Warning

The many facets of Mt. St. Helen's eruption
are a focus of continuing study.

The month of May is here; fog, wind and rain. it seems as if hurricane season will arrive unexpectedly and be abnormally strong. We have already endured day after day of mid-west storms and tornadoes, tore everything up as sustained explosions blasted away homes and cars and lives, without end.

Mount Saint Helens is remembered for its symmetrical beauty, and the catastrophic explosive eruption that blew away the side of the mountain in a monumental  landslide that uncorked the violent magma within and raced out over the countryside in every direction, while at the same time, a pyroclastic flow ripped through the surface of the countryside, erasing entire forests and stripping everything for miles. Fifty seven people died in the event. and millions of dollars of property were laid waste far and wide. 

I was living in Kelso, Washington at the time, and remember these things vividly as the mountain's glaciers were melted into oblivion by the hot ash, and rivers originating on the mountain tore through river basins all the way to the Columbia River, so that it became necessary for ocean going ships stranded by the flow of mud, to wait for the chanels to be dredged. On that day, May 18th 1980 around 8 am, ash exploded into an eruptive column straight up  in the air for miles. Only a few other volcanoes in the world surpassed that eruption, and they were responsible for thousands of deaths and tsunamis. 

It is hard to say whether our sinfulness was responsible for any part of these things, or whether it was simply an act of nature that happened on the human scene. I remember the fear I felt as we were warned of flooding from the rivers and torrents of water mixed with ash, as I was living in an apartment near the Cowlitz river. two weeks after the eruption, there was another lesser eruption which blasted ash up and over the countryside, covering everything in ash mixed with spring rain. The weight of ash in gutters caused the gutters to be ripped off the sides of buildings. As the rain passed, warmer weather arrived, and the ash blew everywhere inside or outside. Powerful jets of water were used to clear the ash, but it remained in the air as very fine dust for sometime afterward. It looked as if it had snowed, yet it was not white, but dull grey.

Trees are springing up  in the blast zone, fish have returned to Spirit Lake, and herds of elk have found their way back. The old forest is gone, fallen on the ground stripped of limbs and needles, laid in neat rows by the force of the wind in the blast. Yet wildflowers have returned, and tiny animals.

Much was learned in the explosion of the mountain. Mt. St. Helens periodically erupts violently, so we have not seen the last of the mountain's violence. Three mountains in the Cascades form an ominous triangle; Mt. St. Helens, Mt Adams, and Mt. Rainier, which rises over 14 thousand feet, some fifty miles or more from Seattle. Very little warning can accompany the eruption of these  peaks, and little opportunity to flee are available.

Life continues, and we are warned about our sins, so that we always have an opportunity to change our ways. God waits for us to change and helps us prepare for what is awaiting us. His love is our shield, but it is one that can help others as much as us.

Warning

The many facets of Mt. St. Helen's eruption
are a focus of continuing study.

The month of May is here; fog, wind and rain. it seems as if hurricane season will arrive unexpectedly and be abnormally strong. We have already endured day after day of mid-west storms and tornadoes, tore everything up as sustained explosions blasted away homes and cars and lives, without end.

Mount Saint Helens is remembered for its symmetrical beauty, and the catastrophic explosive eruption that blew away the side of the mountain in a monumental  landslide that uncorked the violent magma within and raced out over the countryside in every direction, while at the same time, a pyroclastic flow ripped through the surface of the countryside, erasing entire forests and stripping everything for miles. Fifty seven people died in the event. and millions of dollars of property were laid waste far and wide. 

I was living in Kelso, Washington at the time, and remember these things vividly as the mountain's glaciers were melted into oblivion by the hot ash, and rivers originating on the mountain tore through river basins all the way to the Columbia River, so that it became necessary for ocean going ships stranded by the flow of mud, to wait for the chanels to be dredged. On that day, May 18th 1980 around 8 am, ash exploded into an eruptive column straight up  in the air for miles. Only a few other volcanoes in the world surpassed that eruption, and they were responsible for thousands of deaths and tsunamis. 

It is hard to say whether our sinfulness was responsible for any part of these things, or whether it was simply an act of nature that happened on the human scene. I remember the fear I felt as we were warned of flooding from the rivers and torrents of water mixed with ash, as I was living in an apartment near the Cowlitz river. two weeks after the eruption, there was another lesser eruption which blasted ash up and over the countryside, covering everything in ash mixed with spring rain. The weight of ash in gutters caused the gutters to be ripped off the sides of buildings. As the rain passed, warmer weather arrived, and the ash blew everywhere inside or outside. Powerful jets of water were used to clear the ash, but it remained in the air as very fine dust for sometime afterward. It looked as if it had snowed, yet it was not white, but dull grey.

Trees are springing up  in the blast zone, fish have returned to Spirit Lake, and herds of elk have found their way back. The old forest is gone, fallen on the ground stripped of limbs and needles, laid in neat rows by the force of the wind in the blast. Yet wildflowers have returned, and tiny animals.

Much was learned in the explosion of the mountain. Mt. St. Helens periodically erupts violently, so we have not seen the last of the mountain's violence. Three mountains in the Cascades form an ominous triangle; Mt. St. Helens, Mt Adams, and Mt. Rainier, which rises over 14 thousand feet, some fifty miles or more from Seattle. Very little warning can accompany the eruption of these  peaks, and little opportunity to flee are available.

Life continues, and we are warned about our sins, so that we always have an opportunity to change our ways. God waits for us to change and helps us prepare for what is awaiting us. His love is our shield, but it is one that can help others as much as us.

Brother Michael of the Cross

 In case anyone didn't know, I am not a charitable organization. I do not loan or give money to anyone. I live on Social Security - period. I pray, I meditate and I fast and do penance. Do  not ask me for money, because I cannot give to anyone. I am a Lay member of the Roman Catholic Church, and not a clerical member. I am not a priest, nor am I a member of a religious order or organization. What I do is not directed by anyone else. I try to do what I think God is asking me to do.

Thank you

Brother Michael of the Cross

 In case anyone didn't know, I am not a charitable organization. I do not loan or give money to anyone. I live on Social Security - period. I pray, I meditate and I fast and do penance. Do  not ask me for money, because I cannot give to anyone. I am a Lay member of the Roman Catholic Church, and not a clerical member. I am not a priest, nor am I a member of a religious order or organization. What I do is not directed by anyone else. I try to do what I think God is asking me to do.

Thank you

Unknown

What would you ask? Behold the
answer :) I love and so you are.

 My foot is remarkably improved. there is still pain and a little swelling, and the inflammation is subsiding. It all makes me wonder. On one hand, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Jesus on the cross, and on the other, to wonder at His mercy and His love, renewed as healthy.

If only people could be persuaded to be more like Jesus, there would be a different world and a different humanity.

If nothing else, He has been revealed as one who takes off His cloak of invisibility to reveal a  love that is incandescent. He took off His clothes so He could be crucified, and died so He could rise from the sepulcher, ending all doubts and discussions by the wise or anyone else. All malignant loneliness gives way to union with Him in the state of His Being.

One enters into sharing the divine life by beginning to share in the divinity as much as in the mortality. All arguments are ended by the simple act of making us well.

He stood out in singularity, utterly unique, and yet distressingly the same as all other men. He could have been hacked to pieces, burnt alive or simply shot with an arrow. But it ended according to His desire. I desired well-being at the same time as I desired to share in some manner He determined, in His passion, and so I did. As it turns out, my share in the passion was delimited by demonstrations of His mercy, by first being made utterly helpless. But it was in a caring environment. One must participate, and will to be as disposed and participating in the offering of a will and a heart to God who has no need for them, but who accepts them as a mother accepts what her son offers her.

We are forever caught in the cross of both willing and actively resisting so that the healing may take place, and as we are healed ( we do not heal ourselves), matters are resolved for those who could not believe in healing forgiveness or believe. In a word, He is our Savior. 

Churches and monasteries become as irrelevant as senates and kings and empires. We stand at the cusp of a moment when His Will can emerge from darkness and blindness. Prosperity can blossom, but not out of dictatorship, nor does it emerge from defiance and pride. When humility leads a soul to God, it is disarmed and its basic relationship to God is confirmed, and it starts to receive. We have learned both humility and gratitude so that we are positioned to receive salvation.

Whatever else we may believe, the essential need of humility and love assert themselves utterly unique to each soul. We determine that we will humble ourselves and as a result, we learn to love perfectly, and everything we do fits into His economy of peace which settles in gentle silence over us, ignites love within us ultimately consuming everything we are so instead we may share in His divinity.

Whatever we have determined must be, cedes to the Will of Him who was crucified according to His divine Will, and all destruction emerges from annihilation in such a way that all that is left is peace; all destruction becomes creation. The slate is wiped clean in a terrifying moment that silences and disposes creation, but since we knew not, neither do we see or experience aside from the presence of our God. Our very flesh becomes something different for His Will's sake and our sake as well.

O souls, my brothers and sisters, pay no attention to reality, except  to utter one "alleluia"  to join in His triumph.

Unknown

What would you ask? Behold the
answer :) I love and so you are.

 My foot is remarkably improved. there is still pain and a little swelling, and the inflammation is subsiding. It all makes me wonder. On one hand, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Jesus on the cross, and on the other, to wonder at His mercy and His love, renewed as healthy.

If only people could be persuaded to be more like Jesus, there would be a different world and a different humanity.

If nothing else, He has been revealed as one who takes off His cloak of invisibility to reveal a  love that is incandescent. He took off His clothes so He could be crucified, and died so He could rise from the sepulcher, ending all doubts and discussions by the wise or anyone else. All malignant loneliness gives way to union with Him in the state of His Being.

One enters into sharing the divine life by beginning to share in the divinity as much as in the mortality. All arguments are ended by the simple act of making us well.

He stood out in singularity, utterly unique, and yet distressingly the same as all other men. He could have been hacked to pieces, burnt alive or simply shot with an arrow. But it ended according to His desire. I desired well-being at the same time as I desired to share in some manner He determined, in His passion, and so I did. As it turns out, my share in the passion was delimited by demonstrations of His mercy, by first being made utterly helpless. But it was in a caring environment. One must participate, and will to be as disposed and participating in the offering of a will and a heart to God who has no need for them, but who accepts them as a mother accepts what her son offers her.

We are forever caught in the cross of both willing and actively resisting so that the healing may take place, and as we are healed ( we do not heal ourselves), matters are resolved for those who could not believe in healing forgiveness or believe. In a word, He is our Savior. 

Churches and monasteries become as irrelevant as senates and kings and empires. We stand at the cusp of a moment when His Will can emerge from darkness and blindness. Prosperity can blossom, but not out of dictatorship, nor does it emerge from defiance and pride. When humility leads a soul to God, it is disarmed and its basic relationship to God is confirmed, and it starts to receive. We have learned both humility and gratitude so that we are positioned to receive salvation.

Whatever else we may believe, the essential need of humility and love assert themselves utterly unique to each soul. We determine that we will humble ourselves and as a result, we learn to love perfectly, and everything we do fits into His economy of peace which settles in gentle silence over us, ignites love within us ultimately consuming everything we are so instead we may share in His divinity.

Whatever we have determined must be, cedes to the Will of Him who was crucified according to His divine Will, and all destruction emerges from annihilation in such a way that all that is left is peace; all destruction becomes creation. The slate is wiped clean in a terrifying moment that silences and disposes creation, but since we knew not, neither do we see or experience aside from the presence of our God. Our very flesh becomes something different for His Will's sake and our sake as well.

O souls, my brothers and sisters, pay no attention to reality, except  to utter one "alleluia"  to join in His triumph.

Come Forth

Life moves on eh? The gout in my left foot is diminishing slowly. I need to get to the store to buy groceries.

We need not trouble the Lord with  our curiosity, acting as if He had no rights. What rights we have, are given us, by a Being we cannot comprehend, and even if we could see Him as He is, we could still not comprehend unless He helped us to. If it will help His cause, He  

The sweetness of lingering to listen is the
love that is called to come forth into the  world.

may reveal things to us in a manner we can understand, but we must remember that it is an approximation of reality, a reality we cannot comprehend.

Blessed the gentle soul that can hold His secrets unseen within their heart, for it makes the heart stronger, beating so, and enlarges, it so that it has room for Him.

He holds surprises in store for us, and safeguards our secrets for us so they are not spoiled or lost in mortality. Sometimes He leads us into His garden to be with Him. There He unburdens His Heart to us, and speaks what we long to hear, and our poor heart becomes like a great balloon, on the verge of exploding for the delight of it all. He would never let it burst. We have miles to go and things to do, and we must make a visible world for all the people to observe, creating with our hands, what remains  invisible and hidden within us. All the love and all the strength and all the logical beauty of our inner selves built up out of the materials of earth to live in and share with others.

There is no person lonelier than one who can share nothing of what exists within. Through neglect we lose the ability to imagine or to build or to even so much as imagine. It is a sad, drab place where no candle is ever lit, and where stars are never gazed at. The whole world lies before our wondering eyes, and we are not supposed to stop wondering. The tear rolling down our cheeks is the beginning of a new life, if we follow the urgent longing in our hearts, if we have not already extinguished them.

Blessed is the man who sees the world and realizes it is the same there as everywhere. beautiful, waiting to be shared and to cause us to exclaim the excellence of God's way. Blessed is the man who makes others glad, for he is making room for more inside, and each impulse is a share in God's own life.

Life on His cross gives life, and the pain accompanying life is a constant tone that remains insisting that we love no matter what. To learn to love is to share the pain of others, and to love the Lord is a share in His life, His cross where He lives for us, ready to respond to all our love and all our curiosity and the impulses of life.

It is such a mystery, this life, but we become aware, little by little, the more we build, that the mystery holds a greater mystery, waiting to unfold. enjoy the anticipation.