If

If you love someone, set them free.

Discussions and Divinity

We need look no further than the American slaves
For proof that wealth is not an indication of being saved.
How gratefully they sang for every blessing of every day;
How heartfelt the love in the words they had to say.

What about the Jews who were enslaved, too?
Perhaps their faith is how they became the chosen few.
India followed a man of compassion to lead to the grace
Of escaping masters who were enslaving their race.

Those who followed the Christianity of Martin Luther King
Have given our country new freedom of which we now sing.
And women who are joining forces in loving one another
Are creating opportunities to serve, other than being a mother.

It is the faith in the Divinity in each of us that gives us strength,
To stand together for the justice for which humanity is meant.
It is time for all those suffering under monetary power's boot
To stop believing that this power has Divinity at its root.

We have been given individual voices, and freedom of speech;
This is so that we can communicate to learn and to teach.
Stop parroting words that you heard from fathers and mothers;
Think of how your actions and words are affecting others.

How do the words you hear apply to your experience?
Don't repeat them unless, in your world, they make sense.
When we hear the truth about what happened to each of us,
Maybe we'll find new solutions for our problem to discuss.

Path to Peace

There are many who helped to form my soul;

I've lost all contact with most of them.

It takes a great deal of spiritual energy

To nurture someone as a friend.

I have a sense of being quite blessed

By the many people who have let me in.

Hearts open to emotional give and take

Are how friends and soul mates begin.

I have a tendency to question most activity;

Before I join in, I want it explained to me.

There are those who follow and those who lead;

To understand my leaders is my need.

"A life unexamined is not worth living," may be true;

We must pay close attention to what we say and do,

And also closely watch others go about their day.

You learn a great deal when you have little to say.

And most people must need a person who will listen

It comes to where you'll hear people's confessions.

You don't have to seek this; you won't want to know

What people were ashamed to others show.

I have found quite recently that most don't know

The reasons for their beliefs or how they want to grow.

I was always aware of life's contradictions;

Revealing these alienated many of my family and friends.

I have no more illusions about the sanctity

Of words and actions meshing in our society.

The religious creeds aren't about what we do;

They're about how to recognize our own few.

The Ten Commandments were for the unity

Within the new people that had come to be.

We spout them, break them, and forgive ourselves,

But the harm we do, still in other souls dwells.

The Biblical history from the beginning of mankind

Was a cautionary tale of the results of being unkind.

Until we are ready to make ourselves vulnerable, 

We'll continue in the fear with which our hearts are full.

Fear begets hatred of what we don't understand;

Common language and values are needed in a clan.

Our scriptures have become a Tower of Babel,

Creating excuses and fear, instead of living the rules.

Abraham's people still believed in blood sacrifice.

Moses wrote many of laws for how to be like The Christ.

The people condensed the laws down to the basic twelve,

In which they felt their people could peacefully dwell.

There continued to be much dissension in the ranks;

A Jewish leader came, for which I give thanks. 

He proclaimed that the fighting was to cease;

Only two basic laws were needed to make peace.

If we follow the laws of Divinity with our full souls,

Compassion for other people will make us whole.

Not to all had the grace of pursuing peace been sent,

So he did not break the laws of earthly government.

He allowed himself and the two thieves to die,

In keeping with the laws of earth that did apply.

He also allowed Judas to take his own life.

Was this to keep his disciples from vengeful strife?

He left a message with all of us, Gentile and Jew;

He had shown us the only way to a peace that is true.

By living lives that support earthly harmony,

Missionaries and martyrs for justice show this to me.

This is living "Sacred Scripture" happening in our lives;

We must put all need for different creeds aside.

In each others' actions, there are many bits of The Christ

Following the path to peace, we, our own blood, sacrifice.

Spiritual Sparks

The sun, the rain, even hurricanes are imbued with Spiritual sparks.
Though we may not understand the language, this is how The Spirit "talks."
If every day is a Spiritual gift, no matter what we have to face,
Will we not accept that death and destruction are a way to build new life?

Pain is not punishment or judgement on our actions;
It is simply a stress that can lead to universal growth.
Facing stress with fear locks up the positive power
That can help us feel one with earth's re-birth contractions.

If every day we live our lives as if it is our last day on earth,
Will we not focus on loving instead of on our animal fears?
When we allow The Spirit to guide all our thoughts and actions,
We know that this strength will take us even through our deaths.

The energy we receive in this life does not disappear at death;
In its transformation, it goes on to feed the universe .
The tiniest spark of goodness that you shared with another
Will live on in that person's Spirit, lighting a path to peace.

I am not prone to praying for the storms and pain to pass me by;
I am more prone to praying for strength to accept their affects.
My most useful prayer is in looking for the growth that will come,
Rising from the rubble of my own, my people's, and our planet's pain.

We must let go of earthly attachments in order to grow;
This is most difficult with our children, mates, and families.
It is not easy to say, "I'm ready to let you go or to die."
Given as a gift, not as a sign, of our own apathy.

Sacred Sundays

All week we do for the world at large;
On Sundays we do for each other
The challenges that we've faced alone,
We discuss and look for symmetry.

Often our conversation turns to morals;
We understand each others positions.
We have a shared biblical vocabulary,
But very different action plans.

We were both brought up submersed
In the same version of the same religion.
Our shared values seem to be a product
Of the religion in which we were raised.

He was Jesuit and Franciscan trained;
I, by Dominican Sisters to seek the truth.
And we both had St. Joseph Sisters
In our most formative early years.

It is true that our earliest indoctrination
Bears fruit throughout our full lives.
Could we ever have found peace together
Without the same early training for our souls?

We were children of The Church,
Born to mothers who only bore us
To help the popes continue to build
Their armies of "Soldiers of Christ."

We have both turned away from our religion
Because of the abuses of their power,
But we know that we would not be the same
Without the grounding in our shared faith.

The gratitude we feel for those
Who taught us our religion
Will never be forgotten,
Though our sorrow remains.

Often there have been others
Offering us their own religions,
But we will never be completely
Free from our past spiritual home.

Blessings and Being

Open your soul.

Feel The Spirit.

Breathe deeply.

Be.

Ask for forgiveness.

Grieve together.

Hug one another.

Be.

Sit together in silence.

Share making a meal.

Feed yourselves and each other.

Be.

Say, "I love you."

Hug one another.

Return to your world.

Do.

Lie down in your bed.

Relive the memories.

Thank The Spirit.

Sleep.

How Can "Christians" Continue to Hate?

How can "Christians" continue to hate in the name of God?
Is it because so much "conversion" is a fraud?
We proclaim our belief in a faith we don't understand
In order to follow, not Jesus, but another earthly plan.

We have bonding rituals that have nothing to do with caring;
Communion tables should be real meals with spiritual sharing.
Not the voice of one priest or prophet and mindless rituals
That leave neither our minds, souls, hearts or bellies full.


Hard hearts in the old law allowed for divorces,
And, presumably, for use of many deadly forces
But the new law seems to point to kinder men,
So the peace of Genesis will, one day, reign again.

Why are "Christian" men still posturing for earthly power
When the consequences seem to get worse by the hour?
What can be worse than possible nuclear annihilation?
Isn't it time to spread The Holy Spirit celebration?


It seems that by only men was the life and the word of the risen lord
Expected to be experienced, interpreted, followed, or even heard.
How do we expect that women and their children will find the way
When it has been so long since women of wisdom had a say?

There are rules to peaceful relationships that seem to be ignored
By the very men that the words of Jesus were apparently meant for.
Is the problem that it's easier to continue to look back
And find, in the old law, reasons, to others, attack?


Where are the compassionate cultural conversations
With the families who have cherished children in other nations?
If all the fighting we do happened in our own country,
Would we be more serious about keeping the peace?


How many more millenia will we repeat the same old stories,
Pretending the the reward from "God" is earthly glory?
The coming together of family around a shared meal
Is a place where we can, The Holy Spirit, share and feel.

But we must have the courage to set a loving tone
Look for answers, not hatred, in our sacred homes.
Listen to each other's challenges in continuing on a holy path;
This may be the only way a world of peace will reign at last.