In the quiet of the night, as I settled down to sleep beside my husband in our peaceful home on our peaceful street, we heard gun shots reverberate across the city. While I was drifting to sleep was someone bleeding, perhaps dying, from those shots we heard? This morning as I drank my tea was another woman sitting in a hospital waiting to hear whether her child was alive or dead from those bullets?
I've been back in LA for a year now. In many ways, it's been a very good year for me and my family. But the challenge of living in this vast cosmic soup of peace and violence, love and hate demands constant spiritual vigilance. I have to reach above the ripple effects of gunshots and pain to find the peace of God.
I felt rattled this morning. Reading the Homicide Report didn't help. Young men killed while the city plays. I got up and got busy, trying to lose my unsettled state of mind and spirit in busyness. But, it was no good. I needed quiet time, prayer time. Connection with the Lord.
How can you stand it, Lord? I ask. How can you bear witnessing the grief the violence leaves behind?
And the answer comes. I'm directed to this passage from A Course in Miracles:
Unshaken does the Holy Spirit look on what you see; on sin and pain and death, in grief and separation and on loss. Yet does He know one thing must still be true; God is still love, and this is not His Will.
And so I remember. We live in a fallen world. But God is still Love and he reaches out through time and space. He's constantly calling. We simply need to listen.
His Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So Be It,
Mother T
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
When Two Or More
My last post griped about rewards offered for injured dogs rather than murdered people. I'm happy to be proved wrong when a $50,000 reward was offered this week for a homeless man and a $10,000 reward for an Aisan shopkeeper murdered in her store.
Well, "happy" isn't the appropriate word. Hopeful, perhaps, that these deaths are not going unnoticed.
Still, my greater hope is that the pattern of violence can be altered. Jesus said, "Where two or more are gathered together, there am I."
The power of mass-prayer is potent. In 1993 followers of the Transcendental Meditation movement joined together to pray against violence in major crime areas. In a study of 24 cities, they found that if 1 percent of the population joined in group meditation, praying for peace, there was a 24 percent decrease in crime rates. Where 2% of the population prayed, there was an 89% decrease! (Information taken from The Field by Lynne McTaggart)
When the groups disbanded, crime rates returned to growth patterns.
The Bible calls for us to "pray unceasingly."
Believers need to come together and take authority over the forces of violence. LA is losing too many loved ones.
Lord, we come together to send light into the darkness. Change the hearts of those in the grasp of a violent spirit. Banish the forces of evil from LA. Soften hardened hearts and bring the healing power of forgiveness to your people.
So Be It,
Mother T
Well, "happy" isn't the appropriate word. Hopeful, perhaps, that these deaths are not going unnoticed.
Still, my greater hope is that the pattern of violence can be altered. Jesus said, "Where two or more are gathered together, there am I."
The power of mass-prayer is potent. In 1993 followers of the Transcendental Meditation movement joined together to pray against violence in major crime areas. In a study of 24 cities, they found that if 1 percent of the population joined in group meditation, praying for peace, there was a 24 percent decrease in crime rates. Where 2% of the population prayed, there was an 89% decrease! (Information taken from The Field by Lynne McTaggart)
When the groups disbanded, crime rates returned to growth patterns.
The Bible calls for us to "pray unceasingly."
Believers need to come together and take authority over the forces of violence. LA is losing too many loved ones.
Lord, we come together to send light into the darkness. Change the hearts of those in the grasp of a violent spirit. Banish the forces of evil from LA. Soften hardened hearts and bring the healing power of forgiveness to your people.
So Be It,
Mother T
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
A Dog's Life
The news this morning featured a story of a woman in Lancaster who called 911 after seeing a dog in her front yard engulfed in flames. Someone had deliberately set him on fire. After calling for help she ran out and threw her blouse on the animal and extingushed the blaze. Cameras caught images of the amazingly resilient animal receiving love pats in the yard. A $5,000 reward has been offered for information leading up to the arrest of the perpetrator.
In the Homicide Report is a string of senseless murders, one being a 14 year old Latino boy shot on Van Nuys Blvd. at 8:30 Monday morning after a public fist fight. So far, no witnesses have come forward.
No mention of any reward for information. A stray dog appears to have more value than a lost child.
Now, I'm not advocating creating a culture that rewards death, like families of suicide bombers being paid $25,000. But, the daily deaths of so many youths should at least bring as much concern as the welfare of a dog.
Oh Lord, help us each make a difference today in LA and spread a measure of your peace, kindness, and caring to the people who cross our paths.
So Be It,
Mother T
In the Homicide Report is a string of senseless murders, one being a 14 year old Latino boy shot on Van Nuys Blvd. at 8:30 Monday morning after a public fist fight. So far, no witnesses have come forward.
No mention of any reward for information. A stray dog appears to have more value than a lost child.
Now, I'm not advocating creating a culture that rewards death, like families of suicide bombers being paid $25,000. But, the daily deaths of so many youths should at least bring as much concern as the welfare of a dog.
Oh Lord, help us each make a difference today in LA and spread a measure of your peace, kindness, and caring to the people who cross our paths.
So Be It,
Mother T
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