The Center for contemplative practice
A Lay Cistercian Looks at Spiritual Reality
THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
This blog is going to sound crazyy, so I am forwarning you now. My second Lectio Divina of the day for Monday was, as always, Philiippians 2:5, read it, pray for wisdom and then get out of the way for what God wants to tell me, if anything. Today I had one of my craziest Lectios, once that I would not have thought on my own. Here it is.
The Solemnity of Pentecost was yesterday and I read Scriptures at the Eucharist and Liturgy of the Hours. All of this is traditional thinking about the Holy Spirit passing down the message of Jesus to each generation. I thought this is succession planning, as one would have in a big corporation or a family owned business. Wonder if we looked at God’s plan for us as the business plan, made before there was matter and time. Wonder if we saw the whole mission of Christ as a large corporation. What would that look like? Here is my take on it from my Lectio Divina reflections. They reflect my own imperfections and biases, to which I plead guilty but happy.
I am using synchronicity, used by Carl Jung to explain reality, as a way to look at typical, ideas from a new perspective, in this case, what does reality look like, as compared with a corporation (as I understand it). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity#Examples
ALL REALITY AS A CORPORATION
- Board of Directors: God the Father (Chairman), God the Son (CEO) and God the Holy Spirit (COO)
- Founder: God
- Founder’s Name(s): The one who is his own father and mother.; the one who lives in the Now; the one who is
- Company Name: Church Universal (Heaven, Earth, Purification or Purgatory)
- Company Logo: Cross and also Fish
- Company Purpose: to know God with all our mind, all our strength, and all our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourself. (Deuteronomy 6 and Matthew 22:37)
- Authority and Governance: Holy Spirit, COO, Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, Bishops, Abbots and Abbasses, Heads of Religious Communities, Lay Cistercians,
- Employees: Those marked with the sign of faith in heaven, on earth and awaiting purification, those chosen by God from the beginning of time.
- Succession Plan: Handing on CEO to one person who wears the shoes of the fisherman.
- Growth Plan: tell the good news to all the world; those who accept will belong to the Company will be rewarded, those who do not, will not.
- Company values: humility, obedience to God’s will, freedom to choose what will allow people to love each other as Christ loved us, contemplative approach to complexity through practices and charisms that transform each person into their true human potential; have mercy on each other and forgive each other as we wish to be forgiven; making faith real through helping those around us (Matthew 25:
- Customers: All sentient beings from the beginning of time
- Customer Service: help put customers in a place to communicate with God,
- Communication: contemplative spirituality, obedience to authority as Christ, Eucharist, Penance, Holy Spirit
- Evaluation of performance: Matthew 25, keep my commands, love one another as I have loved you, you will be judged by your performance
- Debt Reduction: Paid for by death and resurrection of Christ, continued each time we proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes again (Eucharist)
- Energy: Pure energy, mediated by Jesus, both a Board member and an employee.
- Employee benefits: know, love, and serve God and be happy with God in Heaven.
These random thoughts have me thinking that God is not a accident of our imagination. Six questions that are answered by a Cistercian application to reality:
- What is the purpose of life?
- What is the purpose of my life?
- What does reality look like?
- How does it all fit together?
- How to love fiercely?
- You know you are going to die, now what?
It takes a lifetime to discover the answers to these questions. Not everyone will be fortunate to have them answered correctly. God is the judge of accuracy. God is the reason we have reason. God is the one who is.
Praise be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever. The God who is, who was, and who is to come at the end of the ages. Amen and Amen, –-Cistercian doxology
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