Haste becomes a call for solutions. And rhythms become distorted. And interpretations of chance events dissolve and are ignored.

This is how progress, which floods the so-called “human knowledge”, places us into a state of individualisation… which turns the being into an entity without a place, one that is never satisfied under any circumstances, that is always full of “buts” –“but”… “but”-… and seems to forget about transcending, and sometimes even about easing controversy and tension.

And this is how each person settles into their own ghetto and becomes a problem: a problem for themselves and a problem for their surroundings.

And no place becomes a good one. No activity is the right one. Dissatisfaction prevails.

And so, our actions appear clumsy, intermittent, difficult…

The Praying Call demands us to see life as coexistence, life as communal unity, life as a constant hope that is fulfilled, fulfilled, fulfilled daily. However, if the reference is on personal and individual demands, life will remain perpetually unsatisfying. There is no consolation.

Under these conditions, it is absolutely essential to rethink, recalculate, review… to respond to one’s own demands and to the demands that the passage of time presents and reveals.

Idyllic, idealistic aspirations cannot be diminished; they cannot be diminishing based on what is happening, on what is going on. They must adapt; they must permeate this constant struggle, so we may yearn towards those aspirations, which are there to be fulfilled, but which require humility, service, dedication.

Yes. Yes. At times we are faced with the impossible… due to strictly rational and structured approaches that “calculate” what is happening, what ought to happen and what will happen.

The impossible becomes utterly impossible. Indeed, it almost disappears. Yet in our personal consciousness there is always that breath of life’s sigh, the sigh of the miracle, the sigh of realising that, despite our wisdom, it does not govern life.

And, consequently, our actions, our disposition must be reflected in our dedication.

This is not about ignorant devotion detached from what is happening, no. It is not a about seeking opposing poles, but rather about to insufflate, penetrate and to convert –in the “Year of Conversion”- what seems dramatic, difficult, impossible, and all the difficulties, into something solvable, fixable, changeable, transformable.

This is not a time for blame or blaming others; it is a time for responsible, supportive responses.

Humanity as a species has survived numerous situations of utter despair. And it has done so on the basis of idealistic proposals –or proposals rooted in idealism- which have been imbued with the radiance of enthusiasm, imagination and fantasy. And thanks to this, starting from small beginnings, they have inspired responses, pathways, solutions…

In our universal memory code, even if we do not recall it, there are stored skills that arise in the face of difficulties enabling us to rise up time and time again –as many times as necessary- to perpetuate that mysterious existence, that sense of being created… and an inhabitant of the universe, wandering in a place with every resource, yet undeniably turbulent.

Ideals and projects have been replaced by “likes”, “dislikes”, “I feel like it”, “I don’t feel like it”…

One might assume that, based on the experience of History –albeit misappropriated and manipulated- and on personal history –interpreted and reinterpreted- one might assume that it is evident that our own personal resources are insufficient. That we have a “spice” –let’s call it that- or a mysterious potion that revitalises us with every awakening, that encourages us unseen, that stimulates us unbidden, and that, contrary to rational foreboding, makes us carry on, keep going.

But, certainly, in the current course of events… the invisible evidence –that which sustain and entertain us- has become clouded, whilst the tangible constants have become evident…; without realising that these tangible elements are not something else entirely, but rather the way in which the intangible has taken shape, has settled into place.

And our role is not one of settling into a routine, but of constant discomfort, due to the unpredictable reality of the impossible, of miracles and of unforeseeable events.

The refuge of comfort, the demand for security and the dogmatism of personal belief ultimately undermine our awareness of survival, of lived experience and of the testimony of being alive.

And if we become aware of all this –which is the intention of the Prayerful Call- we shall discover ourselves in other perspectives. We will trust in other abilities. We shall prepare ourselves for those leaps, those small leaps into the void. We will place our trust, not in our own abilities, but in the constant possibilities that will arise as we feel ourselves to be humble and ignorant servants.

To make conscious, the privilege of living. And through this, to discover the qualities of that being, of that consciousness of remaining, of being that microcosm which is a replica of the universe in which we dwell, which appears to us as unapproachable, expansive, unfathomable…

And on that scale, the universe we contemplate is but a mere glimpse of Creation.

But we have been narrowing it down, over and over… until we have reduced it to our everyday tastes and activities, and to our most basic needs, thereby losing sight of the greater purpose for which we are here.

We are an expression of the Creative Mystery, which scorns nothing; which –in the words of the Dao- is like water: adapting to any shape… without losing its identity.

And since we are constituents of it –water- we might well return to and gather that constituent, to open ourselves up to the way it behaves: now a river, then a spring, perhaps a fountain, sometimes a well…

Another time, a stream; another, a meander; another time, a wetland; another, an estuary. At yet another moment, the sea and love…

And becoming vapour and cloud, and becoming cold and snow.

And seeing that, through its goodness, the seed germinates, the need is satisfied…

It becomes the support of life and life itself.

It is time to reassess. It is the moment to… constantly resurrect. It is time to immortalise. All of this together, to feel ourselves to be the very substance of Mystery, of Creation, and to approach the passing of time, the course of events as a constant innovation; without prejudice, with the enthusiasm of knowing ourselves resurrected, immortal, survivors… and certainly part of a Mystery: that Mystery which calls us to pray, to meditate, to contemplate, to explore suffering and pain…

An instant of transparency that dissolves the cloud, and allows us to glimpse the blues, the vast distances in which we are immersed.

And thus, to feel ourselves like universes, with expansive capabilities, with innovative creations, unafraid of error, with the conviction to repair, to restore, to renew.

***