Life is not a destination; it is a journey. Accept life unconditionally. Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to accept the truth. Do the right things. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity. Even abbreviated celibacy purifies the soul and clears that channel of communication between the celibate and God. The next logical stage, of course, is extending the rule of celibacy to infinity—this is knowns as a spiritual marriage. Some people cherish spirituality above all else and wish to live a pure life, undefiled by the bestial urges of eroticism. Multitudes of men and women have been attracted to monasticism as a way of dedicating their lives to their religious ideals. Within these cloisters they strive for spiritual growth and depth, union with God, communion with their saints, and in general, to shun worldliness. Celibacy is, as we have seen, an integral part of the monastic system, exalted as an absolute good and exacted as an essential instrument for achieving spiritual purity. It is seldom, however, what motivates people to enter cloisters. They merely accept it, even embrace it, as an essential component of their determined pursuit of godliness. Occasionally, however, celibacy by and of itself is one of the bedrock principles that inspires religious movements. Often, devotees forsake mainstream society for celibate communal life. The Essenes were one such group. More recently, various Christian sects including the Shakers, Peace Mission angels, Koreshan Unity, and Sanctificationst Commonwealth have celebrated celibacy as the cornerstone of their belief systems. These groups concur wholeheartedly with the orthodox Christian theology premise that pleasures of the flesh are the root of evil, but they draw quite contrary conclusions about what this means. Not for them the corrosive, postlapsarian vision of a bifurcated humanity, Eve’s seductive daughters forever tempting Adam’s weak sons. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

Instead, these sectarians zero in on the evils of pleasures of the flesh, glorify celibacy as redemptive, and develop cogent doctrines with feminists values at their core. Femtech is actually one of the fastest growing sectors in the economy. In 2018, the global femtech market was worth $4 billion. By 2025, that number is projected to grow to $50 billion. Nonetheless, one assistant to living virginity for the sake of the Kingdom is community. Men and women are “relational beings.” Relationships constitute the person (as we say today), just as in the Trinity it is the “relationships” (of the Father to the Son, of they Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son, et cetera) that constitute the three divine “Persons.” No-one can live and grow harmoniously without real and deep inter-personal relationships. Community is often precisely what constitutes our “hundredfold” in this life. When it is healthy and genuine, community enables us to have (and to be) fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. Friendships too with people of the other gender (which can easily become danger if they are cultivated exclusively and furtively) are a great gift, if they are shared in some way with one’s community. For some time now, new forms of celibacy and consecrated virginity have come to exist in the Church, know as “secular institutes.” Their members each live in their own home and environment, yet the fact of sharing the same spirituality and observing the same rule, and the strong human bonds between them, reinforced by the days and weeks they spend together during the year, can be for them the equivalent of a community. On the other hand, there is a question about diocesan priests and pastors who live entirely along. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

Is this a suitable situation in which to live in celibacy? I believe we must have the courage to face up to this problem. They very example of secular institutes today shows that it is possible to achieve a type of community and communion without living together under the same roof. The natural community where a diocesan priest finds nourishment and support, and is also challenged when necessary, is the “presbyterium.” When this ministry first appeared in history, alongside bishops and deacons, the term indicated the community of presbyters gathered around their bishop—a community which the martyr St. Ignatius compares to the college of apostles gathered around Jesus. Every reform of the clergy has felt the need to tackle this problem, by creating forms of common life for the clergy, some of which are still actively functioning today. A presbyterium whose members know one another, who cultivate the bonds of brotherhood established during the years spent together in the seminary, who meet for monthly retreats and spiritual exercises, together with their bishop, and who exchange news and experiences, especially in these days of easy communications, is already a form of community which must be strengthened at all costs. Jesus’ words about celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom are preceded, as often happens in the Gospel, by the fact. And the fact is Jesus Himself, Who not only remained a virgin but was also born of a virgin mother. After Jesus, called by the Fathers “the-Arch-Virgin” (Archiparthenos), there is Mary, who the Church calls “the Ever-Virgin” (Aeiparthenos). “The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a virgin,” reports Luke 1.26. Notwithstanding all the discussions, the words are there, in the Bible, firm as a rock. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

Exegetes point out that on this point Luke’s account depends on the prophecy of Isaiah 7.14: “The virgin is with child, and will give birth to a son.” This is true, but it changes nothing, in fact it heightens the importance of the Gospel account by demonstrating its long prophetic preparation and rootedness in the history of salvation. It is the literary presentation of the fact, the account of the event, which depends on Isaiah, not the event that is recounted. If in fact, behind the account, there had not been a new event that actually happened, why would the evangelist and the Christian community have thought of that very prophecy, which (at least in the Septuagint text) contained the idea of virginity, so foreign to the Jewish mentality of the time? Why not copy, for example, the mode of Isaac’s birth—much more acceptable and biblically convincing—or that of Moses or some other Old Testament celebrity? The answer is given: in order to mark Christ’s difference and superiority over any others human who came before Him. However, that is something we can say, after the event, and the Fathers did say so from the second century onwards, once the superior value of virginity for Christians had been affirmed. However, the community in which this account was formed was not yet in a position to say so. It did not yet have the elements to enable it to give precedence to virginity—especially in its feminine version—over marriage. To suppose, already in this initial stage of the Christian faith, a knowledge and influence of pagan myths about the miraculous births of the gods, would be altogether artificial and without foundation. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

The most important thing to note is, therefore, not that the Gospel account depends on the prophecy of Isaiah, but that both the account and the prophecy depend on a certain event that God had first pre-announced and later accomplished in the fullness of time. I have never understood those biblical scholars who recognize the prophetic value of the Old Testament as a proclamation of the preparation for the New, but who then refuse to recognize any such prophetic character in any actual text, including this text of Isaiah, which the Gospel itself explicitly relates to the birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary (Matthew 1.23). At the dawn of the new times, May, in her virginity, embodies the new form of life which has been made possible precisely by the coming of the Kingdom. One could see a symbolic significance in the counter between Mary and Elizabeth in the Visitation. Elizabeth, representing the Old Testament economy (Matthew 11.13: “For all the Prophets and the Torah up to John prophesied”), was married; Mary, representing the New Testament economy, is a virgin. In Mary appears all the splendor of the biblical motivation for virginity, expressed in the words “for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven” and “for the Lord.” She was chosen; the Kingdom “overcame” her, took possession of her, and she let herself be possessed. Jeremiah would say: she let herself be “seduced.” St. Paul is the man “set apart for the service of the Gospel” (Romans 1.1); Mary is the woman singled out and set apart for the Author of the Gospel. I believe that the idea of a “vow” of virginity taken by Mary, apart from being biblically unfounded, actually diminishes rather than enhances Our Lady’s virginity, because it would then depend more on the personal initiative of a creature than on the sovereign and free initiative of God. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

It would there be an ascetical practice, rather than a work of grace. Mary did not “find favour with God” because she was a virgin; she was a virgin because she had found favour with God, and she was chosen so that through her the beginnings of the Kingdom on Earth would be uncontaminated. Certainly Mary responded perfectly, with absolute faith, to call to virginity. She accepted all its consequences joyfully and without discussion, saying: “Here I am!” She thus became the model for all the countless hosts of young men and women who, through the centuries, were to receive the same call to be “virgins and mothers,” “virgins and fathers.” After the title of “Theotokos” (Mother of God), that of “Ever-Virgin” is the one by which Mary is most often invoked by the liturgy, both Latin and Orthodox. The latter, in its finest Marian hymn, the Akathistos, never tires of greeting her with the refrain: “Hail, Virgin Spouse,” invoking her as the model and protector of virgins: “Hail, mother and nurse of virgins! Hail, you who lead souls to the Bridegroom! Hail, Virgin Spouse!” Saint Gregory of Nyssa brings out the profound affinity that exists between Mary and every Christin virgin, which in turn is based on an analogous relationship to Christ. He writes: “That which came about physically in Mary Immaculate, when the fullness of Godhead shone in Christ through virginity, is also repeated in every soul who follows reason and remains a virgin, even though the Lord no longer makes Himself materially present.” Mary is not only the model but also the “advocate” and protector of virgins. She does not confine herself to pointing out the way of virginity, but helps them to follow it by her intercession and watchful care. Saint Basil writes: “Just as clear and transparent bodies, when struck by a ray of light, themselves become resplendent and reflect a different ray, so do those Spirit-bearing souls, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, themselves become fully spiritual and shed grace other others.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

Mary is, quintessentially, the “Spirit-bearing” soul, bearer of the Holy Spirit; she is the shining body who casts light over others. So true is this that even Luther was obliged to write of her: “No image of woman gives a man such pure thoughts as this virgin does.” Mary is truly a unique creature, the “blessed one among women.” All other women in the Church are either virgins physically and mothers spiritually, or physically mothers and spiritually virgins. She alone is both, in other words physically and spiritually both “virgin and mother.” God could choose no more eloquent language than this by which to honour both marriage and virginity, and to make us accept both as His handiwork. These two charisms, coming “from the same Spirit,” before dividing into two categories of persons in the Church, found themselves united in Mary, who is the first cell and model of the entire Church. Thus, no state of life in the Church is deprived of the glory of having, in Mary, its own beginnings and model, and no state of life can boast of imitating Mary by itself, with no need of the other. “All creatures,” writes the poet we met earlier, “lack something. Those who are carnal lack purity. [Instead of “carnal” and “pure,” read “virgin” and “mother,” and all will be clear.] She, on the contrary, lacks nothing, because, though carnal, she is pure. However, though pure, she is also carnal. So it is that she is not simply a woman unique among all women. She is a creature unique among all creatures. Literally the first, after God.” Until the human psyche is equilibrated it cannot gain durable peace or solid wisdom, and the aspirant must turn one’s attention to those aspects of one’s psyche the development of which has not kept pace with those with which one has been most concerned. Balanced living does not overdevelop one phase and underdevelop another. If an individual’s advance is an unbalanced one, if its various points do not meet on the same even level, then there is no alternative but to go backward and bring up the laggards. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

If one has purified one’s emotions of grossness and selfishness but failed to purge one’s intellect of errors and illusions, then one will have to undertake this task. One has to build up the other sides of one’s nature, where they have been neglected in the building of the mystical side. And this will enable one in one’s mystical attainment to “bring it down to Earth,” as it were, and adjust it to the body, intellect, and environment. It is very encouraging to one to have the “Witness Self” experience quite a number of times. It speaks more for itself than any descriptive words could do. The student’s meditation may have been unfruitful on the surface for many years, yet if one remains loyally patient, and persistent, one may have at last in this experience the definite and discernible fruits of seeds sown long before. The experience does help to make the burden—and it is such to old souls—of the body more bearable. It helps in the understanding of what Spirit means, and gives testimony of its existence. It demonstrates what the quest is trying to reach, and how real is its divine goal. It is very important that the disciple should have this experience, and it is a favourable augury for one’s future progress. The vision of truth is one thing, its durable realization is another. The felicitous experience of the Overself may come briefly during meditation. It comes abruptly. At one moment the student is one’s ordinary egoistic self, struggling with one’s restless thoughts and turbulent feelings; at the next the ego suddenly subsides, and every faculty becomes quiescent. Al the disciple has to do is to be nonresistent to the divinity which is taking possession of one, to receive lovingly and laboriously. The oncoming of this experience will be marked by various other signs: the intellect becomes suspended; will, judgment, memory, and reasoning slip gently into abeyance. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

A deep serenity unknown before takes possession of one, and an exquisite calm settle over one. In these moments of joyous beauty, the bitterest past is blotted out, and the ugliest history redeemed. With the mind deep-held by the Overself in an atmosphere of exaltation, the harassments and burdens of life beat but faintly at the portals of attention; the troubles of a lifetime recede to nothingness, the fears of the future decline into triviality. The disciple’s outlook on the World becomes enlarged, ennobled, and illumined, and is no longer bounded wholly by commonplace interests. The veils hiding truth from one are lifted for a time. The idea that one has a higher self, the conviction that one has a soul, breaks in upon one’s “little existence” with great revelatory force, and one feels one is emerging into glorious light after a dreary journey through a long dark tunnel. Attributions do not occur in an interpersonal vacuum. Common interpersonal processes in depression such as reassurance seeking may be interpreted as a way of gathering information for the formation of attributions. Hopelessness common to depression may generate interpersonal stressors. Other types of expectations may be closely linked to interpersonal processes. A child who is abused or neglected may come to expect other people to neglect or abandon one. A depressed individual who experiences a great deal of interpersonal rejection is likely to expect further rejection from other people. Parents who pressure their children for inappropriate levels of achievement may inadvertently teach perfectionist attitudes to their children, who then become prone to eating disorders as a maladaptive means of achieving these standards. In cases such as these, the distorted cognitive process that contributes to the psychological problems have interpersonal origins. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

The tradition of behaviourism places the focus not on the internal “unobservable” cognitive processes, but rather on the observable behaviours and the resultant rewards or punishments that they receive from the environment. With a moment’s thought, it ought to be apparent that many of the maladaptive behaviours that contribute to and even define psychopathology are interpersonal behaviours. Similarly, the behaviours whose extinction can be implicated in the development of psychological problems also tend to be interpersonal in nature. Perhaps most prominently, the sources of reward and punishment are typically found in the social environment. If a person becomes lonely and depressed because one no longer finds pleasure in relations with other people, and therefore withdraws, one’s feeling of reward or punishment tells only half of the story. The other half concerns what other people do or fail to do to create that sense of reward or punishment. Admittedly, not all behaviours that play a role in poor mental health are interpersonal in nature. However, the behaviours with the greatest capability for producing feelings of reward or punishment tend to be inherently social, involving a transaction between two or more people. Advances in the medical sciences have brought a tremendous amount of attention to the potential for understanding psychopathology through such biological mechanisms as genetics, neurochemical agents, and neurophysiological structures and functions. The identification of numerous such agents in most problems we have discussed, coupled with the documented efficacy of pharmacological treatments for them, has brought great acclaim to the biological paradigm. How could an interpersonal paradigm possibly be integrated into a biological perspective on mental illness? #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

The ultimate resolution of the mind-body debate is that biology affects psychology and psychology affects biology. It can now be stated with equal certainty that interpersonal interaction affects biological functions. When people are reared in social isolation, there are clear biological consequences. Individuals reared in social isolation have lower brain weights that those reared in a socially enriched environment. Males exposed to aggressive behaviour from another over a long period, exhibit adrenal hypertrophy and an increase in basal corticosterone. These biological signs of stress indicate that exposure to aggressive interpersonal behaviour can affect physiological structure and neurochemical action. Early adverse experiences (exempli gratia, exposure to maternal depression, inadequate parenting) in neonates produce changes in corticotrophin-releasing-factor containing neurons and the sympathetic nervous system; these changes may be immediately protective, but are detrimental in the long run by creating an increased sensitivity to stress. Adults who experience marital distress exhibit a variety of immunosuppressive effects and changes in endocrine function. These are only a few of the findings that unequivocally establish a connection between interpersonal experiences and subsequent changes in biological structures and functions. There is considerable plasticity in both human and nonhuman brains well into the lifespan. One of the agents responsible for changes in brain development, as well as other neurological actions, is interpersonal interaction. Therefore, when a biological agent or action is identified in association with a particular psychological disorder, it is essential to bear in mind that interpersonal experiences may be partially or largely responsible for the biological disturbance that some are tempted to conclude “caused” the problem. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

Finally, the psychodynamic paradigm seeks to explain psychopathology through largely unconscious motivations and drives that are imbalanced or otherwise maladaptive. Early experiences with the mother and father, as well as siblings, projection, and transference, all figure prominently in psychodynamic explanations. Various factions of the psychodynamic school, such as object relations theorists and attachment theory, as even more explicitly interpersonal in their orientation. Indeed, the “object” in object relations is “people.” The “attachment” in attachment theory is attachment to caregiver (id est, another person). Although the interpersonal paradigm takes a more behavioural perspective, and the psychodynamic paradigm is more psychological in its orientation, the two actually share many similar interests when it comes to explaining psychopathy. The biopsychosocial model recognizes that biology, cognition, affect, and social behaviour are mutually influential. A complete understanding of any health problem, whether physical or psychological, cannot be attained without granting attention to biological, psychological, and social factors, according to this model. This intelligent recognition is long overdue, and should be something of a wake-up call to advocates of a monolithic paradigm in mental health. Though the interpersonal paradigm has its own core assumptions, explanations, and predictions that are distinct from other schools of thought, its component fit well within the superordinate biopsychosocial model. Historically, scientific inquiry into mental health problems has emanated from a variety of perspective. Patterns of reinforcement and punishment can affect mental health. Close relationships may cause or be caused by mental health problems. Interpersonal interactions play a causal role in mental health. Interpersonal issues are also recognized as vulnerability factors that make people susceptible to the ill effects of stress, as well as potential stressors themselves. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

Disturbances in interpersonal relations are viewed as inevitable consequences of most psychological problems. Interpersonal interactions are known to maintain psychopathology and to have significant impact on the course and outcome of mental disorders. However, psychology cannot comprehensively deal with mental illness and humanity. Because sometimes the community is afflicting the individual, like during the Salem Witch Trials. It is not always the individual that is the afflicter. However, psychology tends to assume that most people are rational, so the individual is to blame from the problems. And that is where religion comes in. Religion realizes the human nature can be sinful and often times groups of people do afflict individuals, so it teaches one how to deal with this on a spiritual level. We are also to pray and live a righteous life and pray to Jesus Christ and the devil will flee from you. Not only is mental illness cognitive, it is also spiritual. Some people have a mental and spiritual sickness. “Let the word [spoken by] Christ (the Messiah) have its home [in your hearts and minds] and dwell in you in [all its] richness, as you teach and admonish and train one another in all insight and intelligence and wisdom [in spiritual things, and as you sing] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to God with [His] grace in your hearts,” reports Colossians 3.16. Have you ever felt as though somebody was watching you? Guess what? Whether you realize it or not, people are watching you. They are watching how you dress, how you take care of your home, how you treat other people. They are watching you at play and at work. They are trying to determine whether your words and your walk—your lifestyles—are consistent. What do they see? Are you a good representation of our God? Are you striving for excellence? Or are you compromising in so-called insignificant areas? #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

God wants us to be people of integrity, people of honour, people who are trustworthy. A person of integrity is open and honest. One does not have any hidden agendas or ulterior motives. A person of integrity is true to one’s word. One keeps one’s commitments. One does not need a legal contract to force one to fulfill one’s promises; one’s word is one’s bond. People of integrity are the same in private as they are in public. They do not go out and treat their friends and coworkers kindly and then go home and treat their family rudely or disrespectfully. No, when you have integrity, you will do what is right whether anybody is watching or not. Every day our integrity is tested. If the bank teller gives you too much money in return, are you going to have integrity and go back and make things right? Or are you going to go out of there saying, “Thank You, Jesus! You did it again!” Do you call in sick at work so you can stay home and take care of your personal business, go to the beach, or go play golf? When the boss asks how things are going, do you inflate the figures in your favour? When the phone rings and it is somebody you do not want to talk to, do you tell your child to lie? “Tell them I am not home!” Lies are not coloured in the Bible. In God’s sight, there is no such thing as a white, gray, or black lie. A lie is a lie. If you are not telling the truth, that is being dishonest. Sonner or later, it will catch up to you. What you sow you will eventually reap. Understand this: If you will lie about the little things, before long you will lie about bigger things. We read about the large companies that have come tumbling down because of fraud and financial misdeeds. Those people did not start off stealing millions of dollars. Most likely, they started off compromising a hundred dollars here, a thousand dollars there. Then, when the opportunity came, they compromised millions. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Do not kid yourself, if you will compromise in something small, eventually you will compromise in more serious matters. Compromise is a downhill slide. And theft is theft, whether it is a dollar, a thousand dollars, or a million dollars. If you are taking home your company’s office supplies, that is being dishonest. If you are not giving your company a full day’s work, that is wage theft, not integrity. If you are having to stretch the truth in order to get that new account, that is deceit, and God will not bless that. We need to live honestly before our God and before other people. I heard somebody put it this way: “Do not do anything that you would not feel comfortable reading about in the newspaper the next day.” If you do not have integrity, you will never reach your highest potential. Integrity is the foundation on which a truly successful life is built. Every time you compromise, every time you are less than honest, you are causing a slight crack in your foundation. If you continue compromising, that foundation will never be able to hold what God wants to build. If you do not first have integrity, you will never have lasting prosperity. Oh, if you do not take the high road and make the more excellent choices, you may enjoy some temporary success, but you will never see the fullness of God’s favour. On the other hand, if we settle for nothing less than living with integrity, God’s blessings will overtake us. Of course, we all want to prosper in life. However, the real question is: Are we willing to pay the price to do the right thing? It is not always easy. Are we paying our honest debts? Are we being above board in our business decisions? Are we treating other people with respect and honour? Are we being true to our word? Integrity and prosperity are flip sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

God may be reminding you about something such as paying a bill that you have swept under the rug. Maybe it is about getting to work on time consistently; maybe you know you should be more truthful in your business dealings. Start making things right. Step up to a higher level of integrity in those areas. God is calling us out of mediocrity and into excellence. The Christian Bible says if we will be faithful in little things, then God will trust us with more (see Matthew 25.21). If I will not do the right thing with a hundred buck, how can God trust me to do the right thing with millions of dollars? Yet how often have we heard of instances in which a person’s upward progress was thwarted because of one’s mismanagement o something seemingly minor and insignificant? You may not think it makes any difference when you do not pay your bills on time, or when you tell those “little white lies.” If you treat your friends one way, and your family another, you may think it does not make a difference. If you do not learn to do what is right in the little areas, God cannot trust you with more. Remember, our lives are an open book before God. He looks at our hearts. He looks at our motives. God sees every time you go the extra kilometer to do what is right. He also sees the times that you compromise and take the easy ways out. Be open and honest and tell the whole truth. Learn to listen to your conscience. God put that inside you so you would have an inner rule by which to know right from wrong. When you start to compromise, you will hear that alarm go off in your conscience. Do not ignore it. Do what you know in your heart is the right thing. Is someone watching you? Oh, yes; people are watching, and so is your Heavenly Father. Live this day to please Him, and you will be pleased with yourself. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

Let us look at this passage of scripture, so often misinterpreted and misleading to many in their praying: “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not faint,” reports Luke 18.1. The Amplified Bible says, “And not turn crowd.” We ought always to pray. Obviously, God does not mean for us to crawl around on our knees, praying all the time; but you can be in an attitude of prayer continually. Here is what the Spirit of God revealed to me as I mediated and considered this scripture prayerfully: “If you have a need this morning and you prayed over it, believing that you received when you prayed, then tomorrow when some other need arises, do not faint, or turn coward and give up. they ought to pray about each need as it arises.” In Luke 18, verse 2, Jesus begins the parable: There was in a city a jungle, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a window in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the Earth? (Luke 18.2-8). You would not take away from that scripture, nor would you really add to it, if you said, “Will He find that kind of faith on the Earth when He comes?” The widow was an insignificant person. She had no authority or political power. She had no support and no one to take care of her. She was at the mercy of the people. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

Listen to what Jesus said: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him (the unjust judge), saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. From this, some have inferred that the window just kept coming. The only indication for this interpretation is that it says, she came unto him, saying. You can interpret it two ways, but I choose to believe that the widow came to the unjust judge with fire in her eyes and authority in her voice; that while she was walking toward him, she was saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. The literal Greek says, “She was coming to him saying.” To me, this indicates she was coming and saying at the same time. She was talking as she was walking. The literal Greek says of Jesus that on one occasion “He was coming to them saying.” It does not really mean that He kept coming and saying the same thing. He was speaking to them as He was walking toward them. Of the judge, Jesus said, And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself. Notice this did not happen outwardly. It happened on the inside of him. Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. The words she spoke troubled him. Her words were filled with the authority of faith. Notice what she said: Avenge of mine adversary. She did not waste words. She did not say “maybe so” or “please” or “if it would not be too much trouble.” She demanded it. There was something about the words this widow spoke that troubled the unjust judge. It was the faith in the woman’s voice that troubled him, and her request was granted. Suppose this little widow had said to the unjust judge, “Those folks are giving me lots of trouble; let me tell you all the mean things they have done,” and then had gone back homes. What do you think would have happened? The unjust judge would have said, “I wonder why the woman came up here and told me all that.” No, she went to him with the answer. She did not mention the problem. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Neurosis is inhibition and anxiety. And what is normality? The freedom to love and to work. So we say. However, is there not something disingenuous about this jaunty loftiness? What are we hiding? Normality is the free pursuit of power—curbed, in deference to prevailing morality, only enough to maintain appearances and to keep us out of trouble. The child grabs for power in whatever ways spontaneously suggest themselves to him, and is so doing encounters disapproval, punishment, loss of love—so brining it about that the mere indication toward forbidden behaviours causes fear, counsels caution. Eventually the parental prohibitions, installed as conscience, operate from within, honoured as duty, enforced by guilt, elevated as right and as good. Morality is fear that has been transformed into conscience. The morality that is observed, as distinct from the morality that is but professed, measures the freedom that individuals have surrendered to the collective in return for security. The will to power impels the rush of life; mortality and fear constitute the barrier; the outcome in behaviour is a compromise. If the barrier is massive, the inhibition or deflection of drive may be so great that no trace of power will sustain the goal in view. But however masked or attenuated or denied, hunger for power is the source—for the selfless, the anchorite, the martyr, and the saint, no less than for the man on horseback. We say we want freedom and justice, and surely we do; but when the tyrant is overthrown and the palace ransacked, the triumphant leaders of the revolution proceed to consolidate that power which was, all along, the unavowed aim ulterior to freedom and justice. We sicken of power, would give it up, forsake it. We push it away, avert our faces. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

We try to locate the moving principle of life in love or spirit or service or sacrifice. However, power is inalienable. Renounced, it turns out to have been not renounced but cloaked. One simply reaches a point in the pursuit of power at which fear or scruple calls a halt. And there, at that point, inhibited from further pursuit, holding fast to what one has, one arrives at an uneasy equilibrium, alert to depredations equally from those who have more and from those who have less. Each of us, all of us, every moment of our lives, eating or trying not to be eaten, pursuing or fleeing, struggling to achieve power or dodging its hammer blows—or huddled uneasily at some halfway position. The way to live should issue, not only from our nature, but also from the nature of the World in which we live, the World that is shaped by the will to power groups. Waking up this morning, I see the blue sky, I join my hands in thanks for the many wonders of life; for having twenty-four brand new hours. The sun is rising on the frost and so is my awareness. I walked across the field of sunflowers. Tens of thousands of flowers waving at me; my awareness is like the sunflower; my hands are sowing seeds for the next harvest. My eat is hearing the sound of the rising tide on the magnificent sky. I see clouds approaching with joy from many directions. I can see the fragrant lotus ponds of my homeland; I can see coconut trees along the rivers; I can see rice fields stretch their shoulders launching at the sun and the rain. Mother Earth gives me coriander, basilicum, and celery. Tomorrow, the hills and mountains of the country will be green again. Tomorrow, the buds of life will grow quickly; the folk poetry will be as sweet as the songs of the children. The whole family of humans will sing together with me in my work. God will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the destructive pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings shall you take refuge; His truth is a shield and armour. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, now of the arrow that flies by day; of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor of the destruction that ravages at noonday. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

Cresleigh Homes

A great outdoor living space has become essential…and we’re so glad our home at Meadows Residence 1 has such a great one.

There’s so much to love about this model…but the spacious backyard is just one of them! https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-meadows-at-plumas-ranch/residence-1/

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