Fresh Thinking, Inspiration, and Vision on the Process of Spiritual Transformation

What is the central passion of our life? And how do all the other passions we experience fit with that central passion? As we experience our continual incarnation into our physical body, we are learning to differentiate what’s appropriate and what’s fitting. Babies don’t have that capacity developed. When a baby is mad, sad or afraid, its messages can all sound the same: Waaah! Or a lot louder than that! Happiness usually comes across more like a gurgle. The parents may be able to discern what’s going on with a crying baby, or people who know kids can often figure it out, but the baby’s concerns all sound the same to the untrained or unconcerned ear. It’s a crying baby.

As we mature, we learn more about passion. We may learn the thrill of the excitement that is brought by what runs through our thoughts and feelings, and we may learn about the pitfalls of letting our passions rule. I’ve been observing personal passions and have come to see some as compulsions I’ve learned. I often have the compulsion to eat when I’m stressed. That feels like a passion! And the more cheese involved, the better! It can be said “I’m passionate about cheese.” Each time I feel that desire, I get to ask, “What is it that I’m really feeling? What is that desire? It feels really strong; I really want it…” This is not a statement against cheese—thank God, because I love cheese. It is an invitation to have a conscious experience of deep feeling.

Passion isn’t always pretty. Passion sometimes comes out as anger—creative, passionate anger. I am thankful for that because it’s the energy that says “No” and “Stop it” and “We will not” and “I will not!” That’s my passion too.

There is also passionate longing and passionate desire. Just because it doesn’t get fulfilled doesn’t mean there isn’t joy in the longing to see more beauty, more of the things we love. It’s not quite the same as wanting more cheese; it’s a desire for something beautiful and full of life.

Last week, David Karchere referred to the Sixth Day of Creation in the Book of Genesis, in which God says, “Let us make man…” and it is said, “Male and female created he them.”

The opening verses of John contain another story of Creation. “In the beginning was the Word.” These can be seen as historical descriptions, but they are also a description of what is happening in the present moment. There is a place of origin for human experience and we have the opportunity to live from that place. In that way, we are always in the beginning. So I would say now, “Let me make man now, in this beginning.” Let me make man by being present and being alive. Everything and every moment we have are “in the beginning,” again and again. We get to be there with our relationships, with our meals, with our day.

I’ve had two mornings in a row that I woke up out of dreams that were disturbing. They were not nightmares, but they were unsettling and frustrating nonetheless. There are times when you may wake up feeling that way, and you have the chance to say, “In the beginning… This day is beginning now, not in that dream.” We get to do that even in the wakefulness of a day. This moment is a beginning.

I have been reviewing parts of my life where I have had deep feelings. Letting them be reviewed by who I am now as opposed to who I was. In this way, people, friendships and the holy things in my life are made new. We were laughing last week about the possibility of just being a tube that’s available for the spiritual impulse—an open channel for what is coming through. Okay, here it comes! I have believed at times that I just needed to stop being myself so I could be holy. If I could stop all my limitations or all the judgments or all the things that go on in my head, I could be holy. They don’t necessarily come out of my mouth but they are still in my mind or in my heart. So I have been taking time to ask, as I am now, what is true? What do I think now? What is holy right now? I’m not interested in being a tube. Eliminating myself pretty much defeats the point. This human capacity deserves to be appreciated.

One of the things I have been reviewing is something that was very holy to me as I grew up. Some of you won’t have the same kind of direct experience of what I want to share with you. But I am sure there are things in your own life, which you have seen as holy, that could use your conscious attention and potential updating.

This is a holy prayer for every Catholic. It is the “Hail Mary.” In the Catholic Church this prayer is probably said around the world a million times a day. There are cloisters—groups of nuns in convents—whose entire lives are dedicated to repeating this prayer. There is a Catholic rosary, which is a string of beads. There are five sections of ten beads and on each bead the Hail Mary is prayed. It is the belief of the Church that Mary, as the mother of Jesus, provides intercession and that through her this world will be brought back to peace. So this is a prayer of pleading, I suppose: Come, help this unholy, unwholesome world be whole again—and as an unworthy person, a sinner, I’m asking for this. It is like a mantra in the Catholic Church.

I want to speak the prayer as I learned it. For many, it is repeated so often it can almost be said without articulating the individual words. “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

Over and over—”Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb…” As a child you learned to say it very quickly.

I have grown to deeply appreciate the compulsion in people to honor the divine feminine. I have deep thanks for the fact that Catholics around the world have used this prayer to give that compulsion expression, even though they might never use the terms “divine feminine” or “Mother God.” For me to honor the divine feminine as it is present through me, and through any who honor her presence, I have to utter my prayer in a way that acknowledges my capacity not only to honor the divine feminine but to give it expression through me. So I have reclaimed this prayer and made it holy to me. I hope it has meaning to you too.

“Hail Mary, full of grace.”

I celebrate myself and am full of grace as my humanity is filled with my divinity.

“The Lord is with thee.”

As this is so, I know the oneness of all things and my place in them.

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.”

From this place of communion I am blessed with the wonders of heaven, and that which is born of me is the fruit of my living and brings the Christ spirit into the earth.

“Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”

May the sacred expression of Mother God within me hold all that is in the creative process—all that is coming, all that is manifesting, and all that is disintegrating—now and forever. Aum-en.

Hail Mary. Hail, Jane Frances. Hail to your divine expression coming through your human capacity. I celebrate myself as I hold all that is. Is that arrogant? Not at all. This is our responsibility, to celebrate ourselves doing this. “From this place of communion I am blessed with the wonders of heaven, and that which is born of me is the fruit of my living and brings the Christ spirit into the earth.” These words are different from “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus,” but the spirit is the same.

My prayer keeps alive the reality that that which we hold in the womb of our consciousness, heaven and earth, is holy. And that which is incomplete, complete, and disintegrating, is all held in the womb of the feminine aspect of our expression.

Yes, I am passionate. I am passionate about this. I am passionate about a lot of things, but what I’m most passionate about is that my life will be lived as me, fully incarnating through this body. I am passionate about doing this with others who say, “I will do that too.” We have the opportunity to reveal ourselves—by being alive and living this life, making man and woman on this day.

What people often forget is that they are responsible for what they deliver, passionately or not. As your divinity is revealed through your humanity, you bring the reality of spirit and you own it. You are not just a tube or channel for the divine.

This prayer to the Blessed Mother is a pleading for intervention. As I was contemplating this prayer, I got an image of holy spirits, invisible ones, saying, “Our prayer is that you do this. Stop waiting for some magic in the invisible realms to come in and save the earth. Our prayer is, incarnate please! Do this in our name. Be present.”

How do we see God? When we see holy passion revealed through man and woman, in the purest marriage of truth and love. We get to do that and bring life and bring it more abundantly. Thank you for your part in bringing this message.

I celebrate myself and am full of grace as my humanity is filled with my divinity.

As this is so, I know the oneness of all things and my place in them.

From this place of communion I am blessed with the wonders of heaven, and that which is born of me is the fruit of my living and brings the Christ spirit into the earth.

May the sacred expression of Mother God within me hold all that is in the creative process—all that is coming, all that is manifesting, and all that is disintegrating—now and forever. Aum-en.