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Thursday, August 26, 2004
 
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

On a train journey today, I marvelled at August nature's beauty and, suddenly grieved that, were I to die, I would be deprived of this quasi sensual ongoing marvel!

Lo and behold, a friendly voice, nay, just a whispered thought from a departed brother of mine, Jean, or was it Mum, Dad, innumerable friends in heaven (?) clearly said:

"When you die, your liberated soul will be plunged in beauty's very essence…
what you enjoy now is but a shadow of the marvel to come: rejoice!"

And I rejoyced!



Back home, the 6 o'clock radio news bulletin announced:

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross has died…

strange "thought coïncidence" thought I on "death and dying" ?! (her book published in 1969)
There still lingered a pain in my heart at the slow painful dying of a dear brother…
six months long! Enough to die of sheer longing for LIFE at long last, with Jesus!
What bliss! Time will vanish from consciousness.

Farewell Elizabeth!
You've reached Beauty's essence…with our loved ones… think of us still on the way there



"Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is
a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand,
to laugh, and to be able to grow".
(quote from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross)


Sunday, August 22, 2004
 
Basil

Saint Basil the Great
Saint Basil was born in 1464 into a peasant family
living in the village of Yelokhovoe near Moscow.
When the child grew up, his parents sent him to learn shoemaking.

The fool-for-Christ-sake was happy to help those in need
Basil passed away at the age of 88 in 1552

Symbol: supernatural fire,
Feast Day: January 2 Patron of Russia

Fancy telling something about Basil tonight? Why?
Just because somewhere on our planet
yea in this very mountainous country:
a child is born and Basil shall be his name!

A tiny baby like the thousands born today
out of a mother's womb and a burning heart
an ongoing miracle of LOVE
we bow in wonder before this birth
before every birth… and we feel responsable



"every child is my child"

Jesus bless Baby Basil abundantly!

You know the christmas carol don't you?
Here are the last few lines of the one I love most

"When a child is born!"
Like Basil yesterday!

the world is waiting…waiting for one child;
Black-white-yellow, no one knows...
but a child that will grow up

and turn tears to laughter,
hate to love, war to peace
and everyone to everyone's neighbor,

and misery and suffering will be words
to be forgotten forever


It's all a dream and illusion now
it must come true sometime soon somehow
all across the land dawns a brand new morn
this comes to pass when a child is born


Wednesday, August 11, 2004
 
Clare and Francis loved each other
and they loved Yeshua



Here they are!


 
Today is the feast of Saint Clare

My name sake as a sister and I like it!

Meaning of the name: bright, clear, brilliant.

Patroness of: embroiderers, goldsmiths, eye disease,
needle workers, television, good weather, gilders,
and laundry workers


Who is she, this great friend of the Poverello?

Clare was born into the nobility of Assisi on July 16, 1193

As a little girl she was known by members of her household
to be a sensitive child, gentle, prayerful and kind.
She would sometimes hide food from her plate
so as to later give it to the poor


Clare Offreduccio was the daughter of a wealthy family in Assisi
She was eighteen years old, when he heard a sermon by Francis
and was moved by it, to follow the example of the Franciscan brothers
and to live in poverty and insecurity
Her family was horrified, and brought her back home by force;
one night, in a gesture both tactical and symbolic,
she slipped out of her house through "the door of the dead"
(a small side door that was traditionally opened only to carry out a corpse)
and returned to the house of the Franciscans.

Francis cut off her hair, and led her in San Damiano,
a house nearby. Later she was joined by two of her sisters,
her widowed mother, and several members of the wealthy
Ubaldini family of Florence. Clare's best friend, Pacifica,
could not resist, and joined them, too. And many others even
to this very day!

So many beautiful women whose hearts were on fire
for Yeshua just because he loved the "little people"
the world over!

Here is Clare's (Chiara) blessing to her sisters
and I guess, today, to me too:

What you hold may you always hold.
What you do, may you always do and never abandon
But with swift pace, light step and unswerving feet
so that even your steps stir up no dust
Go forward, the spirit of our God has called you

Her last words were:

"Blessed be thou, 0 God, for having created me."

Have we ever thought of thanking God for bringing us into being?
She died in 1253 in San Damiano




Saturday, August 07, 2004
 
Wedding Bells

Two beautiful young people had their wedding blessed
in the prayerful reformed Temple, in Corsier

Khalil Gibran, a wise man and a poet
knowing life and people wrote what follows
and this is what I offer to the happy couple
as they launch forth into the unknown:

"You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts."


Friday, August 06, 2004
 
Mount Thabor: they went climbing, James, John and Peter
and of course, Jesus. And behold, Jesus looked radiant, happy,
his better self one would say. Transfigured says the Church today.

The three friends were in awe. Happiness is contagious!
Time stood still... yet Jesus said: let's go down where the
little people live and are hungry, thirsty for justice that is:
for BREAD,
when their hunger and thirst shall be quenched
we shall all be transfigured
and we shall dance for joy!