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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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Freedom and Responsibility
by Rev. Michaël Merle
We are responsible for the exercise of our freedom. We often hear of the urge and drive to claim our freedom and to be able to exercise it without hindrance or limitation, but do we hear of the need to act in freedom out of a true sense of responsibility?
We can recognise that in the creative restlessness of every human being there beats and pulsates those elements that are a significant part of our deepest and truest humanity: a search for truth, the insatiable quest for good, a hunger for freedom, a sense of the beautiful, and a living connection to the Christ in us. It is this connection to the indwelling of Christ that enlivens our seeing of the other. Christ dwells in every human being, even if they are unaware of it. This is the element that is often described as human dignity. We reveal people’s dignity by upholding their freedom: working with them so that they do not become the slave of things, the slaves of economic systems, the slaves of production, the slaves of their own products, the slaves of a false thinking that traps them from finding their true inner freedom. Such forms of slavery (to which all of us are prone) lead to injustice and oppression.
Our ability to respond (which springs from freedom) holds us to continue in a way that brings us into a relationship to responsibility – and does not allow us to fall into reaction without thought, consideration, discernment and the exercise of clear and consequent judgment.
It is possible for us to expand on a motivational saying:
Without commitment (in freedom) nothing starts (as it should).
Without consistency (in full responsibility) nothing is completed (well and truly as intended).
The Act of Consecration of Man reminds us that we, as a community of the Christ, know him in freedom as our helping guide. May his guidance on the path of responsibility of soul bring us to that place of freedom in the spirit.
We are responsible for the exercise of our freedom. We often hear of the urge and drive to claim our freedom and to be able to exercise it without hindrance or limitation, but do we hear of the need to act in freedom out of a true sense of responsibility?
We can recognise that in the creative restlessness of every human being there beats and pulsates those elements that are a significant part of our deepest and truest humanity: a search for truth, the insatiable quest for good, a hunger for freedom, a sense of the beautiful, and a living connection to the Christ in us. It is this connection to the indwelling of Christ that enlivens our seeing of the other. Christ dwells in every human being, even if they are unaware of it. This is the element that is often described as human dignity. We reveal people’s dignity by upholding their freedom: working with them so that they do not become the slave of things, the slaves of economic systems, the slaves of production, the slaves of their own products, the slaves of a false thinking that traps them from finding their true inner freedom. Such forms of slavery (to which all of us are prone) lead to injustice and oppression.
Our ability to respond (which springs from freedom) holds us to continue in a way that brings us into a relationship to responsibility – and does not allow us to fall into reaction without thought, consideration, discernment and the exercise of clear and consequent judgment.
It is possible for us to expand on a motivational saying:
Without commitment (in freedom) nothing starts (as it should).
Without consistency (in full responsibility) nothing is completed (well and truly as intended).
The Act of Consecration of Man reminds us that we, as a community of the Christ, know him in freedom as our helping guide. May his guidance on the path of responsibility of soul bring us to that place of freedom in the spirit.
Looking for Fruits or Seeds?
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
A young contemporary writer described a dream. In his dream he comes into a store. Behind the counter is an angel. He asks: ‘What do you sell?’ The angel replies: ‘Anything you wish.’ So he begins to place his order: peace for everyone, food for all, health, abundance in nature, a happy family, … Then the angel responds and says: I’m sorry, you seem to have misunderstood me. We do not sell fruits. We only sell seeds.
When John the Baptist and Jesus met at the river Jordan, it was a time when people yearned and looked for a ‘strong leader to fix things’. These two, though, were searching for new possibilities: where to from here?
Between them that new step became possible. When John perceived how the spirit of God descended upon Jesus like a ‘pollinating’ impulse, and Jesus’ receptive soul took this cosmic I AM impulse into his soul, a completely new perspective and meaning for life opened up. The outer circumstances hadn’t changed, but how the focus and understanding of a greater context shift was dramatic. For the next 3 years this new seed in the soul of the human being Jesus took hold and grew in inner stature, comprehension and power of integrity, living in alignment with a wholeness of being. Then when the body of Jesus had been completely transformed and permeated right into the marrow of the bone by the inner fire of this aligned I AM, it was laid into the ‘grave of the earth’. Thus, the new spirit seed was also received into the body of the earth, which is now being slowly permeated and transformed, just as the body of Jesus had been transubstantiated: To bear the fruit of Resurrection, of birthing a new spirit organization, a possibility for further future becoming for all humankind together with the earth.
But…humans carry the conscious power of I AM. Humans have the power of freedom to direct their intentions and actions. Human souls carry that new seed which multiplied through the Deed of Resurrection. To actively look for opportunities where growth, greater comprehension and context can unfold is up to us. Individually, yet together, we create the conditions for this spirit seed sown into our soul to grow and be nurtured. We are seed bearers, each one of us. What untapped potential is available!
This is the clarion call that reaches us in some form every day. The call of St. John still resonates.
A young contemporary writer described a dream. In his dream he comes into a store. Behind the counter is an angel. He asks: ‘What do you sell?’ The angel replies: ‘Anything you wish.’ So he begins to place his order: peace for everyone, food for all, health, abundance in nature, a happy family, … Then the angel responds and says: I’m sorry, you seem to have misunderstood me. We do not sell fruits. We only sell seeds.
When John the Baptist and Jesus met at the river Jordan, it was a time when people yearned and looked for a ‘strong leader to fix things’. These two, though, were searching for new possibilities: where to from here?
Between them that new step became possible. When John perceived how the spirit of God descended upon Jesus like a ‘pollinating’ impulse, and Jesus’ receptive soul took this cosmic I AM impulse into his soul, a completely new perspective and meaning for life opened up. The outer circumstances hadn’t changed, but how the focus and understanding of a greater context shift was dramatic. For the next 3 years this new seed in the soul of the human being Jesus took hold and grew in inner stature, comprehension and power of integrity, living in alignment with a wholeness of being. Then when the body of Jesus had been completely transformed and permeated right into the marrow of the bone by the inner fire of this aligned I AM, it was laid into the ‘grave of the earth’. Thus, the new spirit seed was also received into the body of the earth, which is now being slowly permeated and transformed, just as the body of Jesus had been transubstantiated: To bear the fruit of Resurrection, of birthing a new spirit organization, a possibility for further future becoming for all humankind together with the earth.
But…humans carry the conscious power of I AM. Humans have the power of freedom to direct their intentions and actions. Human souls carry that new seed which multiplied through the Deed of Resurrection. To actively look for opportunities where growth, greater comprehension and context can unfold is up to us. Individually, yet together, we create the conditions for this spirit seed sown into our soul to grow and be nurtured. We are seed bearers, each one of us. What untapped potential is available!
This is the clarion call that reaches us in some form every day. The call of St. John still resonates.
He Who Truly Loves Me, Reveals My Spirit
by Rev. Michaël Merle
It is good to note that the Whitsun reading does not reflect the outer events of the coming of the Spirit upon the disciples but rather turns to the inner experience of Whitsun, hearing the message from John Chapter 14 (verses 23 to 31) proclaimed. These words spoken at the Last Supper, open with a verse which Rudolf Steiner indicated needed an interpretive translation: “He who truly loves me, reveals my spirit."
The traditional translation directly from the New Testament Greek text reads: “He who loves me, keeps my word” or “He who loves me, bears my word in himself.” So we may ponder how it is that we keep and bear the word of Christ in ourselves such that in this activity we are disposed to reveal the spirit of Christ, and thus be endowed by the great grace of Whitsun?
Later on in this passage from John 14 we hear that the Spirit will teach us everything we need to know and will gently awaken in us the memory of all that Christ has said to us? So, what do the words of Christ, which we all carry in spirit, once gently awakened, accomplish in us? Are these words not the instructive, life-generating words of the new creation: the full human being?
With Whitsun we encounter an extraordinary picture of our future (which is presently in the act of becoming). For not only will the Spirit of Truth teach us all we need to know (and all we need to be), the Spirit will also awaken in us the words that reveal Christ. Thus, we shall come to know and truly embody the idea: “Christ in Us”, and then the promise of the Father coming to abide in us will happen: “Whoever truly loves me, reveals my spirit through the bearing of my word in himself, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and abide with him forever.”
The fullness of God fills the human being, and the human being fully reveals God – thus the words of the Baptism in the Jordan addressed in regard to Jesus of Nazareth as the bearer of the Christ, become words for all future human beings: “This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am fully revealed.”
It is good to note that the Whitsun reading does not reflect the outer events of the coming of the Spirit upon the disciples but rather turns to the inner experience of Whitsun, hearing the message from John Chapter 14 (verses 23 to 31) proclaimed. These words spoken at the Last Supper, open with a verse which Rudolf Steiner indicated needed an interpretive translation: “He who truly loves me, reveals my spirit."
The traditional translation directly from the New Testament Greek text reads: “He who loves me, keeps my word” or “He who loves me, bears my word in himself.” So we may ponder how it is that we keep and bear the word of Christ in ourselves such that in this activity we are disposed to reveal the spirit of Christ, and thus be endowed by the great grace of Whitsun?
Later on in this passage from John 14 we hear that the Spirit will teach us everything we need to know and will gently awaken in us the memory of all that Christ has said to us? So, what do the words of Christ, which we all carry in spirit, once gently awakened, accomplish in us? Are these words not the instructive, life-generating words of the new creation: the full human being?
With Whitsun we encounter an extraordinary picture of our future (which is presently in the act of becoming). For not only will the Spirit of Truth teach us all we need to know (and all we need to be), the Spirit will also awaken in us the words that reveal Christ. Thus, we shall come to know and truly embody the idea: “Christ in Us”, and then the promise of the Father coming to abide in us will happen: “Whoever truly loves me, reveals my spirit through the bearing of my word in himself, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and abide with him forever.”
The fullness of God fills the human being, and the human being fully reveals God – thus the words of the Baptism in the Jordan addressed in regard to Jesus of Nazareth as the bearer of the Christ, become words for all future human beings: “This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am fully revealed.”
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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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