Christmas may have come and gone almost a week ago, but liturgically at least, we are still in the Christmas Season until Epiphany on January 6th.

As this is being recorded on New Year’s Eve, I thought I’d share a simple meditation of some beautiful Epiphany prayers to closer out our earthly remembrance of the year 2022 and to embark with surer footing on that path to Epiphany this year where we ask to be like the Magi, transformed, enkindled, renewed by God’s manifestation of the Light of the World within and through our own lives.

For those of you who observe Lent and Easter, I hope that yours was a blessed Lenten season and Easter celebration.  I hope that all listeners have had a blessed Winter and the budding leaves and flowers and green of Spring instills hope to the beauty of this year that lies ahead.

During Lent, I came across this quote from David Benner which really spoke to my soul:

“We are created from love, of love, for love.  Our existence makes no sense apart from Divine Love.” — David G. Banner

It is so easy in the hustle and bustle of life to forget this.  It is so easy in the polarized society we live in to forget that all those we meet are also create from love, of love, for love.  The news cycles and the media incite us to boycott, to shame, to call out, to ostracize those we who do not believe as we do.  While not enabling and turning a blind eye to those who oppress, to those who discriminate, to those who sew fear, to those who bend the truth, we must all come back to that center of knowing, of living, of reflecting that great truth that all of God’s children are loved by God and you will never look into the eyes of another person whom Divine Love does not love. 

So I thought we’d take time to unwind at this moment of time and sit down, relax, take a deep breath.  To get comfortable and preferably seated away from our phone, away from a clock.  To somehow stop the measure of minutes in our day and minutes we can afford to “make time” to spend in that truth of the Love of Divine Love.  To close our eyes, breath in, and just be for a moment with that Love.  For it is in moments like these, moments with our loved ones and friends that fond, consoling, comforting memories are made.

omorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US.  A time when we gather together with family and friends giving thanks for the abundance and opportunity we have in our wonderful democratic republic.  

I am looking forward to tomorrow’s Thanksgiving holiday.  I hope you are too.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday by far.  Has been to some degree since I was a kid.

Over the years, I have gathered and celebrated Thanksgiving in the home I grew up in, the various homes of friends and neighbors, a parish hall of a church, the homes that I have lived in as an adult, the homes of various family members.

I’ve gathered in Tulsa, New Bedford, Tukwila, Boston, Hudson, New Ipswich, Louisa, Virginia Beach, Huntingdon, Floyd and Palymyra with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving.

I’ve gathered with beloved family members, beloved friends and acquaintances old and new.  I’ve gathered with friends and family of all faiths — Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and those who don’t subscribe to any one in particular or those who let their subscriptions expire long ago journeying along, hoping to find a renewal of faith, always eager to gather and give thanks and gratitude for the abundance we enjoy in our beloved democratic republic.

I’ve gathered with people on the right, on the left, and those just present with no need to pick a side or color.  I’ve gathered with those who support and affirm you, those who like to push your buttons, those who roll their eyes as you are just you, those who love and cherish you being you.

I’ve gathered with many no longer physically present on this earthly journey, with many still present on their earthly journey.  I’ve gathered in person.  I’ve gathered on the phone — you know those friends and family that Thanksgiving, Christmas and their birthday may be the only times you talk to one another.  I’ve gathered on cold Thanksgivings, on mild Thanksgivings where I walked along the beach with only a light sweater on, on rainy dreary Thanksgivings, on sunny bright Thanksgivings.

Each and every Thanksgiving gathering I’ve attended I cherish in my heart.  There may have been tension between some of the hosts and hostesses and attendees and friends and family members.  There may have been differences of opinion, of faith, of what it was each of us were thankful for.  

It’s not the tensions I remember.  It’s not the petty things said, thought, expressed that I remember.  It’s not the food — no gathering was lacking in that.  Nor the drinks or dessert.  It’s not the topics discussed I remember.  It’s not the opinions or politics of the attendees present at each gathering.

What I remember most about each gathering were the moments where I was able to steal away from my ego and tap into my heart energy, my higher self and realize it was in these gathered moments that memories are made, that love is recorded, that the wonder of having an opportunity be it ever so rare to gather with friends, family, and acquaintances and offer thanksgiving each in our own way transcended time, space, here and now, and all our individual differences.  Somehow in that moment, we weren’t just brother, sister, mother, father, niece, nephew, aunt, uncle, grandfather, grandmother, son, daughter, or friend.  We were all united by our toddling along, attempting as best we can to express gratitude in this journey and to reflect that great Love from which we all come. 

I hope that you have memories of similar gatherings and similar experiences of the eternal power of love in your life as well.

I thought today’s imaginal prayer, would be one of imaginally gathering with our ancestors, our spirit guides, and those we’ve known in this life who have passed over in spirit to help us prepare for the big celebration with family and friends.

Spei Lumina has been on a hiatus of sorts since April.  My apologies for the long delay in publishing a new episode of imaginal prayer during these trying times.  If you are like me, the polarity and division that continues within our society and culture between the Left and the Right, Conservatives and Liberals, Maskers and Anti-Maskers, Vaccinated and Unvaccinated in this ongoing post COVID-19 pandemic is truly wearing to your soul.  It’s hard to be that reflector of Light, of Hope, of Truth when all around us is division and scorn for the other and those who don’t agree with us.  

I’ve been reading some old metaphysical and spiritualist journals and papers from the 1800’s to early 20th century.  From 1934 - 1937, Joseph Benner of Akron, OH published a periodical titled The Inner Life - The Herald of the New Age.  Benner was the owner of SUN PUBLISHING CO. in Akron, OH.  He wrote many books, his most notable was, “The Impersonal Life.” Also known as “The I AM teaching.”

Elvis Presley was known to have been introduced to this book by one of his acquaintances and it was supposedly one of his favorite book that he gave away hundreds of copies of the book during his lifetime.  

In the July, 1937 issue of The Inner Life there is an article entitled, “A Challenge to Metaphysicians”  wherein the author asks his brothers and sisters in spiritual ministry to consider developing the Christ Consciousness within all by starting their meetings with his proposed invocation and prayers outlined int he article.

What follows is my adaptation of his invocations as an imaginal prayer exercise, helping us to invite that Light of the Christ consciousness within so that we in turn may broadcast that Light, that Love, that truth out to all in these trying times.

I hope you will join me in this imaginal prayer exercise grounding ourselves in the Christ consciousness within each of us and emanating and broadcasting that Light and power and love out to all.

This episode is dedicated to the memory, ministry, and mission of the article’s author who is known simply by the initials H.F.C.

It seems to me we live in a time where more and more people are being devalued.  Where corporate rights appear to be growing at the expense of individual rights.  Where, in the age of Artificial Intelligence or AI, many services including customer support and chat support are being replaced by AI bots that supposedly provide the same level of service as their human counterparts once did.  The trend seems to be an expanding devaluation of the human person and with this expansion a greater denial of the existence of that which truly provides us value — the soul.  

Our value comes from the spark of the divine that innately exists in each and every person.  Our value comes in helping nourish that spark within ourselves and shining the light of that spark brightly so as to nourish and heal and restore awareness of that spark within for those individuals directly impacted by this expansion of devaluation of the person.

I recently came across the Gnostic influenced Manichaean writings that really seemed to speak to my soul.  Manichaeism would be condemned by the Latin Church as a heresy, the Manichaean writings provide a richness that speaks more true to the human condition as a soul embodied, incarnated in this physical body we live and experience this earthly life than most of the Christian spiritual writings ever shed on the soul.   I hope you too find it just as enriching as I did.

In this age we live in with so much dissension and rhetoric dividing humanity across the globe, I thought it important to remind ourselves of the mandatum Christ left his followers, “To love one another as I have loved you.”  The love that Christ was speaking about and instructed and lived out by example is not solely a feeling, or an emotion, rather, it is a dimension with which to live your life.  The dimension of love connects you to the divine in a way that no other dimension, no other emotion, no other feeling or thought can.

Please join me.

A year ago, we closed out 2019 and welcomed 2020 by offering our minds, hearts and wills to allow the Light, Love and Purpose of the Mind of God to enter us through praying the Great Invocation.

What a year it has been.  

Who would have imagined that 2020 would bring us the global COVID-19 pandemic and all that resulted from it — the deaths, the infections, the social isolation, the economic impact locally, nationally and globally?  

Who would have imagined how contentious the U.S. 2020 Presidential election would be and that we’d have a sitting president long after the electoral college met and voted fail to concede the election to his successor?

Who would have imagined the long overdue cry for racial justice and equality here in the United States rising to a fever pitch and challenging all Americans to acknowledge the Black Lives Matter movement? 

Although I haven’t enjoyed all of the social isolation; nor the ugliness and shadow we were all faced to deal with within ourselves and observed in others; nor the economic impact this shutdown and continued responses to curtail the spread of COVID-19 has wreaked upon the livelihoods of friends, family, and neighbors; nor the suffering and struggle those who came down with COVID-19 went through; nor the sadness, grief, and pain those who lost their battle with COVID-19 went through — many isolated and alone without family in the hospital and the grief their loved ones left to mourn them had to go through — many not able to gather together in person with their larger family and clan to celebrate the life of their loved one who died of COVID-19, 2020 will always be a special year for me. 

In the last hours of 2020 I have to look back and realize 2020 has not been a total wash out for me. I hope I can keep the awareness and knowledge I’ve gained in 2020 to help shape all the New Years ahead 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024….

May we all take the awareness and growth gained from 2020 and do our part to make all the New Years ahead better and better and better.

As I said last year, I have a strong feeling that 2020 and the decade it will define is going to be a tremendously blessed time for humanity, for light workers, for the cosmos as we all grow in awareness and raise our vibrations to the higher realms.

I can think of no better way to close out 2020 and eagerly anticipate 2021 and the decade that is bursting to unfold within the cosmos than to imaginary pray Alice Bailey’s “The Great Invocation.”  

I hope you will be able to participate in this imaginal prayer as 2020 comes to an end and 2021 begins.  Regardless of if you are able to do it literally as 2020 ends and 2021 begins are several hours, days, weeks, months later — I know the collective power of all the intentions and imaginings of light within the cosmos will energetically illuminating the hearts, minds and souls of all within the cosmos.

Please join me. 

Welcome to Spei Lumina and day 9  the conclusion of our Novena honoring the Anima Mundi for All Souls day.  Today is all souls day — a day set aside by the church to remember all the faithful departed throughout the last year.  Year to date, worldwide, 1,206,312 people across the earth have died from COVID-19.  In the United States, 235,460 people have died from COVID-19.  In Mexico, 91,895 have died from COVID-19.  In Canada, 10,179 people have died.  Many of our brothers and sisters in North America are grieving the loss of a loved one to this pandemic this All Souls Day.  Let us remember the souls of all lost to this pandemic and those left to grieve their loss as we conclude our novena prayer to the Anima Mundi Day Number 9.  Our intention today is for Freedom and Liberty.

Novena, 9 days of devotion, 9 days of prayer, 9 ways of showing our dedication to connecting with spirit and interceding.  May these 9 days influence a greater connection to Spirit, to the Divine, to the Anima Mundi, the Soul of the World that is just the beginning of a greater relationship that serves to transform the rest of your life and is an ongoing relationship with your soul nourishing and restoring your soul and giving you moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day from now through eternity a greater trust and love of Spirit, the Divine, the Anima Mundi as you have come to know and experience these 9 days.

Please note in the show notes there is a link for the text version of today’s 9th Day Novena prayer on the Angels of the Nativity blog.

The text for today’s novena prayer can be found at: http://angelsofthenativity.org/2020/11/02/anima-mundi-all-souls-day-novena-day-9-for-freedom/

Welcome to Spei Lumina and day 8 of our Novena honoring the Anima Mundi for All Souls day.  This year, All Souls Day occurs on the eve of the US 2020 Presidential Election.  This election is positioned to be one of the most important elections in our lifetime.  Definitely one of the most important elections in over 50 years, not to mention perhaps the most contentious.  America’s democratic republic as we know it and the soul of America as some have coined it is at stake in this election.

Today, Sunday November1st we continue our Novena Prayer to the Anima Mundi Day Number 8.  Our intention today is for Integrity.

Also, please note in the show notes there is a link for the text version of today’s 8th Day Novena prayer on the Angels of the Nativity blog.

The text for today’s novena prayer can be found at: http://angelsofthenativity.org/2020/11/01/anima-mundi-all-souls-day-novena-day-8-for-justice/

Welcome to Spei Lumina and day 7 of our Novena honoring the Anima Mundi for All Souls day.  This year, All Souls Day occurs on the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election.  This election is positioned to be one of the most important elections in our lifetime.  Definitely one of the most important elections in over 50 years, not to mention perhaps the most contentious.  America’s democratic republic as we know it and the soul of America as some have coined it is at stake in this election.

Today, Saturday October 31st we continue our Novena Prayer to the Anima Mundi Day Number 7.  Our intention today is for Integrity.

Also, please note in the show notes there is a link for the text version of today’s 7th Day Novena prayer on the Angels of the Nativity blog.

The text for today’s novena prayer can be found at: http://angelsofthenativity.org/2020/10/31/anima-mundi-all-souls-day-novena-day-7-for-integrity/