Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Happy Monday Add Irregulars, WSN Curators and all you other Vagabonds and Wanderers that have waltzed into Padre's. I am glad you are here, and even more thankful as I get to know and appreciate your story, your humor, your perspective and experience with this current chapter of humanity and its extra heaping of BS, gaslighting and almost complete loss of credibility. I may not be certain of what I do know when it comes to the world of politics and culture, but I do know what I don't know or believe. Searching for more factual threads and touchstones of truth is not easy, in fact it is often tedious, but I can't think of a better group of sojourners to be with in the mutual questions and puzzling out of this chapter. The most difficult of journeys is always made easier by good company. Happy Monday friends & neighbors!

Longing - for something more than this current chapter of human experience, for something more than just this reality. Something beyond the harsh cliff of death and an unknown afterlife. For any of us Deistic minded folks, we hopefully believe in a Divine that offers redemption and a place of communion on the other side. Of course there is decision, judgement and a coming home to your true eternal self or your self-absorbed limited self that is a pale shade of the humanity you once possessed. The Luminous wants a homecoming, but HE/THEY is not about imposing of will as much as invitation to follow, to be converted, to yield in loving trust. The message doesn't always get communicated that clearly because humans like power and many feel more of with the imposition of their wills on others. Religion is an attractive avenue for these false shepherds who care more about themselves rather than the flock. Divisions aplenty abound in religions because of the human taint of willful power in the life of community.

It is easy to want to drop religion and just say I am spiritual. Nothing wrong with that, but I often wonder how the spiritual non-religious types love their neighbors when they have cut out a ready supply of challenge cases by leaving behind the pain-in-the-asses that many "religious" people can be. Compassion, patience, forbearance, forgiveness can grow on their own, but the muscles grow more rapidly by exposure to challenges. Not that we want that many challenges, but the call to love neighbors is an expansive circle rather than a restrictive one. Again, I am not haranguing anyone who is spiritual and nonreligious, just wondering about the opportunities to grow in love with our neighbors. Religion is not the culprit of human misfortune, it is just the most convenient vehicle for rapid tyranny over others.

Well, that was a much longer detour from longing than I wanted, but longing is on my mind. Longing for God, longing for His/Their blessing and presence in my life, longing for goodness for others and myself. While not celebrating the saint of the day, I was curious to see what this most recently one added in 2015 had to say. Longing was right in the forefront of the search for some information on St. Gregory of Narek. Enjoy and my friends and neighbors and thanks for listening to me.