Category Archives: Spirit

Physically Apart – Together in Heart

Physically Apart – Together in Heart

Although COVID-19 has limited our physical gatherings and much of our day-to-day activities, it has not separated us in either Spirit or Heart. We have been able to connect through the wonders of technology, including video calls and live streaming church services.  Additionally, we have been encouraged to go outside, to walk our dogs, to take walks with people with whom we live. And here is what I’ve noticed on those walks.

There is a peaceful quiet in the neighborhood that feels simultaneously good and somehow foreign. I don’t remember when I’ve felt such a powerful stillness in the city. I suspect it was some lifetime ago, as a child playing in a neighbors yard. It is quiet, the birds are singing profusely, and neighbors are stopping what they are doing to say hello. And not just hello. There is a smile, a look of knowing of one another’s need to feel connected that leaks through that smile and touches my heart. In this time apart, we are truly connected by the heart.

Did you know that when two humans interact with one another, their heartbeats begin to synchronize? It seems that close physical proximity draws our heart energy into a matching rhythm. But this coherence of heart does not have to remain limited to physical proximity.

When we take time apart – not from one another – but from daily tasks, media reports, and worry, by going within to that very same heart space, we connect. We connect with our spiritual being, the divine spark that dwells within each of us. We connect through a network of Spirit that exceeds the Cloud, hosted by the Allness that we sometimes refer to as God, Allah, Spirit, or the One.

In the Allness, there is an infinite connection; each of us is like a strand of Light reaching outward into the world of form and returning back again. In this turning back again, we find rest, wholeness, and a thing called dominion.

In the Book of Genesis, God grants humankind dominion the earth and all the things that creep upon it. The most basic interpretation of this passage reveals a gift, one that allows humanity to rise to the top of the food chain. But there is so much more to this message.

Dominion means the ability to control or govern. Metaphysically, the plants, animals, and things that creep represent thoughts, words, and actions. Thoughts and ideas that are fruitful and in coherence with the Allness produce experiences of abundance, creativity, and well-being. Thoughts out of alignment with the wholeness of God may, when given much attention, create experiences that lack wholeness and well being.

Created in the image and likeness of the power that created the universe, we, too, are creative. Our thoughts, words, and actions create our experiences, the quality of our relationships, and ultimately, our world.

Certainly, fleeting thoughts like “what would happen if a dinosaur entered the room right now?” are not likely to manifest. Why? Because we don’t give those kinds of thoughts, much attention. They pass through our minds, we smile or frown, and then we think something else.

It’s the thoughts we give a great deal of attention to, the ones we allow to occupy our minds and hearts, that produce more of the same. Our thoughts are contagious. They grow and multiply – and they tend to manifest in our bodies, our experiences, and our world. So, why not choose those thoughts carefully, from a higher consciousness?

What if Love and all the ways it harmonizes, draws together, and replicates itself, were our most prominent thought? What if kindness and compassion and the assurance of abundance occupied the most significant space in our minds and hearts?

The thought would become contagious. It would expand and open those channels of Light that connect us one heart to another. The resulting energy would become so strong that nothing could interrupt the flow of Love and Light from one heart to the other. Nothing out of alignment with this integral connection with God would have any power or ability to manifest or replicate. We would be choosing to exercise dominion over all that manifests in the world. We would know that, at times, we may be physically apart, but always, we are together in the heart and mind of God.

© 2020. Eileen Patra.

Eileen Patra is an ordained Unity minister and the author of The Mystical Ark: A Vessel of Blessings. She is currently serving as co-minister of the Spiritual Life Center in Troy, Michigan, and working on her second book, Living as the Ark.

In the NoThingness

What I Found in the NoThingness

As I tried to change my Facebook cover this morning, something went – well – seemingly, wrong. I was trying to post something profound and comforting in response to the 911 anniversary, and my Cover went completely black. An error message came up, and both my previous photo and the ones I was trying to add were gone. I was using my phone to access my page, and nothing seemed to work. My FB cover would show Nothing until I was able to get to my computer and an internet connection. 

However, it was in this apparent mishap that something profound was actually revealed to me. While my FB Cover was showing Nothing, I realized that it is in the NoThingness that we find the SomeThingness that makes all the difference. The Truth is, there is no statement, no picture, no words to convey that make sense of what happened here in the US on 911. But in the NoThingness, we find the SomeThingness, the All-ness that makes sense of EveryThing. We find our connection with our Source, the Essence of Life that breathes us into existence.

Life, in its wholeness and in its Source is eternal; growing, multiplying, and being continuously fruitful. In our humanness, wholeness is not always what we see, or feel, or express. Attached to the things of life more than that which breathes life into existence, many experiences seem fruitless, pointless, and even downright evil. But in the NoThingness, the Breath of Life appears, and suddenly, there is no separation between you, and me, and all that is. In the NoThingness, we find the SomeThingness that makes sense of EveryThing.

Once this Truth was revealed to me, I was able to post the quote I had planned for my FB Cover this morning.

“May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may my thoughts, words, and actions contribute in some way to happiness and freedom for all.” 

~ Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

Although the words do not make sense of the nonsensical, nor do they replace the sense of security that was lost that day, they do tell us the consciousness we need to hold to make our world a place that more fully expresses the All-ness that gives us life. This is the consciousness that will help us co-create a world that works for and honors the SomeThingness in All.

© 2019. Eileen Patra

Beyond The Tomb

The angels in Jesus’ tomb asked Mary Magdalene, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Why indeed do we seek new life, a new way of being, while continuing to do what we have always done?  Why do we seek freedom among the thoughts, words and actions that have held us captive?

To live beyond what might seem like a tomb, we must be willing to bless what has passed and then look beyond it.  A tomb experience in life can be anything that draws us apart for a while and provides an opportunity for growth and realignment with Spirit.  A process of deep and lasting change is revealed when we explore four stages of transformation that take place in the tomb; renunciation, retreat, resurrection and realization. 

On the cross, Jesus renounced the world as his source and commended his Spirit to God.  He took the final step toward overcoming the greatest block to transformation; the belief that life is created and sustained by the world.  What is demonstrated for us through the crucifixion and resurrection is that   Life is independent of the world.  Life, the flow of Spirit within us, creates the world according to our ability and willingness to allow Truth to be expressed through us.

Jesus was laid in a tomb, retreating from the world for three days. Three is symbolic of completion in Spirit, soul and body.  Resurrection is instant, simultaneous in Spirit, but soul and body require a time of unfolding. When we pray, our prayers are answered the instant we release them to Spirit.  Yet, most often, a time of quiet reflection and letting go is required for our prayers to fully manifest in our minds, hearts and body.

Mary returns to the tomb with the intention of blessing what she believes is lost.  The willingness to bless what has passed away rolls away the stone and opens the way for divine inspiration. When we bless what has passed for the opportunities of growth and realignment provided, blockages are removed and our way is made clear.

Mary did not realize that the gardener was Jesus until he spoke to her.  When he did, she ran to inform the others.  When we realize something we incorporate the new information at all levels of being. Only then is deep and lasting change made possible.  The risen Christ sent his followers to convert the nations.  To convert is to change. To convert the nations is to change everything.  Realization happens in us when we recognize the Christ as the Life within each of us and then inform every level of our being to live this Truth.  When we live this Truth everything is made new and we live beyond the tomb.  

© 2016.  Reverend Eileen DeRosia Patra

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A Sabbath of the Soul

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(photo provided by: Pixabay: jillwellingtonphotography)

While considering what was “perfect” about the summers of my childhood, I recalled a consistent theme.  The summers I deemed to be perfect were timeless. There were no schedules to keep, no piles of homework, no vocabulary lists, no math, no science projects, and very few places to be.

As adults, living in a time-bound world, schedules keep us on task, tasks demand lists, and there are many places to go and be. But I wonder if, in the midst of all of this activity, we might recreate that sense of timelessness we once enjoyed as children? I think we can.

Recreating the timelessness of childhood requires just three things, a willingness to stop for just a moment and breathe, remembering that time is an illusion governed by the planet we inhabit, and letting go of all our thoughts, concerns, and lists for just a little while – even a single moment.

In this way, we command time to stand still. We shift from thinking and doing to being, and we open ourselves to the timelessness of Spirit. We remember what Moses called the Sabbath, a time of rest that, according to Jesus, was made for you and me.

Take a moment today, maybe even right now to “Remember the Sabbath” that lives right there inside of you. Take a momentary Sabbath of the Soul.

© 2019. Eileen DeRosia Patra, OUM, LUT, CSE

Eileen Patra is an ordained Unity minister and the author of the soon to be released book, The Mystical Ark: A Vessel of Blessings

(photo provided by: Pixabay: jillwellingtonphotography)

God Has A Scathingly Brilliant Idea!

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Photo Credit: Alexas_Fotos

The phrase “scathingly brilliant idea” continuously filtered into my mind as I prepared my final Sunday talk as senior minister at Unity of Livonia. The phrase, always a favorite of mine, comes from the infamous words of Mary Clancy (Hayley Mills) in the movie “The Trouble with Angels.” As I pondered the intention of my talk, I questioned the word “scathingly.” It seems that Webster’s defines scathingly as “critical” or “harsh,” and that didn’t, at first anyway, seem to fit my intention.

But the word persisted, and when a word or a thought persists, I am compelled to go deeper. What does scathingly mean to me? In the movie, “scathingly” seemed to indicate something out of the ordinary, exceptional if a little risky. Mary Clancy (Mills) and her friend Rachel (June Harding) were two adolescents who had been sent to an all-girls, Catholic boarding school. These so-called scathingly brilliant ideas generally earned them a stint in the kitchen scrubbing pots and pans. Was scathingly really the word I wanted to use?

Critical can mean something derogatory – but it can also mean important, vital, or crucial. Harsh, as in criticism, can mean unbridled, unlimited, or unadulterated. Hmm… now we were getting somewhere. These definitions seemed to fit my intention more closely. You see, I believe that God has a Scathingly Brilliant idea – and the idea is YOU!

You are an idea, a crucial, unlimited, and brilliant idea in the Mind of God. In your most unadulterated essence, you are a perfect spiritual idea taking form and expressing God as you. In this earthly experience, there are many twists and turns as we endeavor to fully express this scathingly brilliant idea. At times it may seem our endeavors or the experiences of our lives have us scrubbing pots and pans when we were planning something much more exciting. Although Mary and Rachel spent a great deal of time scrubbing pots and pans, they also spent a lot of time growing and evolving. They grew in compassion. They grew in their sense of purpose. They discovered their own gifts and they learned to appreciate the talents of others. 

Changes, twists and turns, pots and pans, are all a part of our spiritual evolution. Evolution is another scathingly, brilliant idea in the Mind of God. Everything is always changing, growing and evolving. Evolution is the activity of Life, and it has a crucial characteristic – something is always falling away to allow something new to emerge.

The new year is a perfect time to reflect on what is falling away on its own and what you will intentionally let fall away. It is also an excellent time to focus your attention on what is being called forth from you. What is Life calling you to be? To do? To let fall away?

The New Year is often marked by resolutions for being or doing something better than before. Usually, these intentions focus on diet, exercise, habits, and behaviors. This year, why not set just one resolution, one that will inform and strengthen all the others? Let your resolution for 2019 be this; to allow no one and no thing to hinder you in expressing more of the Scathingly Brilliant Idea in the Mind of God that is YOU!

© 2019. Eileen DeRosia Patra, OUM

Eileen Patra is an ordained Unity minister and the author of the soon to be released book, The Mystical Ark: A Vessel of Blessings

What will you leave behind in 2018?

freedom-2053281_1920-2The close of a calendar year is a traditional time for reflection; a review of the year’s finest moments and its challenges. In preparation for a new year there are often a number of things we choose to leave behind. Perhaps you’ve experienced a loss, a physical challenge, a relationship issue, a career bump, or a financial upset. Then there are the things we experience together; divisiveness in government, hurricanes, out of control fires, tsunamis, terrorism, and mass shootings. Who wouldn’t want to leave these things behind?

It is unlikely anyone would want to take the challenges of 2018 into the new year, but perhaps the truth is 2019 will present its own challenges. The question is what will you leave behind that will better equip you for the year to come. What gift will you discover in your experiences that will allow you to walk through the obstacles that appear with ease and grace?

Although we may want to leave behind the events themselves, we would be better served if we could determine the underlying emotions that caused the events to disturb our peace. The most common are fear and anger.

Fear has its purpose. It is a physiological response to danger – but it does not know how to differentiate between real danger and imagined danger. Leaving behind unwarranted fear would allow us to face what comes before us with a greater sense of balance and clarity. To leave fear behind it must be replaced by something greater. Perhaps that is a knowledge that nothing can harm the Truth of you – that you are an eternal spiritual being having a physical experience.

Anger also has a purpose. It is an energy that causes us to initiate change when something appears to be out of order. Yet anger can be detrimental when it is not directed toward positive change. It can consume our energies and greatly disturb our peace. Leaving behind unproductive anger would make room for focusing our spiritual nature toward positive change. This would allow us to tune in to the more harmonious energy of Love and project a higher vibration into the world. Love is far more powerful and initiates long lasting transformation.

What will you leave behind as the new year approaches?  I choose to leave behind unwarranted fear and replace it with knowing God within me is more powerful than anything that comes before me. I choose to leave behind anger and replace it with Love.

Perhaps you would like to join me this Sunday, December 30th at 10:00 am for Unity of Livonia’s Burning Bowl service. We will explore the things we choose to leave behind, write them on a special ashless piece of paper and place them in the burning bowl flame. In the twinkling of any eye they will disappear and give us an opportunity to create an affirmation to carry into the new year. Hope to see you there!

Rise and Shine

Alarmclock about to wake her upWhen I was a teenager my mother had a horrific time waking me up in the morning.  She would, call, cajole, yell, push, pull, and most effectively, threaten to run a bath for me and then go downstairs to the basement. This would mean that if the tub overflowed it would be my fault.  Somehow that one did it. I would reluctantly leave my warm cozy bed and head downstairs to turn off the water.  The threat of more work and the trouble I would be in was enough to release whatever dream was holding me captive.

What if we could apply this same principle to our daily lives?  There are some who would say that our earthly experience is a dream itself, that we have fallen asleep to our greater, spiritual selves.  Our dreams are often captivating because we can change the thread of the dream at will.  If it’s a really good one we can stay in it and perhaps even choose the next scene. If it’s frightening we can turn a corner and begin a different dream or simply wake up.

If today, your awake dream is not what you choose to experience, change the scene.  You have the power to do that.  If today the awake dream of the world is frightening, let’s all wake up.  What appears to be immovable is movable through the powers of faith, divine love, wisdom and will.  These are innate powers within each of us. Aligned with the one power, one presence, one activity that animates all of life, we can move mountains, change scenes and see the Truth in one another.  But we must wake up. 

Whatever scene you choose to live today, let it be one that is guided by the harmonizing power of Divine Love. Let it be a day of wakefulness to the divine essence in all beings. Rise and Shine! The water is running and it’s up to you to direct the flow.

© 2017. Eileen DeRosia Patra

 

God in the Midst

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“God in the midst…

I trust in You.” Job 13:15

The story of Job is one of challenge after challenge. It is one of trouble, sorrow and pain, ultimately met with a deep and abiding Trust in God.  It is this ultimate and complete Trust in God that we are called to in times of great challenge and conflict, for without it our troubles may seem insurmountable, too big to handle.  Our sense of well-being and peace may seem eternally lost. But it is WITH GOd that “all things are possible.” When we trust that the underlying Source of Life is continuously conspiring for our ultimate good, for the good of ALL beings, we find peace in the midst of any disturbance. To trust is to rely on, to expect that our needs will be met, to know that whatever is occurring is only a step in the ongoing process of returning to wholeness and oneness WITH God.

AFFIRMATION: One WITH the One Power, One Presence, One Activity, God the Good, I find Peace in the midst.

(c) 2017. Rev. Eileen Patra

The Pursuit of Happiness?

pursuite of happinessThe pursuit of happiness is not fulfilled by the freedom to express hate. Hate is a derivative of fear. One hates what one deems an enemy, that which one fears will somehow hurt them or diminish them. Hate is an aspect of the “fight” response to fear.  Only when fear is acknowledged, soothed and brought into alignment with the assurance of Divine Love can there be an experience of true happiness.  All else is but a shield to assuage a perceived fear.

Fear, disguised as hate and anger is often triggered by a perceived loss. ‘Someone is taking something away from me.’ In Truth, there is no loss. All that we see, all that we experience are manifestations of Light and energy which is never lost. It simply moves and transforms.  When we finally recognize that we are inextricably connected to one another and therefor own everything, yet own nothing, will we know there is nothing to fear, nothing to lose.

When you say you are losing some piece of your culture or your history, what is it that you are losing? Are you losing the grace and beauty of the fertile grounds that fed your ancestors? Are you losing your history of charm and hospitality? Or are you losing the false illusion that those you saw as heroes are not really heroes at all.  Were they heroes because they stood for something they believed in and laid their lives on the line for it. In a sense, a very human sense, I suppose this is so. But when you expand your perspective to recognize that what they stood for was something deeply hurtful and harmful to the fabric of humanity can you see their actions as something other than heroic? Can you begin to see them as the leadership of a fear that saw masses of God’s children as less than human?  Can you see that as you hold them dearly in your clinging to a false image of grace and charm that you hold yourself in a false reality in which some of humanity is worthy of God’s love and some are not?  That some therefore are worthy of your love and some are not. Only when you let go of these false images of heroism can you begin to heal yourself.  You didn’t know you needed healing, did you?  But yes, you do. You see you too are a part of this fabric of Life.  And while you reject portions of it from your fear of what is not manifesting exactly the same way as you are, you pull at yourself, you separate the essence of your being from the whole. You cause yourself to be isolated from the outworking of God. You cause yourself to be outside of the wholeness of Divine Love. The happiness that you pursue will never bring you what you truly seek, which is to be one with that from which you come. While you reject any part of this you remain outside of it, alone, afraid, fighting and hurting. 

Could you, for just one moment, let go? Let go of your judgments. Let go of your need to cling to what is not even real. Let go of what you fear? Could you for just one moment allow Love to fill the fearful parts of yourself. Could you consider that it is fear that causes you to cling to what is not whole, what is not loving. Could you for just one moment look deeply into the eyes of those you see as different or less than, and see and feel the face of God?  Could you for one moment look deeply into those eyes and see the pain, the fear that is so much like your own? Could you look for one moment into that opening that draws you one to the other and see that you are one? Could you reach across the fence of fear and embrace the other as yourself?  For is this not what our brother and Wayshower, Jesus taught us? To love one another as ourselves?  Is this not the teaching of other faith traditions and spiritual philosophies as well? You do not have to be Christian to understand that it is Love that brings us together and Hatred and Fear that pull us apart.  For just one moment, open your eyes wider than they have ever been open before. Reach out and embrace the other whoever that might be for you.  You will open in you a flood of Divine Love that brings you a greater experience of happiness than you have ever imagined. And this, no one can ever take from you. Namaste’

© 2017. Rev. Eileen Patra

More Precious Than Jewels In You

more precious than jewels.1200“More precious than jewels,” is the noble woman according to the Book of Proverbs.  But, in a previous chapter, the same writer tells us that “Wisdom” is more precious than jewels.  Wisdom, also named Sophia in ancient texts, is the feminine aspect of the Divine, so desiring to know God that she gave birth to humankind.  She is the Divine Mother, whispering pearls of wisdom and often personified by the mother figures and nurturers in our lives.

Mothers, indeed are often the voice of Pearls of Wisdom.  I know my mother had her favorites. “”When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Mom’s teaching of resilience and persistence.  “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” Mom’s teaching of looking past appearances for a deeper meaning.  And, “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Mom’s way of calling me to a higher action.

The mother figures in our lives as well as the mother essence in us, calls us to a higher action. Jesus’ mother was known to call him to action too.  You may recall the Wedding Feast at Cana when Mary informs Jesus that the couple has run out of wine.  Jesus replies, “What is that to me?”  sounding a bit like a rebellious teenager wondering why this should be his problem.  But there is another way to hear these words, “What is that to ME?  What is a little thing like running out of wine to me? What is that to the Christ, the anointed one?”

When something appears to be lacking, or slips in the back door of our consciousness, disturbing our peace what could we learn by responding with those words?  What is that to me?  What is that to the highest and best in me.  What is that to what is most precious in me? What is that to the Christ in me?  

Something came up for me recently, something slid in the back door of my consciousness. It was one of those comments that causes you to feel judged, tempts you to become defensive, to attack, to blame, to shame.  And so I asked “What is that to me?” What is that bringing up for me?  Is it bringing up that I’m somehow less than perfect?  Is it bringing up a need to change another’s perception of me?  And, what is that to the Christ in me? What is that to what Truly is perfect in me? And how can responding to this differently, from the place in me more precious than jewels make a difference? How can I be transformed by this and what would that look like? What would Love do here? What would Light do? What would a new thought, a new response and a new action do? Well that would change everything because it would change me and my own perception and I would see something much greater at work.

Would this change another person’s perception. Maybe. Maybe not. But when we let Light shine through us, and stand fully in our Christ self, we are so changed that the world around us begins to shift.  This is what is called to action by what is more precious than jewels in you.  The apostle Paul summed it up best with these words “Christ in you, your hope of Glory.”   

© 2017. Rev. Eileen DeRosia Patra

Rev. Eileen is an ordained Unity minister currently serving as the senior minister at Unity of Livonia, in Livonia, Michigan.