How do we keep the Christmas spirit and other feasts alive on our common Journey?
Howard Thurman 20th century minister and writer urges the following:

"When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,"

THE IMMEDIATE CHALLENGE IS TO HELP OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS IN HAITI. We cannot do everything, but each of us can do something. Love not just in words, but in deeds keeps love alive.

We Pause to Celebrate Feasts

Life passes very quickly and we are happy to celebrate feasts like Thanksgiving and Christmas with family and friends. Some of us pray at a house of worship. The word Eucharist means giving thanks. We count our abundant blessings and try to be blessings for others. At home, food preparations are made. Tables are decorated. Delicious food is set before us, we pray grace, remember those present, those who cannot be at the table, those who are poor and then enjoy the food and community with words spoken and unspoken. At Christmas gifts are exchanged remembering God's gifts to us.

How many of us really reflect deeply on the sacred Table of Creation prepared and set before us and our responsibility to present and future generations? On our Journey into the Future we can draw a zest for life from not only our own spiritual treasures, but from wherever truth, wisdom and compassion can be found that respects the integrity of Creation and its Sacred Source. One such legacy can be found in the deep wisdom of Chief Seattle in 1854 in his reply to the United States, eager to buy land from the Indians. His words powerfully challenge us today:

"Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. We know the sap which courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man, all belong to the same family...Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator...We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children and love it as God loves all."

Transition from Fall to Winter

We transition from the beauty of Fall to the majesty of Winter. They affirm something of our own beauty and dignity in both bright times and dark times when sometimes change is difficult. What helps us grow during these experiences?

FOR TEILHARD AND THOMAS BERRY (and for All Sages Who Help Us to See)

Sacramental Seer

Living Chalice--

Purified stardust, tempered strength
Luminous beauty, divine icon.

The Spirit conceives you.
Earth's womb nourishes you.
Loving hearts fashion you.
The Heart of hearts communes with you

Consecrated crucible for the One and the Many,
Vessel of Divine Magnetism,
Cosmic Cup of Love, Truth and Goodness,
Blessing for a Sacred Cosmos </

Sacramental Seer!

Living Host--
Humanizing nourishment, transforming energy
Refined wheat, activating leaven.

You propagate spirit,
You co-create with heaven and earth,
You hallow hearts.
You commune with the Heart of hearts.

Consecrated Mandala for the One and the Many
Bread of "holy communion,"
Fiery-Food of Wisdom, Universality and Inspiration,
Blessing for a Sacred Cosmos,

Sacramental Seer!

Deep Indebtedness of this Blog

"Earth Spirituality" is deeply indebted to World Scriptures, Thomas Berry, Pierre Teilhard, Dorothy Day and for all Sage-Friends, poor and rich, young and old of every race, gender and belief, who help us to see and to love. This would not be possible without Loving Mystery, various Communities and the developing Earth Community itself.

Nov. 2: Remembering Our Beloved Dead & All Who Have Passed On to New Life

Today, Nov. 2 is a special day for remembering our beloved dead and all who have passed on to new life on our Great Journey. We pray for saints and sinners, everyday heroines and heroes, family members and those who have no one to pray for them. The following glimpse of an interview related to life and death will find a home in the hearts of many of us. (Tom Berry, my incomparable friend-mentor-priest was interviewed by Mary Judith Ress for the eco-feminist magazine Con-spirando, in 1994).

Responding to where he would be in 50 years, Tom indicates that he will be where he has always been. Continuing, he explains:

"Each of us is as old as the universe and experiences our greater self in the larger story of the universe. So we are as old as the universe and as big as the universe. That is our great self. We survive in our great self. Our particular manifestation is distinct from our universal presence to the total process. We exist externally in our participation in the universe's existence."

Regarding immortality, Tom notes:

"The universe itself is the comprehensive mode of existence--everything exists in relationship to the universe. Everything participates in everything that happens in the universe. Therefore we never cease to be a participant in the universe. Everything we do will have consequences that will go on forever. There is a way in which we exist individually as a dimension of the totality of things and as an influence on everything that to some extent governs what came before us and everything that will come after."

Tom's inclusive vision gives us much food for thought. For one thing it helps us to be grateful for our loved ones, ourselves and everyone else. We are all historically irreplaceable on the Great Journey as we continue to stretch, to self-transcend and to develop on our Great Journey toward community and self-fulfillment lured on by Loving Mystery. Our beloved dead and ourselves are still on this Great Journey together.