Kindle Notes & Highlights
Loving God is a lifelong pilgrimage, a labyrinth walk that in this mortal life never fully reaches the center point. Our affections wax and wane, rarely burning white-hot. We may have occasional, intense experiences of Divine love, but ordinary life is generally not lived on the emotional mountaintops.
This knowledge of fearsome events, combined with our inability to influence their outcome or touch those suffering, puts our brains into a state of panic: we have not yet evolved for the speed of the world in which we live.
In Buddhism, for example, a person’s ego is the source of attachment, anger, and greed; spiritual growth requires the death of this false self. Hindus speak of moksha, the moment when we let go of our egos and become one with the Supreme God. Celtic Pagans perceived initiation as the death of the old self, allowing a new self to be born; old patterns and attachments must fall away for the soul to move forward in its path. Modern-day Pagans speak of putting themselves “in Brigid’s hands” (referring to the Goddess Brigid, predecessor of Saint Brigid); in doing so, they offer themselves to the
...more
The only true freedom is found in abandoning our egos; we must allow ourselves to be “killed” on Christ’s cross. The “self” that must be crucified alongside Christ is not the real you,
Contemplative author Brennan Manning says that God is like a child playing hide-and-seek, who laments, “I run and hide—but no one comes to seek me.” If we want to see God, we must look for the Divine Presence. But where should we look? Spiritual masters from many religious traditions emphasize that the first step is to escape the world’s busyness. Alone, in silence, a seeker can begin to hear the Voice. As Mahatma Gandhi put it, “The divine radio is always singing if we could only make ourselves ready to listen to it, but it is impossible to listen without silence.”
In solitude, their souls were filled, so they could empty themselves in seasons of service—and then retreat again for refreshment.
We are seldom truly alone, away from the reach of other humans—so how can we achieve the solitude where we might hear God?
It takes practice and discipline to shut them down, to learn to go into “standby” mode.
In this quiet interior place, you are freed from judging others—and judging yourself. You are free from the voices that say, “I must do . . . ,” “I ought to . . . ,” and “I should.” You are even free from “I am . .
Don’t treat God as though the Divine were an imaginary friend you could control with your mind.
Sometimes God just sits beside you with a smile or floods your soul with contentment. Only God knows what God wants to communicate to a person who is utterly still and receptive.
Like it or not, we all have demons we’ve tried to sweep under the carpet. Don’t run away from them. Dealing with them (with God’s help) is a necessary step toward wholeness and spiritual growth. Once you’ve confronted the darkness, you will emerge stronger, better able to walk in the light.
if you think about it, contemporary Christianity is often a lot like a non-exercising health club. On the surface, there’s plenty of opportunity for spiritual growth.
we cannot grow spiritually without learning to let go of our selfishness, our need to have our own way, to put ourselves at the center of the world.
Anthony insisted that ascesis required physical practices. Our spiritual and physical natures are not separated or at odds with one another, but body and soul are at all points intertwined. What affects our physical well-being involves our spiritual lives as well.
The homily describes three colors of martyrdom: white martyrdom is voluntary exile, red martyrdom is literal martyrdom—death for Christ’s sake, and green martyrdom is “when through fasting and hard work they control their desires.”
This is a living crucifixion; we simultaneously slay the false-self while we birth our new Christ-self, so that “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me”
An example of an early Celtic penitential book is The Penitential of Finnian, written in the sixth century at Clonnard, Ireland, which includes more than fifty sinful behaviors, and for each, a particular “remedy” of appropriate spiritual discipline. Focusing on specific sinful behaviors as illnesses to be remedied (rather than sins to be punished), the penitentials proved effective.
Imagine if you sporadically remembered to eat dinner—or if you only found time to brush your teeth once or twice a month.
Nature was understood as “God’s Great Book,” a Divine revelation that came before the Bible.
Wells, mountain crags, caves, and lochs were “thin places” that allowed access to the realm of spirits.
“I’d rather be in the mountains thinking of God, than in church thinking about the mountains.”
Forest Church: A Field Guide to a Spiritual Connection with Nature, Bruce Stanley
Forest Church “recognizes that God is revealed in nature and also recognizes that God speaks through nature.” There
Global footprint researchers have concluded that it would take nearly four Earths to sustain the world’s current population of seven billion people at American levels of consumption. It would take 2.4 Earths to sustain that many at UK levels of consumption.
If we undertake this calling as worship, that attitude can perform a sort of alchemy, bringing the same joy Thomas Traherne experienced into today’s challenges of sustainable living. Science is daily producing exciting and creative technologies that bring sustainability closer.
If God is incarnate in Nature, then Earth-care is ministry to God’s own being, worship in every sense of the word.
Since all the world’s creatures incarnate Christ, we can apply Jesus’ words to the Earth itself: “Whatever you do unto the Earth—its atmosphere, its plants, its creatures, and all your fellow humans across the face of the globe—you do unto me.”
We must remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of humanity with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to you in song, has been a groan of pain. May we realize that animals live, not for us alone, but for themselves and for you, and that they love the sweetness of life.
In other words, miracles must be believed to be seen. Lewis pointed out that “miracles . . . appear to cease in Western Europe as materialism becomes the popular creed” simply because people are less prone to report them.
Walter Wink, a twentieth-century theologian at Auburn seminary, wrote: When we pray, we are not sending a letter to a celestial White House . . . rather, it is an act of co-creation, in which one little sector of the universe rises up and becomes translucent, incandescent, a vibratory center of power that radiates the power of the universe. History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being.
Intercession is the river that carries Divine power in its current. Jesus
miracles are simply signs of God’s presence. They don’t need to be sensational; sometimes, the Divine Presence is revealed in something as small—and miraculous—as a baby’s first laugh or an old woman’s smile. Trust God to turn the waters of your life into fine wine. The Giver of Life knows exactly what you need.
loneliness developed as a stimulus to get humans to pay more attention to the people around them and to reach out and touch someone.”
“Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.” Imagination harnesses our minds to seek out things that are greater than our rational minds can conceive—and such things do exist; they are not mere make-believe. Imagination allows us to glimpse realities we can’t yet perceive with our five senses.
God is delighted when you become the person you were made to be.
There are some who call themselves Christian, and who attend worship regularly, yet perform no Christian actions in their daily lives. There are others who do not call themselves Christian, and who never attend worship, yet perform many Christian actions in their daily lives. Which of these two groups are the better disciples of Christ?” Pelagius
As a pilgrimage, a labyrinth walk typically consists of three stages: releasing your concerns on the inward walk, connecting with God at the center, and preparing for service while heading back out toward ordinary space.
