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With Blind Faith & St. Augustine we can “Love G-d and do as we will.”

Hi! A while ago after a soul friend sent me the Saint Augustine quote below, I put it in my daily calendar. Most days, I just glance at the quote.

Other "DAZE"...I dig a little deeper for some much-needed medicine...AND PRACTICE...


Here's my friend's text:


Really loved this quote and thought you'd appreciate it too. ❤️❤️

St. Augustine's words:


“Love G-d and do as you will.”


Don't worry about what you ought to do. Worry about loving. Don't interrogate heaven repeatedly and uselessly saying, “What course of action should I pursue?” Concentrate on loving instead. And by loving you will find out what is for you. Loving, you will listen to the Voice. Loving, you will find peace"


I will be presenting some thoughts on this tomorrow at our monthly Men2Men circle on the sacred grounds of the Sisters of Saint Joseph in Brentwood. I've frequently posted about them. Briefly, our group is a result of Franciscan Father Richard Rohr's early men's work. We are dotted-line connected to a global group known as Illuman.


This next section of the post is the HEART of tomorrow's presentation to the other guys in our circle. The remaining sections provide me some extra space to reflect...and, of course to include music...



CIRCLE TIME


I'll set the table tomorrow for my traveling companions by relating the how these words of Saint Augustine came to me...


...Then pose some questions and ask the men to consider each for a few moments.......BOTH in our circle time and, more importantly, in the days ahead...


THAT'S THE PLAN...AT LEAST AS I SEE IT NOW...


??? HOW can I practice loving G-d whom I can’t see...?



??? Can I see G-d? How? Where?


Those who have and are still helping me SEE beyond the limitations of my mind and my two eyes...have led me to try to practice SEEING G-d in my everyday life.

I found this creative depiction of this newer awareness in the article under the image.




??? Do I see G-d as ONLY "out there"...OR, is G-d also within me?


END of Circle Time...


####################################################################


For further consideration...As we go out into the world...


Preparing for our "finals"...


IF there is an entrance exam, the Grateful Dead have already given us the final test question in their "Uncle John's Band" tale...



CAUTION!!!




Four British evangelists sing the same tune...and in any language...



"G-d comes to us...disguised as our life"


It was Paula D’Arcy who wrote, ‘God comes to us disguised as our life’.

Paula D’Arcy wrote those words after a drunk driver killed her husband and one-year-old child, when Paula was just 27, and three months pregnant.


Read on to see how Paula and others chose a different response than the members of the 27 Club.



[from the article/my added emphases] Father Richard points out how the Bible is filled with stories of people encountering God—regardless of whether they got everything right or everything wrong!  


Let’s state it clearly: One foundational and yet revolutionary idea of the Bible is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in history, in the concrete incarnations of life. God does not hold out for the pure, the spiritual, the right idea, or the ideal anything. Apparently, the biblical God would much rather be in relationship than merely be right in solitude!


Click the above link and listen to this travelers story...


[from the article/my added emphases] The quote that forms the title of this post is from Paula D’Arcy. I read it in Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr which I’m reading at the moment.


It is one of those quotes that forces you to slow down and ponder the depth of wisdom contained within it. You can read it a thousand times and still find yourself drawn deeper into its truth and insight.


Right now, however, the message in that quote is not what I want to hear.


I like the idea of finding God in the wonder of creation, the eloquence of a poem, or the beauty of a song.


It’s also easy for me to picture myself finding God through reading the Bible or in an inspirational book.


In essence, I like the idea of finding God out there or away from me and my life.

But what if God is far closer to home?


What if God is most powerfully and clearly to be found in the midst of my messy, broken, exhausting, hurting, sinful life?


Right now, life is hard....

[Article continues in the link.]


Be the Change...


In one of Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations ("medications") on second half of life, he invites us to live more from the 8 Beatitudes than the 10 Commandments. Check out this cool short video that presents Gandhi's words about change in a creative way...It was part of a Brian McLaren article that's below under the VW Bus...




It also contained this image...similar to my Truckin' and surfin' 1965 Bus that carried me around this ol' USofA...FYI - When I post, finding images like this and amazing stories...are a sign that I'm "on the right track and heading for YOU..."



In the next article, Brian offers these insights from Richard Rohr - one of his traveling companion on the roads of life...and part of the core faculty of the Center for Action and Contemplation.


[from the article with my added emphases] Here are some readings from Richard Rohr …


The Eight Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3 – 12) offer us a more spacious world, a world where I do not have to explain everything, fix everything, or control anything beyond myself, a world where we can allow a Larger Mystery to work itself out through us and in us. These things are done to us more than anything we can do. The Beatitudes are about changing me, not changing other people. Wonderfully, it is not about being right anymore. Who can fully do the Beatitudes “right”? It is about being in right relationship, which is a very different agenda.


We live, of course, in the tension between two worlds: the world where I need to prove that I am right and the world of daily right relationship with myself and others. One demands dominative power and concern with changing other people; the other is a self-renewing call to right relationship, and is primarily about changing me.


Adapted from Jesus’ Plan for the New World, p.174



Take daily time out's to still and quiet our souls...




"Take the simple and the ordinary...turn it into the happy and wonderful..."


BLIND FAITH




Conflicting messages in these next 2 songs? For me it mirrors the ups and downs...wins and losses...of our ordinary lives...


Do What You Like

Song by

Blind Faith

Do right, use your head, everybody must be fed

Get together, break your bread, yes, together, that's what I said

Do what you like


Don't fight

Don't fight, use your head, it's all right every night

Do what you like, that's what I said

Everybody must be fed, do what you like


Open your eyes, realize you're not dead


Take a look at an open book

Do what you like, that's what I said, do what you like


Do right, use your head, everybody must be fed

Get together, break some bread, yes together, that's what I said

Do what you like


Open your eyes, use your head, realize that you're not dead

Take a look at an open book, let it cook

That's what I said, do what you like


Scene reminds me of a modern day "Sermon on the Mount"







Can't Find My Way Home

Song by

Blind Faith

Come down off your throne

And leave your body alone

Somebody must change


You are the reason I've been waiting so long

Somebody holds the key

Well, I'm near the end

And just ain't got the time

And I'm wasted and I can't find my way home


Come down on your own

And leave your body alone

Somebody must change


You are the reason I've been waiting all these years

Somebody holds the key

Well, I'm near the end

And just ain't got the time

Oh-oh, and I'm wasted

And I can't find my way home

But I can't find my way home


But I can't find my way home

But I can't find my way home

But I can't find my way home


Still I can't find my home

And I ain't done nothing wrong

But I can't find my way home



THIS ORGAN BELONGS IN THE CHURCH BAND...


We dance by faith...BLIND FAITH...SO, LET'S PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS!



SO DOES THE HARMONICA BELONG IN THE CHURCH BAND


A reading from Prophet Robert...





MAY THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN...


FOR MEN:


Info about our monthly Men2Men circles.

BAIT: "If you feed me, I will come!" Our morning begins with a full cafeteria breakfast...

2nd Saturday...8-9:30 AM 1725 Brentwood Road Brentwood, NY 11717


So they can plan food, we're asked to call or email the office when we plan to go. Please call my cell for their contact info: 516-850-2493



Here's a post to introduce you to Men2Men, Illuman and other helpful road guides:



Includes some of my times of "escapin' thru the lily fields...





MOTHER'S DAY


Thanks, Mom & Dad!!!




FOR ANYONE WHO WAS CARRIED INTO THIS WORLD BY A MOTHER...





 
 
 

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