The King Awoke

Proposed Antiphon: 'How wonderful and encouraging that you can serve God as an Angel'

The King Awoke;

And the over-servant shouted; ‘The King Awakens! The Great and Powerful King! We Worship the King!’

And the under-servant arose from tending the fire and brought him a steaming cup of spiced wine.

The King put on his riding cloak;

And the over-servant shouted; ‘The King Rides Forth! Praise the King! We Worship the King!’

And the under-servant arose from his seat at the doorway and brought forth the King’s horse.

The King rode out into the city;

And the over-servant shouted; ‘Way! Way! Make Way for the Great and Powerful King! Praise the King!’

And the under-servant steadied the King’s horse as the King rode out into the crowded streets.

An old seamstress fell as she tried to make way for the King, and a young boy ran out from the crowd to help her up.

And the over-servant shouted at them; ‘Praise the King! Make Way for the Great and Powerful King!’

And the under-servant lifted the old woman to her feet.

And the King stopped;

And he said to the over-servant: “I believe that this seamstress needs your help more than I do. Go and serve her from this day forward.”

And he said to the under-servant: “Good and faithful servant, you have served me well. Please continue to do so as my over-servant.”

And he said to the boy: “You have shown yourself worthy of my service. Please join me as an under-servant.”

And the boy bowed in assent.

And the King rode on;

And the old over-servant was silent.

And the new over-servant ran beside the King to steady his horse, with the new under-servant beside him.

And for a moment everyone was silent, and you could hear the clip-clopping of the horse's hooves;

And then the people all shouted:

‘Make Way! Make Way for the Glorious King! Praise the Beloved King!’

The Unusual Desk

In the night I pray for guidance in this interesting life I live
And I see warm brown leather
With ink drawings appearing and disappearing on it
I see the letters ‘VS’ appearing between two fragments of drawing,
And I wonder what they mean
The scene shifts and I find myself in front of a large wooden desk
In a large room that is strange to me, all done in wood of light tones
It is empty, but it feels welcoming and warm
The thought comes to me that this is like an English courtroom
But it is not much so to my eye
The desk is in the middle of the room
And there are wooden barriers like altar rails down either side
Beyond which several ranks of wooden chairs rise
Perhaps more like a room of parliament
But the dream is focused on the desk – the room is the background for the dream
The desk itself is odd
There are vertical ridges dividing it into three major sections
Making it uncomfortable to write the way I would like
With a paper at a jaunty angle
The left section is decent sized, no more than two feet wide
And the right one is very wide, over three feet wide
But the center one is narrow, too narrow for letter sized paper
To write here, you would need narrow paper
It seems that the form of what one would write here would be restricted
I opened the desk, the center section lifts and there are writing materials
A drawer as wide as the right section pulls out,
And there are disassembled bits for old ink pens,
Wooden shafts and nibs,
I start to assemble a pen and begin to look for the ink
And I wake

None are Unclean

From Acts 11 NRSV:

Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, ‘I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air.

I also heard a voice saying to me, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” But I replied, “By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.”

But a second time the voice answered from heaven, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven.

At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, “Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.”

And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?’

Hinder not God, but treat all with fairness, favoring none, poor nor rich, weak nor strong, discerning not between the races, or the sexes, or by who was born of what parents. For all are called to be Children of God, and all are desired at the great feast.

Look at yourself, and see if you truly treat all alike, repent and turn to the way of God.

Peace,
LE

Something Interesting to Look At

I love it when creative people colaborate, and here is a wonderful example - Enjoy:

A peaceful Lent to you -

LE

Dreaming of the Father

I dreampt that I was a father,
An adoptive father,
Posessed of a particular race,
A race different than my usual;
And that I had seven adopted children,
Of all different races,
At first I was suprised,
That I had adopted so many children, and that I had dared to adopt children of other races;
But then I saw what a joy and wonder it was;
and how full of love we were;
I saw that it was good in a profound way;
And very, very right.

Happy Dreams
LE

A World of Life

Through the haze
The ground appears
Misty, bluish, brown and green

Cut and furrowed
Cross hatched and patched in funny shapes
Jumbled like a mad jigsaw puzzle

Square on this edge
Curvey on that
Jagged on the third

Patterned bits
Nosing into dark green patches
Which slide around light green swatches

The landscape seems to move
Snuggling into itself
Like calico kittens on their mother's bosom
Or sleeping lovers in crazy-quilt PJs

Till God modestly draws a wooly blanket of cottonballs over them
And I float alone in the sky

Discerning the Spirits

I can often see what website my visitors came from, and if they came through a search engine, what they searched for.

And many people come to my site looking to see if their dreams come from a holy, or evil source.

Not wanting anyone to go away empty handed who came seeking, let me share my thinking on this topic:

1) God is everywhere and in everything and everyone, and loves you, no matter who you are or what you have done. What does this have to do with dreams? Well, it is a fundamental premise, the foundation upon which the theology that energizes me rests, and it informs my understanding of dreams.

2) We are complex beings with many different, conflicting feelings and ways of thinking. Some of these we supress, ignore, set aside, or deny.

3) Our minds choose from our many life experiences and conditions to help us 'process' things which concern us both in our dreams, and in what we notice while awake.

4) Spiritual forces, internal or external, can and do influence us.

So....

5) As God loves us, a message from God will never count us, or by extension, anyone as hopelessly corrupt. Messages that state or imply worthlessness and hopelessness are not from holy sources.

6) God is unlikely to order you to break the ten commandments, or harm others. (Turn to the Bible for guidance.)

7) More generally, messages from holy sources should eventually make sense in the light of faith, community and love.

8) Share your dreams, visions, signs and insights with your ministers and friends in the faith, and listen to their advice.

9) Write your experience down, and return to it later for fresh insight.

10) Watch for coincidences that seem to confirm or contradict your thoughts.

11) Your dreams, however dark, may reflect repressed anger and other emotions about past harms or slights, and even chemical imbalances or reactions. You should seek psychological or psychiatric help with your visions, signs, and dreams if they interfere with your life in a negative way.

12) Holy messages will be confirmed by prayer.

Peace to you, and may God's blessings surround you!

A Threefold Vision

I had a dream
I dreampt I should do three things
And I have done

One solved a problem in my home,
One solved a worry about my church,
And one of them solved a worry about my life.

None of these things got done in exactly the way I dreamed, in reality, each has been different, more complex, and better.

The third one was to build this blog.
In my dream it was called 'Book of Signs', but that name wasn't available, so here is 'Signs, Dreams, and Visions', something I dreamed, and then did.

How do we know if a dream is holy? Maybe if it comes true, better than you imagined.

May we have many such dreams.