Second Monday of Eastertide: "The world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated..."
How a tree changes in a week + Kiss your mate day + Kobuk Valley NP (Alaska) + III. "Jesus Appears to Mary Magdaline" + "Blessing of Saint Clare" + "Fear comes from the enemy of my human nature."
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 tree in my neighbor’s yard on Sunday evening as I walked my pooch:
And the same tree just a week ago on Easter:
Yep. Spring is the season of changes!
B > Surya (Hindu) - Celebrations + Remembrances Today (from National Today)
C > Amaterasu (Japanese) - Good News!
[From Good News Network, 4/24/25]
This story is of particular relevance for me as it was about this time last year that I bought a refurbished bike from a similar store/project in Columbus called Franklinton Cycle Works.
D > Tonatiuh (Aztec) - Planetary Pilgrims visit U.S. National Parks (least to most attended)
Kobuk Valley (Alaska) 61 out of 63 in attendance.
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.
[For the full prayer, click HERE]
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 10. I do not want to write this Encyclical without turning to that attractive and compelling figure, whose name I took as my guide and inspiration when I was elected Bishop of Rome. I believe that Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically.
He is the patron saint of all who study and work in the area of ecology, and he is also much loved by non-Christians. He was particularly concerned for God’s creation and for the poor and outcast. He loved, and was deeply loved for his joy, his generous self-giving, his openheartedness.
He was a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. He shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace.
paragraph 11. Francis helps us to see that an integral ecology calls for openness to categories which transcend the language of mathematics and biology, and take us to the heart of what it is to be human.
Just as happens when we fall in love with someone, whenever he would gaze at the sun, the moon or the smallest of animals, he burst into song, drawing all other creatures into his praise. He communed with all creation, even preaching to the flowers, inviting them “to praise the Lord, just as if they were endowed with reason”.
His response to the world around him was so much more than intellectual appreciation or economic calculus, for to him each and every creature was a sister united to him by bonds of affection…
If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs.
By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously. The poverty and austerity of Saint Francis were no mere veneer of asceticism, but something much more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled.
paragraph 12. What is more, Saint Francis, faithful to Scripture, invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness.
“Through the greatness and the beauty of creatures one comes to know by analogy their maker” (Wis 13:5); indeed, “his eternal power and divinity have been made known through his works since the creation of the world” (Rom 1:20).
For this reason, Francis asked that part of the friary garden always be left untouched, so that wild flowers and herbs could grow there, and those who saw them could raise their minds to God, the Creator of such beauty.
Rather than a problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise.
H > Kawa (Hopi) - Sacred Story Affirmations: Meditations on Discernment of Spirits by William M. Watson, S.J.
II. BE NOT AFRAID: FEAR COMES FROM THE ENEMY OF MY HUMAN NATURE
The phases, “be not afraid” and “fear not” are two of the most common phrases in scripture. Fear enters human history after our fall from grace…
Instilling fear in our hearts is the principal role incarnate evil plays in our lives. The more we fear, the less we trust God. Evil even tricks us into being afraid of God, so we will not turn to God when our need is greatest. We fear God’s judgment of us and so we remain isolated and consumed by grief.
We must constantly challenge the fear that rules our lives. We must awaken to the fact that fears just below the surface of consciousness are designed to manipulate our choices and decisions so that we avoid what can bring us hope and peace…
Always examine fears and the way they seek to manipulate you…God is not the author of fear. Evil is the author of fear. Awaken to fear’s destructive ways and be not afraid. Trust in the Lord always!
Lord Jesus, help us unmask the fears that control our hearts and keep us from the joy of more fully serving you. Teach us what we fear and teach us not to be afraid. We thank you for conquering the author of fear so that we may praise you in
Creation. Presence. Memory. Mercy and Eternity.
I > Apollo (Greek) - Musings from the vast writings of Father Edward Hayes.
In 19th-century America there was actually an organization called “The Society for the Prevention of People Being Buried Alive.” Good Friday and Easter Sunday are excellent days to use your imagination to feel the suffocating awareness of being confined inside a narrow box buried under six feet of dirt! In past centuries that had been the tragic fate of some before the medical knowledge developed that could determine the difference between a coma and death…
A glance at our society shows the need of a revival of The Society for the Prevention of People Being Buried Alive since many are entombed alive by their life work…
Easter is not about an event thousands of years ago—it is about today! Easter cries out to those who have buried themselves alive, “Wake up and live a full life.” It shouts loudly to the Walking Dead, those who cynically maintain that after death there is only nothingness, and also to all of us whose destination is the grave, “Remember the dead crucified carpenter of Galilee who heard Easter’s voice to arise—and did!” He wasn’t resuscitated to his former life but was raised up into a totally new and endless existence.
Created by Divine Love, we were given a destiny to become fully human by following Jesus through death to the last stage of our evolution—endless Life. At this very moment this beautiful evolution is unfolding in us, and those awake to living in this miracle in their daily lives are the Easter People. They confidently can say, “I am, I shall be, and I shall continue to be forever.” [“Easter People or the Walking Dead?” 3/27/2013]
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]
We pray with the patron of AWARENESS - Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (1614-1691)
I keep myself retired with him in the depth of center of my soul.
O Beloved of my heart, I grateful that you will never leave me or forsake me. You stick closer than a brother -closer than my breath and heartbeat. I take comfort in this. Keep me aware of your gentle presence through my waking hours and blanket me while I sleep.
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 (11:15pm on Sunday):
The Summer Solstice arrives (6/20/25, 10:41pm) where I live in 53 days, 23 hours, 526minutes
Luna is a NEW MOON or 0% of full. It’s 0 days and 7 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, 189 days until the Midterm election (11/3/26)
3 years, 193 days until the next Presidential election (11/7/28)
3 years, 267 days until T-Rump finally is done and I turn (by God’s grace) 59 yrs old (1/20/29)
Please note that I publish a Stack/blog on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays