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GELIUM: Matt 11:7-15 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen! In the Gospel today, we heard one of the texts you sometimes refer to when there is discussion if you are a Christian and believe in reincarnation or not. In the old old testament period, there were large groups of Jewish people who actually believed in reincarnation. And it has largely disappeared from the Christian message. In most churches, we are sometimes accused of not being christians because many in our church actually believes in reincarnation. Then we refer to, for example, this paragraph in the Bible where Jesus actually say that John is Elijah. In any case, one can at least conclude that the great personalities incarnate. There is also in the last book of the Old Testament, the very last lines which often proves it wase not an unreasonable view if you were a Christian to believe in reincarnation but of course you don't have to. It is up to each individual to decide what they think is reasonable to believe. It feels sad for us in the church at times when other Christians accuse us not be Christians because of this thesis. Also in the offertory today was a hint that many within the church believes in reincarnation. It's okay. The main theme on 17th Sunday after trinity is spiritual development. When you read the sacred texts, not only in the Bible, but also in othe textsr, you can clearly see that there are three obvious paths that I often tried to point out in sermons over the years and I will do so even today. One is the silence, silence and stillness, fasting and meditation or contemplation. John the Baptist as they tell in the gospel, he practiced all three. He retreated into the wilderness, into the desert and lived extremely simply in silence, in prayer, meditation and sometimes in the fasting. when there was nothing to eat. It is said that he would only eat locusts, which are quite rich in protein. Actual this food is very nutritious and contains eighty percent protein. So these three paths are the most essential. Then there are many other paths. There is opportunity to monastic life. There is opportunity for liturgical prayer that the Gregorian tradition has brought forward in the church and it's really what we are doing today. We collect the thoughts so that nothing may have the ability to penetrate into our consciousness. An overall view is better than many flying thoughts that interfere with our development. Therefore, any kind of desire which is highly concentrated is very good for our soul and spiritual development. But the main goal is to be just that; this concentration exercise is to even let go of that thought so when the mass is over be very quiet/still when you go home. Let go of all thoughts and all concentration objects and let yourself just be in a great existence and that's what's really contemplation. Being in the moment. Being in stillness and silence. To allow not yourselves to be violated by ideas from the outside. Try to keep this very clear, a clear stillness. That is what is the exercise, spiritual exercise. Being able to be completely quiet so Christ-consciousness has a chance to manifest itself in us. As long as our brains are full of ideas, opinions, good and evil, so there is no opportunity for a Christ-consciousness to make room. It is really what this Sunday's main purpose is all about, ie, to try to remind us of how we carry ourselves to move forward on the spiritual path .. the three main paths are silence, silence and fasting, contemplation or meditation. http://theliberalcatholicchurch.org/