The Christian Community in Melbourne Australia is hosting a Michaelmas festival of 4 presentations in October.To register:
thechristiancommunitymelbourne@gmail.com
In my heart
Shines the strength of the sun
In my soul
Works the power of the world.
I will breathe
The strength of the sun
I will feel
The warmth of the world
Sun-strength fills me
World-warmth penetrates me.
–Rudolf Steiner
May our feeling penetrate
Into the center of our heart,
And seek, in love, to unite itself
With the human beings seeking the same goal,
With the spirit beings who, bearing grace,
Strengthening us from realms of light
And illuminating our love,
Are gazing down upon
Our earnest, heart-felt striving.
–Translation by Frederick Heckel
The United States of America received a great gift from Rudolf Steiner in 1923: the so called “America Verse” given for the Foundation of the Threefold Group which was transmitted by a Swiss messenger directly from Rudolf Steiner to Ralph Courtney. Ralph Courtney met Rudolf Steiner in Paris in 1906 and later became a strong voice internationally for the Threefold Social Order. This verse was translated into English by Frederick Heckel, a long-time editor of the Society’s Newsletter.
Today many people work with this Verse privately and in groups and branches of the Anthroposophical Society in America. I would like to suggest that members and friends who are concerned about the destiny of America at this time, direct the thoughts which are within this Verse especially to the beings of the Third Hierarchy who may then be able to form this meditative effort into a positive direction. This Verse is actually both a meditation and a prayer.
–Excerpt from a letter from Virginia Sease to the members of the Anthroposophical Society of America dated February 24, 2020
Incarnazione–Ninette Sombart
“In the same way, I will not cause pain without allowing something new to be born,” says the Lord.
–Isaiah 66:9
“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”
–C. S. Lewis
Larisa Khimich
I go into the realm of the invisible.
The weight of my earthly body
The surging forces of my earthly life
Release their hold.
In the world into which I now enter
The watchful care of the Angels
The loving guidance of the Archangels
The creative power of the Spirits of the Ages
Work upon the souls of men.
My heart bears in it many thoughts of conflict,
But also the thought of Christ.
May this grow in the world of sleep
Into full being–
That I receive through powers of Light
His strength and peace.
Easter Morning – Ninette Sombert
This morning
the beautiful white heron
was floating along above the water
and then into the sky of this
the one world
we all belong to
where everything
sooner or later
is part of everything else
which thought made me feel
for a little while
quite beautiful myself.
Dear Community of Christians,
The Christ continues to walk. We hear this very specific, very human activity being done by the Christ in the Act of Consecration. We hear in the epistle for Easter that the Comforter walks in the spirit before us. The one that comforts us on earth. We are guided by the one that walks before us. Christ knows what it means to be a human being. The Christ Jesus knows what it is to doubt, to wonder, to fear and to bear the unknown. As we all try to sort through what is happening in our daily lives we can look up from time to time and feel in our hearts that we are not alone. May this recognizing the Christ walking before us strengthen our trust in ourselves to follow the path of life we are on.
–Rev. Ann Burfeind
http://thechristiancommunityinvancouver.blogspot.com/
The Deathbed – Ninetta Sombart
–Cindy Hindes
In the current situation, we may bemoan that many are dying alone. No one dies alone. One’s guardian angel is always there. And predeceased loved ones also gather to guide the who is one dying across the threshold. From a forthcoming book by Iris Paxino, Bridges Between Life and Death:
…I remember a sixty-seven-year-old patient in the hospital who had had an extremely challenging illness… One day I entered her room, and the first thing she said was: ‘I am expected, you know? I am expected,’ and a smile brightened her grey face. The illness had marked her body; her breathing was labored, and from day to day, the pain became more unbearable. ‘Yes, I am expected,’ she repeated. Her eyes were shining, and a joyful glow emanated from her being. ‘Would you like to tell me about it?’ I asked.
‘It’s my angel. I know it is him. He is so loving; he waits patiently. He stands mostly at the head end, do you see? Here…” she said, pointing to the wall behind her bed. ‘He is so loving … And sometimes I see him in the right corner of the room, there by the window, next to the curtain, you see?… Some days other figures appear in the room. My mother is there below. Oh, it was so long ago that she died …” And you know, she is so young now, much younger than she was then, and so beautiful, so radiant! It is time for me to go. I am expected there. I am no longer afraid; it is only a transition. I know that now.”
…The moment of death is, therefore, never a moment of loneliness. The [angelic] hierarchies receive the deceased person in a sublime ceremony, as that which goes dark in the world of the bereaved shines forth on the other side in a luminous spiritual celebration. For the one crossing the threshold, it is as though they ‘breathe’ themselves out of the physical world. It is a moment of liberation, and they experience an incredible expansion of their being. They look down at their body and realize it is merely a shell they have discarded. Their consciousness in the spiritual world is clear and wide awake; they recognize the beings that now receive them. For the deceased, it is a sacred moment in which their individuality, embedded in the light of an elevated spiritual reality, unfolds within them more intensely than before.
Fra Angelico
0 you fire, O you light,
Help me, that in the dark house
The light of Your light shine,
lightening all darkness;
Your warmth glow through it,
O you fire, O you light!
-Sophie Michaelis
Saturday
-Adam Bittleston
O Christ, I remember with love and thankfulness
Those I have known
Who have passed through the gate of death.
I know that some of these have looked on my soul
From the realm in which their souls dwell.
I thank Thee for all I have received from them;
For Thou hast brought our lives to meet.
May my thoughts and feelings reach unto them through Thee;
May they add warmth and purpose
To my earthly life.
And may my meeting again with them
Be blessed by Thee.
Monday:
You are the source of life,
and in Your light.
we see the light.
–from Psalm 36
Monday
–Adam Bittleston
When we go out into the world as we have made it
Everywhere there speaks to us forgetfulness of the Spirit.
If human work were to be without love
The earth would become a bleak and barren desert.
Through forgetfulness of the Spirit
Love ebbs away.
Bring to mind in us, O Christ,
Inspirer of true human love,
How we have come to the earth
From fields of light,
From the heights of the Spirit.
May we bring to earth
What we have seen in the Spirit.
May remembrance of God
Grow strong in our souls
Overcoming the mists
Which hide the meaning
In the work of each day.
Sunday (adapted)
–Adam Bittleston
Before world-beginning
Christ shone in His glory,
Light of true Light,
One with the Father,
In all eternity.
Thou camest on earth,
Taking our form,
Bearing our fate,
Making life out of death,
Leading souls from the dark.
May we stand in Thy sight.
Sunday:
–Helene Ganstel
You who reign over the stars,
Grant us dignity from heaven,
to receive in devotion,
What the earth gi ves us
to strengthen us!