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!
From time to time we may be confronted with questions such as: “What is your church like? Why do you attend? ” or “What is The Christian Community anyway?” We may struggle for an answer because it is almost as if we were asked why we are here on earth! We are striving toward an understanding and recognition of the living Christ; the life-affirming, renewing, empowering source of unlimited love that yearns to illuminate every human being. We have a shared destiny with those who seek to know Christ in freedom and who accept the Sacraments as an aid to their seeking. We have to remind ourselves from time to time, why we gather together and why it is important for the evolution of the earth and for all of humanity. To that end we are inviting you to a larger gathering of the greater North American Christian Community, to celebrate, learn, explore, and share our questions and discoveries together.
What moves us to travel several hundred, even thousands, of miles? To ask questions? To seek answers? To knock on each other’s doors? Yes, all of the above and more will be happening during the festival time of John the Baptizer this coming June in College Park, Georgia, close to Atlanta. An evening celebration and bonfire will be the kickoff to five days of meeting one another and asking, seeking and knocking together.
Following in the big footsteps of the North-South conferences and the North American conference in Staten Island a while back, the priest circle of The Christian Community felt it was time to call its members and friends in North America together. And what better location than the Atlanta area? Enthusiastic folks from Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee have come together to form a planning group. In November 2018 we met for a retreat in Decatur, Georgia at ‘The ARC’ and have since been meeting regularly with a team from the priest circle to envision this gathering.
We began with the theme: what questions are people living with? What keeps me awake at night, or, even better, what gets me going and keeps me going all day long? Contemplation of a lecture by Rudolf Steiner given on September 29, 1922 in Dornach helped set the mood and focus of the work to come:
“Think of the earth and within it the different processes of nature and plant life. All this will pass away. But on this earth, in future time, sacred rites will be enacted out of a true understanding of the spiritual world. Through these rites and sacred enactments, spiritual Beings are called down. As I have said, a time will come when the material substance in minerals, plants, animals, clouds, the forces working in wind and weather and also, of course, all the accoutrements used in rites and ceremonies, will pass away, will be dissipated in the universe. But the spiritual Beings who have been called down into the sphere of the rites and sacred enactments — these will remain when the earth approaches its end.”
Isn’t that what we do every time we unfold spiritual activity, even as individuals in our quiet space at home? How much stronger can the effect be when we gather together and participate in “rites and sacred enactments”? How to bring this impulse down to Earth?
At a crucial moment in the conversation one of us opened the New Testament and read from the Gospel of Matthew “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” And so, the conference topic was born:
Ask, Seek, Knock – ASKATLANTA2020 – Walking with Christ.
In the meantime, the venue has been found, speakers and workshop leaders have been engaged and many more exciting events are being prepared. All you need to know can be found on the website: https://ask2020atlanta.org/
–Rev. Craig Wiggins
Lenker, North America
Please Consider this summer’s ASK 2020 – a conference on our relationship with the living Christ in Atlanta!
As many of us are spending time thinking about the coming of Easter, we may also be planning our gardens for spring planting, summer tending, and autumn harvest. I am contemplating our ASK 2020 conference in Atlanta, as “cultivating the garden of meaning”, which is the title of an article by Rev. Carol Kelly, in Perspectives, a newsletter from the U.K. It struck me as pertinent, because one of her paragraphs says, “We need to gather together as adults for retreats and conferences, to be able to turn off the phone, to become quiet, to listen, to gather insights from one another and to pray. We do not take this seriously enough. Retreats are opportunities for deep community building, for deepening our understanding of the passion and resurrection of Christ, for learning one another’s biographies and strengthening our connection to one another. We have one direction in church, facing the altar. But we have another direction to cultivate in community life, looking toward one another and building Christ-community.”
Please consider joining us June 24-28, this summer, for just such a cultivation of fertile ground. Our website is ask2020atlanta.org.
–Katherine Jenkins
ASK Conference, Coordinating Circle
The question often comes up: Is gambling a sin in the Bible? Well, this is the reason that casinos are so popular. Sin is involved in every gambling activity. And yes, it is definitely wrong in a number of ways.
There are many gambling activities in the Bible. It seems like they may not be as bad as what we are doing now. But, that is not the case. Of course there are things to love and have fun in the Bible but still gambling is wrong.
Going to the casino is definitely gambling. Using a mobile casino with Interac is a bit different and a lot less sinful than the traditional casinos in Canada. You don’t have to leave your house to gamble.
Going to a casino with an ATM is gambling. Going to a casino without one is gambling. The Bible talks about eating or drinking anything on an open source. This includes going to a casino without an ATM.
The casinos are not like home. They require money to even go into the casino. That means that you can spend a lot of money in a short period of time if you have to. This can lead to gambling addiction.
The casinos are full of sin. If you are going to the casino with your wife, it is wrong. If you are going to the casino with another person, it is wrong. So, if you are with a woman or someone who is not your wife, this is going to be a big deal.
Going to a casino without an ATM (with Interac payment system as example) is going to be a big deal as well. If you are going to a casino without an ATM, it may involve some gambling, but it is not always going to be real gambling. With these two things in mind, it is a decision you need to make and you will need to decide for yourself.
Casinos are not a place where you should feel comfortable because of the dangers involved. If you choose to go to a casino with an ATM, do so because you want to and not because you feel obligated to. If you decide to gamble, then gambling is definitely a sin in the Bible.