Sorrow and Hope

My sorrow was turned to hope this morning.  I am grateful for that.  First the sorrow…

Sadness of late has flooded my soul as I’ve watched events unfold.  It triggered the classic Bob Dylan lyric “who gonna take away his license to kill?” in my heart, and really, can anyone say it better?  Seriously, just read and listen to these lyrics.  Poetic genius!!

License to Kill

(from the album Infidels recorded in 1983)

Listen to it here

Man thinks 'cause he rules the earth he can do with it as he please

And if things don't change soon, he will

Oh, man has invented his doom

First step was touching the moon

Now, there's a woman on my block

She just sit there as the night grows still

She say who gonna take away his license to kill?

Now, they take him and they teach him and they groom him for life

And they set him on a path where he's bound to get ill

Then they bury him with stars

Sell his body like they do used cars

Now, there's a woman on my block,

She just sit there facin' the hill

She say who gonna take away his license to kill?

Now, he's hell-bent for destruction, he's afraid and confused

And his brain has been mismanaged with great skill

All he believes are his eyes

And his eyes, they just tell him lies

But there's a woman on my block

Sitting there in a cold chill

She say who gonna take away his license to kill?

Ya may be a noisemaker, spirit maker

Heartbreaker, backbreaker,

Leave no stone unturned

May be an actor in a plot

That might be all that you got

'Till your error you clearly learn

Now he worships at an altar of a stagnant pool

And when he sees his reflection, he's fulfilled

Oh, man is opposed to fair play

He wants it all and he wants it his way

Now, there's a woman on my block

She just sit there as the night grows still

She say who gonna take away his license to kill?

_______________

And then, I woke up this morning to three Psalms in my office of readings.  Pretty much the groundwork for the song above.  

Wow.  Just WOW!  Thanks Papa!

________________

Psalm 9B (10)

Thanksgiving

“Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Lk 6:20).

The Lord will protect the rights of the oppressed.

Lord, why do you stand afar off

 and hide yourself in times of distress?

The poor man is devoured by the pride of the wicked:

 he is caught in the schemes that others have made.

For the wicked man boasts of his heart’s desires;

 the covetous blasphemes and spurns the Lord.

In his pride the wicked says: ‘He will not punish.

 There is no God.’ Such are his thoughts.

His path is ever untroubled;

 your judgement is far from his mind.

 His enemies he regards with contempt.

He thinks: ‘Never shall I falter:

 misfortune shall never be my lot.’

His mouth is full of cursing, guile, oppression,

 mischief and deceit under his tongue.

He lies in wait among the reeds;

 the innocent he murders in secret.

His eyes are on the watch for the helpless man.

 He lurks in hiding like a lion in his lair;

he lurks in hiding to seize the poor;

 he seizes the poor man and drags him away.

He crouches, preparing to spring,

 and the helpless fall beneath his strength.

He thinks in his heart: ‘God forgets,

 he hides his face, he does not see.’

Glory to the Father and to the Son,

 and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now,

 and will be for ever. Amen.

The Lord will protect the rights of the oppressed.

Psalm 9B (10)

Lord, you have seen our trouble and our sorrow.

Arise then, Lord, lift up your hand!

 O God, do not forget the poor!

Why should the wicked spurn the Lord

 and think in his heart: ‘He will not punish’?

But you have seen the trouble and sorrow,

 you note it, you take it in hand.

The helpless trusts himself to you;

 for you are the helper of the orphan.

Break the power of the wicked and the sinner!

 Punish his wickedness till nothing remains!

The Lord is king for ever and ever.

 The heathen shall perish from the land he rules.

Lord, you hear the prayer of the poor;

 you strengthen their hearts; you turn your ear

to protect the rights of the orphan and oppressed:

 so that mortal man may strike terror no more.

Glory to the Father and to the Son,

 and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now,

 and will be for ever. Amen.

Lord, you have seen our trouble and our sorrow.

Psalm 11 (12)

A prayer against the proud

“The Father deigned to send his Son for the sake of us, the poor” (St Augustine).

The words of the Lord are words without alloy, silver from the furnace, seven times refined.

Help, O Lord, for good men have vanished;

 truth has gone from the sons of men.

Falsehood they speak one to another,

 with lying lips, with a false heart.

May the Lord destroy all lying lips,

 the tongue that speaks high-sounding words,

those who say: ‘Our tongue is our strength;

 our lips are our own, who is our master?’

‘For the poor who are oppressed and the needy who groan

 I myself will arise,’ says the Lord,

 ‘I will grant them the salvation for which they thirst.’

The words of the Lord are words without alloy,

 silver from the furnace, seven times refined.

It is you, O Lord, who will take us in your care

 and protect us for ever from this generation.

See how the wicked prowl on every side,

 while the worthless are prized highly by the sons of men.

Glory to the Father and to the Son,

 and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now,

 and will be for ever. Amen.

The words of the Lord are words without alloy, silver from the furnace, seven times refined.

Psalm-prayer

Your light is true light, Lord, and your truth shines like the day. Direct us to salvation through your life-giving words. May we be saved by always embracing your word.

℣. The Lord guides his humble in the right path.

℟. He teaches his way to the poor.

___________

Our heavenly Father knows… he knows and loves us anyway and wants to bring healing to us, if we were but willing.  

Alas, too often I am not willing to surrender to his infinite loving care.  Too often I don’t even trust that He is good.  Too often I have believed the lies of the enemy that tell me God the Father cannot be trusted.

But then there is hope in my heart, for today at Mass I saw some people who do trust in His goodness.  It brought tears of joy to my eyes.

And not just at Mass.  I look at my beloved Margie and her self-sacrificing outpouring of love for her staff, clients and our children.  I listen to her and my children grapple with the current events, groping and struggling to respond with courage and love… and you know what?… that both displays and fills me with hope.

Love wins in the end.  (I cheated and read the end of the book ;D)

I’ll end with lyric from another prophet, T-bone Burnett:

Presidents come and presidents go

They rise like smoke they fall like snow

Do you believe the things you say

Your lofty thoughts are filled with hay

What is this faith that you profess

That led to this colossal mess

When you awaken from this coma

You'll find you were in Oklahoma

When you crawl out of this self delusion

You're going to need a soul transfusion

This version of the world will not be here long

It is already gone It is already gone

This version of the world will not be here long

It is already gone It is already gone

(from the song "Palestine Texas" found on the 2006 release entitled "The True False Identity")
Listen to it here

Remember, all produce on the farm is freely given

and never for sale. All donations to the farm

are tax deductible as we are a registered 501(c)(3).

If you've been blessed by our produce and would

love to make sure others get blessed too,

use the 'Donate' button below to pay it forward.

Fiscal Transparency / Produce Distributed

Alternately, you may send a check to: 

Photon Farms, Inc.

PO Box 36

Grandville, MI 49468-0036

Contact Farmer Fred by clicking the ‘View Web Version’ 

link below. A form will appear in the right column 

when you do this which you can fill out to email him.

(This note is for phone browsers.)

Ascension Day Reflections

It is coming up on twelve years ago now when I experienced a departure from the faith I had grown up with. It was a scary time in late 2008 for me. At that point I honestly didn’t know what I was, I only knew that I was no longer an Evangelical Christian. It was quite unsettling.

What happened? I’m not sure.

Perhaps it was the seeds that God had planted from unlikely sources that had finally come to germinate.

Movies like Stargate, The Fifth Element, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Terminator… any movie that deals with the quirkiness of the space/time continuum come to mind.

One of my favorite Other-Worldly
recordings of all time

Artists like King’s X, Bruce Cockburn, Daniel Amos/Terry Scott Taylor, The Choir, The Galactic Cowboys, Mortal, Adam Again, T-bone Burnett, U2, Utopia/Todd Rundgren and the 77s seemed to be tapping into some of that same mystery and drawing me in now that I look back on it.

Authors like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen R. Lawhead, Madeleine L’Engle, Calvin Miller, George MacDonald, Flannery O’Conner and J.K. Rowling kept calling me back to their transcendent stories again and again… drawn in over and over by their embrace of something that was for me just a bit above and beyond this world.

Yes, out of this world… otherworldliness… that is what kept me going back to these creative works over and over.

And speaking of otherworldliness, growing up in the Church at the very least exposed me to the Gospel of St. John, often touted as the most otherworldly and mystical book of all Christian books. It is not by accident that the Eagle is the symbol assigned to this gospel, because for me at least, it soars in its mystical content.

St. John helped me soar
into mystical realities I
had never imagined

It is in this Gospel more than any other that Jesus is cast as a Middle Eastern Mystic, making outrageous claims not only about being God in the flesh but also emphatically insisting that His flesh was real food and His blood was real drink and that if we didn’t eat and drink it there would be no life in us.

Most of the disciples of this Mystic left Him at that point. And He didn’t call them back trying to explain away the difficult teaching.

This was never pointed out to me in the little Church I grew up in. In fact I never even considered this reality until 2008.

Perhaps it was then that I was finally ready to hear that passage in all it’s strangeness. The seeds sown by the great writers and creators above had finally germinated, sprouted, bloomed and were bearing their first real fruits to really bite into.

For me, it was perhaps the mystery of quantum physics that opened the door a crack… and through that crack the light shone through.

It had finally begun to dawn on me that if Jesus really was and is God in the flesh, then everything He did on Earth was somehow both temporal and eternal. He is the connection between the heavenly and earthly spheres of reality.

The Jesus/Mary Gate?

He is THE Stargate.


Somehow my mind opened up to the reality that everything He did here occurs eternally. His Birth, Baptism, Last Supper and Final Discourse in the Upper Room, His Arrest, Torture, Crucifixion, Harrowing of Hell, Resurrection, Ascension and Sending of the Holy Spirit… ALL of these and more are ETERNAL EVENTS. They happened and are still happening both inside and outside of time.

I wasn’t ready to make that crazy, mystical, sci-fi type leap before 2008. But something... maybe it was Franky Schaeffer’s nutty book “Crazy for God”... triggered it and after that there was no going back.

Well, what does that mean and how did that so confront my childhood faith tradition that I could no longer adhere to it?

I had been taught that Catholics weren’t really Christians because they sacrificed Jesus over and over on their altars at every mass. I was also taught that there were a multitude of other very good reasons to disassociate myself with them, not read their literature, not date their women, etc. In the view of my childhood Church, the Anti-Christ would surely be a Pope and the Catholic Church was the Whore of Babylon.

So I more or less steered away from them as I was taught. Until 2008.

It was then that I realized that perhaps it was a mistake to take that line of thinking.

It was then I realized that they weren’t re-sacrificing Jesus at the Mass, they were actually participating in THE ONE sacrifice... in THE ONE last supper.

The Mystical Supper of the Lamb

I began to see that at every Mass (or Divine Liturgy as it is called in the Eastern Church) as a mind blowing space-time portal opened and allowed those in attendance to participate in the upper room Seder meal where Jesus offers Himself as bread for the life of the world.

WHOA!!

This changed everything for me.

From that point on, I have sought to participate in that intimate event every week, more if possible. As a Catholic, I can open up my Mass app and find the exact space-time coordinates of these portal openings any day of the week, nearly anywhere on earth. Even now during the Covid pandemic, Bishop Barron and a host of other Priests do live streaming of these portal openings daily. It isn’t the same as partaking and consuming the precious body and blood of my Savior in person, but in my heart it is no less awesome and I get down on my knees in front of my iPhone during the consecration in wonder.

Wonder and awe. These are some of the main characteristics of my newfound faith.

I say that now, but for the first several years after discovering this dimension, these multiple portals into the heavens, (or perhaps it is better seen as heaven breaking into earth, the infinite breaking into the finite in multiple places, every day, all over the planet)… I was just angry.

I felt I’d been lied to. I felt I’d missed out on the most amazing things in the universe for years because of these lies. I was furious.

Funny because I also wanted EVERYONE to come with me to see this amazing thing that God does at every Divine Liturgy and Mass on Earth. Anger and hostility aren’t very attractive. Nobody followed. LOL… no surprise there.

But lately, my sponsor in recovery has pointed out the fact that there is big a difference between a lie and mistake.

 

I was mistaken. Perhaps I still am. Perhaps not.

I believe I have finally found The Truth, The Way and The Life. I believe He offers Himself to me as food every day if I want it. Not just metaphorically. Not just spiritually. But real food and drink.

For so much of my life I wasn’t even open to considering that I might be mistaken on these matters.

But then suddenly… I was.

I am grateful beyond words.

Even if none of my family, friends or loved ones ever come with me, I am still grateful to be a part of the mystical body of Christ in this new and deeper way.

I pray my friends and family that took the brunt of my obnoxious convert phase can forgive me and perhaps just look at me as sadly mistaken about a good many things and love me anyway.


I will return the favor… in fact, I will lead the way into that love.

Remember, all produce on the farm is freely given

and never for sale. All donations to the farm

are tax deductible as we are a registered 501(c)(3).

If you've been blessed by our produce and would

love to make sure others get blessed too,

use the 'Donate' button below to pay it forward.

Fiscal Transparency / Produce Distributed

Alternately, you may send a check to: 

Photon Farms, Inc.

PO Box 36

Grandville, MI 49468-0036

Contact Farmer Fred by clicking the ‘View Web Version’ 

link below. A form will appear in the right column 

when you do this which you can fill out to email him.

(This note is for phone browsers.)

Happy 22nd Birthday to the Farm!!

Has it been that long, really?!?  Wow!

In January of 1997 Photon Farms opened its digital barn doors and started dabbling in web design for a few customers.  Hard to believe that was 22 years ago!

The Farm rarely grows such produce any more, but as you may notice that doesn't mean nothing has grown here lately.

One thing is consistent however and that has been the focus on light and its many beautiful metaphorical innuendos.  Having this tiny site operational for 22 years has made us more keenly aware of such things and we've collected quite a few favorite pithy quotes on the idea that life is about light and growing in it.

To celebrate this doublety-leventh birthday in Hobbit fashion, we will give the first three people that complete the Round 1 tasks a $20 Amazon gift card.  No hitch just a little fun and a reward for taking a walk on the farm.  Sooooo... here we go!

[SCROLL DOWN FOR ROUND 2 QUESTIONS!]

IS DONE!!!!  

Congratulations to winners Joan, Liza and Linden and to runner up Margie!!

Gift cards will be awarded after Round 2 is complete... you'll see why later :D

See the Round 1 answers below in [blue brackets] after each question.

STAY TUNED FOR ROUND 2, THE FINAL ROUND!

With a gift card purse of $77 it will start promptly Sunday, Jan. 13 @ 4pm EST.

Read through the 27 quotes below, do a bit of research and ascertain the following:

1. Who was Professor Pacoli and what movie made him famous?  [Professor Pacoli was the archeologist in the space adventure entitled "The Fifth Element".  He was in the opening scene set in the Egyptian Desert where he is decoding hieroglyphs.] 
2. What very popular Roald Dahl book was made into a movie that contained the Shakespeare quote?  ["Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" was published in 1964, the first movie based on the book (which IMHO was the best) was released in 1971 and was entitled "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".  Gene Wilder acting as Willie Wonka quotes Shakespeare's play "Merchant of Venice" in the end when Charlie insists on returning the Everlasting Gobstopper instead of giving it to the person he believes to be Wonka's enemy.  The complete quote from "Merchant of Venice" runs thus:  "How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world."]
3. What is the name of the album that speaks of darkness as a speck?  [That King's X album is entitled "Faith Hope Love" and has the coolest album art that I've ever seen.  Notice it has the entire biblical narrative symbolically embedded into the letters by clicking on the image below.  The complete stanza runs "We've all seen the evil in this world, and we feel so helpless with all the lies, everyone believes somewhere there's love, darkness is just a speck in the light!"]
4. What is your favorite color?  [Any answer will do but it was fun to see these references to the bridge scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (released 1975): Joan - "blue unless its yellow", Linden - "blue no yelllllooowww"]

Click to enlarge!

Well done everyone and thanks for walking around the farm and playing our game!  Round 2 will be a bit more challenging and will be open to everyone (with a tiny caveat for Round 1 winners).  

----------------------

AAAAANNNNDDDD ROUND 2 IS DONE!!!
WAY TO GO MISS MARGIE!!!! WOOHOOO!!!
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL RESULTS.

Please take time to read all the way to the end of the rules for this round.  If you have questions you may contact the farmer in the form at the right.

Anyone may participate in Round 2, however if a Round 1 winner also wins Round 2 they must pass their Round 1 winnings to the highest runner-up.  Current standings are as follows: 1 - Joan, 2 - Liza, 3 - Linden, 4 - Margie

Round 2 is a teensy bit more difficult, but it is worth over three times as much moola!  The person to submit the most correct answers by Monday, January 14 at 4pm will get a $77 dollar Amazon gift card!  

Read through the 27 quotes below, do a bit of research and ascertain the following (please number and letter your responses e.g. 1a, 1b, 1c etc.):

1. a) What was Aziz doing that made Professor Pacoli yell for light?  b) Where did the light come from when it came?  c) Who were the guardians of the weapon against evil that had deposited it on earth?  d) What year did they remove it for safekeeping and e) what year does Korben think it is when they bring it back to battle evil?  f) What was the 5th part of the weapon’s full name? (hint: it is not elementary.)   
2. a) What is the name of the artist who included the “same sun” quote in a song in 1991? (Hint: She was a very popular Christian Pop singer in her day)  b) What was the name of the song (Hint: it has to do with vision and distance) and c) the album it was on?  (Hint: it to do with a moving "corazon")  d) Who’s father was credited with the quote in the song?  (Looking for an actual first and last name here.)  e) In the song what is a newborn’s cry likened to?
3. a) What is the name of the very large and furry creature quoted below? (hint: the first part of the quote sounds clunky kind of how a primate that knew sign language might describe an earthquake)  b) What is the name of the song and the album she is quoted on? (hint: it is not an album she made herself.) c) Who were the songwriters? d) What can the writers of the song not “get right”?  e) Who imitates love (other than the song writers) in the song?  f & g) What two instruments play together at the beginning of the song?  h & i) What two musicians play them?
4. [Warning!  The following questions have nothing to do with the light quotes below] a) What band inspired Farmer Fred to make the purse exactly $77? (Hint: the name of the band has a number in it.)  b) According to one of the band’s songs, what should we “do it” for?  c) That song was recorded with an amazing drummer onboard, what was their name and d) alias?  e) Who kidnapped Farmer Fred one afternoon after work and took him to Chicago to see this band perform live?  f) What was the lead singer’s name?  g) What kind of light did they reference in one of their songs?
5. a) Did you read all 27 light quotes?  b) What was(were) your favorite(s)?  c) What quote(s) do you think should be added to the list?  d) What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Post your answers with the "Contact Farmer Fred" tool at the right.  Please use appropriate number and letter before each answer e.g. 1a, 2a, 3a, etc.  

Answers will be evaluated per the sole and very subjective judgement of Farmer Fred.  Each answer can receive up to 5 points each.  The Farmer reserves the right to award bonus points for no apparent reason.  

There is a 10 point bonus for being the first to send in their completed responses, a 5 point bonus for being second, 3 points for being third, 2 for being 4th and 1 for being 5th.  Conversely there is a 5 point deduction for turning in your complete responses after the 4pm EST January 14 deadline and another 5 point deduction for every hour late thereafter.

Happy hunting everyone and may the best man, woman, boy or girl win!

No hitch, just fun.

THE CONTEST IS OVER, 

THANKS FOR PLAYING EVERYONE!!! 

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1 - Darkness is just a speck in the light

King’s X - 1990

2 - Light unshared is darkness.

George MacDonald - 1892

3 - The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.

St. John the Apostle - circa 100 AD

4 - Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

William L. Watkinson - 1907

5 - Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.

Martin Luther King Jr. - 1957

6 - So shines a good deed in a weary world.

William Shakespeare - 1600

7 - His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

St. Matthew the Apostle - circa 70 AD

8 - The same sun which melts wax hardens clay.

Charles Spurgeon - 1881

9 - Light of the world shine on me, love is the answer.

Todd Rundgren - 1977

10 - I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness.

Jesus of Nazareth - circa 30 AD

11 - Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.

Desiderius Erasmus - circa 1500

12 - To love beauty is to see light.

Victor Hugo - Circa 1860

13 - This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.

Harry Dixon Loes - circa 1920

14 - Luminous beings are we.

Yoda - Long, long ago

15 - Light is to darkness what love is to fear; in the presence of one the other disappears.

Marianne Williamson - 2008

16 - The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

King David - circa 1000 BC

17 - Darn floor - big bite, You are love, fire and light!

Daniel Amos - 1987

18 - God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

St. John the Apostle - circa 90 AD

19 - Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby.

Author Unknown (attributed to Ruth E. Renkel for whom information is quite elusive)

20 - In this place no candle burns for the Lamb shall be our light.

Terry Scott Taylor - Circa 1990 

21 - See the light in others, and treat them as if that is all you see. 

Wayne Dyer - 2005

22 - Aziz!  Light!  Much better.  Thank you, Aziz.

Professor Pacoli - 1914

23 - What is to give light must endure burning. 

Viktor Frankl - 1946

24 - Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

St. Paul the Apostle - Circa 58 AD

25 - We are all broken, that's how the light gets in.

Ernest Hemingway / Leonard Cohen - 1929 / 1992

26 - Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. 

Maori Proverb

27 - Light is good from whatever lamp it shines. 

Author Unknown
------------------


Thanks to all the contestants!  You inspired us to add three more light quotes!


28 - The light in me honors the light in you.
Farmer's favorite take on Sanskrit: Namaste

29 - A child afraid of the dark?  Expected.  An adult afraid of the light?  Troubling.
Home grown from web seeds.

30 - In Thy light shall we see light.
King David - Circa 1000 BC

Remember, all produce on the farm is freely given

and never for sale. All donations to the farm

are tax deductible as we are a registered 501(c)(3).

If you've been blessed by our produce and would

love to make sure others get blessed too,

use the 'Donate' button below to pay it forward.

Fiscal Transparency / Produce Distributed

Alternately, you may send a check to: 

Photon Farms, Inc.

PO Box 36

Grandville, MI 49468-0036

Contact Farmer Fred by clicking the ‘View Web Version’ 

link below. A form will appear in the right column 

when you do this which you can fill out to email him.

(This note is for phone browsers.)