The Language Of The Lord

A very,

Very big Aloha and welcome to Spirit Speaks.

It's always a treat to have conversations with my dear friend,

Father Harrell Pete Van Eden of the Benedictine monks.

Did I get that wrong?

The white robe Benedictine monks?

I get that wrong.

It's the white robed monks of St.

Benedict.

So just,

It was close.

I'm dyslexic.

The white robed monks of St.

Benedict.

And we've been having these really interesting conversations from a couple of different perspectives and definitely 12 hour difference in time.

I'm on Maui and you're in South Africa.

It's morning here,

It's nighttime there.

And it's also at the time of this recording,

Holy Week coming up with Easter coming up next week.

And we have been going into kind of an interpretation of the language and how spirit speaks.

And today I thought it might be good to actually talk about a piece that's on the,

In the hands of God called the language of the Lord.

And this one was very different than some of the other pieces on the album.

And it's really interesting that also you created different music for this than some of the other pieces.

And it probably has a very much more classical and at same time,

Cosmic feel in the music.

When you were working on the music,

Cause I write the words,

You write the music.

And Stephen Melillo did the beautiful arrangements and some by Darlene Goldenheav,

But when you did the music,

What was directing your energy of these,

That language of the Lord?

So every song that we discuss,

I want to say is my favorite song because at the time it is,

This song spoke to me in a very personal way.

And the language was very different.

Like you said,

And which translated into the feeling of the song being very different.

And for me,

It is because it was such a personal prayer that it felt like,

Because I want to learn the language of the Lord.

What bigger gift can they be?

And that's why when it translated into music,

The music is very somber and it feels,

If you listen to it at first glance,

And if you just,

If you don't pay attention to it,

It feels like a very slow and dragging song.

But if you sit down and you concentrate on what's happening in this,

Is an opening up to the Lord.

And in these slow words and the slow minor key that we've been used or that we used,

It is the feeling that God cannot be rushed.

And it is the feeling of,

Let me go into prayer,

Let me move away from the world.

We know that at the moment the world is in such turmoil.

So let us waste time and be with God.

And that was the feeling that I had when the music came for the song.

What a beautiful description.

And it's interesting because even though we've been working together for months and months on this,

I think we're about nine months into it.

I've never really have had these discussions with you about the creation of these pieces.

And that says a lot.

I mean,

I know for me,

I get up early in the morning as you do,

Excuse me.

And I raise my hands up and I reach up to the Lord and I reach up to the stars and I reach up to the cosmos and with my hands up,

Sometimes I actually feel a tingle.

Sometimes one star,

Maybe one star will actually shine a little brighter and I will feel like,

Okay,

I'm connecting here with that universal energy.

And I bring it down.

I literally do an exercise where I bring it like a circle of stars down here.

And when I do that and I can feel it,

Sometimes there is a certain voice energy that will come through in words that are a little different.

I don't know if it's the voice of the stars or the voice of the cosmos or the voice of some heavenly being,

Or sometimes I don't know,

But I know it comes from that one source that has a message.

And over the years of my writing,

Since I've been 14,

I write every day after I meditate.

I have cycles where,

Well,

For a while,

It was mother Mary coming through and that was a different voice.

And again,

These were written after my sister,

Pamela passed away.

So,

You know,

I feel like a lot of them were,

And this in the hands of God,

Were about that.

But this one really was just more about communicating that what's beyond words and the language of the Lord is really a lot of what we have,

Which is the spirit,

That power of the spirit,

Finding a voice through,

In this case,

My words and your music.

And also we know Stephen Malillo and his arrangements was able to capture beautifully the feeling of that spirit that was then that we had in words and music.

And he was able to tune into that.

So again,

We go back to the universal language of music,

Universal language of spirit,

Universal language of the Lord.

Yes,

All being vibration and wavelength and frequencies.

So it is such a beautiful thing to experience and to share with people.

And then to be able to recognize the message so that we recognize the message in the music and in the lyrics and together,

It is the message.

And to then send it out to people and to get the feedback that we've been getting is quite phenomenal that what we hear and what we set out to do is actually what people are experiencing.

And that to me is a sign that this is a blessed album and it's a journey of blessings.

It's been a journey of many lessons as well.

And I think we've,

Especially from a technical point of view we've been faced with challenges that you said,

I mean,

You've never had to have the same amount of challenges yet when we sit down and we discuss it,

We re-realize the placing that there is in these messages that we can't help to share.

I don't think there was ever a moment where this was not going to happen.

Well,

There was never a moment where it wasn't gonna happen but there were moments when we didn't know how it was gonna happen,

Which really reminds me of what I'm going through right now because there's a lot of changes coming up with where I'm going to live and not knowing what's kind of where that's going to be and maybe what to do on this not,

You know?

And again,

I have to go back to what you said which was very,

Very perceptive is about that patience and the waiting.

Sometimes we need to wait to understand what God's will is and what is what we're understanding you meant to do in God's will and it does take time sometimes.

And that's our time compared to a universal time,

Of course.

We were just having a little discussion before we began about Zen and Christianity and Zen and Catholicism.

And it's one thing I've loved about Buddhism because I'm a mystical Christian and I love Jesus Christ and I love the Lord but I also love to do contemplative Zen style meditations.

And in the heart Sutra,

Which is one of the oldest and most beautiful,

Wonderful pieces written on Buddhism.

It goes to that place that takes you beyond the illusions to a very deep place of the combination of emptiness and form.

Now,

If I were to take that to another degree beyond that it says,

There is no form and there is no emptiness.

You have both,

But I also believe there's something behind the creation of nothingness and emptiness.

And that again,

I have to go back to in my own interpretation is that spirit and that presence that's holding us so lovingly sometimes unknowingly in its hands.

And that unknowing is so hard for us in our form and ego to deal with when we don't know.

But there was a wonderful Zen master teacher that wrote a book called Only Don't Know.

Because again,

That throws you back into that complete release and humbleness of like,

Okay,

Lord,

I don't know.

And that's not necessarily a comfortable feeling but we've been seeing that over and over and over again this last year.

Definitely.

And it's interesting that the story that you're telling as well,

We had a contemplative praise session earlier today and the Lectio Divino was Psalm 118.

And the section that stood out for me was where it said,

God's love is always.

And a lot of people get to this point where they experience God.

And that's when in their minds,

God starts for them.

And when holiness starts and when their connection with spirit is,

And that's not necessarily true.

It is just that at that moment that they had become aware of the love of God.

It's never not been there.

And the waiting that we experience as well is not because necessarily God doesn't want it for us,

Doesn't want the good for us.

It is just that we are not ready to listen and to experience yet.

And it's a big change in thought and in the whole experience for me.

Just knowing that the love is there,

We must just accept it.

And when we are ready,

Because I think God is always ready,

But when we are ready,

Then whatever needs to happen will happen.

There was an interesting thread in conversation that happened in the metaphysical group about sin earlier this week that I read.

Because this is always something that comes up that's so hard for people saying,

I don't believe we're born in sin.

I totally understand that.

At the same time,

There's part of us that never wants to admit some of the mistakes we've made.

And sometimes we don't even want to admit that we've hurt people.

And it's very,

Very hard when we're in some of those states of denial to feel really worthy of that moment.

We realize how deeply God loves us.

So I understand that the concept of using the word sin and forgiveness and then being released from that feeling and in confession,

Letting it go.

Because until you let go of any guilt you have and anything that's hidden,

As we were saying earlier,

You have to let reveal,

You have to be able to have revealed what needs to be revealed.

And the deeper,

And that goes so deep in this practice.

I mean,

So deep.

Because you have to let it be revealed to be healed.

And I do see that as possibly part of the understanding of coming to confession,

To forgiveness,

Even if it's with yourself.

And I know you're not supposed to do that,

But I think you can confess directly through a mystic path and do this with God.

Yeah,

That is a fascinating talk.

I mean,

It is one of the sacraments that we offer as priests.

And the usual thought was that you can go to the priest and forgive and the priest forgives you.

And it's not necessarily that.

I think it's been a warped thing.

It is necessary to perhaps talk to somebody.

And I think the original concept was with the priest,

That it is somebody who would give you advice in the form of penance maybe.

But,

And the discussion that you spoke about,

The idea for me is not forgive me father for I have sinned.

It is guide me because I have learned,

Or I am learning because sin to me is not living up to your fullest potential.

It is getting or being out of harmony with God and with your life purpose.

And that is what sin is in my mind.

Maybe it broadens the field a lot.

So every time that I'm not in perfect synchronicity with the Lord,

I am committing sin.

Which means almost every single moment of our lives because that is the time of,

If you can be without sin constantly,

Then you are a saint.

Although the saints also sinned and it is the drive to be a saint.

I think which takes us out of that state.

Because we are here to experience everything.

We're not just here to experience pleasure or the full communion with the Lord.

That is what we want to get to.

And that is the state of heaven.

So sin is a fascinating thing and something we love using to whip ourselves with.

I'm such a sinful creature.

So how can anybody love me?

And then I use that as an excuse to do things that are not good.

That's very interesting discussion.

And again,

Going back to the mystic Christianity path,

Which I follow,

I constantly have to get clear and it can be through a process of meditation often or saying prayers and I use both.

I say prayers and I do a meditation before I write.

But I don't always feel as much that I am in that state that I have been in,

In bliss because I'm now here doing the work I have to do.

And before I was chasing bliss and chasing the feeling of ecstasy and now I'm trying to put out what I'm supposed to be doing with my purpose here on earth.

And so once you get to that point where you can connect with inside that inner language of the Lord,

Then is that next step for me to put it down,

But then is that most important step as to live it.

And during this week,

We would think about going into,

Oh,

Jerusalem and the palms and the celebration and everyone,

Hosanna,

The heights of the bliss,

The heights of the recognition,

The beauty of this.

And then of course,

In the hero's journey,

Of course,

What Jesus had to go through leading in that week to just later in that week,

Being crucified and having to stay.

I think this for me would have been one of the harder things because I talked so much.

Having to stay silent when he was asked,

What is your,

Who are you?

I mean,

The urge to explain to private or some people say it wasn't private,

But it was safe conscious pilot.

To be silent and know you're following God's will in being silent and probably sealing your fate.

And again,

That moment in Gethsemane where can this help be lifted from me?

Knowing that indeed you came here and you did it because you knew that was your purpose,

But still we get so wrapped up and attached with our lives.

And even Jesus living as such an amazingly illuminated,

Brilliant teacher had to go back to that moment of saying,

Do I have to give this all up?

Do,

Is there another way out?

So we see in this week,

This amazing unfoldment of this absolute height of recognition,

The following supposed grace,

The crucifixion,

The pain.

And then with a culmination of the gift,

Which some people don't think would be a gift they choose,

Which is the death and resurrection.

This is a very important journey that I think many people live out in many dramas in their own lives of what they have to accept and how they have to live and what they have to do to follow God's will.

And the biggest challenge there is recognizing what is God's will.

And that is where the song comes in so beautifully.

And it is such an apt song.

Thank you for choosing that as the song for this week to discuss,

Because the word say,

Let me know your language,

Lord.

And then it says,

Let me be your instrument,

I pray.

And that is such an important thing that it's,

While we are walking the path with Jesus,

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday,

And we are going to celebrate.

We're also celebrating the profession of one of our monks,

His final profession.

And it's a joyful experience,

But what do you do from there?

And that is where the second part of the song comes in.

Let me be your instrument.

It's not just enough to love the Lord,

Because that love should automatically flow over into action.

And that is what this week is all about in my mind,

Is we recognize everything that Jesus did for us.

And then we do something about it,

Because he didn't die for us in vain.

He died for us to open our eyes,

To connect us with God,

And that is such a profound,

Profound gift.

And if you take it from the mystical point of view as well,

It is that connection that we didn't have yet.

The Ray of Christos,

Basically,

That he opened up so that we can have a direct connection with the creator God,

And that we can be a part of that.

And this is all the example,

The example that,

And we often forget that he was wise enough to say,

This we can do,

You can do also,

You know?

Exactly.

I believe in even more so.

Easier said than done.

Very true.

Especially if you start looking into,

And it's a can of worms that we sometimes open,

But that there's a lot of mysticism,

And dare I say the word magic that went missing,

That Jesus taught us.

And not necessarily in ritual,

But there's a lot of the power of what he taught that I don't think we necessarily recognize anymore or know how to do.

The power of saying your praise out loud versus just thinking them.

It's a complete different thing.

You start creating when you say something out loud.

It's not just in your mind.

Can you imagine if all your thoughts came true?

What a chaotic world we would live in.

And that is why we need to verbalize.

With this,

We did the words and it was able to be verbalized so beautifully.

The next phrase from,

Let me know your language,

Lord,

Is,

And carry the songs so eternal that the stars sing in their own way.

And if the energy indeed of the Christed one can be freed from not just this earth,

But when we say resurrected,

Then we're resurrecting it to the entire cosmos.

And we sometimes think of it just because we're limited to this earth playing so many ways,

But resurrection means eternal life.

Resurrection means overcoming that limitation of just this eternal life.

So you can live in that union with the cosmos.

And so if you can carry that song that is eternal,

You're then in tune with that energy,

Stars and the cosmos,

And you are able to carry that frequency as well.

And so that's the second part of just the first phrase of this song.

And then it goes on to say,

Let me know your spirit,

Lord.

Let me be inspired to receive.

And again,

Here is,

Again,

Knowing that real spirit and being able to be a clear channel so that language isn't filtered because so often we filter,

There was that book by Neil Donner Walsh,

Conversations with God,

You know,

Like,

Well,

How do you know you're talking to God and it's not just coming through the filter of your own soul or your own inner mind or your higher self.

You'd have to be such a clear energy directed to our channel even to allow that spirit to come through that it really does inspire you to be able to receive.

Now,

Again,

Receiving is like after you've been cleared,

If you've been baptized or if you've experienced the Holy Spirit,

And if you've been able to forgive yourself,

And then once that chalice is empty and you really are open to receive,

That's when that holy energy can come through you,

I think.

Yes,

Definitely.

And that energy is unique to you.

You spoke about the filters and I think we will not necessarily ever receive our messages without those filters.

And that's by design,

Because we need to still make sense of them and we still need to do something with them.

And I cannot necessarily share a message that I don't get.

So,

Because then it would just be sharing words.

And as you were saying the lyrics again,

You took me back to the image of a monk sitting alone in his cell or herself,

Praying these words,

Just asking for God to use me,

Here I am,

And envelop me,

Let me be aware of your love.

And the cosmos,

A fascinating thing,

If one looks at mathematics,

You can prove that every word that you say echoes forever into eternity.

And if you speak the words that are from the Lord and that you hear and the messages that you get,

Those are the songs that then go into the cosmos.

So the words that we say out loud,

They don't stop here.

They mathematically can be proven that with overtones,

They will go on forever into the universe and become part of eternity.

I've been working in radio most of my life and radio waves are exactly the same way.

And I can help it think of how many times through what I've said on the radio and also what's broadcast through the music such as this,

Somewhere where is that eternity where it gets received,

Some transmitter somewhere,

The universe it's receiving as well,

The reflection of what's going on out there.

And the second part of the phrase and the second one is the fire that birthed the cosmos that from the silence speaks.

Now there is that fire,

It's an amazing power that light is in,

That the light source evolved in the beginning.

That light,

It was burnt from the original fire,

The source,

That fire that birthed the cosmos.

And at the same time,

It is also speaking just as what we're seeing is going on forever.

The power of that light does in that silence still speak and I think in the silence it speaks so that it can transform us.

Yes,

Definitely transform us,

But also remind us that we are all children of the light and that we are all part of that one light.

And that is such a powerful thought.

It's almost scary if one starts connecting and perceiving the light and that fire to think that you are part of that and that you are from that.

A lot of people shy away from the concept and it is not an easy thing to accept because that light is blinding and it is scary in its majesty.

And I know it's very metaphysical talk that we're doing now,

But that's the beauty of our discussions.

The cosmic fire is a very,

Very,

Very deep subject and we can't help but remember that many times when people die,

They're cremated and they go through again that fire process.

Removing that form and returning it to spirit and ash and to smoke and into whatever that fire was,

Again,

Going back to it in many cases.

The next phrase says,

For yours is the eternal song and you hold the purpose.

I see and in the time that's given here,

May I serve your loving energy that makes all of life complete.

And so that eternal song again,

That one that is sung here then maybe received there and again brought back to here and maybe from that star I saw in the morning,

It was again speaking through me that had a touch of that eternal song that you captured when you made the music is part of that purpose that was needing to communicate and that's such an important part in my life to commune,

It came but more than communicate,

It's serving that loving energy.

And that's the hardest part.

And it's the best part,

But it's also the most difficult part because just when Jesus knew that and I believe that Judas was actually aware of the purpose he played and knew he had to play the role and was one of the most difficult challenges to accept of all the disciples for him to do and play that role of Judas and be marked as that.

And yet this was something he had taken on knowing and Jesus knew that this had to be used to fulfill the purpose that he came here for.

And what kind of love is it that you take on that will do something that is so horrible in the eyes of man,

But yet is something that has to be able to complete the journey of Christ.

Definitely.

And yes,

Every person has the journey and I see it as we are all part of a symphony of music.

And that is the eternal song.

And in the symphony,

You can either be part of it and play your part and be in harmony or not,

But the symphony is not going to stop and wait for you.

We are in a live show.

So if your instrument and you are the instrument,

Again,

Referring back to the beginning of the song,

We are those instruments.

And the way that we are doing it is we are doing it as we are doing it as we are doing it as we are doing it.

And if you are going to play your part,

Then it's going to be beautiful.

If you are not,

It is still going to be beautiful,

But it's going to sound off.

Interesting.

That's like being in tune.

Yes.

Are you really in tune?

Are you in the center of the core of your being in tune with yourself,

In tune with your being,

Cosmic symphony in tune with the music of the spheres?

And it takes a lot of dedication to do this.

And the most important thing.

Yeah.

The most important thing of being in tune as a musician,

We know is to listen.

Very good point.

Very good point.

And then that phrase,

The song words and with,

Let me know your language,

Lord going back to the beginning,

Let me be your instrument I pray.

And carry the song so eternal that the stars sing,

If and may.

So here again,

We have that completion of the circle where we are asking for the stars to sing and the cosmos and the cosmic choir to sing through us.

But then they are singing as well.

The stars are singing.

They're singing as well and being heard through us as we are reflecting the energy coming through us.

Then they're also being able to bring that in the idea of bringing heaven to earth and earth to heaven.

Very difficult because this is like the whole spirit and form,

Form and spirit.

We go back to even that emptiness and form thing.

This is the hardest part of Christ energy coming,

That highest energy,

The illuminated energy coming to the form and the form not being necessarily in tune originally,

But becoming in tune.

Yes.

And just trying to be in tune is being in tune,

I think.

Ah,

Interesting.

Interesting concept.

I wouldn't have thought that just trying to be in tune.

I had,

When I was in Madrigals and Beverly Hills High School,

I had a teacher,

Mr.

Ernest Home.

Some of our teachers,

We remember their names.

They're good teachers.

And he would start every piece off with a choir and he would look at everyone and said,

Focus.

Now that was his thing.

And I still remember all these years later,

He was asking us to focus and we were focusing as the choir,

The group as one.

And he was the conductor leading us.

But really again,

We're focusing and as we focus,

We are becoming in tune and we're then also able to sing in tune and be in tune because we are all focused on one point.

Most definitely.

And if I can refer to my favorite movie,

Sister Act,

Where Darlene sang in part of the choir also was to focus on the one person.

And again,

To be aware of everybody around us and to honor them,

I think is such an important thing.

It's not just about,

Okay,

I'm now God's instrument.

Let me shine.

It is,

Let's,

And especially if one thinks about the concept of a choir,

It is about the harmony and about the whole choir.

You have your soloists,

But the idea is to sound like one instrument,

Even though you have 20,

50,

A hundred thousand voices,

It is all then focused on the direction of the conductor.

Yes.

And of course we're out of time pretty much,

But Stephen Melillo of course is an amazing conductor and understood that and was able to bring again,

The music that's so heavenly about in this.

So we're always grateful for that.

But I love talking with you.

We never quite know exactly where it's gonna go when we start,

But I'm really,

I really am understanding more of what I wrote than I ever knew when I wrote it now from my conversation with you.

And it's also lovely because when I hear it now in song and I'll play the song after this,

When I hear the song,

I hear now it in a whole different way than I ever could have imagined it.

So,

And it wouldn't have been possible without you Father Corral Pete Van Eeden,

I thank you for your beautiful,

Beautiful understanding and your service and your dedication to God,

Which really has just blessed me and have a beautiful Sunday and Easter week will be coming up and we'll talk again soon.

God bless you.

Thank you,

My friend and God bless you too.

And thank you for the words.

Thank you for the music.

Aloha.

Let me know your spirit Lord,

Let me be inspired to receive that from the Son's speed for yours is the eternal Son and for you hold the purpose I see and in the time that I am given here may you serve your energy for that makes all of life complete.

Let me know your language Lord,

Let me be your instrument I pray and carry the songs eternal that the stars sing if I may before the land of day the stars sing their hymn as a name the blessing from the cosmic mystery in harmony with the universe in such a symphonic display the soul can understand for spirit speaks in mind and names up to us to convey the language that is understood what mortal words can't ever say let me know your language Lord let me be your instrument I pray and carry the songs eternal that the stars sing in the angel's name Amen.