God Bless You!

It was said that during the plague of AD 590, Pope Gregory ordered unceasing prayer for divine intercession.

Part of his command was that anyone sneezing be blessed immediately, God bless you, since sneezing was often the first sign that someone was falling ill with the plague.

By AD 750, it became customary to say God bless you as a response to one sneezing.

And may God Bless you this day.

Amen.

Mahatma Gandhi

Regret

Holding onto regret is like dragging the weight of the past with us everywhere we go. It drains our energy, leaving less available for life in the present because we are constantly feeding an old issue. This attachment can cause illness the same way watering a dead plant creates decay. We know that something new and beautiful can grow in its place if we only prepare the soil and plant the right seeds. We also know that we create our lives from our thoughts, so dwelling on the past may actually recreate a situation in our lives where we are forced to make the choice again and again. We can choose to move on right now by applying what we have learned to the present and perhaps even sharing with others, transforming the energy into something that is constructive and creative for ourselves and others.

Forgiveness is the soothing balm that can heal regret. In meditation, we can imagine discussing the issue with the self of our past and offering our forgiveness for the choice. In return, we can ask for our selves‚ forgiveness for keeping them locked in that space of judgment for so long. We may also want to ask forgiveness from anyone else who may have been affected and perhaps offer our forgiveness. By replaying the event in our minds, we can choose a new ending using all that we now know. Imagine that you have actually gone back into the past and made this change, and then say goodbye to it. Release your former self with a hug and bring the forgiveness and love back with you to the present. Since we are usually our harshest critics, it is amazing how powerfully healing it can be to offer ourselves love.

Keeping our minds and our energy fully in the present allows us to fuel our physical and emotional healing and well-being today. This action frees our energy to create the dreams we dream for the future. By taking responsibility and action in the present, we can release our hold on the past.

By Madisyn Taylor

Numbers

 “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.”

~ Mother Teresa

All Souls Day

 

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

If someone walked up to you and asked “what is the most important rule for your life,” what would you answer? This is what happened to Jesus in today’s gospel, Mark 12:28-34. A Scribe walked up to Jesus and asked, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Was this a trick question? Not really. Although modern Christians tend to limit the commandments to 10, there actually are 613 different commandments in Mosaic Law. Every observant Jewish person from the time of Moses up to today knows that the most important law or commandment is the first one, the Great Commandment, that we hear in our first reading from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.”

While the question put to Jesus was not a trick question, Jesus’ answer did have a different twist. He added a second commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” from Leviticus 19: 18. And he emphasised that, “there is no other commandment greater than these.” Putting these two different commandments together and making them one commandment was radical. It was radical because Jesus took the old law and gave it a new meaning. When Leviticus was written and for thousands of years thereafter, “ones’ neighbor” was interpreted by the Scribes and Rabbis to mean “fellow Jews.” It was perfectly OK to hate gentiles or other people like Samaritans. But for Jesus your neighbor was anyone (everyone), anywhere in any situation. Furthermore, Jesus implied that the only way anyone can prove their love of God is by loving all the people around them.

The truth is that it is much harder to love our neighbors as ourselves than it is to love God. It is hard because so many people today don’t love themselves very much. Our human tendency is to focus on our inadequacies and weaknesses rather than on our talents and strengths. God loves us unconditionally. If God can love us just as we are, then why can’t we love ourselves? The message in this short passage from Mark is that we are to love all people, including ourselves, with the same fervour as God’s love for us. And by doing so, we are all drawn closer to the kingdom of God.

Lord our God, loving Father, 

all true love comes from you and leads to you. 

You have committed yourself to us in a covenant of lasting love 

in the person of Jesus Christ. 

Help us to respond to your love with the whole of our being 

and to live your commandments 

not as laws forced on us from outside 

but as opportunities to love you for yourself and in people,

 our brothers and sisters. 

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Saying Thank You to the Communion of Saints

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Saying Thank You to the Communion of Saints

Remembering to say thank you to our guides and helpers is important for the completion of the assistance they have given.

We may have become accustomed to asking for help from the unseen world - whether from saints, angels, soul friends, guides, or ancestral spirits - but sometimes we may forget to close our connection afterwards with a thank you. When we connect to these energies for assistance, it is much like a phone connection. Forgetting to close the conversation with a proper “goodbye” is like not hanging up. While that line is still connected, others can have trouble getting through, while in the meantime, batteries are being drained. Saying “thank you” is a way of releasing our concerns into trusted hands and getting out of the way so that the universe‚s divine order can work on our behalf.

As spiritual beings, we may talk about “staying connected,” but our connection needs to be with our source. We can plug in and recharge, but we run on batteries in between, and every connection we make utilizes some of our personal power. Even being surrounded by people that energize us has its limits, and at some point we will feel ready to go off on our own to do what is ours to do. Instead of trying to be constantly connected, we can turn to these beings for help in a way that is more like placing an order. We contact them, ask for what we need, and then say thank you and goodbye.

Beings of the light (Jesus) don’t require our gratitude; it is an energetic acknowledgement of trust and release that benefits us. When we bring ourselves to a sense of being grateful, we affirm that what we have asked is already done. Then we can move forward with confidence to do the things we are meant to do, while knowing that all will be well.