Tag Archives: freedom

Beyond The Tomb

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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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Awakening the Dream

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non-violence-1158317_1920I watched the movie Selma Monday night.  It was Martin Luther King Day and I was looking for inspiration for my Wednesday night Meditation and Mindful Musings Service in his honor.  The movie left me with the tears I knew would flow the moment I tuned in. As the final epitaphs flashed upon the screen next to the faces of the major players I felt the emotion building.  And then Martin’s face was on the screen. The letters appeared one at a time. I knew what they would say. I had seen the spoiler in 1968. I braced myself. And then I cried.

Such a beautiful soul with a vision so much greater than himself. I cried because he was gone. And I cried because of what he had shown me.  I cried because he was so young. He was just 39 years old. He’d only just begun. Yet he had accomplished precisely what he came here to do and be; to be the Light of God expressing, to awaken sleeping souls and to raise awareness and consciousness in a much too slowly evolving country. This he did. He had a big dream and he stirred that dream within the hearts of many.  Yet still there were so many who could not yet see.

In a recent discussion on racism, the term “white guilt” was mentioned.  It was suggested that all white people carry guilt over slavery and the long, lingering energies of racism and inequality.  I thought deeply about that as “guilt” did not feel right to me. It was not the right word. Not for me anyway.  Shared responsibility perhaps, but guilt was not it. I thought perhaps that it was compassion that was somehow being mistaken for guilt because certainly I felt that. But that wasn’t quite right either. Shame. That was more like it. I feel shame. Not personal shame but shame for humankind still capable of such atrocious acts. I feel confusion and anger. I am baffled at how any intelligent being can justify such cruelty to another being for something as arbitrary as skin color. I am angry that beautiful, intelligent, loving people had their lives cut short because of inexplicable hatred. I am angry that it continues.

And then I take a breath.  I know that shame is a non-productive emotion.  Although it serves to show us what we don’t want to do, it cannot take us where we want to be. And so it must be released like molting skin or extra eyelids that cloud the vision.  Likewise, anger wallowed in serves no purpose. But used instead as a catalyst for growth and transformation it can direct us toward a greater end. That requires Love. It requires Faith. Anger, requires a greater Vision, a greater dream to direct its powerful energy toward a higher goal.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. He had what Jesus called “eyes to see,” and I “thank God Almighty,” that his dream is awake and alive in me. I honor him today by tuning in to that dream, by living it as the Truth I know. I honor him by sharing and cultivating that dream and never allowing it to fade. I honor him by allowing my heart to feel the pain of those who have been harmed and treated less than the beautiful souls they are, and then, to feel the Truth that right now unfolds itself in millions of hearts working together to let freedom ring and liberty finally made real.

© Rev. Eileen DeRosia Patra. January 17, 2018

Rev. Eileen is an ordained, Unity minister currently serving Unity of Livonia in Livonia, Michigan. She leads a Sunday service at 10 am and a Wednesday night Meditation and Mindful Musing service on Wednesdays at 7 pm.

The Pursuit of Happiness?

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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

A Miracle A Day, Day 75

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Dreams Road Sign

DREAMS are the resulting miracle of the power of Imagination.  What can compare with the human capacity to DREAM?  In our waking moments we DREAM of what has not yet come into being and focusing our thoughts and energies on them we often bring them into manifestation.  Our sleep is punctuated with DREAMS that release the energies of the day, work out the problems parading through our minds, and inspire us with higher realms of thought.  It seems the capacity to DREAM, whether they are lucid or merely a foggy image, is the power that moves us ever forward on our spiritual path.  Joseph, the favored son of Jacob, was the dreamer.  Through his DREAMS he warned Egypt of drought and famine.  Through is DREAMS he lifted himself from prison and reunited the tribes of Israel.  Through our DREAMS, we too escape perceived bondage, drought and famine.  Through the power to DREAM and activate the power of Imagination we too reunite the tribes of Israel which are our spiritual powers.  Reunited, awakened in Spirit, we enter the promised land bringing that which we only DREAM of into the manifest world. 

© 2016. Reverend Eileen DeRosia Patra