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Acknowledgment of the grace of the particular is a treasure of our way of Mary and of this day of Holy Week . . .<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It was not only Yeshua\u2019s act of washing the feet, but the humility he showed to kneel before his companions, and their submittal to it, that was affecting. This matter of the flesh was then emphasized newly as he left the humble place of kneeling to preside at table. There, he proclaimed the miracle of the Last Supper, saying that he was the Bread of Life, turning bread into his flesh and wine into the blood of The New Covenant, of which they would each partake and go forth, not as they had been, but as he was.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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Taking this in, I contemplate what our offerings bring to each other. I marvel at how much more than \u201cmeaningful\u201d they can be when we give of our truest selves and when we honor the particular in each other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I ask myself if I am fully willing to partake of The New as I go forth newly. Because there is a knowing rising, a growing sense that another end is coming.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All of these days of holy week have an edge. That edge \u201cis\u201d this sense of an end. Each one is powerful, poignant, and\u2014if not outright painful\u2014painful in the sense that each day, all those near to Jesus knew more certainly that the end was near. The dread of \u201cthe end\u201d was as powerful as the hope of \u201cthe new.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From my window in the cabin in this 21<\/span>st<\/span> century I wonder about the fullness of time\u2019s theme in ACOL and Mirari. I ponder the centuries of nearly worldwide acceptance of time written as BC, \u201dBefore Christ,\u201d and AD, \u201cAnno Domini\u201d in Latin; in English \u201cin the year of our Lord.\u201d Time since the birth of Jesus. (Now there is a move to BCE: before the common or current era, and CE the current era.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Before Christ: BC, and \u201cIn the year of our Lord: AD, to me, embrace the grace of the particular.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, I acknowledge the complexity of both\/and. I hope to step out of the \u201ccommon era\u201d and into a new time. I know I am on that edge, but not alone. We are here to remember. In honoring diversity, I may mourn language made \u201ccommon,\u201d but I know that in our sacred hearts, the uncommon language of the private, the imaginative, and the hopeful . . . have greater power . . . the power to end and begin again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus and Mary \u201calready\u201d partook in the end of the time that was. In this second coming, this New Advent, you and I are also partaking. You and I can have a part in a new and sacred <\/span>coming again<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Each in our own way, we can say goodbye to the old and embrace the expectancy of the Second Coming, the coming of The New.<\/span><\/p>\n

I remember, and bring to you, these passages from <\/span>A Course of Love<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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[B]e beacons now to the new. You who have gained so much through your learning and your study and your sharing of the same may find it difficult to leave it behind. A choice made by you to stay with learning rather than to move beyond it would be an understandable choice, but you are needed now. Needed to help establish the covenant of the new. T4:9.9<\/span><\/p>\n

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This Covenant is the fulfillment of the agreement between you and God. The agreement is for you to <\/span>be <\/span><\/i>the <\/span>new<\/span><\/i>. As you are new, so too is God, for you are one, if not the same. As you are new, so too is the world, for you are one, if not the same. As you are new, so are your brothers and sisters, for they, too, are one, if not the same. D:4.1<\/span><\/p>\n

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We are writing a new first page, a new Genesis. It begins now. It begins with the rebirth of a Self of love. It begins with the birth of Christ in you and in your willingness to live in the world as the Christ-Self. D:14.14<\/span><\/p>\n

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This has been spoken of as the second coming of Christ because my story goes unfulfilled without your fulfillment. It is only in your fulfillment of the continuing story of creation that my story reaches completion. D:Day1.25\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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