The Mystical Order of the White Rose » Daily Devotionals

January 24 Multi-faith, Multi-media Devotional

admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:50:36 +0000

Feast Day of St. Francis De Sales born: 1567–died: 1622

Patron saint of journalists.

“Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them–every day begin the task anew.”

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“Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.”

— St. Francis De Sales

Read about his life by clicking here.

De Sales book, “Introduction to the Devout Life” was a huge success in his lifetime. It is still a widely read and respected and is considered a spiritual classic. You can read a text version of it here.

The Golden Counsels of St. Francis De Sales — This is a very accessible, well organized and inspirational selection of “adapted” texts from De Sales. This devotional anthology could provide rich spiritual nourishment for weeks or months. Texts are written in contemporary English.

Salesian Spirituality Cyberspace Community

An unconscious instrument… Leo Tolstoy

admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:29:03 +0000

Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal aims of humanity.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

White Rose Photo from SpiceComments.com

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 06:41:22 +0000

Almost there…

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 06:04:51 +0000

January 21, 2010 Daily Devotional

Meditation Video: Relax Snow – Kokin Gumi – Zen Garden

How many mystics have suffered from feeling abandoned by God! In reality, God didn’t abandon them; it was they who failed to remain conscious of his presence. God never abandons us; it is within our own consciousness that these changes take place.

Of course, it is difficult to remain permanently convinced and to sense constantly that we are inhabited by the divine presence, but this is what we must work towards; we must make our entire being a temple to the supreme Being. Yes, not even a palace, but a temple. Of course, if you manage to make a palace of your inner being, it’s a start, but a palace lacks that element of
consecration found in a temple.

God will enter those who have succeeded in making themselves a temple, and he will never leave them again: the supreme Being does not leave a sanctuary that has been dedicated to himself, where he continues to be worshipped in purity and light.

– by Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (used with permission from Prosveta)

If you wish to visit Prosveta’s site to learn more about Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov and his writings, go to http://www.prosveta.com. While there, you can subscribe to a daily quotation service that provides spiritually stimulating and profound readings for mystics.

Jan. 18 Multi-faith, Multi-media Devotional

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:15:14 +0000

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY

Song: We Shall Overcome sung by Mahalia Jackson (video)

Song: Go Down Moses by Louis Armstrong (video)

In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be whatI ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. this is the inter-related structure of reality.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Video of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” Speech in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963

The King Center

MLK Online

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Sojourner Truth

“Ain’t I a Woman?” - Sojourner Truth (video)

Today’s Multi-faith, Multi-media Devotional

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:11:33 +0000

Video – Handel: Water Music — allegro.

With these outflowings, river-like, with deltas

that spread like arms to reach the open sea,

with the recurrent tides that never cease

will I acknowledge you, will I proclaim you

as no one ever has before.

— Rainer Maria Rilke from the poem Dedication translated by Albert Ernest Flemming

The Rainer Maria Rilke Archive – A collection of over 200 excerpts of Rilke’s poems and quotations from as variety of English translations.

Video and Music With Rainer Maria Rilke Quotations

Today’s Multi-faith, Multi-media Devotional

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:46:11 +0000

Video – The Beauty of Nature

Winter Feast for the Soul starts today.

January 15 — February 23

The inspiration for the Winter Feast of the Soul came out of a three-line Rumi poem:

What nine months does for the embryo,
Forty early mornings
Will do for your growing awareness.

Based on the success of the first Winter Feast in Idaho (2008), the interest that it generated across the globe, and the need for peace efforts at this time in our history, the founders decided to extend the outreach worldwide.

To learn more, visit the Winter Feast of the Soul website and watch their YouTube video.

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Amid the Falling Snow – Enya Song (video)

lyrics:

How I remember sleepless nights
When we would read by candlelight,
And on the windowpane outside
A new world made of snow;

A million feathers falling down,
A million stars that touch the ground,
So many secrets to be found
Amid the falling snow.

Maybe I am falling down.
Tell me should I touch the ground?
Maybe I won’t make a sound
In the darkness all around.

The silence of a winter’s night
Brings memories I hold inside;
Remembering a blue moonlight
Upon the fallen snow.

Maybe I am falling down.
Tell me should I touch the ground?
Maybe I won’t make sound
In the darkness all around.

I close my window to the night.
I leave the sky her tears of white.
And all is lit by candlelight
Amid the falling snow.

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A drunken man who falls out of a cart, though he may suffer, does not die. His bones are the same as other people’s; but he meets his accident in a different way. His spirit is in a condition of security. He is not concious of riding in the cart; neither is he concious of falling out of it. Ideas of life, death, fear and the like cannot penetrate his breast; and so he does not suffer from contact with objective existence. If such security is to be got from wine, how much more is to be got from God?

– Chuang Tzu (Taoist Text)

Daoist Perspectives

Age of the Sage – Taoism and Chuang Tzu

Wake and listen …

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:04:17 +0000

Wake and listen … from the future come winds with secret wingbeats.

- Nietzsche

Today’s Multi-faith, Multi-media Devotional

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:53:46 +0000

WINTER FEAST FOR THE SOUL STARTS TOMORROW

AKAR SANKRANTI/LOHRI HARVEST FESTIVAL (Hindu)
Sankranti means to go from one place to another place (to change direction). It also means one meets another. The time when the sun changes direction from one constellation (of the zodiac) to another is known as Sankranti. It is celebrated in mid-winter and marks the transition of the sun from the Sagittarius to Capricorn during the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. People take dips in rivers and worship the Sun God especially in the holy Ganges river. The dip is said to purify the self and bestow “punya”. Special puja is offered as a thanksgiving for good harvest.

PONGAL HARVEST FESTIVAL (Hindu)
Pongal is one of the most popular harvest festival of South India, mainly Tamil Nadu. Pongal falls in the mid-January every year and marks the reaping of crops and a special thanksgiving to God, the sun, the earth and the cattle. Pongal festival lasts for four days. Celebrations include drawing of Kolam, swinging & cooking of delicious Pongal.
Find out more

Who are the Sikhs? – Video (History)

MAGHI FESTIVAL (Sikh)

Introduction

Maghi is the occasion when Sikhs commemorate the sacrifice of forty Sikhs, who fought for Guru Gobindh Singh Ji.

Maghi, Makara Sankranti, the first day of the month of Magh. The eve of Maghi is the common Indian festival of Lohri when bonfires are lit in Hindu homes to greet the birth of sons in the families and alms are distributed. In the morning, people go out for an early-hour dip in nearby tanks. For Sikhs, Maghi means primarily the festival at Muktsar, a district town of the Punjab, in commemoration of the heroic fight of the Chali Mukte, literally, the Forty Liberated Ones, who laid down their lives warding off an attack by an imperial army marching in pursuit of Guru Gobind Singh.

The action took place near a pool of water, Khidrane di Dhab, on 29 December 1705. The bodies were cremated the following day, the first of Magh (hence the name of the festival), which now falls usually on the 13th of January. Following the custom of the Sikhs to observe their anniversaries of happy and tragic events alike, Maghi is celebrated with end-to-end recital of the Guru Granth Sahib and religious divans in almost all gurdwaras.

Sikh Guru Baba Deep Singh

Image source.

Significance
The day of Maghi is observed to honour the heroic fight of the Chali Mukte, or the Forty Liberated Ones, who sacrificed their own lives defending an attack by the imperial army marching in pursuit of Guru Gobind Singh. The action took place near a pool of water, Khidrane di Dhab, on 29 December 1705

Celebration
Sikhs celebrate the Maghi with an end to end recital of the holy Guru Granth Sahib and religious rituals in all the Sikh Gurudwaras. On the eve of Maghi falls the common Indian festival called the Lohri when bonfires are lighted in Hindu homes and alms are also distributed. . however The largest assembly, however, takes place at Muktsar (Punjab) where big fairs are organized and pilgrims take a holy dip in the sacred waters of sarovar and also visit several shrines. A mahala or big march of pilgrims from the main shrine to gurdwara Tibbi Sahib, sacred to Guru Gobind Singh, concludes the three-day celebration.

Source: http://www.allaboutsikhs.com/sikh-festivals/the-sikh-festivals-maghi.html

Today’s Multi-faith, Multi-media Devotional

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:28:04 +0000

Video Meditation: Love signal; music & frequency 528

ST. HILARY’S FEAST DAY (Christian)

The Ordination of St. Hilary from a 14th Century Manuscript (from Wikipedia)

Video of late 14th Century French Song – Solage

Hilary of Poitiers (c. 300 – c. 368^]) was Bishop of Poitiers and is a Doctor of the Church. He was sometimes referred to as the “Hammer of the Arians” (Latin: Malleus Arianorum) and the “Athanasius of the West.” His name comes from the Greek word for happy or cheerful. His optional memorial in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints is 13 January. In the past, when this date was occupied by the Octave Day of the Epiphany, his feast day was moved to 14 January.

Hilary was born at Poitiers about the end of the 3rd century A.D. His parents were pagans of distinction. He received a good education, including what had even then become somewhat rare in the West, some knowledge of Greek. He studied, later on, the Old and New Testament writings, with the result that he abandoned his Neo-Platonism for the Roman Catholic Church, and with his wife and his daughter (traditionally named as Saint Abra) received the sacrament of baptism.

So great was the respect in which he was held by the citizens of Poitiers that about 353, although still a married man, he was unanimously elected bishop (the concept of clerical celibacy was just beginning to emerge in diverse regions of the West). At that time Arianism was threatening to overrun the Western Church; to repel the disruption was the great task which Hilary undertook. One of his first steps was to secure the excommunication, by those of the Gallican hierarchy who still remained orthodox, of Saturninus, the Arian Bishop of Arles and of Ursacius and Valens, two of his prominent supporters.

About the same time, he wrote to Emperor Constantius II a remonstrance against the persecutions by which the Arians had sought to crush their opponents (Ad Constantium Augustum liber primus, of which the most probable date is 355). His efforts were not at first successful, for at the synod of Biterrae (Béziers), summoned in 356 by the Emperor Constantius with the professed purpose of settling the longstanding disputes, Hilary was, by an imperial rescript, banished with Rhodanus of Toulouse to Phrygia, where he spent nearly four years in exile.

Source: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_of_Poitiers

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St Hilary’s feast day has gained the reputation of being the coldest day of the year due to past cold events starting on or around this date.

One of the most severe winters in history began around 13 January in 1205, when the Thames in London froze over and ale and wine turned to solid ice and were sold by weight.

“So began a frost which continued till the two and twentieth day of March, so that the ground could not be tilled; whereof it came to pass that, in summer following a quarter of wheat was sold for a mark of silver in many places of England, which for the more part in the days of King Henry the Second was sold for twelve pence; a quarter of beans or peas for half a mark; a quarter of oats for thirty pence, that were wont to be sold for fourpence. Also the money was so sore clipped that there was no remedy but to have it renewed.“—Stowe’s Chronicle

Source: http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/year/january.htm

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Lark Ascending (instrumental) by Ralph Vaughan Williams (video)

TO A SKYLARK
by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.
Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then – as I am listening now!

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1691 – Death Day of Englishman George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, more commonly known as the Quakers. He believed that an inner light was communicated directly to individual souls by Christ. He was born in July 1624.

Biography – keep scrolling down until you reach the text. It is not immediately visible. Another biography.

Contemplating the Inner Light of the Quakers

George Fox’s description of his revelation (in 1646):

When all my hopes in them [that is, in priests] and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could I tell what to do, then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said, ‘There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition,’ and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy.

Thus when God doth work, who shall hinder it? And this I knew experimentally. My desire after the Lord grew stronger, and zeal in the pure knowledge of God, and of Christ alone, without the help of any man, book or writing.

For though I read the Scriptures that spoke of Christ and of God, yet I knew Him not, but by revelation, as He who hath the key did open, and as the Father of Life drew me to His Son by His Spirit.

Then the Lord gently led me along, and let me see His love, which was endless and eternal, surpassing all the knowledge that men have in the natural state, or can obtain from history or books; and that love let me see myself, as I was without Him.