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Sacrament Is: |
a formal religious act conferring a specific grace upon those who receive it. Grace; meaning health, wellness, patience, communication, understanding, acceptance and all of those good things that your faith provides for you. |
Sacrament is one
of three tools that a minister of any given belief system uses in the course of
their work; the other two being Shamanism and
Sacred Spaces.
It is actually an early form of herbalism, for more information on this and
how it figures into being a Friar, please read my piece on Our Daily Bread.
Shamanism is made up of the stories and knowledge that a Minister wishes to
share and Sacred Spaces are the places that a Minister chooses to share them.
Oration and application of these stories and maintaining the sanctity of these
spaces is the skill of a Minister.
Sacrament usually takes the form of a recreational substance and was often used
to bring people into Sacred Spaces so that the Minister could perform acts of
Shamanism. Depending on geography, and on religious belief, sacrament might be
beer (Great Britain/Wales), wine (France/Italy), Tobacco (Native America),
Cannabis (South America/Mexico), Opium (Middle East), Coffee and Tea (some
parts of Europe and Asia).
Back in the day, it was recommended that members of any given belief system
should take their sacrament as many as 5 times a day: with every meal, with
every prayer, with every sunrise and sunset. Often times, the Priest or
Minister of a community was the only one schooled in methods of brewing and
growing these substances. And because life was so harsh and the substances were
so rare, people were thankful to be alive to receive them.
The tradition of bringing sacrament from one home to another
goes all the way back to the Satyrs, the priests of Dionysus.
St. Francis, via
the Friars, revived the concept back in the early 12th Century--this was an act
of rebellion--which made the Friars the lowest Diocese of the Church and the
most difficult to gain their acceptance.
Organized Religion (specifically, the 12th Century Roman Catholic Church) was a
form of population, information and substance control, since only their
priests were allowed access to the education necessary for reading and writing,
and to the substances that were considered sacrament.
But the Friars (and the Satyrs) shared their sacrament (and their knowledge)
with everyone--including the poor and the sick--the people that, for one
reason or another, were driven from the hierarchies that were in control at the
time.
The act of sharing sacrament is a tradition, and a symbolic
representation of the knowledge, grace and patience that a Minister provides
for his people. It is the vessel that he uses to get people to sit down with
him and open the lines of communication so that he can share the wisdom (and
education) that his faith provides him.
When a minister wishes to bring comfort to his people he shares his sacrament.
A Minister takes a sacred and solemn vow to share his sacrament for free,
unlike others who might grow or sell the same substances to make a profit.
Regular and daily
consumption of Sacrament is essential to your physical, mental and spiritual
health. Among other things, it is the sworn duty of a Minister to provide
Sacrament for those that accept him as their minister.
A Paraclete, or Comfort Bringer, was a slave who was indentured to a home or
family, for the purposes of providing comfort by performing tasks that were
essential to the functioning of the home. Paracletes were your first tutors and
your first forms of Hospice Care.
The Friars (and the Satyrs) were specific kinds of Paracletes. Taking active
and spiritual vows to live the life of bringing comfort to others, and as such,
we gained the recognition of the church and the authority to sanctify
marriages, baptize children, confer last rights, provide sacrament and
everything else that a priest can do.
Being a Friar means that I have surrendered all material possessions in the
name of my faith. My Ministry, My Faith and those that believe in me are all I
own and rely upon for my health, wellness and survival. I take care of my
Community because my Community takes care of me.
When we had it to share, it was often the custom of a Friar to invite himself
to your meal to share his sacrament and bring good luck to your home. Because
the harsh lives of these early people provided them very little comfort, it was
the regular visitation of a minister over the enjoyment of sacrament that gave
them the patience and the wellness they needed in order to get on with their
lives--i.e., Regular doses of Sacrament and Ministry were essential to their
health.
People that were too
sick to get out of bed or too poor or overworked to go to church, would paint a
red cross on their door. This is how we came to associate the Red Cross with
the need for healthcare. Lighting a red lamp outside of your home indicated
that you ran an Open House or a brothel--this is where we got the term Red
Light District.
Either one would indicate to the Friars--wandering, homeless ministers--that we
were allowed to come into your home to take care of you--most often in exchange
for a place to sleep and food to eat.
At an Open House (which, by the way, was another Dionysian Invention), you
could visit whenever you needed to and were allowed to eat, drink and sleep for
free so long as you did some work to keep the home in operation. Nowadays, we
would call this kind of an arrangement a Co-Op or a Commune.
Open Houses were often rest stops and hostels for weary travelers.
When a Friar ran an Open House, it became a Sanctuary and therefore considered
hallowed ground--providing Safe Harbor to anyone that needed it.
Giving a Friar two options for his Vow of Poverty: homelessness or running a
Sanctuary.
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It is the belief of
this Minister that people like Quentin Crisp, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Jack
Kerouac, Jerry Garcia, Dr. Tim Leary, Dr. Patch Adams and Bob Marley reveal
to us how a Wandering Lifestyle combined with the Open House and regular
doses of fun and sacrament is the secret to a healthier, happier lifestyle
through the establishment of more creative and more challenging traditions. |
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But arrangements like
this are difficult to manage unless you surround yourself with the right
people. And they also run into a lot of problems with the government.
Therefore, my role as Friar is to get around these legal problems via my 1st
Amendment Rights, by establishing an Open House as a Sanctuary.
In order to be a Sanctuary (recognized by the government as a religious
custom), it must be Volunteer Staffed and Donation Driven--owned by a community
of like-minded people and run as a Non-Profit Venture.
So if you'd like to take part in this process, please visit my Yahoo! Group at: