Thursday, February 27, 2014

An Intriguing Pattern

Following a conversation about the many denominations within Christianity, a friend loaned me a wall chart of 'Denominations Comparison'.  Studying this gave rise to many thoughts about religion and I turned to a Bible time-line; I noted a most intriguing pattern.  Major events that have changed the direction of, first the Jewish then the Christian religious development, have occurred roughly in 500 year intervals.

Here is the pattern, beginning 2000BC (allowing that these are centuries and the dates are approximate)
       2000 BC:  Abraham called by God to become father of a great nation
       1500 BC:  Moses is called to lead God's people to the Promised Land
       1000 BC:  Solomon's Temple built in Jerusalem (home for Torah)
         500 BC:  Temple destroyed, Jews exiled then returned
             0 AD:  (New calendar dating) Jesus the Christ enters history; followers persecuted
         500 AD:  Christian doctrines unified and solidified (Age of Faith)
       1000 AD:  Great Schism = Catholic/Orthodox
       1500 AD:  Protestant Reformation (unity splintered to thousands of denominations)
If there is a pattern ???  --we are in the 2000 ???

Monday, February 17, 2014

Centering Prayer

I am re-reading 'The Cloud of Unknowing', a mystical classic from the 14th century, I find it resonates with today's mystics exploring evolutionary theology which speaks of consciousness, wholeness and a God of love beyond knowing.

                                         
                                            God isn't what we've made HIM
                                            there's another reality
                                                          of which we're but a tiny part

                           Centering Prayer

I sit before a lighted candle
struggling to clear away my thoughts;
the task seems impossible

I've asked to enter Truth,
reaching for humility and reverence
. . . I must quiet my racing thoughts.

A lifetime of memories rise up.
Tears roll down my cheeks . . .
Twenty minutes?  An hour?
            _______

Embrace the silence
beyond language and thought
            _______

We each journey thru life alone
there is sharing--but never fully;
we long for wholeness.

We are part of a Oneness
my consciousness arises from Consciousness.
I cannot grasp that--yet I believe it.

I sit before a lighted candle
   "surrender, let go, let God."
    so hard, so very hard!

           . . . one day it will be easy.