SPIRITUAL GROWTH...THE FOREVER PARADOX

I am beginning to see that I, in my own body, am an image of what is happening everywhere.... Fr Richard Rohr, quoting an unknown other, "Daily Meditation," April 3, 2026

Whoa...I had that very thought just yesterday which I shared with a friend. The good news is that describes how I continue to feel this morning.

Good fortune and still more spiritual growth have taught us to share these blinding flashes of the obvious with trusted friends before airing them in public. Face it, often we cannot be certain sure we're not entertaining spiritual wants as done facts.

There are no free rides to still more spiritual growth...ah, but there are only free rides for still more spiritual growth.

Spiritual growth is the forever paradox...another reason to live in gratitude.

Thank you.

UNLOVE...WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

Only a contemplative mind can hold our fear, confusion, vulnerability, and anger and guide us toward love. Those who allow themselves to be challenged and changed will be the new cultural creative voices of the next period of history after this purifying exile. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations," March 24, 2026

I'm hearing the hymn Were You There? in my head this morning...repeatedly. Namely, I'm hearing the rest of that sentence: when they crucified my Lord.  

For those five words I am substituting when I lied, or I cheated, or I stole

What an exercise in arm-wrestling with my own self...everything I name, I promptly knock down for good cause. There's my ego on parade; as in, it was never my fault, never that much, never counted really.

Who is kidding whom? Clearly, it never counted that much to me...and apparently must struggle to matter yet. 

To reiterate: Only a contemplative mind can hold our fear, confusion, vulnerability, and anger and guide us toward love. 

Chilling fact: It is the last four words that cause me pause...it is the last word that causes my panic. Love. 

I have a fear of love...no, I fear love. Uh-oh...there's a whole new chapter in my book of self Unto Self. 

That is way too deep to go any further with now, or yet, but it is God's grace that I've owned it in writing this morning. 

God is so good to me...I repeat with fingers crossed.

Thank you.

THERE IS NO WRONG DIRECTION TO GOD

It doesn’t matter if we are right or wrong about what 'is.' As long as we hold on to our certainty, there is no room for faith. The discovery that 'the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty' is one of the most freeing discoveries of my life.—Barry H., "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation," April 1, 2026

I, too, was gifted with that well-hidden spiritual realization that 'the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty.'  

I had no certainty about spirituality itself, but I wanted it...in truth, I wanted to be worry-free according to my lights. There...that is the cornerstone of my still more spiritual growth, i.e., going in the wrong direction and getting to God against my best thinking.

I no longer seek for my idea of God in my life...whatever questionable comes to me, looking good, bad or indifferent, I let this, too, is of God guide me, and it is no longer questionable, it just is. Kinda like breathing.

Let me be clear for my own self...this is not a one-thought deal. It takes as long as it takes for me to find my peace...one second, one day, whatever. I know God is driving this bus, and...eventually...I let Him.

God is so good to me...God is so good.

Thank you.

GETTING TO GOD IN REVERSE...PERFECT PEACE

The reversal of powers, this movement from being a community that scapegoats to a community that liberates, is how we can participate fully in remaking the world. -- "Daily Meditation," March 31, 2026

NOW...now is the time for me to fully accept through realization that my fears have come true and are my gift of gold...not to overcome but to come over to!

If dementia be my gift today, I embrace it and invite it to get comfy with my primary disease which has turned out to be God's gift to me.

Acceptance of the unacceptable...God's path to peace, i.e., resist not evil.

God is so good to me...to us. God is so good.

Thank you.

ON WORKING TOGETHER FOR OUR GOOD

History has shown us that authority itself is not a good guide. Yet for many people, authority figures soothe their anxiety and relieve their own responsibility to form a mature conscience. We love to follow someone else and let them take the responsibility. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations." March 30, 2026

That surely speaks to my maturing process...I grew up willfully following my sister's guidance...I made no decisions for myself. 

It took me years to fully change after I first came to realize that...or to begin to realize that.

Yet, I had the full-throated opinions, the tone of my voice was commanding (I was told, and not in a complimentary way). As I grew deeper into my spiritual growth, I recognized much about my fears that I hid behind my sister, which I now see comforted both my sister and me. 

The personally good news is I have no rues, regrets or resentments...we worked together for our mutual good. Don't tell me God wasn't in the midst of that...anonymously. since neither my sister nor I had a clue.

There is great comfort in that realization for me as I live my way through the fear of dementia today. 

God is in place doing His good for each of us however we each need His good which rarely looks individually the same. Face it, my good could hardly peace, say my dentist, and vice versa.

Today I am comforted in what I consider a blessed gift...that which comes to me looking not welcome is a gift to be welcomed; that which I seek, which I self-determine as for my good, seldom is. A self= determined objective is just that...self-determined. God is rarely found there.

But if we would look, we'd doubtless find God there. God is everywhere...preserving our Souls.

Thank you.

ON RELEASING RESENTMENT...DON'T PICK IT UP

Unless scapegoating can be consciously seen and named through concrete rituals, owned mistakes, shadow work, or repentance, the pattern will usually remain unconscious and unchallenged. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," March 29, 2026

Ah. scapegoating. Back in the day (when I was way younger), scapegoating was my thing; but, face it, to young peeps, scapegoating was the smart way to be. Blame was the name of the game. Find someone to blame for our own...um, let's call them errors in judgment...especially if the one we're blaming is not present. Remember?

Moving into today's world, how free from scapegoating are we in our own mind...in our free-floating thoughts?

I used to jokingly say that finding someone to blame was perfect peace. I did not consciously find peace in blaming; it was finding the point/place/person of origin where my peace began. Often, I did not even realize it...it was after spiritual growth came into my consciousness that I began to earn peace by owning, not blaming, my problem.

My peace of mind came by sharing the ownership of any upset with God. Forgiveness then enwrapped me...no fault attaches made a home in me. Best part...I learned to train that belief on whomever I was resenting. I'm talking freedom.

Truth be told, there is no cheap freedom...letting go of a prized resentment requires that we release it before it becomes prized. Hug it and kiss it and let it go...God's will, God's way.

Thank you.

BEING PEACED BY THE THOUGHT OF GOD

We must not imagine that political changes of themselves will ever bring about the goodness, charity, or transformation that the gospel offers the world. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations", March, 24, 2026

Looking back and longing for the freedom of my chains...." from "Loving Arms" by Tom Jans

I find it strange but interesting the things one reads that speaks to us. The line from "Loving Arms" is a good example...the freedom of my chains. Wow. That says it all.

Just letting that sit in my head, its meaning changed for me more than a few times. Maybe that's why I like the song so much...it changes my mind almost every time I hear it. I like that.

I like that maybe because that's fairly close to my relationship with God. He changes/my mind changes almost every time I think of Him, and I feel peaced in a different, a better, way.

I'm going to ponder that.

Thank you.