Part II, Holy Land

Mt. Carmel and the Church of the Annunciation

May 24, 2022

Hello Friends, 

As I mentioned in last week’s post, I need to explain my thoughts while writing this letter. I also need to share with you some spiritual history about myself and about the gift the Father gave me back in 2001. I cannot continue to write these letters, and memoirs, without speaking of it because it is such a huge part of my daily life process. So much so that you as the reader would feel something was missing if I did not include this part of my life. Back in 2001, the Father taught me to write His words. These words come through me. I do not physically “hear” these words, but rather the words form, three at a time and I write these words as they “form”. In the spiritual world, this is known as being a “Channel”, a “Conduit” or “Medium”. That is what I am. 

It is hard to be this as a Catholic- and so I find myself walking a tightrope. What I am discovering on this pilgrimage is that I must stay true to me and in my steadfast knowledge of the Father, and in order to do this, I am having to face areas in the Catholic faith that I question- because it is to the Father that I answer to alone. He led me to Catholicism but also has taught me from day one that I walk between religions because religion is both of God and man-made. There is so much more to know than what Catholicism teaches. This pilgrimage for me, as you will see, questions a lot in the Catholic faith. There is a lot I am having to really look at. A lot I question about religion- but not about God.

I have written a great deal about this gift in the past before I became Catholic, and some of these writings can be found on my other blog page, Global Homemaker, and also in the book, God’s Daughter, written through me and published in 2008. This book is a channeled message to the people of this world about hope. It feels good to be open about who I am. 

So, our first stop on the pilgrimage was Mt. Carmel. It was here in the cave that the prophet, Elijah, had spent many years. The cave is now a chapel with a beautifully painted dome that I would have loved to have spent time pouring over. The tiny chapel, though, was very crowded and after the short tour, we were only given 10 minutes to spend in prayer inside the cave. It is my custom at sacred places to write in my journal and so I sat asking the Father to write through me, but instead, these words of encouragement came through. “Always trust in the Father for He is good and you are His very own. Know this and find comfort there. Elijah”.

It has been very seldom others come through in words to me, besides the Father, Mother, and Archangel Michael, so I was rather stunned and very surprised, and grateful. Then I saw Helen, one of the other pilgrims from our tour waving to me and I knew I had to leave. That is one regret I have about escorted pilgrimages, I never feel like I have the time I need to meditate, pray and contemplate what I am experiencing. 

Closing my journal, I said thank you again and followed her back towards the bus catching up with the group at a little shop selling scapulas. The nuns make them at Mt. Carmel and pilgrims are encouraged to buy them. If you don’t know what a scapula is, it is two square/rectangle pieces of cloth with one square having a picture of Mother Mary and the other of Jesus, and these two squares are attached with a long ribbon or string. You wear it under your clothes, over one shoulder with one square at the front of you and the other at your back. I know a lot of Catholics wear them religiously. The priest blesses them and to wear it you are supposed to pledge yourself to Mother Mary and Jesus.  

The whole idea of wearing a scapula reminds me of when my spiritual experiences first began back in 2000. I would wear little outward signs to remind me, protect me- like a certain symbolic necklace. When I was young, also, I went through a stage where I wore an armband made of dried berries around my upper arm to remind me of strength. Wearing items such as a scapula is very similar. For the most part, I gave this type of thought up a long time ago- I learned through the Father these outward items were not necessary. You carry who you are inside. However, I do know everything holds a vibration of energy and I have been taught to feel energy and to pick up information by the feel of the vibration, so I do understand that an item can carry with it an energy that can be beneficial. 

If I were to choose to wear something as an outward sign of a promise I would choose wisely. I also understand that if I am going to accept something like a scapula then I feel responsible to take special care of it.  More important, I would have to keep any promise made with it. My soul’s purpose belongs to God. He knows this. I know this. So, I am very careful about not making any promises I may become lazy with. I tend now not to wear or carry any outward signs except my wedding ring, even though I am a widow.  

In the Catholic belief, spiritual items must also be blessed by a priest. As I mentioned, I do know that everything carries with it a vibration of energy, I understand this part of Catholicism. I know they believe that an article that has touched a sacred relic carries with it a blessing and that these items will continue to carry with them a part of this relic. It is also understood in Catholicism that Christ comes through the priest when he enters this Awareness of blessing an article and so the blessing comes from Christ. The priest is the conduit. Just like when the priest performs the ritual of the Eucharist, in this state, Christ comes through him and the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.

I understand so much of what the Catholics believe, but I am discovering that as closely related to what they teach, I am finding that what I have been taught is more than what the Catholic Church teaches. Over the last few years, I have really struggled with this. I have tried hard to be Catholic because I believe fervently in the Eucharist, however, there is so much more. At this time, though, on this pilgrimage, I was still trying hard to be “Catholic” and to balance the truths I knew and had been taught. 

I was also trying to hide my true self from myself and others. Whereas before I was Catholic, I had reached a point, after a lot of struggles with family understanding, that I was aware of who I was. Then after my husband, Ron, had asked me to become Catholic, and I did, I no longer knew who I was. This pilgrimage is helping me to see this more clearly. 

After we got back on the tour bus, these thoughts above were surfacing. At that time, I was trying to limit these thoughts to fit into a box marked “Catholic”. I thought I was succeeding at the time, however, I balked at the idea of the scapula because not only do you have to wear it every day, you have to make a lifelong commitment and I don’t like to make these types of commitments because they are serious and have to be abided by. So, when Father John asked who would like to have their scapula blessed and make the commitment, I was the only one who did not.  

This was my first outward sign on this journey that I was spiritually coming back into my own. Whereas, a month before, I would have dutifully followed and tried to make sense of what I was doing, and the scapula would have been placed in a drawer at home and I would have felt guilty about not wearing it or focusing on the pledge made. It is not that I don’t believe in the Mother Mary and in Jesus- I just know there is more, and my duty and pledge above all is to God, the Father.

After this blessing, we had a short drive of an hour or so to the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth. In a cave here, which may have been expanded in front to make a little house, is where Mother Mary lived prior to the time she was with Joseph, and it is where the Archangel Gabriel came to Her, announcing she was to be the Mother of Jesus.

The Church of the Annunciation is built over the cave that was Her home. You cannot go inside the cave but in front of the cave, there are church benches where you can pray. Our tour guide, Youssef, gave us a short tour of the church, showing us the upper level where the main church was and the opening at the center of the nave where you could look down on this cave. Then looking up through the opening above the cave the dome of the church was made to look like a white lily, the symbol of Mother Mary.

We all stood there looking up and down in wonder, marveling at where we stood. I remembered then the lily from that first year of my experiences in 2000 when I had offered a lily to the Mother and she had given me back the gift of Hope during a time of fear when I was trying to understand both the physical and spiritual experiences I was having.  This experience happened in Ansbach, Germany. I wrote about this in 2002 in a very long letter to my friend, Alice, a letter I had made a copy of for my own records.  I will now share this experience with you. 

Copied out of the letter to Alice in 2022:

“I remember I was downtown looking for candles and Altar cloths when I saw several beautiful plants and cut flowers out in front of one of the floral shops and several of these plants were lilies. Several I noticed had already bloomed and all these blooms were the color of burnt red and so I decided to buy one not in bloom so it would be fresh for the celebration about two weeks later. When I got home, I placed the plant on the window sill next to my Altar and waited for it to open, but as the days passed it did not and by the night of the celebration the bud was still as closed as the day I had bought it. I was disappointed, but I still offered the flower that night, and early the next morning, before waking, I had a wonderful dream.

I dreamt that the Father and I went for a walk and I was very happy because I always enjoyed these walks during those first months of training because I felt completely at ease and I could talk freely about anything. I remember the dream very clearly and we walked along a path through a pine forest and walking towards us to our right was a long herd of black and white cows, ignoring us. The Father then asked me to tell Him what was wrong with them. At first, I saw nothing and He told me to look closer and I did by looking in spirit form into their foreheads and said, ‘They are diseased’. I could not see the disease I only knew it was there and he nodded yes and said, ‘Always remember you walk a different path than society’. And then as I woke, He said, ‘Beware of those who sow the seeds of time’. 

I did not know what He meant by these last words as I repeated them to myself waking up, but I would find myself thinking of them often later on and learning from them. As I woke though, from the dream, all I saw was the lily. The sun was streaming through the window, for it was early yet, and there, in front of me on the window sill, surrounded by light, was this perfect pure white lily. It was so big it would have covered both my hands, fingers flat out fan style, and each of the five petals was perfect and fully open. It had bloomed during the night beneath the full moon and now, knowing what I know now, I wonder if it had bloomed at dawn. I was very happy, having given the flower to the Mother the night before and here now was a gift to me, for in the flower I saw beauty in the future and I was able to breathe once again, the doubt of the days before melting away. I did not know then how significant the lily was or why it had bloomed during the night, white and at a time when I needed this hope for the future. After that, the symbol of the lily became special to me and I refused to remove the plant from the apartment, even after it went dormant until we moved back to the states nearly a year later.” – written in Clarksville, TN. 2002. 

On this pilgrimage, we had Mass every day. On this day we had Mass inside the Church of the Annunciation which was very special and as I waited for the Mass to begin, I sat down in front of the opening of the cave and pulled out my journal to write the Father/Mother’s words. I was at this time still thinking about my thoughts and reaction to the scapula from a few hours before and it was the Mother who came through. She told me very directly that I must not be afraid to follow Her or make promises to Her because she knows me and She knows who I am. She told me She knows I don’t like making promises I may not be able to keep, but that I belong to Her and She gave birth to my Being. I can call on Her whenever I want or need to. 

This made me feel much better, and Her words reminded me of something I knew before I became Catholic and one that dawned firmly on me as I sat there, the journal open in front of me. The Mother is much greater than even the Catholics give Her credit for. Yes, they have a great love for Her- much more than other Christian religions- but I believe and have been taught that She is the Father’s Other half and together they are One. I was reminded again, by the directness of Her words, that She was More. I have always known this, however when she said, “I gave birth to your Being”, I understood that “Being” means all of me- my whole presence, my spirit. She is our Mother. I know the Catholics believe that Mother Mary is their Mother, however, they do not place Her as the Father’s “Other Half”. This is one area of Catholicism I struggle with. The Father, in the writings to me, and through me to the people, always refer to Her as His equal. I will give you some examples. Out of the book, God’s Daughter, the Father says, “Today we must be the ones to choose this path, and you must do so carefully, for in doing so, you seal the fate of all those around you. See the truth of the matter, for you are all the body of Me, your Father, and Mother, for we dwell within the whole as well, and you must learn to work together.”-page 21

Another example is out of the messages to the people that I was asked to send to the White House, on Oct. 7, 2001. These messages were filled with hope and about the war that was to come. The Father talks of the Mother as being one with Him. He writes, “Come to me each and every one of you and know peace for I am listening and can comfort. It is the will of the people to have war not I nor your Mother. She it is who abides within the Land for She it is who nurtures you. I am well pleased by those who acknowledge Her for She is my wife and Love. She it is who bears you and gives forth Life. See Her in you for She is all that is feminine.”– Out of the Messages written on Oct. 4, 2001

After the Mother had spoken to me in the Church of the Annunciation, the Father, as Jesus/Yeshua came through very directly. He told me I must obey Him and I needed to let Him lead me. He was also very reassuring. He continued, “You belong to Me and your time is now to come fully to Me. All pretense gone for you are my very own.”. 

Here I need to talk about my thoughts on Jesus and the Trinity, which is not an easy concept to explain. I always refer to God, the Trinity, as “the Father”. Before I had become Catholic, I never referred to Him as Jesus. Even now, I always call Him “The Father”. I call Him this now knowing that Jesus/Yeshua, is the Son/Sun- the Christ-Light that became human, and He is part of this Trinity. The word “Christ” in Greek, means “The Anointed One” which can be summoned up as “The Light”- which would be Jesus’s Mystical Union with God- the “The Light of the World”, or even “The Way”. “Yeshua” was Jesus’s actual historical name on earth and in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic means, “To Deliver”. “J” is not even a sound or letter in Hebrew or in Aramaic, which is the language Jesus would have spoken. It is not certain where or when the name “Jesus” originated, but possibly from the Semitic languages.

I understand that the movement of God, the Trinity’s words, to be the Holy Spirit. This Mystery of the Trinity is hard to form into human words, but as time goes on, I hope to expand on this, because I wish to examine this Mystery more deeply. This, however, is a small endeavor to explain my thoughts on this Mystery at this time for this letter.

I would like to mention here also that when the Father comes through as Jesus/Yeshua, there is a slight shift in the feel of the words, yet He is One within the Father. I understand that He is the One we pass through to the Father. There is a good example of this in the book, God’s Daughter, when the Father is speaking and how the voice blends. I will quote for you beginning with the Father’s words speaking to the people about the time of turmoil following the war and then the words will lead into the voice of Jesus. However, the voice is subtle and He never announces He is Jesus/Yeshua.

The Father’s words out of the book, God’s Daughter:

“Follow these words with care and know that I am giving you these lessons of thought so that you may share and grow from each other, for it is imperative you do so. I want you all to begin in these days of turmoil, for turmoil reigns supreme after this time of war, and justice must be obtained. You are the ones who created this, now you are the ones who must pull yourselves free of it. Do you know what this means? You are all part of eternity, and for you to rise within me you must come forward in truth and light. I cannot do this for you, because you are of me and I am of you; therefore, you must realize your own being and worth. In this way, you will grow to know me. It can be no other way, for it is your mind that seeks me and it is your mind that must set the rules to govern your thoughts and your ability to see. I am the mindset, and I am that which you strive to partake of, for I am the one you seek. Know that this is my plan for justice, for you will be the ones to carry it through. Allow yourself to look forward, for it is a misconception to think I will come through in a bodily being and not through your own being, for I am all and not one person. See here, your thoughts led you astray, for I am true to all and I will pull all to me. Now you begin to see the justice of it, for this battle you seek is not only on the earth plane but within your very soul…”– Copied from the book, God’s Daughter, pages 25-26.

Do you see the slight shift? God is within us and we are within Him and He will pull us to Him. 

I wanted to share this with you so that in the future when I write about my experiences on this pilgrimage and I refer to Jesus, this is how I see Him, as the Father. Please know that when I say, “Jesus wrote through me,” I am saying, “The Father wrote through me”, only there is this subtle difference. I only refer to Him at these times as “Jesus” to signify this slight difference in Presence, which is helpful when I am at places that are connected solely with Jesus and the Father is helping me to understand this Mystery of the Trinity and His time on earth and in references to the bible. 

I do know that it was necessary for me to become “Catholic” these past years because before that time I only focused on the Father and the Mother as a Whole. I did have an understanding of the Trinity because I knew that we had to pass through Christ to get to the Father and that the voice that came through me was the Holy Spirit. However, my understanding was more of an Awareness, rather than a set belief that could be discussed in human words. By following the Catholic faith, I was taught a new view of the Trinity and a deeper understanding of God as the Son. Most of all Catholicism has taught me about the Mystery of the Eucharist, a subject very deep and vital to me; which I will talk about more fully in coming letters. So, the fact that the Father led me to the Catholic faith was essential to my movement forward spiritually, making me more rounded, but now it is time to embrace all that He has taught me because that is the direction that He is leading me. 

Back at the Church of the Annunciation, after Jesus came through my writing in front of the opening of the cave of the Annunciation, Father John said Mass. Then, Youssef, our guide, brought our attention to all the artwork portraying Mother Mary from different countries from around the world. The one that was from the USA was very original and I took a picture of it, which you can see in the pictures attached to this letter.

Then we walked up about a block and facing the front of the Church of the Annunciation was the church dedicated to St. Joseph. This is where he lived in a cave below the church and later, Mary with him. We did not go into this church but I did take pictures looking back at the Church of the Annunciation. 

As you can see, I had a lot to think about, to process. I felt like I was coming out of a deep sleep that I had been in since I had become Catholic and soon after, my husband, Ron, had passed away. His death had been so sudden and tragic. Everything in me had been covered up after his death and because I had become Catholic, I had tried to cling to that. As time passed, I had thought I was moving past this grief, however, spiritually I had been floundering. Looking back now, I can see that on this part of the pilgrimage in Israel, I was still half asleep. However, the Father was waking me up! As you will see. I will continue with Cana, and the Sea of Galilee next week. God Bless- Jody