Fifth Monday of Easter: Do you "Love Who You Love"?
Happy 85th Birthday to my Dad, George! + Voyageurs NP (MN) + X. Jesus Tells Peter: "Feed my Sheep" + Patroness of COURAGE
EASTER SEASON OF LIGHT
Many cultures had a deity who either was the light itself or who brought the light to the people. For this season of light, our organizing principle will be a diverse fellowship of these light-bringers.
A >Ra (Egyptian) - Photo of light from my archive.
The best time of year for my house is when the Rhododendron by the front door blooms:
B > Surya (Hindu) - Celebrations + Remembrances Today (from National Today)
No offense to the other things on the calendar today, but my dad’s 85th birthday supersedes all else!
Last summer at Yellowstone NP:
I won’t be seeing him on his birthday (as he and my mom live in the San Francisco Bay Area) but if I did, we could celebrate with this:
C > Amaterasu (Japanese) - Good News!
[Good News Network, May 16, 2025]
D > Tonatiuh (Aztec) - Planetary Pilgrims visit U.S. National Parks (least to most attended)
Voyageurs NP (Minnesota) is 53rd out of 63 in attendance.
E > Dazhbog (Slavic) - My journey with Saint Ignatius, John Wesley, Patrick Carnes and Father Ed Hayes. I’m writing a book about my faith journey and how it’s been interwoven with these four spiritual men. Here’s some of my story - as I’m writing it.
F > Belenus (Gaulish) - The Via Lucis (Stations of Light) or Stations of the Resurrection are fourteen devotions based on events described in the gospels. Stations of the Light by Mary Ford-Grabowsky is the main source of the reflections found in these images.
The songs paired with each Station of Light are drawn from the extensive Spotify playlists entitled: LGBTQ Christian and Rainbow Faith. Songs featured here are also found on the uncommon communion: Via Lucis (Stations of Light) playlist.
G > Mawu (West African) - To remember Pope Francis and his definitive linking of following Christ and caring for “our common home,” we reflect on excerpts from “Laudato Si” — (published in 2015)
[paragraph 40.] Oceans not only contain the bulk of our planet’s water supply, but also most of the immense variety of living creatures, many of them still unknown to us and threatened for various reasons. What is more, marine life in rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, which feeds a great part of the world’s population, is affected by uncontrolled fishing, leading to a drastic depletion of certain species. Selective forms of fishing which discard much of what they collect continue unabated. Particularly threatened are marine organisms which we tend to overlook, like some forms of plankton; they represent a significant element in the ocean food chain, and species used for our food ultimately depend on them.
[paragraph 41.] In tropical and subtropical seas, we find coral reefs comparable to the great forests on dry land, for they shelter approximately a million species, including fish, crabs, molluscs, sponges and algae. Many of the world’s coral reefs are already barren or in a state of constant decline. “Who turned the wonderworld of the seas into underwater cemeteries bereft of colour and life?”[25] This phenomenon is due largely to pollution which reaches the sea as the result of deforestation, agricultural monocultures, industrial waste and destructive fishing methods, especially those using cyanide and dynamite. It is aggravated by the rise in temperature of the oceans. All of this helps us to see that every intervention in nature can have consequences which are not immediately evident, and that certain ways of exploiting resources prove costly in terms of degradation which ultimately reaches the ocean bed itself.
[paragraph 42.] Greater investment needs to be made in research aimed at understanding more fully the functioning of ecosystems and adequately analyzing the different variables associated with any significant modification of the environment. Because all creatures are connected, each must be cherished with love and respect, for all of us as living creatures are dependent on one another. Each area is responsible for the care of this family. This will require undertaking a careful inventory of the species which it hosts, with a view to developing programmes and strategies of protection with particular care for safeguarding species heading towards extinction.
H > Kawa (Hopi) - Sacred Story Affirmations: Meditations on Discernment of Spirits by William M. Watson, S.J.
X. TIMES OF PEACE AND HOPE ALWAYS GIVE WAY TO TIMES OF DIFFICULTY AND STRESS
Times of spiritual blessing and peace are to be savored. They should call forth from us joy in God’s abundant goodness. We need to very consciously attend to the blessings we are receiving. We grow in faith when we make a point of thanking God for the blessings of hope, peace, joy, love, reconciliation and whatever else we might be enjoying as gift from the Lord.
When we are clothed by blessings and grace, we can hardly remember times of difficulty or pain. They are swept away by joy (Jn 16:21.) These times of abundant blessing and peace, although they point to our final destiny, are never permanent in this life. We do well to remember in times of blessing that all is gift from God. We do well also in these moments to ask God for strength and fortitude for the next time of difficulty that lies in the future.
By honoring God in times of abundance and reminding ourselves to hold fast in times of future stress, we entrust our whole life to God. And we are ensuring that when misfortune again makes itself felt, we will not be undone by it. For we have already reminded ourselves that all is gift from God. It is this same God who will one day make that joy and peace permanent.
Lord Jesus, may we never fail to praise you in times of great joy, blessing and peace for it is you who are our anchor in this life. Keep our hearts anchored in you so that whether we experience joy or sorrow, we know you are our source and end - our Creation. Presence. Memory. Mercy. Eternity.
I > Apollo (Greek) - Musings from A Book of Wonders: Daily Reflections for Awakened Living. by Father Edward Hays (of “Planetary Pilgrim” fame)
A Long Line is a Dead Line
Life is precious. Don’t waste it, even though sometimes you can’t help it. A recent study showed the average amount of time the ordinary person spends waiting in line is five years! You can wonder if five years is accurate, since you likely are convinced that the correct number must surely be more like ten or fifteen years!
The loss of those years is one reason for being angry when someone cuts ahead of you in a line of traffic. Another reason is the Anglo-Saxon cardinal rule that to cut into the line ahead of others is the mortal sin of cheating. Those who rudely violate this unspoken cardinal rule are judged as discourteous, even uncivilized.
In this age where courtesy is considered an antiquated virtue and more and more people commit this mortal sin, how do we respond to uncivilized, impolite behavior?
Begin by asking yourself, is some emergency the reason for them cutting in line?
Are they perhaps late for an important commitment?
Is waiting really a negative activity?
Living peacefully in a chaotic world requires living in reality. Accept the reality of waiting and the reality of humanity as it is, not as it should be.
Tattoo on my heart the desire to be like you, Eternally Patient One, who never wearies waiting for me to grow up as a living image of you.
J > Sol (Norse/Germanic) Prayers and inspiration from Everything Could Be a Prayer: 100 Portraits of Saints & Mystics (2024) by Kreg Yingst [Note: I HIGHLY recommend that you purchase this amazing book so that you can experience the art accompanying each person]
Today’s patroness of COURAGE is Rosa Parks (1913-2005)
God did away with all my fear
God of justice, right the wrongs of a broken system, a system built on a faulty foundation. Brick by brick, tear it down! Then construct this building on the foundation of love and equality; a foundation of goodwill and kindness. Amen
As Planetary Pilgrims, we are invited to be aware of where our earth is in its annual trek around the sun as well as where our moon - Luna - is in its 28 day cycle around Earth.
So, as of this writing (midnight on Thursday):
The Summer Solstice arrives (6/20/25, 10:41pm) where I live in 32 days, 22 hours, 53 minutes
Luna is in the waning gibbous or 64% of full. It's 21 days and 8 hours old (the time since the last new moon) Click HERE to see what the moon looks like at this phase.
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RIGHT NOW, we Planetary Pilgrims are MOVING:
1,000 mph - as the earth rotates
66,000 mph - as the earth orbits the sun (in one year we travel 595,000,000 miles around the sun)
43,000 mph - as the Sun, Earth, the seven other planets (and their satellites/moons) move together through space
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This movement through space passes us through time:
1 year, 168 days until the Midterm election (11/3/26)
3 years, 172 days until the next Presidential election (11/7/28)
3 years, 246 days until tRump finally is done and I turn (by God’s grace) 59 yrs old (1/20/29)
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