This is the ultimate topic and I do not presume I know what it is although I have a few preliminary thoughts. To know life's meaning, one must start from the very beginning and the very beginning is God, notwithstanding a comic's illustration of God with the words: Let there be light ... and there was Darwin, and around Darwin were a number of creatures. I remember the image from years and years ago but do not remember who illustrated it but my guess is Piraro Bizzaro. I loved it and still think it is funny.
Forward to my imagination (or not), I somehow know that prior to birth I was a spirit among hordes of others wanting to be born to have have a chance at experiencing flesh. How that seemingly grown spirit had transformed into an utterly undeveloped spirit at my birth I do not know, nor do I know how my pre-birth's spirit came into existence nor what these spirits were, if they were lowly angels or an undefined group of spiritual entities. When I imagine (or recollect) the events (or facts) immediately my birth, I can say that I was in communication with the entity in charge of my and every other birth. I remember the exchange but it is not relevant here -- all I will say is that the entity was extremely busy and did not have much time or patience for discussions with me.
What is relevant is the simultaneous union of a spirit and the product of human wills that allows an infant to be born for life cannot come into being without either [1]. It is then for this "new" spirit that inhabits the newly-made flesh to acquire meaning gradually as it matures.
[1] This assertion is not a political or scientific one. Suffice it to say that I do not believe in abortion because of the countless number of spirits hoping and waiting to experience flesh, not because a spirit can inhabit a fetus that is unable to exist outside of a mother's womb. The strongest argument for abortion that I can think of is the fact that pro-life advocates presume that all fetuses want to be born when they have no right to make that decision for those who never wanted to be born, but that argument fails because the decision to be born was made by the spirit desiring flesh and there are a whole lot more spirits with this desire than the number of babies made.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
The Purpose of Life
I suppose I have become audacious with age, picking a grand topic such as the purpose of life to write about when I used to draw complete blanks thinking about it in my late twenties. If I had been asked yesterday what the purpose of life was, I probably would draw yet another blank. For some reason I am compelled to write about it after looking into the mirror and seeing that my youth has waned and thinking that the inevitable progression of age and the deterioration of the flesh have begun. Knowing that my physical cells are gradually dying their natural deaths, I have come to the awareness that my spiritual part of me is at its infancy and is beginning to grow just as I grew physically from boyhood to manhood. With the revelation, I conclude that the purpose of (my) life is to give birth to a spiritual being and as it grows, the need for an earthly physical shell becomes less and less important. When it takes flight is when (my) flesh dies. Hopefully my spirit will be received by and be forever joined with the Holy Trinity.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Searching For And Seeing Christ
Searhing for Christ is a spiritual journey that appeal to those who are intrepid and strong enough to engage in constant face to face epic battles with Evil because Evil persists and never dies. Camouflaged in goodness, Evil has to be recognized for what it is, and it is many, many things and this writing addresses only self-deceit, defined as intellectual dishonesty, a wilful unwillingness to see and accept the Truth by rationalizing and lying to oneself. To be able to find Christ is to be able to distinguish without equivocation what is true and feigned goodness within oneself, just as a mirror shows what one looks like on the outside, a person's ultimate conscience shows what is truly inside. This process is far more difficult than in practice than in theory because the presence of Christ is interwoven intricately with the presence of Satan and sorting out Evil in order to cast it aside is a battle. Before one is over another has already begun and there are those that are on-going. Remember, Satan exists and does not rest.
Does that mean one would never find Christ since there are simultaneous battlefronts to attend to always? A yes answer would mean total discouragement but I think the answer does not have to be a yes although it can be. I believe that the ability to find Christ is not in how many battles we fight, how much time we spend fighting them, how many we had won or lost (even though all of that is important too) but in the approach we take in fighting Evil. To fight Evil sucessfully, one must be armed with a resolute determination, a clean conscience, deep and abiding faith in God, constant and sincere prayers and a platform on which to stand up to Satan that was not built on greed for power, fame, control and/or wealth that had been achieved by virtually any means neessary in an attempt to satisfy one's insatiable selfish and worthless worldly wishes but on one's unmitigated love for and unreserved desire to be with God.
After accomplishing all that, I believe one would be able to recognize Christ in the simple beauty of Goodness in contrast to an unmasked Satan standing naked in all of its ugliness.
Having searhed for and recognized Christ, and having the ability to distinguish Him clearly from Satan, it does not follow that Christ can be seen. Seeing Christ is a very different matter. Christ can only be seen in a vision and all such visions are gifts from God. I do not know the formula for Christ to appear in a vision but I can confidently say that a part of that formulation requires one to have true humility, absolute poverty of spirit, unyielding faith in and enduring love for God.
Does that mean one would never find Christ since there are simultaneous battlefronts to attend to always? A yes answer would mean total discouragement but I think the answer does not have to be a yes although it can be. I believe that the ability to find Christ is not in how many battles we fight, how much time we spend fighting them, how many we had won or lost (even though all of that is important too) but in the approach we take in fighting Evil. To fight Evil sucessfully, one must be armed with a resolute determination, a clean conscience, deep and abiding faith in God, constant and sincere prayers and a platform on which to stand up to Satan that was not built on greed for power, fame, control and/or wealth that had been achieved by virtually any means neessary in an attempt to satisfy one's insatiable selfish and worthless worldly wishes but on one's unmitigated love for and unreserved desire to be with God.
After accomplishing all that, I believe one would be able to recognize Christ in the simple beauty of Goodness in contrast to an unmasked Satan standing naked in all of its ugliness.
Having searhed for and recognized Christ, and having the ability to distinguish Him clearly from Satan, it does not follow that Christ can be seen. Seeing Christ is a very different matter. Christ can only be seen in a vision and all such visions are gifts from God. I do not know the formula for Christ to appear in a vision but I can confidently say that a part of that formulation requires one to have true humility, absolute poverty of spirit, unyielding faith in and enduring love for God.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The Transcendency of Music
Imagine for a moment the number of notes, of variations in pitch and tempo of every combination possible and then on a blank music sheet appears a composition, originally handwritten with no mistakes, for orchestral instruments, choir and solo glorifying God with words from Psalm 117 and a prayer, quoted in Latin and in English below:
"Laudate Dominum omnes gentes;
Laudate eum, omnes populi.
Quoniam confirmata est
Super nos misericordia ejus.
Et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper.
Et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
"Praise the Lord, all nations;
Praise Him, all people.
For He has bestowed
His mercy upon us,
And the truth of the Lord endures forever.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever,
and for generations of generations. Amen." [1]
The score can be seen here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/5291/laudate-Dominum-Mozart-vepres-solennelles-KV339. There a number or renditions. The one I listen to is a recording conducted by Sir Colin Davis featuring Kiri te Kanawa as the soloist. None of the uploads on Youtube to date is any good but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8BCGJ3mSrc is by far the relative best and the comment by a gym-buffed drewqq is noteworthy. He is right, Addidobelpassato's upload does sound a bit off at the beginning.
For those of you who are in a rush - and God knows your reasons and excuses - you can listen to Kathleen Battle hurry through it nicely to get it over with quickly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY_zGwyH54s even as Mozart's score called for "Andante [6/8] ma un poco sostenuto" [2] which to me means slow but not so slow that the listener would fall asleep in the middle of it nor so fast like Chopin's ["Minute"] Waltz, Opus 64, No.1 rendered perfectly by the unparalleled Evgeny Kissin at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJIdh0acWyw
Back on topic, I find the Laudate Dominum from Mozart's Vesperae solenne de confessore, KV 339 recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis, conductor, to be among my top favorite classical pieces of all time and on par with the violin solo in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in D major, Opus 123 recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Shaw, conductor. Both are in my humble opinion divinely inspired, for I cannot imagine any human is capable of rising unassisted so far above the mundanity of earthly existence to the upper reaches of spiritual clarity and going so far down to the absolute depth of honesty to seek reconciliation with the Truth.
[1] http://operalady.blogspot.com/2009/09/lucia-popp-laudate-dominum-mozart.html
[2] http://www.scribd.com/doc/5291/laudate-Dominum-Mozart-vepres-solennelles-KV339
"Laudate Dominum omnes gentes;
Laudate eum, omnes populi.
Quoniam confirmata est
Super nos misericordia ejus.
Et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper.
Et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
"Praise the Lord, all nations;
Praise Him, all people.
For He has bestowed
His mercy upon us,
And the truth of the Lord endures forever.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever,
and for generations of generations. Amen." [1]
The score can be seen here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/5291/laudate-Dominum-Mozart-vepres-solennelles-KV339. There a number or renditions. The one I listen to is a recording conducted by Sir Colin Davis featuring Kiri te Kanawa as the soloist. None of the uploads on Youtube to date is any good but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8BCGJ3mSrc is by far the relative best and the comment by a gym-buffed drewqq is noteworthy. He is right, Addidobelpassato's upload does sound a bit off at the beginning.
For those of you who are in a rush - and God knows your reasons and excuses - you can listen to Kathleen Battle hurry through it nicely to get it over with quickly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY_zGwyH54s even as Mozart's score called for "Andante [6/8] ma un poco sostenuto" [2] which to me means slow but not so slow that the listener would fall asleep in the middle of it nor so fast like Chopin's ["Minute"] Waltz, Opus 64, No.1 rendered perfectly by the unparalleled Evgeny Kissin at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJIdh0acWyw
Back on topic, I find the Laudate Dominum from Mozart's Vesperae solenne de confessore, KV 339 recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis, conductor, to be among my top favorite classical pieces of all time and on par with the violin solo in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in D major, Opus 123 recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Shaw, conductor. Both are in my humble opinion divinely inspired, for I cannot imagine any human is capable of rising unassisted so far above the mundanity of earthly existence to the upper reaches of spiritual clarity and going so far down to the absolute depth of honesty to seek reconciliation with the Truth.
[1] http://operalady.blogspot.com/2009/09/lucia-popp-laudate-dominum-mozart.html
[2] http://www.scribd.com/doc/5291/laudate-Dominum-Mozart-vepres-solennelles-KV339
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Definition of Hell
"where sin lasts beyond the end of time: Hell." [1]
[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 497. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.
[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 497. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.
More Thoughts on Christmas Day -- December 25, 2012
What is Christmas?
Christmas is a belief that Jesus, son of God, was born of the Virgin Mary. He came to the world to shine light into the hearts and minds of all and to reflect back to each of us the evil within us by becoming the lamb that we tormented in life and tortured to death on a cross. If the ugliness in each of us can kill a sinless lamb, then there is no true justice on this earth for what true justice would permit us to exist so freely under such circumstance yet we continue to do so as we forgive ourselves again and again so much so that evilness has become neutral and acceptable as part of an ordinary life. If there had ever been a Christmas that has brought unconditional love to the forefront and peace to the hearts of people, that Christmas with the gift of fulfillment is not with us anymore.
The Christmas we have today is a belief that money is the solution and when it runs out, a government machine will simply print more of it. The government, Satan's puppet, has become "God" and all of its promises are curses of emptiness. Emptiness gives rise to endless cravings and cravings are what many, many people have in their hearts and minds today. Francis of Assisi is the only person whom I am aware of who truly put into practice Christ's lesson: to give to Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar and give to God what belongs to God, and rejected Satan fully. To me, he is the true saint. He gave us the Nativity scene which is being rejected time and again by the power of Satan's government.
Therefore, the present, a time that is dominated by secularism, Christmas is merely a holiday without God, without Christ and the all-loving and beloved Virgin Mary. Nonetheless, on this Christmas Day, I would like to end my thoughts with a personal prayer: Dear Lord, as I take my every step with time toward my grave, please do not ever leave me, stay with me always, and continually guide me back onto the path toward You each time I stray.
Christmas is a belief that Jesus, son of God, was born of the Virgin Mary. He came to the world to shine light into the hearts and minds of all and to reflect back to each of us the evil within us by becoming the lamb that we tormented in life and tortured to death on a cross. If the ugliness in each of us can kill a sinless lamb, then there is no true justice on this earth for what true justice would permit us to exist so freely under such circumstance yet we continue to do so as we forgive ourselves again and again so much so that evilness has become neutral and acceptable as part of an ordinary life. If there had ever been a Christmas that has brought unconditional love to the forefront and peace to the hearts of people, that Christmas with the gift of fulfillment is not with us anymore.
The Christmas we have today is a belief that money is the solution and when it runs out, a government machine will simply print more of it. The government, Satan's puppet, has become "God" and all of its promises are curses of emptiness. Emptiness gives rise to endless cravings and cravings are what many, many people have in their hearts and minds today. Francis of Assisi is the only person whom I am aware of who truly put into practice Christ's lesson: to give to Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar and give to God what belongs to God, and rejected Satan fully. To me, he is the true saint. He gave us the Nativity scene which is being rejected time and again by the power of Satan's government.
Therefore, the present, a time that is dominated by secularism, Christmas is merely a holiday without God, without Christ and the all-loving and beloved Virgin Mary. Nonetheless, on this Christmas Day, I would like to end my thoughts with a personal prayer: Dear Lord, as I take my every step with time toward my grave, please do not ever leave me, stay with me always, and continually guide me back onto the path toward You each time I stray.
Thoughts on Christmas Day - December 25, 2012
Wherever there is God, Satan is not far away. Both can be present within us. We become the ugliest when we think that we are on God's side when in fact we are playing into the hands of the disguised Satan and when we do, we are not its victim but its master for only when we allow Satan to control us will we be controlled by evil.
To see Satan is to see the truth and the truth is hard to accept for who is willing to accept the regretful but very real fact that he/she is truly evil by masking envy in empathy, by injecting theft into trust or by killing kindness with fraud and betrayal?
To see Satan is to see the truth and the truth is hard to accept for who is willing to accept the regretful but very real fact that he/she is truly evil by masking envy in empathy, by injecting theft into trust or by killing kindness with fraud and betrayal?
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