Shell Oil ceases Alaska offshore Arctic drilling

The following article is from Portland's KOIN CBS station. It is reprinted here because we have been covering the local protests to the exploitation of nature by large corporations, most recently a citizen call to block Nestlé's use of water in the Oxbow Locks in the Columbia gorge along with an attempt this summer by a group of Greenpeace activists to block Royal Dutch Shell's icebreaker Fennica from leaving Portland's shipyard in route to Alaska.  This is a victory of sorts.  (See TigerLilies  'Water is sacred,' NO Nestlé  August 20, 2015)

 

With the Olympic Mountains in the background, a small boat crosses in front of the Transocean Polar Pioneer, a semi-submersible drilling unit that Royal Dutch Shell leases from Transocean Ltd. (Daniella Beccaria/seattlepi.com via AP, File)

By DAN JOLING, Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell will cease exploration in Arctic waters off Alaska’s coast following disappointing results from an exploratory well it just completed.
Shell found indications of oil and gas in the well in the Chukchi Sea about 80 miles off Alaska’s northwest coast, the company said Monday in a release from The Hague, Netherlands. However, the petroleum was not in quantities sufficient to warrant additional exploration in that portion of the basin, the company said.

An activist looks towards the rising sun as she hangs from the St. Johns bridge as part of a protest to block the Royal Dutch Shell PLC icebreaker Fennica from leaving for Alaska in Portland, Ore., Thursday, July 30, 2015. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

“Shell continues to see important exploration potential in the basin, and the area is likely to ultimately be of strategic importance to Alaska and the U.S.,” said Marvin Odum, president of Shell USA, in the announcement. “However, this is a clearly disappointing exploration outcome for this part of the basin.”

Shell will end exploration off Alaska “for the foreseeable future,” the company said.
The decision reflects the results of the exploratory well in the Burger J lease, the high costs associated with Alaska offshore drilling and the challenging and unpredictable federal regulatory environment in offshore Alaska, the company said.

Shell has spent upward of $7 billion on Arctic offshore development in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.

Monday was Shell’s final day to drill this year in petroleum-bearing rock under its federal permit. Regulators required Shell to stop a month before sea ice is expected to re-form in the lease area.
The company reached a depth of 6,800 feet with the exploratory well drilling in about 150 feet of water.

Environmental groups oppose Arctic offshore drilling and say industrial activity and more greenhouse gases will harm polar bears, walrus and ice seals.

Over the summer, protesters in kayaks unsuccessfully tried to block Arctic-bound Shell vessels in Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

Pope Francis' address to Congress

 

The following is Pope Francis' address to the U.S. Congress yesterday. It is from the Catholic News Agency as is the photo above.

Washington D.C., Sep 24, 2015 / 05:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Please find below the full text of Pope Francis' Sept. 24 address to members of the United States Congress:

Mr. Vice-President, Mr. Speaker, Honorable Members of Congress, Dear Friends,

I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of Congress in “the land of the free and the home of the brave”. I would like to think that the reason for this is that I too am a son of this great continent, from which we have all received so much and toward which we share a common responsibility.

Each son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and social responsibility. Your own responsibility as members of Congress is to enable this country, by your legislative activity, to grow as a nation. You are the face of its people, their representatives. You are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good, for this is the chief aim of all politics. A political society endures when it seeks, as a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk. Legislative activity is always based on care for the people. To this you have been invited, called and convened by those who elected you.

Yours is a work which makes me reflect in two ways on the figure of Moses. On the one hand, the patriarch and lawgiver of the people of Israel symbolizes the need of peoples to keep alive their sense of unity by means of just legislation. On the other, the figure of Moses leads us directly to God and thus to the transcendent dignity of the human being. Moses provides us with a good synthesis of your work: you are asked to protect, by means of the law, the image and likeness fashioned by God on every human face.

Today I would like not only to address you, but through you the entire people of the United States. Here, together with their representatives, I would like to take this opportunity to dialogue with the many thousands of men and women who strive each day to do an honest day’s work, to bring home their daily bread, to save money and –one step at a time – to build a better life for their families. These are men and women who are not concerned simply with paying their taxes, but in their own quiet way sustain the life of society. They generate solidarity by their actions, and they create organizations which offer a helping hand to those most in need.

I would also like to enter into dialogue with the many elderly persons who are a storehouse of wisdom forged by experience, and who seek in many ways, especially through volunteer work, to share their stories and their insights. I know that many of them are retired, but still active; they keep working to build up this land. I also want to dialogue with all those young people who are working to realize their great and noble aspirations, who are not led astray by facile proposals, and who face difficult situations, often as a result of immaturity on the part of many adults. I wish to dialogue with all of you, and I would like to do so through the historical memory of your people.

My visit takes place at a time when men and women of good will are marking the anniversaries of several great Americans. The complexities of history and the reality of human weakness notwithstanding, these men and women, for all their many differences and limitations, were able by hard work and self- sacrifice – some at the cost of their lives – to build a better future. They shaped fundamental values which will endure forever in the spirit of the American people. A people with this spirit can live through many crises, tensions and conflicts, while always finding the resources to move forward, and to do so with dignity. These men and women offer us a way of seeing and interpreting reality. In honoring their memory, we are inspired, even amid conflicts, and in the here and now of each day, to draw upon our deepest cultural reserves.

I would like to mention four of these Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.

This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the guardian of liberty, who labored tirelessly that “this nation, under God, [might] have a new birth of freedom”. Building a future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity.

All of us are quite aware of, and deeply worried by, the disturbing social and political situation of the world today. Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of God and of religion. We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms.

 

But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners. The contemporary world, with its open wounds which affect so many of our brothers and sisters, demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide it into these two camps. We know that in the attempt to be freed of the enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within. To imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place. That is something which you, as a people, reject.

Our response must instead be one of hope and healing, of peace and justice. We are asked to summon the courage and the intelligence to resolve today’s many geopolitical and economic crises. Even in the developed world, the effects of unjust structures and actions are all too apparent. Our efforts must aim at restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments, and thus promoting the well-being of individuals and of peoples. We must move forward together, as one, in a renewed spirit of fraternity and solidarity, cooperating generously for the common good.

The challenges facing us today call for a renewal of that spirit of cooperation, which has accomplished so much good throughout the history of the United States. The complexity, the gravity and the urgency of these challenges demand that we pool our resources and talents, and resolve to support one another, with respect for our differences and our convictions of conscience.

In this land, the various religious denominations have greatly contributed to building and strengthening society. It is important that today, as in the past, the voice of faith continue to be heard, for it is a voice of fraternity and love, which tries to bring out the best in each person and in each society. Such cooperation is a powerful resource in the battle to eliminate new global forms of slavery, born of grave injustices which can be overcome only through new policies and new forms of social consensus.

Here I think of the political history of the United States, where democracy is deeply rooted in the mind of the American people. All political activity must serve and promote the good of the human person and be based on respect for his or her dignity. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776).

 

If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance. Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage you in this effort.

Here too I think of the march which Martin Luther King led from Selma to Montgomery fifty years ago as part of the campaign to fulfill his “dream” of full civil and political rights for African Americans. That dream continues to inspire us all. I am happy that America continues to be, for many, a land of “dreams”. Dreams which lead to action, to participation, to commitment. Dreams which awaken what is deepest and truest in the life of a people.

In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom. We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners. I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants. Tragically, the rights of those who were here long before us were not always respected. For those peoples and their nations, from the heart of American democracy, I wish to reaffirm my highest esteem and appreciation.

 

Those first contacts were often turbulent and violent, but it is difficult to judge the past by the criteria of the present. Nonetheless, when the stranger in our midst appeals to us, we must not repeat the sins and the errors of the past. We must resolve now to live as nobly and as justly as possible, as we educate new generations not to turn their back on our “neighbors” and everything around us. Building a nation calls us to recognize that we must constantly relate to others, rejecting a mindset of hostility in order to adopt one of reciprocal subsidiarity, in a constant effort to do our best. I am confident that we can do this.

Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions. On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children? We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation. To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal. We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Mt 7:12).

This Rule points us in a clear direction. Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated. Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves. Let us help others to grow, as we would like to be helped ourselves. In a word, if we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities. The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us. The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.

This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty. I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes. Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation.

In these times when social concerns are so important, I cannot fail to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause of the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints.

How much progress has been made in this area in so many parts of the world! How much has been done in these first years of the third millennium to raise people out of extreme poverty! I know that you share my conviction that much more still needs to be done, and that in times of crisis and economic hardship a spirit of global solidarity must not be lost. At the same time I would encourage you to keep in mind all those people around us who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. They too need to be given hope. The fight against poverty and hunger must be fought constantly and on many fronts, especially in its causes. I know that many Americans today, as in the past, are working to deal with this problem.

It goes without saying that part of this great effort is the creation and distribution of wealth. The right use of natural resources, the proper application of technology and the harnessing of the spirit of enterprise are essential elements of an economy which seeks to be modern, inclusive and sustainable. “Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the area in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good” (Laudato Si’, 129).

 

This common good also includes the earth, a central theme of the encyclical which I recently wrote in order to “enter into dialogue with all people about our common home” (ibid., 3). “We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all” (ibid., 14).

In Laudato Si’, I call for a courageous and responsible effort to “redirect our steps” (ibid., 61), and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity. I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States – and this Congress – have an important role to play. Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies, aimed at implementing a “culture of care” (ibid., 231) and “an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature” (ibid., 139). “We have the freedom needed to limit and direct technology” (ibid., 112); “to devise intelligent ways of... developing and limiting our power” (ibid., 78); and to put technology “at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral” (ibid., 112). In this regard, I am confident that America’s outstanding academic and research institutions can make a vital contribution in the years ahead.

A century ago, at the beginning of the Great War, which Pope Benedict XV termed a “pointless slaughter”, another notable American was born: the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. He remains a source of spiritual inspiration and a guide for many people. In his autobiography he wrote: “I came into the world. Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the image of the world into which I was born.

 

That world was the picture of Hell, full of men like myself, loving God, and yet hating him; born to love him, living instead in fear of hopeless self-contradictory hungers”. Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions.

From this perspective of dialogue, I would like to recognize the efforts made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked to painful episodes of the past. It is my duty to build bridges and to help all men and women, in any way possible, to do the same. When countries which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue – a dialogue which may have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons – new opportunities open up for all. This has required, and requires, courage and daring, which is not the same as irresponsibility. A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to initiate processes rather than possessing spaces (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 222-223).

Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world. Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade.

Three sons and a daughter of this land, four individuals and four dreams: Lincoln, liberty; Martin Luther King, liberty in plurality and non-exclusion; Dorothy Day, social justice and the rights of persons; and Thomas Merton, the capacity for dialogue and openness to God.

Four representatives of the American people.

I will end my visit to your country in Philadelphia, where I will take part in the World Meeting of Families. It is my wish that throughout my visit the family should be a recurrent theme. How essential the family has been to the building of this country! And how worthy it remains of our support and encouragement! Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.

In particular, I would like to call attention to those family members who are the most vulnerable, the young. For many of them, a future filled with countless possibilities beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair. Their problems are our problems. We cannot avoid them. We need to face them together, to talk about them and to seek effective solutions rather than getting bogged down in discussions. At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future. Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they too are dissuaded from starting a family.

A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to “dream” of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton.

In these remarks I have sought to present some of the richness of your cultural heritage, of the spirit of the American people. It is my desire that this spirit continue to develop and grow, so that as many young people as possible can inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many people to dream.

God bless America!

l'chayim

The passion play of personal crisis serves to create the human being anew,

to move the soul a step closer to its spiritual purpose.
Thus it has been, thus will it be. Let us start from our knees for a
change, and pray that we become instruments of the divine compassion.*

                                       –Murshid Moineddin Jablonski

 

 

All of life is always in the process of giving birth to a more evolved version of itself. We are growing up one painful step at a time. It always has been.  It always will be. From the slightest misstep of a toddler learning to walk who one day becomes an athletic champion, from a bitter quarrel between lovers which ultimately leads to greater understanding and a deepening of their relationship to global multinational wars, the human race is slowly growing up. 

 

It is a brutal struggle, made absolutely real in the blood, sweat and tears we all expend in the process. We may hate the cost of the conflict, the bruised knee of the toddler, the sore muscles of the athlete, the tears of the misunderstood partner or the terrible blood loss from a war. But, the toddler learns to walk, and then runs to become a champion.  And, these terrible wars are all that on a herculean scale.  They are our collective effort to learn to walk while challenging all that we know at the present to reach something, someone, a whole world, of greater integrity and depth, wisdom and compassion. 

We are growing closer - with each life lost, each war fought and won or lost - each step taken as a world - to God.  We are ever so painfully slowly, growing up.  Each terrible event is another step forward.  Yet, we cannot see that now.

 

As the world fought World War II, against the heinous Nazi regime, could we ever have seen Germany's courageous stand for the refugees of the almost equally evil Assad regime today, close to 70 years later?  Didn't what Germany learn as a result become a lesson of brightness and compassion to today's world.  Out of the darkest, most terrible of times, sometimes an edelweiss blooms, a tiny, precious, fragile flower in the coldest of regions.

 

Who can ever understand what we will learn tomorrow from the terrors of today?  I guess, we just have to stay the course, have the courage to stay alive, despite how very, very difficult that may be - and always with the faith that the God we cannot see is still with us, with or without our understanding at the time.

 

* http://abwoon.org/about-us/neil-douglas-klotz/

 



Strangers in a strange land

I wept as I watched thousands of refugees from Syria arrive in Munich over the weekend.  My heart is so relieved Germany opened its borders with so much support, compassion and even enthusiasm to the world's most downtrodden refugees. Germany stepped up and is doing what any strong leader does in the face of crisis and adversity. It takes a stand and beams brightly to the rest of the world, a powerful light in the world's great and terrible dark night.  

One man said breathlessly to an awestruck reporter, "We are finally free!" Like the many thousands of other refugees arriving with him and his family, he had traveled the same perilous route from Syria, through Turkey, over sea and land on through Europe, despite danger on the seas, hungry and tired, yet relentless and driven to survive.

As these waves of humanity surged onward, courageously toward survival and freedom, in pursuit of life and liberty, they willingly risked everything for their lives.  Desperate, with no where else to go, they ventured into countries which centuries ago were inhospitable to Muslims. Even their brother Muslim nations rejected them, leaving them no other choice. Life grows where there is the least resistance.   

Today, compassion is the new religion and it has no borders, knows only the common human condition which will always be in pursuit of life and liberty.

Freedom is still something worth risking everything for -  along with food, water, shelter, the opportunity to go to school, find a job, and build a life and a community in peace.  The kindness of Germany along with Pope Francis' insistence that all the churches in Europe open their doors to the refugees is a most beautiful antidote to the cruelty of war, oppression, and poverty in these peoples' once beautiful ancient homeland.  One day, a generation from  now, the children we see hungry and tired with holes in their well worn little shoes, will return to Syria to rebuild.  But for now, they will learn German and go to church to say their Muslim prayers and know the kindness of strangers.  The kindness they experience today will bless the world in generations to come.

In the meantime, close to one million refugees in Jordan are in desperate need of food.  Please consider contributing to the UNHCR refugee agency. 

Defying gravity

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. 
                                                                             - Ephesians 6: 10-18

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 
                                                                              - Galatians 5:22

You are all beautiful beings of light, together and individually rare and genuine jewels of creation.  Your joy is matched by the angelic choirs. Your pain sends waves of compassion among all the company of heaven.  You are precious beyond your imagination.  Stand strong, fight the good fight, support each other in these dark days.  When one stumbles, lift him up. Despite how weary you feel, you must complete the trek through to the end of this age.

Be encouraged. Stand up, take a deep breath, hold you heads up, and call on the Lord, and all the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, for the strength to stand another day. Don't give up.  Never give up.  Some days you will run, other days you will walk or limp or even you might fall or rest, but always carry on, always stay the course. Pray. Open your heart to yourself and each other, honor yourself and each other, stay centered in your being, and stay on the way, and always in prayer.


A strange kind of weariness overcame me.  It had seeped into my spirit while I was striving to succeed. I was reaching, stretching, trying to be so many things to so many people, trying to please my boss's petulant attitude, uncertainty, and indecision, even reluctance to lead. I felt I was at a dead end.  My boss could not be pleased nor did it seem I had the skills he wanted.

But what did he want?  Without that information, I attempted brainstorming ideas for his consideration. I sculpted my writing, my graphic design, my creativity to meet his whims, yet nothing satisfied him.  He was cruel, reticent, silent. He expected me to know what he needed without offering a clue. 

Slowly, I sank beneath the waves of my own striving.  As I took my last breath, I realized something was terribly wrong and if I didn't do something about this, I was either going to be out of a job or so terribly depressed I would not have the inner strength to find another one.

I began to feel a heaviness in my spirit, which I fought. Yet, fighting it seemed to cause it to grow stronger. Things were going from bad to worse until I could barely get out of bed.  It felt like it took the entire morning just to make a cup of coffee, pull on a pair of jeans, brush my hair and get to the car. Time seemed to stand still as a pernicious silence crept into my soul. I began to not care about my work, not care about anything. While that worried me, I also didn't have the energy to look for another job, which was long overdue. I felt like I was sinking into a kind of quicksand and couldn't stop gravity's pull on my mind and body. 

Then the morning came when, while still in bed and two cats begging me to get up and feed them, I considered whether or not I would go to work that day. "Couldn't I just call in?  Isn't a mental health day just as valid as being physically sick?," I thought.  I considered the idea while opening the can of cat food. I rolled it over, pro and con, in my head while I made the coffee, while I pulled on a pair of jeans, while I brushed my teeth and headed out to the car.  "Yes. I will call in today.  I never call in," I attempted to justify my malaise. "There's only one meeting but not until late afternoon, couldn't I just go in for that meeting? That's what I'll do," I thought as I put the coffee cup on top of the car while I fished the car keys out of my purse.  "I'm going to take the day off and look for another job," I thought as I started the car and headed into my job in the city. 

Traffic was light for a change, allowing the inner dialogue to continue.  "I wonder if they'll  have that meeting in the afternoon since it has become my boss's style to cancel these meetings and postpone them to the next day or week more often than not. See, I'm at his beck and call, always there, always being pulled and pushed," I thought.  I felt so out of resources, out of ideas. 

I climbed the staircase to the second floor offices, smiled and greeted the receptionist and slipped back to my office, flipped on the light, fired up the computer, sat down, sipped the now cold coffee, and dove into cyber-mind-space.

I realized in the hard effort to please my boss, he had actually become less decisive and more critical. It had reached a tipping point. My trying had strengthened his weakness, and weakened my strength. I realized I had become so drained by the fight that I was bone dry spiritually. I also realized somewhere along the line I'd stopped the early morning writing, praying and meditation. I had stopped having spiritual breakfast.

Instead, a low vibratory worry had ensued, slowly engulfing my spirit. The distraction had worked. A heavy and dark spirit that was hunting and harassing me had gained on me, until I suddenly realized that while I thought I was still on the spiritual path, I had taken a wrong turn.  My boss's demands and criticism which seemed innocuous at first, stirring me to try harder, were slowly turning up the heat. It was now too hot in the kitchen and I was in a state of spiritual inflammation.

Somewhere between the first phone call of the morning and the time the email finally loaded, it hit me.  Like a bolt of lightning from heaven, warning of an incoming torrential storm while already in the early winds, I realized I was under spiritual attack, and had been trying desperately to please the devil. I heard in the back of my head, "it can't be done."  The bait is the lie that it can be done and the reward would be great if I succeeded.  But, the truth is, it can't be done. I started to feel panic.

"Pray," I heard whispering inside my head. "Just stop and pray. Take a moment and pray. Who cares if someone comes into your office while you're praying. Just pray."

And, so I did. I felt my head humming, like a lawn mower in the background.  I felt empty, dry, like Jeremiah's field of dry bones.  I felt like I had wandered so far away from where I used to be that I might never be able to find my way back. I felt lost.

"Nevermind. Just don't think. Just pray. You know how to do that. Try the Lord's Prayer. That's the most powerful prayer." The words flowed easily from memory, but still without any of their customary emotional inner feeling. They were just words, like saying a prayer out of the Book of Common Prayer, written by someone else several hundred years ago with little real meaning to me today. I remembered there were times in the past when I had prayed the Lord's Prayer out of desperation - different times than these - and the result was miraculous.

So I prayed, and as I prayed, I began to weep until I felt like I would drown in my own tears. Thankfully, no one was there to hear or see my complete failure in composure. 

I wept for the refugees in Europe, whose plight is worse than anything anyone could ever have imagined. I realized what they are experiencing is exactly what the Lord warned us would happen in "the last days." (Matthew 24)

Lately, as I watched the news, it dawned on me that what I was witnessing seemed graphically in alignment with these words from Matthew 24,
 
"Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes."

As I saw pregnant Syrian refugees* cradling young children, I remembered,

"But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be."

I considered these might actually be those last days, as much as I didn't want to give in to the religious right's declaration of such dramatic possibilities. I thought about the idiot Trump who was the media's favorite jokester. And then it became so obvious, so terribly obvious. We all are under a dark and terrible spiritual attack. The stakes are about as great as they can be, and I don't dare even say what that is because things could always get worse, even if we can't imagine anything worse, now.

I realized the Lord's Prayer was working. I was less panicky and beginning to see with more clarity. Despite how despondent my thoughts were at that moment, the awareness was important. While it didn't diminish the heaviness I felt, it lent a greater understanding of what we're dealing with.  At least the enemy was being identified. 

I realized at last that I will try again, today, and most likely everyday. But, never again will I ever attempt anything without prayer. The risk is too great and the dark forces too clever for the gentle and forgiving ones who have been seduced and reprimanded by our insidious media to be tolerant of every imaginable evil, worse than anything ancient Babylon could ever have dreamed up. 

The war of the ages is upon us. There can be no doubt now. If we think it's only on the other side of the planet, and not here in our own country, our own city or community or in our own personal lives, we are being duped and remain unprepared, as lamps unlit, sitting like vulnerable prey. Only God can equip us for this battle.  Only prayer, and perhaps the Lord's Prayer is best, will cut through enemy lines. 

I only share this morning's reflections to give you a wee bit of guidance drawn from my own will to carry on as a servant of the Lord.  If I am going through some tribulation, most likely everyone is in some way. Only with God, can we overcome the dark heaviness of the decadent power vacuum engulfing our globe. Only God can give us the vision, the spirit, and the strength to rise up as on eagles' wings and soar above the madness, beyond the drag of the oppressors on our light spirits and into his magnificent wisdom and holy realm of love and light.
Amen
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*On one news cast, the reporter told about a woman who gave birth and then got up and walked 11 miles!