9
The Many Dimensions of Spirituality
Letters to Ascended Master
St. Padre Pio,
Wednesday, Aug.10, 2011
6:10 A.M.
Dear Padre,
While Penny and I were doing our spiritual contemplation last night, the thought came to me to post my letters to you on a blog. I already have a blog for my spiritual musings, but the thought came through loud and clear to post my letters to you. Did you plant this thought?
I ran it by Penny, and after our spiritual contemplation she read my first two letters to you and smiled, then chuckled because she found them rather revealing, especially when I talk about my propensity to procrastinate. “You should read this letter every week to remind yourself,” she said, and laughed. Thank goodness for her patience.
I’ve decided to think about it. I don’t want to jump right in because it would mean a commitment. I have the pressure of writing a spiritual musing every week on top of working on my current novel and getting my first book of musings ready to be published, so before I commit myself to posting my letters to you on a new blog site I’d like to have at least twenty or so letters already written so I don’t put myself behind the eight ball.
Last night when I went to sleep I asked if I could meet you in my dreams. “Give me something interesting for my letters,” I said, hoping to entice you into my dreams; but I should know better.
Spirit does what Spirit wills, and all I can hope for is a happy coincidence of my will coinciding with Spirit’s will. In any event, Penny and I talked over the possibilities of posting my Padre Pio letters and we think it would be a great way to get more exposure; but more importantly, it would offer Christian readers an outside-the-box perspective on the many dimensions of spirituality.
But the question is, do they want to know about the many dimensions of spirituality? I get the feeling they don’t. I can’t help but feel that people today are in a very strange place, consciousness wise. They are being forced to wake up because of world events, but the responsibility that comes with greater consciousness forces them to try to stay asleep a little longer, spiritually speaking. There’s a great resistance to acknowledge what’s going on in the world. I was rereading The Only Planet of Choice yesterday, and the spokesman for the Nine Enlightened Beings said that we are all individually responsible for the state of the world, but this is too much for people to bear, and so they prefer not to wake up; hence, the obsessive preoccupation with the little self.
“It is because people are frightened to find out who they really are,” said Tom, the spokesman for the Nine Enlightened Beings, “for when they know that completely, they feel the responsibility is too great” (p. 269).
This fear of self-knowledge keeps people spiritually asleep.
But to keep the world from self-destruction, we have to wake up and “remove self from self,” said Tom, which we also discussed in my chapter “The Selfless Self” in Healing with Padre Pio; but this is not a concept that will soon catch fire because the self is much too entrenched in its own needs, desires, and daily struggles. Indeed, life has to get very difficult before people wake up to their spiritual responsibility to themselves and the world at large. I’m sure we can expect more catastrophes and political upheavals.
So should I post my letters? I have one concern that bothers me (aside from how readers might respond to this literary exercise), and that has to do with maintaining the integrity of my letters, because you can rest assured that I will have one eye on my reader as I open myself up to you.
It’s my intention to open up my heart to you with these letters, because I want to grow in spirit, and there’s no better way to grow in spirit than to open up one’s heart; fear however may keep me from being as frank as I want to be.
Indeed, fear is the bugaboo of spiritual growth, isn’t it? We have to talk about this in my next book with you. I don’t know when this is going to be. I thought we would be starting it next spring, but it looks more like next fall or winter now because I have to get Healing with Padre Pio out before we begin our next project with my spiritual sensitive who channeled you, and I don’t think we can get it out before spring. But it’s all choreographed from above, isn’t it Padre? So why worry?
Just do what we have to do and let the day unfold. That seems to be the way to live in the Moment. I only wish it were as simple as that. Maybe it is. Maybe I’m just not getting it. I’d sure love to meet someone who lives in the Moment. Maybe I’ve already met them and did not recognize that they live in the Moment. What would characterize them?
I’m doing a lot of blathering this morning, aren’t I? I have to leave at 7:30 for an eight o’clock appointment at Canadian Tire in Midland for my van. I blew my muffler the other day. I may need a whole new tailpipe, I don’t know; but this is the third thing that’s happened to me that is going to cost us.
I may have cracked a tooth a two weeks ago, because I still can’t bite on it; so I have a dentist appointment this Friday and may be looking at a root canal. We don’t have a dental plan, so there’s an unexpected expense, and our lawn tractor broke down and is getting repaired. We had work done on it last year to the tune of six hundred dollars, and it’s only four years old. I know, that’s life; but does it have to gang up on us?
Same day, 7 P.M….
Padre, I got a break on my muffler. I didn’t blow my muffler, or my tailpipe; they had to replace a flange that had rusted out. Labor and material came to $111.00, which is far better than what I expected; and I had an interesting experience while waiting for my van.
A customer waiting for his vehicle, whose name was Don, talked about his life. It started with my comment about getting a break on my muffler, which opened the door for how many times he had been “screwed royally” in his life (great material for my book Old Whore Life), and I listened to his incredible story of misadventure for half an hour or more, and what a story it was! But throughout his story, he kept telling me that he could not compromise himself—which cost him his military career!
I told him he should write a novel.
“Yeah, everybody tells me that,” he said, but I think the whole point of me being there with him was to let him experience your presence with me, and I know you will be working on him now; so, Padre, I did my part and introduced him to your energy, and I wish him the best on his journey through life.
Then I drove into Barrie to visit my friend at her bookstore, and guess what? I ended up exchanging my novel Keeper of the Flame with a clinical psychologist from Wasaga Beach who was dropping off some copies of her own book to sell on consignment. Her book is called The Gifts of Responsibility, and from her bio I learned that she was a Roman Catholic who expanded the horizons of her faith. Her book interests me very much, and I will share my feelings with you when I’ve read it. Incidentally, Padre, I think you brought this book into my life for my spiritual growth.
I also had a long conversation in the bookstore with two other ladies, one in her fifties and the other in her eighties, and for some reason both needed to make the point that they had to be true to themselves—which brought to mind what I said this morning about meeting people who live in the Moment. Did I get my answer? Do we live in the Moment by being true to ourselves? Is this the message you tried to give me today with all these people who talked about how they had to be true to themselves?
I’ll have to do a spiritual musing on this…
I remain,
Your faithful companion,
Orest
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