Ramadhan

Surat 1 (Al-Fātiĥah)

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds;
Most Gracious, Most Merciful;
Master of the Day of Judgment.
Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek.
Show us the straight way,
The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray.
Āmīn


Abu Hurairah reported that Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said:

“Allah, the Exalted and Glorious stated: I am near to the thought of My servant as he thinks about Me, and I am with him as he remembers Me. And if he remembers Me in his heart, I also remember him in My Heart, and if he remembers Me in assembly I remember him in assembly, better than his (remembrance), and if he draws near Me by the span of a palm, I draw near him by a cubit, and if he draws near Me by a cubit I draw near him by the space (covered by) two arms. And if he walks towards Me, I rush towards him.” (Hadith from Sahih Muslim & Bukhari)

The seven aspects of Dhikr (remembrance)

Dhikr of the eyes, which consists in weeping
Dhikr of the ears, which consists in listening
Dhikr of the tongue, which consists in praise
Dhikr of the hands, which consists in giving
Dhikr of the body, which consists in loyalty
Dhikr of the heart, which consists in fear and hope
Dhikr of the spirit, which consists of utter submission and acceptance.

Surat 114 (An-Nās)

Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind,
The King of mankind,
The god of mankind,
From the evil of the sneaking whisperer,
Who whispereth in the hearts of mankind,
Of the jinn and of mankind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lord God, Alpha and Omega
Be the beginning and end of all that we are and do.
Amen.

Remembering

Remembering a dear friend and gentle soul, man of peace.
We don't know what really happened but the truth will be known to all someday.
Walk on.



'Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.' John Muir

More thoughts on belonging (or not)

I've been quite torn between two different churches for the past few months - one being my 'home' church and the other the church I was sent on placement. We were told by our course tutor that it isn't unusual for students to leave their home churches after their placement ends - 'Fair enough' I thought, 'Probably won't happen to me though because I'm familiar with the more traditional worship style and I left all that behind years ago.'

Little did I know how much it was going to hit me!! Now I'm reconnected with the better side of my traditional past as well as enjoying more contemporary worship styles. Each church feeds and grows different parts of me, and I hope I make a worthwhile contribution to each place in return.

The contrast was brought into very sharp focus this evening as I went straight from a service at the ex-placement church to one at my 'home' church. Some three and a half hours of liturgy ranging from BCP to something resembling but not exactly Common Worship and music from old school choral to Chris Tomlin - that really has an impact!

But how I loved it all from start to finish too.

Somewhere during that time I also began to understand something I'd read earlier by Thomas Merton:

'I say YES to all the men and women who are my brothers and sisters in the world, but for this "yes" to be an assent of freedom and not of subjection, I must live so that no one of them may seem to belong to me, and that I may not belong to any of them. It is because I want to be more to them than a friend that I become, to all of them, a stranger.'

Liberating paradox again! To truly belong, we stop seeking to belong.

'These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.' Hebrews 11:13-14

Miserere mei Deus

Generous in love — God, give grace! Huge in mercy — wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I've been; my sins are staring me down.

You're the One I've violated, and you've seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
I've been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you're after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.

God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don't throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!

Going through the motions doesn't please you,
a flawless performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship
when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don't for a moment escape God's notice.

Psalm 51:1-6, 10-12, 16-17 (The Message)

Food for thought about cancer?

In the UK it has been reported that around four in ten people are now likely to be diagnosed with cancer. All the 'usual suspects' for this increase have been proposed - lifestyle habits, poor diet, alcohol, stress, lack of exercise, smoking as well as all the additives in our over-processed, genetically modified, steroid stuffed food.

True, all these factors will have some bearing on the figures. I'm not an expert on this but I have a theory about something else too - still related to the food we eat but perhaps not talked about as much in the public domain. Not an additive, not a treatment or modification to foodstuffs, but something which occurs naturally in various forms - mycotoxins.

Although mycotoxin levels in foodstuffs are strictly monitored, I sometimes wonder whether current large scale crop farming methods are encouraging a proliferation of the moulds which produce these toxins to such an extent that by the time the produce enters the food chain, the actual mycotoxin levels may be higher than when the produce was last sampled for analysis. This might be especially so if the harvest has been stored in mould-enhancing conditions i.e. warm and humid; but also, mass-produced crops are now often stockpiled in silos, barns, warehouses etc for extended periods of time before they are used - even under perfect storage conditions, what effect does this long term storage have on the mycotoxin levels?

I usually end my posts with a verse or two from Scripture. You might think I'd struggle to find something for this one, but not so! There is a scientific understanding of the progression of the ten plagues which struck Egypt as recorded in the Book of Exodus. After the locusts came and ate all the crops in the fields, followed by an ash cloud caused by a major volcanic eruption which would have ruined the next harvest, the Egyptians had to break into their underground grain stores. This task was usually carried out by the firstborn - who would have inhaled fatal quantities of the mycotoxin producing spores.

In more recent history, maybe exposure to mycotoxin producing spores was the 'Curse of the Pharaohs' after all?

"Now it came about at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle. Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead."
Exodus 12:29-30

Homesickness

Sometimes I'm very aware that I don't belong here, but this is where I must stay for now, often a stranger to myself, to the people I meet and the places I inhabit.

But I'm not going anywhere else until what I was sent to do has been done.

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account."
Philippians 1:21-24

If Jesus showed up today

Would anyone notice?



"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’" Matthew 23:37-39

Something different

Are you there God?

Are you really there, I sometimes wonder.
Or am I just talking to myself, shouting into empty space?

And when I heard You speak, was it really You?
Or was the voice I heard a figment of my imagination? My own ego self-talking?

Maybe I'm mentally ill?

People have been locked up, drugged up and had their brains fried for admitting to hearing voices...

My human side doesn't know for certain any more, but deep within my spirit, somewhere at the core of my being, I do know.

I wish the two could agree once more - so that I could be a whole person again.

I'm too tired,
HOW LONG O LORD??!!
And yet I still trust that all shall be well.

And for now I pray the prayers of Peter the coward, Thomas the doubter, Judas the betrayer and John the lover.

Help my unbelief.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

An angry, misogynistic churches best kept secret...

 

Ok, for the last couple of months, I've been reading about Julian of Norwich and her writings. Julian was an anchoress (someone who lived alone in a small room attached to a parish church - once they were in, they were in for life, literally!) who lived at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries.

She seems to achieved great renown in her day, but then, following her death, there were six centuries of silence.

Now I'm not one for conspiracy theories (I don't believe them without good reason at least) but this 600 year departure/absence of Julian from history seems to have had an uncanny coincidence with the time during which the late medieval and then the Reformation movement coupled with a Roman Catholic church in turmoil were struggling to keep their sheep under control and faithful to the cause.

What better way than to tell them that God was really, really angry with them - and even though Jesus had paid for their sins on the cross, there was still every chance that God might still be angry with them - either because no matter how good they were, they still weren't good enough, or even worse, God had had them marked out for damnation before they were even born and thus they might still be rewarded with an eternity in the blazing fires of Hell?  However, if they kept coming to Church, buying Masses and Indulgences, paying tithes and  remained obedient to the clergy, there might still be a chance to escape the flames.

Julian was a bit of a 'fly in the ointment' here, because she stated that God isn't actually angry - not with anyone, rather, the anger we imagine He has is only a projection of the anger we have within ourselves...

That is liberating stuff - all the faithful needed to to was stop being angry with themselves for their wrongdoings - to forgive themselves. Here's some of what she wrote:

"Suddenly is the soul oned to God when it is truly peaced in itself: for in Him is found no wrath. And thus I saw when we are all in peace and in love, we find no contrariness, nor no manner of letting through that contrariness which is now in us."

"There is no wrath in God….It is the most impossible thing that can be that God would be angry, for wrath and friendship are two opposites."

Liberating as it was for those who understood the implications, this would have been downright dangerous for the church of its assorted colours - because to keep power, they needed finance, and to generate finance they needed the people...

Then there was the age old problem of women! Dodgy characters (unless they went into a convent where they might perchance redeem themselves!), yep, it was all womens' fault, ever since Eve and the Garden of Eden incident! Ever since then, they'd been wicked temptresses waiting to lure poor, unsuspecting men into Hell. Women didn't have souls so they'd have a really hard time getting into Heaven... that's enough of that!

Julian dared to suggest that God - that great male figurehead and model of perfection we all aim for might have an element of the feminine - WHAT??!! I suspect that, had she not been an anchoress - effectively already dead and buried in this world - she might well have been burned at the stake for entertaining such thoughts.

"Thus in our creation, God All Power is our natural Father, and God All Wisdom is our natural Mother, with the Love and the Goodness of the Holy Spirit — who is all one God, one Lord."

"This fair lovely word 'mother' is so sweet and so kind in itself, that it can not truly be said of anyone nor to anyone except of Him and to Him who is true Mother of life and of all. To the quality of motherhood belongs natural love, wisdom, and knowledge — and this is God…"

For a patriarchal Church consisting of a male hierarchy fighting amongst themselves for power, suggesting that women might also have been created in God's image and therefore giving them equal status in God's eyes was truly dangerous territory. What if those pesky women started thinking they too could achieve high status in the world - and, horror - in the Church?! The women must be kept in their rightful place, at the bottom of the pile...

There followed 600 years of silence...
I wonder why?