.
                             
                                Christian Morgenstern

 

                                                                         Matthew Wong
 

   “Consciousness of the Father has thrown light for us on our divine origin, from the past, which secretly shines forth into the present, and which indeed lies ‘behind us,’ but yet with us. The experience of the Son takes us into the present. We move from the experience of encompassing divine space into time, into change and development. In him we have a divine leader for the development of our humanity in all its dynamics and drama.
   …we will gradually come to experience the living Christ who reigns in the world and creates in us. We will experience more and more … the working of the One who reveals Himself in the words “I am the life.”

 

 

without the Word of God.
God’s Word is in all creation, visible and invisible.
The Word is living, being,
spirit, all verdant
all creativity.
This Word flashes out in
every creature.
This is how the spirit is in
the flesh – the Word is indivisible from God.
 

 

 
 

                                                                       A.Jawlensky

   “To grasp the spirit, human beings have to raise themselves to the sphere of the spirit. They are able to do this by the Christ power that works in them. The experience of ‘Christ in me’ then becomes the experience of the Holy Spirit.
   … The spiritual event of Pentecost has entered into humanity as an archetype, and yet Pentecost withdraws again and again into the future. We cannot keep hold of the spirit; we cannot control it. Spirit is grace.”

 
 

Holy Spirit
giving life to all life,
moving all creatures,
root of all things,
washing them clean,
wiping out their wounds,
you are our true life,
luminous, wonderful
awakening the heart
from its ancient sleep.

                           Hildegard of Bingen

 

   "In spirit behind me and sheltering me, I experience the carrying powers of the Father. I am born from Him; He sustains me.
  In spirit by my side and accompanying me, I experience the death-vanquishing power of the Son. In Him I will live, also when I die.
   In spirit before me and inspiring me out of the future, I experience the healing power of the Spirit. Grasping this power I myself create my own eternal being."
 

5. Contemplation

   When the unseen and silent wind riffles through a large tree, thousands upon thousands of leaves are stirred into motion simultaneously, and what was silent and unseen now has a whispery voice and a shimmering garb. The word for “wind” in Greek is the same word for “spirit,” pneuma. This image is a reminder that all of nature is permeated by an unseen and silent Spirit that indwells and quickens the whole of Creation. The nine hierarchies continual creative activity and the earthly spirits and elemental beings who serve them, grace us with “the field of earth,” the arena for the unfolding of human destiny. And when we look at nature we can be filled with astonishment and awe.
   Similarly, when we stand before another human being and see only surfaces, we may think we know a lot about them merely through what our eyes convey to us. But as soon as that person speaks, we hear something that had previously been invisible, not just in the qualities of their voice which may reveal hurt or joy, perplexity or indifference, but in the ideas and emotions revealed, and in their actions, we begin to sense their mysterious, indwelling, animating spirit…and again, we can be filled with astonishment and awe.
    When we individual spirit beings —out of an impelling inner force— find ourselves amongst others of like mind, a group forms in which ideals and strivings are shared, thus enabling a higher “angelic” being to descend and connect themselves with our group, to aid in our working. This higher being seeks to inspire and animate us, a group striving to be worthy to work with the divine world, to receive impulses from this higher world. As a congregation of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of the Earth, through Whom we are continually nourished and encouraged, is it not our task to “turn ourselves inside-out” so that nature and humanity become our shrine, our sanctuary, our church?

   

 

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