Kitty Crenshaw's Blog, page 5

January 27

It takes so much negative energy to try to control your reality, and God is not in negativity. ~Betty

A Letter From Betty

Dear Ones,

As we live more and more from the deeper dimensions of the hidden life, we very slowly begin to realize that we have allowed our illusions to separate our hearts from God, others, and ourselves. We have been conditioned to think that we do not have enough. We need more—be it attention, affection, esteem, control, or security—so we live with constant anxiety that drives us to control, compete, and compare ourselves to others. This process leaves us experiencing a great deal of shame, further alienating us from what is real and from who we are. It takes courage, trust, and faith beyond all doubt to detach from these insatiable fears that enslave us and keep us from peace. As long as we remain fearful, we will remain isolated and limited in our capacity to relate to others and the world in a compassionate way. We will continue to live in illusion rather than authentic love.

We don’t see our illusions, but other people do. Illusions are the product of the false-self system. It is our way of seeing and hearing that has been formed by the wounds of our cultural conditioning and attachments. It is how we see things before we truly see, how we hear things before we truly hear, and how we live out of balance without knowing we are out of balance. As long as we live in illusion, we cannot see things as they really are and we cannot see God, who is Ultimate Reality.

In time, God lovingly and gently touches our hearts, asking us to see the false ways we have looked for security, control, affection, and esteem, and to begin to see things as they are rather than as our false self has told us they are. We know that what we have been thinking and doing isn’t working. As we wake up, we begin to sense a need for change. We begin to sense that our most grievous sorrows are held by the Highest Good. This waking up happens as we faithfully come to prayer, asking for the desire and the grace to see.

Once we are awake, there is work to do and changes to make, but if we choose not to make them, we are not going to grow. We are going to stay stuck rather than break through to hearing the transforming inner voice of Love, seeing with new eyes, and loving with a new heart. As we drop our illusions and move into love, getting our attention and our focus, things don’t affect us personally anymore, so we don’t have to defend ourselves, define other people, or deny our reality anymore. Now we are free and our lives slowly begin to come into balance.

Prayerfully, may the Spirit of Love work within us a transformation that will open our eyes and move us to that great, free plateau of love. ~Betty

-Excerpted from The Hidden Life Awakened pp 34-35.

We videoed this lovely and encouraging conversation with Betty several years ago at The Old Still, her family’s home in Jacksonville. Be encouraged.

January 13

Trust is an expression of the gift of ourselves in deepest gratitude for the gift of God’s unspeakable love and kindness. ~Betty

The Manifestation Of Jesus To The World

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Filippo Lippi. Madonna and Baby with Two Angels. Uffizi Galleries.

“This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.”1

Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb,Now leaves His well-belov'd imprisonment,There He hath made Himself to His intentWeak enough, now into the world to come;But O, for thee, for Him, hath the inn no room?Yet lay Him in this stall, and from the Orient,Stars and wise men will travel to preventThe effect of Herod's jealous general doom.Seest thou, my soul, with thy faith's eyes, how HeWhich fills all place, yet none holds Him, doth lie?Was not His pity towards thee wondrous high,That would have need to be pitied by thee?Kiss Him, and with Him into Egypt go,With His kind mother, who partakes thy woe.- John Donne (1572-1631) “Nativity,” No. 3 from La Corona

December 30

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

God Is Always Coming To Us

Vincent Van Gogh. Starry Night. Museum of Modern Art.

God has always been coming to us in the unfolding procession of time. He came to Adam and Eve as Spirit walking in the garden, Abraham as messenger angels, Moses as the Voice on the smoke-wrapped mountain, and Elijah as the fearsome Power behind miracles. Then, in the fullness of time, God came to us as a baby.

The expectation of Advent is anchored in the Incarnation—the gift of love in the coming of the Christ child. Time stopped, and the calendar began again when the One who created time descended into it. The Word who was with God and was God became flesh and dwelt among us. In Him was life, and that life is the light of all people. The light shines in our darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.1This unspeakable gift of love in Christ should be awaited in prayer, remembered with beautiful Scripture, liturgy, and song, and contemplated with watchful attentiveness for signs of His presence.

Christ, our Divine Lover, came as one of us to die for us and promised to be with us always, even until the end of time.2 Would He, who spoke unspeakable love by the gift of His blood, then stay far away from us? He comes in small moments of heightened perception—shimmering glimpses of ethereal beauty that briefly lift the veil of the known to illuminate the holy unknown. A stand of trees stretching limbs heavenward, glistening light diamonds singing on the water, a glorious sunset on the drive home, a fallen leaf, or a still small voice in the wind can suddenly illuminate our hearts with the assurance of Jesus’ presence. Should not these numinous moments of Presence spark our passion and give birth to prayer? Such unpredictable gifts of love and wonder are an experience of truth and remind us of a far higher order of knowing. They are marvelous mysteries that cannot and need not be understood but simply contemplated with joy.

When the heavens declared the arrival of God on an ordinary freezing night in winter, the simple shepherds in the field did not miss the moment, nor did the sophisticated kings in the east. They packed up their things and set out. They found a baby in a barn and believed. If we, too, will pay attention and apprehend the wondrous moments that come, we will discover Immanuel—God with us.

This Christmas, may we awaken to sparkling moments of Immanuel and the precious gifts of our belovedness.

Have you gathered up the infant Babe,this precious gift from God?And wrapped Him in swaddling cloth,the warmth of your own love?Have you held Him close and worshipped Him,then laid Him gently in the manger of your heart?BWS

“The persistent yearning that sweeps us all is a yearning to be known as we are and to be loved. When the wave of this yearning swells in our hearts, and its crest is infused by wondrous Light, all our barriers are pushed aside. Beauty awakens within us. A momentous reality of God trembles through our veins, opening a glimpse of the Eternal. God answers with Love our trembling awe.”  

The Hidden Life Awakened p.145

December 16

All of life flows in an intimate proximity to the sacred. ~Betty

Listening For The Inner Voice Of Love

Auguste Rodin. Meditation or The Inner Voice. Musee Rodin.

To be in communion with God is to be in the presence of Love. The only thing blocking the emergence of this wondrous communion and presence is over-reliance on our natural way of thinking. The constant activity of our minds can and must be gradually transformed, slowly but persistently, into quiet listening for the inner voice of Love—it is a listening with God in deepest stillness made possible by committed time in solitude and silence. In the discipline of quiet, we begin to move from a monologue with the self to an ever-increasing dialogue with God. We begin to detach from our natural way of thinking and attach to all the truth the One Immanent and Transcendent God wants to reveal. Such a loving and radical shift is indeed what the Scripture calls prayer without ceasing.

Nothing is more needed for our world today than the recovery of the sense of the mysterious companionship of the Beyond in our midst that revives the life-giving springs of mystery, beauty, and wonder. God’s presence eludes our mind’s efforts to grasp and control. We see, but we don’t see. We know, but we don’t know. Only Holy Mystery can take us beyond ourselves and restore us to hope. Spirit can only speak to spirit, so by detaching from our intellect and listening intently for the inner voice of the Spirit, transcendence can begin to emerge. In doing this, we are making a little space for God in our hearts—creating a holy vacancy that the Spirit can fill with hope, faith, and love.

The transformation we all long for occurs in the intimate embrace of our Divine Lover, in the still, hidden places of our soul. It is here that we become real—the authentic self that God created. Becoming real is an unlearning, the process of emptying ourselves of all that we have clung to and been conditioned to by our culture. As we gradually do this painful work of emptying ourselves of our ego, illusions, perceptions, and aversions, we begin to see Reality, and in seeing Reality we become real. In the emptying, we are creating a holy vacancy in our souls allowing God to fill it with Himself. We are detaching from our mind’s control over our lives just long enough to open a tiny gap where Spirit can touch spirit, where we can begin to hear the voice of Love speaking to us. It is in this holy vacancy that we encounter Love, listen to the voice of Love, and celebrate the presence of Love. Love is the center and source of our spiritual life, and this voice has a new and deeper message, one we must begin to trust. As we allow this holy vacancy—this little pool that is our hearts—to be filled up with the River of Living Water, our lives will naturally begin to overflow in blessing to others.

Love gently comes in, enlarging our soul and filling the emptied space with the Spirit of God, the fullness of Christ. More and more, as we empty ourselves of self, we experience God’s presence surrounding us. It is something beyond expression, a sweet moment of belonging to everything, a sense of the fullness of God’s love being returned to us by every created thing: the people in our life, the trees, the flowers, and all the earth. This is the abundant life, the Divine Spirit of Love filling our emptiness. We can live in this place now—we don’t have to wait for heaven.

excerpted from The Hidden Life Awakened p.200

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 still may be sleeping
God’s 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

December 2

Everything, even our darkest pain, is held in Divine Love.~Betty

Thanksgiving With A Whole Heart

Cezanne. Still Life with Apples and Oranges. Musée d’Orsay.

With my whole heart, with my whole life, and with my innermost being,
I bow in wonder and love before you, holy God!
Yahweh, you are my soul’s celebration.
How could I ever forget the miracles of kindness you’ve done for me?
You kissed my heart with forgiveness, in spite of all I’ve done.
You’ve healed me inside and out from every disease.
You’ve rescued me from hell and saved my life.
You’ve crowned me with love and mercy.
You satisfy my every desire with good things.
You’ve supercharged my life so that I soar again like a flying eagle in the sky!

Lord, you’re so kind and tenderhearted and so patient with people who fail you!
Your love is like a flooding river overflowing its banks with kindness.
You may discipline us for our many sins, but never as much as we really deserve.
Nor do you get even with us for what we’ve done.
Higher than the highest heavens—that’s how high your tender mercy extends!
Greater than the grandeur of heaven above is the greatness of your loyal love.
Farther than from a sunrise to a sunset—that’s how far you’ve removed our guilt from us.
The way a loving parent feels toward his children—are your tender feelings for us.

You know all about us, inside and out.
You are mindful that we’re made from dust.
Our days are so few, and our momentary beauty so swiftly fades away!
Then all of a sudden we’re gone, like grass clippings blown away in a gust of wind.
Your endless love stretches from one eternity to the other, unbroken.
Your promises pass from parents to their children and grandchildren, and beyond.
You are faithful to all those who follow your ways and keep your word.
Yahweh has established his throne in heaven; his kingdom rules the entire universe.

I will bless and praise the Lord with my whole heart—let everything bless the Lord!

~King David1