Our true self is hidden/what appears to be nothingness.We can rise above
this unreality.
RECOVERY/OUR HIDDEN REALITY
In our creation
He asks a question.
In our truly living;
God answers
the question.
Our vocation is to work to- gether w/God/the creation of
our life/destiny/to work out
our identity in God.
To be unknown to God is entirely too much privacy
We thank Him
by words and the
serene happiness
of acceptance.
It's our emptiness
in the presence of
His reality/our silence in the presence of His infinitely rich silence/our joy in the bosom /the serene darkness in which His light holds/absorbs us. All this praises Him.
of acceptance.
It's our emptiness
in the presence of
His reality/our silence in the presence of His infinitely rich silence/our joy in the bosom /the serene darkness in which His light holds/absorbs us. All this praises Him.
Don't look for rest in any pleasure b/c you weren't created for pleasure: you were
created for spiritual joy. If you don't know
the difference between pleasure/spiritual
created for spiritual joy. If you don't know
the difference between pleasure/spiritual
joy you havn't begun to live.
There's only one problem which all my existence/peace/ happiness depend:
to discover myself in discovering God. If I find Him I will find my-self. If I find my true self I will find Him.
To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a sense die.
This death is the entrance into a higher life. It's a death for the sake of life which
leaves behind all that
we can know or
we can know or
treasure as life/ thought/experience/ joy/being/every form of intuition/experience. Die to be born again on a higher level of life.
The ever-changing reality we live may awaken us to the possibility of an uninterrupted dialogue w/ God of love/choice/deep wills.
Justify my soul, O God, but also from Your fountains fill my will with fire. Shine in my
mind, although perhaps this means “be darkness to my experience.
Let my eyes see nothing in the world but Your glory. Let my hands touch nothing that
isn't for Your service.
Let me use
all things to find my
joy giving
all things to find my
joy giving
You glory.
keep me from sin. Keep me from death of
deadly sin which puts hell in my soul.
The devil makes many disciples by preaching against sin. He convinces them the great evil of sin induces a crisis of guilt by which “God is satisfied," after that he lets them spend the rest of their lives meditating on the
intense sinfulnessof others.
Keep me from the murder of lust
that blinds and poisons my heart.
Keep me from the dead works of vanity and thankless labor artists destroy them-selves for pride/money/reputation and saints are smothered under the avalanche of their own zeal.
Stanch in me the
rank wound of covetousness/
the hungers that exhaust my nature
w/ their bleeding.
Stamp out the serpent envy that stings love w/ poison/kills all joy.
Untie my hands/deliver my heart fr sloth.
Set me free fr. laziness that goes abt disguised as activity when activity isn't
required of me/fr cowardice that does
what isn't needed to escape sacrifice.
ππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππ
Give me strength that waits on You in silence peace.
Give me humility which alone is rest.
Possess my whole heart and soul w/ the simplicity of love. Occupy my life w/ one thought/desire of love.
May I not love
for the sake of
perfection/
merit/virtue
/sanctity.
/sanctity.
Only love
You alone.
What in God might appear to us as "play" perhaps is what he takes most seriously.You alone.
the Lord plays/diverts Himself in the gar-
den of His creation. If we could let go of our obsession
w/ what we think is the meaning of it all we might be able to hear His call/follow Him in
His mysterious
His mysterious
cosmic dance.
We don't have to
go very far to catch
echoes of that game/dancing. When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see
children in a moment when
children in a moment when
they really are children; when
we know love
in our hearts;
when, like the Japanese poet BashΕ we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash--at such times the awakening, turning inside out all values, the "newness,"/
emptiness/purity of vision that make themselves evident provide a glimpse
of the cosmic dance.
the world/time
are the dance of the Lord in emptiness
In the end the con- templative suffers the anguish of realizing that he no longer knows what God is.π
The contemplative may or may not realize this is a great gain, because “God is not a what,” not a “thing.” That's one of the essential characteristics of contemplative experience. π It sees there is no “what” that can be called God.
There is “no such thing” as God because God is neither a “what” nor a “thing” but a pure “Who.” He is the “Thou” before whom our inmost “I” springs into awareness. He is the I Am before whom with our own most personal and inalienable voice we echo “I am.”
no despair of ours can alter the reality of things; or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. We are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not.
https://youtu.be/q2dMSfmUJec
We're invited to forget ourselves on purpose/cast our solemnity to the winds/
join in the general dance.
π the deep certitude πof contemplative experience
awakens a tragic anguish/ opens many questions in the depths of the heart like wounds that cannot stop bleeding
ππππππππππππ
FOR EVERY GAIN IN DEEP CERTITUDE THERE'S A CORRESPONDING GROWTH OF SUPER-
FICIAL "DOUBT".
GENUINE FAITH
mercilessly questions
the spurious "faith" of everyday life/ human
faith which is but the passive acceptance of conventional opinion.
Real contemplation
is incompatible w/ complacency/compliance of bigotry. It's
not passive to surrender the status quo.
This would reduce it to
spiritul anesthesia.
It b/c impossible
to comfort them-
selves w/ images/
concepts they
found reassuring
in childhood.
concepts they
found reassuring
in childhood.
Place no hope in the feeling of assurance in spiritual comfort. One may have to get along without this. Self-
confidence is a natural
sign of health. It's not the same thing as faith. Faith is much deeper: it must be. It
subsists when self
confidence/self
respectis gone
when one is weak/
respectis gone
when one is weak/
sick. FAITH MUST BE
ABLE TO GO ON EVEN
WHEN EVERYTHING IS TAKEN AWAY. Only one
humble enough is able to accept
faith on terms like these w/o reserve.
One is glad of it in
it's pure state/
welcomes it w/joy
when nothing else comes w/ it.
Destiny is to be softened and prepared in this life by God’s will to receive at their death the seal of their own degree of likeness to God in Christ.
The more we persist misunderstanding the
phenomena of life/over
analyzing them into
complex purposes/
finalities of our own/involving ourselves
in our own dispare we experience more absurdity / despair / sadness.
If one spends one's life escaping fr the heat of the fire that is meant to soften/
prepare one to b/c one's true self/to keep substance fr melting in the fire as if one's true identity were to be hard wax—the seal will fall on one at last and crush one. One will not be able to take one's own
true name / countenance. One will be destroyed by the event that was meant to
be one's fulfillment.
The real purpose of
meditation is this:
teach a man how to work himself free
of created things / temporal concerns
which he finds con-
confusion /sorrow. Enter into a conscious loving contact w/ God which he is dis-posed to receive God's help he knows
he needs so badly/ to praise /honor give/thanks / love God whom it's
now b/c his joy to give.”
Be poor, go down into the far end of society. Take the last place among men. Live with those who are despised. Love other men. Serve
them instead of making them serve you.
Turn away from things that
satisfy your senses and your mind.
Look for God in hunger / thirst / dark-
ness, through deserts of the spirit
which seems to be madness to travel.
Take upon yourself
Christ’s burden the
Cross: that is Christ’s humility, obedience,
poverty/renunciation.
poverty/renunciation.
You will find peace for your souls.
Our vocation is not
simply to be, but to work together w/ God in the creation of our own life, identity, destiny. To work out our identity in God.
When men live huddled together w/o true rapport there seems to be a greater sharing/real communion. This
immersion is the
meaninglessness of countless slogans and clichΓ©s repeated over and over again. In the end one lis-tens w/out hear- ing/responds w/othinking.
The constant din of empty words and machine noises/ the endless booming
of loudspeakers end by making true communication and true communion almost impossible.
of loudspeakers end by making true communication and true communion almost impossible.
A humble man takes what there is in the world that helps him to find God/leaves the rest aside
There's no
cogito 'I think no ergo 'therefore'
but only SUM.
I AM. Not in the sense of a futile assertion of our individuality as ultimately real/in the humble realization of our mysterious being as persons in whom God dwells w/
infinite sweetness/complete power.
FAITH” that merely
confirms us in con-ceit/complacency is an expression of theological doubt.
True faith is never merely a source of spiritual comfort. It may bring peace.
Before it does it must involve us in struggle. Faith that avoids struggle
is a temptation
is a temptation
against true faith.
Genuine con-templation is
incompatible w/
bigoted opinions/
smug acceptance/
of complacency.
of complacency.
If we have chosen the way of falsity we must not be sur-prised that truth
eludes us when we
eludes us when we
come to need it.
There might be some incongruity in
praying to the God of peace Who told us to love each other as He had loved us warned us that they who took the sword would perish by it/at the same time planned to annihilate mil- lions of civilians, soldiers, men, women, children, w/o discrimination, even w/ almost infallible certainty of inviting the same annihilation for ourselves!
When I pray for peace I'm not praying the Russians will give up w/o a struggle and let us have our own way. I'm praying both we and the Russians may somehow be re-stored to sanity/learn to work out our prob -lems as best we can together instead of preparing for global suicide.
It's “their Jesus” who gets in the way/makes all thought of Jesus impos-sible. They wish to force their Jesus on us.
He is perhaps only a projection of themselves. Are they asking to be loved,
recognized, valued for themselves?
He is perhaps only a projection of themselves. Are they asking to be loved,
recognized, valued for themselves?
The humble man takes whatever there is in the world that helps him to find God and leaves the rest aside.
The only justification
for a life of deliberate
solitude/the convic-
tion it will help you
tion it will help you
love God and men.
In Sophia, the highest wisdom, greatness/majesty of the unknown God, all that
is rich/maternal/
creative is united/
inseparable as paternal/maternal principles: the uncreated Father
/created Wisdom.
God utters me like a word containing a partial thought of Himself. A word will never be able to comprehend the voice
You may have to do w/out
hope in as-
surance/spirit-
ual comfort.
Humility delivers a man from attachment to his his own works reputation.
We discovers joy is
possible when we
have completely
forgotten ourselves.
True faith must be
able to go on when everything else is taken away from us.
able to go on when everything else is taken away from us.
When they began to struggle w/real dif- ficulties/burdens of mature life they b/c aware of their own weakness/lost their peace/let go of their self-respect/ and it became impossible for them to “believe.
One who hates w/a quiet conscience is one who's smugly blind to all un-worthiness in him-self and is serenely capable of seeing all his own wrongs in someone else.
as long as you pretend to live in pure autonomy, as your own master, without even a god to rule you, you will inevitably live as the servant of another man or as the alienated member of an organization.
it's acceptance of God that makes you
free/ delivers you fr. human tyranny.
free/ delivers you fr. human tyranny.
When you serve
Him you aren't longer
permitted to alienate your spirit in human
servitude.
God didn't invite the
Children of Israel to leave the slavery of
Egypt: He commanded them to do so.
THE poet enters into himself in order to create. The contemplative enters into God
in order to be created.
THE contemplative who is guided by him-self is the most dangerous man. He trusts
his own vision/identifies the will of God w/ things that make him feel w/in
his own heart a big warm inner glow. The warmer the feeling the more he's sure of his
infallibility.
To consent
to His will is to consent to be true/ to speak truth/to seek it.
To obey Him is to respond to His will expressed in the need of another person, or at least to respect the rights of others.
the right of another man is the expression of God’s love and God’s will
No man who ig-
nores the rights
/needs of others
can hope to walk
in the light of contemplation.
His way has turned
aside fr truth/compassion therefore fr God
The requirements
of a work to be done can be understood as the will of God.
If I am supposed
to hoe a garden or make a table I will be obeying God. If
I'm true to the task I'll be doing the work
well w/love/respect for the nature of it w/
attention to its purpose. This is to unite
myself to God’s will in my work. This way
I b/c His instrument/He works thru me.
frantic/anxious work done un-der pressure of greed or fear
or any other inordinate pas-
sion, can't be dedicated to God, b/c God never wills such work directly.
Sometimes we work madly/dis-
tractedly due to
our sins/ to the sins of the society we live in.
The saints were absorbed in God.
They were capable of see/appreciating
created things/they loved Him alone. They alone loved everybody.
The saint is never offended by anything and judges no man’s sin because he does
not know sin.
Saints know the mercy of God. They know that His own mission on earth is to bring mercy to all men.
We don't choose to
awaken our-selves. God chooses to awaken us.”
To renounce resentment one has to renounce the shadow self.
The shadow. self feels itself
menaced by
the confusion without which
it can't persist.π
https://youtu.be/HODqykNZopg
Contemplations
open out to the mystery of God when
open out to the mystery of God when
it arrives at reality after an intuitive awakening when one's personal reality
is alive to it's existential depths.
is alive to it's existential depths.
There is one problem which all my ex-istence/peace and happiness depend: to discover my true self I will find Himπ
Like the disciples of Emmaus, you will realize how fitting it was that your heart burn w/in you when the incidents of your day’s work spoke to you of Christ Who
In a totalitarian parade: the self-righteous upsurge
of party loyalty absolves every
criminal tend-
ency/blots out con-
ency/blots out con-
science in the name
of sect/class/Nation/Party/Race the ex-
perience of being taken out of oneself
captured by collective zeal.
The danger/attraction of false mystiques of Nation Class is they seduce/pretend to sat-tisfy those who are not aware of any deep
or genuine spiritual need.
Hunger born of humility which can't be
satisfied w/ formulas/arguments which
looks for something closer to God than
the penetrating/ serene hunger of the Spirit. It goes beyond the serface words of human
formulation of my-
steries. It seeks the
humiliation of silent interior pov-
erty/intellectual sol-
itude gifts of a supernatural apprehension words cannot truly signify.π
The mystery of Jesus in the Gospel con-
centrates the rays of God’s light / fire to a point. It sets fire to the spirit of man.
Sometimes this reduced existence lauded as humility/self-sacrifice or obedience is
devotion to the dialectic of class war. It produces a kind of peace/not peace. It's only escape from an urgent sense of conflict/isn't anesthetic or peace. Isn't self realization/self dedication.
It's a flight into irresponsibility.
Each moment brings
w/ it germs of spiritual vitality that come to
rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Such seeds as
these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of spontaneity
w/ it germs of spiritual vitality that come to
rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Such seeds as
these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of spontaneity
love and freedom.
Don't think you can show your love for Christ by hating those who seem to be His enemies on earth. Suppose they really do
hate Him: nevertheless
He loves them, and you can't be united with Him unless you love them too. πππ
Humility is
the surest sign
of strength.
the surest sign
of strength.
Contemplatives
suffer anguish
of realizing one
does not know
what God is.
suffer anguish
of realizing one
does not know
what God is.
Christ's Spirit
is able to love you, everyone, God the Father in a way that wouldn't be possible in anybody else.
The will of God doesn't come to us
as mere external dictates of law. His law is an interior invitation of love.
The conventional conception of
“God’s will” as sphinx-like arbitrary force bearing down on us w/ im-
placable hostility leads men to lose faith in a God they can't love.
He is Three Persons, but One God. He is at once infinite solitude (one nature) and perfect society.
One Infinite Love/three relationships.
Instead of worshipping God through His creation we are always trying to worship ourselves by means of creatures.
The infinite Love of God is always be-
It's renewed. It never rests in It's
endless source.
If you write
only for your-
self you can
read what you
wrote ten minutes later you'll be so disgusted you'll wish you were dead.
No idea of Him, however pure and perfect is adequate to express Him as He really is.
Our idea of God tells us more abt our-selves then abt Him. Such a view of the
divine will drives human weakness
to despair. One wonders if it's not
itself often the expression of in-
itself often the expression of in-
tolerable despair that can't be admitted to conscious consideration.
/arbitrary "dic-
tates” of a dom-
mineering insen-sible Father are more often seeds of hatred than love. If that's our concept of the will of God we can't possibly seek the obscure intimate mystery of the encounter that
takes place in contemplation.
We must learn to realize that the love of God seeks us in every situation and
seeks our Good.
His inscrutable
love seeks our awakening.
love seeks our awakening.
This awakening
implies a kind
of death to our exterior self. We will dread His coming in proportion as we are identified with this exterior self and attached to it.
God’s love warms
me in the sun/
sends the cold/
feeds me by hunger/fasting/
sends the winter days when I'm
cold sick. In sum-
mer when I work
my clothes are
full of sweat: it's God who breaths on me w/light winds
off the river and
breezes out of
the woods.
His love
seeks our
awakening
His love spreads the shade of the
sycamore over my head/sends the water boy along the edge of the wheat field with a
bucket fr the spring. The lab-orers are resting. The mules stand under the tree.
Contemplation is awareness this “I” isn't really "I”. It's awakening of the unknown “I” that's beyond ob- servation/reflec- ction. It's incap-able of commenting on itself. Its nature is to be hidden, unnamed, unidentified in the society where men talk abt them-
selves and one another. The true “I” re- mains inarticulate/invisible because it has too much to say. Not one word is about itself.
selves and one another. The true “I” re- mains inarticulate/invisible because it has too much to say. Not one word is about itself.
God’s love speaks to me in the birds and streams; but also behind the
din of the city. God speaks to me in His judgments. All these things are seeds sent to me from His will. ππ
din of the city. God speaks to me in His judgments. All these things are seeds sent to me from His will. ππ
If these seeds would take root in my liberty and grow I would b/c the love
He is and my har-
vest would be His glory /my own joy.
vest would be His glory /my own joy.
We never see
the one truth
the one truth
that would help us solve ethical/political problems:
we're all more or less wrong.
We're all at fault, limited, obstruc-ted by our mixed motives, self-ception, greed, self-righteousnes, tendency to aggressivity/hypocrisy.
One can't enter into the deepest center of oneself and pass through that center into God unless one is willing to pass
out of oneself empty
oneself/give oneself to others/ the purity
of selfless love.
The only One
Who can teach me
to find God is God Himself.
But someone will say: "if we recognize
We're all equally wrong all political
We're all equally wrong all political
action will be inept.
We can only act when we are in the right.
π¦π¦π¦
I believe the basis for
valid political action is
the recognition solutions
to problems aren't
to problems aren't
accessible to any one is-olated party/ nation. all must arrive at it by working together.
One who is aware of one’s s own unworth/the worthlessness/others is
tempted w/
hate: hate of
everyone and
everything is
tainted w/un-
worthiness,
unclean w/ sin.
Nothings more
alien to con-templation than the cogito/ergo
sum of Descartes.“I think therefore I am.” This is the de-
decree of an alien-
ated being in exile
from his spiritual core urged to seek
cheer proving his own existence(!)
The more I b/c identified w/ with God the more will I be identified with all others who are identified w/ Him.π§‘
We shall love one another God w/
the same Love with which He loves us
and Himself. This love is God Himself.
He arrives at his
some“thing” alien to himself. He proves the “thing” exist. He satisfies Himself. God the infinite/transcendent is also a “thing,” an “object,” like other finite and limited objects of our thought!”
Contemplation
is the experiential grasp of reality as
existential mystery
Contemplation doesn't arrive at reality after a process of de-duction. Intuitively awakening our free personal reality we become alive to its own existential depths opening to the mystery of God.
The perfection of the contemplative life is a sea of love which flows through One
Body of all the elect, angels
saints. Their contemplation would be incom-
plete if it weren't. shared w/ fewer souls/spirits capable of less vision and less joy.(With the alcoholic
who still suffers.)
At the root of all war is fear: not so much the fear men have of one another as the fear of every-thing. They don't t even trust them-selves. If they aren't sure when some-
one else may turn around and kill them
they are less sure when they may turn around and kill themselves. They can't trust anything, because they
have ceased to believe in God.”
The wicked run away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions. ... Wicked people run away when no one one chases them. Those who live right are as brave as lions.
Proverbs 28:1
I will have more joy
in heaven and in the contemplation of God, if you are also there to share it with me. The more of us there the greater will be the joy of all.”
The only One
to teach me
to find God
is God Alone.
Perhaps we still have a superstitious tendency to associate failure w/ dis-donesty and guilt—failure interpreted as “punishment.
If he wasn't guilty he was "wrong."
“being wrong” is some-
thing we haven't learned to face w/ equanimity under-
standing. We either con-
thing we haven't learned to face w/ equanimity under-
standing. We either con-
demn it with god-like dis-dain or forgive it with god-like condescension. We don't manage to accept it with human compassion, hum-
ility identification. We never see the one truth that would help us begin to solve our ethicalpolitical problems: we are all more or less wrong, we are all at fault, all limited and obstructed by our mixed motives, self-deception, greed, self-righteousness and tendency to aggressivity and hypocrisy.”
ility identification. We never see the one truth that would help us begin to solve our ethicalpolitical problems: we are all more or less wrong, we are all at fault, all limited and obstructed by our mixed motives, self-deception, greed, self-righteousness and tendency to aggressivity and hypocrisy.”
Human faith which is nothing but passive acceptance of opinion is false "faith". It's what
we often live
by confuse w/
our“religion”It's subjected
to questions.
This torment is a kind of trial by fire which we are compelled by the very light of invisible truth which reached us in the ray of
contemplation to examine, doubt, re-
ject all the prejudices/conventions we have accepted as if they were laws. ππ
The contemplative is not isolated in himself. One is liberated fr one's
exernal and ego-
tistic self by humility and purity of heart—therefore there's no longer any serious obstacle to simple humble love of other men.
Individually/collectively we must try to
accept ourselves as good and/or bad.
W/mysterious, unaccountable mixture of good
and evil We
stand by the scraps of good
stand by the scraps of good
in us without exaggerating it. We have to defend our real rights, b/c unless we respect our own rights we
won't respect the rights of others. We have to recognize that we have will-fully trespassed on the rights of others. We must be able to admit this not only as a result of self-examination but when it's pointed
out unexpectedly by somebody else.
out unexpectedly by somebody else.
My true personality will be fulfilled in Mystical Christ in one way above all. Through me Christ and His Spirit
will be able to love you, all men,
God the Father in a way that
wouldn't be possible in
anyone else.
God utters
me like
me like
a word containing
a partial thought
of Himself.
In a way our
discovery of God is God’s discovery of
us. We have no way of knowing where
heaven is or what it is. He comes down fr heaven and finds us.
πΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈ
It's true that God knows Himself in all the things that exist. He sees them, and it is because He sees them that they exist.
The value He sees
Dwelling in the depths of all things
in my own depths The Father com-
We are words that are meant to respond to him, answer to him, echo him. Even in some way to contain him and signify him.
He answers himself in us and this answer is divine life, divine creativity, making all things new.
It's easier to serve hate-gods bc they
He looks at us from
the depths of His own infinite actuality, which is everywhere, and His seeing us gives us a new being and a new mind in which we also discover Him.
Each particular being, in it's individuality
it's concrete nature and entity with all its own characteristics πΉπ¦πΉπ¦πΉπ¦πΉπ¦πΉ
it's concrete nature and entity with all its own characteristics πΉπ¦πΉπ¦πΉπ¦πΉπ¦πΉ
and it's private
qualities. It's own inviolable identity gives glory to God by being precisely what He wants it to be here/now in the circumstances ordained for it by His Love and His
infinite Art.
π»π»π»
It's true that God knows Himself in all the things that exist. He sees them, and it is because He sees them that they exist.
His love in them
is their goodness.
The value He sees
in them is their value. In so far as
He sees and loves
them, all things reflect Him.”
God bridges the infinite distances b/t Himself and
spirits made
to love Him/
supernaturalmissions of His own life.
in my own depths The Father com-
municates to me His Word and His Spirit.
πΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈ
A false self.
This is the man that I want myself to be but who can't exist, because God doesn't know anything about him.
To be unknown of God is
too much privacy.” (poverty)
too much privacy.” (poverty)
It is a pity the beautiful Christian metaphor “salvation” has is so
hackneyed and despised. It's been
turned into a synonym for“piety”
/not even a truly ethical concept.
hackneyed and despised. It's been
turned into a synonym for“piety”
/not even a truly ethical concept.
Salvation:
reflects God’s own infinite concern for man
Salvation is
God’s love/care for man’s in-
most being/for all that is His own in man.
God’s love/care for man’s in-
most being/for all that is His own in man.
It's not only human nature that's“saved” by divine mercy above all which is myself alone rescued fr immersion in the com-
mon trivial
sordid con-
fusion. It's
incommun- icable /ir-
replaceable
πΉπΉπΉπΉπΉ
One is saved from immersion in the sea of lies and passions..above all saved from
the abyss of con-fusion/absurdity
which is our own worldly self.
which is our own worldly self.
One is saved from the conformist slave
of fantasy, passion and convention.
The creative and mysterious inner self must be delivered from the wasteful, hedonistic and destructive ego that seeks only to cover itself with disguises.
To be “lost” is to be left to the arbitrariness and pretenses of the contingent ego, the smoke-self that must inevitably vanish....
To be “saved” is to return to one’s inviolate and eternal reality and to live in God.
When the Love of God is in me, God is
able to love you through me and you
are able to love God through me.
πΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉ
God’s love for Himself in you and in me, would be denied the particular expression which it finds through me and through no other if my soul were closed to that love. God’s love for you and your love for God. πΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπ¦πΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉ
Shine in my mind, although perhaps this means “be darkness to my experience,” but occupy my heart with Your mercy.
πΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈ.
πΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈπΈ.
Let my eyes see nothing in the
world but Your glory. Let my hands touch a thing that's not/your service.
I'll hear Your voice I'll hear all harmonies You've created, singing Your hymns.
Contemplation is also the response to a call from Him who has no voice yet speaks in all that is. Who, most of all,speaks/the depths of our own being. We ourselves are words of his.
We are words that are meant to respond to him, answer to him, echo him. Even in some way to contain him and signify him.
Contemplation is an echo, a deep resonance in the inmost center of our spirit. Our inner life loses its separate voice re-sounds w/ the majesty and mercy of the Hidden Living One.
He answers himself in us and this answer is divine life, divine creativity, making all things new.
We ourselves become his echo/answer. It's as if in creating us God asked a question.
When we awaken to contemplation he answered the question. The contemplative is at the same time, question and answer.
When we awaken to contemplation he answered the question. The contemplative is at the same time, question and answer.
The life of contemplation implies two levels of awareness. First awareness of
the question. Second awareness of the answer.Though these are two distinct enormously different levels yet they
are in fact an awareness of the same
thing.The question is, itself, the answer.
We are both. We can't know this un-til we've moved in-
to the second kind of awareness. We
awaken, not to find an answer distinct from the question but to realize that the question is its own answer. And all
is summed up in one awareness /not
a proposition but an experience: "I AM".”
We do not see God in contemplation - we know Him by love: for his pure love and when we taste the experience of loving God for his own sake alone, we know by experience who and what he is.
God doesn't give his joy to us for our-selves alone. If we could posess him for
ourselves alone
we wouldn't pos-
possess him at all.ππ
As the history
of Alcoholics Anonymous so clearly indicates, it was working with others who were still suffering that kept Bill W. and Dr. Bob sober. The same principle is true for all members of
12 step groups: "to keep it you
have to give it away."
https://www.verywellmind.com/a-study-of-step-12-69412
πΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉπΉWe don't see God in contemplation. We know Him by his pure love. When
we have the experience
of loving God for his
ownsake we know by
experience who/what he is.
Any joy that doesn't overflow from our souls/helps others to rejoice in God doesn't come to us from God.
Don't think that you've got to
see how it over-flows into the
souls of others.
In the economy of grace you may share
His gifts w/someone you will never know.
Give me humility in which alone is rest. Deliver me fr pride which is the heaviest burden. Possess my heart/ soul with the simplicity of love. Occupy my life with the one thought/desire of love. May I not love for the sake of merit, perfection, virtue, sanctity but for You alone. There is only one thing that can satisfy love/reward it. That is You alone.
The contemplative most earnestly wants everybody to share his peace and joy. His contemplation gives him a new outlook on humanity. He looks about him with a secret tranquil surmise which he perhaps admits to no one hoping to find in the faces of others or to hear in their voices some sign of vocation potentiality for deep happiness/wisdom.
He finds himself speaking of God to
the men in whom he hopes he has
recognized the light of his own peace.
The awakening is his own secret. If he can't speak to others he writes for them. His contemplative life is still imperfect
w/o sharing, companionship, communion.
One can't teach contemplation except
God, who gives it. The best you can do is
write something that will serve as an
occasion for someone else to realize what
God wants of him.
Hate that takes joy in hating is strong
bc it doesn't be-
lieve it's alone and
unworthy. It feels the support of a justifying idol of
war/an avenging destroying God.
The human race was once liberated from blood-drinking gods w/ great toil sorrow by the death
of a God Who delivered Himself to the Cross/ suffered the pathological cruelty of His own creatures out of pity for them.
In conquering death He opened their
eyes to the reality of a love which asks no questions about worthiness, overcoming hatred and destroys death.
One becomes a saint not by conviction that one is better
than sinners but by the realization
that one is a sinner. All together need the mercy of God!”
It's easier to serve hate-gods bc they
thrive on collective
fanaticism. To serve
the hate-gods one has
only to be blinded by
collective passion. To
serve the God of Love one must be free. One
must face the terrible responsibility/decision to love in spite of everything whether in oneself or in one’s neighbor.
☘π»πΏ
A spirit drawn to God in contemplation will soon learn the value of obedience:
the hardships /
anguish he has to suffer every day from the burden of his own selfishness, clumsiness, incompetence, and pride will give him a hunger to be led, advised and
Humble realization of our mysterious being as per-sons in whom God dwells, w/ infinite sweetness and inalienable power.”
He's the “Thou” before whom our inmost “I” springs
into awareness.
He is the I Am b/f
whom our most inalienable voice echos
“I am.”
He is the I Am b/f
whom our most inalienable voice echos
“I am.”
this superficial “I” is not our real self. It's our “individuality” / our “empirical self”. It's not the hidden and mysterious person in whom we subsist bf the eyes of God.
Common life can
either make one more of a person
or less of a person.
It depends on whet-her a common life or life in a crowd.
π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦
π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦
To live in the midst of others sharing nothing w/ them but the common noise/the distraction isolates a man
in the worst way. It separates him fr reality in a way that's almost painless.
It divides him off separates him from other men and from his true self.
in the worst way. It separates him fr reality in a way that's almost painless.
It divides him off separates him from other men and from his true self.
God doesn't give us graces, talents, virtues for ourselves alone. We are members one of another and everything that is given to one member is given for the whole body.
Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love
is my name. If I do anything, think, say know anything not purely for the love
of God it can't give me peace,
rest, or fulfillment
if He sends His own Love, Himself, to act and love in me and in all I do, then I shall be transformed, I shall discover who I am and shall possess my true identity by losing myself in Him.
CONTEMPLATION
Is spiritual wonder/ spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life/ being/gratitude for life/awareness of being. It's a vivid
realization of the fact that life/being pro-ceed fr an invisible/transcendent/ in-finitely abundant Source/awareness of
the reality of that Source. W/ a certitude
the reality of that Source. W/ a certitude
that goes beyond inexplicability/
reason/faith it knows the source.
Contemplation is
spiritual vision which reason/faith
aspire by their nature b/c without it they must always remain incomplete.
contemplation
isn't vision b/c
it sees “without seeing” and knows “without knowing.
CONTEMPLATION it's knowledge too
deep to be grasped
in images, words or even in clear concepts
in images, words or even in clear concepts
It can be suggested by words/symbols. In the moment of trying to indicate what it knows the contemplative mind takes back what it has said/ denies what it's affirmed.
In contemplating one knows by “unknowing.” One knows beyond all knowing or “unknowing.”
To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the door
to a higher life. It's death for the sake of
life which leaves behind all we
know or treasure as life, joy, thought, ex- perience, as being.”
political ideals are
to a great extent illusions and fictions. We
prevent ourselves from seeing any good or practicability in the political ideals of our enemies which may be even more illusory and dishonest than our own.”
Go into the
desert not to escape other
men but in
order to find
them in God.”
It's not humility
to insist on being someone that you aren't. It's as much as saying that you know better than God who you are and who
you ought to be.
MANY poets aren't
poets for the same reason many religious men aren't saints: they never succeed in being themselves.
Hatred is the sign/ the expression of loneliness, unworthiness, insuf-ficiency. In so far as each one of us is lonely, un-worthy, each one hates himself. Some of us are aware of this self-hatred. Because of it we reproach ourselves punish/ourselves needlessly.” (&/or find a scapegoat to protect our self hatred on).
THE THEOLOGY OF THE DEVIL
is a psychological, subjec-tive “force”. It applies a
kind of violence to reality in order to change it ac-cording to one’s whims.
Faith is a kind of super-effective wishing: a my-stery that comes from a mysteriously dynamic will power generated by “pro-found convictions.” By virtue of this won-derful energy one can exert a persuasive force even on God Himself / bend His will to one’s own will. By this astounding new dynamic soul force of faith (which any quack can develop in you for an
appropriate remuneration)
you can turn God into a means to your own ends. We bc civilized medicine
men. God becomes our servant.
the devil’s moral theology is the ex-aggeration of all distinctions b/t this and that, good and evil, right and wrong. These distinctions become irreducible divisions.
whatever is demanded truth,
justice, mercy, or by
love must surely be
taken to be willed by God.
To consent to His will is to consent to be true, or to speak truth, or at least to seek it. To obey Him is to respond to
His will expressed in the need of an-
His will expressed in the need of an-
other person, or at least to
respect the rights of others.
In demanding I re-spect the rights of another God isn't asking me to con-form to some ab-stract, arbitrary law. He's enabling me to share in His care for my brother.
rights and needs of others
can hope to walk in the
light of contemplation.
Bc his way has turned aside from truth, com-passion and fr God.
The false my-sticism of the Mass Society captivates men who are so al-ienated from themselves and God they are incapable of genuine spiritual experience. These er-satz forms of enthusiasm that are “opium” for the people/deadening their awareness of their deepest and personal needs, alien-ating them from their true selves, putting conscience and personality to sleep. Turn-ing free, reasonable men into passive in-struments of the power politician.
false “faith” which is what we often live by and we even con-fuse w/ our relig-ion” is subjected to inexorable ques-tioning. Torment of this kind is a trial by fire. We are compelled, by the very light of invisible truth which has reached us in the dark ray of contemplation, to examine, to doubt and finally to reject all the preju-dices and conventions we have accepted as if they were dogmas. Hence it's clear
Real conemplation is incompatible w/ complacency
and smug accep-tance of prejud
-iced opinions.
It's not passive acquiescence in
the status quo.
This would re-duce it to spiritual anesthesia.
Contemplation isn't a painkiller
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