Universal Life Church

There is a Flow

By Scott Phillips

Universal Life Church

Even when you cannot see it, it is still there.

This morning, I was blessed, though at the time I did not see it as such, to awake and not be able to go back to sleep. I did what I usually do when I cannot sleep; I took the time to write a few things down that have been in my heart. With that done and it was not yet six o'clock. So there were a few things I could do, so I opened the door and was greeted with a chorus of singing birds. The sun was just peeking over the horizon, darkness still prevailed, but the birds knew it was morning time, and they knew it was time to sing. It amazed me it could be that loud, and behind the insulation of doors, windows and walls the sound was completely shut out.

I went out watered the fresh flowers in the bed. After getting this done, it was only six fifteen. I then set off on a little walk around the neighborhood. Not one car passed as I walked and not one person to be seen. With the songbird chorus as my theme song, I took a leisurely stroll around the lake in the midst of the

neighborhood. As I walked around the homes that border the lake, I noticed that many of the yards were in need of water. As I was about to take my last few steps by the lake, the culvert that controls the water level caught my attention.

It has not rained for quite a few days, maybe all week, if memory serves me. No noticeable precipitation. The landscape surrounding the lake was dry, but guess what I saw? A flow of water. I would estimate it would take less than five seconds to fill a gallon bucket. In one minute you would have twelve gallons, in an hour you would have seventy-two gallons. In a day you would have over seventeen hundred gallons. In a week where there was no rain, you would have twelve thousand gallons of water.

How is that possible? There is a flow. From the surrounding landscape unseen to our eye is a constant flow. Even in the desert, if you drill deep enough you would find underground what they call aquifers or underground lakes or rivers.

The thought today is there are times we are unaware of the Spirit of God in our lives. Like the birds singing in the morning, we can be so insulated from the simple things, that it would seem the Spirit of God is quieted. It does not mean he is not there, it just means we are unaware.

What seemed like a loss of sleep this morning was really an appointment with a fresh perspective of God; of His working and His way.

His working and way is wonderful.

There is a Flow.

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive and affordable online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, a beginning course on  Wicca, as well as a beginning course on  Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more.

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is a free and lifetime ordination, so use the Free Online Ordination, button. We also make available many free wedding ceremonies for your use, as well as funeral ceremonies and other types of ceremonies.

 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program where you can earn the coveted title of Chaplain. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church materials to help you with your professionalism and confidence.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and an amazed by the frequent upgrades and new functions of the seminary.
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Universal Life Church

By Julie Shephard

Angels and Miracles

Universal Life Church

Dear members,

Today I would like to tell you a story about a man who is very dear to me.

His name is John. I was drawn to John because of a conversation we had one morning concerning angels and how the world seems to be in shambles, and the middle east seems to be on a collision course. John commented that as long as there are angels and we remember always to consult our higher source, we can't go wrong. The middle east will not be in shambles for no reason, and the world will not blow up. Angels will not allow it.

Angels will always make sure that the guy who was supposed to push the button gets a flat tire that day and doesn't show up for work. Or that perhaps the wires aren't connected properly, or the fuse detonates prematurely, or that a tree branch accidentally falls in the road preventinghim from getting to work on time to make the deadline for the bomb.

For whatever reason it takes, angels are always there over seeing things. And they gladly help us, if we just remember to ask them for help. You see, they need to be asked. Sometimes they won't intervene unless we ask, so we have to be conscious of asking for help.

John says miracles are normal. A friend of mine had made a comment once about how psychics operate quote, "From a different reality" and John asked, "and which reality is that? There is only one reality." And so I had to ask myself if the reality from which miracles spring is the same reality as our own. Because, believe it or not, if it is, then miracles are normal, and we should expect them. For those of us who have experienced miracles, they are easy to overlook. Maybe we need to pay more attention, because they happen every day.

Take, for example, the day I was body surfing in 6th grade with my middle school Oceanography class. This was in San Diego, at a beach known for rip tides, and there I was, the world's weakest swimmer, being dragged out 50 feet by a rip tide. I tried to swim over, through, under, until finally I thought for sure I had no breath left in me and thoughts of dieing were not unrealistic. I prayed for help. I was gasping for air, feeling dumb.

And suddenly from behind me came a surf board and a voice that said, "Do you want some help?" I said yes and clung to the board, while the occupant paddled to shore and dumped my body on the sand. When I turned around, the surfer was gone, and I was too tired to care.

At that point I felt the kind of odd sensation you get when you realize a miracle has just happened. How did a surfer come from behind me, and where did he go? Did I pray for help right before he appeared, because I believe I did. And ever since that moment I have thanked the angels for helping me to live, and I became a believer. Just ask around and you will discover friends of yours who have similar stories. They have a bit of surrealism to them, and tend to leave a lasting impression. But what's cool is the amount of detail that one remembers when reciting the stories back. That great detail seems to exist 10 or 20 years later, as if the event was yesterday, and that's because miracles are profound life-changing events. But are they normal or not? I believe they are.

Please think on this as your week progresses. Take the time to write down any miracles you can remember and share them with your friends. One person's miracle is another person's inspiration and life. We need each other.

Your story, freely given, may be the one that helps a potential suicide victim, addict, or depressed individual. It might be the story that leads them to believe that religion is all about faith in the unseen. So share your story, believe that angels are right there every minute that you call on them and believe in them, and keep the faith. Your testimony counts. Your experiences count. And if you haven't had a miracle happen to you yet, keep looking.

They are happening around you all the time, and sometimes all it takes is awareness to see the beauty which was always there. Just open your eyes and look. The miracles are there, and they are very much a part of our reality.

As for my friend John, he will tell you that he was saved from a terrible big rig crash, in which his truck flew over a hill side into brush and housing many feet below. Witnesses reported an amazing recovery, and John walked away unscathed. Was his story more amazing than mine? I think not. Do you have equally amazing stories? I'll bet you do.

Thank you.

I'm Rev. Julie Shepard

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive and affordable online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, a beginning course on  Wicca, as well as a beginning course on  Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more.

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is a free and lifetime ordination, so use the Free Online Ordination, button. We also make available many free wedding ceremonies for your use, as well as funeral ceremonies and other types of ceremonies.

 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program where you can earn the coveted title of Chaplain. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church materials to help you with your professionalism and confidence.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and an amazed by the frequent upgrades and new functions of the seminary.
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Universal Life Church

Limited freedom of Religion

Sounds like a company – it isn’t.

It rather is a real unorganized and continuing problem on our schools. Almost every other day in the headlines of our news-media, a remark of misconduct for a student, a teacher suspended from duty, and so on.

Did anyone ever analyze what “Freedom of Religion” really means?

I guess “Freedom of Religion” means that we all can believe in whatever we want and that we are able to proclaim our belief (together with our “Freedom of Speech”) whenever and wherever we want.

What I didn’t know is that this does not include our children. Nevertheless, as much as I searched in our Constitution, I could not find any exclusion of children!

All this appears very simple. Our children are not supposed to practice their religion in school, because this would then possibly offend, confuse or at least influence children of any other religious belief….

If I correctly translate that, it means that we all can have our opinion and religious belief, but we can’t practice this belief in order not to bother others, at least not children because they can be influenced, confused, or offended.

If that is so, we should stop selling newspaper over the counter too and better put it together with playboy magazine under cover on the top shelf in our stores. We then should classify even speeches of our honorable President at least PG13 or higher, because he openly says that he is praying to God.

The good part for me – I will be able to cut the allowance of my children by law, because on all our money is printed “In God we trust”.

Now, am I confused or not?

Truth is….

Our great country came a long way and one reason is surely that it made the law of God to its own law. We live in the greatest country of this entire world, with all liberties and freedoms possible. Now, how about these cut backs? Even our President prays to God!

I guess in that case, our Constitution is equally abused like our Bible. Some people just can’t stop explaining things their way – thinking that the majority of us can’t read themselves.

(I defended this Constitution for many years proudly in an US Army uniform!)

To the surprise of many Americans, there are other countries with “Freedom of Religion” which are capable to handle this right just fine. They even have classes in Religion in school - voluntary participation and divided by denominations. Every child has the right to receive religious instructions in their belief – if they want…. The instructors are voluntary Christian Ministers of all the different denominations – I would not know one single church who would not volunteer…This way, our children would have real “Freedom of Religion”.

Fact is, that children from private religious schools are far lesser involved in crime or substance abuse. Official statistics proof that! Therefore, it can’t be too bad to bring religion into our schools. Same right for everybody – my children are in public schools – I can’t afford sending my three children to a private school.

I hope nobody will argue that it would be very complicated to implement religious instruction in our schools. I get daily school papers to sign for all types of things, taking school pictures, organizing a field trip, making a collection for a special event, and one more per year would not make a difference at all.

The church has a great social function too, in crime and drug prevention, counseling for domestic violence, alcohol abuse. All this and more is greatly accepted and appreciated in our society – why do we want to cut out our children from it?

Let us read the Constitution as it was written and not like anyone else tries to explain it to us in a secondary or personal interest.

Mr. President, would there be anyone able to put an end to this “American Joke of Religion”?

Should we pray for that? (Outside of public schools certainly!)

God bless you, and our great country!

Pastor Fuchs

Church of Jesus Christ in Lutheran Belief

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. 

Ordination with the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.
 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Universal Life Church

In Him By Him Through Him

Commitment

Universal Life Church

The state of being emotionally and intellectually bound to a course of action.

Commitment, this is what I made years ago to follow God's plan for my life. It has led down a path that caused me to be motivated make decisions that were difficult and costly. However, in retrospect I can see the blessings that abound because I committed to the right thing.

This commitment moved me from observer to participator. It caused me to be transformed from a critic to a combatant in this battle of faith.

In this country, we are protected by a volunteer army. Many reasons motivate young adults to line up and sign up for a predetermined time in military service. There comes a point where they can choose to let their commitment lapse, or they can recommit to their commitment.

I know in this life we live, it is not as cut and dry. We do not come to a point where we literally sign up, or re sign. However, sadly our lack of consideration to past promises is in effect our act of resigning.

My thoughts this morning. My choice to commit my life and future to God was the best decision I ever made. It is my opportunity to not only find the blessing of God in my life, but to be involved in the process that brings people to a point of this most blessed decision.

Have you renewed your commitment lately? I challenge you to consider this prayerfully and act accordingly on your reevaluation in this your service and obedience to God. In employment, they have what they call, Self-Evaluation. This goes into the decision of what their yearly review that impacts the bonus package and yearly raise. In your commitment, how are you doing?

I heard someone relate a story to me about when they were praying. They were telling God how they were working for him. In this prayer, the Lord interrupted and said to them, "If you worked a job the way you worked for me, you would get fired for lack of performance."

With the Lord's help, I recommit my commitment. To be emotionally,spiritually and intellectually bound to do what God desires. If you are being pulled by pressures, discouraged by events, challenged by problems, let me remind you that there remains no greater promise outside of our service to the Lord.

No matter what you do, you will be challenged, tested and face temptation. You will even at times fail the challenge, flunk the test and succumb to these pressures. However, in this life of flesh, there is no escaping this call to commitment. You will be demanded to be committed to something.

Careers, hobbies and addictions cannot be carried out without this commitment. We will be committed to something. However in our commitment to God, it allows all other activities to come under his special blessing.

In consideration this morning,

I am reuping my commitment,

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. 

Ordination with the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.
 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Universal Life Church

The Spirituality of Vincent Van Gogh

By Sandra Malasky

One hundred fifty years ago, Vincent Willem van Gogh was born at Zundert in Brabant, Holland. Thirty-seven years later, he shot himself, died two days later and was buried overlooking the grain fields of Auvers-sur-Oise in France. During his brief life, sixteen years were spent “under the guidance of his parents in a Dutch Reform parsonage, seven as an art gallery clerk, three in religious studies and service in England, Holland, and Belgium, one as an unemployed wanderer, and the last ten as a painter.” (Edwards, xiii)

Vincent exists in the popular imagination as a tortured genius and, by modern materialist standards, a dismal failure. In the 113 years following his death books, films, songs, academic and artistic explorations have provided numerous portraits of him. He was a complex man who was often intensely lonely. Vincent was also a man who loved deeply and experienced much joy in the world around him. He was given to bouts of madness and behaviour that separated him from family and friends. He had a love of alcohol and was a frequenter of brothels; an artist whose brilliant legacy includes over 2000 works produced within a scant ten years with 100 produced within the last three months of his life. And finally, he was a man who embraced death and took his own life.

While Vincent sold only one painting in his lifetime for 400 francs, a painting of his irises sold in 1987 for an unprecedented, and some might say obscene, price of 59.9 million dollars. His works occupy the walls of museums and the private collections of the wealthy. Prints appear on office, dormitory, and prison walls; T-shirts, coffee mugs, mousepads, and toilet paper. Vincent the penniless artist has become Vincent the commodity – a status that would have infuriated and saddened him. Yet, despite the saturation with his images and the millions of words written about him, he has remained an enigma.

It is not my purpose this morning to rehash the speculation concerning why he cut off his ear (actually it was only a portion), nor will I enter into the debate concerning the nature of his mental illness. It is not the psychological profile that I will explore – but his profound sense of spirituality and its impact on his life and work. For me, Vincent is a prophetic voice in the best Unitarian tradition -- challenging and stimulating me to see the world, other people, and myself, differently and with greater clarity. The sources for this discussion are an adult lifetime of personal appreciation and study of his art and words, and three written sources: van Gogh and God by Cliff Edwards, van Gogh and Gaugin: The Search for Sacred Art by Deborah Silverman, and a three-volume collection of the over 800 letters written by Vincent.

Over the years my reading of the letters, in which he wrote extensively and eloquently of his life as a spiritual pilgrimage, provided me with a much broader context within which to appreciate the visual work and helped me understand what art critic Meyer Shapiro called “the high religious-moral drama” of Vincent’s life. Art was a choice “made for personal salvation”. It allowed Vincent to express a challenge not only to the prevailing artistic and social standards of the time but the spiritual as well.

It is important to place Vincent within the larger theological context of his time. Vincent lived “at the juncture of two ages, the age of religious certainty which was dying and defensive, and the age of scientific certainty, which was young and aggressive. Belief in God was under a devastating attack by some, considered irrelevant by many, and undergoing radical reformation by a few.” (Edwards) Throughout his brief life, Vincent did as Rilke suggested. He lived the questions about God, our relationship to nature, and the transformative power of love. Some of his questions echoed Nietzsche and foreshadowed those of such influential Jewish and Christian theologians as Martin Buber, Paul Tillich, and Thomas Merton. While Vincent often questioned the actions of humans in the service of God, he never seriously questioned the existence of God.

Vincent’s father, Theodorus, was pastor of a small Dutch Reform church in the predominantly Roman Catholic, poor and agrarian district of Brabant. Theodorus subscribed to the tenets of the Groningen School “which rejected religious rationalism and revitalized emotional piety.” (Silverman, 140) Its social gospel, as taught by Vincent’s father and mother, emphasized “a perpetual union of inner faith and outer action, a modern imitation of Christ expressed through humility and rural social service.” (Silverman, 141) This view discouraged “idleness” and introspection something that did not bode well for their eldest son whose life was characterized negatively in this manner from an early age.

The emphasis on practical work that Vincent experienced as a child gave him an appreciation for the lives and struggles of rural people that would shape his life and art. Another positive influence of his early faith experiences was the emphasis on God as creator and bringer of light into the world. Vincent’s parents taught their children to closely observe and appreciate “everything from the shapes of clouds to the subtle arrays of colours in the sunset skies, and to understand these sights as testaments to God’s presence in their lives.” (Silverman, 149)

While he was encouraged to appreciate God's handiwork, Vincent also received the traditional Calvinist view that the world was a dangerous and sinful place. He grew up in a spiritual atmosphere centred on hearing and obeying the Word of God as contained within the Christian scriptures. From a very early age, those scriptures shaped his sense of himself and his place in the world.

One example can be found in a letter in which Vincent reminds his brother Theo of their father’s use of the story of Jacob and Esau as a means of comparing them. Like Esau who lost his birthright, Vincent saw himself as a coarse, hairy creature left to wander outside the fold his family. Another strong biblical influence on Vincent’s personality and theology was the “Suffering Servant Song” found in the 53rd chapter of the Book of Isaiah. This passage forms the central text of Handel’s Messiah.

According to Edwards, the latter passage provided Vincent with a way to redeem his “coarseness” and develop a view of life as “a sorrowful yet always rejoicing” pilgrimage characterized by impermanence. Vincent was able to claim his sense of “ugliness” as a kinship with the “despised and rejected” of his own time.

Perhaps the most influential biography of Vincent was that written in 1913 by Theo’s wife Johanna. It served as the foundation upon which our modern picture of Vincent is based. I believe that her portrait of him as possessing a “fanatical religious mysticism” resulting from failed love affair during his work as a lay preacher in England is a distortion that is not born out by evidence from his letters. I agree with Edwards’ analysis that there is prejudiced attitude towards religious passion at work in that view. While not denying the often-bizarre excesses of which Vincent was clearly capable, I think we are often too quick to attribute pathology to passions when they are religious in nature.

Vincent’s life was transformed in London. But that transformation may have had more to do with his analysis of the political, economic, and social world he saw around him than an unhappy love affair. The letters of the period reveal Vincent as beginning to ask serious theological questions regarding the confluence of spirituality and art and whether God is to be found only within the confines of a church or within the world and among ordinary people.

It is probably fair to say that this type of questioning and the fact that he was working with a Methodist preacher did little to calm growing fears for his immortal soul within his Dutch Reform family! As they had done in the past, Vincent’s family gathered to consider the fate of their wayward son. They decided that if he was to follow in his ancestor’s pastoral footsteps he could do it in the proper way -- under the tutelage of a solid, well-known Dutch Reform clergyman in Amsterdam.

Even as he dutifully prepared for his entrance exam into theology school, Vincent chafed under the narrow yoke of his studies. He took every opportunity to nourish himself and expand his field of vision beyond the “hearing” and “obeying” of Christian scripture. He took walks in nature, visited art galleries, read numerous secular works, and reflected on the difference between his experience among the poor in London and the academic path of religious exclusivity he found in Amsterdam.

In the spring of 1878, Vincent wrote a letter to Theo in which he outlined his creed – a vision that seemed to unify nature, art, literature, and practical service to one’s fellow creatures. I think it is worth quoting at length:

As to being an ‘interior and spiritual person,’ couldn’t that be developed by knowledge of history in general and of particular individuals from all eras – especially from the history of the Bible to that of the Revolution and from the Odyssey to the books of Dickens and Michelet? And couldn’t one learn something from the works of such as Rembrandt and from Breton or Millet?

If we only try to live sincerely, it will go well with us, even though we are certain to experience real sorrow and great disappointments and shall also probably commit errors and do wrong things, but certainly it is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and over prudent. It is good love many things, for therein lies true strength; whosoever loves much, performs and can accomplish much and what is done in love is well done.

This is the creed which all good men have expressed in their works … we must cast ourselves into the depths, if we want to catch something, and if at times we must work through the night while catching nothing, it is good not to give in, but to cast the net again in the morning.

These are the words of a very human being who did not expect perfection but understood the power of perseverance and love. As a way of living out his creed, Vincent spent most of the following year in service among the poor in the Belgian mining district of the Borinage.

The letters provide a picture of him as a man shocked by the realities of grinding poverty – the price to be paid in human terms for that age of worldwide industrial expansion into which he was born. The landscape around Vincent resembled a bombsite with twisted, blackened and dead trees. Emaciated human beings bent and old before their time lived lives of deprivation and danger in a hellhole below ground. Yet, as he spent time living among the miners and their families, he began to appreciate their struggles as he had those of the farming people of his youth in Brabant.

Stories told by people who knew Vincent in the Borinage portray him as becoming virtually indistinguishable from the people around him as he tried day and night to give whatever practical and spiritual help he could coming to see in the “mournful, deep-set eyes” of those around him, the face of God. In the language of modern-day liberation theology, he made a “preferential option for the poor” and sought to manifest the Christian story, as he understood it, in his everyday life. Despite resistance from family and local ecclesial authorities, he stayed in the Borinage and it was there that he decided to become an artist.

Vincent rejected what the called the “pharasaism” of “the old academic religion” in which God was held a virtual prisoner within the walls of churches. He proclaimed, “The God of the clergyman is as dead as a doornail”. Vincent emerged from the time he described as his “moulting period” with a new artistic and theological vision.

Edwards used the phrase idiomorphism to describe the way in which Vincent began to think about God after his Borinage experience. For example, a mother may experience God not simply “as if” God were a mother, but would experience God’s mothering in the concrete acts of childcare. Or a farmer would experience God not simply “as if” God were a farmer, but would experience God in the concrete acts of sowing and harvesting.

Vincent wasn’t claiming that “God is one of us” but asserting that it is in the concrete, loving interactions we have with one another and the world around us we experience the divine – which he called God. Such love and goodness is democratic and available wherever we are. In another letter to Theo, Vincent broadened his creed thus:

When one is in a sombre mood, how good it is to walk on the barren beach and look at the greyish-green sea with long white streaks of the waves. But if one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go that far to find it. I think I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than even the ocean in the eyes of a little baby, when it wakes in the morning, and coos and laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle. If there is a ray from on high perhaps one can find it there.

While Vincent eloquently proclaimed his “theology of the child and cradle”, he also wrote with regret and resignation that those joys would elude him. He was left, therefore, with the task of being an artist, which he always felt was secondary to “real life.” It was as an artist that Vincent “cast his net again in the morning.”

Edwards raises the interesting possibility that Vincent’s artistic and spiritual evolution was also affected by his love of the Japanese art with which he constantly surrounded himself in the later years of his life. With characteristic flair for the dramatic, Vincent likened his yellow house in Arles to a Buddhist monastery and called Arles “his Japan”. The letters also reveal an unfolding appreciation for the philosophical and spiritual underpinnings of the Japanese artists ability to focus and distil the environment around them into work of remarkable power and simplicity. His sought to look at the natural world in a way that echoes the Zen poet Basho:

From the pine tree

learn of the pine tree

And from the bamboo

learn of the bamboo.

Vincent came to view his greatest accomplishment as an artist to be able to really understand the simple fact that “a field of wheat is worth looking at close-up.”

While not claiming that Vincent embraced Buddhism explicitly, Edwards contends that its influence contributed to a major artistic change of heart in which he rejected the human-centred view that nature exists only to be tamed and put to good use. Rather he wanted to experience and portray the world around him on its own terms -- to appreciate rocks, and birds, and cows, and irises simply because they exist and to develop a new way to hear and communicate the wisdom he gained from the natural world. He wanted to open his senses to really listen to the sunflowers as the poet Mary Oliver has suggested.

Now there are some who would look differently at Vincent’s life and see a man who had no direction, drifted through life, sponged off his brother, and basically couldn’t hold down a steady job. There are also those who see a madman whose frenzied work in the last years of his life was motivated not by theological or artistic conviction but as a symptom of his mania or his schizophrenia. In part, both of those views are correct but, as I hope I have shown, they are inadequate and incomplete.

I believe that Vincent was an ordinary man who had extraordinary gifts and demons with which he struggled all his life. This struggle resulted in a stunning vision through which we are able to participate in the life of Borinage miners and farmers eating potatoes they dug from the earth with their own hands. He helped us feel the brilliance and warmth of the Provencal sunshine as sunflowers follow its rays “with faces like burnished disks”. We see his theological vision of the cradle and the child in the portrait of an old woman rocking a baby and the sweetness and innocence of a little girl pondering an orange.

We are also given a view of twisted and bent trees in blazing colours under an unforgiving blood red sky, an old man bent in despair, portraits of empty-eyed people sitting alone in cafés and bars, Vincent’s own self-portraits always solemn and often distorted, and the thickly laid, wavy visions emanating from the asylum of St. Remy. We have been given the gift of a mirror in which to see ourselves and all of creation with its beauty and contradictions.

It is virtually impossible to truly understand why a person takes his or her own life and I won’t attempt to do so with Vincent. In his popular song, Don McLean wrote “when no hope was left in sight on that starry, starry night you took your life as lovers often do … this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.” He pessimistically continued saying “they did not listen they’re not listening still – perhaps they never will.”

I reject this overly simplistic view of Vincent as the romantic, tragic figure. I and countless others listen and understand every day. I believe that Vincent’s message to us in words and pictures is ultimately hopeful and echoed by the poet Mary Oliver in her poem Wild Geese – we do not have to walk a hundred miles on our knees to find God or ourselves – we only have to let ourselves love what we love. We only have to be human beings with all our failings, knowing we are certain to experience great disappointments and shall also probably commit great errors and do wrong things. Peace may be found as we cast our nets again in the morning, acknowledging that life is both a sorrowful and rejoicing pilgrimage to an unknown destination. I believe the world was meant for one as beautiful as Vincent was and I am glad that he was here, if only for a little while.

Copyright © 2003 by Sandra L. Malasky

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. 

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.

 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.  
 

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Universal Life Church

What's in a Name?

By Elise Abraham aka Mother Raven

While you here know me as Elise Abraham, my pagan community know me as

Mother Raven. Why?

WHAT'S IN A NAME ?

Lots - that's what! One of the most difficult things in the world is choosing the right name for something - very often I have found that whatever moniker you pick will end up being changed when the "right" one becomes clear - the ginger tom TT who became Beetle, our French tripod Labrador Gavroche who has become GubGub which suits us all much better.

So imagine my dilemma many years ago when I realised that with my rebirth as a baby pagan I would have to find a suitable name. Rolled up mental sleeves and ran through every kind of Nature-based name I could think of while begging inspiration - flowers - no I am not a Pansy or Marigold no matter how mellow the light behind me, trees - well my favourites are Mimosa (which sounds too shampoo-ey somehow) or Rowan which has been done to death (and is it Row as in with oars or Row as in argument?), places where I have been inspired - Tintagel (too Arthurian), Carnac (sounds like a vehicle attachment) Zennor (too Buddhist sounding)

I kept coming back to Raven. Yes, I know, groan and shake your head - also done to death and have lost count of the number of silver, gold, white or rainbow coloured Ravens existing in Pagan circles these days. Too Norse - well of course it is! Hugin and Munir are better known than their owner. Too Hammer Horror - yes we all saw The Omen! But nonetheless, I kept coming back to it and I will explain why.

During my many and varied careers, I spent a mostly very enjoyable year as Manager in a Zoo in Cornwall and had the privilege of meeting and becoming friends with a raven who had been confined in the zoo because, hand reared, he had been re-released into the wild and was unable to cope. He attacked picnickers on the cliffs above St Agnes, he got on a bus going to St Ives and terrorised the passengers - he was, in other words, a bloody nuisance. When I started work at the zoo he was a miserable, lonely and beaten bird. We took an instant liking to each other - it was love at first sight, for me at any rate.

At this park we did demonstrations of falconry and I was very very keen to learn, so I asked the owner if I could take lessons from our Chief Falconer in my own time. This bod - another total maverick looked at me as if I were potty when I said, "I want to fly the Raven". He shook his head and told me it wouldn't be the easiest bird to learn on but if my heart was set on it, we could give it a go - it was, and we did.

Birds of prey, while magnificent, are pretty single minded and stupid - they will do anything for a bite to eat and absolutely nothing when they have eaten enough. They will come to the glove to get the piece of meat and not because they love you - but Ragnar was different - he and I had a truly beautiful relationship.

I discovered very early on that he had a sense of humour. He understood exactly what I wanted him to do but took his time deciding if it was what he felt like doing too. By the time we had worked together long enough to take part in the public displays he had found his metier - he was a clown and I was his straight man!

I would put him on his post and say over my throat mike "Ragnar - stay there" and start walking away. He would jump down from his post and walk after me and I swear on my life that he could imitate my walk! When I turned around to call him he would sit on my foot, laughing at me and then jump on my head, my shoulder - anywhere but the gloved fist I was holding out for him. The public adored him - he put his showy brothers in the shade with his display of intelligence.

Pretending to be angry I would have a conversation with him - all relayed over the tannoy "You stupid bird - I told you to stay there. What do you think you are doing? All these people want to see you fly! Come on Ragnar, they've paid good money to see you do your thing. Get back to your post!" Interspersed with him cawing at me this usually brought the house down and he would reluctantly jump off my shoulder and start strutting back to the post, at which point I would usually tell everyone "Oh no - it's such a nice day he's decided to walk!"

Finally - when he sensed it was time he would turn around and look at me - have you ever seen a bird wink? I have! That was my signal "Ragnar - please, please - behave. Go on - show how you can do it when you want to". He would fly to his post, sit on it and look at me expectantly, shuffling his feet and fluffing his wings - at the dramatic cry of "Fly Ragnar, fly!" he would do a circuit of the field and land gracefully on my fist, cawing and bowing to the audience, who by this time were in raptures. Many times I wanted to kiss him - but with a beak like a chisel one is very respectful of close contact with ravens. Sometimes we would show off horribly and I would send him back and forward to the post just on voice - at no time was he ever attached except when I was taking him to and from the field.

But of course this golden age couldn't last - the owner of the zoo who, if he ever had a soul, had buried it in a bank vault years before, decided that I was spending too much time on the demonstrations. He took Ragnar away from me and insisted that one of the keepers fly him now that he was "properly trained". I was heartbroken. I was not even allowed to see him until the awful day when the girl flying him said to me "I think Ragnar is sick".

With doom settling on my heart I went to see him - he was dying. He had literally pined to death for me. Having tried several times to get back to me by flying away during the display, he had decided to stop eating and the keeper responsible had never noticed. Where I used to stay with him while he fed and count how many chicks he had eaten, she had dumped his food and left - never realising that he was burying his meat rather than eating it.

As a result he had got a fatal infestation of worms in his crop, which meant that even if he did eat, he would not be able to digest them. I grabbed a bottle of antibiotic and worm killer, stuffed Ragnar in a box and took him home with me - that was the Friday. All weekend I got up every two hours to dose him, holding him in my hands and willing him to live. By Monday he had improved and I dared to hope that he would live, but a telephone call from the zoo owner dashed all hope - bring my bird back and don't you dare take him away from the zoo again! His bird! His bird! I still burn with anger at that phrase.

The inevitable happened - I returned him on Monday morning and by Tuesday he was dead - he had realised that the 48 hours we spent together had been only a brief reprieve - he was back in prison. He showed that marvellous independence of spirit that I had always admired in him, and died.

The Chief Falconer called me down to the shed and showed me the body, we were both in tears. He looked at me and said - "he died because they took you away from him" and put his arm around me. I rendered "my" bird the last service I could and removed his jesses, saying "Fly free now, Ragnar, fly free and remember me" and did something I had always wanted to do - I kissed him gently on the top of his head.

So there you have it - hackneyed it may be, but Raven really was the only name I could choose, in gratitude for the most magnificent creature the Goddess has ever confided to my keeping. It was a privilege to know him and I will do my best to carry his name with as much pride and freedom of spirit as he did.

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. 

Ordination with the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.

 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.
 

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Attitude is Everything

By Francie Baltazar-Schwartz

Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut way all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.'

"I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breathe and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them. 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

*******************************

The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. 

Ordination with the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.
 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

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What's it All About?

Universal Life Church

Is it God wanting worship? God wanting love? God wanting someone

to serve him out of free will?

I have been thinking about, "What should be our focus?"

To understand our mission, we must first understand the purpose that

God intended. Why did God make man? Is it because he wanted

someone to talk to, or someone to worship him? It is my

contention that this is not the reason. He made man not so he

would be loved, but that God would have someone to love. The

scripture says, "God is love."

If you look at the workings of God, he does not do things to be

noticed or praised. He does things for the benefit of those he

loves.

Look at the creation story. He created the heavens, light, dry

ground, water, beast and birds and plants and trees. When he

finished we find the purpose in the last thing he did. He created

all that is for Adam. The scriptures says in essence, God made it

all and then gave it all to Adam.

He even went so far as to "Plant a Garden" and placed man in the

midst of it. Did he create Adam to take care of his creation, or

did he create his creation for Adam?

Look at the things that he did in the Old Testament. He spared

Noah, one single man. He chose Abraham, one single man. Notice

his preparation in the life of Moses. Why? Is it because he wanted

to "prove" them? Or is the ultimate purpose God desires someone to

love. God is not a needy God, he is a God that is love.

You don't have children so someone loves you. There is an innate

desire inside of us that wants to love.

From his creation to his incarnation, there is one mission. That

mission is for man to be able to benefit fully of the Love of God.

You love Jesus, but he first loved you. He loves you when you

forget about him. He loves you, when you don't do what he wants

you to do. He loves you when you don't "worship" him. Our love,

service and worship flows to him as a response to what he does for

us. I do not believe that he loves us so that we love him back.

God is not self-serving, selfish and does not worship himself. God

is not manipulating our lives to get us to see how lucky we are.

God is Love. For love to be complete, it must be a closed circuit.

For in truth, you can't really love anyone unless they love you

back. When the circuit is closed, and love flows in both direction

this is love in full bloom.

So again I ask the question, "What is it all about?"

Notice the Life of Christ. Look at his ministry. We see in his

ministry, his road to the cross and his victory over the grave had a

purpose. I see this purpose in the following scripture.

"But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before

you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you."

Mark 16:7

It was not just general directions from an Angel to a group, but we

see personal care in this to the blaspheming, cursing, denying

Peter. God has a unique ability to see past what is you, to

produce what will be in you. He looked at Peter, "And the Lord

said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he

may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith

fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."

Luke 22:31-32

We see in this the purpose of God revealed. I love you Peter, and

when you get it together, I want you to help others.

When God works on us to bring us into balance and fellowship, the

purpose that is outstanding is that we make a connection for someone

else for God to love. He loves in general everyone, however he

desires to love individuals specifically. To accomplish this,

people must be aware and respond to this love for the power and

value of this love to be enjoyed.

When God looks at the world, six billion, this does not dim the

megawatt power of the Love of God. The God that created one man

has the love for all men.

The purpose is about God loving people. When we fulfill our

purpose, we reflect God's love to people.

The great tragedy of this is when people consume God's love,

blessings and purpose for themselves. I have heard people say,

"It's all about Him." I think this is an insufficient revelation.

It is about Him, but if you asked God, "What's it all about?" He

would point you toward the people around you and say, "It's all

about them."

God so loved the world. I have looked in the eyes of the

suspicious, wounded, angry, worried, depressed, despondent and

fearful. They are God's purpose. Without a doubt he loves his

people, those that already serve him, however these only represent a

portion of God's purpose.

The condemnation of the Jews is that God wanted to make them to be a

nation of Priests. What does this mean? Look at the duty of a

priest. They represent God to the People, and represent the People

to God. He chose Abraham to bless the nations.

Look at Joseph. Joseph is a picture of our purpose. Joseph

overcame personal hardship to be the salvation of the World. God

was not just proving a man for the purpose of proving. The proving

purpose was providing an answer to the problems of his world.

So why has God preserved you and protected you to this point? Is it

so we can sing songs of salvation? Is it about seeing you blessed

in health, wealth and glowing in your good favor? Or is there a

purpose that goes beyond you?

God is not some egomaniac demanding people to bow and scrape at his

feet, he is Father that loves his Children. He is a God of Love

that wants to save every lost child, confused teenager and reach

each and every fearful and prideful adult.

The angels show us what is important to God. It is not the sheep

in the fold, but it is the Lost sheep that is found. It is not in a

house full of saints praising him, but when one lost, lonely,

broken, weeping man bows his knees in repentance and is bathed in a

glow of Light that is the Love of God.

That is what it is all about.

I have a renewed commitment to connect with people, to love people,

to bless people, because that is what will make my Father proud.

Reaching the Lost,

For Him, In Him, By Him, Through Him,

Scott Phillips

*******************************

The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. 

Ordination with the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.
 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar