Preface, continued, 2

Now, fourteen years later, the Irish Da is still my anam cara, or soul friend. It is he who told me early on to live my life omnia pro Deo. What does that mean? He said: All for God! I practice this as best I can daily and nightly, not perfect, but with reminders such as scripting Omnia pro Deo on a wall or window, and saying it aloud when in need of encouragement. 

While I have not pursued in these interim years any formalizing of the Order of the Present Moment, I have explored in reading, observation, and visits, several traditional orders of the Catholic Church. But other factors and experiences kindle a resurgence of the moment-in-time message, bringing with it not only the mysterious intrigue, but also an urgency within. Time now to attempt writing, mapping out, the vague structure, perhaps a guide to encourage the actual implementation of such an order. 

So I excitedly called the Irish Da and told him I'd try to put something down on paper, simply begin, as other factors in recent present moments caused me to analyze traditional religious orders--current and historical. And, some people recently asked me questions about the spiritual life, expressing their yearning to get close to Jesus but feeling inadequate and bereft in their spiritual course.

Just yesterday I reminded the Da in a visit, that two years ago in August I'd had the lucid dream in which my angel took my hand and said he was going to show me to the stairway to heaven. The Da said, “I remember that. Yes. I remember that one!” And after the dream, some changes occurred, starting gradually, and they are profound and I guess one could say mystical yet with practical application. I like all of us, am in training. Yet I did not grab hold readily, of the hand rail of the stairway to heaven. I don't think I even got to the first step, although that is not mine to know, I suppose. But I was told and shown, and must not cease the desire to be on it, to climb!

Another dream occurred after several months, in which I was shown that I had obstacles. An enormous piece of cardboard was taped across the stairway from side to side beginning at the bottom step, and rising up high to obscure view of the rising steps. But way at the top of the taped cardboard that prohibited entrance to the stairs, the tape had loosened and the cardboard top had flopped over, starting to come down. 

Only a thin piece of cardboard kept me from climbing those stairs! It was a matter of removing the tape somehow, then pulling away the piece of cardboard, so I could begin the ascent. But the dream ended, and I awoke to the reality that while so close, I am yet so far away. A barrier is a barrier. Cardboard was keeping me from the stairs, although thankfully not mortared concrete blocks. And this is how it is in our temporal and spiritual lives--often obstacles that amount to no more than cardboard, simply taped, that keep us from the ascent to union with Christ!

In recent months, additional circumstances of present moments caused me to consider again this desire to seek and find God. One prod was being told of a start-up, active order, how they are forming themselves, and of other groups and movements, such as charismatic groups. Despite the decline in vocations to traditional religious orders, people seem all the more seeking God, trying to find a group to join or ways to progress, usually with other people but sometimes alone--especially if they are not viable candidates for the traditional religious orders.

These factors create the impetus for me to revisit the message of several years past, and to ponder what might be a more pure order, or a prototype—one for Christians of any age, time period and culture, married, single, and even priests (for they desire the spiritual in spite of  varied responsibilities due to the hopefully temporary shortage of priests. Yes, surely there could be an order that is not one of formula or set pattern from tradition or history, but as an option, an order more of the mystical Catholic world yet temporal as well, in the every day living it.