Rosh Hashanah: A Desire to Pause

Clap your hands, all you nations;

Shout to God with cries of joy.

– Psalm 47:1

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is both a time of joy and introspection. The words

literally mean “head of the year.” The two days of Rosh Hashanah usher in the Ten Days of

Repentance, also known as the Days of Awe (Yamim Noraim), which culminate in the major fast

day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. These Jewish High Holy Days were revealed to

Moses by the Lord:

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the people of Israel, saying: In the seventh

month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of complete rest, a holy

convocation commemorated with trumpet blasts. You shall not work at your occupations;

and you shall present the Lord’s offering by fire. (Leviticus 23:23-25)

From this passage it should be no surprise that Rosh Hashanah is also known as “the Day of

Shouting” and “the Feast of the Trumpets.” The blowing of the ceremonial ram’s horn, or shofar,

is a symbolic wake-up call to praise and repentance.

I am not Jewish and have never celebrated Rosh Hashanah, but I am able to let its spiritual

essence enter my heart. The holiday begins with a shout of joy. It is an expression of grateful

praise of the Lord. This causes me to recollect this passage from Psalms:

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto

him, and bless his name. (100-4)

When I first read this, I felt an awakening of light. Praise is the first step to Divine Communion.

It was a realization that to God’s presence is magnified in the moment that I offer praise. We can

wake up to the shofar blast in our hearts at any time and offer joyful praise.

Rosh Hashanah is also a time to examine our actions in the previous year and acknowledge

where we have missed the mark. This reminds me of the Catholic sacraments of penance and

reconciliation. In these sacraments of healing, the worshipper first reflects on their relationship

with God and others. Then in a confidential meeting with a priest one confesses where they have

missed the mark. This restores or reconciles our relationship with the Divine. This can also be

joyful activity. When I went to the sacrament of reconciliation after a 50 year separation from the

Church, I anticipated spending hours recounting my missteps. The priest interrupted me after a

minute or two and said: “Don’t hold your sins in your heart. Just give them to Jesus.” My mind

was immediately undone and I sensed light fill the tiny confessional as the priest, acting in the

person of Christ, said the Prayer of Absolution. I realized that reconciling with the Lord is an

uncomplicated and loving form of worship that can be engaged anytime. When we bring our

brokenness into God’s light and offer up our weaknesses we are restored.

Many religious celebrations are confined on the calendar, but we are invited to sound the trumpet

of praise in any and every moment. Reconciling with the Lord need not be an annual activity, but

a constant process of surrender. I pray that the awakening spirit of Rosh Hashanah forever sound

in your heart.

By Brother Craig R.

The Evolution of Celebrating Life Ministries

I first encountered Celebrating Life Ministries in 2001, when Ron Roth and Paul Funfsinn gave
a weekend retreat in New Jersey. At that time, Ron was the author, healer and charismatic leader
that people came to see, with Paul assisting behind the scenes. Ron Roth was a mystic, a man
who experienced God as a real and loving presence. His mission was to make this loving God
accessible to people. For Ron, his ability to perform physical healing was a grace to demonstrate
the power and goodness of God.
On the first evening of the retreat, I received a physical healing. With the lightest touch, for the
briefest moment, Ron placed one finger on my heart. Electricity ran through my body, and a long
standing pain in my body was gone! I was filled with joy at this miraculous release from pain.
This, I soon came to learn, was common place at Celebrating Life Ministries.
2001 also marked the occurrence of Ron Roth’s first stroke. For many of us, this was the early
warning that our teacher would not be with us forever. In 2006, Ron experienced a second stroke
which left him more debilitated. For the next three years, Paul was Ron’s major caretaker.
During this time, I was shown in prayer this vision: a brilliant column of pure white light. It was
narrow, deep, and tightly focused. The message was “This is the light that Ron and Paul are
bringing into earth.” I had the sense that the narrow focus was needed to anchor the light to this
world, and to prepare the ground for Celebrating Life Ministries to expand its role to bring in
healing.
In 2009, Ron passed from the physical plane, and the leadership of Celebrating Life Ministries
passed to Padre Paul. Our Padre faced a task for which no human would ask. While mourning
the loss of his very dear friend, Padre was asked to take on the role of Spiritual Shephard to a
flock that was also lost and hurting. And Padre rose to the occasion! Padre rose because he
remained true to himself and to God. He never tried to be anything other than the broken human
being he was, knowing the Ultimate Healer was at work. Padre let his hurt show, and that
allowed us all to experience our hurt, and to trust the Love of God to do the healing.
Healing did occur in our community, and continues to occur. Across time and changes, the
essence of Celebrating Life Ministries remains grounded in the guiding principle, “There is only
one religion, the religion of Love.”
I recently received a vision that expresses the essence of Celebrating Life today. Brilliant lights
of white, many shades of blue, pink, rose, and yellow exploded across the sky. The message this
time was “This is a supernova.” According to NASA, a supernova is the biggest explosion that
humans have ever seen. And I believe this represents the explosive power of God’s Love that is
at the heart of Celebrating Life Ministries, that is manifesting in each of us, as we live Ron
Roth’s teaching: “Love God, Love others, Love yourself.” It is that simple, and that powerful!

By Rev. Susan W.

A Time To Change

It is said that, “humans are a prisoner of their conditioning.” Examining the wisdom of this
phrase we come to understand that the conditioning of our past, the conditioning born of our
fears, the conditioning from our family, our upbringing and from society ingrain within us
patterns of rigidity and inflexibility. We become attached to, and thus a prisoner of, what we’ve
done before. For many, safety is what we know and fear is what we don’t know. Even if what
we know doesn’t work for us, we tend to stay with it instead of venturing into the unknown to
seek a better alternative, a better choice. In short, humanity or at least a good portion of
humanity tends to be afraid of change.

Viewed, however, from a universal perspective change is a given in life. The universe grows and
changes, it is never the same one moment to the next. Our bodies and the cells comprising our
bodies grow and change; they give birth, they grow, they evolve and ultimately they die in
order to give rise to new birth. You, I and everything in creation are changing every moment
because the whole universe is a process. Life is a process. To live life, to grow and to evolve
mandates that we too must change.

And finally when viewed from a spiritual perspective, inherent within the sacred energy and
God-consciousness we call divine love lies this same growth and change. In one of her many
direct conversations with God the late mystic, author and activist Saint Catherine of Siena
(1347-1380) wrote how God once told her, “Who would understand if I said that I cannot bear
to confine a single wing and not let it learn from the course it chooses.” Here God was telling
Saint Catherine that free will; our ability to choose, learn, grow and choose again is part of the
heart of God. Change lies at the very essence of Unconditional, Divine Love.

Thus, when we examine our lives it is spiritually prudent to no longer be a prisoner of our past,
to not be confined to just what we know, or have known or even what we “think” we know.
You, I and everything in creation is God in little form growing into God in big form. The little self
growing into the All That Is. To do this we need to be open to change, to see within our self
more than what we saw yesterday. As the great mystic and God-Realized yogi Paramahansa
Yogananda once said, “…God's omnipresence is your omnipresence; and that all that you need
to do is improve your knowing.”

By Rev. Kerry C.

Revealing Love

When I was a little girl I felt very loved by my parents, and safe in my home environment. 

I am grateful as that kind of love and caring, provided me with the foundation for expressing

love deeply toward my spiritual family, extended family, friends, and others throughout my life.

My childhood vision was to marry and bear children. As fate would have it, at 22 I married the man of my dreams

and gave birth to our two, now grown children. Even through the ups and downs as all families have, our love has endured, and been revealed to one another over and over again. Through it all one of my greatest joys and privileges was to have raised and enjoyed our children, my marriage, and our family unit. I shall always cherish this gift from Divine Presence.

I did not realize until my 40's however, that there was and is an even greater love, than that of another human being. This love was revealed to me when I was Born Again In The Spirit while attending my first CLM retreat. It was and is the most intimate

love that I feel and experience everyday. This love is Divine Presence, residing within each and every one of us and in all things. "Presence" pours forth love, peace, joy, forgiveness, and all other attributes of Grace. It is from this inner Sacred Chamber that my Spirit-Led Healing work began and flourishes.

The stillness and contentment I feel from "Presence" completes me. I am forever refreshed, renewed, and awe inspired by the Glory of my Beloved!  

By Shari S.