Welcome

Welcome to All. This blog is a discussion site, looking at our lives through our experiences, our spiritual, and, not so spiritual lens, ....what our lives look like at The Front. We are and some would argue, always have been, in interesting times. Servants, past and present have been at constant struggle with whatever the issues of the day have been. Where do we even begin to name them: poverty, hunger, education, shelter, .... and did I mention poverty? Fifty-one years ago, President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty, a war by the way, we're still fighting. Then again, we've always been at war with poverty, and yet poverty has remained steadfast. Jesus apparently got it right: "The poor will always be with you." But Jesus was a smart man. Did he mean what we think? Does poverty always have to be with us. Let's talk about this, and whatever else, in real and truthful ways. Let's view our lives from The Front.
If you have come to help me, then you are wasting your time. If you have come because your liberation is linked to mine, then we will work together.
----(Anonymous) Australian Aborigine Activist
--mailto:--neilpitts@aol.com

Contemplative Action

The Rite of Initiation: You are going to die


A shocking statement. Perhaps. But the Franciscan Priest, Richard Rohr,,who has studied the Rite of Initiation has said the following::

"Every initiation rite I've studied had some ritual, dramatic, or theatrical way to experience crossing the threshold from life to death in symbolic form. Some ritual of death and resurrection was the centerpiece of all male initiation. It is probably why Jesus sought out and submitted to John the Baptist's offbeat death and rebirth ritual down by the riverside, when his own temple had become more concerned with purity codes than with transformation. It is probably why Jesus kept talking to his disciples, three times in Mark's Gospel, about the necessity of this death journey, and why three times they changed the subject (8:31-10:45). It is undoubtedly why Jesus finally stopped talking about it, and just did it, not ritually but actually. Death and resurrection, the paschal mystery, is the theme of every single Eucharist no matter what the feast or season. It takes us many seasons and even years to overcome our resistance to death.

"The transformational journey of death and resurrection is the only real message. It makes you indestructible. The real life, God's life, is running through you and in you already. But allowing it to flow freely doesn't come easily. When you do, the spiritual journey really begins. Up to that moment it is just religion. Everything up to then is creating the container, but you have not yet found the contents; you are creating the wineskins, as Jesus says, but you are not yet drinking the intoxicating wine."

Monday, May 4, 2020

We're all lookin' for some change.... and a prayer

Something to think about...We're all looking for some change..

On my way to class last week,, running a bit late, not much time to spare, and surprised to see "Tracey" across the street from my driveway rolling a shopping cart with what appeared to be all of his belongings, A bit of an incongruency in our neighborhood, but there he was. A slight rain had begun to fall, and so I pulled along side him, pulling out of the drive way, to offer him an umbrella.
Trying to get his attention and rolling down my passenger side window:, "Hey man,... you ok?" "Naw, man, been walkin' from Germantown,... "I'm homeless, and need something to eat". I looked at the apple I had on my seat, just pulled out of the fridge, but he himself acknowledged that he "didn't have any teeth",..."Do you have anything you can give me? Having only some change in a cup in my car,...I gave him a few dollars, and told him about the 7-11 just around the corner on 5th street, There, he could buy a cup of coffee. But then, he had another request,..."Can you say a prayer for me?" And I asked him his name, and we prayed together before he headed to 5th street and the 7-11 and I headed to SW Philadelphia to teach my class.


We're all looking for some change.... Had me thinking about, and playing, the Keb Mo song about "Beggin' for some change". Its words are telling and meaningful in these uncertain times, where there is tremendous need all around us. Just look up and it'll smack you and sometimes even startle you. But, according to Keb Mo, we can help each other through the pain. Take a listen, Keb Mo' -Change
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How is it, I wonder that in this age of COVID-19,  we can think of anything but change?  All has been revealed.: The Brokenness, teh chards, the fragments, all our pain and hurts.  "Normal" is not where its at. In fact, when you hear someone talk of normal,.... its a red flag,.. they clearly aren't paying attention and need to be shocked from their malaise  to bring some life to their glazed vision. All things are made new.  A fellow called Jesus once said that ,.. to his disciples, on the mount of Olives,,  I can't remember where,... but he knew we'd be laid bare. He knew that the time would come, perhaps many times over the coming millenia, that a "Newness", a washing, a re-thinking,,.would be needed.  And now in all its splendor something even called New,.. the Novel Coronavirus has stopped us in our tracks, It literally demands that we seek something new,.. coming out of our normal into the change out of our "normal" into the change that all of us have been looking for.  So on this rainy day in October,, Tracey reminded me of that. and so here it is, even the virus was born anew.

I don't know about you, but I'm taking this time at home to figure out where's the change I need,  Where do I need to be made new.  A complete makeover, perhaps? The peculiar thing is that somehow I think my "newness" is connected to your.  The lies I discard about myself will need to be gathered up and cast aside next to the lies you've told yourself about you,. and then maybe we can emerge  reborn together. Maybe this is what He was talking about when he said everyone  needs rebirth,  Are you in?
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