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During the time when regulation prohibit all religious gatherings a weekly contemplation is sent to congregants with which thy may accompany the Act of Consecration from home.
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The Incomplete Resurrection
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
This red sandstone cross, dated to be from well before the year 1000CE, can startle when the eye stops to rest and really look at it. We are used to seeing many different expressions of Jesus Christ on the cross, but almost always they are shown with a full body, the dying or resurrecting body. Here is a stark simple cross. At the point where the polar directions converge, at the ‘crossing point of the cross’, a countenance appears. Only this. In pure, carefully structured and ordered 3-dimensional plasticity. Space-filling, it creates face-to-face presence, while giving and creating space for the beholder to also be present. The closed eyes suggest that more than only outer seeing, also an inner beholding, is active. The gentle slant of the head strikes a tone of invitation and acceptance, instead of sternness or judgement. In its detail all the components of threefold-ness and fourfold-ness appear: the signature of the divine human organisation as it manifests in time and space.
Might this cross with its all-permeating red hue be an expression of the resurrecting Christ? Resurrection not as a finished deed, but as a continual process of overcoming death?
This red sandstone cross, dated to be from well before the year 1000CE, can startle when the eye stops to rest and really look at it. We are used to seeing many different expressions of Jesus Christ on the cross, but almost always they are shown with a full body, the dying or resurrecting body. Here is a stark simple cross. At the point where the polar directions converge, at the ‘crossing point of the cross’, a countenance appears. Only this. In pure, carefully structured and ordered 3-dimensional plasticity. Space-filling, it creates face-to-face presence, while giving and creating space for the beholder to also be present. The closed eyes suggest that more than only outer seeing, also an inner beholding, is active. The gentle slant of the head strikes a tone of invitation and acceptance, instead of sternness or judgement. In its detail all the components of threefold-ness and fourfold-ness appear: the signature of the divine human organisation as it manifests in time and space.
Might this cross with its all-permeating red hue be an expression of the resurrecting Christ? Resurrection not as a finished deed, but as a continual process of overcoming death?
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Here resurrection shows itself as an unfinished process. As if it begins in that human place where the light of awareness to Self is ignited. The one place we can fully take charge of. Where we can control our actions of what to absorb, order, separate, dissolve; then connect and order anew, and comprehend.
“(In death) one needs a reference point, a container, a vessel on the sea of spirit… The power of thinking must have enough strength to be resilient and remain present as the soul releases from the body and expands: like the ground on which we walk has to be solid like crystal, so that we can push ourselves off from it.” (R. Steiner)
Our daylight-persona carries within a higher Mensch. Shrouded in darkness is that truly full-bodied human spirit being in us, waiting to be wrested free by walking the way of the cross. Maybe Christ needs us, so that his Deed of overcoming death into resurrection can be completed?
“(In death) one needs a reference point, a container, a vessel on the sea of spirit… The power of thinking must have enough strength to be resilient and remain present as the soul releases from the body and expands: like the ground on which we walk has to be solid like crystal, so that we can push ourselves off from it.” (R. Steiner)
Our daylight-persona carries within a higher Mensch. Shrouded in darkness is that truly full-bodied human spirit being in us, waiting to be wrested free by walking the way of the cross. Maybe Christ needs us, so that his Deed of overcoming death into resurrection can be completed?
The Mystery of Faith
by Rev. Michaël Merle
The Easter Mystery – the mystic presence, hidden religious significance of the Resurrection – is at the heart of the Mystery of Faith. It is the belief in divine revelation that lies beyond human understanding, but which connects us to the encounter with the divine. Here we are well able to consider the old formula of the Mystery of Faith:
Christ has Died, Christ is Risen, Christ will Come Again
In our renewed view of Easter and the Mystery it reveals we come to realise that this new faith as expressed in a new confession lives not in our feeling for the encounter with the divine but in our renewed thinking. Our new Mystery of Faith is thought in us:
Christ’s suffering and death, His resurrection, His revelation in all ages of the earth to come.
For in the Mystery of Easter we come to hear the words of transubstantiation: Take with the Bread, Take with the Wine … My Body, My Blood, but we also hear: And he went on …
These new words of confession and faith rest in the giving again to humankind the Mystery of Godhead. What is Godhead? It is the essence or substance (ousia) of God. Humankind is given again the divine nature of God. Divinity is given once more to humankind. Through Christ’s death as a human being, human beings enter into a renewed life possibility – a life that is the life of Christ, the creating life of the Father’s divine substance in the light of the Spirit.
“Ever since the creation of the world, the supersensible nature of the divine Being (Godhead) has been spiritually perceptible in the kingdoms of creation: His eternal creative power and His divine greatness. Therefore there is no excuse for the human beings who fail to relate to the divine world with reverence, praise and gratitude, since they are able to perceive that world. In their thinking they have ended up with a void, and therefore their hearts have become blind and darkened.” (St Paul’s Letter to the Christian Community in Rome, Chapter 1, verses 20-21, Jon Madsen’s translation of Emil Bock’s translation).
This is expressed in our Passiontide Epistle: “… empty is the place of your heart, …”
“But now, true being, the divine righteousness, has appeared … that true divine being (Godhead) which Man can attain when he unites himself in faith with Christ. The way is open to all who have faith. In that, there is no distinction, … the way to the true being is open again to all human beings, without merit, purely as a gift of grace from God: through the salvation that has come about through Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3: 21-22, 24)
This is expressed in our Easter Epistle: ‘The grave is empty, The heart is full …”
The Mystery of Faith is found in Godhead being again given to Man.
The Easter Mystery – the mystic presence, hidden religious significance of the Resurrection – is at the heart of the Mystery of Faith. It is the belief in divine revelation that lies beyond human understanding, but which connects us to the encounter with the divine. Here we are well able to consider the old formula of the Mystery of Faith:
Christ has Died, Christ is Risen, Christ will Come Again
In our renewed view of Easter and the Mystery it reveals we come to realise that this new faith as expressed in a new confession lives not in our feeling for the encounter with the divine but in our renewed thinking. Our new Mystery of Faith is thought in us:
Christ’s suffering and death, His resurrection, His revelation in all ages of the earth to come.
For in the Mystery of Easter we come to hear the words of transubstantiation: Take with the Bread, Take with the Wine … My Body, My Blood, but we also hear: And he went on …
These new words of confession and faith rest in the giving again to humankind the Mystery of Godhead. What is Godhead? It is the essence or substance (ousia) of God. Humankind is given again the divine nature of God. Divinity is given once more to humankind. Through Christ’s death as a human being, human beings enter into a renewed life possibility – a life that is the life of Christ, the creating life of the Father’s divine substance in the light of the Spirit.
“Ever since the creation of the world, the supersensible nature of the divine Being (Godhead) has been spiritually perceptible in the kingdoms of creation: His eternal creative power and His divine greatness. Therefore there is no excuse for the human beings who fail to relate to the divine world with reverence, praise and gratitude, since they are able to perceive that world. In their thinking they have ended up with a void, and therefore their hearts have become blind and darkened.” (St Paul’s Letter to the Christian Community in Rome, Chapter 1, verses 20-21, Jon Madsen’s translation of Emil Bock’s translation).
This is expressed in our Passiontide Epistle: “… empty is the place of your heart, …”
“But now, true being, the divine righteousness, has appeared … that true divine being (Godhead) which Man can attain when he unites himself in faith with Christ. The way is open to all who have faith. In that, there is no distinction, … the way to the true being is open again to all human beings, without merit, purely as a gift of grace from God: through the salvation that has come about through Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3: 21-22, 24)
This is expressed in our Easter Epistle: ‘The grave is empty, The heart is full …”
The Mystery of Faith is found in Godhead being again given to Man.
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
Wherever there is a source of light, there is also a defined sphere of radiance around it. One can notice the tangible difference between being within the sphere of its radiance or outside of it, especially if other sensations like warmth, cold, fear or comfort are evoked through this relating. Approaching a campfire, for instance, the transition from being in pitch-dark walking toward this orb of light and being outside of it, until slowly moving into it and becoming completely immersed in it is dramatic.
Every human being is an original source of light. That it matters what quality of radiance emanates from this source is what painters wanted to indicate by drawing a halo around a person’s head. In our funeral service the earnest words are spoken that we are ‘beholden to the Spirit’ for all that we do in thought, in word and in deed. We are all influencers.
Luke 8: 16: No one lights a lamp and covers it with a vessel or hides it away, but puts it on a stand where all my see it.
The greatest source of light is the sun. The transition from darkest night to dawn to suddenly being immersed in full sunlight and vice versa in the evening is dramatic. Every day we practice going through this, also as an emotional and mental experience.
John 8: ‘A woman had been caught in adultery and they placed her in the middle…’
They placed her into the midst of the sphere of the Son light. The accusers remained more peripheral. This light sphere emanated from a living human source and was also ‘beholden to The Spirit’. It affected each person present in its sphere, differently, and yet the same. Each person was suddenly acutely aware of their own relationship to the same primal source, it could not be hidden or covered up. Each one present had a very deep need and yearning, differently, and yet the same in essence. This had brought them together in that moment. Every day the sun brings opportunity for renewed heart-to-heartlight to ignite.
Maybe that is the true purpose of the sun rising and setting?
Wherever there is a source of light, there is also a defined sphere of radiance around it. One can notice the tangible difference between being within the sphere of its radiance or outside of it, especially if other sensations like warmth, cold, fear or comfort are evoked through this relating. Approaching a campfire, for instance, the transition from being in pitch-dark walking toward this orb of light and being outside of it, until slowly moving into it and becoming completely immersed in it is dramatic.
Every human being is an original source of light. That it matters what quality of radiance emanates from this source is what painters wanted to indicate by drawing a halo around a person’s head. In our funeral service the earnest words are spoken that we are ‘beholden to the Spirit’ for all that we do in thought, in word and in deed. We are all influencers.
Luke 8: 16: No one lights a lamp and covers it with a vessel or hides it away, but puts it on a stand where all my see it.
The greatest source of light is the sun. The transition from darkest night to dawn to suddenly being immersed in full sunlight and vice versa in the evening is dramatic. Every day we practice going through this, also as an emotional and mental experience.
John 8: ‘A woman had been caught in adultery and they placed her in the middle…’
They placed her into the midst of the sphere of the Son light. The accusers remained more peripheral. This light sphere emanated from a living human source and was also ‘beholden to The Spirit’. It affected each person present in its sphere, differently, and yet the same. Each person was suddenly acutely aware of their own relationship to the same primal source, it could not be hidden or covered up. Each one present had a very deep need and yearning, differently, and yet the same in essence. This had brought them together in that moment. Every day the sun brings opportunity for renewed heart-to-heartlight to ignite.
Maybe that is the true purpose of the sun rising and setting?
'Light is Love, Sun-Spirit Revealing’
Christ – Who Has His Being In Love
by Rev. Michaël Merle
The three set Gospel readings for Epiphany – The Visit of the Magi, The Twelve-Year-old in the Temple, and The Wedding Feast at Cana (where the first sign is performed by Christ) – is followed on the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany with a Gospel reading that presents a healing. With the four Sundays concluded we enter into February with a brief period of reflection before entering Passiontide. Many Christians celebrate 2 February as Candlemas (the fortieth day after 25 December: Christmas Day), thereby bringing the Christmas and Epiphany times to a conclusion. What does this period after forty days of Christmas and Epiphany bring us?
Hans-Werner Schroeder puts it very well, as follows:
“In (the parables that will be read in this time in The Act of Consecration of Man) Christ teaches humanity. The teachings of Christ, however, must be understood correctly. Under no circumstances should we imagine anything which may be compared to the abstract, dry instruction which (may pass) as teaching today. In his teaching, Christ did not speak to the understanding of those who listened to him, but he led living forces from the spiritual world into the souls of the people. This is indicated in the gospels with the words (we shall hear on Sunday, 6 February): ‘For he taught as one in whom the creating powers themselves are at work; not in the usual style of the scribes’ (Matthew 7: 29 – Emil Bock’s translation rendered in English by Jon Madsen). This must be borne in mind if we are to understand the significance of the change from Epiphany – Christ uniting himself with humanity – to what now follows. During Epiphany the light of Christ begins to radiate from Jesus, revealing itself in love, and in the powers of transformation and healing. The people experience this revelation as something deeply affecting and changing their lives. Now they are to begin to understand what is happening for their sakes. For only when an experience becomes part of our understanding will it be possible for us to take it further.”
The parables that will come to us in the readings of February are the parable of the labourers in the vineyard and the parable of the sower and the seeds (from Matthew 20 and Luke 8). These two parables will reveal to us something of the mysterious nature of Christ’s teaching encountered in the new aspects of love. May our understanding grow for what has happened for our sakes, and may the love at the heart of these parables become part of our experience of life so that we may take our renewed understanding further.
The three set Gospel readings for Epiphany – The Visit of the Magi, The Twelve-Year-old in the Temple, and The Wedding Feast at Cana (where the first sign is performed by Christ) – is followed on the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany with a Gospel reading that presents a healing. With the four Sundays concluded we enter into February with a brief period of reflection before entering Passiontide. Many Christians celebrate 2 February as Candlemas (the fortieth day after 25 December: Christmas Day), thereby bringing the Christmas and Epiphany times to a conclusion. What does this period after forty days of Christmas and Epiphany bring us?
Hans-Werner Schroeder puts it very well, as follows:
“In (the parables that will be read in this time in The Act of Consecration of Man) Christ teaches humanity. The teachings of Christ, however, must be understood correctly. Under no circumstances should we imagine anything which may be compared to the abstract, dry instruction which (may pass) as teaching today. In his teaching, Christ did not speak to the understanding of those who listened to him, but he led living forces from the spiritual world into the souls of the people. This is indicated in the gospels with the words (we shall hear on Sunday, 6 February): ‘For he taught as one in whom the creating powers themselves are at work; not in the usual style of the scribes’ (Matthew 7: 29 – Emil Bock’s translation rendered in English by Jon Madsen). This must be borne in mind if we are to understand the significance of the change from Epiphany – Christ uniting himself with humanity – to what now follows. During Epiphany the light of Christ begins to radiate from Jesus, revealing itself in love, and in the powers of transformation and healing. The people experience this revelation as something deeply affecting and changing their lives. Now they are to begin to understand what is happening for their sakes. For only when an experience becomes part of our understanding will it be possible for us to take it further.”
The parables that will come to us in the readings of February are the parable of the labourers in the vineyard and the parable of the sower and the seeds (from Matthew 20 and Luke 8). These two parables will reveal to us something of the mysterious nature of Christ’s teaching encountered in the new aspects of love. May our understanding grow for what has happened for our sakes, and may the love at the heart of these parables become part of our experience of life so that we may take our renewed understanding further.
Red Vineyard by Vincent van Gogh
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The Sower by Vincent van Gogh
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Setting Beginnings
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by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
From the stars I have descended – Every soul descends with a life purpose. We can make a commitment now anew to this purpose. Even if we do not have words to formulate what it is in our mind, we can know it is there and hold it in heart’s warmth. To the stars I will uplift myself -- Only the human being can set beginnings, decide to create new beginnings. Freely. The 1st of January as a date for the beginning of a new year is set by human decision, not founded on nature or cultural incentives. Other cultures have set other dates, e.g. the Ethiopian New Year falls on 11 September, while the Chinese New Year is established by the moon and the sun and occurs between 21 January and 20 February. Yes, we can set intentions and commit to them! We can decide to shift from ego-based intentions to soul-based intentions. Individually and communally, we have the capacity to commit to our higher purpose. Freely, knowingly, reliably committed. With Michael I will act – Desmond Tutu has given an example what it means to act with the spirit of St. Michael: fearlessly acting and speaking up (or: not allowing fear to dictate action), being receptive to what is true through a practice of staying connected with the source of existence; with absolute immediate trust in intuition working from the higher mind of conscience; bringing this into action, even proactively; and yet always returning to equanimity. With Christ will I live – Shining our light without reserve; knowing, feeling and owning our worthiness; being in forgiveness, gratitude and peace. Every day, every step a beginning and a fulfilment of going toward our future Self. (In italics: a verse by Rudolf Steiner)
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Painting by Iris Sullivan
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