Flickering Faith

Our faith
like the candle flame,
flickers in the terror filled storms of world’s dark night.

Our faith,
like the candle flame,
endures to set the world alight.

Written 14 December 2012 on the evening of the Newtown school shooting.  Rediscovered on the 2016 anniversary after a year in which the president elect of the United States has complemented the radio personality that promoted the theory that the shooting was a hoax. 
Copyright 2016 Don Ray

Influence

Copyright 2016 Don Ray

Influence,

person to person,

subtle,

oft unseen.

Do not pretend you have no role.

Do not pretend every word does not matter.

The speeches and grandiose proclamations may not matter,

for they are of the world, for the world, in the world.

But a word, a gesture, an attitude, an expression,

the countless ways that your soul is nakedly revealed,

there is the influence.

Persona and policies are transient and ephemeral.

But the touch cold or warm,

the word cruel or caring,

there your life loudly echoes through eternity.

Your influence,

seen in a little child’s eyes

made brighter or dimmer

in the wake of your passing.

Copyright 2016 Don Ray
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Breeze of Mystery

Copyright 2016 Don Ray

Pure poetry, of course we need pure poetry.

To capture the Mystery prose does not suffice.

We understand too little,

comprehend too little

to make a pretense of describing or explaining in prose.

Let words and music twist and contort in irrational patterns

in the struggle to touch a heart, to assure

Dark Matter and the Light of Love

Copyright 2016 Don Ray

Human society is a chaos of suffering and misery and injustice and violence.  This is in direct analogy to the violent universe around us.

In the universe darkness and violent collisions and explosions and chaos have led to the ignition of fusion in stars.  The dark universe became filled with light and eventually, out of collisions and catastrophe, on at least one planet the violence led to ignition of life.

So too in the ongoing evolution of life and humanity, violence – collisions – catastrophe – and cruelty provide the chaos analogous to the chaos of the universe.  Just as fusion can ignite in individual stars and life ignite on the fetid surface of a young planet, out of social and societal chaos and disaster, individual Love can ignite. 

Why should it be so? …..that

Machine Mirrors

Copyright 2016 Don Ray

There is something profound in how much time we spend staring at screens.  I just read we spend ten (or was it fourteen?) hours in front of a screen every day - a glowing screen!  What has happened to us?!

How we crave that modicum of information that appears on that flat surface!  How we try to implement our will through a keyboard!

Is this a stable situation?  Can humanity endure such a radical, drastic, fundamental, and rapid change? 

There is ample evidence that we have used the screens to help us sink into

Syrian ceasefire

As of this edit, one hour and nine minutes ago a ceasefire was supposed to start in Syria, after five years of horror.

What are fighters in Syria thinking right now?  Dear God, sitting in the dark, wondering what will happen I a few minutes.  It is unimaginable.

Are some planning a surprise strike?  Do any dare to imagine the possibility that no one will be shooting at them tomorrow morning?

Are commanders preparing them for a brief lull, using the opportunity to rebuild and restock?  Are some commanders touting the real prospects and hopefulness of  a ceasefire?

What is happening in the dark houses and holes and buildings and bunkers?  Are many simply sleeping, letting the morning tell them whether “ceasefire” was just a dream?

Why Is Prayer a Pain?

Copyright Don Ray 2015

Should prayer be difficult?

Shouldn’t contemplative prayer, connecting with Source, be easy and natural?  If it is not easy, is it our fault?....or the fault of the  noisy world?

Shouldn’t contemplative prayer be the best part of the day, the wonderful and desirable escape to Reality and peace and healing from the day’s maelstrom of demands and madness?

And shouldn’t God and the loving Spirit and the Christos be readily available, responding to our summoning?

Yet contemplative prayer is not easy, not automatic, not simple.

Rote and recited prayer seems too easy.  Mumble or read or project the words, scripted or impromptu, and you have submitted your invoice to God.

But contemplative prayer?......listening as well as talking?......not so easy.