WORRY, TOO, IS OF GOD

Mary's prayer: Be it done to me, oh Lord, according to your will. 

My blinding flash of the obvious: My life is being lived according to Your will...whether I know it or not.

That BFO keeps coming back to me...my life is being lived by me according to God's will whether I know it or not. 

Shortly before that came to me, a different spiritual light flashed through me, and I knew it was God enwrapping me. I felt, I sensed, I knew God as my source, my love, my protector...my all.

I have not pondered, not analyzed, not thought a lot about it, but I have lived with a new sense that any and all things that come to me cannot be but for my benefit...no matter the oncoming appearance. That has floated free in and out of my thoughts...demanding nothing, just holding steady and true

Interesting to me is that has not kept my egoic mind from doing what it does whenever it wants, namely, worry, fret, and natter. Ah, with peace sliding in under the wire, allowing my Father to prove his promises: He knows my needs and fills them, he goes before me to make the crooked places straight, he can and will intervene in my life in my behalf, etc.

There. That's why worry, too, is of God. It's our humble invitation to God to _______________. He gets to fill in the blank, he knows our need.

Thank you.

GOD CANNOT NOT LOVE US

Many years ago, a new friend who was an atheist gently said to me that one did not need to believe in God to be a good and decent person. I felt gobsmacked...and that was before my ears ever had heard that word for my mouth to fall in love with.

I briefly considered that idea, but intuitively knew that it did not fit me. Even then I was clear that I not only wanted but needed a Power greater than myself on which to rely, to trust, to grow within me...and that Power was God. Clearly, I had an undeniable reason to believe in God, plus, on my own, I was neither a particularly good nor decent  person...borderline at best. 

Which is why I hold that truth dear...not to mention for when, not if, I go to polishing my halo...again. 

Who's kidding whom? If it weren't for humans, God would have no laughs at all. Hey, we're doing him a favor! There it is...the sliver of gold in taking ourselves too seriously. 

God just loves us.

Thank you.

THE SACRED BLESSING OF UNKNOWING

Looking back to when I began my serious work, i.e., to sincerely and consciously do the Sermon, I "suffered in silence" with two friends, and unknowingly made great leaps within me...which my egoic mind still hides with self-improvement plots. 

Friend One has not connected, Friend Two has semi-connected...yet my silence with Two was thought-driven, i.e., "to get God," and my silence with One has been from love...even as I have not yet grasped how love feels...or is "supposed" to feel. 

My Sunday ritual is a connector/contactor to the great Immensity that Fr Richard writes of. Most often, the words I speak sound like a rank beginner's...and rightly so. Staying there may be a cop out to justify not trusting wholly to God...daring to talk but not walk. 

Doesn't the quote from The Cloud, by love may He be gotten and holden, by thought never, nail it? As in, I have just admitted, first, to not yet grasping how love feels, and, second, to continuing to talk not walk. And what is that but thought in overdrive? 

According to Fr Richard, a transformed person does see things in a much more expanded and compassionate way which St. Paul calls 'a spiritual revolution of the mind.'

My hope is that I'm at the start-gate to becoming a "transformed person," which is close enough for me for now. I do believe I am just where I need to be according to the God of my understanding, and I am even in my ignorance moving on up deeper. I also suspect it is my ignorance that is my blessing.  

Father, hear my prayer, Thank You.

Thank you.

UNBELIEVING HIDES TRUTH...BELIEVE!

Sometimes I say to myself a little prayer in my advancing years, 'God, help me to be the kind of old person young people want old people to be. Help me not just to talk like this, but help me to walk around like this and answer the phone like this and talk to my grandchildren like this.' We’re all trying to do our best here to walk the walk. [Me: Yes! All...and thank you.]  -- James Finley as quoted in Fr Richard's "Daily Meditation," May 13, 2022 

The only people who grow in truth are those who are humble and honest. This is traditional Christian doctrine and is, in effect, the maxim of Alcoholics Anonymous. Without those two qualities—humility and honesty—we just don’t grow. -- Fr Richard's "Daily Meditation," May 20, 2022  

Only one thing is necessary. If you are present, you will be able to know what you need to know. --  May 24, 2022 

BFO: There is a virginal point within me that is God which is ever growing me. --  June 11, 2022 [We all  have a point of less than within us...find that point for there is God.]

All we need to know, we know...what we will need to know, we will know. ..whether we believe it or not. Know this: Not believing hides it from the unbeliever only. 

Believe!

Thank you.

BELIEVE, TRUST, DO...PRAY THANK YOU

From Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, June 7, 2022:  A transformed person does see things in a much more expanded and compassionate way. St. Paul calls it 'a spiritual revolution of the mind.' . . . . . You must contact this Immensity! You must look back at what seems like your life from the place of this Immensity. You must know that this Immensity is already within you. The only thing separating you from such Immensity is your unwillingness to trust such an utterly free grace, such a completely unmerited gift.

When Meister Eckhart's thank you came into my consciousness, this Immensity was mine...I knew and I knew I knew, and I knew this was not of me but of God.

For ever so long I have eyebrows-up believed that. I have been aware, too, that as long as I continue to look for It out there (praying to get), It will not be manifest in my life...in short, I won't have It. It is already within...believe, trust, do.

Ah, and there be the immensity of the egoic mind for which that, too, give thanks. Without the egoic mind continuing to deny that a power greater than itself lives within, the natural person would likely rest on its surety...its surety of knowledge. Which is a good thing but not a sure thing, i.e., the surety it fears to live. 

 

The only surety is God which is only available Now. There is no God in yesterday, there is no God in tomorrow, for yesterday and tomorrow are of the reasoning mind. There is only God Now...here, Now. No seeking for more, no regrets for less...just gratitude for the grace of God, Now.

And if our Now brings poverty, dementia, left all alone...thank you for in those reasoning mind fears we find God's Immensity. It is written that Lazarus was dead, yet arose and walked. Why not believe that? Why not trust that? How else does positive thinking arise and walk? 

Our life through our actions follows our thinking. More things are wrought for good than this world dreams of, to paraphrase Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

It is already within...believe, trust, do...and pray thank you.

Amen.

WE GET IT WRONG TO GET IT RIGHT

Much learning does not teach understanding. -- Heraclitus

Heart-knowledge is more important than head-knowledge.  

Our heart...God...speaks to our head; our head...ego...speaks louder than our heart. 

There. To lower the volume on our ego is the spiritual U-turn we must make to be redirected...away from self toward God. This is the less-than principle that makes that turn vital; i.e., go for less not more, here it is less volume not more. 

Our reasoning mind fears that is "getting it wrong," and Fr Richard calms with "We don't get to God by doing it right, we get to God by doing it wrong." 

Paradox alert! To be right can never be wrong, but to be wrong is a right road to travel.

There in our heart, not our head, is our gold, our peace, love and joy.

Thank you.

ON CHANGING OUR MIND FOR THE BETTER

It seems my prayer has ever been for peace of mind...as a child, young adult, adult, elder, my basic prayer was and is for peace of mind. 

I recently had a God-gifted experience that showed the way for peace within and without us.  

A person I once knew as arrogant entered my life some years later, and I saw them as wholly changed for the better, humble in fact. 

When we recognize that positive change in a person, we now accept that it is our perception that has changed, too. To accept our upgraded perception is to upgrade our memory...resentful memories purified equals a more peaceful mind.

It may be that they have changed for the "better,"  or they may always have been as we see them now,  only hidden by fear...theirs and/or ours!

When we feel ourself resisting anyone...their actions or reactions...our peace depends on our recognizing that the less-than that is appearing is, in spiritual fact, fear hiding good...then our focus is on seeking that good.

Only God can change our mind for good...ours is to cut the lag time by becoming staying willing.

Thank you.