"When people are saying, "Peace and security", then sudden disaster comes upon them like pains upon a woman in labor, and they will not escape."
  -1 Thessalonians 5:3


i pray against empire
against it's pledge of universal freedom

a copy-cat mickey mouse way of living

where ev'ry mall repeats another

and we kill ourselves striving to look alike

"God, spare the world this imitative curse"

i pray against empire
against its pledge of universal freedom

informers with a patriotic scent

stir toilets to analyze ingredients within

where ev'ry enemy of mine will be theirs

and i'll be suspect when i finger their friends

i pray against empire
against its pledge of universal freedom

protective pulp circles the fearful seed

and like religious kitsch fills its emotional needs

moments of humor are primed by sitcoms

the last laugh for all being History's ghost

i pray against empire
against its pledge of universal freedom

the poor are snuffed, intellectuals spurned

the arts are targeted as corrupters of youth

the military machine drives the minds of most

distinguishing not between friend or foe

i pray against empire
against its pledge of universal freedom

peace and security no one can give

when your mind's not free and your spirit's chained

for fear smothers freedom, love frees one up

the kingdom of the human always tragically ends

i pray against empire
against its pledge of universal freedom



*Reflections of Alan Jones:

-The wisdom of the saints and mystics comes to us only after we have placed ourselves in a  position of waiting and receptivity.

*Longing and desire play a great part in soul making.  It is as if God has deliberately put unfulfilled desires into our hearts so that our hearts may be stretched beyond their present capacity.

*To be a soul (to be fully mature and alive as a person) is to struggle in hope with love, because we know that at our deepest we are loved.  To be a soul is to know what it is to be a terminal case - to have come to terms, however minimally, with the fact that we are going to die.  To be a soul means to know what it is to struggle for, to achieve, and to be denied power. To be a soul is to live in time, with all its opportunities and limitations.  Our life is a story that slowly unfolds in time.

*The believer understands that the great wild card promises that we are to be understood, recognized, and known in terms of our future, which is secure in God, rather than in our past.