Paths

I find people arguing about which religion is the correct path or best path to God.  Obviously, for them, it is religion or nothing.  That to me seems to stymie freedom.  Their attitude means that the searcher and God are not free.  God is not free to be found outside religion, and the searcher is not free to search beyond religion.  God and religion are not the same.  You can find God outside of religion.  Which means that you can reject religion, as many do, but that does not end the search.  Rejecting religion is the easier softer way to avoid the search for the divine, or whatever you might name this power.  So if you don't like religion, then find another path.  You just might stumble into a surprise.  

A Decison To Act

I hear people say that when they have doubts it is because they lack faith.  They think more faith will solve the doubt issue.  Or you think that you can reason your way out of doubt.  No to both.  You don’t need more faith or more reasoning.  You need to make a decision first.  Then act on it.  Then you will discover faith.  Ask anyone who has taken the steps of AA.  They may have started out with doubt, lots of it.  But if they wallowed in doubt, they would die drunk.  They acted with doubt and then discovered the Power to sober them up.  Jesus, the Buddha, and other wisdom figures give you the “follow me” teaching. Most of the people who have doubts about being a Christian or about Jesus, don’t really follow him anyway.  They just wander around in doctrine or catechism with doubts.  Imitation is what will break up doubts.  Proof follows action.  It is the basis of recovery and all spiritual paths.  One final example: stand on the edge of a ten meter diving board.  You have some doubts about survival?  Jump.  Doubts go away.  

The Unseen Flower

I walked up to the quiet and empty cemetery this glorious morning, blue sky, no wind, and saw a singular, beautiful stem of blue flowers budding, all alone with no one to look at them and admire their beauty.  "So sad," I thought, "This flower stem blooms and there is no one to see it."  But wait!  God sees it.  And it gives God pleasure.  Then I realized that I had been thinking I should be somewhere else, teaching, being helpful to people on their spiritual journey  "Why am I here?" I had been thinking.  Maybe I am here to give God pleasure by the way I try to pray and grow in the spiritual life.  And that is enough.  So when you wonder who benefits or sees the good you are trying to do or be, remember that God sees it and it gives God pleasure.  

Being Less Wrong

Some ways of speaking  about things of science are less wrong than others.  Scientists are humble.  They are always discovering more that tells them they only have partial truth or partial answers.  You discover the atom and think you know all about it only to discover later that there is more there or things don't quite work as you first discovered.  I wish that people of religion were as humble about their God talk.  So many of them claim to have all the truth about their God though one truth seems to counter another.  Their answer?  All claims to truth are false except their own.  Scientists disagree, or admit to theory.  Religion fights wars.  So I try to be a little more humble when doing my God talk.  Some ways of speaking about God are less wrong than others, and we are always finding out new things about God from no less than scientific discoveries in our universe and Creation.  I am comfortable now knowing little.  It keeps me open to wonder and surprise.  

Went Where?

When I was little I was told that Jesus Ascended up into a cloud and was taken to heaven.  Being a smart kid I figured that clouds are up above and so heaven must be up above.  When I got a little older I became less smart and more confused.  I looked at our globe and saw that Australia was in the Southern Hemisphere.  Their "up" and my up went in opposite directions.  That would make heaven go in two different directions.  Is there a solution or is it all nonsense? Yes, I found out that there is another way of seeing what happened to Jesus.  He did not go up to some one place, but rather went everywhere!  This of course created a problem for a little kid like me who was prone to mischief.  If Jesus is everywhere, being God, then he sees everything that is going on.  So when I take that cookie from the jar that my mother told me not to eat, I can fool her, and lie, if necessary, but Jesus sees and then probably notes it in a ledger that will be shone me when I die and get to the gates of heaven for my interview.  So I would prefer the old idea given to children, that God is in one place, but not everywhere at once.  This way, maybe God is busy with important stuff in some other universe or galaxy and won't notice when I am bad, and not write it into my life ledger.  But this does not work either because my mother always knew when I took the cookie even though she was not "there."  So God was in at least two places at once: heaven and my Mom, since she seemed to be everywhere with her eye on me.  If two places at once, then God is probably everywhere.  As for getting through the gates of heaven, I got no chance unless Mom lobbies God. My hope is that they both have a soft heart.  So where is your God if you should happen to have one?

Pilgrimage

Living at this monastery I think of myself as trying to be on a pilgrimage.  I am not in Boulder where I have lived for many years, nor am I with my Paulist community in San Francisco.  I am away.  Part of pilgrimage is to go away from.  But what am I going toward?  This is the even harder part of the journey.  I am going to be here awhile, so I have the chance to go away from my ego plans, a surface life of just getting through the day, which can be formidable for us, but won't transform us.  So it is a Heart journey, going to the depth of the heart of Love for this God I believe to be Jesus.  What is my map? His life as found in the Bible, as well as the psalms I hear and read each day in choir, and the examples of other monks.  So far, I find that I get a bit lost, as I go off on tangents of self-interest, and self-centeredness.  But somehow, I am rather quickly reminded of why I am here.  Covid was the presenting reason, which appealed to my sense of fear.  I have spent many a summer here, but it was always with that sense of being away from somewhere else for the summer, which is not the same as leaving a place to go to another place.  So much for me.  What about you in this Covid time that changes your life without asking.  Can you make it something of a pilgrimage?  You leave something or have something taken away from you, but that may be opportunity if it can be looked at as a means to go toward something that will make you a better person.  The moving need not be physical to still be a moving away and going toward.  

Rainbow

When we see a rainbow after a rain we notice all the various colors.  That is what makes a rainbow, variety of light colors.  Without the rainbow, we think of the light of the sun as “bright,” or “light” or “not darkness.”  It is only in the rainbow that we see the multi-colors of the one light.  Each of us is one of the colors of the Creator Light, the Spiritual Light, if you will.  The spiritual path is to discover your color and let it shine brightly for others.  So much energy is used up trying to be someone else’s color because we have not discovered our own.  We dress like others, wear our hair like others, talk like others, so that we can fit in and feel a part of the “group” we admire.  But this effort to feel a part of, also leaves us feeling apart from our truest self.  So I might admire another priest, another runner, another person of talent, but I cannot waste time trying to be that person.  I am uniquely me, made to reflect my Creator, as ME.  My meditation intends to let go of group culture to discover and empower ME to be ME.  

Reflection

It is not important that we each have some mystical experience, whatever we conjure that to be, but rather that others see something of the Light, the best of what it is to be human, in each of us.  Reflect our best self to others in the way we are, rather than walk around feeling warm and fuzzy.  We will reflect that best that is us when we are in selfless relationship with others.  They will easily sense a connection to us, a feeling of comfort in our presence.  The reason that we might sit in some silence and solitude is so that we can get our of the way of the self that is all about the self and getting the “more.”  I find at time that though my “prayer time” is boring, distracting, dull, my daily life has more a connected compassion in relationship to others.  I am not in charge of prayer results.  Humbling, yes.  But I show up. 

Burial Clothing

Why are people who are buried in caskets, dressed so well?  Priests are buried in their habit, clerical clothes, vestments for mass.  Loved ones look for just the right dress or suit or finery for the dead loved one.  But are we not all returning to God?  Isn't that the point?  If we are returning to the mythical Eden and hopefully, divine embrace in oneness with the Creator, did we not start out naked in such embrace?  Clothing was the cover for our alienation, shame and guilt as I recall the Genesis myth.  So if we are hopeful of this return to God why not go naked as when creation started out before we messed up?  At least when you are cremated I think you go into the furnace in nakedness.  God is fine with nakedness.  Maybe I will put this in my will.  Save the nice clothes for some one who is in need.  That is a good way to go out of this world.  

Big Sis

I am always bemused that my big sister Maureen has her birthday, today, on the Catholic Church Feast of Mary Magdalene.  Maureen in Irish means Mary.  Now Mary Magdalene was a bad girl when she was young but then good when she matured.  It is in the Christian Scriptures.  My big Sis was bad when she was young but got good when she grew up.  Unfortunately, all the people I run into who met Maureen, did so when she was grown up and nice, so they think I am telling fibs.  I know why she was bad.  It was me.  I was work for Maureen, who often had to watch and watch over me while Mom was busy with other stuff. I was selfish, whiny, and disobedient.  I complained to my Mom that Maureen was being mean to me.  That went nowhere.  We both grew up or at least got older.  I am still selfish, whiny and uncooperative.  Maureen became compassionate, accepting, loving unconditionally, kind and generous.  I once asked her how that happened.  She said it was her four kids.  They were either going to drive her crazy or she was going to change.  As a single parent, her kids needed her to not go crazy.  So she became all the nice things that everyone knows about her.  I think that Jesus helped Maureen, as he did Mary Magdalene, to make the transition.  I am still waiting on Jesus to get to me.  Hope I am on his bucket list.  

Spectators

So many people read the Gospels, or for that matter, other spiritual writings such as the Upanishads, Buddhist Sutras, as spectators.  I find myself doing this at times.  I read for some information, or for some examination of what is said.  Maybe I critique what I have read, or am even uplifted for the moment, but that moment passes.  Such is the unchanged life of the spectator.  But these wisdom writings are meant for the participant which is different.  So I must meditate, or get my ego-centric self out of the way in deep prayer when I engage these scriptures.  Why?  So that I will be changed for the better, or at least on a road to change.  Think of participating in a classical piece of music, as opposed to watching the musicians play.  Think of a ballet or concert that is meant to be participated in so that you will be led to some transformation that continues long after you have left the theatre.  We are meant to be moved into ourselves, and not escape out of ourselves, as might happen with a commercial rock concert, supported by mind altering substances, light shows, and other externals.  You feel great or at least different for the moment, but that passes.  A great work of art, a profound scripture, if participated in, can work toward the change to a fuller way of being a better you.  

Seeds And Weeds

HOMILY NOTES

FR. TERRY RYAN, CSP

MT. 13: 24-43

JULY 19, 2020

I grew up in a church of cause and effect.  I did something wrong.  God was going to punish me unless I got to confession first.  So we all  stopped play on Saturday afternoons and went off to confession at church.  If one were really bad, then that person could not receive communion on Sunday without confession first. To not receive on Sunday would be embarrassing.  Questions might be asked later.  Cause and effect church.  I only found out years later, when coming to understand parables like these, that God is much more forgiving and patient and loving than the old cause and effect God I grew up with.  

I was often like the weed intertwined with the good seed church people.  In the gospel, the workers want to be rid of bad seed.  That would be like those church people, who prefer a smaller and purer church.  That would not include me.  But God is more like the owner who is OK with all kinds of stuff in the field.  Like the owner, God is patient and accepting.  Maybe those who do a lot of bad things will begin to do more good than bad.  They will reveal change by action, virtue, become more like God in kindness, acceptance of all kinds of different people.  Notice, none of this comes about or requires confession 

Talk about change!  Look at the mustard seed.  It is a weed.  Many people would have no patience with it, find it a nuisance and want to be rid of it.  But God can make stuff happen to mustard seeds.  The mustard seed grows up be to a tree to shade and house birds.  So maybe I am a miracle in process, from a nuisance, to being able to do much good for others, like maybe this homily?  

Do let us not judge mustard seed and weeds, or people.  Give them a chance to reveal the miracle of God at work, not just in them but in us who withheld judgment and became surprised at how narrow was our view.  What about the woman baker you ask?  Well, her abundance of bread says that there will enough for everyone.  May our church be enough for everyone!

Take Responsibility

This one takes some thought.  Drop a pen.  If you say, “The pen fell,” then you are blaming the pen for falling.  But pens don’t really fall all by themselves.  You let go, or fumbled the pen.  You are responsible for the pen being on the floor and not in your hand.  So don’t blame the pen.  Now for life.  You say, “So and so drives me crazy.”  It is no fault of your own that you have this response to someone?  “My boss makes me angry.”  Or, “That meeting is stupid,” as if a meeting had a brain.  Why blame outside events and circumstances for your feelings, and moods?  Be responsible.  You have responses to events, people, situations, and then blame it on outside stuff.  I try to take responsibility for what goes on inside of me.  Blaming the outsides does not change the outsides, and I play helpless responder.  Now where did that pen go?  

For Yourself

One of the places to be “selfish” in the best of ways, is to get into a recovery program for yourself and not for some other reason.  I have seen times when people lose a job, or partner walks out, or they lose something else, and they get into recovery to regain those things.  These people rarely stay.  But when they finally do it for themselves, then they have a better chance.  So if you are thinking of getting into something to better your life, ask why?  If it is not for yourself, then you have not reached that place of self-worth, where you value the new “whatever” because you value you.  I have found it so...eventually.  I stopped saying I am as good as the money I earn.  Others may prefer the money, but then that is a different issue.  

Hearing

Usually, when you have a loss of hearing it will be other people who tell you so.  And if you “listen” you go and get a hearing test.  But before that, we just want people to talk louder or turn up the volume.  We are in denial.  I think that the soul or spiritual center of ourselves at times needs something like a test to hearing.  It will be other people or circumstances that tell us we are at a spiritual loss.  You get fired from enough jobs, enough accidents happen in your life, friends seem to drop out of your life and so on.  Maybe we have let our bad behavior gradually become our new “norm.”  I find that meditation and spiritual friendship with others on the journey are a big help in keeping me tuned in.  

The Dough

When I am making bread I add a bunch of stuff, in proportion, to make the dough.  I mix it all altogether, and then I have to wait.  Yeast is live and doing stuff.  I cannot force the dough to rise and come together by my own will.  It takes its own time.  So it is with spiritual food that will nourish me.  I cannot force a process.  I will not suddenly become my best self because I say “It’s Time!”  I have to mix some things together in proportion and then wait.  I mix prayerful meditation, devotion, worship, good works in service to others, examination of my faults, some physical exercise and diet, and then wait for it all to come together.  Somedays I say, “This is not working.”  What I mean is that I am not getting my own way or feeling my comfort zone.  But growth is to move me beyond my plans and my comfort zone, to become a better me who can nourish others after I spiritually bake awhile.  Some of my blogs are more nourishing than others.  Some not so much or disaster, but I don’t stop baking bread because of a failure, so I don’t let mishaps stop me.  

The Grudging Kind

Someone said that "acceptance" is the key to life.  Well, what if that acceptance is a "grudging" acceptance?  Many of us have the grudging kind of acceptance and this is not going to expand our spiritual life, or make us at all happy.  A key to acceptance, for me, is linked to a willing dependence on some power not my own.  I call it Presence, an active force or power.  The only reason I have acceptance is that I have faith that I am not in this journey of life, on life's terms, all alone under my own power and control.  If I had total control I would have to accept nothing.  I just change what I don't like.  I do not have such control.  So I have to be willing to believe that Presence has my back.  Thus I can be dependent, and not have grudging acceptance.  I am happier this way of willing dependence.

Backwards

Someone said that if you practice your spiritual program backwards, you will go back to practicing your old problematic life.  So if you are trying to be helpful to others, praying regularly, doing a daily examination of conscience  (your side of the street), and gathering with others who are practicing this path, try going backwards.  You will become the mess you used to be.  Stop being of service, praying, doing a daily examination of conscience, and gathering with others on the path, and you will surely revisit your old way of life.  Since I don't want to go back to an old way of living, I try to keep up on a daily basis the things I learned so I can continue to grow.  What direction are you going in these days?

A Good Fit

I sense that the monastery is a good fit for me.  This is fortuitous because it looks like I will be here a while in Covid times.  I participate in the life of the monks, rather than they do their monastic practice and I just live here with free room and board.  What they do seems to attract me, to fit some hunger within me.  If I were completely on my own with no set schedule, I would be training in my running.  I could eat, sleep, pray, and run when I want each day.  But the monastic life has a schedule and it is a good fit for me.  So I am not in the monastery to run a lot.  I cook a little, bake a little and it seems to suit my brother monks.  I enjoy it.  We have a big oven bakery and a big kitchen.   Being there are so few of us monks, we rely on one another and seem to enjoy being with rather than away from each other.  Being Covid sealed off from the public, our life here is quieter with fewer distractions and a whole lot less talking.  I thought that I would become lonely what with not going out to see people or visit somewhere such as the library for a book or whatnot.  There is no place to go and nothing like that to do.  I run my car down the road a few miles now and again just to keep the battery charged.  So far, I fit in.  Or think I do.

Age

The difference between carrying the mess and carrying the message is "time."  What?  Well, the letters a-g-e move us from the mess to the message.  When we come upon a spiritual solution to the mess in our life, or whatever you want to call the solution, you have to give your self time to practice the solution.  Otherwise, you will mix too much still present mess with the message.  In my ministry work I have in the past felt that I had come upon a solution to the mess of my life, and I am in a hurry to tell others.  Then, a shot time later, I realize, "What was I thinking?"  The solution was bogus!  I had been quick to pass on the solution because it fed my ego, which often hides behind the thought that I am brilliant.  I seem to have had many solutions, too few of which I spent any time applying to myself.  So beware of these blogs!😇

Try Less

Someone said, "I am trying so hard to find God, and no luck."  I suggest that they try less hard, or don't try so hard.  Do not have any particular goal for that matter.  Well, how does one try to find God without having that as the goal and not trying so hard?  Do less and be found.  If you are trying to find God then you already have some idea of what success will be.  God becomes some confined object of your imagination or past catechism/Torah/Koran classes.  God is not an object, so God cannot be found in some concrete fashion of our mind or emotions.  Your heavy lifting efforts are just another way for you to feel some control in the quest.  So what to do?  One, meditate.  Two, don't pay attention to thoughts.  They are obstacles.  You will need some method for this, but even the method should be done gently.  If you have a mantra or sacred word, don't focus on it.  Just gently refer to its edges when you are focused on thoughts.  Otherwise the method become the focus.  Let the silence surround you.

No Ardor.

I live in a monastery where there are routines and schedules for doing certain things.  You would think a monk would have ardor for prayer, meditation, and ritual.  Not.  Ardor comes and goes.  If I only did things when I was all fired up, my spiritual practice would be spotty at best.  Mediocre.  Monks develop a disposition which is more than unthinking habit.  It comes from the heart.  It is a decision to surrender, to abandon oneself to a practice on a daily basis, and trust that the Divine, The Presence, will make us bloom to our best self.  So it is with any life that wants to develop a spiritual root.  Even a physical exercise can have a spiritual root, but you don’t always have the ardor to exercise each day.  Yet you have the disposition to do it anyway.  You might love a partner but not with daily ardor, or a friend for that matter.  Do you go to your recovery meetings only when you want to, have a burning desire?  If so, you won’t be sober for long.  Ardor comes and goes.  Practice is daily.

The Courage

One does not need a really low bottom to want to change.  One’s life does not have to be a complete mess before one decides to water a seed of recovery.  I hear people say they want to get sober and stop the drink/drug life.  They find a path to recovery.  They say, “I am sober.”  And now what? I wonder.  That’s it?  You don’t drink and try to help others to get well?  What about that part of the serenity prayer that says, “The courage to change the things I can.”  How about the courage to find your gift or unique talent?  It takes a lot of courage to give up a nice, safe, secure life in sobriety, to take on something that you feel/think urges you to become all you are meant to be.  Sobriety gives you a life, so that you can find the life that fits you.  That is what turning your life over to a higher power means.  Sobriety gives one time, the time that used to be for getting into oblivion.  Don’t waste the time.  It is a gift and it is for a gift.  You are a gift.

Immune Cells

Immune cells in the body heal diseased cells, sick cells, damaged cells.  Cells get damaged by outside  stuff that get into us.  So it is on the spiritual path.  We have spiritual cells that get damaged by events in our past.  They manifest themselves by various bad habits that develop, such as prejudice, resentment, self-centered fears, anxiety, sadness, judgments and jealousy.  A spiritual practice develops more and stronger immune cells that can begin to heal the damaged cells of our response to life.  We become more loving, compassionate, better listener, less judgmental or prejudiced, kinder and so on.  The cross we bear in this spiritual practice is that though we will change for the better, the world around us may not.  Results are not up to us.  “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,” seems impossible and impractical, until you get there.

Conversion Not Compliance

A lot of people write off Jesus because they don't believe in this God stuff.  So be it, but then they miss much of his wisdom and understanding of human nature.  For instance, he was not much interested in compliance.  He was interested in conversion to become a better person.  I think of my church and its institutional bent, none of which Jesus seems to be interested in.  Institutions thrive on compliance.  They talk the talk of conversion, but watch when they penalize or ostracize.  It is when you don't conform to the rules and regulations.  In the secular world, no one gets tossed into jail for failure to become better persons.  They get penalized for non-compliance.  You lose a job easily for non-compliance.  You can be a terrible person, selfish, greedy, egocentric, and lack all compassion for others, but you can still hold your job, and maybe even become a boss.  I am not good with compliance which of course gets in the way of moving up the institutional ladder, but I try to stay close to Jesus because he challenges me and even gives me tools for becoming a better person.

Chiara Badano

Chiara Badano died a teenager from terminal bone cancer.  She could not even walk in her last year.  Chemo did little good.  She would not accept her confinement as making her helpless.  Instead, she reached out to others through letters and phone calls.  She said that she still had her heart and with that she could still love.  So what about us who might be whining or saying we are helpless in this time of Covid, isolated from community and fun stuff?  Can we step up our game and see what we can still do, and share that with others who might be down or feel lonely?  The Coronavirus has not eliminated letter writing for many of us or phone calls.  Even if no one answers they will get the message that someone was thinking of them and reaching out.  Friendship takes work.

Cross

A lot of people take up their cross without being Christian or any other particular religion.  Say what?  A cross is when you make others happy at the price of your own suffering.  I think of my parents, especially my Mom who I saw more at home while my Dad was at work "downtown."  Mom did lots of things to make me happy even though she had lots of leg pain from a surgery that should never have happened to her when I was a toddler.  I appreciated this more when I grew up and in my priesthood especially since I do stuff to make others happy that stretches my comfort zone.  What gets in the way of bearing one's cross?  I find that anger, pride and egoism get in the way.  With pride, I look down on you and think why should I help this pathetic person who won't do anything for themself.  With anger, I just shut down because you make me angry.  I won't be nice to you or helpful.  Egoism says I am the center of the universe and so it is all about me and not about helping another.  With Covid 19, a lot of my public helpfulness is shut down for safety sake.  But there are still times here at the monastery and on Zoom when I can still be helpful, kind, compassionate and loving.  I just have to stay out of the way.

Fourth Of July

Well there is usually a lot of fireworks and noise on this date in our country.  I am reminded that we seem to suffer from "Silence Deficit Disorder," what with all the cyberspace noise on our devices among other things.  I find at the monastery that at times I might think of something good to say, or so I think, but out of esteem for silence I keep quiet at that time.  I think it is in the Rule of St. Benedict too.  So what good is silence?  I suggest that it might allow our inner self to hear the soft whisper of direction, an inner call, a solution to something.  Judith Valente writes about this silence.  I read a lot, especially in this Covid time, and gain much information, but it is in the silence that I get the "Ah hah!" moment, or the insight for my life.  No ah hah moments on the computer, but much information there.  We have a choice how we use our time, until it is not a choice, but an addiction.  Happy 4th!

Antoni Gaudi

If you have ever been to Barcelona, Spain you might have seen the magnificent Church of the Holy Family.  It’s architect was hit by a streetcar, mistaken for a beggar, taken to a charity hospital where he died three days later.  His name was Antoni Gaudi.  A young creative genius, he was given the task of the design and incorporated various materials and works of art in his ambitious approach.  In all this Gaudi gradually grew in a relationship with God.  He adopted an ascetic life, dressing as a workman, though he had once been a bit of a dandy, a guy who liked clothes.  He attended daily mass and even slept on a cot in the church as he was working on it.  Then he got hit by the streetcar.  The church is an architectural treasure, designed by a man whose heart expanded into the fulfillment of his talents and care for the Holy.  What he was on the outside, though it ended tragically, was not so important to him.  We too may suffer a bit from working more on our spiritual insides rather than in how we appear to others, and we might suffer some consequences.  Anyone who says, “Clothes make the man/women,” might want to take a look at that church.  Beautiful outside treasures come from the beautiful insides of a person.

The Miracle

There is this fellow, Elijah, who is on the run from his egomaniac king.  Apparently, Elijah said something that disagreed with the king’s wishes, so Elijah is trying to hide out. Where to go? Go to someone who society is ignoring, in this case a poor widow and her son.  Such needy people are invisible in many a society, and certainly to that king.  Now the widow is down to her last meal for herself and her son.  Then they will starve and die.  Well, Elijah is hungry too.  Fear can do that to someone.  A miracle happens. She feeds him from her want not from her surplus.  It changed her life and she did not even believe in Elijah’s religion or god.  So what about us?  Do we wait around until we have “enough” whatever that might be, before we become of service?  Fear can hold us back.  Why not be like the widow and give from your want for the sake of another?  You have a shortage of time and energy?  Be surprised at how both expand when you get out of yourself for another person.

The Devil

What if there is a “devil” the real thing?  My thinking is that there is such and it is miserable because its Creator is within it.  My God is everywhere.  The devil is just prone to evil, having a bad day everyday and wanting everyone else miserable too.  It hates that God is within it and won’t leave it alone.  No matter how much mayhem it engenders, God does not leave.  For the devil, God is a pain in the soul.  So much for that.  But what about us?  It is one thing for us to be having a bad day, to see nothing but misery and darkness all around us and even within us.  But why be a devil and make others miserable too?  One of the best ways I have found to limit the power of my misery is to do something nice for someone even for an animal or bit of nature.  Throw some bread to the birds chirping around you.  Close a door quietly.  Use your turn signals.  Little things can make a difference, at least for us.  Why be a devil today?