A Christmas Blessing from Peggy

Just as a mother with her own life
Protects her child, her only child, from harm,
So within yourself let grow
A boundless love for all creatures.

Let your love flow outward through the universe.
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.

Then as you stand or walk,
Sit or lie down,
As long as you are awake,
Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;
Your life will bring heaven to earth.

From God Makes the Rivers to Flow, by Eknath Easwaran

As Meister Eckhart would say, let your soul be Bethlehem for the birth of Christ love and "Your life will bring heaven to earth". Happy Holidays with love and gratitude to all of you! Peggy

© Peggy Beatty 2010

Be Still!

In the 15th century a small town in Russia was experiencing a very high incidence of violence, creating an atmosphere of fear and stress among the people, including the local monastery, where the monks could no longer concentrate on their prayers. Andrei Rublev, an icon painter, was called to paint something that helped the monks to remain calm and prayerful in the midst of all the restlessness. Rublev produced a depiction of the three angels visiting Abraham described in the book of Genesis. The angels are seated around the table hospitality, with the angel in the center pointing two fingers at the chalice on the table and leaning toward the angel on the left, who is offering a blessing. The third figure points to an opening through which the viewer is invited to join the three at the table, to enter into the flow of hospitality and spiritual comfort. When the monks prayed with this icon, now known as the Trinity icon, they were drawn into the loving intimacy and safety of that circle of hospitality and they were no longer afraid.

The spirit of God dances within and around us unceasingly. God is with us. This is the message of Christmas - the birth of the baby Jesus. We can "birth" the realization of God's presence any time. We are immersed in God's love and grace every single moment of our lives. All we have to do is recognize this and pause long enough to enter into the safe and loving flow of the Creator's care. Fear not! I bring you glad tidings of a great joy! God is with you! Jesus shows the way - Stop. Listen. You are standing on holy ground. Enter and find peace.

The task of prayer is not to make something happen, but to become aware of what God is already doing so that we can respond to it and participate in it. Be Still! And know that I AM.

© Peggy Beatty 2011

Dabar* - an Advent Reflection

Prepare your gift deep within
In stillness bring it forth
Loose all your notions
Of what may be
And wait
Open
Open
Open
For the subtle pouring
of The Word,
Dabar*
Into your vessel

Then when you rise
It will trail behind you
Through the holes in your colander
Like pollen on bee’s feet
From this flower to that one
Sticky manna of
Peace

Peggy Advent 2010

*The word dabar means "word" or "talk" in Hebrew, in other words, self expression. In the Hebrew Bible, dabar is used in reference to the "Divine Word", and, importantly, in an active sense as a "word event", or prophetic words. In Christianity, the Old Testament concept of "word event" represented by dabar carries over as revelation, significantly in the incarnation of Jesus. But beyond that, dabar or self expression is God's message to humanity through Jesus, a message of love, compassion, and forgiveness as these attributes characterize the true nature of humanity, made in the image of God. More than a mere sound, dabar refers to self-expression: people in action as emissaries of the divine. The Septuagint, the oldest translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek uses the terms Rhema and Logos as equivalents for dabar. Other terms for dabar: creative energy, creative expression, message of truth

© Peggy Beatty 2010

How Will You Sow Your Seed for the Harvest?

John 12:24 "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." Jesus


From Show Yourself to My Soul

by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) trans James Talarovic

When death comes to your door
at the end of day,
what treasures will you turn over to him?

I'll bring
my full soul before him.

I'll not send him away empty handed
the day he comes to my door.

Into my life- vessel
pours the nectar
of countless evening and dawns,
of numberless autumn and spring
nights.

My heart gets filled
with the sight of endless fruits and flowers,
with the touch
of joy and sorrow's light and shade.

All the treasures I've gathered
during my lifelong preparation
I'm now arranging for the last day
to give it all to death -
the day he comes to my door.

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"

What was said to the rose that made it open

was said to me here in my chest.
What was told the cypress
that made it strong and straight,
what was whispered the jasmine
so it is what it is,
whatever made sugarcane sweet,
whatever was said to the inhabitants
of the town of Chigil in Turkestan
that makes them so handsome,
whatever lets the pomegranate flower
blush like a human face,
that is being said to me now. I blush.

Whatever put eloquence in language,
that's happening here.
The great warehouse doors open,
and I fill with gratitude,
chewing a piece of sugarcane,
in love with the one
to whom every that belongs.
Rumi

The essence of that which makes sugarcane sweet and roses bloom, the whispered fragrance of jasmine and the strong steadfastness of the cypress, that is what speaks to us beyond the physical and beckons us to an intimacy of unbounded being. It is the spirit of the universe that fills these with that which they are, not what they look like, but their purest, most authentic nature. Essence. Spirit.

The same day I read this poem I received Eckhart Tolle’s meditation: “Each human needs to find his or her timeless and formless essence identity.”

Here are some definitions of the word essence:
–noun
1. the basic, real, and invariable nature of a thing
2. a substance obtained (concentrated) from a plant, drug, or the like, by distillation, infusion, etc., an alcoholic solution of an essential oil; spirit.
3. perfume; scent.
4. Philosophy . the inward nature, true substance, or constitution of anything
5. something that exists, esp. a spiritual or immaterial entity.

Acts 17:24-27 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And God is not served by human hands, as if God needed anything. Rather, the Spirit of God gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one human God made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth. God did this so that they would seek and perhaps reach out and find God, though the Spirit of God is not far from any one of us. ‘For in God we live and move and have our being.’

All of creation, formed in the image of God, is the triune nature of Divine manifestation. Source, spirit, and fragile, transient form in a dynamic relationship of perichoresis(a). In John 1, the Word became flesh (Greek: Sarx) meaning form, fragile, finite, passing, temporary. God the source breathes into our finite, fragile form the essence of life, which is all that is perfect and lovely, the Spirit of God’s self.

2 Cor 2:14. “Thanks be to God, who leads us in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ.”

The sweet taste of sugar cane, the whisper of jasmine, the beautiful vulnerability of the human heart, it is the deep, true nature of these that pierces our soul with the recognition that we are also the fragrance, that flavor, that beauty. It is life in its purest form,the truth of being that unites us with eternal truth. It is what we appreciate in Jesus, the reflection of our human self: authentic, fragile and “beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words.”

In his poem, Ode on a Grecian Urn, John Keats speaks of the timeless truth, the essence that lies hidden in fragile form. The urn informs those observing it, who cannot understand the fleeting nature of form and the eternal timelessness of essence:

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Form is simply the physical vessel of the divine truth that is God. When we can "see" truth we are captured by the most beautiful vision one can behold, it is the essence of who we are. Peggy November 2010

(a) Perichoresis: The doctrine of the Trinity. The word is derived from the Greek “peri-choresis” which translates as, “peri” meaning around, “choresis” meaning to dance (the same root as choreography). The relationship between the Persons of the Trinity was described, by early Christians, as an eternal Holy Dance of each Person in the Trinity around and within the Others.

© Peggy Beatty 2010

On the Creation by John of the Cross with commentary by Peggy

A bride who will love you
My Son
I want to give you
Who, because of her great value,
Deserves to share your company
And eat bread at our table
(This one I too eat at)
So she can know
The Good I have in you
And so she can rejoice with me
In your grace and full beauty.

I am grateful,
Father,
Said the Son
And I will show my shining
To the bride you gave me
So she can see by its radiance
How great my Father is
And how the being I possess
Streams to me from Your being.
I will hold her in my arms
And she will burn in your love
And with eternal delight
She will exalt Your goodness.

My thoughts:

This beautiful writing of John of the Cross (16th cent Carmelite and good friend of Teresa of Avila) is a paraphrase of John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son (Jesus the Christ), that whoever believes in Him (understands and practices the 'mind of Christ' following the example of Jesus) should not perish, but have everlasting life.

"Who, because of her great value,
Deserves to share your company
And eat bread at our table..."

For God so loved the world (her great value)...that God brought an eternal relationship of procreative beauty and mutual dependence between the seen and the unseen, bringing forth a creation "table," an everlasting cycle of self-sustaining ecological nourishment, that creation ("she") could know the "Good" the Christ and "rejoice with me in your grace and full beauty." That He gave His only Son...

Whoever believes in Him will not perish...
"Said the Son (The Christ and Jesus by his annointing as The Christ), I will show my shining (that I am of God) to the bride" (creation) "so she can see by its radiance...how the being (human form Jesus) I possess streams to me from Your being (God)...she will burn in your love with eternal delight..."

But have everlasting life...

"She will exalt Your goodness." Creation wil be lifted into the embrace of the Christ, who is all Goodness from God.

Some will say, the church is the Bride of Christ, but that is simply the beginning of one movement of the awareness of humanity (the Christians) on behalf of creation toward the divine reality that we are one with Source.

© Peggy Beatty 2010

Psalm 20

Eternal and Immortal One,
You have been our refuge in all generations.

Before the mountain were brought forth,
before You had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting,
You are the Alpha and Omega.

When our days on Earth are ended,
You welcome us home to your Heart,
to the City of Light,
where time is eternal and days are not numbered.

You gather those who love You
as friends returning from a long journey,
giving rest to their souls.
You annoint them with the balm of understanding,
healing wounds of the past.

For our days on Earth are a mystery, a searching for You,
a yearning for the great Mystery to make itself known.
The years pass and soon the Harvest is at hand,
a time to reap the fruit of one's life.

Who has lived with integrity?
Who will reflect the Light?
Who can bear the radiant beams of Love?

Who have reverenced the Counselor,
and opened their hearts to the Spirit of Truth?
Teach us, O Beloved, to honor each day
that we may have a heart of wisdom.

Awaken us, O Holy One! Too long have we been asleep!
Have mercy on your people!
Help us to wait in Silence listening for your Word,
Strengthen us with courage to face the fears within.

O, that we might be converted in our hearts and walk together in peace and harmony!
Let your Word be known to the nations,
your Glory to our children's children.

Let the grace and gentleness of the Holy Spirit be upon us,
guiding our feet upon paths of love;
Increase the Light within us-
O Beloved, hear our prayer!

Amen

~from Psalms for Praying by Nan Merrill

“Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” Rumi

"Whoever we may be, whatever religion we belong to - when we pray and our prayers come from the deepest of our hearts, a transformation takes place and we find ourselves "Beyond right and wrong." We experience the immense power of deep spirituality whenever we chant/sing together even as each prays in their own tradition/tongue." Singers message from BEYOND -Buddhist and Christian prayers.

The reason for Taize in a word is reconciliation toward a universal goal of PEACE. Reconciliation means to “sit with again.” Or be returned to…. from Latin reconciliāre to bring together again, from re- + conciliāre to make friendly, conciliate.

Three times a day, the bells ring an invitation to prayer through the tiny town of Taizé, in the rolling country-side of the burgundy region of France. At the monastery, monks and visiting pilgrims stop their activities to come together in the spacious, candle-lit Church of the Reconciliation for an hour of meditation.

It was 1940 when Reformed Swiss Protestant, Brother Roger Louis Schutz-Marsauche arrived in Taizé by bicycle to establish a refugee camp. He and his sister ministered to war refugees and underpriviledged of all nationalities and ethnicities. Br Roger understood all of humanity to be reconciled to God through Christ and that doing God’s work meant loving and accepting everyone into the community.

After the war, the ecumenical monastic community of Taizé took shape, as men of all religious traditions joined with Brother Roger to promote reconciliation and unity through denominational diversity. In 1952 Br Roger wrote his rule of community solidifying the unity of the Brothers in an ethic of prayer, work and hospitality -“the essential that makes the common life possible.” In his rule Br Roger wrote: “It is Christ Himself whom we receive in our guest. Let us learn to welcome.”

Reconciliation does not mean you agree to do things my way. Reconciliation means we agree to respect the way we both think and practice. Reconciliation is always unifying, never exclusionary. Reconciliation honors diversity. Diversity is an inherent characteristic of life – in fact the more diverse life is, the greater the potential to sustain life. You have all heard of hybrid vigor – the more diverse the genetic pool, the less likely for mutations that lead to anomalies. The more diverse our thoughts, the greater our creativity. The more diverse our food sources, the greater chance that all will be fed. Reconciliation understands the need for diverse life and calls it into wholeness together. One people, one planet.

Taize is all about honoring diversity, living a Christ-centered ethic which puts love ahead of all else – love which does not discriminate, but offers itself to everyone, a fountain of living water for all who come to drink.

In Harmony is a trio of local Kansas City women who are bringing the hospitality and contemplative peace of Taizé prayer to churches and organizations seeking such quiet times for reflection. In Harmony’s Taizé services are written for liturgical seasons or on scriptural themes for missions groups, retreats, church and community events. In Harmony’s mission is to promote and foster unity in diversity through contemplative prayer practice and provide assistance to those in need through the allocation of proceeds to local charitable organizations

At the heart of Taizé is the unquenchable longing for reconciliation on earth, the truest prayer of all sacred traditions. It is the work and hope of In Harmony that the peace of Taizé prayer will be translated through the lives of its participants and those they encounter mip'nei tikkun ha-olam ("for the sake of the repair of the world").

This is the message of Taize - unity in diversity. "Whoever we may be, whatever religion we belong to - when we pray and our prayers come from the deepest of our hearts, a transformation takes place and we find ourselves "Beyond right and wrong." WE experience the immense power of deep spirituality whenever we chant/sing together even as each prays in their own tradition/tongue." Singers message from BEYOND -Buddhist and Christian prayers.

© Peggy Beatty 2010

The Artistry of Conscience - adapted from The Wisdom Way of Knowing, by Cynthia Bourgeault

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Conscience in the wisdom way of knowing is not an ethical term, although an ethic certainly flows from conscience. Conscience is the active spirit of consciousness. It is "the heart's own ability to see the divine hologram in any situation, no matter how obscured, and to move spontaneously and without regard for its personal well-being in alignment with that divine wholeness." CB

With a purified eye of the heart, one can move into emotional tension with compassion, shifting the energy through the quality of one's own aliveness. Like St Frances of Assisi, you embrace the leper standing before you with his begging bowl, because the eye of your heart tells you that only that embrace will restore the image of God in the brokenness. Or like Jesus, you are willing to go to the cross rather than meet violence with violence.

"Conscience (acting out of higher consciousness) is the pearl of great price; it is the both supreme realization and the instrument of visionary seeing. It is the capacity always and everywhere to see the whole of God yearning to become manifest in all our human beings and doings, like the full of the moon faintly present behind the crescent. With the awakening of this eye, you no longer see Wisdom, you become Wisdom. You become a channel of God's peace, and the greatest of all artists as you dance with the "the love that moves the stars and the sun." CB

Simultaneously Nothing - Everything

When I see I am nothing, that is wisdom.

When I see I am everything, that is love.

And between these two, my life flows." Nisargadatta Maharaj

About the photo....

Reprinted from Daily Galaxy...Stephen Hawkings great discovery was that the mysterious regions in space we call black holes radiate heat through quantum effects. Hawking has said that "black holes are not really black after all: they glow like a hot body, and the smaller they are, the more they glow." Hawking's famous theory says that the temperature of a black hole varies inversely to its mass. Is that something? or nothing? or both?

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/





Creation (cont) - Redemption

If humanity knows who they are as Godly, spiritual beings, they will know the truth and the truth will set them free.

The creation story written in Genesis was written following the exodus, the freeing of Israel from Egypt. Thus, it is a story of new life as a function of liberation from suffering and slavery. The exodus story is also a story of redemption, as God’s providence was, for the 3rd time historically, extended to the Israelites in covenant at Sinai. God asked for a promise of faithfulness from the people in this covenant, binding both parties to equally engage the promise. God has proven loyalty and love and asks for the people to return this commitment. He tells them who they are: “…the chosen, the priestly, the holy ones.” God’s essence is revealed as the people realize their Godliness (this is salvation), the covenant is agreed upon and sealed with a meal (the sharing of life) and a sign (the Sabbath) – a day of simply being one with God.

If we go back in time, the covenant at Sinai was preceded by two other covenants, the first was with Noah after “40 years” of flooding destroyed the land, God promised to restore and retain creation to Noah and Noah’s family. The second covenant was with Abraham, to whom God promised grace and everlasting faithfulness and that he should be “The Father of All Nations.” And now, we are here at Sinai, the people are bound in covenant; the people are redeemed or rebound to God as God’s people. These covenants become simultaneously increasingly specific with respect to the relationship of the parties and increasingly collective/inclusive with respect to humanity. We can also see that out of each of these covenants something or someone or some people are redeemed and something new is created: a new creation, an extended family, a community of priests – chosen and holy. As creation evolves, as humanity evolves, so does the understanding of the relationship between humans and God evolve.

Finally, the covenant agreement repeats itself through the sacrifice of Jesus, who, once again presents the people with an image of who they are respective to God, and this time it is love. Jesus completes the circle of the realization of what it means to be holy, which is to be people of love; to be priestly, which is to understand your relationship with God in love and to extend that to each other. And, most importantly, this is what it means to be truly human, as Jesus was; and Godly, which is loving and holy. If humanity knows who they are as Godly, spiritual beings, they will know the truth and the truth will set them free. They will be redeemed and renewed at the very same time. With the mind and heart of Christ, humanity will be redeemed and reborn – the new creation.

© Peggy Beatty 2010

Photograph: http://www.missouriskies.org/ Taken near Conception MO.

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

Psalm 90: In the morning, fill us with your love."

Groaning of Creation - Our Role: co-creators or destroyers

Humanity, of all creatures, has the ability to understand itself both as a creature and as a spirit force, a divine emissary. This leaves us in a unique position to augment the forces of love and life (God) or to disregard and/or pollute and destroy them. When I say this, I am not simply referring to our relationship to the environment, but to our relationship to all humanity, our relationship to our community, our relationship to our families, and our relationship to our self/our relationship to the spirit of God within us.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Romans 8:22

The groaning of creation as pertains to humanity is nested within the creative flux and flow from source through spirit to form and vice versa. It is this: the balance of planetary “Godliness” has been drastically altered by humanity and humanity’s self centered, egoistic needs of security, control, power, esteem, fear. Some of these are instinctual impulses, remnants of earlier humanity and living conditions. Some are exaggerations of our self-knowledge. In any case, defense of these needs turns us away from our divine inheritance as co-creators of life with God. Defense of these needs is evidence of our identification with our physical selves, rather than our spiritual selves. Thus, theologian Anne Primavesi suggests that as the spirit awakens humanity “it animates the gift of perception within us, opening our eyes to how things really are. It gives us the gift of epikeia, the ability to respond with sensitivity to the presence and reality of other living beings, creating relationships and exchanging energy.”

Anne Primivesi, From Apocalypse to Genesis: Ecology, Feminism and Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), 260.
This is a continuation of a discussion of what is meant by, "The groaning of creation." See previous blogs for the whole Kreation Kielbasa.

© Peggy Beatty 2010

"Every object well-contemplated creates an organ of perception in us..."

...From among the lesser ancillary organs of the animals, light has called forth one organ to become its like and thus the eye was formed by the light and for the light so that the inner light may emerge to meet the outer light." Goethe

Awareness - Insight - Enlightenment - Contemplative seeing/knowing - Nondual thinking - Open perspective Expansive Vision...

The organs needed for insight are fashioned by attention and immersion in the object of contemplation. With every repetition, the cycle of attention and formation is at work fashioning the organ for contemplative knowing.

In addition to the organ of cognition, understanding requires the light of intelligence. The Greek philosopher, Empedocles wrote, "The eye is the lantern of the body."

The light from the sun must join with the light of the mind for insight to arise. And that light must be suited to the observers level of experience. "Whatever is received, is received according to the mode of the receiver." Thomas Aquinas. "Religion at the more mature levels invariably learned an alternative consciousness, which was necessary for wider seeing and addressing the great dilemmas of life." Richard Rohr

Mechanistic thinking (dual perception) is inadequate for understanding holistic phenomena. Richard Rohr in the Naked Now tells us that the dualistic mind (the either/or thinker) cannot understand holistic concepts such as love, grace, forgiveness, faith, hope. Deep understanding ("knowing") of these concepts requires holding them, together with all the goodness and trauma that is inherent within them, in complete acceptance (the peace that passeth understanding). This awareness, this enlightenment is "salvation."  It is the by product of illuminated seeing or nondual thinking or third eye perception. It is achieved by changing the way we think!

The fruit of transformation, organ formation, and illumination is Ralph Waldo Emerson's "true naming," or Goethe's "true theory." The Greek word, theoria means "to behold." Emerson said, " Insight is a very high sort of seeing, which does not come by study, but by the intellect being where and what it sees." To "behold" is to hold together as one, sometimes disparate circumstances or feelings.

"We must teach not in the way philosophy is taught (with dualistic thinking), but in the way that the Spirit teaches (nonduality). We must teach spiritual things spiritually." 1 Corinthians 2:13

Mother Teresa never tried to convert a Muslim or a Hindu to Catholicisim. She told the sisters their job was not to talk about Jesus but to BE Jesus. That is the true message of Jesus. He shows us what we CAN be, if we are willing to love unconditionally. Unconditional loving requires a nondual perspective; an ability to hold the tension of opposites. That means we will love and we will suffer for doing so. But "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16) "We are the lights of the world!!" Matthew 5:14.

Adapted from
Arthur Zajonc, Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry (When Knowing Becomes Love). Professor of physics and interdisciplinary studies, Amherst College.

Richard Rohr, Naked Now. Franciscan priest and author, Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, NM

© Peggy Beatty 2010

Creation - the groaning glorification

continued...
The dynamic and unfinished nature of creation in linear time (history) is embodied in this story of emergence and regression of form. One form dies so that another may come to be. It is a continuous birthing process of new life potentialities carrying both old and new survival information into the future of the cosmos. This is the emanation of created form, the embodiment of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Romans 8:22

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory. 2 Cor 3:18

The formless aspect of life is Spirit. Spirit, that ether of divinity that miraculously holds us together, unifies us in life, moves us to adapt (make life from) to conditions that, for all intents and purposes, look deadly. It is Spirit that creates the eternal flow of tzim tzum, the becoming and returning to God. Theologian, Catherine Mowry LaCugna notes that “not only are we constituted by our relationship to God, but God is constituted by relating to us.”(1) This speaks of the codependence of creation and humanity and source, God, the essence of all that was and is and ever shall be. We are in fragile balance, each sustained by the other, because we are different iterations of the same, whether evolving through time and space or manifesting through a multidimensional present. The spirit moves and breathes through all, guiding the process toward a balance. This is the groaning of the unfinished, delicately balanced web of life, the process of the glorification of God; the becoming.

1. Catherine Mowry LaCugna, God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (New York: Harper Collins, 1991).

© Peggy Beatty 2010

Creation - out of silence, emergence

When silence finds its fullness, it comes to word. Wisdom 18:14. "When night in its swift course had reached its half-way point and deep silence embraced everything, the eternal Word leaped from the Heavenly throne" silence burst into song... The Music of Silence, D Steindl-Rast

Abwoon
One star against eternal night
Deep and vast beyond
Shines a gurgling gaseous promise.
Floating in a churning sea of ultraviolet
Purple, blue and indigo
Within is cloaked a core
of infrared incendiary fervor.

Here, there captured in the timeless ether
Spewing fire balls that
Hiss and moan creative juice,

Waiting for intention
To coax such wild passion
Into graced design.

Deep within the womb of timelessness
A spark of Yes perseveres
To be made known.

Holds an eye toward all things new
And yields a savage heart to love’s caress.

Round and round the cask is crafted slowly
Then is poured the molten Soul.

A star

A light

Infernal need, divine desire
Aching flesh amalgam
Answers into cosmic destiny

The birth
Of one who will not be unseen.

A star

A light

A Soul

Encased in flesh and bathed
In spirit blood
Issues from the black unknown.

Essence of the flame within.
Cool indigo beams light years
Through eternity, illuminating Truth.

As in a fleeting moment
Emerges evanescent Being.

Peggy Beatty Dec 2009

© Peggy Beatty 2010

Creation Theology cont. – Physical - Historical

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Romans 8:22

In God we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28

Creation, the generation of life, the development of ecosystems, the emergence of form, the evolution of creatures is a process which began, to the best of our awareness, with a cosmic event, the big bang, in which all potentiality came into “being” 13.7 billion years ago. Over the course of approximately the next 10 billion years, primal stars emerged, relationships began as fundamental forces – gravitation, nuclear, electromagnetic, elements condensed – gasses, metals, galaxies organized and planets came to be. On earth, organic molecules generated life-sustaining relationships, the sun and earth’s moon created atmospheric conditions conducive to life-promoting balance. Life emerged 3.9 billion years ago as the first cells differentiated, totally dependent upon the delicate conditions of planet earth for survival, and in communion with each other and the surrounding primordial “soup.” One million years later evolving cells solve the problem of depleting earth chemical metabolism by incorporating photons into their life cycle and using them to loose oxygen into the soup. A powerful oxidant, oxygen proceeded to disassociate (oxidize) everything, from rocks to metal, to carbohydrate food sources to cell membranes, Blue green algae oxygen waste was threatening to destroy life, until a new innovator adapted to the saturated oxygen atmosphere by learning to use oxygen to fuel metabolism. Thus came our current photosynthetic – oxygen cycle – the gift of respiration that plants and animals cooperatively hold in glorious balance. Adaptation by new forms of life through selfless death of others has been a part of creation throughout the creation of the formed universe. We are made of the same elements as the stars, which also have a life span. This is cosmic groaning. Cells live and die in order to keep our bodies alive and healthy every second. Creation groans as she lives through unpredictability, resistance and death on all levels of physicality.

© Peggy Beatty 2010

Creation Theology - Thoughts, consciousness, stillness, mystery with Oprah and Tolle on pure consciousness

In God we live and move and have our being." Acts 17:28

continued from previous posts...
Creation takes place in both the realm of matter through historical time and in the formless realm, which involves the action of what we call, “spirit.” The latter may be sensed/perceived from without (sound, shared thought, perceived energy) and from within (intuition, compassion, empathy, passion). Both impact our being at a very primal soul level, a level that is being created or at least awakened, and made more perceptive/receptive.

Our inner sense of creation, or consciousness can manifest as both intellect and emotion. We can only say that “creation begins simultaneously at the creation of time” as a function of our awareness of this fact. In fact, it is our awareness of ourselves in time and as form that gives rise to what we call history. The triune nature of God speaks of the simultaneous existence of source, spirit (formlessness), and form. Thus, creation may take the form of physical world, it may be thought, and it may be awareness (consciousness). Creation beyond form and thought moves into the realm of mystery. The most important thing to know about mystery is that it is real and to accept it without trying to define it. When you do this, you will realize you are mystery.

"God's first language is silence." John of the Cross

© Peggy Beatty 2010

Creation Theology - Chronos, Kairos, Source-Spirit-Form

Help us to find God. No one can help you there. Why not? For the same reason that no one can help the fish to find the ocean. One Minute Wisdom, Anthony de Mello1

In Him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28

There are at least two aspects of creation and being that must be dealt with in any interpretation of God’s being/doing. One is the temporal aspect, the emergence of matter and the historical evolution of matter (construction and destruction) in time (chronos). The second is the eternal or matter-less, which exists at any given point of time in multiple dimensions beyond our definability (kairos). The eternal moment (the "Now") takes into account everything that is not matter in physical time, but certainly pertains to that which is matter evolving through history. Why? Because in an eternal sense, all matter is a fleeting representation of itself. All matter is really more space than form, and is form only as a function of energy and perception. It is in each (now) transcendent moment of chronological time that all potential exists for both that moment in chronos and all moments in kairos; in all dimensions, even those we are unable to understand. In addition, creation can pertain to forms which are not material, such as thought, sound, energy sensation, light. A thought is most certainly a creation that takes definition, and thus, it is different than Creator/mystery/source.

Creation, takes place in both the realm of matter through historical time (chronos, immanence) and in the formless realm (kairos, transcendence), which involves the action of what I will call, “spirit.” Spirit may be sensed/perceived from without (sight, sound, shared thought, perceived energy) and also from within (intuition, compassion, empathy, passion). Both impact our being at a very primal soul level, a level that, we might say, is being created or at least awakened, and made more perceptive/receptive.

© Peggy Beatty 2010

Creation Theology- General Aspects of Creation

Help us to find God. No one can help you there. Why not? For the same reason that no one can help the fish to find the ocean.  Anthony de Mello. One Minute Wisdom. (New York, NY: Image, Doubleday, 1988).

In Him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28

Creation is God manifest: physical creation and spiritual creation. Source emanates and infuses all that is, but at the same time, remains source. In a Trinitarian paradigm, all three God concepts exist at once: form (incarnation), formless (spirit) and source (Father). All matter is a fleeting expression of energy/spirit. We perceive form, but the reality is all is energy/spirit. In the same way, the physical universe as we know it, is God’s expression of God’s self. The name “Yahweh” can mean, “the One who causes to be.” “I Am” simply means I am everything; I am what is. We, all of creation, formed and formless, live within God and are of God.

© Peggy Beatty 2010