Raging Temperature

This morning in reading some of Tagore's words, I came across something he wrote in 1930 that sounds like he wrote it this week:

Every people, weak or strong, is constantly indulging in a violent dream of rendering itself thoroughly hurtful to others. In this galoping competition of hurtfulness on the slope of a bottomless pit, no nation dares to stop or slow down. A scarlet fever with a raging temperature has attacked the entire body of mankind, and political passion has taken the place of creative personality in all departments of life.

It is well known that when greed has for its object material gain then it can have no end. It is like the chasing of the horizon by a lunatic.

It almost sounds like he has been watching television news, for it does seem many people of this world have gone mad.

I lay this on the turning away from spirituality and either the turning to some rote and unthinking religiosity or to the world and its flavors, the chasing of the horizon by lunatics.

The question I often contemplate is - how do those of us who notice what is going on get a turning of large numbers of people to deep and profound spirituality? The paint by numbers religions, the charismatic leaders, the separations of the family of God into strange and false categories, the promotions of violence, the promotions of promiscuity, all the diverse ways modern people turn from spirituality, are like a planetary illness.

Let's say a prayer for healing of this planet-wide illness.

Lord, Divine Light, Spirit - we come to You this moment as we lift up our planet and all of its inhabitants to You. We see raging fevers of violence - and we seek Your Peace to descend upon the angry ones. We see raging fevers of greed - and ask that You calm these feverish waters. We see promiscuity in all of its degrading forms - and we ask that You open hearts to Your Love and Joy to bring integrity to relationships, integrity that honors Divine Life in each and every person. Lead Your children back to You. Lead Your children to remember who they are and to live from this knowing. Let there be a glorious spiritual awakening on this planet. Oh God, how deeply we feel this prayer and desire Your work fully in our lives and in the lives of all of your children. In faith, we seal this with the ancient seal, Amen, Amen and Amen