MORGAN'S MOMENT...
We feed the homeless
    every day and maybe at night
    at our house.
The hungry come uninvited
    staying as long as they choose
    then disappear.
I’ve checked around a bit…
    curious about these strangers   
    like where they’re from.
Some are from Mexico…
    others from Central America
    others unknown.
They are 100% undocumented
     almost totally unnoticed
     by any border guards.
They represent all colors…
      have their own languages
      beyond my understanding.
I see no evidence of damage…
      leave no trash
      when they depart.
We enjoy them being here
      resting and filling themselves
      before they fly on.
— Art Morgan 

BOOK CORNER
I often use sticky tabs to mark pages I want to come back to. A new record were markers left in the recent book of the private writings of Mother Teresa in “Mother Teresa – Come be My Light – The Private Writings of the ‘Saint of Calcutta’,” edited with commentary by Brian Lolodiejchuk. He was one of her confessors who received these extraordinary letters from Mother Theresa, with instructions to burn them. It must rank with Augustine’s “Confessions,” and others. If you can find it, read it. And place some markers.
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MOMENT MINISTRIES
March 10, 2008
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at a-morgan@peak.org
Easter at Inavale Farm 2008 . . .
The ad will say that we begin at 10:01am ---
That’s when Paul and the Musicians start.
It’s a memorable way to do Easter
Driving through the barnyard area down the lane to the Alice and Norm Glass home. They, along with Caroline and Luigi do a lot to make us welcome!
We all bring a brunchish item to share after the service.
Where else can you get a champagne brunch with the Easter service?
 
Easter comes earlier this year
March 23
It’s the earliest that Easter has been since 1913 and won’t come this early again until 2285. Church tradition has its explanations. We always think our event is exceptional. This year it is exceptionally exceptional.

A Word About Paul
Paul is leaving immediately after the service to travel to California to be with a youth group from Albany that includes Max Peters among others who are doing a spring vacation event. He will want to start singing and get to the front of the food line. We’re just glad he will be with us on Easter morning.

Did we report and commend Don Whitney?
for caring for some hurting people on the U of Washington Bothell campus with a most meaningful memorial service for a beloved staff member. Don is an “Associated Moment Minister” in Washington.

Did you note our new www address?

www.97330.com/Moment-Ministries/

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SAINT OF DARKNESS
“If I ever become a saint – I will surely be one of ‘darkness.’
I will continually be absent from heaven – to light the light of those in darkness on earth.” - - Mother Teresa

      I’m sitting here thinking I want to write something about this book of the private writings of Mother Teresa. At the same time I’m thinking that no one ought to do more than read her words, thoughts and feelings making a personal response.
      At the same time I’m partially realistic. Some people admit they never read books. They wait for the movie. I wonder if the contents of this book could be made into a movie. I think it would be powerful if done without too much Mel Gibson style dramatics.
      My sense of reality nudges me to tread holy ground as an outsider to so much of the very personal, mystical and intimate revelations she makes through these letters.
      She requested time and time again that her letters be destroyed by the confessors who received them. They are the kind of confidential words that counselors and confessors pledge to keep silent. Something made a number of them decide that these letters were extraordinary and that Mother Teresa’s humility and sense of privacy should not prevent them from being widely known. So I read them as one who has heard confessions, and as one who has heard those speak who believed they heard messages from God.
      Yes, Mother Teresa had a period when she heard a voice with a clear message about her mission to the slums of Calcutta. The counselor’s ear thinks of hallucination or types of mental illness in which voices are heard. The wide separation between the intimate relation she had with Jesus with all the heightened spiritual enthusiasm and certainty was met with a life-long struggle with doubt and darkness. Depression is another immediate thought. Because she started her immersion into devout faith as a child there is a question about whether she had been brainwashed in the fashion of cult indoctrination. Her holy vows were to Jesus as her spouse and first love, something she sought all of her life. She was a true daughter of the church hierarchy to which she gave her total allegiance as a child to a father. 
      You see, in the fashion of biographer Erik Erickson who did the biography of Gandhi and others, we could be tempted to explain away the extraordinary sense in which this woman embodied the life and mission of Jesus and totally surrendered herself to satisfying his “thirst” for those who suffered. Fueled by unbelievable spiritual energy she entered the slums of Calcutta, attracted hundreds as sisters into the Missions of Charity that eventually had centers in most countries of the world. She insisted that commitment to the spirit of Jesus be foremost in entering the lives and dwellings of the poorest of the poor. Only a few in history are like her.
      I mentioned darkness. It began as she was finally able to start her work. Her letters of confession repeat deep spiritual agony time after time. “There is such terrible darkness within me.” People who spent time with this smiling, energetic woman would not believe it. Though she taught faith and helped thousands feel close to Jesus she did not have such closeness. “I call and there is no answer…the darkness is so dark and I am all alone – unwanted, forsaken…Where is my faith?...I have no faith….Where is God…if there be God.”
      Saints of other days wrote of dark nights of the soul. You note that mystics are not big on belief and faith, but are big on trust and faithfulness. My experienced suspicion is that many understand Mother Teresa’s experience. She saw Jesus on the cross feeling her own absence of God in his words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” This did not turn her from love for Jesus which she professed to her last day.
      A friend, Dale Stitt, met Mother Teresa several times, as well as one of her Spiritual Directors, in Calcutta. He reports listening to her and “basking in the positive energy flowing from her life and words.” He goes on to say:
“Based on her public persona, I am sure that most people were shocked to learn about her questions, her lack of faith, the sense of darkness within her. But I am not. I am grateful that the last chapter in her life comes as a book that reveals her inner struggles. It gives me hope. Even though I will never be thought of as a Saint, I feel closer to Mother Teresa now than ever.”
      She is the Saint for those who doubt and question their faith and know about the darkness.   
─ Art Morgan, March 7, 2008