GOD LED, WE JOY IN FOLLOWING

The only way to increase authentic spirituality is to deliberately practice actually enjoying a positive response and a grateful heart. — Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations," November 29, 2025

It has been said that to have an upgraded life, upgrade your gratitude ...your attitude will follow suit. 

That is a spiritual certainty when we follow it. When we strive for it (our self-determined objective), we shut down our spiritual center by giving over to self.

When we deliberately practice actually enjoying a positive response and a grateful heart, our practice is God-led, and we are followers.

Thank you.

LETTING GO...THINK OF IT!, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of November 29, 2015.]

Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. -- Psalm 127

There. That is exactly why, with spiritual growth, the difference between the right way and the wrong way is "the difference between a self-determined objective and the perfect objective which is of God."

Even if the objective is good, beautiful, wholly acceptable in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others, we must know as we breathe, that it is as dust if the Lord's hand is not in it.

Think of all the things that we saw heading our way that we prayed would pass us by. Then on arrival, or at some point thereafter, they became to us obvious gifts from God. Then ponder the things we prayed for...and got!..and bemoaned ever after.

We can never out-think God. His up may very well be our down and/or vice versa. All we are asked to do is accept that. Why is that so easy to preach and so hard to do? The very question causes us to stop and think about it... and there we go, down that wrong road again.

And God loves us anyway. Think of it!

Thank you.

ON LIVING A TURNED-OVER LIFE, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 29, 2018.]

Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. -- Psalm 127

So the difference between 'the boys and the men' is the difference between striving for a self-determined objective and for the perfect objective which is of God. -- Anonymous

So the difference between relying on the reasoning mind and relying on spiritual consciousness is the difference between striving to build our inner house by our own devices and not striving but trusting our Father within to perfectly lead us through the building and then our living therein.

According to me.

Thank you.

ON BEING LIFTED BY GRACE AND BY GOD

Notes from my journal on this Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 2025:

Blinding flash of the obvious: For this I am alone today: To realize His will for me.

The beginning of this day...NOW...feels to me like my early awakening years when I had no real hope.

Lord, I accept this is evidence of my having made the next turn away from self, upward toward Self. As usual it begins by my feeling all the haunting uns...the unloved, unwanted, unneeded, unappreciated ghosts.

BFO: This is the uns clawing to hold on but being lifted away by grace and by God.

May it be so...thank You, Amen.

Thank you.

SELF IS NOT A RELIABLE GUIDE...HENCE, FAITH

Blinding flash of the obvious: Faith is thank you that this is for my benefit in not needing to respond/top what I perceive as an attack...no matter how minor...or major.

Ah, faith is 'thank You' that this, i.e., everything, is for my benefit.

"This" that is for my benefit is a less-than to my reasoning mind's eye. Not needing to respond/top what I perceive as an attack, no matter how minor or major, is continuing spiritual growth. 

We have no physical/mental control over our upward growth, that is where all spiritual growth pays off...in faith a-borning. 

We do have control over impeding our upward growth...it is self-will. 

The mark of spiritual peace comes with the realization that not all self-will is detrimental. It is, however, spiritual growth that determines when, where and how self-will is called for. Self is not a reliable guide.

Faith accepts that we never stop our upward growth...even after death to this world, God is with us for our benefit. That relieves us of the material mind's worry about the way we die with all its self-centered hangers-on.

God is so good to me and thee and us...we. God is so good.

Thank you.

GRATITUDE, GOD'S PERFECT SOLUTION

Here is the deepest lesson of gratitude, then. We are to be grateful not just in the good times, but also in the bad times; to be grateful not just in plenty, but also in need; to maintain thankfulness not just in laughter, but also through tears and sorrow....You may lose a loved one, or facet after facet of your physical [or mental] health, but you can still be grateful for what you have left. -- Brian McLaren, Richard Rohr Daily Meditations, November 25, 2025

In these dark and dangerous times appearing today, we must needs rely on the God of our own understanding...by doubling down on letting go of our resistance to these times. We double down on letting go by love...love alone resists not evil, according to me.

We remember that God can and will if sought...then we recall God can and will whether sought or not. God does not need our permission...it is our open and inviting heart, mind and soul that ease our way. 

The more we think on that, the more we ponder but how?, and the harder we cling to our wants, or self-determined will and way. Loose it and let it go...which is Thy will, not mine, be done...applies if and as we use it.

Here again, our answer: If the only prayer you ever pray in your lifetime is thank You, that would suffice. -- Meister Eckhart

Thank you.

GO BEYOND REASON TO GOD

We may even prefer a pessimistic certainty to a potentially optimistic uncertainty. —Brian McLaren, "Richard Rohr Daily Meditation," November 22, 2025
 
From my own experience, I know that to be true of me...I prefer to know, quick, fast and in a hurry the outcome of any unknown to me. I recall in high school saying that I'd rather be told bad news than to be told to "wait and see."

The hard lesson we are learning is that staying in the mental process of spiritual growth is well-nigh impossible; being lifted above the mental is the pearl beyond price.

We must go beyond reason to love.

Reason is the go-to of the material mind, and the material mind is not naturally attuned to spiritual growth. It's when the material mind gets shucked of its shields by God that our spiritual growth blossoms...and we go beyond reason to love.

We are beginning, barely beginning, to realize that life itself is beyond reason. Now...now!...our inner being, the place where our Father lives, has opened. 

We have been moved beyond reason, and we live now in gratitude.

Thank you.

LIFTED BEYOND FEAR TO THY WILL, THY WAY

If we are not radically grateful every day, resentment always takes over. Moreover, to ask for 'our daily bread' is to recognize that it is already being given. Not to ask is to take our own efforts, needs, and goals—and ourselves—far too seriously. -- "Richard Rohr Daily Meditation," November 23, 2025

Reading that, I realize here's me, sitting in the midst of my fear of dementia and...no, I need to back that up. 

With the grace of God and my own grit, I have moved beyond my fear of dementia, to the place of if dementia be Thy will for me, I can let it be. 

I accept that today as my jumping off place...away from self-determined objectives to Thy will, not mine, be done...please and thank You.

That relieves my gutbucket fear but does not entirely relieve the trepidation. That, too, is a good thing...it keeps me turned to God, for God, with God. 

The miracle-working power of gratitude...it keeps us turned to God from which flows all good whether we realize it in the moment or not.

God is so good to me...and thee...and them. To All. 

Thank you.

IF THIS BE FEAR, LOVE IT, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of November 20, 2019.]

The line what was it that you thought needed to be loved comes to me when I find that I've invited a fear into my consciousness...not a fear of such as cancer or dementia, but a common-as-dirt fear, like looking dumb in public, getting caught putting on airs...that kind of fear, the "soft" fears.

Unsurprisingly, those fears are harder to love than the "hard" fears of cancer or dementia, obviously because coming to love cancer, et al., when we don't have them, is purely in the abstract.

Ah, but common or soft fears live in our ego and visit at their pleasure, any hour of the day or night. It helps to think of them as the human condition. Our job is not to be rid of them forever and ever, an ego-wish if ever there was one, but to give them breathing room.

For instance, when, not if, I again find myself mentally knowing I am better than Gertrude, I count myself blessed when I quick remember that this is fear, i am resisting that which i fear, I can love this...thank you. Then turn my thoughts to lilies of the valley, my dog Ruckus romping around Heaven, or what I'm going to have for dinner...which, who's kidding whom, works best.

What I particularly like about giving my ego fears breathing room is it reminds me that I need beware of trying to be so spiritual that I fault myself for being human. Love, laugh and move on is the goal.

Face it, if it weren't for humans, God wouldn't have any laughs at all.

Thank you.

OURS IS TO LOVE...PERIOD

Source of all truth, help me to hunger for truth, even if it upsets, modifies, or overturns what I already think is true. Guide me into all the truth I can bear and stretch me to bear more, so that I may always choose the whole truth, even with disruption, over half- truths with self-deception. Grant me the passion to follow wisdom wherever it leads. Thank you.  -- Brian McLaren

It is so easy to say Thy will, not mine, be done, oh Lord...to say and kid our self that we are praying the essence of those words. 

We are not. We are not even praying; we are saying...repeating...parroting, etc.

This came to me this morning in this blinding flash of the obvious: Our need is to realize that it is not for our worst fear (dementia today) to be lifted out of us, it is for us to love. Period. To love. aiming to love as God loves...dementia, raindrops and roses, friends and those on the way to becoming friends, et al. 

Plain and simple...our need is to realize that we are the love we seek. The Christ hook:  We must give it away to get it.

Thank you.

ON USING THE WORDS OF THE LORD ARIGHT

When the words of [the Lord] are put into practice the kingdom comes -- Theologian Megan McKenna, "Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations" November 6, 2025

My hard lesson a-learning: It is not only acceptable but necessary to put "the words of the Lord" into our own words. How else do we come to own them?

Just quoting the Bible, with no inner connection, or with only an eyebrows-up understanding, is akin to words on a blackboard...no matter how true their meaning, until we absorb them, make them our own, they are temporary to us.

It's like having a pricey sable coat in our closet that we refuse to wear lest we "wear it out." It is, in fact, useless in its primary purpose...our warmth in the wintertime...and for that matter it is useless in its secondary purpose, i.e., parading it for others to see and envy. The envy we seek is for us yet all we've done is own a warm coat that is useless in its primary purpose.

When the words of [the Lord] are put into practice the kingdom comes. When we use aright the words of the Lord (the tools of daily living), our inner life knows the kingdom which then is reflected in the world.

Thank you. 

ON SEEKING TO LIVE OUR REVELATIONS

They that have revelation must live it. Practice doing no harm...set an intention...it’s not just words that we speak, it’s a life practice that supports us in regularly aligning our heart and mind with our actions...set an intention and reflect on it often. This intention is about doing no harm in our speech, our actions, or in our thoughts. -- Fr Richard Rohr, August 3, 2019, "Daily Meditation"

They that have revelation must live it. 

Whoa! I have felt that I have had revelation many times, and often it turned out to be egoic hope...but I don't fault even that. Face it, egoic hope just needs to get shed of the egoic part. 

"Just."  Uh-huh. 

I have learned...am still learning...of the two levels of learning, i.e., spiritual and material.  Spiritual is of God, material is of the egoic self... getting rid of any egoic idea requires direct interaction with our Father. our Father taking the lead.

Ah, there it is...the Gordian Knot: Our Father does not take the lead, our Father is the lead. 

Giving over, giving up, giving in to that is the important, all but impossible, deal. Especially when we so earnestly want to do just that. 

There...another lesson in learning, Want is THE self-determined objective...that's how we come to realize that it is not our want that hinders us, it is the result of our want that hinders us. I have wanted still more spiritual growth for nigh on fifty years...and I've gotten it, only not how I pictured it. I saw it as making me not only feel good but look good.

Who would envision that showing your bumm in public is a spiritual act? Who would pray for that?  

To the material mind, praying for that is the self-determined objective of a misguided soul...I almost put "of an egomaniacal fool" but that is a tish strong.

Learning, and then acting on what we've learned, is all there is to still more spiritual growth, isn't it? Because it requires giving over to the unthinking, invisible, silent Spirit within. Faith, in a word. 

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

Thank you.

MY LESSON IN LEARNING HOW TO SEE

Philosopher George Lakoff challenges the mistaken idea that arose during the Enlightenment that it is possible to see issues clearly, based entirely on reason. -- Brian McLaren, "Learning How to See," Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, November 17, 2025 

There's my eye-opener... the idea that it is possible to see issues clearly, based entirely on reason is mistaken! Never did I fully realize that about me...it's like breathing, why question it?

But that fairly well excludes faith, the need for faith, the very fact of faith...if reason be the all-in-all, faith of necessity would be left in the dust of despair aborning, I'm guessing. 

Enlightenment reason does not recognize different worldviews. That seems entirely contradictory...to me, enlightenment is a God-opened mind, but, of course, this refers to the Age of Enlightenment, not today's view of enlightenment. Or my today's view at any rate.

Good news/bad news: Here's me showing my ignorance in public...that's it, the good news and the bad news as one. 

God is so good to me.

Thank you.

GOD'S MOST PRECIOUS GIFT...DEMENTIA?

Dementia may be my it's-just-life plan. My mind has ever been my safety net and working free from that has been my spiritual gift...thus, dementia may be the cherry on top. 

Like the priest with the lepers ... if that be so, thank You for letting me guide others coming into this...anonymously/spiritually. 

It has been noted that all through the Gospels, there are people like us who receive what they don’t deserve...yet we who crash and burn are blessed. Our worst-case scenario, that we have nowhere to go but to a Higher Power, becomes our saving grace. 

The idea of being blessed with dementia looms as another hard road to walk. But, I remind me, if my primary dread disease can be a blessing, and it is to me today, then so can dementia be.

Go with God's will, God's way, stay in the Now, and peace will enwrap us. I know this from experience, and I am grateful...just a tish leery, but ready.

Thank you.

TO PONDER...FOR TO DO

Among Native Americans, spirituality is integral in everything. It’s tangible. Whether ceremony or just the way we conduct ourselves daily, the entirety of life is viewed as a sacred, spiritual path. -- Randy and Edith Woodley, from a recent "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations"

I found the following in the above-noted Rohr article, and it interests me: How might we think about ceremony in our own life? As in, have we looked into the meaning of symbols in our own ancestry? Or, is there a group with whom we talk about spiritual things? Could the group come up with a practice that connects us to the land or water—even something small. 

Ah, a project to help upgrade my judgmental mind from my opinion of today's World According to Trump. 

Please and thank You.

Thank you.

OUR NEMESIS IS OUR ANGEL, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 28, 2018.]

The forever lesson to learn: To our reasoning mind, the one arousing our negative side is our nemesis...ah, but spiritually, that one is our angel.

There it is...the key to changing our mind. Then we must needs stay our focus on the power within which is ever on hand to further the opening, as needed.

This is an ongoing spiritual process...an opened mind releases the power for good within. Our detachment frees our thoughts from building self-determined results. That which we are resisting is freely transmuted in our mind...and we are graced with another angel in our midst.

Thank you.

GOD'S MYSTERIOUS WAYS...OUR WONDROUS, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of November 22, 2021.]

When you've stumbled--and the guilt, loneliness, and fear come to assault you--if you don't have at least one good friend, or if you have not developed a prayer life where you know how to find yourself in God instead of in your own feelings, you will simply retrench and reassert your correctness. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," June 13, 2016

I love to note and note again: "When you've stumbled...." When not if.

We only parade our victim-self when we stumble and call ourself all manner of ugly...or find someone to blame and shame for our ugly. There is no God there. There is only self, glorified in our own feelings of less-than...unloved, unwanted, unneeded, unappreciated...and loving our hurt of it. Why would we ever let that go?

I'm a believer that it is the stumbling that is the root of thank you.

When, not if, we stumble, trip, fall, make a blithering fool of ourself, thank you is the Velveteen Rabbit that hugs us, kisses us, calls us Beloved. Ah, and opens us to God's love and laughter...now ours.

God works in mysterious ways to make our life wondrous.

Thank you.

THE NEXT LEG OF MY JOURNEY

The inner Christ is leading us to It, the new self, on a new path, which is the total transformation of consciousness, worldview, motivation, goals, and rewards that characterize one who loves and is loved by God. — a paraphrase of the November 8, 2025, Richard Rohr quote

Dementia!

There. I've put our newest scare word out there...up front and shaky.

Dementia seems to be an epidemic today and, being as we can't "catch" dementia from each other, I tend to believe the medical profession is the source...or, in short, money, honey. 

According to me, today's "dementia" is yesterday's "old-age forgetfulness."  But who made money off that? 

I know. I know...that is a fairly jaded opinion. The medical profession may be right: Dementia may be on the march and rising...but may be and certain sure are two different diagnoses, leading to life-altering paths. 

Face it, dementia is going to require doctors which costs money...old-age forgetfulness requires patience with self and others, and a deeper relationship with our Higher Power...or God. This does not mean we never need to see a doctor...falls, cuts, flu, they will continue and will need a doctor's care. We can be grateful to have an understanding one.

I am aware that today there are neurological tests for dementia. I'm all for getting tested, and I'm even looking forward to getting mine. I've let the Father walk me into accepting whatever the outcome is for me. 

This I know from experience: Whatever the outcome, best or worst case, God is already there with me. 

Thank you.

LETTING GO...THINK OF IT! 1

[The following is a reprint of my blog of November 29, 2015.]

Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. -- Psalm 127

There. That is exactly why, with spiritual growth, the difference between the right way and the wrong way is "the difference between a self-determined objective and the perfect objective which is of God."

Even if the objective is good, beautiful, wholly acceptable in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others, we must know as we breathe, that it is as dust if the Lord's hand is not in it.

Think of all the things that we saw heading our way that we prayed would pass us by. Then on arrival, or at some point thereafter, they became to us obvious gifts from God. Then ponder the things we prayed for...and got!..and bemoaned ever after.

We can never out-think God. His up may very well be our down and/or vice versa. All we are asked to do is accept that. Why is that so easy to preach and so hard to do? The very question causes us to stop and think about it... and there we go, down that wrong road again.

And God loves us anyway. Think of it!

Thank you.

NEVER SHORT-SHEET SELF-DISCIPLINE. I

[This is a reprint of my blog of November 18, 2016.]

Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have sent my spirit upon him, he will bring fair judgment to the nations.--Isaiah 42:1

I sent the above quote to a friend on the day of President Obama's first inaugural, January 20, 2009, with a note that I felt it perfectly described our new president.

My sincere prayer for myself is to upgrade my own opinion of President-elect Trump so that I can know within myself that quote perfectly describes this new president.

Achieving that upgrade is my responsibility through the grace of gratitude and God...and self-discipline.

Thank you.

Addendum: November 10, 2025...Well, achieving that upgrade has proven impossible for me...maybe even for God, but I'll not belabor that point. I pray for peace and keep on truckin'.

LET HIM...THE HARDEST PART, 1

 [This is a reprint of my post of November 15, 2016.]

Not by might, nor by Power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord. - Zechariah 4:6

There it is, the simplified version of the Bible, according to me. I say it is the one instruction we need hold near and dear in our head and heart. Fighting with words or guns...or silent scorn...will never get us free. This is especially true if we win our fight; we have a better chance for freedom from self if we lose.

The great gettin' up news is "My Spirit" is always, always, always available to us. The uh-oh, wait a  minute news is It is not available on demand. Although It is within us, without us, we accept that it is our privilege, our honor, our very duty to seek My Spirit. Our seeking is what brings us into the atmosphere of God.

It is in the atmosphere of God that our mind is changed, upgraded actually, from our hard-charging, gotta win, gotta get mine, runaway thought-train into the peace that passes all understanding. Into the presence of the Father within "who doeth the works."

Let Him.

Thank you. 

TWO WAYS TO SEE ONE THING, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 24, 2016.]

I just read an old note I wrote in my "God Calling," and it thrilled me to my toes. All I had written was, Yesterday, I gave over to John in a very small but ego-denying way. Thank you.

I made note of it because I had just started the big turn from thinking any giving over was proof I was gutless and would never be able to stand up for myself, take my own part, know and show that I'm just as good as anyone...the poor-pitiful-put-upon-me list drags on.

I'm glad I date my notes and that I made note of this because, in truth, it isn't all that old. In my mind, I've been doing this for a long, long time..."this" being giving over. And there it is...that is my ah-ha. I've given over for a long, long time, only I've just begun to realize it as God's better way and not ego's wimp-out.

This is proof again that there are two ways of looking at every one thing...through our ego's eyes and whine or through God's and bask in sunshine.

Thank you.

WRONG MADE RIGHT, MADE RIGHTEOUS

Whatever you believe about [them], believe this about you: the things that seem to be going most wrong for you may in fact be the things that are going most right. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to fix them. It just means they may need blessing as much as they need fixing, since the blessing is already right there. -- Spiritual writer Barbara Brown Taylor, Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, November 4, 2025

I had plans yesterday to have lunch with a friend when I would share (dump on her?) my deepening fear of dementia.

Quite often, plans are made to be broken.

My friend, feeling less than well, had to cancel...clearly, I had come to the time for taking my own "part"...of doing my growth work for me. I had so resigned myself to the fear of dementia that I did not remember my hard-earned alternatives...that God and I are responsible for me, my thoughts, and any and all glitches in my life, within me/without me.

I am the source of all my good and all my good does not often appear as good to my reasoning mind's eyes. I once believed that I am the source of all my woes, which I see now is the same difference.

Having been led to God, I am content being the source of all my woes from which has, did, will come all my good...I go to God a-grinning.

Thy will, Thy way.

Thank you.

SECRETS AND SAND DUNES, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of November 19, 2015.]

I am deeply shaken. Secrets, the bane of life itself.

I've learned of a friend's secret which feels like a complete betrayal of me and all I've shared with her. She keeps secrets, and I never realized it...until recently. Then she let slip her secret of something she stole from me. I don't really mind that she has it, I care beyond words that she did it in secret...and does not seem to have a clue that her behavior is hurtful.

I'm reminded of the cat that does her business in a sand box, covers it up and calls it a sand dune. It is not...it is a secret.

I go back again to my fail-safe: "If somebody hurts us and we are sore, we are in the wrong also." That's where I need to keep my focus. Not on the wrong...that's not mine...but on my "deeply shaken," my "hurt."

Fortunately, I have learned it is true what Eckhart Tolle espouses: "Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness." In short, I needed this, if for no other reason than to learn more completely that my reaction is more important to my spiritual growth than what I am reacting to.

Thy will not mine be done.

Thank you.

ON LIVING IN THE REIGN OF GOD

The Sermon on the Mount is not about preserving the status quo! It’s about living here on earth as if the reign of God has already begun. In this reign, the Sermon tells us, the poor are blessed, the hungry are filled, the grieving are filled with joy, and enemies are loved. -- Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

Blinding flash of the obvious: Unselfed...dementia; ah, answered prayer.

If dementia be our answered prayer, then that is where God is...in the dementia which we welcome. It is in welcoming the less-thans of life that fear is transmuted unto peace. 

The transformation is the blessing.

Fear...we hug it, we kiss it, we let it go, and we live in the reign of God.

Thank you.

THE ESSENCE OF NONVIOLENCE, I

 [The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my blog of November 3, 2015.]

Bearing with people is the essence of nonviolence. -- Eknath Easwaran

That makes sense to me. Actually, it leads me to wonder if all violence doesn't begin with a single resistant thought; and if that single resistant thought, not addressed, isn't the path to God. We can give up addressing the one we are resisting, and go inside, to the really and truly great emancipator, God. There it is, the first step in getting free of our own resistance.

Or, put more beautifully, not to mention succinctly, by Julian of Norwich: And thus I saw when we are all in peace and in love, we find no contrariness, nor no manner of letting through that contrariness which is now in us.

Our happiness, our peace, our joy itself is entirely ours to show and to shower. Yet still we war.

War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

Thank you.

FEAR...GOD'S TOOL FOR US TO WELCOME

All through the Gospels, people receive what they don’t deserve. Relentless generosity is hard for us to comprehend, much less practice. That kind of unconditional justice is beyond our human power. -- Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, November 14, 2024

Fear. My unwelcome friend. My nemesis without which I likely would never have chosen my spiritual path. 

My spiritual path, that which saves my sanity on a daily basis. It requires me to go beyond reason to love.

I am resisting my fear of dementia...to be clean-hearted honest, I am resisting my fear that I have dementia right now. Words are wonderful, but, when fear is riding herd, repeating God's will, God's way feels like whistling in the dark...un, just un.

The hidden pearl beyond price: It is fear riding herd that turns us to the Father within...or, our wholly...holey...holy...safety net.

Comes the blinding flash: My path to walk today is to believe dementia is another of God's gifts for my benefit. Then let it come...with fear, of course, but unresisting.

Thank you.

LEGIMATE SUFFERING IS THE REWARD, I

 [The following is a reprint of my post of October 23, 2022.]

Long-ago blinding flash of the obvious: If we do not grow spiritually, welcoming ego reduction in depth, then ego-victory thinking will be our guide, and ego-invited pain will be our reward.

Our "reward" will cause us to miss the gift of what Fr Richard defines as "legitimate suffering." 

According to me, legitimate suffering is of God. In the moment, it hurts as much as egoic suffering,..hurt is hurt, pain is pain...ah, but it leaves us feeling enwrapped in the peace that passes understanding. 

Egoic suffering just brings resentful pain which doubles down on us until by grace and by God, we can let it go.

Thank you.