Easter Week
Weblog Wednesday March 26, 2008
By Chris DiGiorgio

“This Jesus God has given back to life, of which we all are witnesses.” The Book of Acts (2:32)

I woke up to the sound of a chirping bird on Easter morning and I thought to myself, I was hearing GOD waking me up.

I went to the Church on Easter morning, and saw all the people and saw GOD.

At Easter morning service, I smelled the Easter flowers and smelled GOD.

At Easter morning service, I tasted the bread and wine, and tasted GOD.

I meditated after the service and felt GOD’s presence.

What Easter means to me, is through the resurrected Christ that even when you think GOD has left us that GOD is always around us.
Blessed be! Happy Easter.

Weblog March 16, 2008
Palm Sunday
By Chris DiGiorgio
Every Palm Sunday, I think what it must have been like for Jesus to enter Jerusalem. We can think of this moment as the modern day ticker tape parade; our hero triumphantly moving down the canyon of heroes and being adored by the thousands of people. Only to be followed by the demise of the hero a few days later. Many Christians believe Jesus knew exactly that he would be Crucified a few days later, but came to Jerusalem because it was his destiny to die for humanity.
The laying of the Palms was one of the last teaching moments for Jesus. I believe this teaching has many layers. First is to enjoy the moment. People will throw the Palms at your feet and you will be carried into town, enjoy the out pouring of love that is there for you. This moment will never come back. Also enjoy gratitude, the people were grateful to Jesus in that moment. The laying of Palms for us should be a reminder of our gratitude to Jesus for his dying for us. Another point to be made is destiny, how many of us truly know our destiny and willingly plunge right into it? Sometimes our spiritual path is not readily apparent yet we must strive to seek it and plunge into it.
Some of you who read this blog may not consider themselves Christian, however I believe that it is a great gift to learn from a variety of spiritual teachers that you may not consider specific to your path. Nonetheless, spiritual teaching can come from many different sources use those sources to enhance your path.


Dream and Reflection
Weblog March 9, 2008
By Chris DiGiorgio
Reflection is part of my spiritual journey. Reflection is remembering and creating the awareness of experiences that I had. It is also interpreting these experiences and relating to them. I would like to share a dream I had this past week.
I was at work and met with a regional manager that I have never met before. In the dream, he asked me tough questions about why the business was slumping and am I part of the cause for it. Needless to say, I was defensive in the dream. I went through all the different things I did to help grow the business and I started to list them. Now here comes the interesting part, when I woke up I asked myself where did this come from? First, my regional manager is a woman. Second, although business is slower than last year I have been under no such pressure. In fact, I rarely have contact with her.
So why the dream? What was the relevance? I went back and realized this dream was not about work but all about my past relationship with my ex-partner. My ex-partner died last week. We broke up close to seven years ago. One of the main things that we struggled with was his belief that I did not do enough. He had addiction problems and was abused as a child. He went though his own demons in life. I broke up with him because I could not deal with the continued relapses he was going through and I felt he was going to hit bottom. I also felt I was enabling this bad behavior by covering up for his mistakes and misdeeds. I realized I had to make the break. Before our break up however, he would always give me a list of all the things I did not do and none of the things I did.
After reflection, I learned a number of things. First is that, although you think you might have “gotten over a relationship” it does not mean there are not things that might crop up even after seven years. Second that dreams are not always what they appear to be, you may have the context of work, but it might be about another thing like a personal relationship. Third, I did do enough! This dream for me was a cleansing dream. I had in me a lingering thought that maybe I did not do enough, but reflecting back the break up was the best for both of us. He had to go through his bottom and my breaking up with him allowed him to do that. I had to move on because if I did not I might have kept enabling his behavior and I would have not grown in the areas I believe needed growth. Reflection ultimately is learning from the experiences you had and allowing yourself to learn from those experiences.
Samaritan WomanWeblog February 27, 2008by Chris DiGiorgioOne of my favorite, Bible passages is out of the Gospel of John 4:5-42, it is the story of Jesus visiting the Samaritan Village. The background of the story is Jesus and the Disciples visit a Samaritan Village. Jews who worshiped in Jerusalem did not recognize the legitimacy of the Samaritans nor did the Samaritans recognize the legitimacy of the Jews. The chief difference is the Samaritans Jews believed the holiest place was on one mountain (where Jacobs well resided) and the other Jews believed it to be in Jerusalem.
This story is full of messages, I want to hear from GOD. The first one is that no matter who you are GOD is here for you. Jesus asked for water from a Samaritan woman. In those days, a Jewish male from Judea would not ask a Samaritan woman for anything, he would probably die of thirst first. As a gay man, I relate to this story because I thirst for people of GOD to validate me, just as Jesus did with the Samaritan woman. Jesus did not care of her background or how many husbands she had, he saw the opportunity to bring her and the other Samaritans into the community of GOD without judgment. I guess that is what I long for in our present religious communities, welcome all who yearn to be in the community of GOD.
The second is the message of faith and worship. Jesus spells out that you come before GOD “you must do it out of their very being, their spirits, and their true selves”. So what this part of the passage tells me, is that I must present myself to GOD as my true self. GOD did not make a mistake in making me as others may proclaim, that GOD knew very well what GOD was doing and that he expects nothing less of me but to be faithful to what GOD created. I need to be my true authentic self nothing else is what I should accept and I must go before GOD proud of what GOD created. I am the living embodiment of GOD the Gay GOD, capable of all that GOD creates. Take time today to reflect on your authentic self and how you best can live with the gifts GOD gave you.