Adirondack with magine!
02.01.2010

Adirondack Header with magine
Michael Fox CPCC,
founder of magine!,
is a professional
coach and trainer,
author and creative artist, whose work has been featured throughout
the world.


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St. Patrick's Cathedral
in midtown Manhattan...
Deep within the very heart of Manhattan stands St. Patrick's Cathedral. The cornerstone of this great Gothic sanctuary was laid on August 15th, 1858; construction, although suspended during the Civil War, was completed twenty years later and the cathedral was dedicated on May 25th, 1879. For years the cathedral, which fills an entire block in midtown Manhattan, dominated its environs.

For those of you who have mourned the absence of any recent allusion to baseball's historic legacy...following Babe Ruth's death on August 16th, 1948, his body lay in state for two days at the main entrance to Yankee Stadium; his funeral followed two days later...at Saint Patrick's Cathedral.

Today, St. Patrick's is dwarfed by the surrounding forest of high rise monuments to commerce, testimony to the dominance of power over humility, of the secular over the spiritual. The majestic, art deco buildings of Rockefeller Center, icons of--indeed, cathedrals to--industry and entertainment, tower above St. Patrick's three hundred foot spires, directly across Fifth Avenue.

It's ironic that visitors to St. Patrick's Cathedral exit in view of the four-story, bronze statue of the Ancient Greek Titan Atlas straining to support the heavens upon his broad shoulders. The cathedral and the statue square off in a striking juxtaposition of the strength and wisdom of the divine versus the strength and wisdom of the mortal.

Behind the heavy doors of St. Patrick's, the clamor of the metropolis is forgotten. Here men and women withdraw from the world and seek momentary sanctuary among the heavenlies. Worshipers, however, must inevitably, in time, leave the sanctuary of the cathedral--but carry with them the solitude of the cathedral--when they return to the melee of Fifth Avenue and the great city beyond.

St. Patrick's in midtown Manhattan represents the heart and soul within the city; it's a metaphor of the heart and soul within the man. Our challenge, our call, is to bring the solitude of the spirit to calm the tumult of the body.



"Dualism" is the name given to the futile attempt to isolate the divine from the mortal. Are you a different person when you--metaphorically speaking--are in St. Patrick's Cathedral than when you are in Rockefeller Center? Do you tend to "compartmentalize" the spiritual from the secular...the holy from the profane?

What would it look like to instead regard the spirit as pervading every corner of the flesh? To view all that we are and all that we do as "under the influence" of the spirit?

How different might our culture be if our houses of worship dwarfed our houses of commerce? What would it look like? How different would it be if our spirit dominated our flesh? What would it look like?

What are you thinking about just now?
Michael Fox
m�agine!

530/613.2774
P.O. Box 9144
Auburn, CA, USA 95604
In addition to personal and professional coaching,
m�agine! specializes in spiritual transformation coaching,
employing its proprietary models: Values, Vision, Voice and Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength
.
Michael's books include Complete in Christ,
Complete in Christ Spiritual Transformation Workbook, and Biblio�files.

Coaching fees are based upon a sliding scale. Contact us for details.

Limited scholarships are available for spiritual transformation coaching.
On the flip side, if you are able, please inquire about opportunities
to fund scholarships for those who cannot afford coaching fees.

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