3. The Bride of God

I decided to take Gabriel to heart. Apparently my bad attitude was only hurting me. I was the one, not God, who had to admit defeat. There was no turning back. It was clear that the entire spirit cosmos was becoming affected by God's new invention, Time.

Just as I was contemplating these grave matters, a wise little spirit drifted towards me. "Hello! Cheer up." said Sophie. "How silly you are to think in terms of defeat or winning. We are not in a contest with beginnings and endings. You of all spirits should know better than that. Even your new problem, this time factor, is not as linear as it appears."

A flash of lightening, suddenly illuminated the darkness of my attitude, and in it I saw an opening that I could float through. "Thank you, Sophie!" said I. "I think that has been my problem with time! I never liked what I thought was its shape, so long and narrow, like those serpents God made to terrify the woman, but with a beginning and no end in sight."

"Remember last week," Sophie replied, "when the Queen was born and Gabriel told you that she would mark the beginning of the end of time? Well, the Queen's birth also marked the conception of the Bride who plays with time in a magnificent way to show you and the cosmos how fluid time can be."

I never felt stupid before all this happened to me, but now I find myself continually at a loss to comprehend even the simplest concepts. "Bride of who?" I asked shamefully.

Patiently and sympathetically Sophie replied, "The Bride of God!"

Flying back into a tirade, I screamed, "God cannot have a Bride!!!!!"

After patiently waiting for my frequency to slow down Sophie said, "When that infant queen grows to become a young woman, Gabriel will ask her if she is willing to be the Mother of God's Son who will actually be God incarnate." Sophie went on, "She agrees, of course and the moment she agrees, Her conception of the Son of God, also marks the birth of His Bride."

"The Bride of God's Son is not one person, nor even all women, but the Bride is also known as The Church, which is a vast unity of humanity joined by and for God in heart and mind and spirit. You see, it it the spirits within those human bodies that you disdain so much that voluntarily come together, imitate God's Son and form His Bride! Isn't that absolutely wonderful!" With that I could see Sophie's frequency rev up in yellows and pinks. She went on.

"You see, God wanted a Bride who is like Him and loves as He does, just for this reason. We angels could never become His Bride. God made humankind--- to make Himself a Bride! The Bride is One like the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are One, and the Bride is perfect. To make you happiest of all, the Bride's perception of time is not linear! She takes certain major events and creates one holy year that is perpetually current. For Her, what had happened once is always happening. She lives through time and place and outside of it too...because She is spiritual, even though She is made up of humans, and if you were smart, you would try living in and out of time too!"

With this tidbit, my mind was spinning faster than an asteroid. "Sophie, are you making this up? You really have a very vivid imagination, and I love you for it, but you must learn the difference between reality and fantasy."

I love to hear Sophie laugh. To me Sophie's laugh has the sound of bubbles bursting out of the clear blue sea, bunches and bunches of happy bubbles. When her amusement subsided she said, "Our God is the Author and Creator of reality. If something is real and true, it is because God made it. if something is false or imaginary or even fantasy, it is because Reality has been skewed. God's story, His-story, about the Queen and the Bride and the re-creation is absolutely true!"

Sophie was beautiful. When she spoke the entire universe smiled. "Come, let's fly down to The Planet and let me show you what the Bride is doing now!"

And off we went through the beautiful darkness of the sky on our journey to earth, two angelic spirits careening past the galaxies.

The Church is known as the Bride of Christ, God incarnate. In the Bible, Revelation to John, it tells of the marriage of Christ to His Bride.

“7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”

Excerpt From: James, King. “The Holy Bible - King James Version.” iBooks.

This material may be protected by copyright.

Even though we see a Church that is factious, Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant, sometimes warring on itself throughout history, God looks at the Spirit within and sees One Holy Catholic (I.e. Universal) and Apostolic Church made up of the true and righteous who successfully emulate Jesus Christ, and who form the One Bride that is the wife and will be dressed in radiant white at the glorious marriage at the end of Time....as we now know it.

11. The Week Foundation of Time

In the beginning of the second day of confinement in the cathedral Poppy and I enjoyed the peace and quiet of the darkness with several other angels and with the human spirits who languished behind after all the activity of Sunday.

Whenever the Holy Spirit of God appeared in the grand space which He did from time to time, and even once or twice in the form of Jesus Christ, we worshipped Him chanting Holy Holy Holy. There was a formal moment when Harilaos, the chanter-spirit, appeared with a choir of angels and other local spirits in the balcony filling the cathedral with the most beautiful sounds I had ever heard. The sanctuary was saturated with adoration. We needed neither the light of the sun nor of the chandeliers because Love so fully illuminated the space.

If the Bride of Christ manifests in part as a church building, then She is utterly devoted to Her betrothed here. I could tell that God was pleased.

When the sun rose again many of the spirits and angels dispersed. The activity shifted to the ground floor where busy little gods chatted on telephones and with each other.

Ladies in aprons filled the kitchen with aromas so delectable that I was reminded of my wish for a body. I was beginning to understand why the little gods seemed to enjoy eating so much.

To escape the frenetic activity I flew back up to the dome to think.

Once there, I began to wonder why it was so important to Jesus that I stay for one week; why not 3 days or 4? Remembering that God created the universe in a week, I thought it might have something to do with that.

Typical of her habit to disturb me, Poppy suddenly appeared.

A little more irritated by her than usual, I muttered, "Can't you ever leave me alone to think for myself?"

Saddened and offended, and without a peep Poppy turned and floated down to the altar. Feeling ashamed of my rudeness, I called her back.

"I'm sorry," I said, "it was just that I was trying to figure out why Jesus is making me stay inside here for a whole week, and you burst in on me just as an answer seemed to be coming. Do you know why I have to be here for a week since you know everything?" I asked, trying not to sound as bitter as I felt.

"No," she said, "God hasn't revealed everything to me because He knows how much fun we can have when revelations come gradually. I think He wants us to absorb knowledge in bits as the little gods sip the spirits of single malt whiskey, slowly to read the many flavors and to absorb the essence. Let's sip together and go farther faster and with much more fun." she exclaimed, "Wanna?"

Refusing to switch to cheerfulness as fast as Poppy, I replied dryly, "Okay, let's give it a try."

Jumping right in Poppy said, "Good, let's start with the big picture. The Bride's mystical year is comprised of 52 weeks, one revolution of the earth around the sun during which She experiences the passion of God and the meaning of Her own birth and life!"

Then Poppy paused to see if I could figure out what that implied. She patiently waited while I thought.

To break the silence before she did, I continued by thinking out-loud, "As the earth revolves around the sun, the Bride of Christ revolves around Her Betrothed, the Son of God. Mmmmm... but the earth revolves around the sun in a graduating spiral of time. The Bride of Christ (God) who, like Christ, is both human and divine has dominion over time ..."

Poppy enthusiastically finished my sentence by saying, "Right! So her revolution around the Son is a flat circle!"

I tried to picture the spiral of time and the flat circles. Poppy continued.

"Flattening the spiral of time means that all events happen NOW to expose the fullness of the meaning of each." she cried peering into my eyes.

I was very curious about how Poppy would take it from the 52 week year, to the week that I had to stay cooped up here.

Reading me again, she said, "Don't you see that the Bride's week repeats every week throughout the year, as if the events are continuing to happen because this is NOT a spiral, it is flat. The Bride has overcome time."

I recalled my disdain of time and matter, but now, instead of hating them I started to become intrigued by what the Bride was doing with them. Could She have pulled time out of its spiraling cycle with Her divine powers? Could she have compressed the 52 weeks into one week?

"Yes, on the spiral, no on compressing" answered Poppy. "The Bride still needs all 52 weeks to complete Her year, just as the earth needs enough time to complete its revolution around the sun. The Bride's week is the foundation for everything that occurs in the Bride's year, just like creation week is the foundation for the natural year."

Reading my confusion Poppy added, "God created the world in one week. The very first thing He made was Time. As you and I know, we existed before time and will exist after time.

With that, I tried to remember the order in which God created the world. If creation week formed the world that revolves around the sun, and the Bride's Week formed the world that revolves around the Son, then perhaps bringing them together would teach us something. Maybe it would tell me why it was so important for me to be inside the church for a week. Unfortunately, I didn't know enough about the Bride's week.

"Which is why I am here!" shouted Poppy with delight.

Besides envying the little gods for their ability to eat food and hug each other I decided to add that they could separate thoughts from spoken words and thus enjoy some privacy, and time to organize their thoughts.

Poppy and I together worked out the following comparison of the two foundational weeks of all time. Poppy explained to me that the Bride's week was also known as Holy Week.

On the very first day of Creation, Sunday, God made time by alternating light and darkness.

On Sunday, the Bride celebrates the Resurrection of Christ, Easter. She says that this is the beginning of immortality, the beginning of the end of time. I really like that! Both first days are light-filled following darkness.

On the second day, Monday, God made the sky.

The Bride asks her children to commemorate the angels on this day. I like that too! In her Holy Week, this is a Clean Monday, where like in the fresh new sky, there is no pollution at all! She asks her children not to eat anything during Holy Clean Monday. In Her church buildings, She chants to her Bridegroom Christ and so begins the Bride's revolution around The Son.

On the third day, Tuesday, God made the earth with its land and seas, and He made trees and all manner of vegetation.

The Bride's Holy Week continues on Tuesday with another Bridegroom service, and She allows her children to resume eating from the fruit tree or the vegetation that God created on this the third day.

On the fourth day, Wednesday, God made the sun and moon and stars in a brief mid-week turn of His face away from earth.

While God's face is directed away to the heavens, on Wednesday in the Bride's Holy Week, the betrayer of the Son, Judas Iscariot, initiates His crucifixion by turning Jesus over to the Jews who felt duty-bound to kill Him. In Her grief the Bride-mother anoints Her children with Holy Unction for the healing of soul and body. What else could She do? Every Wednesday is a day of sorrow over the betrayal and humanity's need for healing.

On the fifth day, Thursday, God made birds and fish.

While God fills air and sea, on Holy Thursday, Jesus Christ fills His disciples the immortalizing potion of his own Body and Blood at the Last Supper.

On the sixth day, Friday, God made animals and humans.

On Friday, in an unholy anti-birth of mankind, the incarnated Creator was killed. The Bride wails, and this cataclysmic event resounds on every Friday until time is no more. The Bride asks her children to abstain from meat to mourn the killing of Jesus Christ by refusing to indulge in eating that which was killed.

On the seventh day, He rested.

And on the seventh day the Bride asks Her holy children to rest too. This is the Sabbath.

"Well," said Poppy. "Did that help you figure it out?"

"Poppy, are all those events supposed to happen in here? Is this why I have to stay here?"

"Of course not silly, they are happening in the hearts and minds of the little gods, all the people that make up the Bride and Body of Christ."

"Then, why do I have to stay here? What day is this anyway?" I replied, trying not to moan.

Just then, Gabriel himself flew up to our perch in the dome and said, "I have come to bring you good tidings of great joy, The Lord has sent me to tell you that your week will never end because it is fixed in the cyclical NOW time of the Bride, (I gasped) but you may leave this church when the sun rises."

Poppy glanced over at me with a big grin and sparkle in her eye and said, "I'll beat you to the chanter's stand!" and then took off like a rocket.