Hanging out with St John and Daniel, talking about our times….

When you look for relevant voices for our times, i am often drawn to two of my favorite writers in the old book: Daniel and St John. Both very different, but both come down on the right note in terms of how to make it through turbulence, intact!

Found this in an old journal today, still felt true, thought I’d share it. I like dialoguing with the old saints, as if they were still in the conversation, as I somehow sense they are!

Excuse my mystical exploits, but it you don’t enter the writings, as if they were alive, then the word goes dead and cold. And we need some living voices in our times to tell a bit more of the truth. I used to write my way into conversation with authors to hear their tones and what they really had and have to say. Still do, actually.

What I realized, upon rediscovering this entry, was that these two men, have become some of my closest friends by studying and entering into them and their times. And they are still speaking into ours!

I’ve studied and sat with St John and the prophet Daniel for many years…they still speak to me, and teach me about even our turbulent times.

Wrote this one day, when i was with them together in prayer and study, talking about this now time, where we find ourselves again. Daniel spoke of Jeremiah and his times, as like ours. Daniel, whose sub-culture was mystics and seers, but who kindly and in care served his king, even when going crazy, has lots to say from his careful study of Jeremiah. Your times, are like ours were then.

You are in the times of Jeremiah, he said! Empires falling a rising, and still redemption’s sweet endless scent still rising. And John, well, he spoke as often about moving in the Light Love Life of His best friend…..made me think again…

What would my friend St John say now, what would my dear brother Daniel say about today!

That’s the way i want to move and think in friends. Their conversation, which they are still having, is worth entering into…. Been listening to them from the beginning— Daniel, a mystic dreamer and a practical man, who served the ruler, interpreted dreams til the people got loose from the endless noose.

What would my two brothers say today in these dark again hours. I’m listening to their voices like Love’s towers, even as I watched ours tumble; i was trying to hear the angelic choirs keep singing songs of hope and mercy reigning somewhere far above us, and somehow en-gutted in our bones as well.

Daniel was practical prophet, and John a close friend-had that friendship spirituality, we are meant to walk in.

Again I hear their voices from different ages, saying the same damn thing—Love until we are released. Have faith that there is in exit ramp into Love! Love, in hope, or even blindness, that this story is meaningful, and has a Grace-full end. Love until we bleed for others, until we walk in furnaces and live in prisons, and still care more for others than ourselves. Trust that we are being formed by Fire.

Theirs was and is an endless love song between them and God, to plunge into there. I’ve entered there. And I won’t stop swimming along side my brothers, as they still speak from the long river. Two very still relevant voices in our times, i think! Good to visit them again today. Felt needed to hear older voices of wisdom still speaking this day, until we call it a Day!

They are both talking in the tone of discernment love and care for others, and even those they were being oppressed by. This is what impressed me first about the two of them. They modeled a spiritually mature response to their times. But that day, they were both talking about mine.