Celebrating the Festival of St John | eBOOK
Inspiration and spiritual focus for St John's Tide
by Rev Mario Schoenmaker
St John’s Tide is celebrated on June 26th, around the time of the solstice or ‘turning point’. It is a spiritual festival which calls us to accept the greatness of our humanity, the beauty of our redeemed souls and lift this towards the heavens as an offering. A true celebration involves realising that you are a co-worker with Christ in the heavenly places.
These five addresses, available either as PDF or mp3 downloads, give inspiration and guidance for celebrating the Festival of St John.
They were given by the Reverend Mario Schoenmaker, and recorded live during a service held to mark the feast day of St John. They inform us about the right way of celebrating this festival today, the inner orientation required, and it sets before us the greatness of our human beingness as foreshadowed by St John.
St John is a unique person in Christian history. John the Baptist prepared the way for the Christ Spirit to enter into Jesus. He prepared the hearts of the people so they could perceive and receive the Christ. John the Beloved was the disciple that Jesus loved, who lay on his breast on the night before he died, and who took the Mother of Jesus to his own home after Jesus was crucified.
“John”, then, is the name of the human being most significantly and intimately involved with Jesus Christ. For that reason, the person and writings of John are very precious to all who love Christ and who long to know and express his spirit in their day to day lives.
Details
These addresses are taken from the recorded live services
ICA Press, 2007, reformatted 2009
Five Addresses as an eBook (PDF)
Address 1: The Festival of the Human Spirit
Address 2: The Task of St John's Tide
Address 3: The John Principle
Address 4: The Result of the Baptist's Message
Address 5: The Incarnations of John the Baptist: Know your Cosmic Significance
Also available: each Address as a digital MP3 download
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1. The Festival of the Human Spirit
During the festival of St John we should lift up our thoughts and see the figure of the human being in a cosmic context. We should not focus on the human being in its pain, misery and earthly limitation, but rather see the greatness of humanity, and our place in the universe. An address from the Cosmic Mass 23rd June 1991 John 1:19-34 2. The Task of St John's Tide The figure of St John stands out in history as the last prophet of the old but also as one who is lauding in a new consciousness which typifies every human being as divinely human. The reason why St John's tide is not celebrated by the world and Christians alike is the underlying fear of really becoming human. If we think that we are fully human, we are mistaken, for we have not as yet become cosmic in our thinking, acting and expressing. An address from the Cosmic Mass 20th June 1993 John 1:29-34 and Mark 1:1-8 3. The John Principle In the Gospels we find two men who are called John. One is the Baptist, who opened the way and stands therefore at the beginning of the ministry of Christ, and the other is called the Beloved, and stands virtually at the end of the ministry of Jesus. These two were the first to reveal the true nature of Christ and, in that sense, the true Christian nature within self. They were therefore also the first to bring to light the pattern of the true Christed human being. An address from the Cosmic Mass 27th June 1993 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and Luke 1:11-17 4. The Result of the Baptist's Message Before we were born we had a choice placed before us. To stay in the heavenly places, which is a Luciferic temptation, and would mean that we could not evolve and grow any further, or to incarnate. If we decided to incarnate then God could work on us and grant us the fullness of evolution. Before coming to this earth, God gave us a picture, an image. It was the image of the complete and perfect human being. An address from the Cosmic Mass 23rd June 1996 Psalm 8:3-9 and Luke 3:1-6 5. The Incarnations of John the Baptist: Know your Cosmic Significance You and I have lost the vision of our cosmic significance in this universe, but Elijah never did, Isaiah never did, and John never did. From an address given in the 1970s Isaiah 40:3-5 and Matt 3:1-6 Keywords Festival, Humanity, John the Baptist, John the Beloved, St John. |
