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Acting President, Jean de Galzain, sent the following announcement to the Board of Trustees: 

Dear Members of the Board of Trustees
Fellow Officers of the Board,

Please follow these links to find our first attempt at streaming small segments
of video on our YouTube Channel to spread the Teachings.

This is only a first attempt so your indulgence is appreciated.  We will improve
with time.  We want to inspire other members to think outside the box and
do the same thing to spread the Teachings on line as well as with DVDs or blogs.

In the Light
Jean de Galzain
TRF Acting President

Spiritual Healing with Leslie Hickcox
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_JawZr5ATA

Make Inner Life Real with Jean de Galzain                                           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAbyk905aFk

Tags: inner life, Spiritual Healing

Dear friends,

“Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word; Matthew 27:13-14.

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. “ Matthew 5:38-39.

We emphasized in our discussion of Easter that it was a celebration of life and resurrection rather than of death and crucifixion. Related to the topic of life is the quality of non-resistance. When Jesus was taken before Pilate, he neither resisted nor defended himself in any way. In fact he recommended “that ye resist not evil.”

“Resist not” and “turn the other cheek” mean only that we should demonstrate to others that we cannot be hurt when only the body is hurt. Since only mind and spirit are real, attack on the body only destroys the tool of spirit and cannot attack spirit itself.

Resist not relates to healing as well. In healing prayer we assume that healing begins with the mind. We do not focus on the body, but rather we assume that the person in need of healing really needs to regain his or her connection with Christ’s love. Our job in healing prayer is to establish the connection from Christ through us to those in need of healing.

Thank you once again for extending Christ’s love and life to those in need of healing.

Peace,  John

Tags: Christ Healing, Resist Not

The name Gethsemane is derived from Greek and Assyrian roots and means “oil press.”  Matthew (26:36) and Mark (14:32) call it a place or estate.  The Gospel of John says Jesus entered a garden with his disciples.

Agony in the Garden - Andrea Mantegna

While the exact spot remains unknown, tradition locates it on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives.  It was a place that Jesus and his disciples customarily visited, which allowed Judas to find him on the night of his arrest.  Overlooking the garden is the Church of All Nations, also known as the Church of the Agony, built on the site of a church destroyed by the Sassanids in 614, and a Crusader church destroyed in 1219.  Nearby is the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Mary Magdalene with its golden, onion-shaped domes in the Byzantine Russian style, built by the Russian Tsar Alexander III in memory of his mother. 

The Garden of Gethsemane became a destination site for early Christian pilgrims.  It was visited in 333 by the anonymous “Pilgrim of Bordeaux,” whose Itinerarium Burdigalense is the earliest description left by a Christian traveler in the Holy Land.  In his Onomasticon, Eusebius of Caesarea he notes the site of Gethsemane located “at the foot of the Mount of Olives,” and he adds that “the faithful were accustomed to go there to pray.”  Ancient olive trees growing in the garden are said to be 900 years old.  [from Wikipedia]

It is generally assumed that the author was a native of Bordeaux (France), because the itinerary starts from there.

For maps, itinerary, descriptions and links to copies of the actual “simple and lean” Latin text, visit the following site: 

http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/pilgr/bord/10Bord01MapEur.html

Tags: Garden of Gethsemane, pilgrim of Bordeaux

A Visitor’s Guide to the St. Matthew Passion from NPR – National Public Radio

by Tom Huizenga

[CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO LINK TO THE VISITOR'S GUIDE TO BACH'S ST. MATTHEW PASSION]

Johann Sebastian Bach - Elias Gottlob Haussmann

Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, once described as a “majestic cathedral of music,” was first heard on Good Friday, 1727, in Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church.

March 18, 2008 – Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his St. Matthew Passion for a single purpose—to present the biblical passion story, in music, at Good Friday vesper services.

Bach’s Passion continues to move audiences more than 280 years after it was first heard in St. Thomas’s Church in Leipzig, Germany. Standing as one of the pillars of Western sacred music, it is at once monumental and intimate, deeply sorrowful and powerful.

The audio program presented here, hosted by Lynn Neary, is from the NPR series Milestones of the Millennium. It’s a journey through the St. Matthew Passion guided by acclaimed scholars, conductors and singers (including Ian Bostridge, Joshua Rifkin, Ton Koopman and Christoph Wolff), all closely associated with Bach’s masterpiece.

Bach’s Passion retells the dramatic and compelling story of the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. Bach divided the music into two parts. Highlights of part one include the last supper and the betrayal and arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

In part two, the music turns darker and softer—signalling the inevitability of the story—as it depicts the trial, crucifixion and burial of Jesus. The Passion ends with the darkly textured chorus, “In tears of grief.” Bach could leave his parishioners in a sorrowful mood, knowing that they’d be celebrating Christ’s resurrection in just a few days.

Bach built his Passion from choruses both small and large, and arias for specific characters such as Jesus, Judas, Peter and Pontius Pilate. The Evangelist, a role for tenor voice, is the principal storyteller and narrator, moving the drama along through through a kind of half sung, half spoken recitative. Supporting Bach’s massive structure are three grand choruses—at the beginning, middle and end—standing as tall pillars, holding up the surrounding music.

The Passion begins with an immense wave of sound—an opening chorus constructed of an interlocking double choir with a children’s chorus soaring over top—building with intensity, and sweeping the listener into the drama.

English tenor Ian Bostridge is so taken with Bach’s music that he has made the role of the Evangelist a staple of his repertoire.

“I think the St. Matthew Passion is one of the greatest pieces of music in the western repertory,” Bostridge says. “And to start one’s journey toward understanding that piece is a very important point in anybody’s life.”

Tags: Bach's St. Matthew's Passion, St Matthew Passion

The Prayer of the Chalice

Dear friends,

“And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: …. “ 1 Kings 7:26.

“And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. “ Matthew 20:23.

Edie sent a note to inspire this letter. For years she and many of us have found The Prayer of the Chalice to be an inspiration. In fact it summarizes the process of healing prayer so well that the poem is included in full after the letter.

A chalice is a cup with a stem. While chalice does not appear in the Bible, cup appears many times. Two passages are included above. The passage from Kings refers to a bath in King Solomon’s temple with lilies on the brim. Lilies are a symbol of forgiveness.

“Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with” is often interpreted to mean that Jesus predicted their deaths as martyrs. However, the disciples were James and John, and John was not martyred. So Jesus was referring to the cup of living water and the baptism of the spirit, which “shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” With this statement Jesus tells us that it (cup/baptism) is prepared for all of us, but we need to receive and accept these gifts.

The Damsel and the Holy Grail - Rosetti

We receive the living water and spiritual love by serving as self-conscious channels in healing prayer. And we accept God’s forgiveness by offering it to others. The Prayer of the Chalice offers us insight on how to open ourselves to become that channel: empty our hearts and minds of the false self so that Christ can fill it with the light and love and life that bring healing to those on the list, to ourselves, and to where it is most needed.

This week as you engage in healing prayer begin by reciting The Prayer of the Chalice. Whenever your mind wanders from healing prayer, recite the chalice prayer again. Some people like to memorize the prayer so they can recall it when needed. However, the prayer is only a prelude to true prayer, a joining with Christ to extend His love from God, to all of God’s Creations, and back again to God. Hold nothing back; allow nothing to obstruct the free flow of Christ’s love through you, and become a true channel of love and healing.

Thank you for extending Christ’s light and love and life and forgiveness and peace to those in need of healing.

Peace,

John

 The Prayer Of The Chalice

By Francis Nuttall

Father, to Thee I raise my whole being,
a vessel emptied of self. Accept Lord,
this my emptiness, and so fill me with
Thyself – Thy Light, Thy Love, Thy
Life – that these, Thy precious Gifts
may radiate through me and overflow
the chalice of my heart into
the hearts of all with whom I
come in contact this day
revealing unto them
the beauty of
Thy Joy
and
Wholeness
and
the
serenity
of Thy Peace
which nothing can destroy

Tags: Chalice, channel of healing, prayer

Tags: power, Racism, salvation

Chapter Eight of the Biography, Max Heindel and The Rosicrucian Fellowship, carries the reader through the numerous practical challenges that Max and Augusta Heindel faced as they homesteaded the land and laid the groundwork for the new Western Wisdom school at Mount Ecclesia.   See Max Heindel in the unpublished photo, below, standing near the water reservoir.  “Chapter 8 Builder – Material and Spiritual” can be found behind the BOOKS tab. 

Tags: Mount Ecclesia History