Monday, February 18, 2013

SPOOK!
r.r.lackney, intergal expressionist

How do we live our short lives and learn to enjoy all we experience?

Every feeling, thought, idea, and decision:
every friend and foe, every cup of coffee drank or ice cream cone eaten has placed us here in this moment of the here and now.

I ask the question “Why?”

How did you and how do you, currently, schedule your time?

Time is that ever present NOW,
relentless, mindless, and tyrannical thing we experience until we slip into serious illness, suffering, and disease regardless of the event we are on that steady path to our Death.

It may be that the only question we are asked by the angels of the afterlife:

“What did you do with the time we gave to you?

My human cry since birth,

I want light, I want life, and I want love.

Whatever the cards we have been dealt to live the authentic, the true, the real life and avoid the negative life we must somehow rise above the program we have been given first by our mothers, reinforced by our fathers, and disciplined by our family, friends, and strangers who have and who continue to appear in our individual lives. The ruthless "Dualities"!

As a child, who looked into a Rainbow on a mountain in West Virginia,
70 years ago, and heard a voice:
“You shall be a person of value.”
A vision some would say, others would say a purpose, and
a few would describe as My Life Plan.

For certain, as I look back in time to recall my best memories my life script has never failed to guide me to a life of
 independence, creative imagination, spontaneity, and curiosity.
 
The negatives, of course, have had their way with me confusing my feelings, thoughts and decisions  from time to time with anger, fear, anxieties untold here, wanting to belong to this group or that, wanting to be included, to be recognized: 
distractions that deceived the individual in me- sidelined some dreams- yes but,
I have never succumbed  to the call of the group, the collective, or the cooperative and its sirens who offer the promise of  “togetherness”,
in which there can be no hope for authenticity.

Who knows the number of fairy tales, tooth fairies, or fantasies
that my mind and body has been exposed over the past 75 years, deceptions of truth?
And, who knows the damage they have incurred on
an unsuspecting and struggling worker as myself.
 
I matters not. I remain sane and spontaneous still.

only the good things
robert r. lackney, permanent deacon

Saturday, February 9, 2013

EUCHARIST

Some of us were taught by Catholic grade school nuns  that:
The 7-Sacraments
are Mysteries too complicated to understand
So why try?
Eucharist: r.r.lackney, permanent deacon
+EUCHARIST +
+BAPTISM + CONFIRMATION +
+ RECONCILATION + ANOITING THE SICK +
+HOLY ORDERS + MATRIMONY+
Last month, my wife Barbara and I spent an evening with
St. Peter and Paul’s
2013 Confirmation Class. We heard:
Sarah and Bryan’s presentations on:
+ Death + Purgatory + Heaven +
Sarah shared several writings and quotes from the great saints.
(Very “scary stuff” …  I might add)
Bryan developed key themes from the catechism.
One bright student asked a question
(He must have eaten light bulbs for breakfast!)
“Can we experience heaven while in this life?”
His question is so profound.
For each of us.
Bryan shared his personal experience of heaven
‘… At Eucharist, during the Holy Mass,
We “experience” 
The Presence of Christ
And, the songs and melodies of heaven…’
Eucharist is something to be understood certainly,
but more importantly Eucharist is to be experienced.
Over the years I have interviewed over 300 Catholics of their experience of Communion.
The most memorable definition came from my Confirmation Sponsor:
“Robert”, she said,
“ … going to communion is a moment of wonder, for me, it is as if I have 
Diamonds on my tongue!

… I feel as if Christ has scattered Light through my entire body …”

Only the Goodthings, deacon robert r.lackney
My 4th Day Journal, February 2013
PS: What is your personal experience when receiving the Eucharist?
As we are gathered into community to receive Christ : “… Taste and see the goodness of the Lord! …”