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Brian Wilcox "Sweet Alyssum - 'Royal Carpet' variety"
I wrote on June 3, 2011, after leaving the church ministry and active participation in the church, being left legally homeless, due primarily to my social inclusiveness -
As I grow closer to the Heart of Love, I see persons differently; I see into them, rather than just looking at them. I believe that means I see persons more through the Eyes of Grace, not the eyes of my group: religiously, politically, socially, … Be assured, G-D is not a member of your or my group... - Every person essentially and most truly is holy, for each person is part of Nature expressing and participating in G-D.
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As we face protests regarding social and racial injustice, I am seeking to keep growing in this inclusiveness to all, even those who oppose equality. When I hear the chant "Black Lives Matter, " I pray to listen to that clearly and thoroughly and, in honoring that, affirm all lives matter - including animal life, all of nature as a manifestation of the Light, the epiphany of Christ.
We each have different ways to advance social justice. Yet, the first step is always with ourselves. A wise spiritual path is meant not merely for comfort, but confrontation, a healing meeting with that within us that needs to be transformed into the Embrace of Love, darkness transmuted into the Light of Life.
I - we - can do this, by Grace. The Spirit, alive within us, returns us to our true nature, our home. This sanctum of unity is beyond all we think that divides us. From home, we reverence the Divine within the other.
In the Heart, we are one; the Heart is our home - there is only one Heart. There is a single Light looking through the eyes of everyone. We are each a window for and of the Light.
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A Christian seeker said, "I pray to see Christ in everyone. Do you have any wisdom to give on this?" The Sage said, "Better that you pray to see Christ as everyone."
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Howard Thurman -
Long ago, Plotinus wrote, “If we are in unity with the Spirit, we are in unity with each other, and so we are all one.” The words of this ancient Greek mystic are suggestive; for they call attention to the underlying accord of all of life. The recognition of the Spirit of God as the unifying principle of all life becomes at once the most crucial experience of humans. It says that whoever is aware of the Spirit of God within herself or himself enters the doors that lead into the life of all others.
*Meditations of the Heart.
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Christmas Day morning 2015, driving home to visit my brother and father, I had been reading from a contemplative Christian. I had been pondering her thoughts on the Eucharist. Churches call the ceremonial meal based on that Jesus had with his disciples the night of his arrest, before his crucifixion, as the Lord's Supper, the Mass, Holy Communion, or Eucharist - this can, also, mean the consecrated elements of wine, or juice, and bread. When a pastor, I favored Eucharist, meaning "thanksgiving."
I had come, over the years, to see faith rituals are to be transformed into an intimate and subtle experience. The without is a shadow of the within; clinging to the external-of-things hinders receptivity to the interior-of-things. Hence, while the Christmas morning epiphany surprised me - which I will elucidate below -, it agreed with other varied encounters I had prior and from a spiritual path of moving from outer to inner, institutional to intimate, and mind to heart.
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