Monday Morning Gospel QB - Stay Awake . . . Mindful
Channel: Spirit Moves 4-2-1
Date: 2020-11-16

Stay awake - be open - be present - be mindful and aware . . . Be ready . . . 

Recently, many people have turned to Eastern Religions and their practices to find insight and spiritual support, when they have grown disillusioned with happens in their traditional faith practices . . . Many have explored the teachings, mediation and contemplation practices of Hinduism and Buddhism . . . And "Mindfulness" is one of those teaching that has become a new buzz word but in fact its not new - it dates back 2,500 years to the Buddha himself and one of his central teachings of the 8 fold path of how to live . . . Right intention, speech, action . . . Right Mindfulness - the Art of being aware . . . Present . . . Open . . . All leading to being fully awake or Enlighted.

"The Buddha"  actually means the Enlighted one or Awakened One . . . Much like Jesus calls us in Sunday's gospel -  Stay Awake . . . You do not know when the bridegroom is coming . . . A metaphor centered in another parable to teach his disciples and others a lesson. . . Be ready, be open, be mindful . . . BE AWAKE!

So how do we stay awake and sober as Paul puts it to his Thessalonian community . . . We have to practice.  

Traditionally we would call this practice: prayer but its more than reciting someone else's words - it’s the practice or "way" of becoming aware of yourself - your instinctual filters or "blind spots" that get in the way of you accepting and experiencing life as it is. 

"We rarely see things as they are - we usually see things as WE ARE" . . . Think about it.

So mindfulness practices or prayer, help us take down the filters by bringing awareness to them and allowing us to let go and be fully present PRETTY COOL!   Powerful stuff . . . 

Anthony DeMello - a Jesuit priest from India and an exceptional spiritual teacher shares a story, a parable as it were -  like Jesus shared in the gospel . . . A young disciple or student asks his master about enlightenment . . . He says, Master, how can we reach enlightenment?  We can no more make enlightenment happen than make the sun rise, was the Master's reply.  "Then why do we pray at all", asked the bewildered disciple?  SO that we will be awake when the sun rises, said the master" . . . That’s it, again the message is simple - BE AWAKE . . . Be awake when it comes - the sun rising . . . S-U-N or maybe SON . . . Be awake, be ready  . . . So the prayer and practice and discipline we do is to help awaken ourselves, so we might be ready.   

SO help us to be ready in a special way this week.  Help us to be mindful and awake especially to Grace of remembering . . . Remembering and honoring our solders who have died, families who are left behind and a grateful country that recalls their sacrifice . . . May we be aware and awake to these truths in a special way this week.