TRUST GOD'S WILL, GOD'S WAY

Perhaps those whom we value least have the most to teach. -- Barbara Holmes  

If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate. -- Nikka, age 6 

In talking with friends, I'm finding that many of us are having the devil's own time getting "back to normal" after the pandemic shutdown. We have agreed, half joking but way too true, that we need to be resocialized. 

Seeking the sliver of gold, I realize why my inner voice has been whispering to me, "Go small" and "Littler is better." The reasoning mind, receiving that, gets a tish nervous.

God, being always on the job, comes to our aid and reminds us of what Nikka, at age 6 (!), said about love (quoted above). We recall having to accept that just because it didn't make perfect sense to us, didn't mean it wasn't true. Came the realization...in essence, Nikka's advice could lead us free from resistance to anything. 

Plain speak: If you want to learn to love, start with that which you hate is resist not evil.  

That expanded our understanding of Holmes' quote...perhaps that which we value least has the most to teach us...or, even further, that which we most resist is our best teacher.

All of this comes down to our contention that the spiritual mind flows in the opposite direction of the material mind...unconcern for self spiritually transmutes to concern for others. 

There it is...welcome the trust we seek as already ours to give.

Thank you. 

UNKNOWING IS OUR GOAL

Until the mind is freed from the multitudes of thoughts, and has achieved the single simplicity of purity, it cannot experience spiritual knowledge. —Isaac of Syria

Upon reading that saying of one of the Desert Fathers, I knew it for true...slowly I recognized I'd always known that, I just hadn't realized it yet. I expect I'll be three days dead before it is wholly mine. 

The idea of my mind effortlessly "freed from the multitudes of thoughts" brings a boatload of thoughts...all named "how?" Then comes the biggie, achieving a "single simplicity of purity." 

"The Impossible Dream" comes immediately to mind. 

Followed by a blinding flash of the obvious...all my resistance is the reasoning mind, afraid, unwilling, knowing full well it cannot do that. 

There...that is the "spiritual knowledge"...that is God on a pinpoint encompassing all in all eternity. No, our cluttered mind cannot get us there. "Cluttered" meaning centered on aught but God.

Right here, right now, that impossible dream has just been transmuted...it is now a possible dream. Ah, unknowing is our goal, not trying is our nemesis. 

...with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)

Thank you.

THERE IS NO DESTINATION...ONLY LOVE

Cling to the thought that, in God's hands, our dark past is our greatest possession. -- Anonymous

There is a journey you must take. It is a journey without destination. There is no map. Your soul will lead you. And you can take nothing with you. -- Meister Eckhart 

The way looks like failure. In fact, we could say that spirituality is about how to win by losing, how to let go creatively, how the only real ascent is descent.  -- Fr Richard Rohr paraphrased

Ah, the Way is two spiritual journeys—the interior one toward knowing our true self and knowing God, and the one directed outward into the world to enact God’s justice and love...There is no destination, only the enveloping presence of love. --  Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, February 23, 2023

All my trials, Lord, soon be over. --  American folk song of the 1960s

Again, cling to the fact that, in God's hands, our dark past is our greatest treasure. There it is...evidence of God's love. 

Thank you.

WHEN REASON FOLLOWS GOD...HAPPINESS

It's not that everybody wants to be a winner, it's that nobody wants to be a loser.

Looking back, I am fairly certain that the hardest thing life has ever asked of me is that I change my mind. I suspect that'll prove true for most everybody when they get to the place of looking back.

I'm reminded of the old cliché, "Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy?" It is amazing how we twist logic as we try to have both. All the while, our trying is the block not only to our ego's demands, right, but to any spiritual growth, happy. Trying is the trapdoor through which self-determined objectives must fall.

Yes, but!  In one of my favorite books, it is written that we must try with a will or fall by the wayside. On first read, first few reads, that is true. However, as we grow, mature, age, we change...in particular our spiritual nature grows its wings...lets go, ego detaches...or trades for humor. 

It has taken years and years and years of spiritual study for me to get a glimmer of the light...to try with a will is our reasoning mind and the God of our understanding working together for good. 

Short version: God uses reason to reveal our need, reason takes charge, finds it is powerless, gives over to God, takes it back, gives over again, takes it back, gives over, etc., gets grateful...voila serenity is ours. We are happy. 

The rest of the story: This is not a one-shot deal. This is the rest of our life. God leading, reasoning mind following, stumbling, begging...but God leading always and all ways.

Thank you.

GOD...THE ANSWER, THE SOLUTION, THE PEARL

...trust descending religion....here the primary language is unlearning, letting go, surrendering, serving others, and not the language of self-development—which often lurks behind our popular notions of 'salvation.' -- from a Rohr Daily Meditation

What a comfort it is to find myself in the spiritual writings of others. Fr Richard's quote above describes me, where I am and have been for some time now. I am happy with less-than, welcoming smaller for my deepening spiritual Way.

I was talking with God this morning before my meditation sit, and I owned up to the guilt I have begun to feel after simply sharing with others...a harsh regret, a painful judgment on me about my words...none of which were of prime importance to begin with. 

This is new for me which causes me pause...I asked if it was God's way of getting my attention for his reasons. 

To examine it fully, guilt excoriates me, accusing me of storing up the spiritual answers of the Sermon, writing about them, quoting them, but in the privacy (secrecy?) of my own self, I "forget" them to writhe in self-judgment.

Blinding flash of the obvious: I feel guilty with every word because I speak without boundaries...with a freedom of spirit. Which can only be of God. 

Oh my. Ego just got its comeuppance!...and that, too, can only be of God. 

A spirituality of 'descent' frees us to surrender to God our often-messy lives. -- Ibid, Rohr above.

Thank you.

FEAR OF TRUSTING, II

[The following is a reprint of my September 29, 2016, post.]

I dreamed last night:

I am living in poverty. I am gifted with the Hope Diamond. I am ecstatic…all my worries are over. I’m told its value which is more money than I ever dreamed of having. I’m also told that the value may double or even triple within a day or two. Of course I hold onto it because if a million is good, etc. Weeks pass. I do nothing but worry and check on the value…has it gone up yet? How bout now? Any movement today? I do not have a buck to buy a dollar meal with. I am starving as I clutch my Hope to my heart. I think of how much more money I will get if I just hold on to my fortune another day or two. As I lay dying, I realize my death is not from starvation but from fear. Fear of trusting God. I hear again, 'God can and will intervene in our life on our behalf.' And I realize that before God can and will...anything...I must let go. God will not force me...I have free will to choose.

Choose ye this day....

Thank you.

ON GIVING LOVE...BY HIS HELP

Be patient. The path of self-discipline that leads to God-realization is not an easy path: obstacles and sufferings are on the path; the latter you must bear, and the former overcome -- all by His help. His help comes only through concentration. Repetition of God's name helps concentration. -- Swami Ramdas

Long, long ago blinding flash of the obvious: We have all the patience there is within us now...all we need do is use it.

It's a sobering realization that that is true of kindness, compassion, thoughtfulness...there is no inner goodness for which we need pray...all were gifted us at birth to be shared with others.  

It is in the sharing of those gifts that we receive the peace of mind that ego promises yet can never deliver. It is our not sharing that causes us to pray for them...we never consider that we already have them within us. 

Simply put, all those inner goodnesses are of no use to us if we are not sending them out by our thoughts, our words, our acts. It is the giving to others that returns to us.

The pearl of spiritual life is in nonresistance...or, the love we give. Nonresisting, I give to you, you give to Ed, who gives to Gertrude who, etc. The unbroken circle of spiritual love is the world's best hope of recovery. 

Without spiritual insight and, face it, personal grit, that will not happen. Ah, but help is already with us, within us...obstacles and sufferings are on the path; the latter you must bear, and the former overcome -- all by His help.

All by His help.

Thank you.

RESISTANCE BEGETS GRATITUDE...THANK YOU

Spiritual growth is purely individualistic...just like God, it comes by invitation only. 

Our answering the invitation is contingent entirely upon our own spiritual leanings. The Pope's isn't going to get us to Heaven, only our own can do that...then Heaven is realized within us. It's akin to getting over our own self...which is not a DIY job.   

Take, for instance, resist not evil, one of my favorite quotes from the Sermon that turns some folks' hair white on hearing it. Yet more than any other spiritual lesson, it turns me away from my own self-interests and opens me to possibilities for others.

Our raised mind accepts the need to overcome with good the evil we perceive...and resist. We learn early on that it is not people, places or things that invite resistance, it is our own reaction to them that does the inviting. 

Since reaction is born in the mind, a change of mind is the answer. We know that we cannot change our mind relying solely on self-will...so we go to God p.d.q. or dragging foot, but we go to God.

The lesson in resist not evil is short, true and complete: Feel resistance, think welcome, pray thank you. End of lesson.

The shorter the lesson, the clearer God's will, God's way. 

Thank you.  

GOD'S PLAIN BROWN WRAPPER

Long ago I posted, and I still believe, that going all in with God rather than "better living through chemistry" is the right choice. Face it, where's a person all alone and in immediate and dire need going to go to get a Xanax? 

Think God, God is here...or, don't think God, God is here. God is here whether we know it or not. Our glory is in the inner realization of that truth. 

We can say that till our face falls off, but until we realize it, just repeating it with no inner conviction of its truth...leaves us feeling unloved, unwanted, unneeded and unappreciated. Victimized by our own reasoning mind.

Proving yet again, we must go beyond reason to God. 

That is the spiritual healing we seek...not in the either/or fantasies of the egoic mind no matter how pretty they are wrapped or right they seem. That is temporary, and false, relief at best. 

It is in the spiritual mind, the plain brown wrapper of One, that we find the everlasting peace that passes understanding. 

We go to God for God and that is All.

Thank you.

THE WAY LOOKS LIKE FAILURE

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. -- "I shall not want" is my Shepherd's promise that I have enough. I shall never not have enough because the Lord is my Shepherd. I put myself in jeopardy when I let my egoic mind take over shepherding me. I have the tools to turn me back to the God of my understanding, and I use them...gratefully.  

Thy rod and thy staff  they comfort me. -- My Shepherd's rod and staff are the 6s/7s...they comfort me as they turn me away from egoic solutions back to the God of my understanding.

Our lessons are primarily spiritual today...and we note "less" is the key in "lessons." Lessons are ever smaller, shrinking from the exaggerations of humans, into the pinpoint of God's will, God's way. It seems everything must get smaller, or right-sized, to encompass the immensity of God's love.  

All of our rues, regrets and remorses are our 6s/7s...for me, that includes my beloved brother Paul, his illness and his death. All of us...everyone, saints and sinners and plain wrapper humans...are the 6s/7s God perfects as we give over, give up and give in.

The Way...looks like failure. In fact, we could say [it] is about how to win by losing, how to let go creatively, how the only real ascent is descent. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, February 19, 2023

Thank you.

HIDING IN THE EXPLANATION, II

[The following is a reworked version of my post of  December 21, 2012.]

Too often when those of us who practice self-examination learn the root cause of our misery, we stay there. We see when mother/father/sister/brother did X, we hid from the pain in fear...lying/cheating/becoming an over- or under-achiever. All of which helped us feel in control, protected in a word.

Having found an acceptable reason for our behavior, we hunker down with it. We admit freely the cause of our defect of character...thinking the admission means we're free of it or, equally comforting, that we can't be blamed for it. 

No...what it means is that we are hiding in the explanation.

If we are ever to be free in our own self, we begin to understand the true meaning of letting go, of being humbled enough to "sit and wait on the Lord." It has been written that in seeing the defect of character, our work is done and God's has begun...which the egoic mind will ever resist. 

The particularly difficult part comes when we can consciously thank God for doing whatever God knows to be best, leave it with God, then seek to help another. The difficulty, of course, is that we must take our mind off our own self. Ah, there it is, the nature of spiritual growth...to see our need transformed into care and concern for the need of another. 

When that turns from being our cross to bear to being our gift of glory, we know love. It's a long haul...getting over one self always is until we accept that our work is done, that God's has begun.

Thank you.

SPIRITUAL IN NATURE DEFIES REASON

Unknowing cannot be reached by the material mind. I think of the ego-roughened road to Unknowing as God forgoing the ego by smoothing out the rough road...or going before us to make the crooked places straight.

Often Unknowing is going for less...accepting, not seeking, smaller...finding joy in the little, ever littler...neither getting nor giving to get. All of which we are incapable of without divine intervention. 

After hours, days, weeks, years praying to understand Unknowing, we get a glimpse, then spend time praying for God to get it done already...using prettier words, of course.

Our realization of Unknowing begins when, unplanned, we openly share a vulnerability without pretense or pretext. Or we are lied to, insulted, cheated...and seek neither retribution nor offer faux forgiveness. Unknowing, we give over, give up, give in...and we know love.  

We need to expect, not to regret, our ego nattering regretfully and repeatedly. Unknowing, we pray thank you, and we come to recognize that ego nattering turns us to God's open-door policy of Self-acceptance, i.e., love and laughter.

Unknowing...a one-word definition for resist not evil...neither makes sense to the reasoning mind, both being of God.

Thank you.

TO KNOW GOD IS TO SEEK GOD

....there’s a place within us where those names have become one, God’s name and our name. That’s the source of the authority out of which we speak. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, February 16, 2023

I'm not sure whether I took comfort or felt relief upon reading that this morning...in particular the source of the authority out of which we speak. 

I really try to note that my posts are "according to me" rather than (as it may come across) holy writ...or, more to my point, that I think it is holy writ. But, who's kidding whom? It is holy writ to me. I believe it from my toenails up because I have experienced it just as I write it...from that place within. 

In truth, that place within is my holy grail...I know it to be true mainly because I have experienced it, but also because I study the works of great and good spiritually informed folks who have lectured, preached and written about it. 

Yet still, I seek. Probably because I do not feel it...or have the feeling I expect to have. But what is that exactly? How do I expect to feel the place within me where God and I have become one? 

I expect to feel other than I feel. Other...different, elevated, lifted up, Christed...and there's a whole 'nother topic to overanalyze. Face it, to overanalyze is head talking, not experience sharing. Let it be.

Best I got: I know without fear or fight, and that is of God...to want the feeling, too, is ego wanting its piece of the action. 

Do I hear get over yourself whispered in my ear? There's my hug from God.

Thank you.

THE SLOW WALK TO ACCEPTANCE

God's will, God's way.

Even as that phrase first flashed, we inner knew that God's way was the key..."the rest of the story," really. 

The great reveal in God's way lies in the results of our prayers. Our many prayers, sent in the sincere hope that God would answer the prayers as asked, were most often returned untouched...or if touched, the fingerprints on them were our own.

We slowly began walking the road to acceptance which always leads through surrender...surrender to the truth that we were not going to get our way.

Again, we learn by unlearning...God's will for us a-borning rarely if ever appears to be the answer we pray for...it is always for our benefit and better.   

There it is...God's way. 

Thank you.

UNKNOWING...THE PROMISED LAND

My half-awake dream: I saw the brick wall before me...I realized it was transparent, and I knew it was only my reasoning mind that kept it un-walk-through-able. 

I awaken pondering that, and I get a fleeting glimpse of walking on water. I cannot hold onto it...reason interferes. 

The reasoning mind is not equipped for spiritual insight...that is the nature of "reasoning." It is stopped at the awe of a fleeting glimpse. Face it, the egoic mind will ever overanalyze and block acceptance of raised consciousness as real and as certain as material mind.

It is meditation, quiet times, spiritual commitment that gives us still more spiritual growth...our consciousness is raised. It is that prepared spiritual growth that births raised consciousness that grows spiritual insight deeper taking us to a higher place...to experience almost unknowingly. 

Unknowing, another hidey hole for God consciousness. 

Thank you.

LIFE'S CALAMITIES, TOO, ARE FOR OUR BENEFIT

Everything works together for good. -- Romans 8:28

Looking back. Ah, it is in looking back that we own that which spiritual growth has been teaching us, that everything does work together for our very own good. We must needs change our mind, however, and there it is...the fruits of spiritual growth.  

At the first retreat I ever attended, I heard what I've come to realize was one of the most important of my spiritual lessons; namely, that we must prove what we say we believe. 

When we came into our new and different recognition of the God of our understanding, we felt  gobsmacked.

We quoted early and often that God can and will if asked, that all things are possible with God...but we did not know to slow down in order to find that right or wrong for our own self. Our go-to chant became I believe, oh Lord, help me my unbelief...it gave us permission to doubtfully believe.

We continued trying to fix our perceived problem, continued to mess up, pray more, try harder. The only thing different was now we had someone to blame...God. We would get through our calamity du jour, and on we'd go to the next day in our life.

Reflecting...looking back...we sense God's hand was ever in it, but the blinding flash of the obvious was the realization that God's hand was not only in the fix, it was also in the calamity.

Slowly we realize that life on the material plane is a series of calamities, of calm times, of ups, then downs, etc. That being so, at times we will feel angry and scared, but our choice to live spiritually by love rather than egoically by fear will walk us through this life. We rely on the fact that nothing turns us to God faster than fear...nothing is nearer to us than God. 

We live life by grace whether we know it or not. It is not a test to be aced, it is not a problem to be solved...life God's will, God's way is as is, for our benefit and at a higher plane deeper.

Thank you. 

BE GRATEFUL FOR THE GUIDES FROM BEYOND

Guest House

This being human is a guest house

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

~Rumi

Thank you.

THE HOLY PLACE OF UNKNOWING

Still more spiritual growth begins with our seeking spiritual answers...to learn, to find out, to get a spiritual mindset. 

The longer we are on this journey, heading in the right direction by doing it wrong a lot, we are heading for the place of unknowing...of which we are unconscious. There...the essence of spiritual growth. 

The difference between unknowing and not knowing is unknowing shucks our shields, keeps an active letting go of what we think we know. The place of not knowing holds little to no curiosity...we don't know, whatever, end of the discussion.

To be in the place of not knowing is stayed in the material mind. 

To get to the place of unknowing is Oned with God. Only we don't know it. We are unknowing. But our consciousness is raised.

According to me.

Thank you.

VULNERABILITY, THE ROAD TO SERENITY

Do I have what it takes to really love, to do the second half of the journey? -- Paula D’Arcy, Fr. Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," January 31, 2023

D'Arcy's question hovered over me and my thoughts recently. 

I have been having one "human condition" after the other...my hearing aids and my new cell phone seem to be working together to make me nuts...and doing a fine job of it. 

My dilemma was what to do? 

When life seems to be upside down and backward, as often happens, for sure our consciousness is at sixes and sevens. Egoic mind goes directly to fear...fear of "I do not know."  

As God would have it, there is the solution...I do not know. 

Face it, nothing stops our material mind from race-race-run-run like I do not know. We've got no fresh ideas or only old ones all worn out.

Yet, what do we fear the most? Not knowing. Being caught not knowing. Looking dumb. Being thought less of for not knowing. 

There's proof positive that God's will is ever the opposite of our will. Yet winds up being the answer that brings us the peace we seek.To not know leaves us completely open and vulnerable...and whose reasoning mind is good with that? 

Ah, but on the road to serenity, vulnerability is our gettin' there glory. Pray thank you. 

Thank you.

THE HOLY PLACE OF UNKNOWING

Blinding flash of the obvious: Getting to the place of unknowing is God's perfect work. 

Trying to get there will delay our getting there. 

There is no getting there. 

We awaken to a sense of same-old-same-old...at peace.

We're a tish jittery...not anxious, curious.

Getting anxious.

Intuition and inspiration remind us that anxiety heads us in the right direction.

Toward God.

We pray thank you and feel graced.

Thank you.

GO IN TO GET OUT, GO DOWN TO RISE UP

Paradox! 

When I came to think of God's will for me as the opposite of my will for me, my reasoning mind softened...I became less afraid of uncertainty, of not knowing, mainly of being wrong. Not free, please note, just less afraid.

My true journey began when I realized that in was my way out...that down would lift me up.

I remembered that recently when I found myself in the midst of a paradox...I discovered, or basked in the light of discovering, the painful rigidity of being right versus the comfort of owning my wrong.

One would think that being right would take away our armor. Not necessarily...it often hardens. Paradoxically, we would think being wrong would cause us to "armor up" but not always. It quite often softens. 

Say, in the midst of a chat with another, we have a difference of opinion. Feeling that we are right, we close, ready to fight for our rightness. When we accept that we may not be wrong, but that both of us can be right...rigidity melts, and our attitude softens. We are opened to a new view, and we know a welcoming.

To the reasoning mind, it may be when right, we feel the need to protect it. Conversely, when wrong, we've already lost, so we can loosen up. 

To the spiritual mind: Resist not...surrender, accept, all is well...whether we know it or not. 

Paradox turns us around...from looking for answers out there, to looking for the one answer within. That is the spark Divine within each and all, God.

Thank you. 

INSPIRATION & INTUITION...OUR INNER JOURNEY

We have for too long insisted on outer authority alone, without any teaching of prayer, inner journey, and maturing consciousness. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, February 7, 2023

The words maturing consciousness caught my attention. I hope I remember them in place of raised consciousness. For whatever reason, "raised" to me suggests already being at a higher place spiritually, and "maturing" suggests we're heading there...I opt for heading there.

Another phrase that fit my "maturing consciousness" that I came across just this morning was compassionate inaction which nails my personal golden rule, Just try not to be as nasty as you want to be. Face it, "compassionate inaction" is prettier, but no one is going to walk away wondering what my golden rule means. 

  

I read about compassionate inaction just after reading my God Calling in which I had written on this day in 2020 about giving over to a friend who to me was wrong, and how I'd felt softened the minute I realized I gave over to her...without fanfare, or, especially, without conscious thought. I noted how in "being right," I'd felt hard...hardened by my sense of being right. 

It's important to both my inner self and my reasoning mind to recall that I had written that my "being right" did not change...the change was my giving over to my friend not through thought, analysis, preaching or pondering but through inspiration and intuition. 

There. That is the key. As I quoted from my special book in my post yesterday, inspiration and intuition originated as an impulse which was engendered in me by God. 

There's Fr Richard's inner journey and maturing consciousness. 

Thank you.

BARED TO THE BONE...BY GRACE

My morning blinding flash of the obvious: More and more you will find less and less is more than more. 

I am reading a book that so fits me, fits my consciousness now, that I know it was hand-picked by my Spirit for me...sent to me by a friend who did not even mention it to me beforehand. 

Quoting from the book, here's this morning's Yes!: The whole point about...compassionate action is that it cannot be defined by us, simply because it can never originate with us -- it must always originate as an impulse which is engendered in us by God.

The book, in short, is a how-to manual on becoming bared to the bone.  

Whether we knew it or not, that is what we have been walking toward, working for, shucking our shields for...to become bared to the bone. It is the bared self that finds God, again quoting, directing us through intuition and inspiration, to take certain actions, and that God is also giving us the power to do what we are being guided to do.

According to me, seeking still more spiritual growth is living a turned-over-to-God life, and living a turned-over-for-me life is led by ego. A spiritually turned-over life is God-directed; a me-directed life is the proverbial trainwreck in the process of happening.

We learn early that talk is cheap, it is doing that counts...with our immediate But how?? following.  Now is the time for living that which we've talked for so long...we are willing to live give over, give up, give in. 

Uh-oh. We are bared to the Soul, yet find the impenetrable egoic mind awaiting. 

In trust, we pray thank you and realize that it is the bared self that finds God, again, directing us through intuition and inspiration, to take certain actions, and that God is also giving us the power to do what we are being guided to do.

For this we still...and ever shall...seek more spiritual growth, that through inspiration and intuition, God can and will give us the power to do what we are being guided to do. 

The burden is not ours, and we are no burden to God...in trust, God does for us.

Thank you.

THE GIFT OF IMPERFECTIONS

My morning blinding flash of the obvious: It is my imperfections that seek You...thank you.

For some time now my message has been to go smaller, seek the lesser, want naught. In particular, to go deeper, not higher...which I take to mean we need to seek deeper spiritually and beware of reasoning mind higher. 

The following from Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation today affirms those messages: The path of descent is the path of transformation. Struggle, failure, relapse, death, and woundedness are our primary teachers, rather than ideas or doctrines.

My today's flash gives weight to the many poems, essays and encouraging words on less-than being beneficial...for our personal benefit. Never having achieved perfection, I'm guessing it would hardly send us to God...for what?

We recall Fr Richard's, We don't get to God by doing it right, we get to God by doing it wrong which takes us deeper still. We get to God by doing it wrong when we're so earnestly trying to do it right...relying on our reasoning mind as our guide. Ah, it is our imperfections that seek God.

Thank you.

MY NEW...AND NOW...FAVORITE POEM

The following, as introduced by Fr Richard Rohr in his Daily Meditation of February 4, 2023: "One of my favorite poets is Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). Here is one of his poems translated from German."

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for
may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea. 

Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

Thank you.

PRAY THANK YOU, CLING TO NOTHING, FLY

A quick how-to for achieving a worry-free life: Accept that every less-than, what we call "bad," that comes to our reasoning mind is spiritually for our benefit...whether we know it or not. Then, focused on "God's hand is in this," we are graced with gratitude.   

Try to remember or not forget that God is universal...a formless Power for good for all. We have long known that, from our eyebrows up anyway, yet continued to seek God on human terms. 

Many of us have had an experience of good coming to us appearing as bad. It is our acknowledged surrender, our complete defeat by that bad, that forms our spiritual surrender and brings the good. It is essential that the surrender be recognized as spiritual in nature...ego does not let go to self-will. The higher Power, God, transforms ego...we are the channel that God uses for that transformation. 

Those who think they have overcome bad by their own self-will...lying, cheating, stealing, profiting...instead have invited their bad's return. For sure, it keeps coming back until we get it right. Another adage, what goes around comes around, proves its truth. 

To wrap the quick how-to for a worry-free life: When self-willed ego hits crash and burn, it feels wrong because it really hurts. Change of mind and heart: That hurt is good aborning...pray thank you, cling to nothing and fly.

Thank you.

OUR NEED...TO HEAR THE STILL SMALL VOICE

Our world lives God's will, God's way...whether we know it or not. 

The world's troubles are started and continue by each of us doing our will, our way, convinced that it is "for the best." We never dig too deep as to whose best we think this is for...or why.

Here's the conundrum...it is next to impossible to believe, to accept, our will, our way has no spiritual base, no spiritual heft to it. After all, we're praying that God do for us...we even press our hands together. Even with our highest intentions, we usually wind up with a hot mess. Face it, there was no God in it...there was only our will, our way, all but dressed in a nun's habit. 

We must needs revisit our long-ago BFO:  There is no God in tomorrow, there is no God in yesterday, there is only God here Now. 

We revisit that to relearn at a raised level that our Father knows our needs...Now. 

Our need Now is to turn our mind to lilies of the valley, to Panda bears at play, to anything other than our current want which is our present block to God's will, God's way.

Clearing our mind of our wants has become a necessary spiritual exercise...beginning with our daily quiet time and as needed throughout the day. How else is God going to do his thing using our hands, our feet, our voice, our mind if we don't stay clear for him? 

A mind cleared of me, my, mine is the perfected receptor for God's will, God's way...Now we hear the still small voice.

Thank you.

BE SILENT...DO NOTHING, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of October 21, 2015.]

Do nothing.

A friend told me that is an ancient Japanese or Chinese adage, I don't remember which, and it doesn't really matter, it is the direction that is important. That direction speaks to me of learning detachment...about which we can never learn enough.

My favorite lesson in learning detachment is, "Sit and wait on the Lord." That's in the Bible somewhere, and it is fairly hard to do. Mainly because our reasoning mind is continually nattering, wanting to know when the Lord is going to do something, and what, and how, etc.

Which reminds me of the other toughie...listening. Speak not, slow the mind, and...listen. Sitting with all those questions racing, rounding them up, bringing them back to zero, starting over...that, according to me, is how we go about learning how to sit quietly and listen.

We are in the process of building trust in the Lord. Because having faith and trust and belief... all the necessary intangibles... are gifts that aren't ours to get just for the asking...or for the wanting. It takes diligence...concentrated effort...to do nothing, to sit and wait...on the invisible, untouchable Lord.

Finally, we understand. It is putting in our time...silently, reverently...that lets those necessary intangibles flow from the inside out. I have found the hardest part in spiritual growth is not outward activity but inward receptivity. How do we get a vibrant, alive and spirit-filled mind? We still our thoughts. Stilled thoughts bring a silenced mind is a receptive mind,

A receptive mind is open, allowing our inner Self to inform us...if, as and when It chooses. There. That is the pearl beyond price.

Thank you.