Happy St. Patrick's Day!
May all your pots be filled with
gold!
March 2004
Welcome to the seventeenth issue of Messages from SpiritLight at Home offering monthly inspirational thoughts, insights into new, useful, fun, sometimes unusual and interesting ideas and some of my favorite links on the Internet.
- A Message from Deirdre
- New Pages
- Inspirational Thoughts
- Favorite links
- Humor for the Day
- Subscriber's Sites
"An Englishman thinks seated; a Frenchman standing; an American pacing, an Irishman, afterwards." – Austin O'Malley
A MESSAGE FROM DEIRDRE
Dear Friends,
St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner. I don't know why I have always associated the Irish people with fun, laughter and possessing a wicked sense of humor. I suspect it is because, among many other cultures, they have suffered a hard life throughout history and humor is one way to compensate for hard times. We often use bravado to get through the day when the going gets tough. Many of us do this as a way of hiding how we really feel. Sometimes, it is the only way to survive.
I identify with humor. Do you? A good joke makes us feel better and helps us to relax, even if but for a moment. To take ourselves seriously all the time is to not acknowledge, at times, there is humor to be found in every serious moment.
Remembering my father's passing is a very serious moment for me. It will be seventeen years this March 26th that he has been gone, yet I continue aching to hear his voice, to feel his hugs, and to experience the unconditional love he had for me. However, there was a moment we shared in his passing that I would like to share with you. It is one that continues to make me chuckle.
The day after he died, my mother, my siblings and I were gathered in the family living room. We were numb, silent and devastated. The phone rang. I answered. It was one of my father's younger brothers calling from England. He wanted to know what we were going to do for Dad's funeral and how could he contribute? Without thinking, I answered that we had set up an organ fund and asked if he would like to contribute to that. There was a long silence. Then Uncle Phil stammered, "Well, I think I'll send flowers. Is that okay?" Then I realized where his thoughts had gone and I explained that because Dad was such an integral part of St. John's church, and a faithful member of the choir, we thought that a boost to their organ fund would help.
I have laughed about that moment ever since. It brings me relief to my sadness and fond memories of my uncle, who has since also joined my father.
I'm sure everyone has heard the saying, "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." This is the third of Sir Isaac Newton's laws of physics. Chinese culture explains this in a wonderful way. They call it "Yin and Yang." They too believe that all phenomena changes into its opposite in an eternal cycle of reversal. Since the one principle produces the other, all phenomena has within it the seed of its opposite state; that is, sickness has the seed of health, health contains the seed of sickness, wealth contains the seed of poverty, etc. Even though an opposite may not be seen to be present, since one principle produces the other , no phenomenon is completely devoid of its opposite state. This is called, "presence in absence."
That day after Dad's passing was my Yin and Yang. Do you have a Yin and Yang to help you get through the tough times? I pray you do. It is the Yin and Yang that provides us relief and helps us to continually move forward.
God bless you everyone and may the humor and the Luck 'o the Irish be with you all!
With light and love as always,
Deirdre
Source: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/CHPHIL/YINYANG.HTM
"Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error. It is these mingled opposites which people our life, which make it pungent, intoxicating. We only exist in terms of this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash." - Louis Aragon
NEW PAGES
* Read all about the history of Reiki here: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/ReikiHistory.html
* Learn about energy healing here: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/EnergyHealing.html
* See pictures of our Reiki Studio here: http://spiritlightworks.photosite.com/SpiritLightWorks/
Continue to access the newsletter now directly on our site. Every month, the newsletter will be published at SpiritLight at Home and you can find this month's issue by clicking on: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/NewsletterMarch.html
Each month, you can find it by typing in the appropriate month. For example: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/NewsletterMarch.html and so on. The October, November, December/January and February issues are now active.
"Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh." - W.H Auden
INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS
Brought to you from various resources around the Globe. We embrace all religions at SpiritLight at Home and will endeavor to bring to you inspirational stories that can be applied to your own beliefs.
There are many inspirational legends associated with St. Patrick, but his biography (what historians can piece together) appears just as enlightening. Through my research, I found a yin/yang theme existed, which seemed to weave in and out of his life. I thought you might find it interesting too, as it shows how St. Patrick was able to turn around the adversity in his life by visualizing an opposite result. This account was extracted from an article written by Anita McGurn McSorley, who is associate editor of The Leaven, a newspaper of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas. Source: http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Mar1997/feature1.asp
"Some 1,500 years ago a teenage boy from what is now Great Britain (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales) was kidnapped and enslaved by marauders from a neighboring country, now known as Ireland. Not since Paris absconded with Helen of Troy has a kidnapping so changed the course of history.
The teenager they captured eventually escaped, but returned voluntarily some years later. In the meantime, he had become convinced that he was handpicked by God to convert a pagan country to Christianity. In the process of converting the primitive people of Ireland, however, the former slave experienced a conversion, too. In the years that followed, he not only shared God with the people of Ireland, but also grew in his understanding of God through them. And so it was that a young Briton named Patricius died an Irishman named Patrick. And neither Ireland nor Christianity was ever quite the same.
Patrick in Myth and History
No, Patrick never chased the snakes out of Ireland. Nor do we really know whether he used the shamrock to teach converts about the Trinity. But what we do know about St. Patrick is far more interesting than many of the legends that grew up around him. And the fact that we know anything about him at all is as great a miracle as any that later traditions ascribe to him. For Patrick is literally the only individual we know from fifth-century Ireland or England. Not only do no other written records from Britain or Ireland exist from that century, but there are simply no written records at all from Ireland prior to Patrick's.
Surprisingly enough, however, scholarly debate about the authenticity of what Patrick left us is almost nonexistent. The chronology of his life is very confused. Indeed, we can't even identify for sure when he was born, ordained a bishop or died! Experts agree, however, that a brief document, Patrick's Confession, was absolutely written by St. Patrick himself and is the basis for much of what we know of the historical Patrick. Its purpose was to recount his own call to convert the Irish and to justify his mission to an apparently unsympathetic audience in Britain. The uncontested, if somewhat unspecific, biographical facts about Patrick are as follows:
Patrick was born Patricius somewhere in Roman Britain to a relatively wealthy family. He was not religious as a youth and, in fact, claims to have practically renounced the faith of his family. While in his teens, Patrick was kidnapped in a raid and transported to Ireland, where he was enslaved to a local warlord and worked as a shepherd until he escaped six years later. He returned home and eventually undertook studies for the priesthood with the intention of returning to Ireland as a missionary to his former captors. It is not clear when he actually made it back to Ireland, or for how long he ministered there, but it was definitely for a number of years. By the time he wrote the Confession, both Irish natives and the Church hierarchy recognized Patrick as the bishop of Ireland. By this time, he had clearly made a permanent commitment to Ireland and intended to die there.
Though Patrick's writings tell us little in terms of names and dates, they do reveal much about Patrick the man. But traditional biographies of Patrick, suggests Thomas Cahill, author and former religion editor for Doubleday, don't really do him justice.
"I think they missed a lot of what Patrick was about because they approached him as a kind of plaster-of-paris saint. Two things," he says, "really shine through his Confession: his humility and his strength. That strength is what has been missing in the earlier biographies and portraits of Patrick." In fact, Cahill says, "The Patrick who came back to Ireland with the gospel was a real tough guy. He couldn't have been anything else - only a very tough man could have hoped to survive. I don't mean to say he wasn't a saint - he was a great saint - but he was a very rough, vigorous man."
When Patrick receives the vision that he believes calls to him, he doesn't hesitate, despite the fact that in 400 years no one had taken the gospel beyond the boundaries of Roman civilization. Patrick was so certain that he had been specifically called by God to do exactly what he did - return to the land of his captivity and convert the barbarians to Christianity - that his Confession leaves even the modern reader little room for doubt. In this certainty, Patrick finds his strength - strength sufficient, in fact, to overcome every obstacle he will encounter in the remaining years of his life.
Despite the fact that Patrick would be self-conscious about his literary limitations because his enslavement in Ireland put him permanently behind his peers to the end of his days, he was not uneducated. One suspects, however, that he was primarily self-educated. His use of biblical quotations, Cahill says, "is far more accurate and appropriate than many of the Fathers of the Church." And although almost any other qualification pales by comparison to Patrick's zeal for his mission, he must have set off equipped with an intellect both subtle and supple. For he not only decided, unilaterally, to do what no man in 400 years of Christian history had done before him - to carry the gospel message to the ends of the earth - but he also found a way to do it.
"It's hard to grasp just what an accomplishment that was," says Cahill. When Patrick decided to "willingly go back to the barbarians with the gospel," Cahill explains, "he had to figure out how to bring the values of the gospel he loved to such people. These were people who still practiced human sacrifice, who warred with each other constantly and who were renowned as the great slave traders of the day." Patrick's enslavement as an adolescent had to have been a critical factor in the development of his unique attitude toward the Irish. Even in captivity, he must have come to know them as human, hence, deserving of the gospel. As a result of his enslavement, Cahill says, "Patrick grew into a man that he truly would not otherwise have become. So, you would have to say that Patrick's kidnapping was a great grace, not just for the people of Ireland, but for all of Western history."
Had he never been kidnapped, it seems quite likely it would have been decades, probably centuries, when the Roman Empire crumbled and literacy was lost and civilization was found again. Lost, that is, by all but the Irish monasteries planted by Patrick and his successors. Not surprisingly, his own experience in captivity left Patrick with a virulent hatred of the institution of slavery, and he would later become the first human being in the history of the world to speak out unequivocally against it.
"The papacy did not condemn slavery as immoral until the end of the 19th century," Cahill says, "but here is Patrick in the fifth century seeing it for what it is. I think that shows enormous insight and courage and a tremendous 'fellow feeling' - the ability to suffer with other people, and to understand what other people's suffering is like." In fact, although he is renowned as the patron saint of the country and the people he evangelized, a better advocate than Patrick cannot be found for anyone disadvantaged or living on the fringes of society. "He really is one of the great saints of the downtrodden and excluded - people that no one else wants anything to do with," Cahill says.
Women find a great advocate in Patrick. Patrick's Confession speaks of women as individuals. Cahill points out, for example, Patrick's account of "a blessed woman, Irish by birth, noble, extraordinarily beautiful - a true adult - whom I baptized." Elsewhere, he lauds the strength and courage of Irish women: "But it is the women kept in slavery who suffer the most - and who keep their spirits up despite the menacing and terrorizing they must endure. The Lord gives grace to his many handmaids; and though they are forbidden to do so, they follow him with backbone." He is actually the first male Christian since Jesus, Cahill says, to speak well of women. In fact, there are clear instances of him saying warm and appreciative things about women. In this respect, he is a complete man.
Patrick the Mystic
Some might have a hard time reconciling the portrait of the rugged individualist that Cahill describes with the current notion of a mystic, yet in the Confession, Patrick's spiritual development shows through, and are unmistakably the lines of a mystical journey. So, what makes Patrick a mystic?
First, as recounted in the Confession, a dream or vision precedes most of the major events in Patrick's life. The visions were usually simple - almost self-explanatory - but they were also very vivid and carried enormous emotional impact. The first vision, which he received after six years of servitude in Ireland, came by way of a mysterious voice, heard in his sleep. "Your hungers are rewarded: You are going home," the voice said. "Look, your ship is ready." Indeed, some 200 miles away, there it was.
The second vision - the one that came to him after he had returned home and that called him back to Ireland - was equally straightforward. Victoricus, a man Patrick knew in Ireland, appeared to him in this dream, holding countless letters, one of which he handed to Patrick. The letter was entitled, "The Voice of the Irish." Upon reading just the title, he heard a multitude of voices crying out to him: "Holy boy, we beg you to come and walk among us once more." He was so moved by this that he was unable to read further and woke up. But the dream recurred repeatedly. Eventually Patrick tells his dismayed family of his plans to return to Ireland and soon begins his preparations for the priesthood. What is interesting about this dream calling Patrick to his lifelong mission to the Irish is that it comes not as a directive from God, but as a plea from the Irish.
It seems also significant that the voices in the dream do not ask for preaching or baptism but only that Patrick as one specially endowed should come back and share their lives, come and walk once more with them. In other words, at least according to his recollection decades later, Patrick wasn't commanded to bring civilization or salvation to the heathens. He was simply invited to live among them as a witness.
When he finally returns to Ireland, he proceeds to treat the barbarians with the respect implicit in his dream. From the outset, Patrick feels humbled and honored that God has selected him to convert the Irish. Apparently, he never doubted that he would be able to do so. Patrick even came to see his own kidnapping as a grace, Cahill says. From the time Patrick sets off on his 200-mile journey to his waiting ship, he is convinced, "once and for all that he is surrounded by Providence and that he is really in the hands of God. And that is what gets him through the rest of his life. That is what enables him to do the incredible thing that he does by returning." And that closeness to God in no way diminishes as the years progress. "Patrick was a mystic who felt the presence of God in every turn of the road," Cahill says. "God was palpable to him, and his relationship to him was very, very close."
Patrick's Lasting Legacy
By the time of his death, or shortly thereafter, the Irish had stopped slave trading and they never took it up again. Human sacrifice had become unthinkable. And war became much more confined and limited by what we might call the 'rules of warfare.'
The inadvertent results of his conversion of Ireland, however, were equally astonishing and long lasting. Patrick's conversion of Ireland, however, sees the faith thrive in an entirely different environment - in a culture that celebrates rather than abnegates the natural, a culture in which, according to Cahill, there is a "sense of the world as holy, as the Book of God - as a healing mystery, fraught with divine messages." In this tradition, Cahill explains, "there is a trust in the objects of sensory perception, which are seen as signposts from God. But there is also a sensuous reveling in the splendors of the created world, which would have made Roman Christians exceedingly uncomfortable." As a result, Cahill says, "The early Irish Christianity planted in Ireland by Patrick is much more joyful and celebratory [than its Roman predecessor] in the way it approaches the natural world. It is really not a theology of sin but of the goodness of creation, and it really is intensely incarnational." And since it was the Irish monks who served as the bridge between classical Christianity and the Middle Ages, medieval Christianity tends to reflect the celebratory nature of Irish spirituality rather than the gloom and sin-centeredness of its classical predecessor.
Finally, Patrick gave the Irish himself - knowingly, willingly, joyfully, proudly. He did this despite the fact that, even at the end of his life, "after 30 years of missionary activity," Cahill says, "he knew he was living in a very scary place. You don't change people - people who offer human sacrifice and who war on one another constantly - you don't change them overnight."
But change them he eventually did. And the example of his life - his courage, his intelligence, his compassion and his incredible, indomitable faith - made the lives of all who follow his faith, even those living 1,500 years later, just a little easier. Cahill says, "The saints are for everyone - believer, unbeliever, Christian, non-Christian - it doesn't really matter. They are the people who say by their lives that human life is valuable - that my life is valuable - and that there is a reason for living. Without them, history would just be one horror after another."
Patrick at the Judgment
There is no question that Patrick taught us by his example that all life is, indeed, precious. Yet it is hard to imagine that there isn't a soft spot in his heart reserved just for the Irish.
In fact, there is an old legend that promises that on the last day, it will be St. Patrick sitting in judgment on the Irish.
When asked whether that spelled good news or bad news for the Irish, Cahill doesn't hesitate. "That's great news for the Irish," he says with a laugh."
Confession of St. Patrick, Translated from the Latin by Ludwig Bieler can be found at: http://www.ccel.org/p/patrick/confession/confession.html
Some Irish Blessings:
May you be in Heaven a half hour before the Devil knows you're dead!
May your neighbors respect you, troubles neglect you, the Angels protect you, and Heaven accept you.
Dance as if no one were watching, sing as if no one were listening, and live every day as if it were your last.
DEIRDRE'S FAVORITE LINKS
(Just favorites in my bookmarks - no profits made here. Any advertising (if any) is placed at the end of the newsletter.)
1. Bartleby.com - Great books online - Find anything including quotes. Click here: http://www.bartleby.com/101/
2. The Matrix Institute - Find out what the world map will look like 100 years from now. Click here: http://www.earthchanges.com/futuremap.html
3. Spirit Card Center - Animated Spirit Cards by the ByRegion Network. Click here: http://www.spiritcardcenter.com/animated.php
4. yourDictionary.com - The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company (1996-2002), YourDictionary.com, Inc. Click here: http://www.yourdictionary.com
"Imagination was given man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for what he is." - Francis Bacon
HUMOR OF THE DAY (What better a joke than from a true Irishman --Thanks Pat!)
The Dublin Duo
Two men were sitting next to each other at a bar. After a while, one guy looks at the other and says, "I can't help but think, from listening to you, that you're from Ireland."
The other guy responds proudly, "Yes, that I am!"
The first guy says, "So am I! And where about from Ireland might you be?"
The other guy answers, "I'm from Dublin, I am."
The first guy responds, "Sure and begora, and so am I! And what street did you live on in Dublin?"
The other guy says, "A lovely little area it was, I lived on McCleary Street in the old central part of town."
The first guy says, "Faith & it's a small world, so did I! And to what school would you have been going?"
The other guy answers, "Well now, I went to St. Mary's of course."
The first guy gets really excited, and says, "And so did I. Tell me, what year did you graduate?"
The other guy answers, "Well, now, I graduated in 1964."
The first guy exclaims, "The Good Lord must be smiling down upon us! I can hardly believe our good luck at winding up in the same bar tonight. Can you believe it, I graduated from St. Mary's in 1964 my own self."
About this time, another guy walks into the bar, sits down, and orders a beer.
The bartender walks over shaking his head & mutters, "It's going to be a long night tonight, the Murphy twins are drunk again."
"Humor is something that thrives between man's aspirations and his limitations. There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth." – Victor Borge
SUBSCRIBERS' SITES
Many of our subscribers have fascinating web sites. Please let us know about yours so that we might mention it in this section. Write to: deirdre@spiritlighthome.com
"Levity is often less foolish and gravity less wise than each of them appears." - Charles Caleb Colton
Bless you all and have a great month. Happy St. Patrick's Day and see you in April!
http://www.spiritlighthome.com
http://www.spiritlightworks.com
Please send this newsletter to a friend so they can sign up for our FREE newsletter too:
If you would like to donate to help defray costs of the newsletter, please click on the button below. If it does not load to a page that says, "SpiritLight" please click the button again.
Thank you.
Newsletter Archives
Or see the archive link on our Subscribe Page at: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/Subscribe.html
 |
||
|
||
