Suspension of New Coordinators in California

 By Anna Von Reitz

Since I was a little girl, I was told that if I want to change the world, I would have to change myself first.   Change my mindset.  Change my assumptions. Change my orientation toward the world.  Think about what I was doing to contribute to the overall bad result. 

And then change myself to align with the better world I want to create. 

It seems like a simple enough process, doesn't it?  But that kind of self-examination is tough. And weeding out the bad in oneself is even tougher.  

Still, the fact remains --- we have to think differently and therefore act differently before there can be any change at all.  

So I looked at the lives and words of people who changed the world for the better.  I looked at Jesus, Gandhi, JFK, MLK, RFK.... I looked at what they actually said and did.  

And I noticed something.  Changing the world for the better takes sacrifice and suffering.  The ego has to take a real beating.  You can't be "concentered all in self" to quote Sir Walter Scott.   

So I learned to take the insults and the misplaced rage of people who are reacting instead of acting.  I learned to distance my true self from the pain and anger that are natural in response to being treated unjustly.  I grew a thick skin.  I learned to keep my eye on the prize. 

If you want to change the world and make it better, you have to take the lumps and friction and carry on.  Just throw it over your shoulder and keep walking forward, forward, forward.  

The suspension of the new California Coordinators is a good example of failure to change ourselves and therefore, being stuck in re-creating the same old ugly world we say we want to leave behind.

One of the new Coordinators abused her trust and used the whole California mailing list in an inappropriate way, after she'd been told not to.  This was a breach of trust and a misuse of the contact roster. 

That in itself is a serious matter and shows lack of judgement and lack of respect for her own position of trust, but it was also the latest in a series of attacks against Michelle Ford, our long-time Coordinator. 

When the new Coordinator Team was formed, everyone on it was told --- okay, this is a new day, a fresh start, a clean slate.  We are all going to bury any hatchets and let any bygones be gone.  We are going to work together as a team and get the job done. 

Everyone was told that, point blank, nothing obscure or hidden about it. Everyone knew what was expected of them. 

The first attack was an attempt to use Michelle's unsettled domestic situation and need to travel to see her kids as an excuse to sideline and exclude her.  

That didn't work.  

Next, it was to drag up a purported and long past misrepresentation by Michelle that was so slight that nobody but the "victim" even thought about it. 

Next, it was to drag up the unjust Time Out that David Hara suffered and blame that on Michelle, even though California was not alone in misapplying Time Outs.  Lots of other Assemblies had the same misunderstanding and made the same mistakes, but Michelle couldn't be forgiven. 

Next, it was the False Claim that Michelle isn't papered up, because her declaration paperwork isn't published on the California LRO --- and this is after I have spent MONTHS, even YEARS explaining the many different ways that people can declare, record, and publish. 

Michelle is one of the people that published on the original LRS and still has her card to prove it.  She also has a Global Family Bank account and card, proving again that she is papered up.  I have no doubt that if anyone had asked her nicely, in the name of keeping standardized records, she would have provided the LRO paperwork, too.  

But they didn't ask nicely.  Instead, a Big Alarm was raised and the email contact list was abused and Michelle was slandered and set up "under suspicion" --- and told that she couldn't attend Coordinator meetings until this was corrected to the satisfaction of her critics. 

And I said, basically --- enough of this crap.  

You are all gone until you grow up and change your mindset. 

We have serious work to do.  You were all told about the "clean slate" when you started and instead, it's been one thing after another, trying to disqualify, isolate, sideline, and exclude Michelle.  

Same old Corporate Politics.  Same whining and entitlement mindset coming forward from the Nanny State.  

Everyone I work with every day has suffered greatly, including me.  We've lost homes, wives, husbands, children, and years of our lives.  Many have been sent to federal prisons on trumped up charges. We still bear the scars of all of this, and yet, we aren't bitter.  We don't sit around staring at our navels.  We don't look for anyone to blame. 

We don't let the past poison what happens today. 

And neither can any Coordinator Team.  

They were let go and told that if and when they change their mindset, they can come back and help change the world.  

Until then, if they aren't going to concentrate on the actual work we have to get done, we don't need them ginning up more problems and disruption. 

And that is really all there is to it, for any of us.  

If we want a new world, we have to change ourselves. 

Granna

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Third Sunday After Pentecost

 Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine's

The Church's Year

At the Introit of the Mass the Church calls upon all to invoke our Lord:

INTROIT Look Thou upon me, and have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am alone and poor. See my abjection and my labor, and forgive me all my sins, O my God. (Ps. XXIV.) To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul. In Thee, O my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed. Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

COLLECT O God, the protector of them that hope in Thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: multiply Thy mercy upon us, that, guided and directed by Thee, we may so pass amid temporal goods as not to lose the eternal. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the Unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end, Amen.

EPISTLE (I Pet: V. 6-11.) Dearly beloved, Be you humbled under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation: casting all your care upon him, for he hath care of you. Be sober and watch: because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist ye, strong in faith: knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will himself perfect you and confirm you and establish you. To him be glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen.

EXPLANATION In this lesson St. Peter teaches that if we would be exalted we must humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. This necessary humility shows itself in us by giving ourselves and all our cares up to the providence of God who, as St. Augustine says, provides for one as for all. We should not fail, however, to be sober and circumspect, and not think ourselves secure from the lusts of the world. The devil like a lion seeking prey, desires the ruin of our souls, tormenting us by temptations and afflictions. By confidence in God's help we can and should resist him, especially when we consider that after the trials of this life the crown of glory will be our portion for all eternity.

ON DRUNKENNESS
Be sober and watch. (I Peter, V. 8.)

Sobriety is the mother of vigilance; intemperance is the mother of sloth and of numberless other vices which cast many souls into the jaws of the devil who, like a hungry lion, goes about day and night seeking for prey. Woe, therefore, to those who because of their drunkenness live, as it were, in constant night and in the perpetual sleep of sin! How will they feel when, suddenly awakened by death, they find themselves before the judgment seat of God burdened with innumerable sins of which they were unconscious, or of which they wished not to know they were guilty! Who can number the sins committed in a state of intoxication, sins for which the drunkard cares nothing, for which he has no contrition, and has not confessed, because the light of reason is extinguished, his life is a senseless stupor, and he is therefore unconscious of his thoughts, words and actions.

But will the divine Judge find no sin in such persons? Will He permit the shameful deeds committed while intoxicated, the curses, blasphemies, sneers, detractions, outrages, and scandals to remain unpunished? He who demands an account of every idle word, will He demand no account of the time 'so badly spent, of the money so uselessly squandered, families neglected, church service unattended, education of children omitted, and the other great sins committed? They will indeed excuse themselves, pleading that these sins were committed involuntarily, or as a joke, when they were intoxicated; that their intoxication was excusable, as they were not able to stand muck; but will God be content with such excuses? Will they not add to their damnation? That they took more than they could bear of the intoxicating drink, deprived themselves of the use of reason, and thus voluntarily caused all the sins they committed while in that state, is what will be punished.

What then can they expect? Nothing less than the fate of the rich man spoken of in the gospel, who on account of his debaucheries was buried in hell; where during all eternity his parched tongue was not cooled by one drop of water. (Luke XVI. 22.) Yes, this will be the place of those unconverted drunkards of whom St. Paul says that they will not possess the kingdom of God. (I Cor. VI. 10.) How rare and how difficult is the conversion of a drunkard, because with him as with the unchaste this habit becomes a second nature, and because he generally abuses the remedies: the holy Sacraments of Penance and the. Altar.

This should certainly deter any one from the vice of drunkenness; but those who are not thus withheld, may consider the indecency, the disgrace, and the injury of this vice, for it ruins the body as well as the soul.

Is it not disgraceful that man endowed with reason, and created for heaven, should drown that reason in excessive drink, degrading his mind, his intellectual spirit, the image of God, rendering it like the brute animals, and even lower than the beasts. "Are not the drunkards far worse than the animals?" says St. Chrysostom. Yes, not only on account of their drunkenness, but far more so because of the shameful position of their body, their manners, their speech, their behavior. How disgracefully naked lay Noah, although he was intoxicated not through his own fault, exposed in his tent to the ridicule of the impudent Chain! (Gen. IX. 21.) Even the heathen Spartans considered the vice of drunkenness so disgraceful that they were in the habit of intoxicating a slave, and bringing him before their children that they might be disgusted with such a state.

Finally, that which should deter everybody from this vice is its injuriousness. It ruins the body as well as the soul. By surfeiting many have perished, (Ecclus. XXXVII. 34.) and it has ruined the health of many more. Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who fall into pits, who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink off their cups? (Prov. XXIII. 29. 30.) Daily observation confirms this truth of Scripture, and the miserable old age, accompanied by innumerable weaknesses and frailties of one addicted to drink is a sufficient testimony of the injuriousness of this vice.

GOSPEL (Luke XV. 1-10.) At that time, The publicans and sinners drew nigh unto Jesus to hear him. And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying: This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them And he spoke to. them this parable, saying: What man of you that hath an hundred sheep, and if he shall lose one of them, Both he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost until he find it? Arid when he hath found it, lay it upon his shoulders rejoicing: and coming home, call, together his friends and neighbors, saying to them:

Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost? I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety nine just who need not penance. Or what woman having ten groats, if she lose one groat, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it? And when she bath found it, call together her friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, because I have found the groat, which I had lost? So I say to you, there shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance.

What moved the sinners to approach Jesus?

The goodness and benevolence with which He met the penitent sinners. Do you also humbly and trustingly approach Him, and you may rest assured that, even if you are the greatest of sinners, you will receive grace and forgiveness.

What is Christ's meaning in the parable of the lost sheep and groat?

He expresses by this His desire for the salvation of the sinner, His joy and that of all heaven when a sinner is converted. Moreover, He shows the Pharisees, who in vain self-righteousness avoided all intercourse with acknowledged sinners, and who murmured at the goodness of Jesus, that the sinner, being truly unhappy, deserves our compassion rather than our anger.

Why do the angels rejoice more over one sinner who does penance than over ninety-nine just?

Because the places of the fallen angels are thus refilled; because the angels see how the good God rejoices; because they find their prayers for the conversion of sinners granted, as St. Bernard says: "The tears of the penitents are wine for the angels;" because, as St. Gregory says, "the true penitents are usually more zealous than the innocent."

ASPIRATION I have erred like a sheep that has lost its way; but I thank Thee, O Jesus, my good Shepherd, that Thou hast so carefully sought me by Thy inspirations, admonitions and warnings, and dost now bring me back to true penance, that I may be a joy to the angels. Amen.