Heliboni Parenting

 

Helicopter / Zamboni Parenting. 
What's it all about?

Good morning Papa!

Good morning son!

Heliboni = Helicopter / Zamboni Parental Style -- one that smoothes the way to an extreme degree while they hover over their children so closely in order to prevent the pain and disorder of the world from getting through. Such parents have almost no concept of the benefits of suffering -- often having no concept of a God who suffers with us, a God to whom we can cry out to and join our suffering to his suffering as an offering for the life of the world.

Papa, the type of entitlement humans that are being generated by this type of parenting is not unlike the thumb-sucking babies in forty year old bodies that the song "Mamas Don't Let Your Cowboys Grow Up To Be Babies" is referring to:

• A human who is clueless about the broken state of our world which will certainly bring us a heap of suffering should we live long enough.
• A human who thinks they are entitled to never suffer.
• A human who often is ignorant of a God who suffers with us.
• A human who knows nothing of the concept of redemptive suffering.
• A human who has no clue how to offer up suffering as a prayer for the life of the world.
• A human who knows nothing of grattitude for blessings in the midst of suffering.
• A human who scoffs at "Ya get what ya get and you don't throw a fit" and "Suck it up buttercup".
• A human who thinks they are entitled to always feel safe in every situation and threatens dire consequences  to any and all who make them feel unsafe.

LORD HAVE MERCY ON US ALL.

Heal me, Papa, from my tendency to embrace any of this errant thinking.

Perhaps, son, the embrace of this type of parenting and its resultant entitlement thinking is the result at least in part to people having no hope -- they see history going nowhere except in endless cycles spiraling down into violence, hate and all the resulting pain -- so they think to take matters into their own hands to keep as much of that pain off of them and their loved ones as possible.

Pain avoidance is built into your DNA as a way to survive -- but it can be taken to an extreme that ignores my existence and focuses only on avoiding pain and receiving pleasure. It then idolizes pleasure and ignores me -- the source of all good -- the one who built the ability to receive and enjoy pleasurable experiences into your DNA. It is important to look with compassion on yourself and others who have absorbed this way of thinking unwittingly, people who like you have made idols of pleasurable experiences... forgive them Father for they know not what they do.

Yes, Lord, I see the need for tenderness here, the need to speak the truth in love. I cannot balance that without you Lord -- Channel that compassion of yours through me.

I AM and I will son. We love you very much and are pleased to see you maturing a little bit here so you can recognize this error in yourself -- but remember to be tender with others when you see it in them. Share your experience strength and hope with them without rancor or irritation. Identify with them -- see the pain and misery it has caused you and them together to live in this type of error. Commiserate with them first and then share what you've learned about suffering with me me -- about a God who suffers with you and is not aloof to your suffering. About the lie of meaninglessness, spiraling cycles of decline and how you have hope for it all to one day end in the eschaton -- the beatific vision come true -- Aslan's country at last where death and hate and pain and sorrow are no more.

I can do that with joy Papa -- in, with and through you -- you in, with and through me.

That's the Spirit son. We love you so much.

Love you too.

Amen.

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Leeloo here... Seb mentioned this homily by Bishop Barron that got him thinking about all of this in the first place. I agree with him, it is very good.

Word on Fire link for Bishop Barron's Homily for 9/13/26: You Belong to the Lord

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[Bold print represents what Seb is sensing God whispering in the depths of his heart during his prayer time. Bold italic print represents what Seb is sensing a Saint whispering to his heart in prayer. NONE of this is to be taken as authoritative instruction for us all. Click here to learn more about what this type of two way prayer is and is not.]

Conversion: A Capital Offence

Papa, looking back on my journal entry from 2/16/25 I caught myself being angry... a little bit rage triggered becuase of anti-conversion laws being passed in some countries, states and provinces. Lord, why do I get so angry about this?

Son, I think you assessed it rightly on the 16th... you rightly perceive that the core of the Christian life consists of daily conversion from doing things your way and instead surrendering your heart, soul, will, intellect and whole life to doing things my way. It is a daily and hourly and moment by moment conversion of all of you to following the way of Jesus -- I AM the WAY.

That continuous conversion is the Christian life. So... no surprise when states, countries and provinces and their lawmakers say that you may not use therapy to help people find this deep way of daily conversion to my way that you are a bit concerned.

But son... there is nothing new under the sun.

The first emperors dealing with Christianity in Rome slew them precisely because they were proposing an unacceptable conversion -- a conversion to calling Christ Lord instead of Caesar. "Conversion therapy" as the first Christians practiced it carried a much more severe penalty than revoking one's license to practice therapy -- it was a capital offense.

Your life was forfeit not only for converting others but simply for being a convert and refusing to 'un-convert', that is, worship the emperor and / or his gods as Lord.

Hmmm... I never thought of that -- not quite that way anyhow. Thanks Lord.

You're welcome son.

So, I guess the upswing is that at least at this time in the US, Australia, the UK Canada and many other countries, 'conversion therapy' is at least not a capital offense. Furthermore, I can pray for countries where it is... for though the gender ideologists haven't pushed so far to make conversion from their way of thinking a capital crime, some countries DO kill people simply for converting to Christianity even today.

Truth.

So, applying this with being a twelve step sponsor...

Right son, as a sponsor you're sort of like a spiritual director -- you are walking with people in their journey... you may offer them a bit of guidance as they come to you trying to navigate the complexities of their addiction, and nothing you do under the umbrella of sponsorship to help them get where they want to be would really fall under the laws of even the most 'anti-conversion' law type of countries or jurisdictions...

So if one of my sponsees for example is struggling with unwelcome same sex attraction in his heart and he desires help navigating that, there is no law currently that says I can't share my own experience, strength and hope in that arena...

Right, not yet anyway... you call them to trust in me if they are my followers, correct?

Of course, Lord. Daily, total, surrender to your will and your ways. Daily conversion from 'my way of thinking and acting' to 'your way', Lord. This is bedrock 12 step spirituality.

Exactly, there is no current law against that in the US or even in any of the jurisdictions you mentioned. Where it can get sticky is when you get licensed by the state to do clinical therapy... then you have to abide by their rules.

Yes, so I gather... which is why I'm disinclined to pursue any such career path. I have more freedom as a sponsor to truly help people that want to commit to surrendering to you in all things Lord.

Son, you know that your friend Farmer Fred is pursuing a certificate in Spiritual Direction for much the same reasons you prefer to be simply a sponsor, right?

Yes, we've emailed about it a couple times as you know... I may consider a similar path if it be your will Lord. It sounds like the training he is receiving at DMU is top notch, maybe I'll reach out to them sometime.

Excellent idea, I'm with you son, love you!

Love you too Papa!

Amen.

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[Bold print represents what Seb is sensing God whispering in the depths of his heart during his prayer time. Bold italic print represents what Seb is sensing a Saint whispering to his heart in prayer. NONE of this is to be taken as authoritative instruction for us all. Click here to learn more about what this type of two way prayer is and is not.]

I Need You to Survive

Good morning Papa!

 

Good morning Son, yes I want to speak to you about the Protestant movement and why I allowed it. I could have stopped it of course, but as you can plainly see I did not. You seem to always dress it in a cloak of insanity. Perhaps in some aspects it is that but you must look at the motives behind it son. These protesters saw much trauma and abuse being perpetrated on my people by its leaders. They saw practices that had become corrupted. They wanted to clean house and expel both the people and the practices that were harmful. Being unable to expel these they started their own thing.

 

Son, no human's efforts to channel my love are perfect, except for Jesus, Mary and my holy angels. So is it so surprising that this new movement to purify the Church would be imperfect? Of course not. Yes they threw out the baby with the bath water often, this is a common practice during a scouring/purging.

 

Yet I tell you son, this movement that has been proceeding unchecked for hundreds of years now has produced many complimentary practices and tools for the help of Christians. It has produced great leaders that channel my love in beautiful ways. In many of its strains it is no longer anti-Catholic, but seeing itself as just another part of my body.

 

It is not your business to sort out if they are or are not part of my body. It is not your business to declare their sacraments valid or invalid. You just keep channeling my love the best you can every day and let me sort all that out.

 

In the meantime son, listen to Deacon Didier Rance:

 

"What is Receptive Ecumenism? This is a method which is being advocated more in the 21st century which comes from the fundamental truth (agreed on by all objective Christians of every stripe) that "all sides are missing something they previously shared" as a result of their separation. Receptive Ecumenism then seeks to begin ecumenical reconciliation by looking at what you need from other Christians rather than pitying them for what you have and you think they don’t have.

 

It means to ask not “What do the other traditions first need to learn from us?” but “What do we need to learn from them?” The assumption is that if all were asking this question seriously and acting upon it then all would be moving in ways that would both deepen our authentic respective identities and draw us into more intimate relationship."

 

Isn't this a more wholesome way son?

 

Yes indeed Papa. Though it doesn't use the term 'complementarity', it is implied throughout. We need each other and we are are all missing something we previously shared.

 

Yes son, listen to the song you learned by Hezekiah Walker:

 

I need you, you need me.

We're all a part of God's body.

Stand with me, agree with me.

We're all a part of God's body.

 

It is his will, that every need be supplied.

You are important to me, I need you to survive.

You are important to me, I need you to survive.

(repeat 3X)

 

I pray for you, You pray for me.

I love you, I need you to survive.

I won't harm you with words from my mouth.

I love you, I need you to survive.

(repeat 8 X)

 

It is his will, that every need be supplied.

You are important to me, I need you to survive.

 

See son, it isn't just some fine side dish. You need each other to survive. I dwell in each of you in some way and I can speak through any of you, love through any of you, if you are willing. The thief on the cross experienced none of the advantages or the graces developed later by my people to aid them in flourishing, but he is with me here right now! His name is Dismas and he greets you with love.

 

Hello Dismas, please pray for me and all of us.

I am and I will Seb. See you soon!

[from Google search: "Finally, it should be mentioned that Dismas (sometimes spelled Dysmas) was the name associated with the good thief who asked Jesus to remember him in paradise (Luke 23:43), while Gestas was the one who taunted Jesus along with the crowd. In the Roman Catholic tradition, Dismas was canonized as a saint whose feast is celebrated March 25."]

 

Thanks for all of that Papa, you have blessed my heart once again!

 

We love you so much son, now go bless your family and channel my love.

 

Amen!

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[Bold print represents what Seb is sensing God whispering in the depths of his heart during his prayer time. Bold italic print represents what Seb is sensing a Saint whispering to his heart in prayer. NONE of this is to be taken as authoritative instruction for us all. Click here to learn more about what this type of two way prayer is and is not.]

Prayers for Leeloo's New Venture

Good morning Papa!

Good morning son!

Papa, I’m so excited that Leeloo is starting her true feminine genius site. Please bless this endeavor Lord and draw the true, good and beautiful of authentic femininity from the hearts of all these women past and present, that Mary’s immaculate heart may triumph as she predicted it would in the end. Lord heal hearts through their hearts overflowing with the love they so willingly receive from you!

Son I too look forward to working in, with and through all of them and I have an infinite supply of love for them to birth into the world. Your world indeed suffers greatly in its Femanemia as Leeloo mentioned and it is indeed Mary’s immaculate heart that is safe in my heart that will be an agent of healing for the life of the world.

As the U2 song mentions ‘two hearts beat as one’ so it has always been with my mother and I. She was and is so much more than a birthing portal for the divine, she is the point of union of divinity and humanity on all levels.

Yes son, I do look forward to continuing to work alongside Leeloo as my son Jesus binds us all together in pure and infinite love. Do all you can to encourage Leeloo to continue giving a home for all this beauty, truth and goodness. Help her to see that tiny things like this done with great love are worth more than all the silver and gold in the world. In fact it is these types of works that give those precious metals their true shine. My immaculate heart will indeed triumph for my son has said that it would be so, it has already stirred in so many beautiful souls and in Leeloo’s work you will see that beauty gathered like a bouquet.

Son I love the way you are beginning to kiss us all when you receive the Holy Eucharist, keep that practice up, we love it here and are delighted to receive your kisses, we can’t wait to meet you in the flesh.

Thank you Lord and Momma Mary for these encouraging words, I’m sure Leeloo will post them soon for the encouragement of all with eyes to see.

We love you son, go now in peace and joy to serve others.

Amen

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[Bold print represents what Seb is sensing God whispering in the depths of his heart during his prayer time. Bold italic print represents what Seb is sensing a Saint whispering to his heart in prayer. NONE of this is to be taken as authoritative instruction for us all. Click here to learn more about what this type of two way prayer is and is not.]

The New Normal - Jesus Restores Walks In the Garden

Good morning Papa!

Good morning son!

Papa, I am struck by Bishop Barron’s words today. They seem to be affirming the sort of prayer I and so many others have learned to practice and that is comforting.

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John 15:9–17

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus announces to his disciples: “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.”

Many mysticisms and philosophies of the ancient world—Platonism and Gnosticism come readily to mind—spoke of God or the sacred, but they spoke of it as a force or a value or an ontological source. It was impersonal and at an infinite remove from the world of ordinary experience. These ancient schools find an echo in many modern and contemporary theologies. Think of deism, which was so influential on the founders of the United States, or even the New Age philosophy of our time. These speak of a “divine” principle or power, but one would never dream of addressing such a force as “thou” or of engaging with it in intimate conversation.

Then there is the Bible. The Scriptures obviously present God as the overwhelming, transcendent, uncontrollable, inscrutable Creator of the heavens and the earth, but they insist that this sublime and frightening power is a person who deigns to speak to us, to guide us, and to invite us into his life.

In making that utterance—that he no longer called his disciples slaves, but friends—Jesus turned all of religious philosophy and mysticism on its head.

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5/16/24

Son it should indeed comfort you to know that you are not on this path alone. Remember what I've told you before? It is not chatting with me personally that is odd, it is the lack thereof.

Remember, I sent my Son into the world to infuse it with grace and inject the antidote into the physical cosmos through his body, blood, soul and divinity which is now forever intertwined into the dimension you call 'The Universe'. There is no undoing this. As I've mentioned before, it is like Neo in the Matrix, only in slow motion. It is also indeed like Leeloo's explosion of light and love to stop arrest evil and save the world from evil… again, in slow motion. And finally, remember that the enemy is like the severed wasp that doesn't realize the dreadful thing that has been done to it.

All of these images in motion in your heart testify to the reality that Jesus has radically transformed reality. He has opened a portal of friendship with Me that can never be closed and is impinging on the world more daily. This is why your world is in turmoil, because people love darkness more than light and the enemy is insuring the fight harder as the dawn is impending. Surely the enemy is more aware of this than your race which by and large tries to ignore the entire dimension of eternal light that is slowly eclipsing the darkness.

Remember son, darkness is just a speck in the light.

So when my son Robert Barron propounds on the reality of this radical shift from slave (read this as employee or worker in this context) to friend and family members, he is right on track.

Friends and family chat with their father. Jesus came to restore things to their intended order. Just like I chatted with Adam and Eve in the Garden, Jesus came to invite all my offspring to that same intimacy. And that is only the beginning.

I see Papa, this is part of the design, long before the Oxford group or AA started to emphasize two way prayer or continuous conscious contact with you. Examples abound down through the centuries of you chatting with folks in their hearts. Those that did this and dared to speak of it were not always treated kindly.

No they were not son, but don't let that stop you. All of my offspring were meant to stroll and chat with me, or sit and listen to me speak just as you are now in the depths of your heart and writing it in your journal. This is the new normal that Jesus inaugurated. This is what it means to listen to my Spirit within and respond to it as one would in any normal conversation.

Worry not that you might miss the point, get it wrong or misunderstand me. I'll tell you again. I'm always whispering my song of love in your heart and hoping you'll tune in to listen to the chorus again and again.

Thanks Papa, that is beautiful and reassuring.

You're welcome son, I love you.

Love you too Papa.

Amen.

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[Bold print represents what Seb is sensing God whispering in the depths of his heart during his prayer time. Bold italic print represents what Seb is sensing a Saint whispering to his heart in prayer. NONE of this is to be taken as authoritative instruction for us all. Click here to learn more about what this type of two way prayer is and is not.]

Deleting Suspicion of Joy

Papa, I'm happy to be going to confession this morning. I need healing from the wound of that deadly sin scraping me up last Saturday night. Ugghhhh… heal me Jesus.

I do want to heal you and cleanse you from that son. I will meet you there in person.

Thank you Lord, I am so grateful for the voice of the Holy Spirit within that you and all the Saints channel through to counsel and console me. I am so grateful you are teaching me to listen. Lord I do so wish I could stop the 15 - 18 times that Fr. J suggests during the day to tune into you. I fear I do not do so. Even when I do pause when switching tasks and ask you to guide me I'm not sure I really do let you guide me… I don't know what to think about this Lord… sometimes it feels like I'm just bursting to share things with people and I don't know if it is you guiding me or simply my own joy and enthusiasm.

Son, why can it not be both? You seem to be thinking that just because your enthusiasm and joy have bowled people over in the past that it cannot also be my joy coursing through you. Can you trust me to sort it out and trust me in others to sort it out as well? People are more understanding and forgiving than you give them credit for. They are not always judging you in a negative light. It isn't even good to ponder over much on how they are thinking of you… simply be with me in the moment, allow me to course my joy and love for them through you and worry not if you are over enthusiastic doing this. 

It is our joy together that brings the tears so often to your eyes and to mine. I have eyes as well now, remember? And I weep with joy when we are loving other people in our thoughts, words and deeds in, with and through each other. This spiritual form of nuptial embrace is life giving. It is the marriage of heaven and earth sowing life into hungry and sometimes famished souls. Please son, stop doubting yourself in this, only believe. Trust that all will be well and that your efforts to channel my love no matter how imperfect are redemptive… our merging in body, blood, soul and divinity is energizing and good. You don't look at the physical marital embrace with such suspicion do you son? Neither look at our spiritual merging to lovingly bring forth life in others, to call out the good, true and beautiful with suspicion.

Ok Lord, I will try to clear this suspicion from my heart, better yet, you cleanse it from me in your strength Lord. I love you.

We all love you son and are well pleased with your progress on the journey.

Amen.

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[Bold print represents what Seb is sensing God whispering in the depths of his heart during his prayer time. Bold italic print represents what Seb is sensing a Saint whispering to his heart in prayer. NONE of this is to be taken as authoritative instruction for us all. Click here to learn more about what this type of two way prayer is and is not.]

Papa Speaks About Agency

 You whispered something to me perhaps in my sleep Papa?

Yes son, helping you understand what is meant by the idea of giving back someone their agency. When someone is abused by others or themselves they can very quickly lose their agency, that is they feel they have no choice other than to allow the abuse to continue. In fact, especially in addiction, certain acts can cease to seem like the abuse that it actually is to one's self. This drink, food, sex, drug, purchase, (etc.) makes me feel better momentarily and therefore it isn't perceived as an abuse of one's own will when they feel they have no choice to make the craving go away other than to fulfill it.

Giving them back their ability to chose is what recovery and a Spirit led life is all about. "Choose you this day" is almost an inconceivable concept to one caught up in addiction or being abused by another.

As you walk with people in recover or as you do spiritual direction of any sort son, bear this in mind. You are inviting people on a path you yourself are learning to travel and showing them how you reclaimed your own agency... not in a simple and grasping 'will to power' but in learning to counterintuitively surrender your right to self-abusing acting out and cll upon your earthly and heavenly communities for the strength to do the next loving thing for yourself and others.

To those being abused it is just as complex for they have sometimes been made to feel less than a person, as unworthy of being treated with the dignity due to every person created in my image. As it was for you son, it is a conversion of heart and nothing less that is required. They must come to see themselves as beloved or little progress is made in reclaiming their agency and choosing to step out of the situation. Thisis why you have instinctively given away so many copies of Henry Nouwen's "Life of the Beloved", yes?

Yes indeed Papa, that makes perfect sense. But even as a self-abuser I needed that message just as badly - Thanks for the explanation Papa. Love you.

Love you too son.

Amen.

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[Bold print represents what Seb is sensing God whispering in the depths of his heart during his prayer time. Bold italic print represents what Seb is sensing a Saint whispering to his heart in prayer. NONE of this is to be taken as authoritative instruction for us all. Click here to learn more about what this type of two way prayer is and is not.]

Religious or Spiritual?

Good morning Papa!

Good morning son!

Grateful for Fr J’s words about spirituality and religion yesterday.

Yes son, he drew it out well. I made all of you hybrids of spirit and matter. Every living soul has both. So really everyone is spiritual whether they realize it or not. One can neglect their spiritual hunger and ignore and abuse it until it is nearly dying. Or one can pay attention to their hunger and mistakenly try to feed it by dousing their bodies with all manner of things. Or one can actually feed that spiritual hunger with inappropriate things that are toxic to it. Last and best of all one might feed that spiritual hunger with helpful actions and thoughts and a focus on the transcendentals… what is true, good and beautiful.

Religion is simply disciplined spirituality. It exercises one’s spiritual muscles daily until a deep sense of what it means to be a decent human being is developed. The best religions develop this by connecting with me, the true God of all. The very best religion actually connects with me not just in spirit but also in the flesh and blood in the Eucharist and are thereby transformed by my body, blood, soul and divinity from the inside out.

Also remember that Fr. J drew a distinction between the definitions of discipline. I am not actively punitive as most of you believe, you’re all pretty good at punishing and destroying yourselves so my function is more one of mercifully preventing your self annihilation.

Consider the Webster definitions:

1: to punish or penalize for the sake of enforcing obedience and perfecting moral character

2: to train or develop by instruction and exercise especially in self-control

3a: to bring (a group) under control - discipline troops

3b:: to impose order upon - serious writers discipline and refine their writing styles

You see son, while I may allow some of the consequences of your own self-destructive tendencies to take their full effect (trust me, if I allowed them all to get through to you, humans would have long since ceased to exist!), even then I only allow those consequences in love and hope that they may move you back toward me, the source of all goodness and life.

With that in mind, you can see that definition 2 above is more in line how you should view your approach to spiritual realities. Like the best coach imaginable (yes Ted Lasso came to mind) the best religion provides disciplined instruction for you in appropriate body-soul exercises toward living a fully integrated life as the beautiful marriage of matter and spirt that you are.

Yes Papa this is a right and nuanced approach that makes very good sense. Thanks Papa!

You’re welcome son, I love you!

Love you too Papa!

Amen

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[Bold print represents what Seb is sensing God whispering in the depths of his heart during his prayer time. Bold italic print represents what Seb is sensing a Saint whispering to his heart in prayer. NONE of this is to be taken as authoritative instruction for us all. Click here to learn more about what this type of two way prayer is and is not.]

At Adoration

Good morning Papa, Jesus, Holy Spirit of Love!

Good morning son!

Lord it was a perplexing awakening when I realized that the vast majority of Christians down through the centuries trusted in your real presence in the Blessed Sacrament. Most recently as I read Tolkien’s letters to his son — Tolkien whom even the world proclaims a master story teller — when I see his words on the Blessed Sacrament to Christopher, well… it jars me.

And then reading those snippets from people who wrote down through the centuries, men and women, young and aged, common lay folk and brilliant educated Saints, all of them bearing witness in unison to your real presence in the Eucharist. (This I find in those beautiful little books “My Daily Eucharist”.) 

A then in “The Holy Hour” book [Word on Fire Press] pp. 202 and 206 Thomas Merton and Pope Francis’ beautiful poetry and poetic prose proclaiming that in the Eucharist is the marriage of heaven and earth — which makes much sense in that thereby you penetrate into the depths of our physical bodies as food and drink and through us permeate the world and the cosmos with your presence.

Lord, this is GLORIOUS!

Yes son, it is and it is something I want to do in, with and through you - interpenetrating each other — body and soul — like human lovers but on a higher plane — Yes, when Roberto Benigni ejaculated in his joy and love to the whole world that he wanted “to lay you all down and make love to you all” he was expressing a note of pure desire for intimate union with everyone — a unity which cannot be attained in the wildest of physical orgies — but is slowly and surely being attained in the communion of saints through partaking in the Holy Eucharist day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year. It is the longest nuptial love making ever! And remember, nuptial love making is just the beginning! We continue this marriage eternally and love making is part of marriage (and begetting children) — it is life giving intimacy for all eternity that can now be celebrated not just between two people in a brief “lifetime” but with all those who abide in me in the Eucharist — All who accept the invitation to the wedding supper of the lamb.

Son, what I’m giving you a glimpse of here is  so much more glorious and ecstatic and wonderful than merely marital love. Don’t mistake the symbol for the real thing… powerful though the symbol may be it is only a shadow of the reality of intimate, interpenetrating connectivity you will all experience in eternity in heaven with all the saints.

Ah, the beatific vision — no matter how dim my eyes and how inadequate my comprehension — is still overwhelming and wonderful. Thank you Lord for bending low and spoon feeding a tiny pre-chewed morsel into my tiny mouth. Thank you for being you and for being present and in, with and through myself and my innumerable brothers and sisters all at once. Thank you for this communion symbolized in Avatar as they are all tied together in the Mother tree. Thank you most Holy Trinity for opening the sharing of your love with us all.

You’re welcome son! We love you to infinity and beyond!

Love you too Lord.

Amen.

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[Bold print represents what Seb is sensing God whispering in the depths of his heart during his prayer time. Bold italic print represents what Seb is sensing a Saint whispering to his heart in prayer. NONE of this is to be taken as authoritative instruction for us all. Click here to learn more about what this type of two way prayer is and is not.]

We Killed God (Unity of Trinity Part II)

(Leeloo here... the content below is from Seb's friend Fred who has friends and sponsees in prison that he regularly writes to. Fred shared one of his latest letters he wrote to a friend in jail and I thought it shows the degree with which Fred and Seb are tracking the Spirit of Jesus together on this issue. Hope it blesses you like it blessed me.)

Well we made it through Easter and boy was I blessed this year. I hope you were too.

I think I came to a deeper understanding about Jesus death and resurrection than I have before…. I don’t know, I’m still kind of processing it.

It is the whole HORRIBLE idea that God the Father was ticked off about sin and had to take his wrath out on someone and so to spare us he took it out on his own son!! Who would want to serve a horrible Father like that, seriously!?

But that is exactly what I was taught in many terrible sermons down through the years. Turns out this false notion has been popular and widespread since about 1200 AD…

I am so Happy that modern preachers and scholars are coming back to the BIBLICAL truth that shows that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are ONE - they are UNIFIED!!! The Father cannot take his wrath out on the son any more than he can take it out on himself! In fact this notion of God being so ticked off at us humans is just wrong… God’s wrath throughout scripture is actually quite a different notion…

In fact, the big thing that comes out is that God is HOLDING back the wrath of Mother Nature trying to self cleanse (in other words ‘wipe us out’ like a Momma dog eating a deformed pup)… God allows about one 10 billionth of the bad things to happen to us that should happen because of our own stupidity and stubbornness. His mercy is a trillion times bigger than the natural consequences of our own idiocy that he allows to squeak through once in a while to get our attention and draw us back into his arms.

There are MANY images in Churches that would fix this whole notion of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’s unity at the cross. They are unfortunately almost all in Europe and overseas in older Churches. The images show God the Father with a grieved and pained look standing behind the cross holding it up with his hands and God the Son on the cross and God the Holy Spirit hovering over God the Son by God the Father’s shoulder. They All THREE suffered together, they are ONE!

WHAT did they suffer? OUR Violence. OUR Hate. OUR selfishness. OUR need for a scapegoat.. OUR need for someone other than ourselves to blame it on.

In some sense, The Father and the Holy
Spirit suffered with Jesus on the Cross

WE KILLED GOD… OUR sin killed him…

And wait for it…

HE just absorbed it on the cross.

Then he came back alive and the first things out of his mouth were NOT I’m going to get even with you.

No, his first words every time he appeared were SHALOM. Peace be unto you.

Yeah, you killed me with your spitefulness and hate, I was your ultimate scapegoat, WE were your ultimate scapegoat, my Father, myself and the Holy Spirit ABSORBED ALL your violence and meanness and we are not mad at you.

In fact we used it as an opportunity to TEAR OPEN the abode of the dead and free the prisoners there and OPEN up paradise to whoever wishes to enter.

So with that to chew on, I’m going to turn again to my good friend Sebastian O’Donal’s journal and let you read some of his conversations with Papa (Father God) and some of his thoughts on this subject.


______________

Jesus Cancels Scapegoating

Good morning Papa!

Good morning son!

Papa, thanks again for Bishop Barron, he nailed it again today I thought.

You’re welcome son, yes, I’d say Jesus nailed it to the cross, scapegoating that is ;D

Exactly and thereby cancelling out the whole scapegoat mechanism on the cosmic level… granted, most of us never received the memo about this and still go right on scapegoating everyone and everything. But that old tired and violent way was nailed to the cross and a new way of resurrection and life rose from the ashes in a very real sense… it simply is taking its time sinking into the entirecosmos but it will take over. It is inevitable. Those who resist will feel it as fire, those who embrace the new way of love and forgiveness will feel it as warming rays of the life giving sun/son of God.

Exactly, you’re tendency to blame and scapegoat went all the way back to the beginning as you remember and is highly linked to pride. Both must be completely uprooted if true healing is to happen, but the cosmic groundwork has been completed. You are all invited to join in that triumph of the way of forgiveness, love and overcoming evil with good. But it wouldn’t work if I forced it on you would it… that would be using the same old method of violence to overcome your violence. This is an invitation to humanity to marry our divinity and it is not a shotgun wedding.

Indeed Papa, and I fully embrace it and pray that everyone will. Of course, I cannot do it except in, with and through you though you. Jesus I trust in you.

__________

Bishop Barron’s Gospel Homily for today:

JOHN 11:45–56

Friends, in today’s Gospel, the chief priests and Pharisees unite in a plot to kill Jesus because he raised Lazarus from the dead.

The Crucifixion of Jesus is a classic instance of Catholic philosopher René Girard’s scapegoating theory. He held that a society, large or small, that finds itself in conflict comes together through a common act of blaming an individual or group purportedly responsible for the conflict.

It is utterly consistent with the Girardian theory that Caiaphas, the leading religious figure of the time, said to his colleagues, “It is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”

In any other religious context, this sort of rationalization would be validated. But in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, this stunning truth is revealed: God is not on the side of the scapegoaters, but rather on the side of the scapegoated victim.

The true God does not sanction a community created through violence; rather, he sanctions what Jesus called the kingdom of God, a society grounded in forgiveness, love, and identification with the victim.

__________

The Unity of the Trinity

Seb wrote this to introduce some articles they were going to read and discuss in one of his recovery groups:

“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father… I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Jn. 14

“For it is love I desire, not sacrifice…” Hos. 6:6

Because of these words, when I’m able, I gaze at the Crucifix during the “Our Father”. I do this to remind myself that God the Father and Son are not independent contractors that go about their own business, touching base via a phone call occasionally. They are two persons that are deeply intertwined on every level by the Holy Spirit of Love. When the son decided it was high time to take on flesh and go rescue us lost sheep, the Father did not hold him back from that great mission and in fact supported him in every way, though it pained him to do so. They both knew what it would cost.

Gazing at the crucifix, I’m reminded that in a very real sense the Father actually experienced bodyliness vicariously through his son. In the movie “The Shack”, Papa (the Father character) reveals the nail prints in his wrists when questioned about why he ‘abandoned’ his son on the cross. In fact, as Cardinal Cantalamessa aptly points out, Western liturgical art is rich with images of the trinity showing the grieving Father intimately present at the crucifixion and holding his dead son (a fatherly pieta of sorts) afterwards always connected by the Spirit of Love in the form of a dove. I’ve included a sampling of Trinity images at the end of this document.

Cantalamessa uses deft and expert strokes in these two good Friday sermons (see his book: The Power of the Cross) to set the record straight. Far from being cruelly demanded by the Father, the rescue mission to save our souls was the Son’s idea and it was a perfect offering of love to the Father in the Spirit of Love to woo and to win humanity back… to bring home a bride to the heavenly court. This is a main theme in the Theology of the Body which is why we are reading these two sermons this lent. May it deepen our understanding of the loving intimacy between the members of the Holy Trinity.

______________

I hope this all makes sense to you and at least one thing in this blesses you brother,

God bless and feel free to write back with any questions and I’ll try to explain it better.

Your brother in Jesus,


Fred

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[Bold print represents what Seb is sensing God whispering in the depths of his heart during his prayer time. Bold italic print represents what Seb is sensing a Saint whispering to his heart in prayer. NONE of this is to be taken as authoritative instruction for us all. Click here to learn more about what this type of two way prayer is and is not.]

The Wasp in the Room

Holy Thursday, April 6, 2023

Good morning Papa!

Good morning son!

Papa, I'm thinking of this quote from George Orwell, that droll and mirthless prophet you spoke through so clearly in spite of his demeanor towards you.

Yes son, he was often my unwilling mouthpiece but then again I can speak through an ass and even sometimes you! ;D  Write out the quote and allow me to unfold it for you.

Ok Papa, here it is.

I thought of a rather cruel trick I once played on a wasp. He was sucking jam on my plate, and I cut him in half. He paid no attention, merely went on with his meal, while a tiny stream of jam trickled out of his severed esophagus. Only when he tried to fly away did he grasp the dreadful thing that had happened to him. It is the same with modern man. The thing that has been cut away is his soul, and there was a period -- twenty years, perhaps -- when he did not notice it.
—Notes On The Way, George Orwell: The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters. Volume Two,

Papa it occurs to me that even though Madeleine L'Engle went an entirely different direction with this image in her novel A Severed Wasp, there is a much more joyous take on it. It seems to be tied directly to your death and resurrection and my mind reels at the cosmological implications, please unpack it for me Papa.

Gladly son. First of all let's straighten out the symbols.

The wasp in the room of every person's heart is death. When even one of these little buggers is in your bedroom, you fear going to sleep do you not?

Truth Papa, I'd turn the lights on and find it and kill it to protect my wife and I from a sting.

Right! So, what happened leading up to Calvary was the jam on the plate. Death and hell came in to suck the life blood right out of me, remember we are undivided, Father, Son and Spirit… the politicians of the day were closing in on me to do away with me and I was gladly feeding those wasps my jam.

Wait, you were baiting them?

In a sense, yes, the simple truth baits those who can not abide it. I AM the TRUTH and the source of all truth so I baited them just by being ME. So like in the cartoon where you trick your enemy into swallowing a bomb by wrapping it in a tasty treat, well, it was just too easy really.

The key of course to understanding what happened next son is the whole kairos vs. chronos thing. Chronos is the passage of time measured by various clocks, initially the sun and moon and stars, but now you have machines that display it more precisely. Kairos is that eternal moment that chronos cannot really touch. Because I am fully both God and Man, what I do in chronos time (my death, burial, harrowing of hell, resurrection, ascension, etc.) also occurs outside of time in that eternal kairos moment.

So because you the eternal took on flesh, everything you do now echoes in both chronos and kairos eternally forever, sending out ripples forward and backward in time, like we've discussed before.

Exactly son, who said you weren't bright? ;D So as you can imagine, when I cut the thorax off death and it sat there still sucking up the jam, this was my death, harrowing of hell and resurrection. Death, the devil and his many servants are still sucking the jam. They haven't realized the dreadful thing that has happened to them on a cosmic level yet. Nor has the vast majority of humanity.

When I tore the gates off the abode of death and hell and led the captives there to freedom it changed the entire nature of the broken universe. It began the great healing in the chronos realm. What is as plain as day in the kairos or eternal realm is slowly working its way into the material universe. It is a slow and covert operation. It is the Matrix in slow motion, Neo the antivirus neutralizing the Smith virus… ever so slowly over the last 2000 years.

The wasp is now stirring and realizing the dreadful thing that has happened, death is in its death throes, it is breathing its last gasp, it is desperate and will lash out but it no longer has a stinger to truly hurt anyone. Hell and death are a sham… there are no gates to keep anyone in any longer and all are invited to walk out of there. But it is a marriage proposal, not a shotgun wedding.

I'm inviting humanity to marry me, God in the flesh. The enemy has sown seeds of distrust and suspicion so as to make me look like the worst tyrant groom ever. So few trust in my goodness and so many believe the enemies lies.

Yet I hope and pray to my Father for little ones with trusting hearts to accept the proposal and walk out of hell with me into paradise. The hobbits, the overlooked, the outcasts, the addicts, the ones counted as fools by the world… such are the trusting and hungry hearts I seek to join me in the wedding feast. The banquet at the world's end.

What continues to baffle people is the slow way this is playing out in this era, that is in the chronos of humans. They forget that the darkest hour comes before the dawn…

Like the battle of the Hornburg where Gandalf and the warriors come over the hill with the sun at dawn and turn certain defeat into victory.

Yeah, they forget or have never learned the concept of the eucatastrophe:

"The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation."
--J. R. R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories

They forget or have never been told by my son T-bone Burnett that:

"This version of the world will not be here long
It is already gone, it is already gone."
--T-bone Burnett, Palestine Texas

So keep your mind set on the cosmic realities son, not on things seen but unseen realities which are slow in revealing themselves. That wasp has no sting. It can suck jam all it wants, but I have conquered death and hell long ago.

Look at this Visio Divina Card my son Fred has put together. It may help you remember when nothing else will that I have trampled down death by dying to gain entry into its abode, tearing it to shreds and leading the captives to freedom. I love you son.

Love you too Papa.

Amen.

(Leeloo here, Fred and Seb have become friends through recovery and TOB. 

Visit Farmer Fred's Harrowing of Hell page here.

______

[Bold print represents what Seb is sensing God whispering in the depths of his heart during his prayer time. Bold italic print represents what Seb is sensing a Saint whispering to his heart in prayer. NONE of this is to be taken as authoritative instruction for us all. Click here to learn more about what this type of two way prayer is and is not.]

Jesus Cancels Scapegoating

Good morning Papa!

Good morning son!

Papa, thanks again for Bishop Barron, he nailed it again today I thought.

You’re welcome son, yes, I’d say Jesus nailed it to the cross, scapegoating that is ;D

Exactly and thereby cancelling out the whole scapegoat mechanism on the cosmic level… granted, most of us never received the memo about this and still go right on scapegoating everyone and everything. But that old tired and violent way was nailed to the cross and a new way of resurrection and life rose from the ashes in a very real sense… it simply is taking its time sinking into the entirecosmos but it will take over. It is inevitable. Those who resist will feel it as fire, those who embrace the new way of love and forgiveness will feel it as warming rays of the life giving sun/son of God.

Exactly, you’re tendency to blame and scapegoat went all the way back to the beginning as you remember and is highly linked to pride. Both must be completely uprooted if true healing is to happen, but the cosmic groundwork has been completed. You are all invited to join in that triumph of the way of forgiveness, love and overcoming evil with good. But it wouldn’t work if I forced it on you would it… that would be using the same old method of violence to overcome your violence. This is an invitation to humanity to marry our divinity and it is not a shotgun wedding.

Indeed Papa, and I fully embrace it and pray that everyone will. Of course, I cannot do it except in, with and through you though you. Jesus I trust in you.

__________

Bishop Barron’s Gospel Homily for today:

JOHN 11:45–56

Friends, in today’s Gospel, the chief priests and Pharisees unite in a plot to kill Jesus because he raised Lazarus from the dead.

The Crucifixion of Jesus is a classic instance of Catholic philosopher René Girard’s scapegoating theory. He held that a society, large or small, that finds itself in conflict comes together through a common act of blaming an individual or group purportedly responsible for the conflict.

It is utterly consistent with the Girardian theory that Caiaphas, the leading religious figure of the time, said to his colleagues, “It is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”

In any other religious context, this sort of rationalization would be validated. But in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, this stunning truth is revealed: God is not on the side of the scapegoaters, but rather on the side of the scapegoated victim.

The true God does not sanction a community created through violence; rather, he sanctions what Jesus called the kingdom of God, a society grounded in forgiveness, love, and identification with the victim.

__________

Common recurring scapegoating themes from the left and right today in the US. Dare we look into our own hearts and see the murderous thoughts that lurk right there? 

Nope. 

Easier just to blame other groups, individuals or institutions.

What we fail to realize is that the battle lines between good and evil run straight through the middle of each human heart.

In the words of St. Macarius the Great “…[T]he heart itself is but a small vessel, yet there also are dragons and there are lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the treasures of evil. And there are rough and uneven roads; there are precipices. But there also is God, also the angels, the life and the kingdom, the light and Apostles, the treasures of grace — there are all things.” (The Fifty Spiritual Homilies, Homily 43.7)

______

[Bold print represents what Seb is sensing God whispering in the depths of his heart during his prayer time. Bold italic print represents what Seb is sensing a Saint whispering to his heart in prayer. NONE of this is to be taken as authoritative instruction for us all. Click here to learn more about what this type of two way prayer is and is not.]