phoneA few months ago the Nobel Prize in Physics confirmed the Higgs Boson, the most basic building block of the universe that forms the world we know today.

Once upon a time these particles slowed down, like a marble rolling through molasses, in an invisible field that pervaded the universe. The resulting clumps formed atoms and the rest is history.

One physicist called the boson “the God particle,” and despite his later denials the term stuck with every news outlet in the world — and especially with me.

For some time I have imagined God to be the energy at the subatomic level that gave and gives being to everything that lives — the essence of everything and the Spirit of God unfolding in our world.

People, places and situations provide a more personal encounter with God. I hear, see, feel and intuit a Presence that connects love within me with love out there. Could it be God within connects with God without? God is the depth dimension in solitude, friendship, community, death  and hope. I want to hold these moments forever.

The best I can do is sit with the experience, be grateful, and try for a photo (some of which you see in this article) on my cell phone — that pocket size treasure that T-Mobile calls “My Touch.”

Essence

essenceRecently I joined my friend Cathy for a tour of a Portland high school where several of her clients attend. In the principal’s office we happened to witness a confrontation between an assistant principal and a young freshmen student named Essence, who happened to be one of Cathy’s clients.

Before long, Cathy and I were invited into a meeting with the administrator to hear his frustrations with Essence. He spoke down to both of us as we sat on the bench in his office. Her infraction included missing detention and neglecting to turn in her cell phone. Under the barrage my heart went out to Essence, who waited in the outer office for the results of this conference.

It was decided that we should take Essence to Cathy’s office for the rest of that day, and on the way we decided to treat Essence to lunch at McDonald’s where she shared how difficult it was to be protected from family predators and group-home managers throughout her life. She can trust Grandma, Cathy and a teacher aide in school, but otherwise she is all alone in this world. She even resolved from then on to turn in her cell phone and go to detention as demanded by the assistant principal. Anyone who reaches out to this beautiful young woman will be touching God herself.

“May we have keener eyes this year to glimpse God’s continued presence with us, especially in our tragedies, in our inadequacy, in our failures — and in those of others near and far.”

A Christmas Card from Jim and Gail.

flightGOD IS Flight

“Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the
same, knowing she has wings.”

— Victor Hugo

Ed-Head-favicon Brother Ed Phelan early in life learned in church and school that God was all powerful, all knowing, all everything, changeless, and perfect. He has since realized that God is so much more — a lover that deeply feels for each of Her beloveds; a lover that suffers with those hurt; a lover weak with those who are weak; and a presence in every particle of the universe.