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On this my ascension day I call to you to be myself, to invoke my mantle, to be the manifestation of Saint Germain where you are. Therefore leap to your feet and claim my mantle, the mantle of my ascension, [as though it were your own]!
[Congregation stands and gives fiats to claim the mantle of Saint Germain: "I claim the mantle of the Ascended Master Saint Germain!"]
Thus my angels - the angels who attended my ascension - place upon you [at the level of the etheric body] that mantle, my seamless garment. You may wear it in joy to fulfill your mission until the hour of your victory.
Do not allow it to diminish, beloved hearts, by discord of any kind in your worlds, for I tell you this is a very real and tangible manifestation of myself that I place on every Keeper of the Flame throughout the earth. So know that this is truly a momentous occasion for beloved Portia and me.
I come in this hour grateful that you and the Messenger give me opportunity to speak to you, for you observe many concerns that you carry in the cup of your hearts. And I say that cup of the heart is full. It is full of the sorrows of the Blessed Mother and full of the joy of the Christ in you as you receive him.
Blessed hearts, I continue with the theme of the Easter conference dictations. Know, then, that my mantle is of the royal purple and that it is a fiery defense for you. And as you feed the mantle with violet flame and set the course of your own natal day when you shall be born again into the kingdom of God (for you shall have won your ascension), I say, beloved, things should become easier for you. This is my desire. And to that end, it is my desire first and foremost to assist you with that mantle, to help you sustain an equilibrium within your heart chakra, within the threefold flame, and to help you to remember to practice the precepts of alchemy that I have taught you.1
Blessed ones, you may create for yourselves under the guidance of the Messenger an abbreviated form of the Sacred Ritual for the Creation of the Cloud,2 whereby with a few fiats each day you may reaffirm and visualize that cloud - not as a cloud of unknowing3 but as a cloud of knowing that when the cloud is around you you have a suitable vessel for the descent of your I AM Presence upon you.
Fear not the intensity of the white fire of the I AM Presence! Fear not to be individuals! Fear not to be stern with human nonsense. Fear not to be joyous and to rejoice in the freedom flame, which is released through this very music.4
Blessed ones, I want you to be as I AM and as I was. For on my ascension day when I entered into the great God-Reality of my true being, it was but a step from where I had been in embodiment. This you can read in the akashic records and you will find that it is true. For I maintained a level of God consciousness in the flesh until that hour. You might say I was in the world but not of it. Nevertheless, I was fully draped with ascension's flame prior to my ascension.
The greatest weakness I find in this Community (if I may state it, beloved, for your own good) is that you allow your vibration to drop beneath the level of the Christ consciousness and the heart chakra. Be forewarned that when you do this you separate yourselves from the entire Spirit of the Great White Brotherhood.
Therefore, first things first. Be able to diagnose yourselves through the doctor Gautama Buddha and through your own Holy Christ Self. Take note when there is that subtle descent and you are no longer in the full glory and joy of your Holy Christ Self. This does not mean that you should be in a state of gaiety to the point of not being on guard. You can have the full awareness of the Christ, beloved, and be balanced.
But take heed, all of you. For in everyone who is yet of the unascended consciousness there do lurk those self-created snares and traps of the soul. And then there are those snares and traps that come from one's association with others. Therefore beware.
People count it their right and a matter of integrity to trust one another. Be certain that you are trusting the God within. For if you are relating to the outer person, then you will have many ups and downs in relationships. But if you relate to the great God-Reality of your own being and stand firm in that God-Reality, you will connect with the God-Reality of another and raise up a brother or a sister who has not yet merged with the I AM Presence.
You may raise and comfort the mighty as well as the lowly. You may be the embodiment of the Comforter. And this teaching I bring to you, beloved, as you approach the celebration of Pentecost this month.5 O beloved hearts, to be one with the Maha Chohan - this is a great calling indeed.
Thus I ask you to determine all factors in your life and what are those repetitive manifestations of mediocrity that you engage in - repetitive ad nauseam for you and for me - that keep coming up again and again. Analyze them. Deal with them. Be done with them! See them for what they are. Know your greatest weakness and overcome it by your greatest strength and press on.
Do not fail your tests, beloved. Some fail their tests in pride, in anger, unwittingly.
How can anyone be unwitting? You must be full of the wit of Saint Germain. You must be full of mockery for the human consciousness, even the human consciousness of yourself. You must make light of it but be stern enough to cast it out and be done with it - once and for all.
It is monotonous, it is boring, and it is burdensome to you and to me when you allow your human vibration to repetitively pull down your soul. For just when we are about to speak to you along the pathway of life, we find you absent from the center of your God consciousness. As a result, we cannot communicate with you at inner levels but we must wait until you realize that you have stepped out of the mantle of your Christ Self and have descended again into that level of human nonsense.
Bring yourselves up, beloved! You never know, you never know when in the course of your communing with nature, in being in the great outdoors, in being in the wind and the sun and acknowledging the Holy Spirit everywhere - no, you never know, beloved ones, when we shall impart to you profound insight.
What closes us off from greater communication with many of you is constant chatter and the constant preoccupation of thought and feeling with human concerns. We can enter in and advise you, warn you, alert you, remind you only if that soul of yours, that mind of yours is one at the level of your Christ Self.
Draw nigh to your Christ Self and your Christ Self will draw nigh to you.6 When you walk in the mantle of your Christ Self, you may walk with any Ascended Master or Cosmic Being to whom you call. But do not be confused and do not fool yourselves, thinking that you have that consciousness when in reality you do not. For to have that consciousness takes careful watchfulness over your thoughts and feelings.
You will see that your diligence on these points of the Law will bring you to a certain self-mastery. And that self-mastery, beloved, when you have it, is the sign that we may appeal to the Lords of Karma, to Solar Logoi to take you on as Chelas with a capital C. The capital C of Chela stands for the capital C of Christhood. So enter into that Chelaship, that Christhood. Strengthen it, meditate upon it, beloved, and you will surely see how your levels of mastery will increase.
I have come to you because I believe in you and in the God within you. I ask you to believe in yourselves, to believe in your Mighty I AM Presence and to look at the burdens of the world, the burdens of the youth and people of all ages, as you have seen a slice of the slavery that people place themselves in when they are addicted not only to heroin but to drugs of all kinds.7
There are false hierarchies and entities and discarnates that are tied to these drugs that are absolutely vicious. And the black magicians have created these substances in their laboratories and then spawned them upon the youth and people of all ages. And you see that they have prepared substances that affect the central nervous system, the brain, the entire life until individuals become slaves of the false hierarchy.
Not one but many have said that they both love and hate heroin. This is a love-hate relationship with their own dweller-on-the-threshold and with the entire planetary false hierarchy of heroin. Therefore understand that the black magicians created the opium poppies, whose sap contains that impelling vibration whereby people are enticed to partake, to partake, to partake.8
As a result, there have been suicides and deaths in this earth that never should have happened. There have been abortions of Lightbearers that never should have happened. I pray, then, that you understand that only you can fulfill your reason for being, only you can abort it.
Take heed, beloved, for there are many temptations and subtle pitfalls and they originate in the carnal mind. Therefore repeat again and again as you speak to your four lower bodies and to your body elemental, "You have the Mind of God!"
This you must remind yourself of daily. You have the Mind of God. You must say to yourself, "I have the Mind of God!" Mothers with children in the womb must speak to their babes and say, "You have the Mind of God!"
And what is the implication of this statement?
The implication is that you have all of the Mind of God and that you have limitless opportunity into infinity to have the Mind of God to solve every problem, to become your Christed being,to outwit the greatest minds of the false hierarchy anywhere and everywhere - which are not so great to begin with, else they would not be in the false hierarchy!
But you have been taught to believe you are limited, you have limited IQs, your consciousness is limited, you are human, you think through the brain, when in fact the brain is but a conductor of the thoughts of the Mind of God.
The Mind of God is all-encompassing. Visualize yourself now, having an intense fiery yellow flame whose corona extends from your aura. That flame comes from the Mind of God and the crown chakra. See it intensifying and expanding now. See it rising one inch, three inches, five inches! See its light extending out one foot from your form. See that light not only upon your head but penetrating and surrounding your body; for the Mind of God inhabits every cell - every physical cell, every cell of the desire body, the mental body and the etheric body.
What's more, not only do you have the Mind of God, but you are the Mind of God in manifestation! And that is it! That is the solution to the entire conundrum of mortality and the limitations of mortality.
You were originally made in the image and likeness of Adam Kadmon. But you did not partake fully of that immortality because you chose to descend to the material plane and therefore you have become heirs to mortality. And yet I tell you, in reality you are God-free beings! You have ventured forth with great courage to enter these octaves. You have been driven as though you were divers diving for pearls at the bottom of the sea. But the pearls you are diving for are the souls of lost brothers and sisters.
You have come fearlessly. And I tell you, you have been fearless for many lifetimes. It takes tremendous courage indeed, beloved, to enter this octave with the determination to save souls, knowing full well the density that hits the five senses when you are born into this world of maya. Precious ones, to affirm your immortality now is your reason for being: it is to cast out mortality now in every phase and dimension of consciousness.
I have brought with me students from my Western retreat. I have brought them from the Cave of Symbols9 so that they might observe the release of this dictation and your receptivity to it. Beloved ones, there are many, many souls of Light on the etheric octave and even in lower octaves who have found when they passed from the screen of life that this communication through the dictations of the Ascended Masters is the open door to higher octaves for those in embodiment on earth. Thus we have kept the door open through this Messenger. Your own Christ Self is the messenger of your Mighty I AM Presence. When you attune properly with your Holy Christ Self, he is your open door to higher octaves.
The opening of the door to higher octaves to those who live in the planes of earth is a mighty dispensation indeed, beloved. And as you rise in that cosmic peerage, you will find that day by day you are experiencing increments of your immortality.
Simply compare yourselves to others in the earth who have such density by the foods they partake of, by the information they ingest, by the low vibrations they allow themselves to continually absorb from the programming on their TV sets. Whether it be through the soap operas or all manner of violent programs or MTV and pornography, this bombardment of the psyche, beloved, is very dangerous.
You have determined not to engage your energies in such programming and therefore there is light, light, light blossoming in your cells. And the more you purify and the more you raise up the sacred fire within you, the longer your life span will be. For I can increase your longevity when you take care of the physical body, since it is the vessel you need to be a spokesman for the Brotherhood.
Yes, it does matter what you eat! And "you are what you eat," as Mark Prophet said many years ago, and you are what you imbibe through the eyes, through the five senses, through the subconscious mind and through the desires.
Thus, beloved ones, to trifle with this law and in disbelief or denial to say, "I can eat this or that with impunity," is to place yourselves above the laws of chemistry that govern the bodily functions. This is not possible, beloved. You can do nothing with impunity when it comes to violating the physical body. For when the physical body is repeatedly violated by foods not fit for consumption - white sugar being the number one enemy - the life span is shortened.
You and you alone are in control of your aging and the limitations of age. You are in control of how much you expand the capacity of your mind and whether you think of yourself as old or young, sick or well. You are in control of how often you draw up the sacred fire of the Kundalini using the bija mantras to the feminine deities10 and how much you follow the spiritual and physical diet of the Eastern adepts.
See to it that you do not have addictions to food or drugs, nicotine or alcohol, but that you are the master of that which you take into the body. And see to it that that which you take in is what you need in order to effectively serve the Great White Brotherhood. What you need in order to render your service is far less than what you sometimes indulge in merely to satisfy your appetites, such things that are not fit for human consumption.
So you see, beloved ones, you can get beyond the place of being addicted to food. You can take in food advisedly, scientifically, and you can fast periodically. You can determine that from this day forward you will not be addicted to food but that you will take in the necessary calories, good food and supplements to sustain and bring vibrant health to your physical body, which is absolutely vital as the platform for your ascension.
I want you to know that Keepers of the Flame are ascending. And I announce to you this day the ascension of the beloved Keeper of the Flame Alice Boscow. Beloved ones, this is a great victory for this soul and this precious heart who has gone forth to spread the Teachings of the Ascended Masters. I have brought her with me this day that you might bow before the Light within her and so note the humility of this soul.
Therefore, I present to you the Ascended Lady Master Alice.
Speaking to one of our ministers within hours before her passing, she said, "When I first saw Mark Prophet in San Francisco, I fell in love with him." Blessed hearts, this one then followed the Path and the Teaching of her Guru all the way to her victory.
None of you knows how much karma you have balanced. None of you knows how much more you must accomplish in order to make that ascension. And therefore, there is no other choice but to serve and still serve, to keep on keeping on, to continue to break the bread of Life - yes, break the bread of Life.
As Mark Prophet broke that bread of Life, as Elizabeth Prophet is breaking that bread of Life, you see, beloved ones, how the breaking of the whole loaf in communion, the apportioning of crumb by crumb and piece by piece, is the giving of the leaven of the Christ consciousness to those whom one meets until that leaven shall leaven the whole loaf of their consciousness.11
Do not be chary with your teaching and your words, beloved. Do not withhold pointing out to another the error of his ways. Do not fear the response. Only fear that if you withhold the Truth, you may make the karma of depriving another of his freedom. For the Truth shall make men free.12
Yes, some have come into this life with very little karma to balance. Some have come with great karma. But, beloved ones, God is the All-in-all; and the ascension flame is able and the violet flame is able. And therefore I ask you: What does determine how much karma you balance in this life and whether you will make your ascension?
Well, on this my ascension day, I will tell you the key. It is how much love you inject into what you are doing. That love is the great multiplier. It is the great multiplier, beloved.
To give in a stingy way affords you not much gain in the balancing of karma. But to give all that you have allows you to enter the path of walking as the pilgrims, the saints, the devotees, the sannyasins.13 Therefore, giving to another what you have does fulfill the Law of Love - giving that love and developing that heart chakra and expanding and expanding and expanding that threefold flame until your heart is like a great fountain and many birds come to bathe in that fountain, to sing in that fountain, to chirp and be happy.
Yes, beloved ones, it is as easy to give love to millions as it is to withhold it and give it only to one in a very personal and often selfish human relationship. Your relationships with one another should be like chalices that you hold up together in your marriages, in your path, in your groups, in the areas of your mutual service. You can intensify and multiply that fire of the heart of Maitreya, that fire of the heart of Manjushri. You can multiply it until when you give a gift to one, the whole world is blessed.
Thus, I have promised you before and I promise you again that though you come carrying on your back a heavy, heavy burden of karma, you can make your ascension in this life. You can make it, beloved, with one qualification: if after you have balanced at least 51 percent of your karma, there is some final karma that you would rather balance on earth before you ascend, you may be required, given your age and circumstances in life, to take a final incarnation to do so.14
Apropos this, I tell you that when these Teachings are blocked by the media's putting down of this movement, by their mockery and their misrepresentations in the press, it means that many, many souls miss finding this Path and these Teachings in time, whereas they could have made their ascension in this life, had they found them and not been blocked.
Therefore I say, shout the Teachings from the housetops! Send them forth! Send forth your publications! And realize that wherever you are, you are the mouthpiece of Lord Maitreya, of Lord Manjushri; you are the vessel of the heart of Maitreya and of the mind of Manjushri - oh yes, beloved, the heart and the mind moving together.
Rejoice that you are able to give. Give more of yourselves! Heal your bodies and give more to life. Be insistent when you know that one who has a terminal disease is so caught up in that disease that he can no longer see the solution to the problem and therefore takes alternative routes that could cost him his life. Be insistent that that one pursue the proper medical advice and treatment.
Blessed hearts, it is an hour for healing. And I, Saint Germain, wish to tell you that I have come today, yes, with the Lord Maha Chohan. For we shall not wait till Pentecost and we shall not wait till the July conference to activate once again the mantle of healing that our Messenger has worn for many thousands of years. Blessed ones, you should fear not to seek and find healing from God and to be willing if necessary to balance the karma that you are required to balance before that healing is complete.
Blessed hearts, in this hour it is truly upon you to recognize the full power of God's healing that is available. In past ages some of you have been with Jesus, some with Gautama, some with Padma Sambhava and other adepts.
I tell you, beloved, whether to a greater or a lesser extent, the power of healing is always channeled through the Holy Spirit. And therefore, get right with the Holy Spirit, for in that Spirit you will find the fulfillment of all things. You will find that the Spirit does give you liberation from dependency on this and that and the next drug for your healing.15
Mindful of the Holy Spirit's presence, then, remember and understand that both Messengers served with Jesus. And know that through the presence of Jesus at Bethany there was transmitted to certain disciples, one of whom was your Messenger, the mantle of healing from the Lord. Two, among others I may mention, who received this mantle are Mary Baker Eddy and Aimee Semple McPherson.16
Beloved, heretofore we have recommended that the Messenger not exercise this mantle, but the time has come when she may do so at her discretion. The dispensation unto the chelas of the Ascended Masters has been and continues to be that of a higher calling than that of those who rely on faith healers.
Those who are healed by faith healers do not accelerate their own self-mastery in the process. But this is precisely what we require of you. Your calling is to pursue healing through the violet flame, through balancing your karma, through holding firm the reins of your misused energies - the misqualification of the sacred fire in all of your chakras and the out-of-alignment state whereby unwittingly you become entertainers of aggressive Martian energies.
Thus, beloved hearts, know that the Law does require the balancing of karma. But healing can come about day by day as you balance your karma so that you may "rise up with healing in your wings"17 and accept and enjoy good health because you accept the instrument of the Holy Spirit, your Messenger, and the mantle of healing that Jesus placed upon her.
Your higher calling, then, is to heal yourselves by the disciplines we have set forth and thereby attain your own self-mastery rather than always relying on Jesus or one of his disciples or others among the heavenly hosts to "speak the word" and free you without your having to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," as Paul wrote.18
I ask you, then, as the Messenger has asked you, and in some cases pleaded with you, to take on the assignment at your Wednesday night services of giving the healing decrees following the Jesus' Watch and the Child's Rosary to Mother Mary.
Blessed ones, when you leave the court at the conclusion of the Jesus' Watch, you are leaving the best part behind. For you see, the Jesus' Watch is the platform you build, whereby Jesus enters, with Archangel Michael and myself, and places his Electronic Presence over each of you.19 Then Mother Mary does come to bless you through her rosary.20 Following the rosary, you recite the healing and supply decrees right through the Sacred Heart of Jesus, right through the Immaculate Heart of Mary and right through my heart as well.
Understand, then, that as part of the format for the alchemy of healing on Wednesday nights it is important to give the decrees on the Fifth Ray in the green section (50.00s) of your decree books. These are sacred formulas dictated by members of the Darjeeling Council to our Messenger Mark Prophet so that you might build a momentum with the flame of healing and thereby call forth that tremendous healing power.
It is not necessary to decree into the night but all can remain till 9:30, mindful that there is a great momentum of healing to be gained from your devotions through those Fifth Ray decrees, multiplied by our presence over you. Let us go after it, beloved.
Are you not interested in seeing what you can prove, what alchemy of healing you can bring about, not neglecting what the Lords of Karma and I have given, together with Jesus, the Blessed Mother and Archangel Raphael, to practitioners of the healing arts and even to those in the medical profession (whom many of you shun to your detriment and to your loss)?
Beloved, I am grateful that you do not count yourselves among the fanatics in certain religious groups who in time of great need refuse all medication and all medical assistance. They pray for healing but receive it not, for they have not been willing to bend the knee, to accept the blessings of science that we have ordained and inspired upon many devout and qualified physicians.
Alas, they do not know that their prayers have already been answered. For we have inspired the remedies and techniques of modern science whereby millions have been spared death or incapacitation. They must learn that science is also of God and that there are many medicines and treatments that can heal them, which they should avail themselves of. To shun the gifts of science and prefer the death of loved ones who could be saved is a serious matter. And it is karma-making.
Thus, beloved, turn to the Middle Way, for the Middle Way holds the keys to your self-mastery. And thus when we receive Lord Gautama Buddha this day, we are realigned with his heart. And his heart is the Middle Way - neither to the right, neither to the left, but God-centered. Be God-centered, beloved. That is my message to you.
Be God-centered, be not moved and watch how the initiations come and how you are able to deal with them. Watch how you are able to face every trial, how you are able to go into the very depths of your being to find God and to know that God will never, never, never let you down as long as you do not let down your guard and descend below the level of the Christ consciousness.
I AM Saint Germain. I have many gifts of alchemy to give you and many things to teach you. Beloved ones, hurry up. Hurry up, I say. Move now!
If you were my great steeds of light and I were driving a mighty chariot across the heavens, I would speak to you in love, I would command you. I would use my whip and keep you in stride. This you must now do for yourselves. Be self-motivated. Be my steeds of light! There is yet so much we can do for America and for the nations.
O beloved, I AM the Friend. I AM the Friend of Freedom. I AM the Friend of your free hearts, your free souls and your free minds. And I desire you to realize who and what you are, and therefore I compel you to realize who and what you are.
You are vessels of the Mind of God! So be God-centered and do not falter and fall again, beloved. It is not worth it and you set yourselves back too many months and years when you do. Therefore I say, Arise, shine in the glory of your God!
I AM Saint Germain. I am ascended and I pull you up, but you must climb. You must climb the Tree of Life. You must go through the initiations of the ten sefirot, like it or not. For when you shall ascend, beloved, you shall ascend from Maitreya's Mystery School, not out of the churches and not merely on the simple teachings given to babes in arms who partake only of the milk of the Word.
I have given you the meat of the Word, beloved.21 Therefore, there is a price you must pay for the full healing of the body - even the bearing of your own karma, even the healing of your own psychology. For you must truly become masters of your souls and your spirits and your four lower bodies before you become Ascended Masters. Do not mistake someone who has that mastery for someone who does not. For those who have it never tell it and seldom show it.
I smile, beloved, and many Masters who are your friends smile with me. I ask you to smile and get beyond the despondency of the doldrums. And know that when you are in that spell of stagnation, you are winding down, down, down with the retelling of your burdens and complaints and, unfortunately, you get so down that you lose your tie to me and to your own Christhood.
Take care of this today, beloved. Take care of it. For the Dark Cycles are indeed getting darker and you need to rise.
I AM Saint Germain. I flood the earth with Freedom's flame. I flood your souls, washing them clean with ascension's fires.
Whatever it takes, beloved, be willing to do it for your Victory.
Whatever it takes, I tell you, be willing!
Do not miss the opportunity to love.
This dictation by Saint Germain was delivered by the Messenger, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, on Sunday, May 1, 1994, at the Royal Teton Ranch. The service was a joint celebration of Wesak (April 25, 1994), Saint Germain's Ascension Day (May 1, 1684), and the coronation of Saint Germain and Portia as hierarchs of the Aquarian age (May 1, 1954). Before the dictation, the congregation viewed an ABC report on heroin addiction, "Hooked: From Hollywood to Main Street" (Turning Point, April 27, 1994). The Messenger then gave teaching on the subtle forms of addiction. [N.B. This dictation was edited for print by the Messenger under Saint Germain's direction.]
Mother Teresa condemns abortion as
`the greatest destroyer of love and peace'
Mother Teresa of Calcutta delivered the keynote address at last week's National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. While she veered from the usual pleasant table manners at the annual breakfast, Mother Teresa delivered an impassioned rebuke of the abortion culture and nations that accept it. And in the audience were President and Mrs. Clinton, whose administration the very morning of the breakfast submitted legislation to allow the use of U.S. foreign aid funds for abortion in the Third World. Following is an extended excerpt taken from her prepared remarks:
On the last day, Jesus will say to those on his right hand, "Come, enter the kingdom. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you visited me." Then Jesus will turn to those on his left hand and say, "Depart from me because I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was thirsty and you did not give me to drink, I was sick and you did not visit me." These will ask him, "When did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or sick and did not come to your help?" And Jesus will answer them, "Whatever you neglected to do unto one of the least of these, you neglected to do unto me!"
As we have gathered here to pray together, I think it will be beautiful if we begin with a prayer that expresses very well what Jesus wants us to do for the least.
... Let us thank God for the opportunity he has given us today to come here to pray together. We have come here especially to pray for peace, joy, and love. We are reminded that Jesus came to bring the good news to the poor. He had told us what is that good news when he said: "My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." He came not to give the peace of the world, which is only that we don't bother each other. He came to give the peace of heart, which comes from loving - from doing good to others.
And God loved the world so much that he gave his son - it was a giving. God gave his son to the Virgin Mary, and what did she do with him? As soon as Jesus came into Mary's life, immediately she went in haste to give that good news. And as she came into the house of her cousin, Elizabeth, Scripture tells us that the unborn child - the child in the womb of Elizabeth - leapt with joy. While still in the womb of Mary - Jesus brought peace to John the Baptist who leapt for joy in the womb of Elizabeth.
And as if that were not enough, as if it were not enough that God the Son should become one of us and bring peace and joy while still in the womb of Mary, Jesus also died on the cross to show that greater love.
... Jesus died on the cross because that is what it took for him to do good to us - to save us from our selfishness in sin. He gave up everything to do the Father's will - to show us that we too must be willing to give up everything to do God's will - to love one another as he loves each of us. If we are not willing to give whatever it takes to do good to one another, sin is still in us. That is why we too must give to each other until it hurts.
It is not enough for us to say: "I love God," but I also have to love my neighbor. St. John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? And so it is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. I must be willing to give whatever it takes not to harm other people and, in fact, to do good to them. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in me and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me.
... When he was dying on the cross, Jesus said, "I thirst." Jesus is thirsting for our love, and this is the thirst of everyone, poor and rich alike. We all thirst for the love of others, that they go out of their way to avoid harming us and to do good to us. This is the meaning of true love, to give until it hurts. ...
I was surprised in the West to see so many young boys and girls given to drugs. And I tried to find out why. Why is it like that when those in the West have so many more things than those in the East? And the answer was: Because there is no one in the family to receive them. Our children depend on us for everything - their health,their nutrition, their security, their coming to know and love God. For all of this, they look to us with trust, hope, and expectation. But often father and mother are so busy they have no time for their children, or perhaps they are not even married or have given up on their marriage. So the children go to the streets and get involved in drugs or other things. We are talking of love of the child, which is where love and peace must begin. These are the things that break peace.
But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.
By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.
Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about all the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions who are being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today - abortion, which brings people to such blindness.
And for this I appeal in India and I appeal everywhere - "Let us bring the child back." The child is God's gift to the family. Each child is created in the special image and likeness of God for greater things - to love and to be loved. In this year of the family we must bring the child back to the center of our care and concern. This is the only way that our world can survive because our children are the only hope for the future. As older people are called to God, only their children can take their places. ...
I will tell you something beautiful. We are fighting abortion by adoption - by care of the mother and adoption for her baby. We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals, and police stations: "Please don't destroy the child; we will take the child." So we always have someone tell the mothers in trouble: "Come, we will take care of you, we will get a home for your child." And we have a tremendous demand from couples who cannot have a child - but I never give a child to a couple who have done something not to have a child. Jesus said, "Anyone who receives a child in my name, receives me." By adopting a child, these couples receive Jesus but, by aborting a child, a couple refuses to receive Jesus.
Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child. From our children's home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3,000 children from abortion. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents and have grown up so full of love and joy.
I know that couples have to plan their family and for that there is natural family planning. The way to plan the family is natural family planning, not contraception. In destroying the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self. This turns the attention to self and so it destroys the gift of love in him or her. In loving, the husband and wife must turn the attention to each other as happens in natural family planning, and not to self, as happens in contraception. Once that living love is destroyed by contraception, abortion follows very easily. ...
Those who are materially poor can be very wonderful people. One evening we went out and we picked up four people from the street. And one of them was in a most terrible condition. I told the sisters: "You take care of the other three; I will take care of the one who looks worse." So I did for her all that my love can do. I put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my hand, as she said one word only: "Thank you" - and she died.
I could not help but examine my conscience before her. And I asked: "What would I say if I were in her place?" And my answer was very simple. I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself. I would have said: "I am hungry, I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain," or something. But she gave me much more - she gave me her grateful love. And she died with a smile on her face.
Then there was the man we picked up from the drain, half eaten by worms and, after we had brought him to the home, he only said, "I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die as an angel, loved and cared for." Then, after we had removed all the worms from his body, all he said, with a big smile, was: "Sister, I am going home to God" - and he died. It was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could speak like that without blaming anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel - this is the greatness of people who are spiritually rich even when they are materially poor.
We are not social workers. We may be doing social work in the eyes of some people, but we must be contemplatives in the heart of the world. For we must bring that presence of God into your family, for the family that prays together, stays together. There is so much hatred, so much misery, and we with our prayer, with our sacrifice, are beginning at home. Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put into what we do.
... And so here I am talking with you. I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. Bring that good news to your own people first. And find out about your next-door neighbors. Do you know who they are?
I had the most extraordinary experience of love of neighbor with a Hindu family. A gentleman came to our house and said: "Mother Teresa, there is a family who have not eaten for so long. Do something." So I took some rice and went there immediately. And I saw the children - their eyes shining with hunger. I don't know if you have ever seen hunger. But I have seen it very often. And the mother of the family took the rice I gave her and went out. When she came back, I asked her, "Where did you go? What did you do?" And she gave me a very simple answer: "They are hungry also." What struck me was that she knew - and who are they? A Muslim family - and she knew. I didn't bring any more rice that evening because I wanted them, Hindus and Muslims, to enjoy the joy of sharing.
But there were those children, radiating joy, sharing the joy and peace with their mother because she had the love to give until it hurts. And you see this is where love begins - at home in the family.
So, as the example of this family shows, God will never forget us and there is something you and I can always do. We can keep the joy of loving Jesus in our hearts, and share that joy with all we come in contact with. Let us make that one point - that no child will be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, or killed and thrown away. And give until it hurts - with a smile. ...
If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as he loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the world. From here, a sign of care for the weakest of the weak - the unborn child - must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!
Clinton gets an earful on abortion from a moral authority
If the Fairness Doctrine that most Christian broadcasters are fighting had been in effect at last week's National Prayer Breakfast, it probably would have been of little value to President Clinton.
America's chief executive, in fact, had the platform and the opportunity to say anything he wanted to after the morning's featured speaker, but he did not dare to do so. He was up against one of the world's respected moral authorities, the diminutive Roman Catholic nun, Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
She delivered a ringing condemnation of abortion. The crowd applauded wildly. The president sat nervously only a yard from the speaker. He reached for his water glass and took a sip. Then he turned to his wife and spoke to her. They were stony faced.
The internationally recognized nun called abortion "the greatest destroyer of peace today" about 15 minutes into her address. She didn't stop at that. She spoke of the need to help mothers who are considering abortion. Fathers also need to learn "to give until it hurts," she said.
"Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want," she declared from behind a lectern taller than she. (Even though organizers had provided a small platform for her, the speaker's head was barely visible above the speaker's stand.)
Without singling out any individuals, she expressed her dismay that some Americans are very concerned about the children of India and Africa or about "all the violence in this great country of the United States" without being concerned "with the millions who are being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers."
From that, she went on to get more applause by championing adoption as an answer to abortion. In Calcutta alone, the nun reported, her organization had saved more than 3,000 children who brought "love and joy" to adoptive parents.
"Please don't kill the child," she begged. "I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love that child and be loved by that child."
The founder of an order of nuns also gave her views on contraception, specifying that she did not place adoptive children with couples "who have done something not to have a child." She endorsed "natural family planning" instead of contraception, which, she maintained, easily leads to abortion.
Her 33-minute message covered other topics, including love, prayer, and care of the old and the poor. She spoke of the importance of gratitude. She challenged members of her audience to begin showing love to those closest to home, to "find the poor here," and to serve their own neighbors.
"From here," she concluded, "a sign of care for the weakest of the weak - the unborn child - must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for."
She got a sustained standing ovation.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) then had the task of introducing the president. Before he did, he asked the audience to stand and pray silently.
The president went to the lectern. Still hoarse of voice since his State of the Union address, he chose not to defend his pro-abortion policies. He thanked Mother Teresa for her "moving words" and for her life.
Clinton appealed briefly for humility, fairness, honesty, and forgiveness. The commandment most violated within the Washington Beltway, he claimed, is "Thou shalt not bear false witness." He decried bitterness. He spoke of enduring values.
Regulars at the breakfast, where controversy has been avoided traditionally, were stunned. Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), who presided, shouted "Amen" after the nun spoke and a triple "Amen" after Clinton finished.
Reprinted from World, February 12, 1994.