|
Today's Scripture
A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they will have life and have it overflowing in them. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
*John 10.10-11 (Beck's)
Wisdom Quote
Reconnection to the Source does not have to be a mysterious process. Let me give you an everyday example. Recently I had to renew and update the access codes on the receiver of my home satellite dish. If I had not installed new codes, the hundreds of television stations moving through the airwaves would be blocked, and I would see only seven channels.
Each of us has access codes to the many stations of our being. Our tendency is to forget to update them and to tune ourselves day after day to the same old programs. And yet the reality waves that move through us are filled with extraordinary stories and ideas, even connection to the ultimate Program, the greatest show in the universe. When we renew our access codes, the static clears, we get messages from the Source, and we are returned and coded for the life we are meant to live.
*Jean Huston. A Passion for the Possible.
Wisdom Story
A beggar had been sitting by the side of the road for thirty years. One day a stranger walked by. "Spare some change?" mumbled the beggar. "I have nothing to give you," said the stranger.
Then he asked: "What's that you're sitting on?" "Nothing," replied the beggar. "Just an old box. I've been sitting on it for as long as I can remember."
"Ever look inside?," asked the stranger. "No," said the beggar. "What's the point, there's nothing in there." "Have a look inside," insisted the stranger. The beggar, reluctantly, managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.
I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is telling you to look inside. Not inside any box, as in the parable, but somewhere even closer: inside yourself.
*Eckhart Tolle. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.
Comments
Jean Huston, in A Passion for the Possible, speaks of the possibility of living "unplugged, disconnected" from what gives life "vitality and meaning." She reminds us that this does not mean we are cut off from the Source, or God. Rather, we may have lived as though cut off from God until a "fortress of forgetfulness" has grown up around our consciousness.
Huston provides an answer to living in disconnection with the Source of meaning and vitality. We reconnect to God by "laying down pathways" to Spirit.
These pathways United Methodists call "means of grace." These are spiritual practices that connect us to the ceaseless, life-giving movement of divine grace.
The following clarifies this teaching of divine energy and its context in Christian teaching (www.goarch.org).
This grace ... is participation in the divine energies. ... In Orthodox theology, a distinction is made between the "essence" and "energies" of God. Those who attain perfection do so by uniting with the divine uncreated energies, and not with the divine essence. The Greek Orthodox Fathers, whenever they speak of God, emphasize the unknowability of God's essence and stress the vision of the divine energies, especially the divine uncreated Light. Orthodox spiritual tradition emphasizes the divine Logos [Word] indwelling in the world and our ability to attain a spiritual life and mystical union with the Holy Spirit in this world.
Christian contemplation is not "ecstatic," that is, outside ourselves, but it takes place within the Christian person who is the "temple of the Holy Spirit." The divine energies are "within everything and outside everything." All creation is the manifestation of God's energies. Vladimir Lossky says in the Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church: "These divine rays penetrate the whole created universe and are the cause of its existence." The uncreated Light and the knowledge of God in Orthodox tradition "illuminates every man that cometh into this world [see John 1.9]".
Grace entails, therefore, the energy of God moving into and through Nature and, so, each of us, for we are of Nature. And we cannot know the Source in essence ~ that, at present, is hidden to us, We only know God in manifestation, or continuing incarnation. This incarnation is the Form of God known to us, through the immanent Christ ~ the Logos.
So, the pathways that Huston refers to, in spiritual terms, is the varied spiritual practices we engage in to keep ourselves open to, receptive of, and giving of grace ~ divine energies. If we do not consistently remain open through practice, we will sense a lessening of vitality and meaning, even if we seek to submerge the sensation in activity or an unconscious denial.
We, indeed, as illustrated in the story by Tolle, live with the potential of fullness of life. This fullness Jesus refers to, saying that such is the gift to those who follow him.
This life, as shown in the opening rendition of John 10.10, is a fullness within us. We discover this spiritual fullness from connecting with it in our inner sanctuary, our Heart. The result is spiritually logical. By connecting to the Source, or the divine energies, the benefits of grace are present to us; there is no reason, then, to live less than a life full of vitality and meaning.
Faith combined with practice, consequently, leads us to a life opening ever-more to more and more fullness. Possibly, for most of us, the beginning of this journey is simply coming to affirm, with conviction, that such a life is available to us.
Reflections
1. What are spiritual practices you use to help keep you connected to the flow of Grace?
2. Are you living a life full of meaning and vitality? Explain.
3. If your answer to the preceding question is "No," what steps might you take to connect to meaning and vitality?
Spiritual Exercise
Make a list of daily and periodic means of grace that you will engage to stay connected to the divine energies. Practices can include retreat, prayer, communal worship, meditation, contemplation, positive affirmations, sacred reading (Lectio Divina), simplicity, silence, solitude, spiritual direction, covenant group, praying the Hours, journaling, vigils, service, confession, ... Share this with a friend or Spiritual Mentor, requesting he or she keep you accountable to your practice.
Brian is available to respond to requests pertaining to seeking a Spiritual Mentor, his speaking, leading classes, workshops, or retreats. See any major on-line bookseller for his book An Ache for Union.
For submission of replies and biographical information, see next page:
Continued... |
