Endurance

For many of us across the globe, we are now entering into month two of the pandemic. For others it has been longer much longer with deeply tragic results. In Southern California where spirit has given me an opportunity to be for the next few months, we have been in lock down since the 19th of March. I must say, now that everything is blooming and the days are quite warm, this sitting inside stuff is getting a bit old. What is a particular challenge for me personally is that the place I am staying has no internet, which means I must be incredibly resourceful at obtaining, especially now that the places I had been logging on (libraries, coffee shops, fast food restaurants) are now off limits. I must walk to the local library and sit outside the closed doors with my mask to enjoy the daily five hours of wifi that are still happening six days a week. At a distance of 3 miles, I must say it is actually helping me get in shape physically, for what I am not sure, but I am getting in my daily exercise as this trip to the library entrance is off the beaten path and I never encounter anyone other than an occasional police car and the maintenance crew that waves at me as they go inside the library to dust.

For those of us not on the front lines of the pandemic, this is an odd time. Most of us are laden with the anxiety of economic unknowns. Some of us are crashing like the stock market, others are trying to adapt to the world of teleconferences. All of us have had dreams dashed, plans obliterated, vacations cancelled and businesses stalled. In the States, for those of us who have stomach lining of steel, we watch the administration's daily performances with a mixture of disbelief, entertainment and despair. Fortunately, for many of us our state and local representatives are leading with calm and care, but it is still difficult to watch so many suffer so deeply. For many of us, we are suffering with the loss of loved ones, careers, health and so on. The only solace we all have is that we all, all of us are suffering together. Enduring a pandemic is not something that any one of us individually chose to or consciously contributed to create, and yet here we are, another week of abnormal existence, of trying to creatively live through this, attempting to keep our businesses alive, our families in tact, our health in gear, and wondering what the next chapter will bring.

During my original study of the Black Madonnas, I was struck by the many similarities that these images shared on the European Continent. The somber faces combined with stories of endurance I feel are especially instructive at this time. The Black Madonnas seem to be indestructible, surviving invasions, wars, religious and political upheaval, natural disasters, plagues, shipwrecks and vandalism. For those who were burnt at the stake during the French Revolution, they "resurrected" themselves through the memories of artists who recreated the images in meticulous detail to rein habit their shrines once the political unrest quieted down. What is most fascinating to me is how the restorations were darker than the original, mainly through the requests of the pilgrims.

The fact that so many of these images were brought to the Continent by the Knights Templar also fascinates me. Why would they do that, and why would they place these images in shrines along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela?

The Camino is a path of modern initiation. Before the time of Christ, only a select group of elites was initiated into the mysteries of the cosmos. After Christ, we all became equal in the eyes of the Divine, and all had equal access to the mysteries of the universe, only now, life is the great initiator we all encounter together.

The color black is the color of cosmic will being transmitted to human will. These dark images of the Madonna, the Madonna being the symbol of the Human Soul, for me speak volumes. One of the great endeavors of the Knights Templar was to invite civilization to be a container for the Christ. Rudolf Steiner tells us that the era of the Crusades, where the Templars were the leading figures, was the age of the preparation for the epoch of the Consciousness Soul, the current era we are enduring.

I have always found it instructive that the image of the Black Madonna was the leading image on The Camino. This path of modern initiation has images of the Human Soul, the Black Madonna, with somber faces, a sort of premonition that the coming age (the one we are in now) is going to be very difficult. The difficulties that humans have had to endure since the dawn of our current age fill the annals of history; plagues, wars, genocides, the wholesale purposeful destruction of the planet, and now this current pandemic.

One pundit pointed out the reason this situation is particularly difficult for Americans in particular is that we are a nation of "doers." Another comedian joked that this was a war he was prepared for, since a leading health expert said we must all go home and watch TV. He went on to say this will be the first time prisoners of a war will be fatter than when they became imprisoned.

But are we supposed to just sit around and watch TV until given permission to re-enter our lives with face masks and at six feet distance from anyone we encounter for the foreseeable future? Are we incapable of doing anything of consequence? I am reading Entering the Castle by Carolyn Myss (A library book that my county has told me I can hang on to without fear of late fees until the reopening at some point in who knows when.) The book is an interesting overview of Theresa of Avila and her famed Interior Castle. Myss also makes reference to St John of the Cross and his experience of being imprisoned, and how this led him to write his landmark Dark Night of the Soul. In both of these treatises, deeply insightful messages are conveyed as to how to have intimacy of the Divine, and that such intimacy often comes through suffering, isolation and the removal of all familiar aspects of daily life. What Myss points out throughout her book, is that we are all vessels of grace, and that by invoking grace, we can bring about deep healing within ourselves and others.

At this point in the pandemic, the question of how to re-open nations and economies is the major focus of attention. When is it too soon, is the cure worse than the problem, isn't poverty and economic devastation just as toxic to people's health as a virus? My perception is that the virus has done much to force all of humanity to simultaneously examine the major weaknesses and injustices of modern life. From the insanity of our global supply chain for pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, to the lethal quality of general poor health, to the sick relationship between humans and animals, to the dangers of an industrial food system, to an economic structure that really only benefits a very few and leaves out large segments of hard working people while simultaneously destroying the planet. Case in point: the major deficiencies for the medical professionals is protective gear and testing for the virus. The coveted protective gear (masks, gloves, gowns) are produced mostly in the region of China that was the first to suffer the pandemic and to be shut down to everything. The swabs that are needed for the testing for the virus are mostly made in the northern region of Italy, the epicenter and tragic location of death and destruction for Europe. The two main things needed to "combat" the virus, were made in the two places these objects were completely unavailable due to massive outbreaks and restrictive measures to stop the spread.

For me it is no coincidence that the 50th Earth Day was celebrated while the petroleum industry collapsed, now demand is all but vanished, and the industry is essentially awash in the substance having to pay others to take the stuff off it's hands. All  of this is happening as air quality is the best it has been in decades in major city centers and while wild life is venturing out of hiding and our air quality is improving. The Earth definitely had a great "Day" this year for sure.

Please if you are having a difficult time emotionally and spiritually with this ongoing pandemic, reach out for help, there are many free call in services with professionals and so forth, I am sure there are options where ever you are, just reach out please, you are precious and we need you. It is perfectly rational and healthy to be emotionally over burdened right now, with so many uncertainties regarding health and the economy. I cry about once every four days or so, usually on my walks, but I cry mainly because it is all very sad and upsetting at present.

Besides making sure our emotional health is being supported, the other thing  we can be doing right now as the sleeping sick giant of the global economy struggles to come forth, we can all be vessels of grace, we can channel "hot grace" through our prayers to heal anything we can think of, people, systems, animals, politicians you name it. We can ask that this grace lead us to imagine a world beyond the lock down. It will take much endurance and dipping into the chasm of cosmic love to address the injustices this pandemic has uncovered. Myss says that we are to be Mystics without Monasteries, active in the world, we can be mystical activists. We were all born for this actually. As Theresa of Avila would say, we are to pray as if God were in charge and work as if we are in charge. The prayer we can do now, and the work is to figure out what sort of post pandemic culture we wish to have and work tirelessly to bring that about when the time comes. Work by helping register people to vote, help people to register to vote absentee, volunteer to help your community in any way you can, we can all pick up trash in our local regions. For those who have more energy, volunteer with civic and faith organizations that are addressing the numerous injustices the pandemic has uncovered, and of course support the arts and culture in your area as this is very important for any healthy society, and the arts have suffered and will suffer greatly as things like healthcare, housing and food will take much focus of local and national governments in the aftermath of this crisis.

Each one of us, each one of you is a vessel of deep love, and it will take that kind of love in the rocky days ahead. As Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr said, the long arc of history bends towards justice. What he said and led by example was that the bending towards justice depends on us all. So while we all sit and wait, the one thing we do not have to wonder about is loving our community and the planet enough to channel divine grace through our prayers, and let those prayers inspire us to acts of courage and endurance when we restart our lives. I for one do not want things to "go back" to the unhealthy status quo, I want culture to move forward, towards justice, which is another word for love.

Activities for the Apocalypse

The Mystery of the Resurrection

Christ Triumphant, Gallery of Icons Prilep North Macedonia

Easter 2020, both Eastern and Western, is one of the most unique Easters since the first one in Palestine over 2000 years ago. In the specter of mass death due to the current global pandemic, Christians throughout most of the world celebrated behind closed doors either alone or watching live streamed services online. One particularly poignant pre Easter podcast from the Vatican remarked that all fear in general is essentially fear of death. From a materialistic point of view, death is at its base, uncontrollable and the entry into the unknown. The first Easter, the podcaster related, meant the followers of Christ were hiding behind closed doors, mainly out of fear of being executed. Now, we all hide behind closed doors because we are afraid of dying from a virus, or causing death in others by exposing them to the microbe.

Art is the creation of organs by which the gods speak to humanity.

                                                                          Rudolf Steiner

Our Lady of the Good Death, France

Many of the world's Black Madonnas have some sort of association with death. Numerous Black Madonnas have the word "death" in their names, often associated with the word "good." As I have been living with the symbolism and questions of the Black Madonna now for nearly two decades, some revealing messages have been coming through these mysterious images. For me, I view the art form of the Black Madonna as a deep messenger for the lessons and gifts of the first Millennium of Christianity.

During the aftermath of the terror attacks of 2001, I was intensely interested in The Book of Revelation. (Forgive the commercial, but I go into this topic of The Revelation quite extensively  in both The Virgin of Guadalupe, Mysterious Messenger of Destiny and Activities for the Apocalypse Workbook, so get your copies today.) I delved into quite a bit of literature and theology regarding this enigmatic book. At that time, I read The Apocalypse of St John lecture cycle by Rudolf Steiner. What I found the most interesting and actually comforting to be honest, was how these lectures articulated where humanity was at present in terms of our shared evolution. These lectures conveyed how we humans were basically right in the middle of cosmic evolution, and also that humanity was about a thousand plus years away from really comprehending Christianity. In other things I had learned before that time, the context was that we had really not comprehended the Christ event at the time it occurred, that the original evangelization of the Christian movement and message was one that did not spread through thinking, it spread through a felt sense, it spread through mainly the heart and feelings. Keep in mind there was no organized church or clergy, no real dogma or theology and no written scriptures other than a couple of letters circulating through communities.

I still struggle with this to be honest, being trained as a scientist immersed in materialism. Since second grade, I had been taught proving anything required reasoning and facts led to the existence of anything. Belief was different than knowledge. Knowing was based on material items and experiences. Since there were no pictures or news articles regarding Jesus and the Crucifixion, and certainly no skeleton bearing the marks of execution, it did not happen according to material science and history. When one delves into ancient scriptures, meaning actual copies of scrolls dating from the first few centuries after Christ and the materialistic scholarship that goes into Bible archeology, it seems that not one thing in the Gospels can be proven as legitimate.

It is quite interesting though, that even in the ever politically correct world of calendars and carbon dating, the "CE" or "common era" used round the world starts at 0 around the birth of the Christ Child in Palestine. Why is that really, that the dates all cultures adhere to in terms of years, if nothing could be proven or the event did not happen?

The other thing I learned during these last 20 years of delving into The Black Madonna as well as Anthroposophical Christology is that each era in the collective maturation of humanity, there is a mystery to be encountered for the opening of our consciousness.

The mystery during the last era, the one where Christ incarnated and the first thousand years of Christian art and the Black Madonnas occurred, the mystery was that of Birth and Death. It was also a time of a great era of materialism. It is hard to really fathom this era being more materialistic than the one we are in now, but it was, so much so that it was actually difficult for people to incarnate, and after their deaths it was difficult for the soul to let go and progress across the threshold. A great example of this comes from the Greek saying, better a poor man on earth than a rich one in the afterlife. Hades was seen as a gray horrid eternal existence. Jewish tradition at the time really did not even contemplate an afterlife, it simply was not relevant or even imagined.

In the midst of this, Christ came, Christ incarnated into a physical body. One of the difficulties humanity had with this entire narrative, which was also hashed out quite a bit during the first thousand years of Christianity, was how is it possible for a god to become a human? In crude terms, why would a god want to voluntarily take a ticket in third class, when the god already had a luxury sleeper car?

The other great difficulty humanity had with this entire scenario was how could a god die? How could a god sit idly by and let themselves be executed? The last one was how could a physical body come back to life? See this mystery aspect of the era? It really was and is a mystery, as life and death and birth is truly a mystery. We humans try our darnedest to harness the mystery, from birth control to in vitro fertilization, organ transplants, respirators and other technologies that are supposed to sustain life,  to the control of death by killing of others through guns, wars, executions and such. Still, there is a mystery and a great challenge to birth and death. Even religious institutions try to control life and death, valiantly trying to control the after life by withholding sacraments, excommunication and such. Life and death are truly out of our hands for the most part, yet we keep trying to assert that control with sometimes frightening consequences.

In this milieu Christ came, he lived in a human body, endured death and rose again. Why?

Death we are told was a consequence of that Garden of Eden event. What is also true is death is the one experience only earthly creatures, specifically humans endure. Death is something the spiritual world did not understand. In order to help heal the rift between humans and the spiritual world, Christ experienced death. He then went on to educate the spiritual and angelic worlds on the experience, after which he rose from the dead and taught his followers for an additional 40 days for which we are told, the subject of those teachings could not be contained in all the books on earth. My intuition tells me that Christ probably was talking quite a bit regarding the mystery of birth and death, among other things. The simple take away from this entire drama, passion of Christ, is that there is  only a physical death, but the essence of who we are as members of the cosmos, that lives on.

When I taught Sunday School, ever so long ago, I was struck that we Christians have these pat phrases we utter endlessly. "Jesus is my Savior" "Jesus Died for my Sins" and so on, which are all deeply true but I am not sure we actually understand them or could explain them in anything but circular methods. The experience of witnessing in the flesh the reanimated body of a person that was publicly brutally executed I am sure was quite dramatic for all who were present. The fact that it was not a zombie out to get them is also for me very meaningful.

It is of note that the original ancient Christian art did not have images of a crucified Christ. In fact, the earliest images of Christian art are actually of Mary and the infant Jesus. If Christ is pictured at all, he is represented as a young man, the image of a sun god. It is only after the first thousand years of Christianity that the crucified and even dead Christ is pictured frequently in art. After that, with increasing gruesomeness, images of the mangled body of Jesus start making more appearances throughout the religious art of the late middle ages and the Renaissance.

Why?

I do not have an adequate explanation for this phenomena, other than maybe the mystery had been understood, that physical death was not the end. Easter is the recognition of this phenomena on one level, but it is also the remembrance of the great deed done for us all, the entire cosmic community, of educating us all that physical death is but a phase. For me, it is also a great gesture to help the spiritual world understand the trials of being a human, of how terrifying death is for those dying as well as those who are left on earth. There is now a deep intimacy between the spiritual world and humanity commenced from that time forward, that the spirit world now understands death. So the mystery was encountered by the entire cosmos because of the Christ.

I learned something quite interesting many years ago, about the journey of those who pass on how they travel and what they do after leaving their physical existence. We humans have the freedom that few in the cosmos have, to travel about to different levels of existence and continue the educational process of the spiritual world. Humans also "talk amongst themselves" as they leave and come in to the earth plane. Great events, such as World War II, produced mass death of the young. This means that those who die, die with a level of consciousness that those who die when they are old and live through their lives do not always have. When we think of those who died during WWII, through the horrors of the battles as well as those who died in concentration camps and through nuclear bombs, these souls brought quite a bit of consciousness as to the consequences of evil and materialism with them as they crossed the threshold. The souls that were incarnating at that time, the early 40's, they grew up to be the "baby boom" generation. Even with all the problems of this generation, what one can say is they birthed a global peace and environmental movement, these were the ones who protested the Viet Nam war, who flocked to communes, who pushed civil rights, women's rights and so on.

As the majority of the world sat inside during Easter while many are crossing the threshold of death from the pandemic, I wonder what these dear martyrs are communicating to the souls incarnating at this time?

As of this writing, it seems the poor and disenfranchised are the first wave of victims. Those who do not have the luxury of working remotely from home, who perform in vitally necessary jobs which often do not pay enough to live on, who do not have access to adequate health care and endure many underlying conditions from poor nutrition and hygiene because of slumlords and neglectful governments. What is it that these souls will tell the ones coming in about their lessons learned?

The world is focused on this pandemic, the opportunity that most are embracing is to love and to pray, to surround the globe with prayers of healing and of solidarity. What are the souls that are leaving and coming experiencing as they travel through the spiritual world? What are they leaving, what are they bringing?

We will have to wait a bit to see the fruits of this unique time in human evolution. From the end of WWII to the 1960's, the youth of the latter age were teens and young adults when they took to the streets demanding an end to institutionalized slaughter of war. That really was the first time in human history that humanity said no to war on such a large scale, and many from that time credit their protests to ending the Vietnam War.

What will the world look like in 18 - 20 years, what will be the values brought by the generation being born as we all sit indoors glued to our TV's?

Easter is a time of the breaking of the mystery of death. We are not quite yet at the place where we can totally understand this mystery, but we are starting to understand the love that was involved in solving the mystery, the love unleashed, the love the current Easter is asking us to exhibit. Maybe that is why the Black Madonnas are so involved in representing death, these images that were created during the last thousand years of the era mystery of birth and death. So many Black Madonnas were burnt and destroyed during the French Revolution, which was quite violent towards clergy and anything involving religious tradition. And yet, images of these ancient treasures remained, many Black Madonnas were hidden until the turbulence quieted down, new Madonnas were drawn, carved, painted and molded. They "came back" so to speak, in spite  of being destroyed.

We shall over come, because we are deeply loved.

May the peace and renewal of this sacred festival enrich you during this time of trial.

Christ is Risen, Christ Is Risen Indeed!

Vigil in Stillness

What a Lent it has been! In the Orthodox tradition, the 40 days preceding Easter is called "Great Lent." I personally feel the Lent of 2020 has been a great Lent, in that the current situation the majority of the world's Christians have been forced to sit inside their homes unable to attend study groups, rituals and Church services. Lent is supposed to be a time where we empty ourselves from earthly distractions, fasting is a practice to aid in this emptying. We are in essence creating space for Divinity in these 40 days leading up to Easter. I personally was both looking forward to and dreading Lent and Easter this year. My father passed last Summer, and he was a passionate musician, conductor and choir director for 40 years of his adult life. He came from a long line of Orthodox Priests and Cantors, in fact his full last name should have been Popov, meaning "Priest" in Macedonian. The American immigration officer at Ellis Island essentially erased his last name, telling my grandfather his name (Ivan Georgieff Popov) was too long and complicated. This tradition of Popov was not erased however, and I have been blessed to carry it on in my own way.

I was reflecting with a friend the other day that this was the perfect way for me personally to celebrate my first earthly Easter without my dad, as there would be no church services and no music. I think this lock down would have really been difficult for my hyperactive and borderline obsessive compulsive dad, so I am glad he is not around to endure this situation. Sitting still and not having rituals of any kind would have driven him mad, and would have been very difficult for those of us trying to coexist with him during a lockdown. Both my parents made every holiday special during my childhood, youth and through most of my adulthood. My father especially, with his love for music made every Easter so special. Every year since my known memory, my father produced  an Easter Concert of some major choral work along with Easter Sunday music of Choir and Orchestra which he paid for out of his own pocket. The Hallelujah Chorus along with Rachmaninoff's Gloria were his Easter favorites, and I feel his spirit most intensely when I hear these pieces. My dad will be participating in the ultimate choir this Easter, while on earth we will have to rely on tapes of previous services to companion us during the lock down.

In a recent interview, Archbishop Roche of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship remarked that this Lent and Easter is much like the experience of the Disciples and early Christians. During and immediately after the Crucifixion, the followers of Jesus were locked away in their homes or rooms, mainly out of fear of being killed by Roman guards. They had publicly followed a convicted criminal that had just been crucified. Roche said we are now waiting for Easter, locked in our rooms, out of fear of being killed by a virus.

In the days leading up to the lockdown, it was a daily and painful experience to watch the (not so) slow withdrawal of the Church. Ash Wednesday was celebrated in full force with music, liturgy and the sacraments. In the weeks following, first the Holy Water containers were filled with rocks, then only bread was offered during Communion, then nothing was offered, only the Priest took the sacrament, and then the churches were closed. There were heartfelt prayers, emails and youtube videos of pastors, priests and other clergy from different faiths announcing the online options for congregants. In some churches the rituals are continuing but with no congregants present. Interesting and creative events are happening round the world, video conference prayers, liturgy and sermons are common. My personal favorite is one pastor taped pictures of his congregants onto the pews as witnesses to his videotaped service.  In certain regions hard hit by the virus, pastors, nuns and priests are risking their lives to minister to the dying and sick, to carry on with age old rituals surrounding Holy Week. I sat and cried watching the PBS Newshour coverage of Good Friday at the Vatican and in Jerusalem. The tears flowed quite freely when I watched priests in Notre Dame of Paris conduct Good Friday liturgy in the ashes of the burnt out cathedral. Everywhere there are empty churches and cathedrals, vacant streets. In Jerusalem priests in masks, gloves and goggles carried large wooden crosses up the Via Delorosa, to  closed doors at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This church the newscaster said, had not been closed in nearly 700 years, the last time the doors were shut was during the Black Death of the 14th Century. For those of us who find deep peace and solace with rituals and church services, to endure this pandemic without access to such resources is particularly painful.

Memes are circulating on social media comparing mall parking lots with church parking lots, questioning why people can go to Walmart but not Church. Pastors in certain regions are petitioning  states and counties to be exempt from shut down orders to allow people to come together for services and Easter, saying they are "essential service" providers. Some pastors are arrested by local law enforcement for violating lock down orders. As my family endured 500 years of Ottoman occupation and several generations of enforced communism and atheism, I have always been cynically amused at what certain Christian sects (specifically in America,) consider "religious oppression." My family endured numerous decades where baptisms had to be conducted during the middle of the night in basements for fear of discovery and retribution, Bibles were burned and relatives imprisoned for trying to practice their faith. Access to employment could be curtailed and medical care withheld if one was identified as a Christian. Under the communist regime, Christian holidays were erased from the calendar and extra work required on the days traditionally set aside for celebrations. If there were special foods eaten during festivals, the government would make sure none of the ingredients  used for such meals were available for purchase weeks before the date. So while having churches closed during this Lent has been painful, I often reflect to the suffering of so many Christians throughout the centuries endured during many a festival.

I had the deep honor of visiting Moscow shortly following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990's. I remember at that time, the first Easter when the churches had been opened since the Russian Revolution. There were so many worshippers, Russia ran out of wax for candles. During a free afternoon from the conference I was attending, I had asked one of my Russian counterparts to help me purchase some Icons for my grandmother. For an Orthodox Christian, going to Russia is similar to visiting Israel for the Jewish faithful. Grammy as I called her, gave me money to purchase jewelry and Icons for the both of us. My Russian friends introduced me to a former Soviet Nuclear Fleet commander to take me to the Kremlin where I could purchase the items. He spoke no English, I essentially no Russian. He grabbed my hand and ran me across wide Moscow streets with cars whizzing past. I simply went limp and let this man who had his finger on the button to annihilate my nation with nuclear bombs for two decades lead the way. We went through the famous Moscow underground, where the captain hugged me tight and sheltered me from any harm that might have come my way. He took me to the churches in the Kremlin, where I got in as a "local" without the extra fee charged to foreigners.

Since I landed in Moscow, I wondered how it was that I could attend services at any church. I especially wanted to witness Liturgical music, the deep soulful chants of my father and grandfather. As I stood in an ancient church where the tombs of the Czars dated from the 13th century, an entourage of novice candidates for the priesthood entered into the sanctuary. They began to rehearse the liturgy, and I started to sob silently as I knew these churches had been silent for 75 years. The Captain who was still holding my hand watched me, and he started to cry as well. We had no language but that of the heart and soul. As we walked from church to church, the novice choir followed us and sang in each chapel. My prayer had been answered. I remember thinking to myself; this is what happens when institutions are absent from faith, it is pure and filled with love. I have since that fateful day, considered that particular day to be my best day in my entire life.

As I reflect on that day and the experience of my ancestors along with the current lockdown with the very first Easter, something shines through for me. Yes, I deeply miss the Holy Week studies and services I enjoyed for decades. I long for the Sacraments, I miss the music, and oh how I miss my dad and the Easters of our shared past. But the only thing I have been able to cleave to in these very odd Lent leading up to Easter is the feeling in my heart, the Peace that Passes all understanding. I gaze at the photocopied image of The Virgin of Guadalupe on the mirror in my bedroom, I delve into readings, the Gospels, I pray and I feel a sense not felt since that sweet experience in Moscow so many many years ago. Churches, ritual, community are all important and intregal to furthering the healing nature of Christ, but they can also substitute for the deeper work in which we need to engage.

Christ mentioned that the widow who gave pennies gave more than those who gave large amounts of money publicly to the Temple. He told us to pray in private, and not make a spectacle of ourselves. Christ is more interested in our internal work, the work of our soul and spirit, which is not exactly a visible activity. Our behaviors obviously are visible, and as he said, "A tree is known by it's fruit," but the internal is just as important as our works. The whole world is on Easter Vigil, locked in our rooms, not knowing what is to become of us all. It is time to work on our souls and our spirits. We know Christ came, we know he has risen, we know he is present now. I ask myself all the time, how can I use this time, what am I to learn from this experience. I remain still and wait knowing that Divinity is accessible regardless of externals.

I hope you feel the peace that passes all understanding in this very confused and profound time, that we are joined through our hearts which nothing, not one thing can separate.

For this I know that is true that nothing can separate us from the love of God, not things present nor things past, not angels or principalities, not even a virus or shelter in place orders, or locked church doors, for we are all one in he who has risen.