I have been a minister for almost ten years. I have been steeped in this teaching for 23 years and never do I remember having to confront such widespread and constant unfolding tragedy and violence and crisis as I have over the last few years. The bombardment of mass shootings, the COVID 19 Pandemic, Wars, genocides, and now again the uprising of racism and injustice and yes, more violence.

Did you know that Space X launched astronauts into orbit from US soil for the first time in a decade? Do you remember when that was a major event and we all stood peeled to the TV in awe and wonder and celebration? That event was buried today under the piles and piles of crisis.

If everything comes from consciousness, and this I know is true. And if everything is a result of the Law of Cause and Effect, which I know is true, what are we causing as a species and where is our consciousness?

No one gets out of this. We are all in this together. We are all responsible and we all have to face the fact that we are right where we are because of who we are. However, as my great teacher Ernest Holmes taught me: just because I am where I am doesn’t mean I have to stay here. Ernest Holmes, who went through just as difficult of a time as now, gave us a knowledge and a way to practice at times like these.

Just as Martin Luther King, Jr. said he had been to the mountaintop, Ernest Holmes saw the Spirit of us and a world that lived in oneness. It is documented and recorded in our written history. I believe we are living that future right now, if we will only step into it. Yes, there is a future that is present right now. A parallel Universe that we can step into right now. It doesn’t have to be created. It is already here. We just have to choose it. It is just a shift in consciousness away.

It doesn’t mean denying what is here in front of us. It is real enough. It all is subject to our response and how we will guide ourselves and each other through it. Jesus once said, “He who lives by the sword, perishes by the sword.” We’ve proved this is true. However, we are now pushed up against the wall to prove that he who lives in peace lives in peace.

Peace and violence are not two separate worlds. There is no duality. Peace and violence are two sides in the same world. We get to live in either one for we are at choice. Does it mean we shouldn’t march or protest? Look what’s happening due to the Killing of George Floyd. This is good that we are protesting. We cannot be silent anymore. However, there will be consequences for that and we have to accept the wheel of Cause and Effect when we stand up for our truth. Peaceful demonstration has to always be peaceful demonstration. Our Peace Giants such as King, Gandhi, Mandela, Jesus and others have shown us the path.

Rev. Dr. Petra Weldes of Dallas CSL wrote this beautiful statement this morning. “Remember the shoulders upon which you stand. Those who have gone before you, those who have kept you free, those who have taught you and those who have inspired you. Climb higher, so someone can stand on your shoulder one day.”

We are changing right now. Our only part in this is to change ourselves in the midst of all this and to love as hard and as constant as we can. We are built for this and I believe that somewhere in time, in our consciousness, we signed up for this.

We cannot live in a bubble. We are being called to action. We cannot continue to spiritually by-pass and say everything is fine. It’s good. It’s okay.” We have to as Ernest Holmes would say, “be able to look at a discordant fact in the face and know we can change it.”

How do we change it? We live as we want the world to live. We find our way to pray our way through this with appropriate action, if not on a big scale, then in our own world. It’s okay to start where we are. Where else can we start? Rushing out into the thro with no consciousness to back ourselves is only adding fuel to the fire. We are looking for a leader right now. We each have to become that person.

Someone of late said prayer does no good. These people obviously have never witnessed the miracles that transpire when we pray aright and then move our feet in action. Prayer sets the scene for our intentions to move through law into action. Prayer moves consciousness. Prayer opens our portal of intuition and lets us know what is ours to do. Prayer changes things because it changes consciousness.

What I know right now is that we better all get our prayer shawls, mats and meditation rooms and never start a day without the spiritual armor to meet the day.

I am convicted and I know that there is a Power for Good that is moving through all this turmoil. It is making itself known through each of us. Let It move us in a definite direction with Peace as our intention.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita