Pentecostal Prayer Day 15

We must not go backwards in seeking the truth of human faith. We have come too far in our understanding of full humanity to offer ourselves up again as sacrificial lambs being led to slaughter by those who promote fear as a substitute for faith. Awe-filled respect is not the same as fear. Fear is not the same as faith. We can only entertain fear for so long before we develop bravado and reject that which causes our terror. Either that, or we freeze in place, becoming useless, even to ourselves.

Our ancestors were a fear-filled people, attributing all pain to our own inability to please and appease angry gods. Discomfort is simply part of all change, both in growth and in death. We can choose to either ride the currents or take down our spiritual sails, so as to stay anchored to only that which is familiar.

My prayer for Pentecost is that we begin to understand that anchoring without the ability to move with the seas of The Sacred Spirit can kill our souls as certainly as can being adrift with no direction.

Pentecost Prayer Day 14

Openness to The Sacred Spirit can be a two-edged sword. The city where I live is seething with spirits, which all set souls on fire, but not all of them lead to responsible or compassionate actions. There are many debates about the nature of good and bad, the nature of heaven and hell, the process of repentance and redemption, and the nature of truth in religion. I propose that we attempt to find guidelines that we can all live with.

I propose:
Good is responsible compassion, something that harms neither oneself nor others.
Heaven and hell are both being personally adopted by each of us and shared with others, beginning with (and sometimes before) our first breaths.
Redemption comes from personal repentance.
Repentance comes from a commitment to make right what we can, and to offer restitution (or at least admittance of our wrongdoing) to those we have harmed.
Religions are rituals that help to bond individual communities. The Sacred Spirit is free for the asking.

The ten commandments and Jesus' life point to two rules: All humans are tasked with honoring The Sacred Spirit in themselves and in others. We humans were given The Sacred Spirit inside of ourselves. My prayer for Pentecost is that we see opportunities to honor and strengthen The Sacred Spirit in our every earthly encounter.

Birds on the Balcony

Yesterday, as I sat writing, a seagull crashed into the glass door that looks out over the harbor. It fell to the balcony and stood stunned, moving almost not at all. I thought about intervening in it's plight, but realized that I had no ability to be  a bird savior. I watched for some time as he/she simply "sat" silently next to the door.  I don't know if birds get concussions in their bird brains, but this is what seemed to have happened.

After what seemed to me a long while, the bird began to move. It turned from the door and spread its tail feathers and wings, as if testing itself for readiness to fly. By whatever measure, it must have ascertained that it was a bit crippled, so it sat silently for a while longer. I watched with a bit of a prayer in my breast that the bird would, once again, fly away.

A bit of time passed before the bird hobbled over to the edge of the balcony and peered over. It spread its wings again. I was almost sure that, this time, it was going to take off, but it demurred, once again. I could see that with each effort it was getting stronger, and my attention was called to something else for a few seconds. When I focused again the gull was gone, much like in the lives of our children.

Today, a hummingbird drank from the nectar in our hydrangea plant on the same balcony. I'm beginning to think of it as a miniature bird sanctuary.

Pentecostal Prayer Day 13

My Pentecostal prayer for today is that Pope Francis I has the humility to admit that the church has no power to confer absolution for sins. Only God and those who have been harmed can forgive the perpetrators for creating mortal wounds in the community of The Christ.

I pray that this pope will call on all who took part in taking away the faith of those abused by clergy to come forth, confess to their victims, and turn themselves into the legal system, rendering "unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." Perhaps this way, some of the formerly faith-filled who lost their faith in God through these abuses will be rendered back unto God.

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.