Pentecostal Prayer Day 12

A friend of great faith has asked many times, "If we don't pray to God as a Father, or as Jesus, to whom do we pray?" She asks this because I insist that, for me, there is no particular "face" or "person" of God. For me, their is a living Sacred Spirit that permeates the universe. I have prayed over and thought deeply about this disconnect in our discussions of prayer. This morning The Sacred Spirit came over me with an answer. I pray to the people who are the branches on the vine of responsibly compassionate people. These are the people who seem fed by The Sacred Spirit, no matter their religion, race, or region.

It is so much more difficult to humble ourselves enough to ask a person to help us than it is to pray to "God" and then have someone simply show up with hands to help. We owe no debt to "God," but we seem to feel dis-empowered by feelings of gratitude to another human. Do we feel that we have to pay back what we admit was done for us out of pure love or compassion?

It is my experience that there are few people who openly appreciate other people on a deep personal level, as if appreciation will make a person less humble, or will diminish one's own worth. There are also people who are uncomfortable with outspoken appreciation; is this because they are afraid of losing their own humility? Sadly, there are those who see open appreciation as a sign of weakness in the person showing it, and seek to exploit this vulnerability. I don't know what to say about these people, other than to avoid them.

If The Sacred Spirit is the water for the vine of full humanity, appreciation of every leaf is the sunshine that feeds more energy into the vine. The person who mops the floors can either celebrate The Sacred Spirit  by doing the best job possible or can make mopping a punishment. This goes for every person doing every activity on earth. In Shakespeare the term, "I pray thee," is used. Perhaps we'd feel more imbued with The Sacred Spirit if we began saying to people, when asking for assistance, "I pray thee."

Don't forget to celebrate and openly appreciate the cook, the housekeeper, the babysitter, the janitor, the cashier, etc. when they do their jobs as celebrations of The Sacred Spirit inside themselves.

My prayer for Pentecost is that we learn to pray, not only over and with each other, but also to The Sacred Spirit in each of us.

Prayer for Pentecost Day 11

What is more important in a life of faith, attempting to do good or attempting to do no wrong? I can tell you, from experience, they get a person in equal amounts of trouble. When attempting to DO good, people believe you are being arrogant and attempting to take control from them. When allowing yourself to simply do what comes naturally, you come away without a community of competence, often adopting a leader who understands how to manipulate our animal instincts to their own advantage.

Just as the unexamined life does not seem worth living, so to does the unexamined community structure. I cannot say the creed of the religion into which I was baptized as a baby. Much of it I don't believe, and much I don't care about, one way or another. I can't participate in rituals that turn off my best judgement in favor of the soothing brainwashing that enters with the chants. I can't seem to nod mutely as others repeat the "party line;" therefore, my presence becomes a source of great discomfort for the true believers. The good that I attempt to do is often then perceived as doing wrong.

Having spent one third of my life in for-profit corporate management positions and one third in non-profit corporation management, it seems that they all have a creed to which we must pretend  to bear witness. As one who asks questions, it is very seldom that I don't end up seeing the dark underbellies of the agendas of the leaders. I was not meant to be an enlisted person, as was pointed out to me when I attempted to enlist in the military. I have been instrumental in helping to lead a number of important movements, leaving strong leaders in my wake.

Jesus was asked to physically lead for only three public years. My prayer for Pentecost is that each of us finds a life-long mission to inspire our actions. For instance, my husband's mission is "To be useful." Mine is to learn, process, and pass on my wisdom. What could be more fluid than that? What good is personal Pentecost without purpose?

Pentecost Prayer Day 10

What are your core values? What if every one of us wrote a mission statement for our lives, similar to the ones written by corporations, both for-profit and non-profit. We know that publicly traded corporations have only one mission, which is to make money, but they have wonderful, flowery creeds, as do religions. These wonderfully flowery creeds are often memorized, but hardly ever dissected for how we can apply them to our lives in practice. Sometimes, though, it is inspiring to add a bit of poetry to our plans.

A creed for one's own life should be developed early in our teen years, as this will guide us on the path to achievement. We can hardly successfully merge our lives with others if we don't really know our own goals. This is what I see as the problem plaguing teens, adults, marriages, families, communities, corporations, the world in general . If we don't know where we want to end up, we can not find good partners to help us on our journey.

Peace, for me, isn't about pretty poetry and prose; it's about knowing what path we're on and how we plan to choose partners for our eternal journey. If my goal is simply to get to heaven, how will I know if I'm succeeding until I'm dead? But if my goal is to help create peace "on earth as it is in heaven," I can see the products of my life in the eyes of others and in their interactions with others in community.

Is your religion's creed a mission statement for an action plan, or is it simply flowery words? Perhaps we can all ask The Sacred Spirit to give us personal Pentecost to help us in developing our own mission statements for ourselves and our families. This is something for which I pray.

Another Sacred Spirit Question from Gayle

Learning to Hear the Voice of God Within

A few weeks ago, I asked, "How does the Holy Spirit speak to you?"  "When/how do you hear Him?"  The answers that came back were remarkably similiar to one another and to my own:  Sometimes I am pulled from my own thoughts into reflection; sometimes, it sounds like the voice of my mother/ my father; sometimes it is the halyards from the boats in the harbor; sometimes it is the voice of others.

Today, I am asking a further question:  How do you know when it is the Spirit and not your own voice speaking to you?  And I am torn between wanting to reflect on the answer myself and wanting to allow each person who reads this the space for his/her own reflections.

So I will wait until tomorrow to post my own answers to this question.

Gayle's blog: OneBirdWatching.blogspot.com

Pentecost Prayer Day 9

I read on a recent Patheos.com Jewish entry that in old Judaic law, a person who stole from another was subject to becoming an indentured servant, treated honorably as a family member during the service, until the debt, plus interest, was re-payed. This raised the eyebrows of my husband who saw this as rewarding the wrongdoer. I do understand his resistance to sharing his resources with someone with such poor moral upbringing, but I also understand the value of taking one who has transgressed under one's absolute and compassionate authority to teach the ways of responsible community.

Herein lay my issues with religion and our penal system. We, in the United States, seem to be a bit schizophrenic in our way to address these issues. Because we don't want to enter any real discussions of what is best for our society, present and future, we tuck our criminals away out of our sight and hope that things will get better on their own.

I have a dear friend who works as the chef at a governor's mansion in the southern United States. The staff that serves the residents of the governor of their state is made up of potential parolees who were convicted of murders. My friend has trained many men to become productive citizens of our society through this program. She has very few employee issues because she can threaten them with being sent back to prison from their halfway houses. But, I don't think this threat is the secret to the success of this program, at least for those working with her. I think it is her genuine caring and compassion.

My friend has a huge heart for offering hospitality. Jesus would have loved having her as his official party planner and caterer. There is nobody unwelcome under her hospitality tent. Each of her employees is treated with a grand mix of humor and individual instruction. She also sets an example of how to succeed with her own work ethic.

This is how we bring up successful, compassionate children, but we cannot succeed when others are interfering with our "family" dynamics. A house divided against itself always fails. We must stop all the anonymous "charity" if we want to save souls. We must accept people who are sincerely wishing to be parented again as parts of our communities.

My prayer for Pentecost is that we begin to willingly re-parent with the strength of communities of The Sacred Spirit for those who have had no real parents and are ready to submit to community authority.

Suicide and The Sacred Spirit

It breaks my heart all over again when I hear people discussing what their god will do with the soul of Matthew Warren, who apparently took his own life. Why aren't people comfortable with what they can't see? Why do we want charlatans acting as if they know the "mind of God?" There is much that we aren't wise enough to know. Live with it!

I have had several members of my family take their own lives, one a beloved uncle, back in the day when my religion refused church burial to these "sinners." We were told that my uncle would forever burn in hell. What unmitigated arrogant bull dung this was and is! I have had several family members persecuted by church people attempting to exorcise the demons of their mental illness, rather than simply stepping in and holding them until their fears dissipated.

Here's what I know. My uncle's Sacred Spirit never left my soul or my mind's eye. Those with terrible "demons" nipping at their brains to the point where they couldn't hear the sound of The Sacred Spirit anymore still shared much of their beautiful souls with me.Their spirits live on in my soul, and presumably in all of the earth that they touched. Some I still see and hear in my most contemplative states.

I made up my mind as a child of six that if my siblings weren't going to heaven, I didn't want to go. I still stand by that belief. While I wait for the fires of hell, all those who ever loved me are parts of my "heaven on earth."

Pentecostal Prayer Day 8

Abrahamic religions must begin to see the light of the end of their adventures toward true enlightenment. If they are to believe that all humans are made in the image and likeness of one same Sacred Spirit, they must stop killing each other to appease this god. Abraham's hand was stayed as he attempted to offer his own son's blood as sacrifice to his god. Moses led the Israelites to peace, having been stopped from taking up a sword. Jesus reattached the severed ear of his enemy and started a movement that worked for peace on earth, as it is in heaven. Muhammad began as a man of peace.

All these religions seem to have gotten scared or impatient with their progress toward peace and took up arms. Has The Sacred Spirit ever actually asked for bloodshed? I think not. If peace among the Abrahamic religions was possible in the seventh century, we know that we can reclaim this brother/sisterhood. Perhaps we should all look to the peaceful protests of our own century, which did produce many martyrs. Perhaps we should follow examples of our twentieth century prophets who gave their lives and their blood to this endeavor.

I believe that Gandhi, MLK, and Moses were listening to The Sacred Spirit while leading us away from our own fears.  I pray that more prophets speak out against fear and accept that only respectful, responsible communication and compassion beget peace.

The flames of The Sacred Spirit burn deep in our souls, but they never burn up babies and the bedridden. My prayer for Pentecost is that we recognize the prophets and potential of peace "on earth as it is in heaven."