Prayers of the People: By the Bushels ~ 2nd Sunday after Pentecost '24 Yr B

For Sunday, June 2, 2024; Readings: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20), Psalm 139: 1-5, 12-17; 

2 Corinthians 4:5-12, Mark 2:23-3:6

  Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.'" [1 Samuel 3:8b-9]

   Lord, you have searched me out and known me...you discern my thoughts from afar...You trace my journeys and my resting places and are acquainted with all my ways. Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, but you O Lord, know it altogether...For you yourself created my inmost parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. [Psalm 139:1a,b; 2-3, 12]

   For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ...For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus made be made visible in our mortal flesh. [2 Corinthians 4:6, 11]

   One Sabbath Jesus and his disciples were going through the grain fields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"...Then [Jesus] said to them, "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath..." [Mark 2:23-24, 27] 

     Psalm 139 is my favorite Psalm of all, well, most of it. In the verses appointed for this Sunday, we celebrate "the mystery of human personhood" as Biblical Scholar Walter Bruggemann has called it. We have left aside, for the moment, the parts that take our personhood to another part of our mortal being, the very human desire for vengeance. But we will leave our Smite-ing God for another day and think about the God who calls to us. 

    Samuel hears and is confused. Was it a BOOMING GOD VOICE or a still small voice as he was lying in readiness for sleep? We don't know but it causes me to wonder if, when, and how has God's Voice come to me unrecognized and therefore unattended. But Eli had the perfect solution, if Samuel hears ~ or thinks he hears ~ God calling, simply say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. After all, the Psalm is very clear about what the Lord knows about us as we were knitted together in our mother's womb. And when life is feeling especially dark, and the uncertainty of God's voice and presence looms large, Paul reminds us that it is God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness" ...the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus... 

   Our fragile human existence, our life ~ this treasure in clay jars ~ is intended to not only receive but to give that light out. When we know within and others can see from the outside that Jesus is visible in all that we do in our lives, it takes me right back to the Psalm. God has searched us out, knows our ways, our thoughts, and the words on our lips ~ almost frightening on one level, yet comfortable on another. Who else but with God are we totally ourselves, with nothing to hide, and, if we relax into it, as in true Sabbath time, there is nothing to fear. But are we listening?

     Jesus seems prepared and mildly defiant when questioned by the Pharisees about the disciples plucking grain on the Sabbath. The incidents recounted in Mark don't reach a level of vengeance, but it is notable that it says Jesus looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart..." when questioning the Pharisaic enforcers. We don’t know the tone of voice, perhaps sarcastic, about whether it is lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath. Jesus told them earlier that the law was made for humans not humans for the law and he was absolutely defiant and intentional in his flagrant healing of the man with the withered hand. There is a very deep message to hear. Religious and secular laws can reflect the values and commitment of individuals and communities for a just and fair society. But taken to an extreme they can also be used against individuals and communities through technicalities that defy the spirit or intent of the law as it was instituted, especially by those who want power over others. God instituted the Sabbath for human rest. If someone was unable to gather enough food the day before, should they be expected to go hungry for the sake of the letter of the law, or be denied healing? Jesus didn't think so. But listen for all the grains of truth that fall around us and pile up, and we fear disturbing the heap, we may become desensitized to the genuine needs of others. Let us release ourselves from only hearing the truth we want rather than the truth that is. As we follow God’s call to Sabbath rest, we will begin to recognize when and why we have allowed our own hearts to be hardened. Let us cease our rejection of the heartless by being heart-full. Let light shine out of darkness... Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening for the bushels of truth you offer.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader:  ~ Most High and Holy God, You created and know us in all our ways, our thoughts, and our words. Grant us the desire and intent to seek and then listen to Your Voice when it comes. Guide our path to use the lives You have given us to live in humble and grateful service to and through the message of Christ Jesus.  

                                               Creator Lord, Our Light in the Darkness

         RESPONSE:           Shine in and through us

~ Most High and Holy God, while some may seek power to establish their own earthly kingdoms, keep us mindful of the eternal life in Christ that is beyond mere mortal flesh. Free all victims of injustice, intolerance, and inequity, and and let us work to extend the knowledge of grace, justice, mercy, and tolerance to all who govern the peoples of this World, this Nation, and this Community. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

                                                Creator Lord, Our Light in the Darkness

                                                Shine in and through us                                      

~ Most High and Holy God, strengthen those who are weakened by the pain of illness or despair, and give new energy to all who give them comfort. We now join our hearts to pray for those in need… add your own petitions 

                                                Creator Lord, Our Light in the Darkness

                                                Shine in and through us   

~ Most High and Holy God, in gratitude for their earthly time, we commend to You those who have now entered new life through the Heavenly Gate of divine joy and everlasting peace. We pray especially for: add your own petitions  

                                                Creator Lord, Our Light in the Darkness

                                                Shine in and through us

~ Most High and Holy God, we pause in this moment to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials, aloud or silently… add your own petitions

                                                Creator Lord, Our Light in the Darkness
                                                Shine in and through us       

~ Most High and Holy God, enhance the gifts of those chosen to lead us in Your Church, so that through their example, inspiration, and discipleship, we each and our community of faith, will grow in spirit and in grace with the life of Christ made visible within us. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

                                                Creator Lord, Our Light in the Darkness

                                                Shine in and through us

The Celebrant adds: Lord of All, Seen and Unseen, while in the fragility of human life ~ our treasure in clay jars ~ let us seek the physical and spiritual shelter of Sabbath as a necessary and holy time. May we rest often in Your goodness and mercy to strengthen body and soul, yet not to the exclusion of the true needs of others. We ask through Jesus, Son of God and Man, and the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit, who together with You, reign as One God, now and beyond eternity. Amen.

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Prayers of the People: 2 Hims and a Bird ~ Trinity Sunday, 1st Sunday after Pentecost '24 Yr B

For Sunday, May 26, 2024; Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8, Psalm 29, Romans 8:12-17, John 3:1-17

   In the year that King Uzziah died…The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke…Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal…touched my mouth with it and said, “…your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send…” and I said, “Here am I; send me!”  [Isaiah 6:1a, 4, 6a, 7-8]

   Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness…The Lord shall give strength to his people; the Lord shall give his people the blessing of Peace. [Psalm 29:2, 11]

  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God… When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit…heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. [Romans 8:14, 15b-16a, 17b]

  “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit…’You must be born from above.’” …”If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”  [John 3:6, 7b, 12]

     It’s quite impossible for us as mere mortals to wrap our brains around the mystical, mysterious concept of the Trinity, or in heavenly math-speak: 1 + 2 = One. Two out of the three persons of this, our Trinitarian God, are seemingly genderless although many refer to God as Father and some think of the Spirit as the feminine of Wisdom, or Sophia as it is written in Biblical Greek. While our human minds cannot possibly grasp the Trinity in its complexities, we still wrestle with how to reduce it to fit in a small box in our minds that we can pretend to understand. The mind naturally seeks to sort and file its collected data into usable bits amidst the consternation of those pieces that simply don’t fit the space allotted.

   The Christian Trinity is, plainly and purely and simply, a mystery. Yet if it is able to be rationally explained there is no mystery and it can be easily dismissed. What is God-like in that? Some minds clamor for any mystery to be reducible and solvable to fit neatly into that file as in wanting to know the steps an entertaining magician uses to perform an illusion. Others are comfortably engaged in the wonder of the ways it is unfolding.

   The mystery of the Trinity is nothing if not confounding. One God/Three Persons – separate yet one, equal with different roles that are ultimately the same, belief in one is meant to be belief in all and the One that is the same but different. “Stranger than we think and stranger than we can think,” to borrow from physicist Neils Bohr’s description of the Universe. Franciscan Richard Rohr tells us that some ancient mystics have suggested that we are called as an almost fourth person in the flow of God, as Jesus says later in John’s Gospel, …so that where I am you also may be. [John 14:3]

   One of my favorite ways to attempt a workable sense of the Trinity – gender language aside – is through a piece of a 6th century creed from Dublin known as Tírechán’s Creed ~ when speaking of God it says:

He has a Son who is co-eternal with himself;

   and similar in all respects to himself;

   and neither is the Son younger than the Father,

   nor is the Father older than the Son;

   and the Holy Spirit breathes in them.

And the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are inseparable.

    Perfectly clear now, yes? Well, here’s another wrinkle someone else once wrote ~ Sister Sandra M. Schneiders, I.H.M., author and New Testament scholar to be specific* ~ that if your understanding of the Trinity is 2 men and a bird, it is time to rethink! If we can truly understand the mysteries of God, then that “god,” for me, is way too small. Only through our imperfect faith can we even begin to attempt belief in and answer the call of heavenly things.

*https://uscatholic.org/articles/199005/god-is-more-than-two-men-and-a-bird/

 

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader:  ~ Abba, Redeemer, Advocate, release us from our quest to reduce You and the vast mystery of faith to our human attempts of certainty and understanding. Grant us openness of mind, sincerity of heart, and willingness to come to You unknowing, allowing the wind of the Spirit, the redemption of Christ, and our birth from Above, to move through us in Your many and miraculous ways.

                                                             Most Holy Trinity

                            RESPONSE:       In faith we answer Your call         

~ Abba, Redeemer, Advocate, in a world where principle and integrity are obscured in the smoke of fear, disinformation, and confusion, let us answer “Here we are; send us” to seek Your Voice, speak with clean lips, and to bear witness for truth and justice in the halls of governments in our World, our Nation, and in our Community. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

                                                              Most Holy Trinity

                                                              In faith we answer Your call

~ Abba, Redeemer, Advocate, embrace and sustain the hope and faith of those bowed low by illness, addiction, or loneliness, and give comfort to all who give them care. We now join our hearts to pray for those in need… add your own petitions

                                                              Most Holy Trinity

                                                              In faith we answer Your call       

~ Abba, Redeemer, Advocate, we joyfully ascribe the glory due Your name as you receive those we love into everlasting life, in the beauty of holiness they have now achieved. We pray especially for… add your own petitions

                                                              Most Holy Trinity

                                                              In faith we answer Your call

~ Abba, Redeemer, Advocate, we pause in this moment to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials… add your own petitions

                                                              Most Holy Trinity

                                                              In faith we answer Your call

~ Abba, Redeemer, Advocate, we lift to Your care the souls and hearts of our Earthly Guides, ordained by You to walk with us, beyond the bindings of earthly things toward the glory of all things of heaven. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

                                                              Most Holy Trinity

                                                              In faith we answer Your call

The Celebrant adds: Creator, Savior, Sanctifier, grant us the blessing of Your peace as we accept the strength You have given us as joint heirs of Your eternal Kingdom. Expand and amplify our faith that its depth and constancy are revealed in the ways we answer Your call. We ask through each and all of the Three Eternal Persons in the sacred mystery of the Holy Trinity, who are One God, forever and ever. Amen.

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Meditation in Eastertide ~ Saturday, Week 7: Tacking and Jibing

May 18, 2024 ~ Saturday, Week 7

photo by Christina Brennan Lee in Broad Bay, NZ

She stood in the storm

and when the wind did not blow her way,

she adjusted her sails.

~ Elizabeth Edwards* 

    It's so easy and comfortably trite to say, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade." It's a kindly thought and there's a limited amount of folksy wisdom in it. 

    But, Lord of the Wind and Sea of Life, sometimes life hands out orchards of difficulty, grief, and anguish. Yet even in the midst of all of that, there are happy moments, satisfying times, and there is also bless-ed ordinary. 

    I don't try to compare my stuff with anyone else's. I recognize and empathize with the trials and tragedies of others and even when the events are seemingly mirrored, no one’s experience is ever the same as another’s. And while I'm certain that I'm entitled to my fair share of wails, whines, and whimpers it’s only for a time and not for a lifetime of self-indulgence. Life is precious and those who have gone before me would want me to use it well and with joy in memory and I can look for it in each day as it comes.

   And when it is time to move forward, please Lord, do not let me stall, becalmed by grief, procrastination, or inertia. Point me in the right direction, with the wind behind me, filling my sails on the current that leads to You; and, if I cannot sail through the rest of my life without more stormy seas or the occasional eddy throwing me off course, help me then to adjust my sails again, as I have done so many times before, tacking or jibing as needed to catch the right wind that carries me onward. amen. 

 

*Elizabeth Edwards [1949-2010], an American Attorney, Health Care Activist, and best-selling author was married to John Edwards, a US Senator with unsuccessful campaigns for US Vice-President and later President. Ms. Edwards dealt well publicly with her husband's rise to prominence and then his notoriety after his much publicized affair that resulted in an illegitimate child, when at the same time, Elizabeth was also coping with the breast cancer that ultimately ended her life. She was, at least publicly, the exemplar of grace under pressure.

PS: This will be the last of the daily Meditations that began this year on Ash Wednesday. There will be occasional postings in addition to the every-week liturgical Prayers of the People that I generally post on Monday evenings. Thank you all who have been reading regularly or if just once. You are my inspiration and you are most welcome in this space anytime! ✌💞

All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution and edited for local use as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. For more information or comments, contact: Leeosophy@gmail.com

Meditation in Eastertide ~ Friday, Week 7 '24: Swirling Between Faith and Doubt?

May 17, 2024 ~ Friday, Week 7

The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love. 

                                            ~ Parker J. Palmer* 

Dear God ~ It seems counter-intuitive to me that the deeper my faith and hope and love becomes the crazier that life can get. But in truth, that has been my experience. Things can get all tangled up so that the dark nights can burn through the bright sunlight but then the bright sunlight can also shine through the darkness. Sometimes I've tried to hide in a quiet space away from fear, and pain, and hopelessness, and then discovered my quiet space was just empty. Guide me, my Lord, through all of my momentary and long-term trepidations. When I remember that You are always here, I’m better able to navigate the twists and the turns, the light and the dark, the highs and the lows of all that the life You have given me has to offer. amen.

*Parker J. Palmer [1939 - ] is an educator, activist, poet, and prolific author on issues in education, community, social change, and spirituality.  A member of the Religious Society of Friends, he has said that doubt is not the opposite of faith, but it is fear; we are afraid to be disillusioned.  He also says that "before you can have a spiritual life, you must have a life."  It is in a blending of our active and contemplative life that our sense of spirituality finds a balance.  The recipient of many distinguished awards, Dr. Palmer lives with his wife in Madison, Wisconsin.

 

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Meditation in Eastertide ~ Thursday, Week 7: How It's "Supposed" To Be?

May 17, 2024 ~ Friday, Week 7

Life is not the way

it's supposed to be.

It's the way it is.

The way you deal with it

is what makes the difference.

~ Virginia Satir*

   How many times, after something awful has happened, have I heard/do we hear ~ and said ~ "it's just not fair; that shouldn't have happened; it's not the way it's supposed to be," especially when those something awfuls have happened in my own life. But yet I can't remember ever saying ~ or hearing ~ the words “that’s perfectly fair; it’s supposed to happen that way” when something spectacularly good has happened. How IS life supposed to be? We are born through no fault of our own, we grow up, go to school, to work, into marriage or not, divorce or not, kids or not. Our loved ones die, and there may be other tragedies...does anyone escape grief? Life brings  all that happens, good, bad, even boring, until we die.
                  

 So, God of All That's “Supposed to Be” ~ 

    I don't really believe in "Fate" since You have given all of us Free Will. I do believe in "Stuff Happens" sometimes because we or others made "free" decisions or it's just a-day-in-life and that some days, weeks, months, years are better than others, some are less better and some are plain awful. I know what to do in the good times, but I need Your help in the not-so-wonderful moments. I want to be better able to find my way to accept the reality of a moment, however crazy, difficult, or tragic, and find a practical way forward ~ to have a sort of spare tire plan. I've already had quite a bit of very ordinary, very lovely, and very very difficult life losses and experiences. Looking back and realizing my initial shock when the sudden blowouts have hit, I only remember fragments of those first moments and for a good while beyond, and now I understand that it takes time to find my footing again. With my car, having a spare tire gives me a precious first step toward a measured, if shaky, response about what to do immediately and then what's next.

   Of course, I can't possibly predict or plan for every eventuality but with Your help, a lot of deep breathing, even more attention to You with a regular conversation like this one (my way of prayer), I'll have a spare tire attitude ready for almost anything even if it takes some time to find the repair I’ll need to move forward. I hope (and pray) that for some freedom from more of the really hard times but I understand that life will bring whatever it brings. I will work on not blaming myself wondering what I might have done differently when things happen that I cannot control. The best part is that I always have You to lean on through every terrible, unspecial, and terribly wonderful day in this life and bloom through the ice of the storms. amen.

 

*Virginia Satir [1916-1988] was an American author and psychotherapist specializing in family therapy. Her role play formats in family reconstruction and family sculpting among other aspects of her work have been widely used and she received many honors within her profession including being recognized by colleagues as The Mother of Family Therapy.  She often used meditation and poetry in her written work and lectures. The following, one of her best known pieces, was written in response to angry teen-aged girl but is certainly useful for us all:

I am me

In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me

Everything that comes out of me is authentically me

Because I alone chose it – I own everything about me

My body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions,

Whether they be to others or to myself – I own my fantasies,

My dreams, my hopes, my fears – I own all my triumphs and

Successes, all my failures and mistakes Because I own all of

Me, I can become intimately acquainted with me – by so doing

I can love me and be friendly with me in all my parts – I know

There are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other

Aspects that I do not know – but as long as I am

Friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously

And hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles

And for ways to find out more about me – However I

Look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever

I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically

Me – If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought

And felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is

Unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that

Which I discarded – I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do

I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be

Productive to make sense and order out of the world of

People and things outside of me – I own me, and

therefore I can engineer me – I am me and

I AM OKAY

 

Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ’This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as [you love] yourself.” ~ Matthew 22:37-39

 

 

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Meditation in Eastertide ~ Wednesday, Week 7: ONLY a Smile?

May 15, 2024 ~ Wednesday, Week 7

It was only a smile,

and little it cost in the giving,

but like morning light

it scattered the night

and made the day worth living.

~ Anonymous* 

    How rapidly the darkness of a storm is diminished by the wonder of a rainbow. No matter how many times I’ve seen one, it is as the hope of Noah, the smile of God, the moment of respite in a storm of life. The Oh! Look! on everyone’s lips when the gleaming colors appear as if an apparition, a token of Creation’s brilliance, a moment when smiles illuminate faces otherwise clouded with anxiety, anger, despair, or just plain general disinterest in everything around them. Who can resist a rainbow?

   A smile to a passerby, in a grocery line, an elevator, especially with a hello, can be a rainbow in someone’s day. It is for me when my head is in a storm or distracted by cranky people, or on a day when I am moving too fast in a cloud of oblivion. A simple smile from another breaks in like a rainbow, quieting my internal thunder, and reminds me to pass it on.

 

Lord of the Dark and Deep, 

     As I walk alone and quickly through the streets of the city with eyes downcast or, stroll in a solitary ponder on the beach looking out at the sea, or wander with my cart through the aisles of the supermarket lost in my own if-only thoughts, suddenly a stranger says, Hello, smiles, and moves on. The bigger surprise is that this small action expects no response. The place I'm in becomes immediately brighter and I feel enveloped in a circle of warmth that is almost the light and colors of a rainbow in my soul; my return smile is automatic and sincere, if unseen.

     In receiving a smile unexpectedly and from an equally unexpected source, I whisper a prayer of thanks for the one who smiled. In offering a smile to another that is unexpected, I return the gift to Creation. Guide me, Lord, to always remember to receive and give a moment of warmth that will lighten up all around, and always intended in Your Name. amen.

*While often attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald [1896-1940], the poem has been found to be published in a variety of similar forms as early as 1893, none with attribution. As brilliant a writer as Fitzgerald has been proclaimed, he likely wasn’t able to have written much of anything before he was actually born and perhaps not until a bit of time after that.    

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Meditation in Eastertide ~ Tuesday, Week 7 '24: How DO We Love Ourselves...

May 14, 2024 ~ Week 7 

 Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health

in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.

And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present;

the result being that he does not live in the present or the future;

he lives as if he is never going to die,

and then dies having never really lived. 

~ The Dalai Lama*

My first reaction to the above quote, more than a decade ago, was to write this:

We sacrifice our health to gain our wealth,

we work we sweat we slave.

Then we sacrifice our wealth to regain our health,

only to end in the grave. 

     Such is life in the so-called First World of privilege and means. We don’t need an explanation of what life is like for those who live in other levels of living, or perhaps we do. But what is the truth of any of us and our “view” of everyday living. Many of us wouldn’t think we were quite so “privileged” as those who are fantastically wealthy. Yet do we stop to think what we take for granted? The things of nature ~ even in a bustling city there are sunrises and sunsets and birds and people who smile or scowl ~ a humanity created by God, whom Jesus says we are to love whoever, whatever, however they are. And yes, to repeat yet again: and to love ourselves ~ in the manner to which we and they want to be loved, with fully flawed personalities, poor and wealthy, and innocent and guilty and all the parts of being human that each of us are. 

Dear Creator God ~

   It's true, that sometimes we really do "love our neighbors as we love ourselves" although not in the way You/Jesus intend.  The world is such a discouraging place. Everyone I know has their own personal laundry list of the frustrations, disappointments, trials, and tragedies in their everyday lives and then there's the "news" from around the globe and from wherever here is to us. It serves to push many of us into de-sensitizing and/or self-medicating with food or other unhealthy activities or substances. At the very least we avoid and deny.

   On this day and all that are ahead, let me feel Your breath in my soul, my Lord.  Surround me with Your presence and whisper into my heart. Call me out of my hesitation to spend a little time with you each day. Kick me out of my whining and self-absorption and draw me closer. Only by consciously, deliberately, and willingly loving You, can I begin to love myself. Then, I can consciously, deliberately, and willingly, love my neighbor and discover what positive differences I am to make in Your Creation.  Amen.

 

    *Dalai Lama is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and incumbent Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso, who lives in exile as a refugee in India. The Dalai Lama is considered to be the successor in a line of tulkus who are believed to be incarnations of Avalokiteśvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.
    The traditional function of the Dalai Lama as an ecumenical figure has been taken up by this 14th Dalai Lama, who has worked to overcome sectarian and other divisions in the exiled community and has become a symbol of Tibetan nationhood for Tibetans both in Tibet and in exile. From 1642 until 1705 and from 1750 to the 1950s, the Dalai Lamas or their regents headed the Tibetan government in Lhasa, which governed all or most of the Tibetan Plateau with varying degrees of autonomy. This Tibetan government enjoyed the patronage and protection of Mongol kings. In 1913, several Tibetan representatives signed a treaty between Tibet and Mongolia, proclaiming mutual recognition and their independence from China. The legitimacy of the treaty and declared independence of Tibet was rejected by both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China. The Dalai Lamas headed the Tibetan government until 1951. ~ excerpted from Wikipedia

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