What Ministerial Ordination Means to Me - Essay Example

Assignment What Ministerial Ordination Means to Me What Ministerial Ordination Means to Me Some people say that being ordained as a non-denominational or interfaith minister is without meaning because it is a certificate to practice outside a tradition. Being ordained means being set apart for Divine Energy. Everyone can access it but not everyone chooses to focus on it, or emphasizes it in daily living or honours it first. Being ordained means that I do. Those who do not understand have challenged me with the charge that being non-denominational means practicing a hodge podge of bits and pieces that do not come down from a direct scriptural lineage. In my ministry, I practice Integrated Energy Therapy (IET), which involves releasing the energy patterns from the past, which limit one’s capacity for power and joy. The outcome of this healing modality is that the person becomes empowered and balanced. In order to do this work, I too must allow any energy patterns from the past to be released, so that I too empowered and balanced. Only from this place can I help others. I make myself available for communication with angels. I make use of the violet energy ray, with the help of healing angels, to work directly with the client’s 12 strand DNA. This leads to the healing of issues that have settled into the body, and have become limiting factors. I tune into the cosmic energy vibration of my client’s guardian angels, and archangels. In this state, I receive Divine Guidance. The point is to illuminate the client’s path and to invite peace and harmony. I supplement my skills, training and natural gifts with a recognized commitment. Much of my work is intuitive and all of my work is client-centered. In doing spiritual counseling, I do not pose as an authority, but simply make myself available. I basically get my own ego and thoughts out of the way and I allow higher frequencies to come through me, bringing guidance for spiritual growth. So being ordained is a reminder that my duty is to support, not my own agenda, but the spiritual essence of the client. In spiritual healing, there is a transfer f energy, but that energy is not my own. Nor do I summon Divine intervention. For example, one of the healing modalities, in which I am trained and initiated, is Reiki. Energy flows through me and is accepted by the client, applied to wherever it is needed. My intention is only to make my body and spirit available for this energy to flow through, without obstruction. Being ordained is a marking of this understanding that it is not me, not my agenda, not my power, but is universal energy moving though me. Being ordained is a declaration of availability. Being ordained means keeping myself in a positive energetic space, as much as possible, so that I can model and invite positive influence for the benefit of my clients. It means that I consistently think about what is good and beneficial, because the Law of Attraction teaches that like attracts like. Focusing on dark thoughts will invite darkness, but focusing on positive thoughts invites the Light. I have heard the opinion expressed that a minister is called by God, that being ordained is an affirmative reply to that call. To me, being ordained is a seal on my commitment to myself, the channeling of cosmic energy and to my community. It is a formal answer to the cosmic call I have heard with my deepest being. This call is an invitation to take on responsibility to organize my life ministry, to serve others, to provide an example of living in which every act is sacred. I am human and therefore I have ignorance, jealousy, vanity, insecurity, fear, greed, and other obstructions of the Light. How can I lead? I am, at the same time, blessed with compassion, empathy, an open heart, appreciation, the sight of miracles, and other gifts that promote contact with the Light. Through grace, I reach for Light, and I help others who long for it, as I do. But what is my tradition and what are its boundaries? Ordination means being connected to a tradition of priests and priestesses who, for hundreds of centuries have upheld redemption to their people. There have been many versions, many methodologies, some externally focused and others internally focused, some dependent on the actions and generosity of a deity or prophet, others relying on on intuitive wisdom and personal responsibility. Although each dogma is seen as a religious tradition, I feel that ordination is my initiation into the umbrella tradition that each sub-tradition addresses. I am eclectic in my spiritual path, and this is something I can contribute. To reach for Light, for Sacred Source, is not a clutching at particular dogma, but an opening to Spirit, an opening of my capacity and my longing to be filled by Spirit. Who or what is God? When I was a young child, I thought of God as a magical being, a big, powerful male figure who, if I act right, will gift me with rewards and who, if I am bad, will put me on a different list, a list of people he will ignore. I notice that many people are still stuck in that early childhood perspective of seeing God as gifts and punishment. My spiritual path has shown me a much broader God, without gender, without waiting for my success or failure. I am overwhelmed by love and protection, inspiration, grace, beauty, the healing of connection, the compassion of angels, the amazing miracles of nature, the archetypes reflected in myth and higher wisdom, the salvation of Love. These are reflections of Divine Energy that, when I share them with others, are uplifting and strengthening. To make contact with angels, to allow healing energy to flow through me unobstructed, in Reiki, to float in intuitive guidance is to touch Source. Ordination is the commitment to be available. When I told an acquaintance that I am pursuing a path to be ordained, she began to list secular advantages that can come with ordination. Depending on where one lives, these can include tax and parking benefits, special access to prisons and hospitals, legal authorization to perform marriages and funerals. These benefits can motivate people with no spiritual leadership training at all to go to any number of websites and “get ordained”. This, however, is not what motivates me. I have a strong commitment to ministry and this is demonstrated by the various spiritual training I have received, and by how I live my life. I see my life as service to others and, in order to be effective in ministry, I pay attention to my own spiritual path and to my own balance. Of course, balance is not a certain point at which there is stasis, but is a constant process, a constant flow of energies. Is ordination a step, the consequences of which I can handle? I am, after all, a work in process. I nurture a deep connection with my angels and do not try to do everything on my own. I value the guidance I receive and the very personal relationship I have with higher frequency beings. I honour that relationship by maintaining a strongly ethical base from which to respond to those seeking help. Ordination means that I am commissioned to continue my self-growth and use it to help others. Ordination means that I am supported both formally and spiritually in this effort. Ordination has many faces but it can be summed up as an appointment to Love. I will end with a quote by Erich Fromm: Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an ordination of character which determines the relatedness of the person to the whole world as a whole, not toward one object of love (SearchQuotes.com). Works Cited SearchQuotes.com. "Ordination Quotes." 2011. Search Quotes. Web. 26 July 2011 . Read More