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St. Gabriel and All Angels

I am going to give an interpretation of Easter and the resurrection that is spiritual rather than literal, Gnostic rather than Orthodox. The literal interpretation of a resurrection of our physical body offers a comforting thought, something to hope for, with Jesus as the care taker of our spiritual destiny. The interpretation of a resurrection of our spiritual body empowers us with a challenging path, a reality we can experience, with Jesus as our brother and Way Shower. The spiritual interpretation calls us to follow Jesus’ example actively in our own spiritual development and daily life.

Easter has ever been a joyous, happy festival of the church. But the happiness of Easter is very different than the happiness of Christmas. The blessings of Christmas are a gift. At Christmas time Christ is the gift we forgot to ask for, born in our hearts as a gentle awareness of the infant God-essence awakening in our soul. In contrast, the blessing of Easter is earned. We are called to participate as responsible agents in our own processes of growth and development.

Our participation begins with hearing a story. continue reading

• Advent is a season of preparation – a time we traditionally think of to prepare for the coming or birth of Christ.
• In fact, Christ already dwells in each of us and is present in every person, every creature, and every atom of creation.
• So the birth of Christ is a transformation in our own consciousness:
• A transformation that brings us to a closer union with His Spirit, His Life – our own higher self.
• Advent then is a season for preparing to accept and acknowledge the living presence of Christ:
  • Within ourselves, allowing it to guide and direct our every thought, word and action
  • And to see Him working outside in the world, in every circumstance and everyone we see.
• The work of God is that you believe in this living presence of Christ, whom the Father has sent.
• In the Gospel of John Christ says: It is the Spirit that quickens and the words I speak are Spirit, they are Life.
• And in today’s Gospel from Luke Christ says: Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away.
• This week’s intent is discrimination: the ability to discern clearly that essence of Life - the Spirit.
• And to not be swayed and caught up in the energies and emergencies of everyday living.
• But to locate and live That Presence more and more fully with each experience that comes to you.
• God is speaking directly to us all the time in all that happens, in all that comes to us.
• It just happens that is in a different language – the language of Spirit.
• His Life is omnipresent, we simply have to tune-in to His wavelength.
• And this takes discrimination to separate out His words from all the chaos that appears to be happening in our world and in ourselves.
• And the less static we have going on inside, the clearer and more direct will be the receipt of the Divine Word.
• This is how Christ redeems us – by bringing us to know Him as our self, and then to see Him wherever we look.
• This Collect is to be repeated every day until Christmas Eve:
• Almighty God, who didst wonderfully create man in thine own image, we pray for strength to cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armour of light; that we, being ever mindful of our spiritual heritage, may hasten the coming of thy kingdom upon earth; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intent—Precept and Practice
Epistle: General Epistle of St. James 1:19
Gospel: Gospel of St. John 6:28

Recently we celebrated together both All Saints Sunday, and Trinity 22 with the intent Right Energy. We heard that week in the Revelation of St. John the Divine about those who's robes had been washed clean, the purification of the subtle bodies.

We also heard in the Gospel of St. Luke the charge to, “Love your enemies, do good to them who hate you, bless them that curse you and pray for them who despitefully use you". We also heard, "as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise".

Todays 2 readings focus again on how to live life. From our intent of Precept and Practice, we are directed to look at our sense of hearing, both inwardly and outwardly.

Outwardly, as we grow we are exposed to and taught man made laws, rules for living that we hear over and and over again, in hopes that our outward hearing will give us the understanding and with that, some how, the reasoning to act in accord with those laws. DOES THIS WORK, DO WE FORGET WHAT WE HEAR?
Our prison systems clearly point out, this by itself, does not result in men & women acting in accord with the law.

Then the scripture refers to inward hearing of the law that governs all that we could possibly experience. This inward hearing, transcending the world around us, merges our spirit with the fullness of Gods love and is clearly expressed in the Epistle as, “He whoso looketh into the PERFECT LIBERTY and continueth therin, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed”.

This experience of God's love that we are, existing in Perfect Liberty, is a natural, effective means to the perfect end. YES, and if you dial the number on your computer screen within the next 15 minutes you will also receive 2 free get of jail passes and $200 cash, RIGHT! The point being, it sounds too good to be true, it is so simple that we, I, have a challenge embracing it all of the time.

Perfect Liberty, is being in harmony with Precept, the law that governs everything that we can experience. The Saints and the Holy Ones live life in harmony with this, they have a practice, the way they live life, that keeps them centered in both the silence and the dynamic expressions of existence, taking time for both daily.
This is life standing as the unmovable boulder, in the torrent of a rushing stream, smiling, firmly footed while both feet are swirled in the cool rushing waters of life.

Some who observe those who live life in perfect liberty often see incredible discipline, simple but to difficult for the average man or women, and miss that it is natural for them.

Lucky for us, we too can find our own individual natural way of living, that connects us with this perfect liberty. We know those things in our own lives that allow us to be that boulder, smiling in the torrent of life. We continue to take rest when we need it, spend time in silence, meditate, reach out to help those in need and pray as we do in the final collect of every Eucharist, when the celebrant says,
“Teach us, O Lord, to see thy life in all men and in all the peoples of thine earth and so guide the nations into the understanding of thy laws that peace and good will may reign upon earth; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Fr. Steven

The quarterly journal of The Liberal Catholic Church, Province of the United States. Archive of issues beginning Advent 2011. Click the issue link to download or view online.

Current Issue:
Ubique 2012 St. Alban

Previous Issues:
Ubique 2012 Lent
Ubique 2011 Advent

I believe that the suppression of emotion is one of the main culprits is keeping our inherent spiritual nature root-bound. By now it is commonplace to know about the medical and health benefits of "a good cry", but other lingering social conventions (and even spiritual teachings!) denigrate the natural feeling of sadness and the shedding of tears. (see: Health Benefits of Tears)

Of course most of us would prefer to feel joy, but denying, suppressing, or avoiding sad feelings when they naturally arise is a sure way to prolong the lessons and healing that stand before us. Rather than assuming an attitude of feeling joyful when healing is needed first, wisdom suggests that we find a way to accept the cup that has come to us. But remember, while we must do our own healing (ultimately an interior process), we need not do it alone. continue reading

Absolution, one of the Seven Sacraments of the church catholic, comes from the Latin root words ab solvo, which mean "to loosen". This Sacrament is intended to help the person to discontinue from erroneous behavior, but, as, or more important, to be relieved and disconnected from the downheartedness and guilt that perpetuate of such behavior. Absolution provides an important feature in the life of the spiritual aspirant.

Absolution has commonly become known in just one of it's forms - confession - the telling of one's sins to a priest. The Liberal Catholic Church offers two additional, traditional forms of the Sacrament of Absolution. continue reading

''Those who take their religion seriously commonly go through a period, sometimes a
long period, when they experience the apparent absence of God. The ideas, images,
concepts which they have previously used in thinking about God or addressing him
have suddenly become meaningless and unreal.

The person feels as if God is absent or does not exist. The reason for this disagreeable
phenomenon is ... continue reading

"The Spirit of God blows out from us so that we can love and perform good acts. Then he draws us into ourselves so that we can take rest and find enjoyment in him. This is eternal life: not unlike our breathing the air out of our lungs and breathing in fresh air. What I mean is: we move inwardly in a mystical enjoyment and move outwardly in good works, both in communion with God. Just as we open our eyes, look and then close them again, in such a smooth transition that we hardly notice what we are doing, so we die in God and live out of God, always remaining united to him."

"In the abyss of this darkness, in which the loving spirit has
died to itself, there begin the manifestation of God and eternal
life. For in this darkness there shines and is born an
incomprehensible Light, which is the Son of God, in Whom we behold
eternal life. And in this Light one becomes seeing; and this
Divine Light is given to the simple sight of the spirit, where the
spirit receives the brightness which is God Himself, above all
gifts and every creaturely activity, in the idle emptiness in
which the spirit has lost itself through love which attains an
external goal, and where it receives without means the
brightness of God, and is changed without interruption into
that brightness which it receives."