Kitty Crenshaw's Blog, page 30

May 30

The heart of God and the heart of the suffering world are the same. ~Betty

The post May 30 appeared first on The Hidden Life Awakened.

May 28

God does not look on our performance, but rather on the desire of our hearts. Jesus was a failure in the eyes of the world. ~Betty

The post May 28 appeared first on The Hidden Life Awakened.

May 25

As we drop our illusions and move into love, things don’t affect us personally anymore, so we don’t have to defend ourselves, define other people, or deny reality anymore. Now we are free. ~Betty

The post May 25 appeared first on The Hidden Life Awakened.

Turn Off the Old Head Tapes

Betty Skinner, inspiration for The Hidden Life Awakened, discusses fear and the importance of turning off the voices in our head and embracing our pain.

The post Turn Off the Old Head Tapes appeared first on The Hidden Life Awakened.

May 21

Nothing is wasted. The water we once poured into the wine cannot be drained off, but mercifully, if consecrated, will be transformed. ~Betty

The post May 21 appeared first on The Hidden Life Awakened.

May 18

God’s ways are a mystery, but they are always good. ~ Betty

The post May 18 appeared first on The Hidden Life Awakened.

A Letter From Betty

Dear Ones,

The one great essential of the Christian life is to know Jesus with the whole of our being, not only in His humanity and His passion, but also in His deity.

The ascension of Christ into His full glory offers us the incredible invitation to enter into the divine love relationship that is going on all the time between the Father and the Son through the gift of the Spirit. This relationship is an inexhaustible love and the center and source of all spiritual life. It is a life hidden with Christ in God. It is the healing love of God that transcends and transforms all of suffering humanity. The glorified, ascended Christ penetrates the very depths of our being melting our separate-self sense into His Divine Person. When we are awakened to this transcendent potential, we become completely penetrated by God through the mysterious all-enveloping, all-absorbing, all-embracing Spirit, which is Jesus Christ Himself.

In His sharing flow of Love which holds the whole of humanity in a compassionate embrace. ~Betty

Dear friend, on the path coming home.

Press in, press in, oh press in

Your ear ever close to the Source.

You will hear, though you may still be sleeping

His voice gently awakening within.

You will know with a knowing beyond knowing

How Love’s Spirit weaves the ways of your days,

How Love’s fire kindles the twigs of desire,

How Love’s longing becomes your belonging.

BWS

The post A Letter From Betty appeared first on The Hidden Life Awakened.

May 14

Your wounds will become your place of authority; the place from which you can touch another with compassionate understanding. ~Betty

The post May 14 appeared first on The Hidden Life Awakened.

May 11

The meaning of life is held in the wondrous mystery of God’s love. ~Betty

The post May 11 appeared first on The Hidden Life Awakened.

The Practice of the Presence of God

Brother Lawrence was a 17th century monk and ordinary kitchen worker who became a legend in France for his simple, serene faith lived out continually in God’s presence amidst the pots and pans. He was a big, awkward, and uneducated fellow who broke everything. “He didn’t have a business head, he was lame, he could not walk normally on board the wine boat-he had to roll himself over the casks.” This humble soul became one of the most beloved in history. After his death, a few of his letters were made public and became this beautiful book which has long been considered a spiritual classic.

His conversion happened one winter when he was eighteen. He saw a tree stripped of its leaves and thought to himself,

“Before long, the leaves will return. Renewed, the tree will bear flowers and fruit, too. God causes all of this!’”

This simple but profound awakening to God’s love and presence in all of creation set him free and started a fire inside him that has warmed the whole world.

“Actually, I began to live as if He and I were the only ones alive in the world…I would be glad even to pick up a straw from the ground, if I could do it to show my love to God…The king, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastising me, embraces me. With love, makes me eat at His table, serves me with His own hands, and gives me the key to His treasures.”

And this from The Hidden Life Awakened:

In prayerful silence, we quiet our minds in order to focus our awareness on the still, small voice of God that is always calling to us through the cacophony of the world’s noise. This attention and awareness is the power that is hidden within the present moment. It is the power of God’s presence with us now, in every moment, in every created thing that surrounds us with its marvels.

 

 

The post The Practice of the Presence of God appeared first on The Hidden Life Awakened.