The Eighth Sermon to the Dead

I tend to forget. I forget there's a reality we don't see, and even when we only access it quickly and even half-heartedly, it still has an effect. The invisible light shines through us, whether we can see it or not. Yesterday, we did a very, very fast ritual. There was rain, not sun. There was an inability to light a candle, keep the incense going. Nothing worked right, it seemed. We dealt with it with as much humor and good nature as we could. But the invocation worked. The angels were with us: I Reign over you says the God of Justice, in power exalted above the firmaments of wrath, in whose hands the Sun is as a Sword, and the Moon as a through thrusting fire which measures your garments in the midst of my vestures, and trussed you together as the palms of my hands, whose seats I garnished with the fire of gathering and beautified your garments with admiration to whom I made a Law to govern the holy ones, and delivered you a rod with the ark of knowledge, moreover you ...

"The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A vision I had three years ago. I kept vigil in the Cathedral, hearing the words of Isaiah before the Rising of the Lord, when the Lord came upon me. And he took me up, and I saw the peoples of the world spread below me. Above their heads was the mark of the Holy Spirit, the tongue of flame seated on their forehead. And the flames formed the Christ, and I saw that all the elect formed the limbs of the body. Here there were those who witnessed to Jehovah, there the Saints of the Last Days. The Ecclesiasts formed the Torso, the Evangelists the Legs. All the nations of the earth sang the praises of Christ and raised the body which were the believers up from their seats. And I saw, and understood, that barring the differences, they were all part of the body, as the legs are part of the body, as the arms, as the head. Different functions, one body. I saw everyone was part of the whole, though all different. And I felt the flame enter me, as it entered them. And the Lord spoke: This i...