tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-129268732024-02-06T20:37:25.195-08:00Breathing Yeshua*************************************************************************************
Devoted to the mystical life of abiding in the Heart of Christ through the ancient practice of Hesychastic Meditation or Prayer of the Heart. Transformative Life in Breathing Yeshua is open to all. Breathing in, Breathing Out, Ceaseless bowing, Ceaseless offering. (Free downloadable book-"Breathing Yeshua"available at this URL: http://www.avalon-counseling.com/avalon_resources.html )Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-43432132507507865312012-06-12T19:01:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:13:11.896-07:00Book- Breathing Yeshua- Christian Meditation in the Way of the Heart<link href="file:///Users/jeanetteryan/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Clipboard/msoclip1/01/clip_clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link> <style>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOg1B634q5gQvr3kk4gdnrF0V08_7VT5jt1H40lsJit_ku5aYeymB6Pq8UyzSEZNwFxLdZNi_yGXOFfAsOrJyVL-ZjAb70GLuPvxGzgdRUPmhJt08p39MpREolb8wp8iuZCPd/s1600/Christ+Pantocrator+BW-+Sinai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOg1B634q5gQvr3kk4gdnrF0V08_7VT5jt1H40lsJit_ku5aYeymB6Pq8UyzSEZNwFxLdZNi_yGXOFfAsOrJyVL-ZjAb70GLuPvxGzgdRUPmhJt08p39MpREolb8wp8iuZCPd/s1600/Christ+Pantocrator+BW-+Sinai.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><u>Breathing Yeshua<o:p></o:p></u></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sr. Antoinette Traeger O.S.B. exclaimed with determination, "The only thing I could do was sit and breathe." Antoinette Traeger, a partner in Prayer of the Heart ministry and an 80 year old monastic spiritual elder, spoke a simple and deep wisdom in response to a challenging moment in her life. Sometimes in life we realize to sit and breathe, to be with the experiences of life with wholehearted presence and loving intention, is all we can do; and it is sufficient and complete. My wife, Jeanette, a Zen meditation practitioner, has a calligraphy on her wall "<b><i>Sit and Breathe</i></b></span><span style="font-size: large;">" to remind her in a similar way of her spiritual practice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Our inner spiritual work turns on the tension of the mind's compulsion for control and the freedom of the heart's willingness to open and surrender in love</i></b></span><span style="font-size: large;">. We can learn to breathe and both receive and give ourselves in love to the "I AM," Who is Love, Who offers Itself to us eternally. Our mind agendas always fall short and are filled with faulty assumptions. In every moment the one thing we can do is "sit and breathe." In contemplative Buddhism this has long been the mantra. In Christianity this "I AM" in life is revealed to us with fiercely personal intensity in the face of Jesus and oceanically in the universal Heart of Christ. In contemplative Christianity and the tradition of the Prayer of the Heart the one thing, the central thing, we can always do, is "<b><i>sit and breathe Yeshua</i></b></span><span style="font-size: large;">." To sit and breathe Jesus, or Yeshua, in the Aramaic, is to sit and inhale in receptive presence and adoration, and to exhale in the self-offering Agape that is Christ. To breathe Yeshua is to unite our life with His life in us, each moment of life. This is not an ideal to aspire to, but a practice to be actualized and lived.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the Christian tradition this practice of uniting ourselves with the inner Life of Christ in prayer word and breath comes to us from the desert fathers and mothers of early Christianity. In his book on Christian Contemplation Brian Taylor speaks of this development in Christianity: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"However, at some point these desert contemplatives began to use the name <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">of Jesus as their invocation. In the fourth century text, The Life of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Anthony, by Athanasius of Alexandria, there was already a practice of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">invoking Christ in a repetitive prayer, even linking the breath to its <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">repetition, as if the one who prayed was actually breathing Jesus: 'Anthony <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">called his two companions...and said to them, "Always breath Christ. ' " (Taylor, p.73)</span><span style="font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We know this practice as the Prayer of the Heart. When Christianity was a vital movement and not yet an institution, the ancients of the early centuries fled the towns and cities of North Africa and the Middle East to realize the simplicity and singled hearted life of the Kingdom to which Yeshua invites us in the Gospel. The Good News proclaimed by Yeshua is that God is accessible to all, and our call in this life is to become wholly accessible to God. Hence there is something we must do to become single hearted; to live a life wholly consecrated to God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">From this desire for the singular, undivided life came the word "monos" and the creation of the monastic life. The early men and women monastics were intent on realizing a life consecrated to union in Christ. They lived as hermits and as cenobites, or in communities. They gathered around teachers or guides who were called "abba" or "amma", spiritual father or mother. The desert ammas and abbas sought to give their lives completely to prayer both in solitude and silence, and in activity, and to guide others to the same singular life of the Heart. Sr. Antoinette is a modern descendant of these followers of Christ, a true Amma of the desert tradition. Her simple wisdom is their wisdom too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The term that the ancients used for this inner transforming work of union with Christ was "Purification of the Heart." They did not intend that the Heart or spiritual center was unclean, but rather that our life, our will and consciousness, needs to be undivided or purified in its orientation to the singular purpose of the Heart, communion with God in Christ. Therefore the goal is to be undivided, wholly committed, fully consecrated to Christ in all things. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Like all of us the ammas and abbas realized that the primary impediment to the undivided life is the divided attachments and culturally conditioned purposes of the mind. When they went into the desert seeking simplicity and commitment, they brought their mind and its incessant thoughts and traffic with them. Therefore to be fully given and to rest in communion with Christ in the Heart they realized they must find a freedom from the mind's tyranny. These seekers formulated a simple schema in their prayer life. They understood that a person thinks about God in the prayer of the mind; a person speaks to God with the prayer of the lips; and a person experiences God in the silence and interior communion of the prayer of the heart. To assist in this process of anchoring in the Heart or spiritual center they understood that using a prayer word in alignment with breath was most efficacious. They chose a word or phrase from the scriptures. And for many the most powerful word of all was the name of the Redeemer Christ, Jesus, or Yeshua. Over time for many in Eastern Christianity the form of the Prayer of the Heart most commonly known was the Jesus Prayer. An expanded form of the Jesus prayer ("Lord Jesus, Have Mercy.") was used by many based on the Gospel exclamation of Bartimaeus, the blind man. "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me."(Mark 10:47) Various forms of the Jesus prayer have been used through the centuries, but the simplest and most easily aligned with the breath is the holy name of Jesus or Yeshua. Again Brian Taylor speaks of this ancient tradition of inner communion with Christ:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"This rich and focused tradition is perhaps the only specific, practical <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">teaching about contemplative prayer in all of Christendom that has been <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">handed down faithfully and precisely from master to disciple, remaining <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">intact over sixteen hundred years. In this sense, the Jesus Prayer/Prayer <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">of the Heart tradition is more akin to the way in which Buddhist or Hindu <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">meditation is handed down from generation to generation than it is to <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">anything comparable in the West.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The use of the Jesus Prayer and the teachings about contemplation that <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">surrounded it spread from master to disciple through the deserts of Egypt, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">and then came into prominence in the sixth century at the well-known and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">ancient monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai, established by Emperor <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Justinian I in 527. In the fourteenth century the center of the Yeshua <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Prayer movement moved to Mt. Athos, Greece. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">…In our day, Mt. Athos and to a lesser degree, St. Catherine's <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">of Sinai, continue as centers of practice of the Jesus Prayer."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Prayer of the Heart was understood then and now to be the way we anchor our attention (awareness) and our intention (will), fully in the Heart of Christ. This practice takes place during formal times of prayer in silence and sitting. The Prayer of the Heart is also a practice that is ceaseless. It takes place throughout the day, in the midst of activity, with a habitual and ongoing return to the name of Yeshua in moment to moment presence and self-offering love, in all that we do, in our natural inhalation and exhalation of the breath. This way the invitation to a life of ceaseless prayer from Yeshua and the apostle Paul is seen as both possible and desirable for all. All who breathe can breathe Yeshua.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We have an expression of reassurance in our culture when a person is fearful; we say "Breathe easy." When we are in the middle of life, breath is a way that we re-orient to abiding in the present moment when our consciousness has been captivated by memories of a painful past or a dreaded imagined future. When we can root and ground in the present moment we can live where God lives, in the present eternal moment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"In the seventh century, John Climacus advised: 'Let your calling to mind of Jesus be continually combined with your breathing and you will know the meaning of silence.' " (Taylor, p.73)</span><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Indeed to breathe is to breathe Life, and a powerful word for God in the Jewish tradition is Ruach, or Life-Breath. To breathe fully with attention and intention is to participation in the flow of the Spirit God who is our true Life. This is our antidote to the mind's compulsion for control and fixation with past pain and future possibility. To breathe Ruach, or Life- Breath, is to breathe Yeshua, and to root and ground in what is real and true. Actualizing this Truth of the Christ Life is much beyond any relaxation technique. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: large;">When I breathe Yeshua, I participate in the Spirit of God with full attention and intention. Yeshua is the gift of God (He proclaimed to the Samaritan woman at the well). If we open to receive Him, He is given to us infinitely as gift, without expectation. And the Life of God becomes a spring of Living Water welling up within us. In my breath I bow ceaselessly in the <i>attention</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"> of presence and adoration. In my breath I offer ceaselessly in love with hands extended, with the <i>intention</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"> of being poured out in all that I am and all that I am given. To breathe Yeshua is to continually say "yes" to receive Him, and to say "yes" to our self-gift of Love in the offering to Him of our own life and humanity. </span></span><b><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">I breathe in Yeshua; I breathe out Yeshua. I breathe in the gift of God's Life; I breathe out in offering the gift of my own life in God. In my breath I sink into and abide in communion in the Heart of Christ. In this inner communion with Christ I touch the Kingdom and the Kingdom touches me.</span></span><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-58271138354545800252012-06-11T19:41:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:13:50.169-07:00Christ the Master<link href="file:///Users/jeanetteryan/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Clipboard/msoclip1/01/clip_clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link> <style>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><u>Christ the Master<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Icons are wonderful ways in the Christian tradition of communicating spiritual realities without the mediation of conceptual thought, using visual image instead. To gaze upon the icon without analysis or discursive thought can be a way to receive a more direct intuitive contemplative communication. In a recent retreat I used two icons written by Brother Claude OSB of Mt. Angel, Abbey in Oregon. One of the icons is a representation of the ancient Christ Pantocrator image and illustrates Christ pointing with his right hand to the heart and holding the Torah in his left. Together the gestures speak of the origin of spiritual authority, Divine Love in the Heart of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Heart in the tradition speaks to what is essential, what is the true Spirit within us, the life of God within us. And for us it is the Heart of Christ who manifests the Heart of the Divine. For Christians the Heart of Christ is the anchor and source of authority. The Heart of Christ is the Life of the Master, and it is the Heart of Christ that guides us and holds us accountable to the authority of Love. In relational life all of us need to be held accountable to an authority that is higher than our own ego, and we need a Life and Power that is ultimately trustworthy. In the spiritual life we need to find our only sure guidance and a refuge to which we can fully surrender. Certainly if we’ve lived long enough we have learned through bitter experience and error that our own ego-mind is not a very good guide in life. We also need a personal experience of God to encourage and support us and open us to the power of love in the spiritual life. Both of those aspects of Christ the Master and Christ the Companion are manifested in my altar icons and are central to the Christocentric character of Prayer of the Heart practice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Breathing Yeshua- Actualizing Christ<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I’d like to share some thoughts with you about Prayer of the Heart practice and these aspects of who Christ is in our journey into God. I’ll start with a basic understanding of what the language of Prayer of the Heart practice is. Practice here means “praxis” and that means to actualize, to express what is real, what is ontologically real, to actualize it in our humanity and in our human life. So the Prayer of the Heart practice is an actualization of the essential truth of our human life and its ontological unity with Divine Life. It’s very important to think beyond any notion that this is a kind of method or technique. Prayer of the Heart practice is an actualization, manifesting and making real, what is already a hidden truth. Prayer of the Heart is a Way, a path, and we are people of the Way. Whatever we do as method is simply a "way" to become accessible to what is, to the "Isness" of the "I AM." For Christians Yeshua the Christ is this Way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">For a Christian the Divine mystery is revealed both in the personal and the individual historical Yeshua and in the risen and mystical universal Christ. The nature of God is both intensely personal and intimate, and oceanic and all encompassing. Both are true. We are human and in a human face we find the ultimate mystery approachable. In Christ our mistaken illusion of a barrier disappears and we enter into the life of the Trinity, the Christ life, consciously and intentionally in this human life. Our praxis of the Prayer of the Heart, therefore, is uniting our life utterly with the life of Christ so that our humanity is wholly infused and alive in Christ, a state of complete and utter receptivity and self-gift in love. This is the consecrated life that Yeshua reveals to us and invites us to. The Prayer of the Heart is the actualization then of this consecrated life of communion in Christ. It’s not just sitting down in silence for 25 minutes once or twice a day. It’s every moment and every breath of every day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The next question may be, “That's well and good, but how do we live this life, how do we make it real?” One way to express this directly and without abstraction or analysis is maybe to hold our two hands out in front of us. When we do this, the palms are outward and upward, open and empty, and they release everything in their grasp. They are ready to receive the gift of God’s own self, the Christ life. They are ready to offer in Christ our human life. This simple expression, this simple metaphor, this simple actualization, is the meaning of our existence. It is the meaning of the Eucharist that we celebrate ritually. This is the ontological reality we live, and we can live this reality consciously and intentionally in the praxis of Prayer of the Heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Prayer is this same release into Divine Reality and the receiving of the Divine Reality into our life. Like the woman at the well we are invited to awaken and to receive the gift of God and all we must do is open and receive. Yeshua said, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10) In the personal Yeshua we can approach the Giver and in His Life, the Life of the Christos, we are given the Gift of God. The universal and oceanic Living Water rises up within us, and infuses our human life. Yeshua says again, “I am the true vine and my Father is the vine grower. Abide in me as I abide in you. I am the vine and you are the branches.” (John 15:1) We are one, one plant, one being in Christ. The teaching here, in this and in all the metaphors we use in Christianity about the mystical body of Christ, is that each one of us possesses the potential to be a unique expression of the Life of Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The Nature of Our Surrender<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The teachings of Yeshua are simple but hard, and that’s why He called it the "narrow path," because most avoid it. The ego-mind resists this level of trust, this level of kenotic self-emptying, this level of release from self-absorption and control. In many different kaleidoscopic ways, Yeshua keeps pointing to a central truth. He proclaims: "Follow me…Give up everything…..Become as a child.. " He invites us to become simple, naïve, trusting. "Love God with all of your being. Love your neighbor as yourself." In the Beatitudes Yeshua challenges us that in our letting go, in the diminutions of our ego-self and its layered attachments, we truly become free. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In His example and His teaching He invites us to become gentle and release from self-absorption. What He exhorts us to do is to follow Him, to let Him be the Master of our heart, and will, and help us relinquish from the bondage of the ego-mind. We are taught it is in our self-giving, in the relinquishment of the ego-mind, the consecration of our self to Christ, that we find ourselves and uncover our real freedom. Yeshua invites us to come to Him and release from our heavy burdens. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">There are the trials of life of just surviving. However, the biggest portion of our burden is our own self-absorption and all the fear that arises. Yeshua says that uniting with Him is the way we lay our burden of separateness down. “Take my yoke (union) upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart.” He whispers to us that we will find rest, a rest that comes from letting go. “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:30) Yeshua gives us a warm and intimate invitation. At the same time there is a caution there, that yoke or union with Him is a also a discipline. It is a discipline to be accessible to God, to be given to Christ. That inner work of kenosis has to happen. To find this interior freedom an unburdening of self has to happen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Spiritual Authority<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">An essential task to even begin on a spiritual path and to stay faithful is to acknowledge and accept there is an authority, a Reality, a Life that is higher than our own ego-mind. There is a Will to which our own private, personal will is accountable. There is a Love to which we bow and give endless adoration and trust. Without this we can go nowhere. Without adoration and trust our ego becomes a god unto itself, and we become entrapped in a life of hopeless idolatry and self-absorption. This consciousness of separateness and self-idolatry is the source of suffering and every evil in the world. The consciousness of self-absorption without limits and without submission and without accountability is what the modern consumer-prosperity-culture holds as an ideal. And it will bring only misery, evil, and suffering for all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the letters of Paul are frequent references to the teaching that Christ is Lord. We have to remember what a revolutionary statement that was in a time when only Caesar was deemed Lord. To embark on the consecrated transformed life we must continually choose a greater Life, a greater Love as sovereign over our life<b><i>. For those who are on the Way of the Heart the Divine Beloved in the Person and Life of Christ must become the true Master. </i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">How do we let Christ be the Master in our daily practice? This is the important question we ask ourselves. His invitation is that we will find ultimate freedom, joy, and belonging in his yoke. And of course the other meaning of yoke is "joining" or "union." It is the yoke of self-relinquishment, the relinquishment of the ego-mind, and all its self pre-occupation, fear and grasping. The hand that offers in love cannot open when it is clenched. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Kenosis<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">St. Paul spoke of this Life of Christ within us as the "Great Kenosis."(Phil. 2:6) Kenosis is the hand that opens, releases, extends, and offers. In our praxis of the kenosis of Christ we learn to lay down our weapons of self-defense and separateness. We may recognize them as our frequent rationalization, our reactive criticism of others, our avoidance of seeing the truth of our self-absorbed thoughts and actions. In kenosis we find the freedom to dwell in the Heart of Christ and find our belonging. In kenosis we find we are free and at peace, to receive criticism, to receive disappointment, and even to receive failure. In the freedom of kenosis we are free lay down our life, especially the habitual patterns of our conditioning. We are free to relinquish the life long conditioning, mental formations, and habit patterns that feed our self-absorption, and prevent us from opening to the Unconditioned Life of Christ that is our true Life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The Open Handed Life<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the beatitudes Yeshua invites us to cease from grasping, to live the freedom of the open handed life so that we can receive mercy, peace, and fullness of life. When the hand releases from everything, only Essence remains. And to open to Essence is to open to Christ and bring to our own life the reality Paul described in Galatians: "I live, not I, but Christ lives in me." Christ is the Master who invites us to "Lose your life, so that you can find your (real) life." (Matt. 10:39)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In our practice of Prayer of the Heart we continually ask, "How do I let go of grasping, how do I release from the compulsions of the ego-mind? " This release into the freedom of Christ begins with our "cultivation of attention," to see when we are grasping with the mind, insisting on our rights, our opinions, insisting that our agenda in life be the first and only priority? This means seeing the thought forms in our minds and seeing the ego-self attach to them. And in each moment of consecration we learn to release our humanity, our human thoughts, our human desires, and our human attachments, to the will of the Master. <b><i>This consecrated attention becomes Presence and Adoration. </i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Equally we bring our cultivation of intention to each moment of life. We release from all motivations but one, our heart's desire to be one with and to ceaselessly offer all that we are in love and self-gift to the Master, Yeshua, our Beloved. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Endless Conversion to the Master</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The life of open-handed offering to Christ is a life of endless, ceaseless conversion. In this offering we find an interior act of willingness to see the injuries we may inflict on our own souls and on those nearby. This ceaseless conversion leads us to return to Christ the Master to say "You know that I love you, help me to follow you." To receive and accept our sorrow and let it be the means of continual conversion is our yoking and "oneing" with Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">In the Christian path of meditation or contemplative prayer, unlike some other traditions, the only real master, the only true guru, the only teacher, is Christ. This offers a tremendous safety to us. Tragic things happen in any religious tradition when persons surrender themselves in misplaced Faith to flawed human beings. Terrible injury can happen. Some persons are very skilled, trained, and holy teachers but no human being is without failing. When Christ is our sole master and sovereign over our hearts, master of the soul, when Christ is our singular teacher, when Christ is our only true guide, then we have the genuine safety to fully give ourselves in trust. Teachers in the Christian contemplative tradition can be companions on this road to Emmaus. They can encourage and point us back to the light of Christ in our own hearts. Christ alone is the Master. Together we know that the One we seek is the One who walks with us. And we may often only know his Presence in the burning of our hearts. It is enough. To give oneself ceaselessly and without reservation to Him is the joy of coming Home, to our singular Refuge, our singular Joy, our singular Trust.</span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-45039430156227331902012-06-10T13:12:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:15:45.566-07:00Christ the Companion<style>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><u>Christ the Companion</u></span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Paul Romans 8:38-39<b> </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>" For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God, in Christ Jesus, our Lord."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The Way of Devotional Love</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is a great support to have a spiritual director or a contemplative teacher who helps us be accountable to develop a daily spiritual practice in our life, to keep showing up day in and day out. The truth is any relationship withers if we don’t give the gift of our time and the fullness of our attention and our intention. If we really want to develop a friendship or a love relationship, what do we do? We spend time. We make a point to "clear the deck" and everything else is placed out of the way. We create a sanctuary of consecrated space where we can just be with our beloved or our friend. What we intend is this: "I'm just here. I just want to receive you and give you the gift of my self, my presence." This self-giving with God, is the communion we long for. In the same moment this total presence and gift of self requires a letting go in total trust. In the previous chapter we discussed this word in the tradition for letting go, we call it "kenosis." Kenosis makes us present and ready to walk with Christ, our life-long companion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We have become a culture that is involved in narcissism to the nth degree. In this consumer society we have come to worship the delusion that completion in life comes through a kind of private, personal fulfillment of possession or taking what we think we need from outside of ourselves. " If I just have this, if I just have that, if I just have the right relationship, if I just have the right job I’m going to be fulfilled." So one's life becomes a frenzy of getting the right kind of things, or the right kind of relationship, or the right kind of experiences. And heaven help anyone who gets my way! That’s self-absorption, that’s narcissism; and that kind of pure self-idolatry is the source of every evil in the world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The spiritual author M. Scott Peck has called evil malignant narcissism. What Yeshua is asking is just the opposite, not private, personal fulfillment, not self-fulfillment, but self-transcendence through self-giving love. He invites us to go beyond the confines of this self, this illusion of a separate self. We do this self-release and self-offering with these empty hands. The hands that grasp so tightly must unclench and release from the things that we cling to as God substitutes for our private, personal fulfillment. Instead, Yeshua says, "Come, enter into the stream of Divine life beyond the confines of our self-made self." This is the Realm of His Heart, the Kingdom of His all- encompassing Love. In doing this we don’t lose our true self. We find our true self, we find our true spirit in the Heart of Christ. In this self-offering the hand opens and offers all that we are in love, making us ever receptive, present, able to receive the gift of God, God's own Self in Christ, our life companion. If we are frightened and grasping, if we're holding on, if we're self absorbed, we're not there. We're not accessible. And to be accessible to God's Self -Giving is the whole purpose of a spiritual practice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In retreats I frequently place on an altar another icon drawn by Brother Claude. In the icon Yeshua is seated, extending his arms around the beloved disciple, John. John is extending his hands forward in a gesture of offering to Christ. A blue color of divinity extends from Christ’s mantle and envelopes the shades of it around the apostle, John. The blue of divinity and red of humanity become intertwined in this embrace. The icon expresses a delightful intimacy. Often in the Celtic tradition the apostle John is the apostle who is seen as possessing the authority of Christ because he listens and hears the Heart of Christ, his head on the Savior's chest. The beloved disciple is a symbol of ourselves who walk and live in the embrace of Yeshua. In this image we see our opening to receive Christ's divinity and the self-offering of our humanity. Our self-emptying makes us receptive and accessible to receive the fullness of Christ, and to give the fullness of our life to Him. This is a life of companionship and intimacy with Him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><u>A Life of Companionship and Communion with Christ</u></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Prayer of Consecration</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the Hindu tradition there is a stream of spiritual practice called Bhakti Yoga. Yoga means connection or communion and Bhakti Yoga is the devotional practice of communion with the Divine. Devotional self-giving love for Christ is a powerful aspect of Prayer of the Heart. There are different ways of cultivating devotional love. Among them is a daily prayer of consecration. The Prayer of Consecration is a way that you express in words, your love commitment daily to Christ. The essence of the prayer in your own words is " I love you, Yeshua, and I give myself to you." This is not unlike the love commitments we renew with out loved ones when we say, "I love you." The words that you would use must be your words coming from your own heart and your own experience through your own expression. It is both powerful and transforming at the very beginning of the day as you sit down to do your silent Prayer of the Heart, to say, “O, Beloved, Christ, I give myself to you. Take my life and make it yours.” It establishes us in our intention of devotional love. This praxis connects our Heart's desire to its true completion in Yeshua. To find intervals throughout the day where we can repeat that prayer re-anchors us in that intention. Returning to our Prayer of Consecration grounds us again in our very motivation for living. "Why am I here? What am I doing? What is all of this for anyway?" When we are in full harmony with our central purpose, our life becomes powerful and purposeful. Our practice pulls us out of the unconscious inclination of the mind where we coast along the lines of least resistance and comfort; and it re-anchors us in aliveness in the Heart of Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The Holy Name of the Beloved</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Human beings have had a practice across traditions of a reciting the name of the Beloved One. This is especially true in the monotheistic traditions, Christian, Jewish, and Moslem. In the Christian tradition we personalize the name of the Holy One using the name of Jesus or Yeshua. When you are really in love with someone in a relationship, powerfully in love, the name of the one you love is powerful. It connects you. So invoking the name of your beloved brings up the desire that you have to be one with him/her, to give yourself in love. For that reason the ancients discovered that communion with Christ and transformation in Christ arose through invoking the name of Yeshua in silent prayer and in the midst of activity throughout the day. This invocation synchronized with breath became a central expression of Prayer of the Heart. It can find liturgical and joyful expression in chanting in groups or alone as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Icon Gazing</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Another way to cultivate devotional love is icon gazing. Icon gazing is not intended to be a way to engage the imagination and think wonderful thoughts about Christ. Rather it is a way to let go of the imagination and receptively receive the self-communication that Christ offers to you through the icon. Icon gazing is an intuitive, receptive process, and naturally the communication will not be experienced the same for any two people. We use the visual image of Yeshua to go beyond image to the transcendent experience of the mystical Christ. In the Gospel Mary of Magdala, upon encountering the risen Christ, says, “Master.” She is admonished to not cling to the form or the image. Yeshua says, “Do not cling to me.” He seems to be saying to Mary and to us, " Who I am is much deeper and truer than this form." The mystery of Christ is much bigger than our ideas of Christ, our images of Christ. The mystery of Christ is Divine Life itself. Therefore in this practice, like Mary of Magdala, we release from emotion and imagination to a sacred and empty receptivity to receive Christ’s self-communication to us through the icon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Conversation with Christ</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Another form of daily companionship is our inner conversation with Yeshua. Sometimes it takes the form of words. Often it is a wordless conversation. We share the experience and the challenge of our daily life with Christ. We know we have a place of unconditional acceptance and wisdom where our life is brought daily and offered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Sanctuary and Protection in Christ</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">All of us need to find inner safety and protection when we feel at risk, physically or spiritually vulnerable. How we find ultimate security when life is filled with threat or risk is an essential interior movement in the spiritual life. How we find protection from temptation and spiritual fears is how we take refuge in Christ our Companion. Prayer of the Heart is the growing discovery of the experience of inner sanctuary and protection in Christ. All of us have the need to experience protection because the world is often a difficult and dangerous place and there are forces and experiences that are injurious to our spiritual nature. Some prayers in the ancient Celtic folk tradition express this protection in Christ in that they are encircling prayers. They speak of being encircled and shielded in the love of Christ. Here is one about shielding others:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>May those without shelter be under your guarding this day, O Christ.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>May the wandering find places of welcome</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>O, Son of the tears of the wounds of the piercings</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>May your cross this day be shielding them</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Here is an encircling prayer of protection for oneself:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>My Christ, my love, my encircler</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>Be near me, each day, each night, each light, each dark</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>Be near me; uphold me, my treasure, my truth</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">These kind of prayers or just invoking the name of Yeshua or a short prayer of protection, such as, "O, Yeshua, you are my refuge and my strength. O, Yeshua, shield me from harm." are excellent forms of guard of the heart practice. Guard of the heart describes an ancient practice of protection of our spiritual center. When we do spiritual practice of inner transformation in Prayer of the Heart in many ways we become much more sensitive to the world around us. We become more open to people around us, to the feelings, the thoughts, the energies around us. Thus we have to take more responsibility to take care of our spiritual nature and to protect the heart from what is negative, intrusive, or violent. <b><u>Guard of the Heart </u></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> (Ryan, p. 84) is a needed aspect of Prayer of the Heart practice, and prayers of protection with Christ, our ceaseless Companion, are an essential aspect of our daily practice. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Restoration and Consolation in Christ</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Yeshua said, “Abide in me." In other words, “Rest in me. I am your refuge. I am the one who will restore you.” So give restoration time with Christ each day, of letting everything else go to be with Christ to restore your soul. For some lighting a candle and reclining on the floor in your prayer space with the intention, “I want to be with you, I need to be with you,” will bring the peace and healing we need for the day, a peace the world cannot give.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Inner guidance with Christ</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Most of us think that we have to know what we ought to be doing in our lives. We have to be in charge and competent all the time. We think we ought to be "on top of it" and we push our agenda about what is supposed to happen. If we really want to be open to receive guidance, particularly spiritual guidance, we have to have something the Zen people call, “don’t know" mind. A “don’t know” mindset means that you accept you really don’t know. If you don’t know, that means you are open to be surprised. It means you’re willing to let go of your agenda and surrender to the love and will of Christ. I saw an older lady in her mid-eighties not long ago who thought she might be close to death. Later she was told that maybe she wasn’t close to death because her cardiac surgery was successful. She said, “Darn it, I don’t know what to do. I thought I was preparing for death and now it looks like it’s not going to happen. What am I supposed to do?” So I started talking to her about “don’t know mind” and she thought that was just great. When we really want guidance, we ask because we don’t know. We ask from receptivity, from trust. Yeshua said, “Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you, ask and you shall receive.” (Matt. 7:7) He didn’t suggest we ask and take the advice when it compares favorably with what you already have in mind. So letting go of our agenda, letting go of our expectations is difficult inner work because of the mind's compulsion for control. The fullness of trust and refuge in the One in whom we abide and find our true Life is a different direction, a direction that takes us to surrender and Home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Communion with Christ the Life-Long Companion</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In this companionship the great, great blessing is that we are never alone. We are never abandoned; we are never unloved; we are never rejected. Christ is the Faithful companion who says, “I am with you always.” (Matt. 28:20) No exceptions exist here. He promises, "I am with you <u>always</u>." Personal intimacy with Christ alone opens us to intimacy with Christ in all Creation. "All things came into being through him and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being was Life and the Life was the light of the people. ´(John 1:3-5) It doesn't get any more intimate than this. Gregory of Nazaianzus says, “Christ exists in all things that are." (Ryan, p.31) When we are personally intimate with Christ, we are in communion with Christ in all things. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Laurence Freeman O.S.B. the great teacher of Christian meditation says this about union with Christ in a lifetime of companionship, “The Kingdom which Jesus taught and embodied in <b><i>his relationship with us liberates us from individuality as separateness into individuality as indivisibility</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. In the Kingdom we pass from psychological isolation to spiritual union. It is the end of individual history as we imagine it. The breaching of the wall of the ego is an eschatological moment and end of time and an entry into timelessness. But we experience it in time and therefore it changes the way we live in time. <b><i>The sorrow inherent in knowing myself as being only and forever just 'me' yields to welcoming a new identity gained in a sharing of being</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. On one side of the wall of the ego, individuality means merely separateness. On the other side the meaning changes to union. All relationships from the most intimate to the most impersonal are transformed by breaking through the wall of the ego. …. Here, through this aperture in our egoism, at this frontier of our identity, where the question, ‘who am I?’ becomes a pure experience of Reality.” (Freeman, p. 235) </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We recognize the presence of the risen Christ is the experience of our true identity. That unitive experience of awakening to the risen Life of Yeshua as one's own Life is an experience of being always home. Wonderfully this experience of oneness with Christ is summarized in St. Paul to the Galatians (3:29): “You are all one person in Christ Jesus.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Joyfully, amazingly, we are never alone.</span></div>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-58727106493268056652012-06-08T12:49:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:16:33.525-07:00Bringing Forth the Mind of Christ<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Bringing Forth the Mind of
Christ<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;"><b>From Self Consciousness to
Christ Consciousness</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Talking about Prayer of the
Heart is always audacious because we are trying to find language for a practice
that makes us accessible to a Reality beyond words. The practice itself is not a concept. It is not a technology that produces
results. You experience it by doing it.
A simple gesture or a hand expression can best express the life of
consecration more so than a thousand words. We bring our hands together in bowing adoration, we extend
our hands open before us in love and self-offering. In this is the totality of
our life of communion in God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>To bring forth the mind
of Christ, the totality of Prayer of the Heart is expressed in the inner
movement of bowing and offering. Whether we are in silence or in daily life
activity, this is what we do ceaselessly in Prayer of the Heart. There is
little over which we have control in life. Yet we can bow endlessly and offer
ceaselessly.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> This we can always do whether we feel
it or not. It can be, it must be, an act of continual willingness to bow in
presence and adoration and to offer in love and self-giving. To do this is to
receive and to bring forth in our own consciousness, the Mind of Christ Jesus
in the same way St. Paul proclaims in his letter to the Ephesians, “Let the
same Mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” In our present world, change will only happen when
Christians are able to bring forth the Mind of Christ in their own life and in
their humanity. This must of
necessity involve the practice of kenosis, or self-emptying, so that Christ can
live fully in us, the goal of Christian life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Christ consciousness is the
human mind transformed in the unitive love of Christ. In the Prayer of the Heart we learn to abide in the heart of
Christ while our human mind and consciousness is so infused and transformed in
this communion that our consciousness or soul becomes the vessel of the Mind of
Christ. This is the work of a lifetime. Over time transformative grace infuses
our own human mind with the Consciousness of Christ. We embark on a lifetime of
transition from self-consciousness, from self-absorption, to
Christ-consciousness, Christ-absorption.
Our life in the Way of the Heart is, as the mystics describe poetically
and lyrically, to be thus absorbed. We lose ourselves in the abyss of
Christ. <b><i>Yeshua promises if
we lose ourselves in Him, we will find ourselves, our true Spirit, our true
identity, our true Mind. Thus is
the nature of transformation in Prayer of the Heart. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In recent years there has
been an explosion of research and knowledge on the workings of the human mind.
In this work when we talk about mind, we’re not just talking about the
biological mechanisms of the mind, of the brain, and perceptual and cognitive
apparatus. When we speak of the
mind in the spiritual sense, we're talking about consciousness, the totality of
the extent of our awakening and awareness of ourselves and the world. We are
speaking of soul. Consciousness inclines us to respond in certain ways or not
respond in other ways. If we look around us it is all too apparent that human
consciousness in the world is broken and afflicted by the human condition. Yeshua and the great teachers of
spiritual traditions say the way we experience the world, ourselves, and others
is filtered and flawed, and results in unneeded suffering. When we have a soul,
or consciousness, that is based on absorption in a separate self, suffering and
evil is perpetuated. When we have a soul based on awakening to unitive love and
communion with the entire universe in God, we perpetuate love and grace. Our
consciousness is affected by the conditioning and influences in our society of
consumerism, addiction, and pervasive self -absorption. Those who “have” never have enough. More is always required and
demanded. As a result so many
persons in our culture draw themselves into a life of frenzy where their true
priorities of the heart are forgotten.
They complain there is never enough time and that they are over-stressed
with the requirements of getting all the things they need and the experiences
they hunger for, and they must work excessively to pay for it all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The Shrunken Self-Centered
Soul- Source of Evil, Source of Suffering<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Therefore we must look in
this mind, in our consciousness, to understand the origins of spiritual suffering.
We’re accustomed to looking around and proclaiming that the problem with our
personal suffering is "out there," when the source of spiritual
suffering is to be found in our own consciousness. Yeshua Himself said that the source of sin, the source of
spiritual suffering, begins in the mind and in our thoughts. He asks us to look
in our own mind where the source of sin and cruelty in the world find their
origin. In our mind is to be found the engine and motivation of endless wars
and endless injustices that fuel war. Intractable injustice occurs in a world
where some have too much and most don’t have enough to meet basic needs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">To be a mystic is to also be
a prophet. Those two modes of
being are not disconnected. Yeshua
is the supreme mystic and prophet who confronts the world with His unitive
vision and asks us to look at our self absorbed viewpoints. He calls us to leap
from our private self preoccupation, as if to say, "In your separateness
you have forgotten who you are. Find yourself in Me. I am the Heart of
Creation.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the United States two
percent of the world consume seventy percent of the essential resources of the
world. Yet we are a society fueled bv fears of the affluent not having enough,
while too many of us genuinely go without essential needs. We’re organized around a consciousness
of desiring more, needing more, seeking more, with worry and haste that makes
family life, marital life and spiritual life nearly impossible. We fight wars over the control of
resources to make possible this way of life, a way of life that is
unsustainable and only causes more suffering. Communally and individually, we injure those in the way of
our compulsions and we grasp at perceived wrongs and the desire to
retaliate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Violence therefore is a product
of the mind, both personally and collectively. We might ask, how can this be? We are ontologically in our being already united with God,
already children of God in our true spirit, the mystics have proclaimed
throughout time. So what is the
problem? Why do we suffer
spiritually and morally, and why do we create suffering for others? This is a vital question to consider.
If we look closely at the condition of human consciousness, is it not a
pervasive state of self-consciousness, a prison of self-absorption for nearly
all? In this instance we are
speaking of the illusory self, the separate self, the mind of separateness and
isolation. This is the mind that creates sin and suffering. It is the mind that
creates an idolatry and worship of the self-created self. <b><i>To worship and
build a life devoted to this separate self is a blasphemy and desecration of
our essential belonging in the universal Circle of the Divine Beloved, the
"Allaha," or essential Unity we call God, the Abba from Whom all
things arise.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Purification of the Heart-
The Singular Life<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Gospel of Thomas says,
"Many are standing at the door, but only those who are singular will enter
the place of union."(Logion 75) The gift of the Abrahamic Faiths is the
gift of monotheism. God is One. There
is one God and we are one in the one God. All existence proceeds from the one
God. Thomas Merton says that all
evil, all sins come from a betrayal of the first commandment of Moses. All sins in some sense are forms of
idolatry in that we seek outside of God for what God alone can give. The Judaic
tradition understands sin as " missing the mark." Yeshua proclaims to us that to find
completion in life seek all in God, and give all to God, our Source. He invokes the Torah in proclaiming the
great commandment of Love in the Shema', “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is
One." Yeshua says (paraphrase) "You shall give all of your being in
love to the One God.” He is
telling us to do what we most want to do, to be given to this singular desire,
our heart's desire. What we desire
most deeply within us in our own hearts is to give ourselves to the love of God
in entirety. <b><i>In Yeshua we find our heart's desire.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We may ask, what keeps us
from being singular or undivided, from attaining what the ancients of the desert
called "purity of heart"? I trained for a number of years in the Zen
Buddhist tradition. The Buddhist
religion offers important wisdom teachings to the world and among them is its
analysis of consciousness. The
first Noble Truth in Buddhism is the existence of spiritual suffering. And the
second noble truth of the Buddha is that the sources of suffering are
craving. The historical Buddha
wasn’t talking about physiological cravings; he was talking about misdirected
spiritual craving or longing. The
craving outside of the Divine Oneness, that is, craving or seeking outside of
God, and our oneness in God causes spiritual suffering. This craving arises, he said, from the
illusion of a separate self. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In Christian terms we would
understand that illusion as the sense of alienation or that we are cut off or
separated from God. The Garden of Eden story in Genesis speaks to this
experience of feeling expelled or apart from God. In Christianity we think about religion and spirituality in
relational terms. Too often we project onto religion our own human
relationships that are so broken themselves. Therefore we project upon God this dysfunctional parent who
we must please and appease so we can avoid getting punished and cut off and
condemned. The trust and surrender to be wholly given and singular in our
consecration to God escape us. We remain too often locked into the separateness
and the misdirections, the addictions, which afflict our society. Hence we are inclined to seek outside
of God, what God alone can give. In the words of the Country and Western song,
we are always "looking for love in all the wrong places." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The historical Buddha also
said, in connection with this craving that human beings are locked into
something that in Sanskrit he called "tanha." Tanha means the seeking for private
personal fulfillment. The emphasis
here is on “<b><i>private personal</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
fulfillment," the idea that somehow we can through our own devices and our
own self-sufficiency be fulfilled.
Even more so we adhere to the consciousness that there is an isolated
self, that can be fulfilled. If we
think about how pervasive that idea is in the world and in our own minds, it is
startling. Too frequently we even use religion for a kind of private, personal
fulfillment. We look solely for what comforts or consoles the ego, what will
“make me happy” and give me a sense or proprietorship over God. We may try to "cut our own
deal" with God in exchange for our private consolation. This is the broken
afflicted soul that Christ came to heal in us. The Way of the Heart is not
about “self fulfillment;” it’s about self-transcendence, freedom from the
tyranny of the small ego-self and coming home to the Heart of Christ. Yeshua said that evil or sin begins in
the mind. So there must be a
transformation of mind or consciousness. What is the nature of that
transformation and how do we actualize it in our spiritual practice? That's what we need to focus on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The teaching of Yeshua and
St. Paul and the desert monastics is that the work of life is to bring forth
the Mind of Christ in our own soul.
To transform our own soul, our own consciousness, in the Mind of Christ,
is a lifetime of givenness to the Heart of Christ in the consecrated ceaseless
practice of inner communion with Christ.
<b><i>Christ consciousness is the mind of compassion, not the mind of
self-fulfillment; the mind of communion, not the mind of self-isolation or
self-absorption. The Mind of
Christ is “Agape," self-offering Love, not self-seeking desire or
consuming, grasping attachment. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Way of the Heart
therefore must come through self-emptying, self-kenosis, a paradox for our
culture. In the Gospel Yeshua
promises that the relinquishment of this separate self is the way to awaken and
leap into the One Self, that is Allaha, that is Elohim, that is Yahweh; the One
Self from Whom all life, all existence, all Creation arise. <b><i>Yeshua the Christ is the personal
point of contact, the revelation of this One Self in which "we live and
move and have our being." Communion with Christ is communion with the
Abba, the Allaha, with the Oneness That Is.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">This awakened living out of
the state of communion with Christ is the state of being in the Kingdom. While we often think of it as an
intensely personal state, it is also intensely oceanic. When Yeshua was asked, “Where is the
Kingdom?” He used an Aramaic word that means both “within” and “among", as
both are true. So, it would be a mistake to say, “The Kingdom of God is only
‘within’ me.” It would be more in
harmony with the Gospel to say we are in the Kingdom and the Kingdom is in
us. So in Christ may we wake
up! Wake up! Wake up to the Kingdom!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Actualizing the Kenosis of Christ<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Kenosis is a term from the
Greek, which Paul used in Ephesians to refer to the life and spiritual
development of Yeshua and therefore ourselves. And the risen Christ continues
to actualize kenosis within us if we are willing. In our release from the consciousness of a separate self we
offer ourselves in totality, our life, our humanity, all of our consciousness,
into the essential Unity which Yeshua knew intimately as Abba<b><i>. In the Way of the Heart we understand
kenosis as ceaselss bowing and ceaseless offering.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <b><i>Kenosis is not self-negation. It is self-offering and self-surrender
in Love in our communion in Christ.
<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Ego-Mind<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">There is nothing wrong with
this little self that we have, but it's not who we are. It’s a fragile little thing and we need
to take care of it. We’d all be in
big trouble if we didn’t have an ego in this world. It’s a vehicle.
It helps us get along. God
made us to have an ego. It helps
us to survive. We need to care for
it, but it must be a servant and not the master. To awaken in Christ is to
uncover our true Master and our True identity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Ego-mind, is a necessary construct,
a creation of our brain we need in order to have a self in the world. Without an ego, we have no sense of
boundaries. This boundary,
however, is arbitrary and is shaped by history and circumstance. It is inventively formed into the shape
of psyche and personality but this is no eternal soul, this ego. We are inclined spiritualize our ego
and turn it into eternal soul. It
is not our true identity, it is not who we are. Thank God. Our true spirit or heart lies hidden in the bosom
of Christ within us. Our true
spirit is the Imago Dei, the fire of Divine Life, within us, waiting to flame
up in us and expressed in this human life as lit candles of the Light of
Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Mind like Water<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In this practice of endless
bowing it is vital to cultivate the practice of attention. The Zen people talk about this practice
of attention and wakefulness as “mind like water.” Water flows. It
doesn’t attach to anything. It
moves around all obstacles and it doesn’t attach. It keeps on flowing.
That is the quality of mind; the quality of attention that we want to
have in both our formal sitting practice and in our daily practice. The mind of
prayer, the mind or consciousness of kenosis, we might say, is the mind of the
water of spirit, the water of presence, terms that have been used in the
Christian tradition. Water of
Presence is the innate quality of Divine life, which emanates from deep within
us. When we open to it, we are
accessible to it. We make
ourselves accessible to it, first of all through our sitting practice of
abiding in the heart and observing the mind. <b><i>In our observing the mind and the actions and
reactions of the mind, we observe the thought forms which our human minds
create and the organization of the ego self. In learning to see it we find freedom to release and abide
in the depths of Christ in the heart.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Why We Practice<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">A participant at a Prayer of
the Heart retreat asked once,
“Why? Why are we doing this
practice?” A good question. Why are we? Since we are already children of God, why bother with all of
this? Very important. Those who have walked in this Way of
the Heart say we do it because Christ wants to live in us. Christ wants to be fully alive in us,
and we are happiest when that happens.
And we are most alive and most human when we consecrate our lives to
that transformation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In order for that to happen,
it takes a praxis, or a liberation from the transitory self-created self, in
order for Christ to live in us fully.
<b><i>So the real work of soul-making is the work of transformation of
consciousness, realizing and receiving in our own human consciousness, the Mind
of Christ.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <b><i>The praxis must begin with a core
commitment of a consecration of our entire will and humanity – and that is the
inner work to be done. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Therefore to do this practice
is to continually release from every attachment and misdirection of our
attention and will, to return to our true Home in the Heart of Christ in our
own heart. This Christians know and understand as communion with Christ. In
this self-transcendence and freedom of self-release we must bow to the One who
is Home and who is greater than the little self. <b><i>Ceaseless bowing is the healing balm to the wound of
separateness and the compulsions of the ego-mind. Ceaseless bowing requires us to be awake in Christ's
Presence. Ceaseless bowing takes us to the inner tabernacle of adoration. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the icon of Christ in
Gethsemane His prayer posture is one of being awake while his friends
sleep. At a moment when his own
human self might want to run away from the horrors and fears that await him, He
is awake. He is fully there. He is open and trembling, and frail and
fragile, just as we are. Yet,
isn’t it often in a crisis that we are most alive, most awake, most in the
middle of life, most attending and accessible to what’s happening? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In our Prayer of the Heart
sitting practice of observing the mind and abiding in the heart we give our
attention fully to presence. We let go of the traffic of the mind to live out
of the past and to let go of the anxiety of a self-seeking future which is
never here. We give ourselves to presence to make an ongoing act of bowing in
Faith and adoration that God is the fullness of Presence in the eternal here
and now. Therefore liberation from
the mind requires us to be able to observe at first. That’s why it is so important. Attention, wakefulness! "Be awake!" Yeshua says, “Be awake! "You know neither the day nor the
hour. Be awake. Keep your lamps
trimmed so that you don’t miss the bridegroom.” In Him we find true liberation from the unconsciousness and
dormancy of the ego-mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The Sin of Unconsciousness<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Humanity’s great sin is that
we are not conscious, we are not awake to the way things really are. We are too often reacting from the
habitual and unconscious patterns that come to us from our own past. If we consider all the horrific things
that happen in the world, they are the acting out of unconscious and old
patterns. Sadly we are acting out too often the past patterns of cruelty and
violence. If we look in our
families and ourselves, the things that happen that are cruel, that are
uncaring, they are the unconscious acting out of old patterns. Too often we have chosen not to be
awake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">To be awake is to see the
ego-mind and find freedom from it.
We do this in cultivating an interior space of quiet or a state of
called hesychia. This is the state
of interior silence that we create in our sitting practice. It is the necessary base from which we
bring our practice into daily life.
Without this interior stillness we are easily caught up in all of the
painful actions and reactions of relationships that happen in the middle of
life. <b><i>Daily silent prayer of
inner communion with Christ is essential for this freedom and
transformation. Without our daily
practice inner silence, the quiet dissipates and we are drawn into habitual
patterns of reaction. Things come
at us and we react unconsciously rather than connecting with the reservoir of
interior peace and communion with Christ in the heart. The Life of Christ within
us allows us to be at peace and to respond with the intention of love and
gentleness, kindness and wisdom. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The growing space of our
silent prayer practice allows us to sink into a quiet in which the busy mind
goes on, either in greater or littler degrees, but we experience it
subjectively as having no interior impact. It washes over us as if it were a leaf carried by the
breeze. The traffic of the mind
can be turbulent or relatively calm but it matters not to the contemplative
practitioner. We remain anchored
in our practice of just “seeing” thoughts from a growing center of calm as if
it were the eye of a hurricane that remains calm in the center. Of course, when I say that, we’re all
somewhere in a continuum of interior quiet. Sometimes we’re there and sometimes we’re not there, but we
can always come back. Metanoia is
always possible. Returning as the
prodigal child is always possible a million times in the course of a day to
this interior space of hesychia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>We don’t have to be
identified with our pain and our reactions and our wounds and our unfinished
business. We don’t have to be
captivated by the compulsions and the defenses that go with it. In so doing, we can actually make a
choice to cease from injuring the relational life between ourselves and others.
That is a huge choice. In that
choice we break the cycles of habitual violence and habitual pain that occur in
human consciousness in society. It
all starts with our inner bowing and releasing, and in that inner peace and
space we are able to receive the Mind of Christ.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Ceaseless Bowing<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">When we speak of endless
bowing in Prayer of the Heart, we are not just speaking of the physical posture
involved in bowing, but rather the interior movement. Certainly physical bowing
in the privacy of our prayer practice is desired and appropriate. Maybe we even should do it more often
in the middle of life. More
outward bowing in Christian life and practice would help us to recognize the
holy Presence of Christ in ourselves, in others, and in the world around us.
Perhaps as time goes on bowing can become a more appropriate expression of our
interior life in Christian community. Bowing is acknowledging inwardly in
reverence the truth of every situation, giving reverence and surrendering,
giving homage to the One who transcends and the One who is our refuge in every
situation. It is the praxis of the
first and the greatest commandment in every situation in life. Bowing releases us from our
identification with the limits of the ego-mind and the little self and engages
us with our life of communion with Christ. In this spaciousness and emptiness we are released from our
involvement in the confines of the habitual patterns of the mind traffic and
re-enter again and again this great spaciousness of Christ's Presence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Bowing is the perfect practice of monotheism, of taking
refuge in the Holy One of existence in every circumstance of life. That means bowing in our relationships,
inwardly bowing to the people in our life whom we too often de-sacralize. In
our routinized patterns of life we forget who we are and who they are. We
forget that that Christ, Holy One, is present and alive in them and in us. If we were to inwardly bow to our
spouse, if we were to bow to our children, to our friends, how our practice of
reverent love might grow towards them!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We can bow in the middle of
conflict. In the middle of
conflict with our loved ones or strangers, we become the most angry and the
most hurtful. At that moment bowing cuts through the self-absorbed concern and <b><i>into
the greater concern</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, which is the
Love of Christ that encompasses us all.
We can connect within that spaciousness and the greater concern to not
injure love<b><i>. In that moment
of bowing the whole conflict, the whole interaction, can shift in you and in
the person with whom you are in conflict</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The issue is not whether to
be in conflict, but how to be in conflict. We can bow to the greater concern
and Presence of Christ in that circumstance. This doesn’t mean we ignore our genuine need, but so often
what gets addressed and pursued as genuine need really isn’t. Rather it’s what I “want” in order to
be comfortable, and that’s different than what I truly need. When a conflict is escalating, is
precisely the moment when inwardly bowing may lead conflict to de-escalate when
the other in the conflict senses respect and concern. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We bow in our Holy Leisure
receiving in gratitude, receiving without grasping, the pleasures of life and
leisure that come our way, the time that is given us. Sometimes we bow in our
fear. Fear is the most dangerous
of all because, when we are given to fear, we contract, we defend, and
sometimes we attack.
"Pre-emptive war" takes place on many, many levels in our
world. We bow to the deeper refuge who is Christ in our hearts and the fear
loses its power over us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We can bow in our injuries.
We need not deny our pain but we also need not hold onto and nurture the sense
of injury and identify with victimization. We bow in such a way that we respect
both the hurt and the need for healing. All of us have desires to retaliate
when we are hurt or injured, and we may bow in such a way that we release our
grasp from a desire to hurt in return.
We can also bow when we find ourselves in guilt and shame from wrongs
committed and thereby release from preoccupation so that it doesn’t keep us
from living fully into the present.
True contrition releases us from guilt and shame. True contrition and conversion, true
sorrow helps us awaken and open to the Life of Christ ever arising anew as the
Living Water in the eternal moment.
We bow in sorrow and the freedom of contrition; we bow in the peace of
forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">To bow in gratitude in our
need and in our human fragility is valuable practice. Our need is always great and our nothingness is always
present with us. In those moments
when we are most aware and most in touch with our need and our emptiness are
the moments when we may be most accessible to all that God wants to give us of
God’s self. In nothingness we realize both our lack of expectation or
entitlement, and our need. In the nothingness of our kenosis we realize that
all is gift, and we are receptive and open to God's Self-Gift in Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Over time our human mind
becomes more and more a servant of this greater spaciousness, freedom, and Love
that is the Mind of Christ. Less and less we are consumed by the ego-mind's
compulsion to be a master and God unto itself. Our human mind is really happier and its inherent insecurity
healed, when it is the servant rather than the master. When we realize the real
false god that we too often worship, we can then throw down the tyranny of the
altars we have built to our ego’s obsession for control.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the spaciousness of
endless bowing the space for Christ's Agape to be born and to live in us becomes
not only possible but inevitable.
Endless bowing leads to endless adoration and endless offering and
endless consecration. Meister
Eckhart says this about the moment of our spacious receptivity, “God must act
and pour himself into you the moment he finds you ready. Don’t imagine that God
can be compared to an earthly carpenter who acts or doesn’t act as he wishes,
who can will to do something or leave it undone according to his pleasure. It is not that way with God. Where and when God finds you ready, he
must act and overflow into you.
Just as when the air is clear and pure, the sun must overflow into it
and cannot refrain from doing that.”
(Mitchell<i>, The Enlightened Mind,</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> p. 114) It’s an astounding statement. It goes against all of what many of us have been taught
about the nature of God. But what
Eckhart says is the nature of God is self-giving, over-flowing love Whose
nature is to give of Itself to all creatures, all beings. When they are ready to receive there is
no whim of choice. Simply, God
must give of God’s Self. The gift
of God's Self for Christians is Christ. Christ is ready always to pour into our
human mind and consciousness. In my years as a spiritual director I’ve found
that statement to be proven true again and again and again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Ceaseless Offering<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>Ceaseless bowing and
Ceaseless Offering are not separate and distinct interior movements, but
together make the praxis of communion with Christ in silence and in activity. </i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The inner work of prayer takes an ongoing effort on
our part to make straight the way of the Lord. We make our life and humanity utterly accessible to God’s
life and grace by releasing from every attachment and misdirection that
impedes. In our bowing endlessly
and releasing from our self-attachment to thoughts we prepare ourselves to be a
vessel to receive God’s presence and Self-gift in Christ. This praxis leads to
what the desert abba, Evagrius, called the state of "apatheia." (not
to be confused with apathy)
Apatheia is a state of freedom from compulsion. Evagrius Ponticus of the fourth century
says in his Pratikos on Prayer, “Now this apatheia has a child, and the child
is called agape. Agape is the
progeny of apatheia. Apatheia is
the very flower of Ascesis."
(Ponticus, p.14) This spaciousness, this receptivity is the condition in
which the Agape of Christ arises within us. Apatheia is one way of stating the quality of openness,
which makes love possible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Bowing and offering go
together. We bow in adoration, in
love, in reverence for the essence of life and love in Christ who is greater
than our ego-self. And we offer in
love. We bow and we offer. Our offering is our humanity, our
thoughts, our emotions, our efforts, our failings. Most of all, the consecrated self is our offering. Our
ceaseless prayer is "Into you I commend my spirit, into you I commend my
life. " <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We offer control. The serenity prayer of Alcoholics
Anonymous is a wonderful prayer.
It has great, great wisdom.
Control is the thing we have the most trouble really giving up. It’s ego's greatest obsession, and
greatest compulsion. The truth is we have no control, the most difficult thing
to accept because the ego-mind stakes its security on having control. Our journey into the Heart of Christ
takes us from the tyranny of the ego's compulsions for control to finding
ultimate security in Christ alone. This alone will heal our fear and give us
true security.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> What we can choose to do at all times is to offer ourselves
in an act of consecration in Christ to the One in whom every condition, every
circumstance, every wounded and broken and dimension of life is not beyond
redemption and healing. This we
can always do, when we can do nothing else. In every circumstance we can
"Breathe Yeshua." This offering includes especially our own broken
and wounded minds and psyches.
There is not one among us who isn’t wounded and broken in some way. No dark place in our own psyche and our
own consciousness is beyond redemption. Those are the places in the most need
of offering to the Light and Healing touch of Christ. They are the places we’re
most ashamed of, most afraid to look at, where there is the most pain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">What holds us back too often
from our offering is the judgment of unworthiness. If your own child were to offer a cut or wound or a place that
was in need of healing, would you turn away? Of course not. Such
self-judgements of unworthiness hold us back from making our complete human
self an offering. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In our daily practice there
are many ways we make this offering. Our silent prayer is an offering, a gift
of self in each breath and invocation of the name of Yeshua. In our devotional prayer we offer
ourselves. In our intercessory
prayer, we offer the people, the loved ones, the situations in life; we offer
them all to the Holy One in Christ because we know we have no control. We fear and we worry about what will
happen and what will become of them.
We worry and fear for our country and the world and the people in places
of violence. There’s nothing we
can do except offer all beings and all conditions to the mercy of Christ. When
I do intercessory prayer, I say hardly anything. I simply hold that situation before the Love and Healing
Mercy of Christ with this intention, “Here, I offer this to You. I give it all to Your Greater Concern
and Healing Love.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In our daily practice we make
the offering of consecrated space, time and intention in our homes and daily
lives. In daily life we can make
the offering of doing what we do with full presence (bowing) and with love
(offering), whether it be eating, whether it be conversation, whether it be
service, whether it be walking, whether it be washing your hands. Each act is
done as presence, as adoration, and as offering in the love of Christ. That is where the practice meets the
road.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>In every circumstance
we know that we can’t always fix things; we can't always change them. We can always and in every moment of
life do the best we can in love and make that our offering. We place it on the altar and find peace
that it is enough, because it is enough.
That is the practice of pure Faith. This is "Breathing Yeshua"
each moment of life, trusting that doing the very best we can in love is enough</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. I
didn’t really understand this central truth until the day arrived when had to
confront my own rage and helplessness with my dying son's illness. There was nothing I could do to stop
his suffering. There was nothing I
could do to change the outcome.
But there was one thing I could do. I could do the best I could to just
walk with him in those last days and be the best father I could be, and love
him the best I could, and that was enough. That is "Breathing
Yeshua."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>That offering is “the
little way” of Terese of Lieseux, it is “the little way” of Lawrence of the
Resurrection, it is “the little way” of our Buddhist brother, Thich Nach
Hanh. They have all taught us that
this is the wisdom of living. The
little offering of loving kindness each moment is how we release from our ego’s
agenda and its bondage and return to the Mind of Christ. In this way we awaken and find
ourselves in the Heart of Christ and that find we were never outside of
Christ. We find that our own body
is Christ’s body</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Let me share a reading of St.
Simeon of the tenth century who came into that same insight: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
(Mitchell, <i>The Enlightened
Heart</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, p.38)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="color: black;">“<i>We awaken in Christ’s body,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>As Christ awakens in our bodies,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>and my poor hand is Christ.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>He enters my foot and is infinitely me.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>I move my hand, and wonderfully<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of
Him<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>(for God is indivisibly whole seamless
in God’s Nature)<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>I move my foot <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>and at once he appears like a flash of
lightning.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Do my words seems blasphemous? -- <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Then open your heart to Him.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>and let yourself receive <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>the One who is opening so<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>deeply.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> <i>For if we genuinely love Him,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i>we wake up inside Christ’s body.</i></div>
</span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-68122390830293251662012-06-07T12:22:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:17:20.357-07:00Christ the Way<br />
<div class="MsoTitle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b>Christ the Way </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Yeshua the Christ<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Many of us are aware of our
deep longing and need for God but may be confused about the way to God.<span style="color: red;"> </span>In the Christian tradition we are given both the
personal Yeshua as gift of God's own Self, the disclosure of the human hands
and face of God, and the universal Heart of Christ as the ocean of God's Love
and Mercy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the season of Advent, in
particular, we make a special effort to return to the essence of our spiritual
life, to make straight the way of the Lord. We return to what is simple and
what is truest in our tradition.
The great simplicity and wisdom for Christians is this: Christ is the
Way. The Prayer of the Heart is
the "way" by which we enter into communion in Christ. The Prayer of the Heart, Breathing
Yeshua, is the way by which we become consecrated to Him, the way we unite our
lives with the Life of Christ. Prayer of the Heart in Breathing Yeshua is the
way by which we become accessible and given to Christ who is our Way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In Prayer of the Heart the
deeply intense personal love we experience in Yeshua becomes the means for
uniting ourselves, uniting our humanity fully, with the universal, mystical and
risen Christ. The scriptures and
the theologians and the mystics affirm the more we enter the mystery of Christ,
the more our experience of Christ becomes limitless, and infinite. We discover
that Christ is much bigger than our conception. The entry point may become intensely personal, and it opens
to include all that is. That is
the wonder of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In this book I want to share
some teaching and practice in how we can follow and unite ourselves utterly
with the One who is Agape, the Way of self-giving love. To be fully given, fully consecrated to
the love of Christ in all things, in all aspects of our humanity, is the
essence of Prayer of the Heart. To
follow Christ is to become Christ, and that is the transformative calling of
all Christians. I’ve often held
the question in my life, as many seekers do, "Who really is Christ?"
I’ve been one who has lived the interfaith dialogue. I live it in my marriage and in my earliest years of
contemplative practice I practiced in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition; so I have
an understanding of how other traditions approach contemplative practice. But there was something that called me
back into my tradition, and that is the experience of Christ. There is a common
ground of unitive Divine Life that the contemplative wisdom traditions of the
world share. However, the experience of the personal Yeshua drawing us into the
Life of the universal mystical and Risen Christ defines the uniqueness of the
Christian contemplative path that I call <b><i>the Way of the Heart</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. And I
have wanted to explore and articulate this uniqueness. In an important time of
interfaith dialogue and understanding it is vital to have insight into the
areas of common ground shared with other Faith tradition while equally being
able to express the unique gift of one's own tradition to the world. <b><i>That
unique gift in the Christian path, is not just the teaching, but the One who
imparts Himself as the path.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Some years ago I was in the
spiritual direction training
program at a Benedictine Center (Shalom Prayer Center, Our Lady of Angels
Monastery, Mt. Angel, Oregon). We were just beginning a two-year journey
together of training and formation in spiritual direction. As we often do in
such a group, I looked around at the faces before me and wondered, "Now
who am I really going to connect with here? Who am I going to have common
ground with?" What actually
developed over the two years was a surprise to me. By the end of the two years, the companions in the group
with whom I bonded the most were of evangelical tradition. Since that hasn't been my background at
all, it was a curious phenomenon.
I found a spirit in them and their "way" of approaching
Christian spirituality that touched me.
I come from a liturgical tradition where, in my view, the doctrinal
teaching is more expansive.
Nevertheless what touched a chord of love and understanding in me was
the singular devotion to the person of Jesus. I found this simplicity and
wholehearted devotion to a personal Jesus was their gift to me. It opened me in
ways I hadn't anticipated. And
isn't that the way it often is! We are continually surprised and turned upside
down by grace. When we overcome our own xenophobia and befriend the stranger
they gift us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Yeshua- the Doorway In<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We know there are prominent
teachings that come to us from scripture about Jesus being the Way. Among those are from the Gospel of
John. He says, “I am The Way, The
Truth and The Life. No one comes
to the Father except through me.
If you will know me, you will know the Father also. From now on, do you not know Him and
have you not seen Him?” (John
14:6) Of course, some take this as an exclusion clause but I don’t. Having
undergone years of training in the contemplative practice of another tradition
I know from experience that awakening to the Infinite is not the exclusive
franchise of any religion.
Rather, I understand the words of John's Gospel as an invitation to
enter the Heart of the Abba (Source of all Life) through the Heart of Yeshua
and the intimately personal love and redemption He offers us as disclosure and
gate to the Infinite. Yeshua says,
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, Show me the Father? Do you not believe that the Father is in me and I am in the
Father?" (John 14:9-10)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">When Yeshua wasn’t using the
term “<b>Abba</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">,” which means
"papa" for God, He used the Aramaic term “<b>Allaha,</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">” the essential unity from Whom all life comes. He personalized the universal <b><i>Allaha</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> into <b><i>Abba</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, or <b><i>Papa</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. Biblical scholars say this must have
been a source of shock and scandal to the people of his time. They were shocked
and even angered that Yeshua might presume this intimate, personal relationship
with the transcendent Divinity who is so beyond us. The Jews dared not utter or
write the name of Yahweh, or "I AM", and instead used other terms,
such as Allaha, Adonai, or Lord. ("Allaha" has the same root word as
other Abrahamic Faiths as the Hebraic "Ela," "Elohim," or
the Islamic term, "Allah")
Yet the daring disclosure of the Gospel of Yeshua is that the
transcendent Unity and Source of everything is Love, and is intensely concerned
and in relationship with every human being, every being, every thing that
is. This intense loving concern,
this gift of self-giving love or Agape, is the divine disclosure in Yeshua. The
Gospel teaches us that we are so intimate in our belonging that Yeshua invites
us to address Allaha, or the Source of all Life as parent. ( Being a patriarchal society, the
Source would be seen as "Abba." but "Amma" could equally be
true in a more matriarchal society.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In his ministry Yeshua in the
Gospels tells us again and again how He is the Way, how communion with Him is
the way in to the Abba. Yeshua
begins his ministry with the startling announcement of what he calls the Good
News. (It took me a long time to
discover out what the good news was in Christianity because the oppressive fear
based indoctrination I received as a youngster wasn’t really very good news.)
Yeshua proclaims: “The Kingdom of God is very near. Repent." (Mark 1:15)
He teaches that God (Allaha) is accessible to us, here and now. Change the direction
we seek for happiness. So the
Life’s journey is for us to become accessible to God. In other words, Yeshua is saying, "Allaha is
always offering Himself in love to each one of us." Our spiritual task is to receive this
gift of God’s own Self to each one of us.
By the end of His historical ministry Yeshua tells us in the Gospel of
John that by uniting ourselves utterly with Himself, personal emanation and
human face of the God of Mystery, we become equally one with the Abba. He
whispers to us, "Come close to me, Come close to the Abba."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the Christian path we
understand the Divine as relationship. Christ is the <b><i>Way</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> into relationship, in the way we open in our totality
to receive Christ’s gift of Himself, and in the way we offer ourselves in trust
and in love to Him. In this
process we uncover who we are. We
find our home, we find our belonging, and we find our true identity. In Breathing Yeshua we actualize this
opening and offering in self-gift in communion with Christ, a communion of
mutual giving and receiving of the gift of self in love. The experience of
relational life in communion with Christ is both intensely personal and
intimate, and oceanic and inclusive.
Some Christians will talk about the experience of salvation as a moment
in time where they experienced a conversion of giving their life to Christ.
This can be a powerful and transformative moment. The mistake can be that one might see this as an historical
event that happens one time and one time only. The practice of the Way of the
Heart is an ongoing conversion, an ongoing giving of one’s self to Christ, and
receiving Christ's self-gift of Love.
This is why Prayer of the Heart is called <b><i>Consecrated Life, an
ongoing act of consecration.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Salvation through
Communion with Christ<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Salvation can rightly be
thought of as healing. In fact it
comes from the same root word as “salve," a healing ointment. Salvation is a healing of the wound of
our separateness, a re-ordering of our person, of body, soul and spirit, a
restoration of our belonging in God.
Our being is restored with God at the center in the true Heart or
Spirit, rather than the separate-self ego at the center. The wound of this
separateness, the wound of this false consciousness comes when our spirit
remains dormant and unawakened.
Our true spirit in Christ can remain locked away and hidden from
awareness, covered over by the conditioning of the mind. So there is something we must do in
order to become accessible and given to this relationship of awakened
rootedness in Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Being given to Christ is not
a single moment, but a lifetime of moments, connected by the actualization of
our deepest longing to be given because this is what we most desire. It’s what
brings us to silent prayer retreats and to seek teachers of prayer and
spiritual formation. <b><i>It
takes deep, desire -deep longing for Christ- to take off an entire day, or weekend, or week long silent
retreat, sit down and to refrain from talking, to release from the traffic of
the mind again and again in order to just be present in giveness, in love, in
adoration, to Yeshua, our Heart's desire</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. This longing is so
powerful; and the more we feed it, the more we give ourselves to that longing,
the more powerful it becomes. <b><i>For
the author of The Cloud of Unknowing this desire is the doorway in, and it is
the singular desire that brings us to healing communion in Christ.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> When we
do this consecration, then salvation happens. This transformative discipline and practice is what the
ancients call "purity of heart". They called it so because it was the
"undivided heart", because nothing else is allowed to intrude upon or
impede our deepest desire to be One with Christ. In this consecration Christ
becomes fully alive in our soul and lives through our humanity, the goal of the
Christian life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The Eucharist of Our Life
in Christ</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the Eucharistic liturgy we
have the act of consecration, where the elements of bread and wine are
consecrated and offered. The
elements are made holy, are divinized and made a vessel of Christ's Presence. Such is our life. When we awaken
spiritually, our life is Eucharist.
In the Christian path of the Way of the Heart we give ourselves to the
act of consecration and receiving God's Self-Gift in Christ. The Eucharist is the liturgical
enactment of that mystery of human existence, the mystery of the Incarnation,
the mystery of the Resurrection, enacted again and again and again in the
Eucharistic liturgy. What is asked
of us is just our willingness to be surrendered to our deep desire to be given
to Christ and porous to Divine grace.
Sometimes we can be so taken with the beginning act of conversion that
we think, "Oh, this is the end, this is such a great thing, we've got it
made. We've arrived. We can just be on power glide from here on out." Proceeding with this premise is a
guarantee for a great fall. The
first conversion is only the beginning of a process, a lifetime practice of
contrition, conversion, and consecration.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Calling on the Name of
Yeshua<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yeshua is the personal face
of God turned towards us. Yeshua
tells us, "Receive me, receive me in your humanity. Live me in your human life each
moment. I am accessible to you in
the most personal and the most intimate way."In John's Gospel He says,
" I will not abandon you, I will not leave you orphaned. My spirit will be within you. Because I live, you will live.” (John
14:8) That’s a wonderful promise, isn’t it? “Because I live, you will live." He promises us "Your true life is
My life," so let it be, let it happen, let it take place within you. Receive me because I want to give
myself to you." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">When we want to be close to
someone, really close, when we want to really be in their presence, the first
thing we often do is think of their name, isn’t it? In the Judeo-Christian tradition to be called by name means
a condition of intimacy and the scriptures speak again and again about being
called by name by the living Lord.
So it is also the reason why we choose a name as our prayer word in Prayer
of the Heart. Scripture invites us
to call upon the name of the Lord.
That very act then makes us accessible to the Divine. The Lord is already here, so it’s not
as though the Lord is around the block or somewhere and you’re whistling,
saying, "Hey, over here!"
Yeshua is already here and ready to offer Himself, and *is* offering Himself<b><i>. By invoking the name of Yeshua, the
name of the Lord, we are given to God and our longing for God, we make
ourselves accessible.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <b><i>This
is Breathing Yeshua. Returning again and again and again to the name of our
Beloved makes us accessible to the Beloved.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> The name
of Yeshua and breath become our anchor in the middle of life so that we are not
overwhelmed by the culture we live in and the culture we carry around in your
mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the Abrahamic Faiths
prayer takes place in the invocation of the name of the Holy One. In the Prayer of the Heart, the name of
Yeshua, the personal manifestation of the Holy One, the Christos, the Risen One
of our heart is our anchor and the One in whom our self-offering is continually
expressed. In Breathing Yeshua,
every breath, every invocation of the Holy Name, carries with it in our
intention of self-offering. "Here I am, I am yours."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In human relationships, isn’t
that what we do when we are really in relationship and in union with another
human being? We say, "Here I
am – I am yours, I give myself to you." How much more it is in the relationship with Christ! "Here I am, I join my life with
your life. We are not
separate. Your life is my true
life." Thomas Merton says that to find who you truly are, to find your
true heart and your true spirit within you, is to find Christ. In our practice
of breathing Yeshua, we breathe and give ourselves to the reality of the Living
One within us, who is our true Life, and we receive the gift of God, the Living
Water of Christ, who suffuses our humanity from within– this is the receptive
interior movement of our life in Christ.
We are all like Mary of Bethany and Mary of Magdala, who receive and
heal in His presence and say:
"Yeshua is enough! The fullness of my Heart's desire is here and
now in Yeshua." There is no magic; there is no technique. There is just this opening in utter
trust to receive the One who continually offers Himself. This opening to the
personal and intimate love that Yeshua gives in Himself, opens us to the
Universal Heart of Christ that embraces the Universe and all Creation. Those
who have gone before us in the Way of the Heart say it this way in this reading
from Brian Taylor's book, <b><i>Becoming Christ</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> :<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Bodoni MT'; font-size: 12pt;">"In
this sense the Jesus Prayer becomes a way in which we become Christ, or He
becomes us. For Jesus' name itself has an energy, a force to it that invokes
all that Jesus is. Through the use of Jesus' name, His being soaks into our
being; we become more like Him. In this regard the ninth century monk Hesychius
of Sinai wrote:</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Blockquote">
<span style="font-family: 'Abadi MT Condensed Light';">'The
more the rain falls on the earth, the softer it makes it; similarly, the more
we call upon Christ's holy Name, the greater the rejoicing and exultation it
brings to the earth of our heart'. (quoted by Clement, <em>The Roots of
Christian Mysticism</em>, p. 241)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Bodoni MT'; font-size: 12pt;">But
this is not all. Just as Jesus was attuned to all God's children and to all of
life, the repeated invocation of his holy name moves us into a similar harmony
with other people, with all creation. The author of <em>The Way of A Pilgrim </em>described
how he was affected by this saturation in the name of Jesus, how he began to
take on Jesus' own perspective, Jesus' own life:</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Blockquote">
<span style="font-family: 'Abadi MT Condensed Light';">Everybody
was kind to me, it was as though everyone loved me...The trees, the grass, the
birds, the earth, the air, the light seemed to be telling me that they existed
for man's sake, that they witnessed to the love of God for man, that everything
proved the love of God for man, that all things prayer to God and sang his
praise....I felt a burning love for Jesus and for all God's creatures.
"
</span><span style="font-family: 'Abadi MT Condensed Light'; font-size: 10pt;">(<em>The
Way of A Pilgrim</em>, trans. R.M. French, p. 85) (Brian C. Taylor p.
71-72) <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>In the Celtic Christian
tradition the daily prayers of practice and songs of the people reminded and grounded
them in an every day life rooted in the personal and Universal Christ. In His
face, His hands, and His Heart the Lord God of all things is brought near and
ever present, in the all-encompassing circle of ceaseless loving concern and
protection:<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><b><u>Celtic Daily Prayer<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Christ as a light, illumine and
guide me<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Christ as a shield overshadow me<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Christ under me<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Christ over me<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Christ beside me<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>On my left and my right<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>This day be within and without me<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Lowly and meek, yet all powerful<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Be in the heart of each to whom I
speak<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>And the mouth of each who speaks
unto me<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>This day be within and without me<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Lowly and meek, yet all powerful<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Christ as a light<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Christ as a shield<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Christ beside me<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>On my left and on my right.</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Celtic Blessing:<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>May the peace of the Lord, Christ
go with you. Wherever He may send
you, may He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the
storm. May He bring you home,
rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May He bring you home, rejoicing, once again into our doors.</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><b><u>Jesu Who Ought to be Praised</u></b></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;">(Celtic Prayer from <i>The Carmine
Gaedelica</i></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>It were as easy for Jesu<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>To renew the withered tree<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>As to wither the new<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Were it His will so to do.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Jesu! Jesu !<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Jesu! meet it were to praise Him.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>There is no plant in the ground<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>But is full of His virtue,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>There is no form in the strand<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>But is full of His blessing.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>There is no life in the sea,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>There is no creature in the firmament,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>There is no bird on the wing,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>There is no star in the sky,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>There is nothing beneath the sun,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>But proclaims His goodness.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Jesu! Jesu !<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Jesu!
meet it were to praise Him.</i></div>
</span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-24255282322249357932012-06-06T12:26:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:18:04.820-07:00Finding Our True Home and Healing Sanctuary<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><u>Finding Our True Home and Healing Sanctuary in
Christ</u><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>"Come to me, all you who are heavy burdened
and I will give you rest….Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.; for I am
gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls."</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Matt.
11:28<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our invitation from Yeshua is
to find our home, our root, our rest in Him. All of us at some time in this world of impermanence ask the
question, "Where is our true home?" In my own story early in my life
we had to move often as a consequence of great financial insecurity. My mother
says that I often asked as young child, "Is that where we are going to
live?" This same insecurity carried into adult life. I have longed to find
the home and sanctuary where I can always rest, where I can always belong,
where I can always have worth and dignity, where I can always have safety and
security, where I can we always know who I truly am and live that truth. For me the answer to these questions is
at the core of the Christian mystery. The Heart of Christ is an ontological
reality already within us. The Heart of Christ is a truth to be discovered and
lived. His Invitation is to live our lives consciously and intentionally in his
Heart. In the Gospel of John He
says "Abide in my love."
I take Him at His word that His heart is my home, and I can dwell there
in a sanctuary that is neither conditional nor temporary. So much of the way we
live is conditional, dependent on external circumstances for getting along or
making a living. We make the necessary adjustments and negotiations in order to
survive, in order to have some semblance of safety and security in this life,
in order to be acceptable. That set of arrangements is necessary. The problem arises
when we believe the set of arrangements and adjustments we make and the face we
show to the world that we call "self" is who we are, is our true
abode. <b><i>We are wandering pilgrims in this life without a home until we
discover and anchor our lives in the Heart of Christ. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yeshua tells us that union in
Him is the promise of the Way of the Heart. (John 14:20) "On that Day you will know that I am in my
Father and my Father in me, and you in me and I in you.” Today, each day, can be “that day.”
Christ is the central Reality of our inner Life. Unitive Life in Christ is an
ontological truth which we are invited to live, to make real in our
humanity. In John 15:5, Yeshua
says, “I am the vine you are the branches.” In this passage we see that the
fullness of Christ, the Pleroma of the Word made Flesh, has the potential to be
realized in our human person. This is not another human arrangement, another
negotiated relationship, another "deal" we work out for our benefit.
It is simply the way things are; it is not earned but pure gift. The heart of
our own heart is the Heart of Christ, waiting to be fully incarnate in our
human person, Christ consciousness brought forth in our own human consciousness
as we spoke of in Chapter Four. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">John 1:1<i>- "In the
beginning was the Word.. all things came into being through Him... What has
come into being is Life and the Life is the Light of all people. "</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> In this passage the Gospel says again that the
ontological truth of our being is that we come into life in Christ and whether
we are awakened to it or not, He is our true Light. Thomas Kelly, in his beautify essay, "The Light
Within" says that our inner Light is Christ. And in the Way of the Heart
we come to express His Light, not in spite of, but through all of our wounds
and brokenness, through the raw material of our incarnate humanity. We become
the vessel and the lit flame of the Light of Christ. In this way we bring the
totality of our life experiences, need, and vulnerability to the Divine
Christos, the Life of our Heart, and in the love of Christ it is redeemed and
brought to the fullness of life's true purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In our interior life of
communion with Christ He draws all things unto Himself. Life experienced in our
humanity is brought into the Light and Redemptive Love of Christ, and
transformed. Our humanity is not to be rejected or disdained or shamed, but
brought to the altar as the broken bread to be lifted up and consecrated. What
was knotted is set free, what was twisted is made straight, what was injured is
healed. All is redeemed, and brought to its rightful purpose in the Heart of
Christ. We experience then in our transformative spiritual practice, an
interior circulation, an alchemy of Love, where all is brought to its rightful
purpose in the Heart of Christ.
What was seen before as deficit becomes strength. So many persons have
discovered that what brought them down and injured them and others in life
becomes redeemed strength. In the moment when we say 'yes' to Christ, and make
of our humanity an offering, it becomes the moment of transformation. We bow
and we offer ceaselessly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Christ Our Safety and
Security<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In my own early life there
was great insecurity and a life of being moved from place to place and at times
periods of homelessness. And<b> </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">it is
this wound of insecurity that has been the engine of my own spiritual journey
to find a Home where I wouldn't have to leave, where I would always be welcome,
where I would eternally belong. All of us need a place of ultimate safety and
healing to abide and take refuge. Yeshua
says that His Heart is our true home. And I believe Him. When we stop relying
on the conditional survival adjustments and arrangements as the source of our
ultimate Faith, and instead anchor our life ultimately in the unconditioned
Love of Christ, then we begin to experience true Home, and true Peace and true
Love. We can continue to live in the conditional world but we can stop making
compromises with the primacy of the Love of Christ and the truth of our
communion in Him. When we do this we find the courage to bring forth what is
truest and best in us as gift to the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The purpose of a silent
immersion retreat in Prayer of the Heart is to settle in to a deep place of
interior safety and sanctuary in Christ. In this place of safety, in this sanctuary
in our own heart, we become accessible to communion with Christ. We open and release the knotted and
wounded aspects of our life. Intensive experience with Prayer of the Heart
practice opens us and makes us accessible to the Heart and Love of Christ in a
deeper way than we thought possible. In the Prayer of the Heart intensive
retreat we come to release from the worries</span>, <span style="font-size: 12pt;">wounds</span>, <span style="font-size: 12pt;">and confusion of our life
to abide and heal in the Heart of Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">What is abiding? One way to
see this might be as "anchoring" in both our attention and intention
in the core and ground of Ultimate Reality, rather than being carried along in
the confusion and distraction of what is "normal" consciousness for
most people<b>. </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Abiding in Christ is also
"anchoring" in our practice. In order to be accessible to this
"anchoring" in Christ as our true home and reality we do our praxis
of Breathing Yeshua, bowing in presence and adoration, and offering in love to
Christ. In the Way of the Heart this grounding and anchoring happens through
the "Invocation of the Holy Name," to come Home, again and again. For
Christians the name of the Holy One is Yeshua, the face of God turned towards
us. The ancients of the desert called this continual return the praxis of the
"Remembrance" of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The need for salvation arises
from our homelessness, and our wandering and seeking in all the wrong places.
The practice is to look for love in the right place, and home is right here,
right now, within us. The Good News is that God in Christ is accessible to us,
The only impediment to our always being Home in communion with Christ is our
receptivity, our being accessible. As God is pure gift then the real issue is
being accessible. "I am here, I am ready for You, to receive You, to
'live' Your Life in mine." To be accessible we offer all that we are, all
that we have lived, all that we intend and will to be, in the praxis of
attention/adoration and intention/self-giving love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We make our self-offering
without exception, without shame, without self-judgement, and in utter trust.
The Gospel stories teach us metaphorically that being accessible to Yeshua
involves stretching and reaching beyond the familiar patterns and known limits.
<b><i>Healing in the Gospel stories must involve stretching out the hand in
trust, asking to be being "lowered through the roof" in utter
humility. And we reach out like the hemorrhaging woman to touch the garment. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">These
acts of Faith, and not magic, Yeshua tells us, are what makes the healing
possible. And so it is in Faith we are accessible to Him and His touch within
us. In a retreat space or in the consecrated space of our daily practice we
enter into an act of giveness and trust where unconditioned Life is offered to
us. We make ourselves accessible by stepping out of known and familiar patterns
of the mind traffic and the arrangements it has made, to anchor into the
Mystery of communion in Christ in our own Heart<b><i>. Like the paralytic
lowered through the roof to be healed, we lower ourselves into intimacy with
Christ in our own hearts in the interior quiet of Breathing Yeshua, and we
receive the touch of healing Love. In His touch we find our home, in His touch
we find our healing.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In this exercise of pure
Faith we open to transformative healing, and our life's salvation in Christ.
The healing of fear brings forth courageous Love. The healing of shame and
unworthiness brings forth the dignity and reverence of Love. The healing of
isolation and rejection brings forth the communion and belonging of Love. The
healing of spiritual blindness brings forth the clarity and awakening of Love.
The healing of a divided life brings forth wholehearted and consecrated Love.<b>
</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>My Healed Journey with Dad<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The journey I have walked
with my father the last 20 years has been blessed by this same healing touch of
Christ. My father and I started out badly in life. He returned from World War
II a deeply damaged young man who had undergone the worst of combat and the
turmoil of an alcoholic upbringing. Being terribly injured by a drunk driver
and in a hospital for several months didn't help in his prognosis for having a
happy family life. My mother and father divorced when I was two years old. The
father I knew growing up was not someone I wanted to be with. Through grace, religious Faith, and
Alcoholics Anonymous he began to do the inner work necessary to be a man
capable of love. With the inner work I was doing in contemplative prayer
practice we found a way to walk together and discover the love we could have as
father and son in later life. In April 2004 I was at his bedside and he passed
from this life into the joy of Christ. He had told me that his greatest
happiness would be to see Yeshua face to face. I was graced to be present when
that moment happened and I felt his joy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our journey of healing began
when we decided to have an annual retreat together at the Trappist Monastery of
Our Lady of Guadalupe in Oregon. It was the monastery where my spiritual
mentor, Abbot Bernard McVeigh O.C.S.O. resided. In the years that followed my
father and I grew to become best friends and shared the love that two men who
are good friends can have. This love and healing only became possible out of
the growing experience of abiding in Christ and bringing our wounds to the Love
that heals all and redeems all. Sometimes an entire redemptive movement of
Christ's healing touch in a life can be best summed up in a moment. I wrote a
poem in 1994 to describe such a
moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<h1 align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Walking
down Abbey Road<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">by William Ryan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Two men tread the silence and communion along Abbey
Road.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Their vapored breath rises toward a grey winter
sky.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>This way they come now eight years,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>when the sun slants just so.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>They have held and heard,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>each the other moan,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>and lanced the festering wounds of grief.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>One foot bathes in wellspring of Living Water
within,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>the other wrenches in pain.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>One father crying out for the son he lost in
divorce,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>the other, the boy he lost in the wasting of
leukemia.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>It will never be.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>The one man injured his mind,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>lost his innocence,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>and his soul was bloodied,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>in the killing of Bloody Nose ridge,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>on that
distant Palau island, Pelilu.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Alcoholism took the rest, almost.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>The other, now grey too, recovers from wounds,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>a casualty of the suicides,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>broken lives and suffering of<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>the psychiatric trenches.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Father and son no more,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Now two old friends,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>telling tales of love and passion,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>round the corner and ascend the hill<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>of Guadalupe.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>They stride arm over shoulder.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>The winter ray strikes through the clouds<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>the outstretched white marble arms<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>of
welcoming Savior.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>He beckons all, takes all unto Himself.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Living Spring breaks through the weary crust,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>In timelessnes, can it be any other way?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>" All will be well, All be well,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i>And all manner of things will be well."</i></div>
</span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-32770994338059509862012-06-05T12:28:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:18:47.745-07:00Healing in the Heart of Christ<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><u>Healing in the Heart of Christ<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">"<i>O Christ, you are united to every being
without exception. Still<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>more, risen from the dead, you come to heal the
secret wound of our<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>soul. And for each of us there opens the gates of
an infinite goodness<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>of heart. Through such love, little by little our
soul is changed." <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">( Brother Roger of Taize, <i>No Greater Love</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Healer of our Soul<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the previous chapter we
focused on Prayer of the Heart as the way we come to find an interior space of
sanctuary to heal in Christ. We must not equate spiritual healing with
psychological or physical healing. To heal spiritually is to heal the soul.
Here it is important to distinguish between "soul" and the true
"spirit" within us. Many of the mystics will speak of the spirit as
that which remains hidden in Christ, ever whole and untouched by sin and the
conditioning of human life and society. The true spirit is our true Heart, the
center of our being, the sanctuary of Christ's Heart within us, and dwelling
place of the Trinity. The true spirit is the Imago Dei within us and source of
our ontological union with God. <b><i>The soul is the spiritual consciousness
of the human being. The soul is the fruit and creation of our passage in this
life and the medium where we do our inner work of transformation.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
Spiritual practice is soul making and soul transforming. While the
spirit remains ever whole, the soul is subject to the injuries of life and the
deadening of moral blindness if we turn away from the Beloved's voice within
us. Such moral and spiritual death leaves a soul bound in separateness and
locked in a dungeon of self-absorption, inaccessible to communion with the
Divine. The soul, transformed and infused with the love of Christ, is the gift
we make to God in the life's spiritual journey. The true spirit already rests
in its belonging in God. Our spiritual work in this life is to bring forth a
soul that is transparent, shining, and aflame with the Light of Christ, in
harmony with the true spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the inner work of Prayer
of the Heart we bring the wounds and dark spaces of our soul to the healing
touch of Christ. We open every dark corner of the soul to the Light and Love of
Christ to be offered to His limitless Love. Some wounds we bear impede us from
this profound act of trust. Among them are fear, rejection, and shame. A little
child will not trust a doctor or nurse to touch an injured area if they are
afraid. Persons will not allow themselves to be seen unclothed or speak their
secret hurts if they are ashamed or expect rejection or negative
judgement. We must be willing to
be naked to fully receive the unconditional love of Christ in our communion
with Him and thus be healed. We will not bring the wounds of our soul for
healing if we wish to look away, or if we are convinced we can heal them by
other means. Such is the impact of spiritual blindness and a divided life. If
we remain isolated and hidden from the Love of Christ, neither can we become
transparent before Him in our willingness to offer our souls to be healed in
His Heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>But the central wound
of our soul and source of every spiritual ill is the wound of separateness. For
Christians Christ is the healing balm for this injury, freeing us to live our
human life fully united with His Life in every moment of life.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>In the silent communion of our Prayer of the Heart practice and in
the midst of daily life we lift up in offering each moment, in each breath, in
each invocation to Yeshua, our wounds as they appear and are revealed. We offer
them to the One whose Love encompasses all and brings all to Resurrection in
Him. The wounds of our soul become transformed into spiritual strength in the
Heart of Christ.</i></b></span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-42102446252451665622012-06-04T12:31:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:19:45.060-07:00Healing from Fear<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><u>Healing from Fear<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>"A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat
into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the
stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up saying, 'Teacher, do you not
care that we are perishing?' He woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the
sea, "Peace! Be still!' Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.
He said to them, ' Why are you afraid? Have you still no Faith?' " Mark
4:35-41<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In this passage from the
Gospel of Mark we have a central story of fear and Faith, danger and safety. In
this story as the followers of Yeshua believe they are on the verge of
annihilation, Yeshua awakens in the middle of the storm. They voice their fear
and their dismay by saying, "Teacher, do you not care that we are
perishing?" How often has that been our own complaint! We are in the
middle of crisis and disaster and sometimes even in anger question God's
concern for us. In this story the relaxed Yeshua calms the storm and says, "Peace, be still!" He then
challenges his friends by saying, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no
Faith?" I should say when I have heard this Gospel passage my own response
has been, "Well, that's fine for you to say! You're Jesus and I'm just
explosed and on the receiving end of whatever life brings me." <b><i>The question I ponder here is
what it is to be vulnerable in life and at the same time to live from a place
of profound interior peace and courage.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Each of us carries within us
amazing levels of dread. And as we grow in our practice we may gain some
awareness of how deep the fear runs in us. Sometimes our immature Faith among Christians can be based
on a misplaced idea of insurance. We may unconsciously "cut a deal"
with God that if we can just be "right" with Him, then the
misfortunes that befall other people won't happen to us. We see people emerge
from a life-threatening situation and they piously proclaim that their Faith saved
them, that they were saved from death or injury by God because of their
religious Faith. Nothing could be further from the truth. That belief is
magical thinking and not religious Faith. The practice of authentic Faith helps
us be **with** the tragedies and traumas of real life, it does not protect us
from them. Faith helps us to recover and to find a well of peace and security
when losses befall us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Live in the World-Abide in
Christ<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">When we sit down in our
silent practice of communion with Christ, we breathe Yeshua. We observe first
hand the onslaught of mental obsession that leads to behavioral compulsions to
"save" us from harm's way. The ego-mind develops such habits to try
to guarantee us a false sense of control. And we believe if we have just the
right strategy, we can have control over events in my life. These whirlwinds of
obsession are like the storm in our practice of interior silence. They only are
stilled at Yeshua's hand and His healing touch to connect us with real interior
safety, not a false escape from life's problems and traumas. For neither Yeshua
nor his followers escaped the afflictions and tragedies of life. Rather His
promise to us is not that we will not escape from the pain and misfortune of
life, but we will find refuge in His peace and His unfailing love in the middle
of all that afflicts us. Yeshua says to us in the Gospels that we can live in
the depths of life in such a way that we have a foot in both worlds, the realm
of impermanence and vulnerability, and in the realm of peace and ultimate safety
in Him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">When I speak of dread I have
to remember my own dread as a parent that one of my children might die. This is
a fear that came true for me as I had to face the loss of my young son from
Leukemia. I experienced at that time the paradox of the beatitudes, that when
we grieve, when we accept our vulnerability in Faith, is the moment when we can
have a foot in both worlds, the world of human fragility and the Kingdom of
God, and that there is no separation. To experience both simultaneously is not a
contradiction, but it is where our Prayer of the Heart practice takes us. We
can breathe Yeshua, be anchored in the Heart of Christ, while still
experiencing the fullness of the human journey in both joy and sorrow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Acceptance of
Vulnerability- the Path to Healing and Compassion</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yeshua does not deny the
reality that the human journey is filled with attachment, risk, and loss. He
warns us the rain falls equally on the just and unjust. To lead the loving life
is to accept it, and be with it with inner peace and security. In the Christian path we
understand that this peace and security arises from our communion with Christ.
And like Sr. Antoinette, the Benedictine Amma, we may realize there is not much
in life over which we have control, but we can always "sit and breathe
Yeshua," be grounded in Him and therefore be present with every human
experience the best way we can, in the most loving way we can. Brother Roger of
Taize says of our "Yes" to Christ. "This "Yes," leaves
you exposed, there is no other way.” ( <i>Brother Roger, p. 46</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">There are many fears we carry
in life, existential, spiritual, and psychological. I have worked for 34 years as clinical counselor. Much of my
work has involved helping people manage or cope with psychological fears. As
long as we are human we will have psychological fear, and there may be times
when we are overcome with them.
Our vulnerabilities do not go away. We are called in the spiritual life
to find our ultimate security and safety where it can be found but not escape
the human state. In my early life the range of financial, physical, and
emotional insecurities which affected me so deeply, later in life were the fuel
of my spiritual seeking for a true source of security.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is important to
distinguish in our discussion the differences between those fears that are
natural attributes of our humanity and therefore assist in our survival, and
those fears that impede our spiritual growth. We have a natural fight-or-flight
reaction in response a perceived threat to our survival or that of our loved
ones. Natural fears can be activating and helpful. These fears exist on the
psycho-physical level. Fears of physical death are natural and help us stay
alive. Fears of violence help us to mobilize our resources to stay safe. Fears
of physical pain help us to seek medical help or take care of our bodies and
not take undue risks. Fears of social rejection and humiliation may help us
avoid undue psychological risks. And I have seen in my professional work how
often old age and disability trigger a natural fear of dependence on others.
And as we reflect about fear on the spiritual level we must confront our fears
of annihilation and abandonment. To be consumed in the grip of these fears is
to be paralyzed in our capacity to open and surrender to the One Life that
enfolds and sustains our life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We can learn to find peace
and acceptance with our mortality and the impermanent nature of human life. We
can open to a deeper Life in Christ where we can always rest and find our
safety. In the Way of the Heart we can find our ultimate love and acceptance
and never fear that we are alone, separate, or abandoned in this universe. When
we breathe Yeshua in this sanctuary in the Heart of Christ, these fears subside
and heal, and we find the place of our abiding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our culture does not help us
with these fears. Rather it seeks to avoid or distract us from facing them.
Death is a taboo subject. Yet confronting our fears of non-being will lead us
to seek for the connection with the Source of Being. The poor, the vulnerable,
the dependent, are seen as unworthy and a burden to those who see themselves as
self-sufficient. Yet our compassionate connection to the vulnerability in our
selves and others opens us to love all beings more deeply. Too often we may be
overcome by fear, but spiritual practice is not an antidote to ward off the
range of fears humans are heir too. Yet human fragility and vulnerability and
the fears that arise from them can be the doorway to finding true healing and
safety in the touch and love of our practice of communion with Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Rooted in Christ<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Prayer of the Heart does
not take away our vulnerablity. Rather it roots us in an acceptance of our
vulnerablity and the healing of our fears in a way that we open to love instead
of "circling the wagons" in self-absorption. The praxis of Breathing
Yeshua roots us, moment to moment, in our communion in the Heart of Christ. A
question we can always ask ourselves as fears arise in the middle of life? Am I
taking refuge or seeking safety in a relationship, in an attachment to a
situation, a person, an outcome, a circumstance, a role, an identity, a habit
pattern, that cannot truly give to me the ultimate peace and security that
every human being needs? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the Christian journey
being rooted in Christ is the sole source of the "peace that surpasses all
understanding." Refuge in Christ, a continual return, is a praxis, an
actualization of our ontological belonging in Him. In His Heart we find the only relief from our preoccupation
with control, and release from the mind and its obsessions and compulsions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Being rooted in Christ we
learn to be fully present in the circumstances, persons, relationships,
tragedies, joys, and all outcomes and experiences with the equanimity and love
only oneness in Christ can give. This makes possible a kind of living I would
never have thought possible. Each circumstance, each relationship, is a gift, a
means to open us more deeply to this deeper Refuge. We can return to our
grounding in Christ with our prayer of consecration at intervals of the day,
and the ceaseless return to our prayer word in Breathing Yeshua. The ego-mind
wants to create other refuges, and will easily bring us back into the habit
patterns of worrying. Yeshua keeps telling us in the Gospels, "Don’t' worry!" And He reminds us it won't get us
anywhere anyway. The obsession of worry won't deliver the power and control
over external things our ego-mind seeks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In our practice each day we
come to realize that Christ is our Beloved, the true spouse, companion, and
friend who never abandons us. In
the practice of Refuge in His Heart, we come to fulfill the purpose for His
coming into the world that He promised in <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">John 10:10, “ I came that you might share in My
Life, and share in It fully.” His Life is limitless, Divine Life, the Life of
Love, the Life that births and sustains the Universe, Life that cannot be taken
from us, Life that is indestructible and transcends all fear. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>For me the question from my earliest life has always been
"Where is my true Home?" I know now that Yeshua is my true Home.</i></b></span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-81624711421968764292012-06-02T12:34:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:20:30.609-07:00Healing from Shame and Unworthiness<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><u>Healing from Shame and Unworthiness<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 229.5pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 229.5pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>"One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with
him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table. And
a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the
Pharisee's house brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at
his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them
with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the
ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself
if this man were a prophet he would have known what kind of woman this is who
is touching him-that she is a sinner. Jesus spoke up…" Luke 7</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">:36-40)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 229.5pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 229.5pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The
central wound of our soul, our spiritual consciousness, is the illusion that we
are separate, cut off from God. <i>Separateness is the central knot of our
spiritual suffering </i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and while it may
manifest in a unique form in each of us, it is the unraveling of this knot that
is the dynamic of the life’s spiritual journey. The illusion of separateness is
the only original sin. All the other spiritual wounds we carry are some aspect
or manifestation of separateness. And we offer and bring them all into healing
through our practice of deepening communion with Christ. Christ came to heal
that wound. And He comes into our life to heal that wound in each of us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Shame and unworthiness are
part of the weave of the knot of separateness. The Gospel story of Luke here speaks to this fabric and how
we break free from both the internal and external aspects of this injurious
bondage. In this story in Luke' s Gospel a woman reputed to be of loose sexual
morals approaches Yeshua in the house of a respected man and anoints Him with
oil. She ministers to Yeshua by washing and wiping his feet with her tears and
hair. The woman is condemned by the men in the house, and Yeshua is condemned
for permitting her presence and touch. (An important footnote here is that the
object of shame here is a woman. It is noteworthy that one doesn't see the men
with whom this woman has presumably slept, so often the case throughout
history.) Those with power decide who is to be shamed and who are not. In the
story Yeshua turns the criticism back to the men of power and high state and
points to the real source of dignity and worth in us, our power to choose
loving kindness in serving others. In this story and many others in the Gospels
Yeshua confronted the powerful of his time on this point, and paid for it with
his life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Every reading of this story
brings me to a deeper respect for this woman. She has pointed the way to
healing and freedom for all of us. Her only difference from us is that she has
been "caught" or publicly reviled. She has been willing to look and
to see how her misdirected needs have been injurious. She has brought her real
need to the One in whom she can find completion. In her act of adoration of His
Presence and her act of self-giving love in service to him she finds the path
to redemption and resurrection. The shaming and judgements of others no longer
matter. Would that all of us could find such healing release from the darkness
of our shame and awaken to such joy in our life! In Christ she has uncovered a
worth and dignity that was never lost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Christ the Source of Our
Dignity and Worth<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">All of us are that woman. All
of us sin. We sin when we "miss the target,' when we misdirect our true
needs and desires. Shame and unworthiness is a mistaken judgement against our
person, based on the illusion of separateness. We have worth and dignity from
our nature as children of God. We are the offspring of the Most High. We
partake in the divine nature. <b><i>Our worthiness is established from our very
being (spirit ) in God. Our
consciousness and behavior are what is in question. It is a mistake to confuse
who we are with what we do.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> “You are flawed, you are broken, you
are rejected, you are unacceptable, you are unlovable;" rather than,
"What you did was injurious or destructive." Shame is a method of
control, which works by withdrawing love and respect to exact control in the
family or in the community. Shame as method of parenting or social control,
reinforces the spiritual wound of unworthiness and separateness. The effect of
shaming on the soul is<b><i> </i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">that
we are led to hide our brokenness, to hide our sins. We heal spiritually when
we bring our sins and dark places to conscious examination and insight, to open
to healing grace through contrition and conversion, and thereby bring them to
the Light of the mercy and love of Christ. In the darkness and the hidden
places of the soul festering wounds and sickness remain unhealed because of
shame and unworthiness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">If the human race were
serious about true change we would eliminate child abuse and especially the
abusive words of shaming and unworthiness that parents use on children. Hidden
sins and hidden wrongs are with us all. In shame based secrecy families are
filled with them: “Don’t tell about this," or "You don’t want people to know.” How often the crime of
child abuse, battering, and sexual abuse is hidden under the injunction of
shame and the fear of being seen and judged by others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Healing Our Dark Places<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Moral salvation is the
re-ordering of our instinctual and mental life around the spiritual center of
the heart and therefore the Heart of Christ. Yeshua says that unitive Love is
the moral foundation of all human life. If our instinctual life, sexuality, and
otherwise is hidden in shame, then there is no possibility of the integration
of human sexuality or other aspects of our humanity into the moral realm of the
Heart of Love. The transformative journey in Prayer of the Heart is the
uncovering of the dark broken places in our soul, in our consciousness, that
desperately need the Light of Christ and the healing of His Love. When we are
in the grip of shame, we hide these places and are afraid to trust them to His
merciful touch. The great failings we see in religious people, well-intentioned
people around us, in religious communities, in family life, in public life
often occur in secret. When the hidden places in the soul go unhealed and
unconverted, these inclinations reach up and "bite" us. They are acted out, and result in
injurious/sinful and addictive patterns of behavior. Such behaviors result when
well intentioned people try to create a idealized persona deserving of social
approval, while being unwilling to look into the darkness of their own
soul. To be willing to uncover and
reveal our dark places, and to lift them up in humble acceptance, surrendering
them fully in love to the Heart of Christ is the real inner work to be done.
Too few religious people are willing to do it. The woman who sits at the feet
of Yeshua in communion with him in utter trust and receptivity, is a model and
inspiration for all of us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>God's Self-Giving Love is
Not Earned<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In contrast with the values
of our culture the Gospel teaches the primacy of unconditional love and mercy.
In our culture we decide who is worthy and unworthy based on wealth and
class. Poverty has always been a
sin, especially in our current national culture. We hear too often from the
pulpit and talk-radio that the poor are poor because of moral degradation. We
hear that the blessings and comforts of life are earned by our
"rightness" with God according to the theologies of abundance. Even
though the society we live in has adopted a theology where the rich are blessed
and the poor are cursed, it is not so in the Gospel. And it is not so in our
spiritual life. The parables of the prodigal child and the laborers in the
vineyard, reveal to us that God's Self-Giving is not earned, it is pure gift.
We must simply be willing, receptive, and open to receive His Gift of Self. In
Yeshua we know God's gift of Self. In Yeshua we are "oned" in God. In
Yeshua we live the Risen Life of Love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Life is developmental
learning; without mistakes we don’t learn. Without self-examination we do not
learn from the consequences of our errors and grow and become transformed. It
is in crisis that we open and receive the grace of contrition, tears, and
conversion. We don’t allow communion with Christ if our consciousness is ruled
by shame. The woman who anoints Yeshua with the oil of her love, has broken
free of shame to find communion with her Beloved. In her liberated act she says, " I don't care, I don't
care any more about the judgements of these people. I only care about giving
myself in love to the One who has given Himself to me in love so deeply."
Communion with Christ has healed her shame and restored her dignity and self
worth. Her desire to be one with her Beloved, is also our desire. And we can
pray that we should be so fully consecrated and given to the love of Christ,
our Beloved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Ceaseless Contrition and
Conversion- The Road to Freedom<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Ceaseless contrition and
conversion is the way to freedom. The stunning reality is the Life of God rises
up within us anew each moment. We can break free of past conditions, past
wrongs, past injuries. Yeshua invites us with this astounding Good News to enter
the limitless mercy of His Heart. His message is that it doesn't matter what we
have done before. It doesn't matter what prison we are in of our own making or
that the culture has made for us. All of us are free, liberated from all past
conditions, to choose His love and communion in His Heart in the present
moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>In our practice of
Prayer of the Heart, we can breathe Yeshua; we can give ourselves in innocence
and joy to the communion of love with the One who gives us our worth and
dignity. It is pure gift, already given to receive. We possess it already. In
his touch we discover it again and again.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">St. Symeon the New Theologian spoke of it this way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><b>"</b></span><span style="color: black;"><i>Where all
our person, all over, every hidden part of it,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><i>is realized in joy as Him,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><i>and He makes us, utterly real.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><i>and everything that is hurt, everything that seemed to
us dark,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><i>harsh, shameful, maimed, ugly, irreparably damaged, is
in Him transformed.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><i>And recognized as whole, as lovely,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><i>and radiant in His light.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">(Mitchell, <i>The Enlightened Heart</i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">, p.38)</span></span></div>
</span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-53758033117047487532012-06-01T12:36:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:21:11.684-07:00Healing from the Wounds of Invalidation and Rejection<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><u>Healing from the Wounds of Invalidation and
Rejection<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>(Mark2:23, Mark 3:1, Luke 4:16-31)<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the above Scriptural
references we have three examples where Yeshua is seeking to offer his gifts to
the community. In each case leaders in his Faith community, his religious
tradition, not only don't understand or appreciate him, but are led to reject
and even defame or kill him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the first example the
passage from the Gospel of Mark narrates the story of how Jesus with his
disciples out of hunger pick the heads of grain from a field on the Sabbath.
Jesus is criticized by religious leaders for breaking the Sabbath. In response
He cites the example of David taking the altar bread from the temple for
himself and his men when he was hungry. He then makes a statement that is
stunning for his time: "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the
Sabbath… The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." For affirming this truth
Jesus receives great criticism and rejection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In a second instance also
from Mark's Gospel Jesus heals a man with a withered hand, also on the Sabbath.
In this case the text notes that the Pharisees decide they must destroy Him,
suggesting once again that involvement with one's Faith community can be a
risky venture. For this healing act of mercy Jesus is judged a threat to the
community and marked for death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In a third passage from the
Gospel of Luke we see the story of Jesus returning to preach in his home region
of Galilee and his village of Nazareth. He goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath
and is invited to preach. Preaching from a text of Isaiah he reads, " The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to
the poor." He stuns them by saying, "Today this scripture is
fulfilled" and confronts them with the continuing injustice in their own
community. The narrative goes on to say that all in the synagogue were filled
with rage and drove him to the brow of the hill where they might "hurl him
to his death." It's clear from the story this was a "close call"
for Jesus and that participation in one's Faith community is too often the path
to rejection. I know of no one in ministry who has not experienced in some
measure this rejection, isolation, and invalidation. The hurt of such rejection
runs deep when our most cherished spiritual gifts are held in contempt by those
we wish to serve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Our True Acceptance and
Validation<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Among our deepest desires is
the desire for validation from others. All of us want to be truly seen,
understood, and appreciated for who we are. We seek this in our family of
origin. We seek this in the families of our creation and choice in adult
life. We seek it in our families
of Faith and work, and in the myriad roles we enact in life. <u>And we never
fully receive it.</u> We have a
longing to share our gifts of service with those in our life, and too often
both gift and the giver are not understood, nor appreciated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yeshua invites us to a
journey of completion of our heart’s desire: “Be complete (perfect) as your
Heavenly Father is complete.” (Matt. 5:48) He invites us to find that
completion in Himself. Only in our journey of completion and fulfillment in
communion with Christ do we find truly find our self-offering fully received.
Only in this communion with Christ within we walk through the doorway to
communion with Christ in community. The spiritual life is a process of
integrating the inner life of the Heart with the outer life of service and
activity in the marketplace and activity of human communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The Inner and Outer
Journey<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our values, gifts, and
service arise from inner life in Christ. Yet these same fruits of life in
Christ are nearly always in conflict with values of the marketplace and the
culture. Our church and family communities, our own attitudes, are in large
part influenced by the culture and values of the societal marketplace. From the
beginning of our socialization as a child we are taught to "Seek first our
self interest, or the self interest of the institutions in which we
participate. Life is about 'ME'
and not 'WE.' "That is the pre-eminent value of our society. To express
our inner life in Christ brings inevitable rejection and conflict, and in grace
the formation over time of a prophetic voice. Inevitably this prophetic voice
may bring risk to your person and your standing in the community. And Yeshua
warns us, “A prophet in his own town is never recognized.” (Luke 4:24) Our time
of being hurled over the cliff of rejection and hostility may come. In the life of the contemplative the
prophetic voice is inevitably linked our inner life in Christ. To be in
communion with Christ is to be in communion with, and stand with, the poor and
the powerless, and to confront the cruelty of human society. The Zen
practitioner might say that is the "koan" of our life. The Christian
would say that is the cross we carry, in bringing together and making one, the
inner and the outer journey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Breathing Yeshua, the
practice of Prayer of the Heart, is not relegated to isolated times of silence.<b>
</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">How we meet the world with the
fullness of our practice in relationships, in activity, in service, in
community is also and equally Breathing Yeshua. In the exercise of peace and
justice we exercise the fruits of our practice of Breathing Yeshua in daily
life. Yet too often we seek to fill the “holes” of felt incompleteness and
inadequacy through relationships with others, through roles we create, and
through identities and expectations we form in communities. We mistakenly look
for validation and completion in these things with resultant hurt, disappointment,
and grasping. Like the original followers of Christ we must find our truth and
say to Him, "To whom shall we go, You alone have the words of Life?"
(John 6:68) "Yeshua, you alone are our salvation, our healing, our
completion."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Seek First the Kingdom<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In much of our life when we
seek understanding, validation, support, and appreciation from others, we
receive instead rejection, misunderstanding, and at times, even abuse. The
result can be a profound bitterness, hurt, and isolation. <b><i>Even the best of
marriages, friendships, and Faith communities will always fall short in meeting
our desire and need for validation and understanding. We seek for completion
too often where we can never receive it. This can bring doubt and even despair
into our life of Faith. Neither are we able to give to our loved ones and
relationships what they truly need and seek. God alone can satisfy the desire
of our Heart.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">What is the resolution for
those on the Way of the Heart? My spiritual mentor Abbot Bernard McVeigh, was one
of the most loving, validating, accepting, appreciating, people I have
known. Yet he was forever saying,
"Don't look 'out there' for what you seek? " He reminded me often
that our inner life of communion in Christ is hidden. At best we can only share
the fruits of it. In our life in
Christ alone will we find the understanding, appreciation, validation, and
ultimately the Love we desire and need to find completion and wholeness in
life. <b><i>No marriage, friendship, community, or work role will ever satisfy our
deepest desire. Yeshua alone is our heart's desire.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 5.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Many
of us "burn out" in our marriages. Many of those in my profession of
mental health and human services " burn out." This depleted state
arises so often because we come to the encounter of marriage and work with
empty cups. We are not fed, we are not validated within; we are not nourished
by our inner spiritual life. Many
of us may find ourselves at a stage after years of marriage disappointed or
hurt or feeling betrayed because our spouse isn't giving us what we need. We
can feel discouraged and empty in our work because it isn't giving us what we
need. Many of those I have know in religious ministry have "burned
out" and either left or remain in their roles of service empty, deprived,
and betrayed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 5.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 5.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Much
of our hurt, much of our sense of being misunderstood, much of our sense of
abandonment by others is related to seeking from them something they can never
give us, nor can we ever give them. <b><i>When we cease to try to squeeze from
others what they can't give us, we are on the path to purification of the
Heart, that is, directing our true and essential desire and need to our life of
communion with Christ.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> And this
will help us endure and "ride out" the inevitable injuries we will
suffer in marriages, our work, and especially in the work of religious ministry
where the wounds can be so grievous. Religious or Faith communities, because
they are so close to what is essential in life, have great capacity to inflict
injury and harm. What gets us through these injuries and storms in life is our
practice of Breathing Yeshua and directing our deepest need for validation and
acceptance in Him alone. <b><i>He
alone knows us; He alone loves us without reservation; He alone receives us
into Himself in totality.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 5.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 5.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Let
Christ Be Everything<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The ancients of the desert
taught the answer in their praxis of <b><i>purification of the Heart</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>.</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> The
desert ammas and abbas have taught if we want to find peace and wholeness in
life we must <b><i>unify our desire, gather all desires for fulfillment into
One Desire, and Consecrate our self to it fully. </i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Above all, we are cautioned to stop looking for
validation in places where we won’t find it. When we take our deepest need to
our life in Christ, then we find we can be more present, more giving, more accepting,
more appreciative of the existence of the loved ones, the work, the Faith
community in our life.<i> </i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We
encounter them with a cup that is full; we see the people and relationships in
our life in their blessing, for what they are, apart from what they might or
might not give us. <b><i>We see Christ in them in their unique ways, and we bow
in presence, in adoration of Christ before us; and we give of ourselves in love
and service to Christ in them.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="htmlbody" style="margin-left: 4.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">Others are not in this world to meet our every
need. We are all here to love one another, not to seek those things Christ
alone can give. The hidden life of Communion in Christ sets us free, to live a
life where in the words of St. Paul,</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">“<i>God is All, in all.”</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="htmlbody" style="margin-left: 4.5pt;">
<span style="color: black;">(1 CO
15:28) </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">and
we are free to love, and to experience life in such a way as expressed in the
poetic blessings of the Celtic saints,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="htmlbody" style="margin-left: 4.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt;"><b><i>“Christ before us, Christ behind us, Christ under our feet, Christ
over us, Christ within us, let all around us be Christ.”</i></b></span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-26705432515597025812012-05-31T12:38:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:21:41.789-07:00Healing from Spiritual Blindness<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><u>Healing from Spiritual Blindness</u></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">One of the most vital
healings that must take place in our journey of transformation is the healing
of spiritual blindness. The ancient Celtic hymn, "Be Thou My Vision"
is an invocation and prayer for that healing. We ask that Christ be our eyes,
Christ be our vision, that we come to see life and the world through the eyes
of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">One way that we come to this
healing is that we *ask* for healed sight. In the story of Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46) we have an example of the
healing of a physical sight, but with intimations of the opening and awakening
to spiritual sight. This story has
been used as a source for the longer form of the Jesus Prayer in the Prayer of
the Heart tradition. ("Jesus, son of David, have mercy.") In the story Bartimaeus has an intuition
of “seeing” and of the One who can help him "see." ” In his
helplessness and Faith, he trusts the One who is greater than his own personal
powers. He receives his physical sight, but we may read into the story that he
has regained also his spiritual sight of the remembrance of God as the Source
of life and wholeness. The awakening to the unified inner vision of Faith is
the real healing and the occasion of the healing of his physical limit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Another
way we come to the healing of our spiritual sight is through life crisis.
Crisis happens. In such a crisis our usual patterns are rendered helpless; we
are “knocked from our high horse.” In the Acts of the Apostles there is a
dramatic account of such an event in Paul’s awakening from blocked spiritual
vision. (Acts 9:1<b>)</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Paul has become
a violent and brutal man, consumed and possessed by the demon of his arrogance
and grandiose self -righteousness. He is possessed with an obsession for
control to the degree he is willing to commit murder. His killing and persecution
of others stems from a self-absorbed conviction and grandiosity that he alone
possesses truth and no one may live, no one may be acceptable, who is not
inside the circle of his pride.
Paul is brought low; his physical vision is lost entirely. His spiritual
blindness is metaphorically revealed in physical blindness. But he cannot open
to spiritual vision until he experiences the crisis of his helplessness, and
the healing of it in surrender to Christ. He must look outside the pride of own
self-creation for help and resolution.
His encounter with Christ as a lightning bolt knocking him to the ground
becomes his salvation. Only then is he willing to look beyond himself and his
pride for help, and the scales eventually do fall from his eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Paul’s pre-conversion
behavior may be a good example of what we are now seeing in our times as a
symptom of the death throes of tribal ethnic religion, with the rise of
militant fundamentalist and violent religious movements in nearly every
continent and religion in the world, including out own<i>.</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> This mythic membership, tribal level of
consciousness, as it is called by Ken Wilber in his books, (Anatomy<i> of
Consciousness</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, <i>The Atman Project</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">) is marked by the preoccupation of the believer with
the question of who is in or out of "my particular circle," rather
than the awakening to the Circle that encompasses us all. It has been thought the violence of
9/11 was an attempt to incite global war between the Abrahamic Faiths, and to
some extent it has succeeded. In the long run we shall hope it will fail and
result in greater desire for communion and understanding. Yet all of us are
capable of Paul's exclusion, fear, and violence. Today all of us should hear
Christ calling to us, like Paul, “Why are you persecuting me?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">For us what is the awakening
of spiritual vision? What are the scales on our eyes? They are the filters of vision created by the self-made
self. To be healed we must move from
a self-absorbed narcissistic vision to a unitive Christocentric awareness of
Love. Our beliefs and schemes will not heal our vision. Only the experience of
the healing touch of Christ in our practice will heal our vision. John Main
speaks the Way of the Heart in the praxis of Christian meditation in this way:
“</span>" <span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Meditation is returning to your
own center, and finding that it is the gateway to the Center of all</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">." </span>(Main<i>, The Heart of Creation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, p.29) </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">When we
find oneness in the Heart of Christ, our Center, we live in the awareness of
our oneness with all things. St. Gregory of Nazaianzus says it this way,
"Christ exists in all things that are." (Ryan, p. 31) The healing of
spiritual blindness is the awakening to Oneness in Christ. It is the means by
which the filters of vision of my self, my tribe, my gender, my opinions, my
church, my culture, my language, my country, and my world are dismantled. I can
then open to the Mystery of Christ who embraces all, and draws all unto
Himself. This is our true awakening from spiritual blindness. </span><i>"</i><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal;">The day of my spiritual awakening
was the day I saw - and knew I saw- all things in God and God in all
things." Mechtild of Madeburg (Ryan, p.31)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The mind is the source of
filters to our vision; the Heart is the seat of true spiritual “seeing” or
awareness. Only by learning to observe the mind and disengage from its tyranny
can we really let the heart expand and open to unitive love in Prayer of the
Heart. Hadewich of Antwerp (12c.) says of this release from the mind's filters:
“Tighten to nothing the circle that is the world’s things. Let the naked circle
expand to encompass All.”<span style="color: black;">(Hirshfield, p.100) </span>The
"naked circle" is the circle of Christ in the Heart. Our vision is
one of either smaller and smaller circles, or larger and larger ones, until our
vision is healed and opens to the Circle of the universal Heart of Christ which
encompasses All. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Even the insight of
Christians of the Mystery of Christ is always a limited one. Christ is not the
exclusive property of those who call themselves Christians or of the Christian
churches. Thank God for that! <b><i>Christ, His Life, His love, His wisdom,
communion with Him is accessible to all, regardless of what name they call Him,
or under what concept His Reality is known. He is not an exclusion clause, but
the Heart of the Universe, the Heart of God. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is good to recognize the
markers of our blindness, the fear, judgement, and rejection of the stranger.
Our xenophobia, putting what the mind doesn't grasp outside the circle of
Christ, that is our adversary with whom we struggle. We must recognize our grasping the comfortable and familiar
"isms" and ideologies. We must be vigilant in seeing the “log” in our
own eyes. Those "logs" are described aptly in the psychological
defense mechanisms of rationalization, repression, projection, and denial. We
can cultivate the dismantling and release of these ego filters in our practice
of Breathing Yeshua. In our practice of the kenosis of Christ we bow and offer
ceaselessly in our moments of helplessness, in our willingness to loosen the
grasping hand of control, to yield our insistence on the world being the way we
think it should be<b>. </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In this
disposition we can find ourselves healed both in the intuitive trust of
Bartimaeus and in the yielding and helpless surrender of Paul. We can be healed to the Christ Vision
of Unitive Love. A spiritual elder, mystic, and teacher of our times, Thomas
Hand S.J. spoke this simple truth of the unitive vision of Christ in a
contemplative talk in 1997 at Shalom Prayer Center. "The God experience is
awakening to Oneness and fully accepting and living the consequences."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The world in which we live,
all Creation, is translucent, filled and shining with the Glory of Christ.
Because of blocked spiritual vision most of us don't see it. But we can be
surprised. We can be opened to this
glory unexpectedly. My lightning moment, being knocked off my high horse, or
perhaps more appropriately, cut off at the knees, was the occasion of the
sickness and death of my son. At the time of his cremation with my wife and my
spiritual mentor, Doug, I sat in silent meditation in the crematorium. Within
me was a great struggle as waves of anger, bitterness, and despair passed
through my mind. The challenge of emptying and releasing was great. At a
certain point when it seemed nothing was left, a peace arose in me of calm and
quiet. Looking at one another that it was time, we rose together and left the
room and walked outside into the light of a September day in late morning. The
morning mist was lifting. I looked around at the trees and the brown hills of
late summer. For just a moment the physical world suddenly disappeared and
there remained a pure Radiance shining through everything, a Life, a Presence
of Fire and Love. A wordless communication spoke from this Fire, "He is my
beloved child, he is forever one with me and one with you." The Radiant Life has never left me and
I have never left It. At that
moment the scales fell for me and the circle of the Light of Christ became my
vision.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The monk, Thomas Merton,
describes such a moment of the healing of his spiritual blindness. He had long
wrestled with his sense of isolation from the world, and his desire to find a
unitive vision to reconcile the life of the solitary hermit monastic with the
life of compassionate concern for the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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"In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in
the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the
realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I was
theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total
strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious
self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed
holiness. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream. … Then it
was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their
hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self knowledge can reach, the core of
their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only we could see
each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred,
no more cruelty, no more greed. I suppose the big problem would be that we
would fall down and worship each other." (Merton, <i>Confessions of a
Guilty Bystander</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> )</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"> In this moment Merton finds
the healing of his spiritual vision, where a thunderbolt on the corner of
Fourth and Walnut takes him into the unitive vision of Christ, seeing the world
and all beings with the Lumen Christi, Light of Christ. We can be surprised and
our vision healed in the Glory of Christ, on a street corner in Louisville, or
at a crematorium in Portland, Oregon.</span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-82840215860152143492012-05-30T12:40:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:22:04.674-07:00Healing from a Divided Life<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><u>Healing from a Divided Life<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>“ Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God is
One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul
and with all your mind, and with all your strength. You shall love your
neighbor as yourself. This is the greatest commandment.”</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">
(Mark 12:29)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Throughout the Gospels Yeshua
challenges us to be complete, to be undivided, to be wholehearted in our life
of consecration to God. The first
and primary of these is his invocation of the Jewish 'Shema'. And He affirms
that to be given in love to God in entirety is the whole of the law and
scriptures, including the love of neighbor. Other examples include the story of
the rich young man (Matt. 19:16) who comes to Him seeking the truth of
salvation. He tells the young man that he cannot hold back. He must give it <b><i>all</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> to be one with God. In the teaching of God and Mammon
(Matt 6:24) Yeshua tells us we must choose between our misdirected desire for
wealth and security and our true desire for God. We cannot do both, we cannot
lead a divided life and still enter the Kingdom of unitive love. We cannot have
God and god substitutes. We cannot worship God and idols of our construction.
In the story of Martha and Mary(Luke 10:38) Yeshua admonishes Martha, not
because she is serving by doing manual work, but because she is creating a
duality in herself and is divided in what she is doing, and therefore envious
and resentful. The "better part" that Mary has chosen is her undivided
devotion, a devotional love that can be undivided in both activity and
stillness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">One of the most intriguing
narratives of the mystical life of communion in Christ is the story of the
Samaritan woman at Jacob's well:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">John 4:6- “ It was about noon…. A
Samaritan woman came to draw water and Yeshua said to her, “ Give me a drink.”
The Samaritan woman said to him, “ How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of
me, a woman of Samaria?”.. Yeshua answered her, “ If you knew the gift of God
and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink’ you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, “Sir you have
no bucket and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you
greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us the well and with his sons and
flocks drank from it?’ Yeshua said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water
will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water I will give will never
be thirsty. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring of
water gushing up in eternal life.”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">What is the point of this
story? Yeshua is telling us lyrically and metaphorically, 'If you want to come
to completion in me, then give yourself entirely, and stop looking around for
substitutes in different sizes and shapes of "buckets." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The True Spouse and the
Living Spring<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Beatrice Bruteau, the
contemplative writer, gives a wonderful exegesis of this encounter. (Bruteau,
"<i>Living Prayer", July-Aug. 1995</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">) She begins by noting that in the scriptures when the scene is
dramatically introduced as "high noon" and has related
incongruities (i.e. a single woman coming to get water alone at noon,
speaking with a strange man), these are a distinctive red flags that what is coming in the narrative is not
about historical record but is rather revelation of Mystery. High noon is the
hour of tension when Truth is revealed. The facts of the story are stated in
paradoxical fashion to set the stage for the revelation to follow. There are
multi levels of meaning. A conversation about drinking water turns into a
conversation about Ultimate Reality and mystical union. Buckets, wells, and
springs are metaphors for the Inner life of the Divine. The Samaritan woman is
"us." Like her we have undergone levels of failed or false espousal
in our life. All of us have gone through the espousals of our soul or spiritual
consciousness in the six levels of attachment and are seeking a liberation at
last in the One who invites us Home, the One who is the Gift of God<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the course of a lifetime
we espouse ourselves to what we think will bring us completion. The levels of
espousal in our life are the spiritual developmental journey. Bruteau suggests
this developmental process is analagous to the Eastern chakra system. Christ is
both the true Spouse, the Beloved, who brings us to the final liberation, and
the Font of Living Water of the “I AM” who flows freely within us poured out in
eternal Self-giving Love. We can at long last give up our wandering and seeking
and be Home in the life of inner Communion in Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We might ask ourselves what
are the false substitutes, the buckets, to which we have espoused ourselves?
What must we do to be free to unite with the true Spouse? So often a seeker
begins the journey asking "How can I fit a spiritual practice into my
life?" As the journey progress the entirety of our life, all of our human
development, physical, relational, affective, intellect, and intuition are
integrated into a whole and holy offering of self in communion in Christ. <b><i>This
is the consecrated life. This is the real meaning of Healing or Salvation, the
assimilation of our complete humanity, will and consciousness, into Christ, our
True Spouse.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our inner work then is to let
Christ unite and heal our life heal of inner divisions. In doing this we must
confront and free ourselves from what the Buddhist teacher, Joseph Goldstein,
calls, "<i>If Only Mind</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">."
Our mind thinks, "If only this were different, if only I had this bucket,
If only I had this relationship. If only I had this role. If only these
conditions were different."
Much of our life we spend in "bucket consciousness": Love is
limited, God is limited, and my own devices and strategies are my refuge."
The only espousal then is to the objects of desire, my god substitutes, my
self-created "buckets."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">By contrast our practice must
take us toward Living Spring consciousness: "Love is limitless and the
Source is within me. Divine Life, the Living Water of Christ, is beyond my
control yet I can open and be accessible to It." Entering the practice of
Christ's kenosis of self emptying and self-offering, I become an empty and
receptive vessel of the Living Spring of Christ's Spirit to suffuse my humanity
and pour out into the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">To expand and deepen the life
of daily practice we begin by having sacred space for our prayer practice, our
space of intimate communion with the Spouse. We invoke a prayer of consecrated
intention before our silent prayer and at intervals in the day. (How different
our world would be if every home had this sacred space at the center!) We return and anchor ceaselessly in our
prayer word of Breathing Yeshua. If we are espousing ourselves to the Beloved,
we call the Beloved by name and bring ourselves to the Beloved’s Presence. This
we do in Breathing Yeshua endlessly.
And we do this in every activity of life, consecrated eating, sleeping,
relating, work,<b><i> all of life, in activity and rest, becomes bowing in
adoration and self-offering in love.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
In our self-offering we learn gradually to release from self-preoccupation and
to become the clear and empty vessel of the Living Water of Christ. In us He
rises to offer His Life of Love into the world in kindness, service, and life
of inner communion expressed and actualized in every moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>This is the true
worship of God in Spirit and Truth Yeshua foretold to the Samaritan woman. This
is the Mystery of the Eucharist in Christ's gift of Self to us as the Bread of
Life, and our self-offering to Christ in the transformative consecration of the
elements of our humanity. In this way our life's journey in following Christ is
to become Christ, the consecrated bread and wine of our humanity. In this way
our life is consumated in the true espousal with Christ and we fulfill the
words of the Song of Solomon: "My Beloved is mine and I am His." <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><i>"Through Christ,
with Christ and In Christ..<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="HTMLBody0" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><i>our humanity is
lifted up<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="HTMLBody0" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><i>and consecrated in
the Beloved;<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="HTMLBody0" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><i>thus entering the
stream of the Beloved's Life<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="HTMLBody0" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><i>in adoration and self
giving;<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>we sit at the Wedding Feast of Eternal Life."<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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(Ryan, p.74)<o:p></o:p></div>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-29663274829575460812012-05-29T12:43:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:22:52.654-07:00Christ our Resurrection and Life<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><u>Christ our Resurrection and Life <o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoSubtitle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">"Wherever you are on earth, you wish to
perceive the Mystery that lies at the Heart of your heart.. 'Why be afraid? I,
Jesus, am here; I am the Christ. I loved you first… In you have I set my joy!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoSubtitle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">..Recognized or not, the Risen Christ remains close
to every person, even those unaware of Him. He remains there in secret." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal;">(</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Brother Roger of Taize, </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal;">No Deeper Love</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Paschal Mystery<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">In the
Lenten Liturgy we celebrate the Paschal Mystery of Christ. In my childhood years
the only thing I understood was that Easter was a time for dressing up in fine
clothes and families to take pictures. I never made the connection very well
between the death and resurrection of Jesus and real life. So I've been
reflecting on that every since. Yet in the Christian tradition we teach the
death and resurrection of Jesus as the pivot point of Christian life. If this
is only historic event, how can this be central to our own spiritual life?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">I have
come to understand the Paschal Mystery of the life, death, and resurrection of
Christ, is the mystery of *our* life and all existence. We celebrate this
mystery in the spring of the year when there is the rising of new Life. In the
spring the new life arises out of the death and transformation of the old life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">The
rising of new life arises out of death, and the relinquishment of all that has
gone before. New life is the developmental fulfillment of the life cycle. The
butterfly in Easter Christianity is a potent symbol of transfiguration and
resurrection. The caterpillar dies as it was before, and leaves behind the husk
of its former existence so the butterfly can spread its wings and leave the
bounds of earth. The old life has
to be cleared away, so that there is space and room, for the new life to
emerge. The season of winter is this phase in the rhythm of the seasons, so
that spring can burst forth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">For us
the meaning of resurrection, the invitation to join Christ in the Risen Life is
not just about the resurrection at the end of physical life or the end of time.
Resurrection is the potential that awaits us here and now to live the Risen
Life of Christ in our own. In the tradition of Eastern Christianity we realize
the goal of human life is Christification, to bring forth and manifest the Life
of the Risen One fully in our own human life, in the uniqueness of our own
journey and life development. Easter and Resurrection therefore are what we
live more than just what we believe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Resurrection
is not something we do alone or of ourselves. It is the something we
participate in; it is the way we unite our life to the Life of Christ in the
way of the Cross, in the many deaths of self relinquishment and kenosis. We face these transformative movements
most clearly in time of trial and loss. Living the Resurrection is the way we
die to the former life we lived, and are given to the consecration of the Risen
Life of Christ coming alive in our own life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Gethsemane and Easter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Two
visual representations of the Paschal Mystery are the icons of Christ in the
garden of Gethsemane and the icon of Resurrection called Anastassis (raising
up). The first shows the
self-offering and surrender of Christ, while the disciples sleep. They show all
those resistances in our humanity that don't want to face the truth of the way
life is in our vulnerability and impermanence. These sleeping apostles in us
resist by being unawake or unconscious or distracted. The Christ of Gethsemane
is a vulnerable Christ, and we are not different. The self-offering of Christ, the kenosis of Christ, is
what makes the second movement of Rising possible. And so it is also in our own
practice of Breathing Yeshua each moment, releasing and offering. In our
opening in the Heart and in the space of our surrender to Christ we are then
joined to His Rising. We are
lifted up and out of the deadness and stagnation of our habitual patterns, as
represented by the Christ figure reaching into the underworld and lifting up
the figures of Adam and Eve in the Anastassis icon. The discarded keys and
locks in the icon represent the unbinding of our chained and oppressed
condition. Christ is the liberator who frees us from death to live His Life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Resurrection
is a life long process of living out the Paschal Mystery. Gethsemane is part of
the process, Golgotha is part of the process, and Easter is the fulfillment of
the process in each of our lives. Years ago in presenting a hospice workshop a
pastor invited to participate made the comment: "There are too many
Christians who want the Resurrection and are unwilling to accept the
crucifixion." In other words we come to participate in the Risen Life of
Christ through our equal participation in His crucifixion in our own life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Yeshua poses that same question to each of us
when he says, " Can you drink the cup which I am to drink?" Our
invitation is to drink fully the cup of our life and death, and to allow all
those experiences of joy and sorrow to be the means of our redemptive,
transformative work. (Mathew
20-21).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">In the garden of Gethsemane we are
presented with the vision of a Yeshua in his vulnerability. He is a human who
sees the losses he faces, the pain of complete desolation, of abandonment, of
aloneness, of not only the loss of his own biological life, but also the loss
of the experience of union with the Source that all humans experience. In the
Garden of our Gethesemane again and again our own human will cringes before the
onslaughts to our vulnerability. In moments of crisis we come face to face with
the physical and psychological vulnerability that is our humanity. Like Yeshua we may say, "Let this
cup pass from me" We just don't want it. "Make it go away." The ego says, "I didn't
bargain for this." And our
time of trial arises as fear and despair grips us in small or big ways. The
life of Faith can take us deeper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Yet true freedom from fear only is
resolved only when we give over our vulnerability in sheer gift of love and
trust. Like Yeshua we have the
capacity to loosen the fist of our hand and hold it out empty and offering our
own humanity and emptiness to the Beloved. This giving, this choice, isn't one
we make by ourselves It is our union with Christ that allows us to make that
gift in Him</span><span style="color: black; font-weight: normal;">. </span><span style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Christ
chooses in us when we say, "I choose You. Let Your will be mine in this
moment forward." Then we begin to move in freedom to accept that our life
suffering and circumstances are the cross on which we can be fully given in
love and transformed. The cross of "what gets in the way, becomes the
Way." In this way we are united with the Cross of Christ in every moment,
and every circumstance of life.
This is the heart of Prayer of the Heart, to be fully given in love in
Christ.</span><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Luke 9:23- "If you
want to become my followers let them deny themselves and take up their cross
daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, those
who lose their live, for my sake will save it." </span><span style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">It is in this emptying and relinquishment of all
those things that we have identified with in this life, all our ideas of
success and failure that we release from our false identity; we lose our life
and therein find our True Life who is Christ. We must make room, make space,
and give a whole hearted
"yes" for Him to live in us.</span><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><i>"Unless a Grain of Wheat fall to the
earth and die, it cannot bear fruit."</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> (John
12:24) Falling is not a bad thing in the Gospel. The culture deems falling as
failure. Yet falling is inevitable in life. The real question in our practice
is how do we fall and what do we do when we fall. Can we learn to fall in
self-relinquishment to Christ? Can we learn to keep going in our walk with
Christ when we fall? Can we let our falls be the occasion of our deepening
self-gift to Christ? Are we willing to take the next step in our falling?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Yeshua says: “ <i>Be not afraid .. I am with
you always.”</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">
(Matt. 28) This is the promise that we are never alone in our journey.
And it may be in our falling that we are most accessible to Yeshua, most aware
of our need and His presence as our Faithful companion in this life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Our Daily Cross</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">How do
we take up our cross daily, when do we do this? In our practice of Prayer of
the Heart both in stillness and in the middle of life we cultivate the interior
movements of presence and adoration. In our adoration we bow in self-offering
love to Christ who is our Life. In the ceaseless invocation of the name of
Yeshua we unite our human life to the Life of the Risen One and we enter the
life of Resurrection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Our
cross of human vulnerability and impermanence, our cross of separateness, are
the raw material of our daily bowing in adoration and self-offering in love.
All of us, without exception come through life wounded, especially in the
earlier years when we are most vulnerable and least defended. Our wounds, the
wounds we often deny and run away from, can be seen as the sacred wounds of
Christ. We may have hidden them in shame, or in fear. The way we defend our
wounds and protect ourselves from further harm may keep us from loving more
deeply. Yet it is these very wounds that are the way of our salvation. </span>If
we look closely in our journey, it is the way that we have been hurt or injured
in life and our search for healing and strength that become our Way into
Christ.<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"> For me the early
injuries of insecurity and isolation, became the fuel for my finding true
sanctuary and true belonging in the Heart of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">The
main purpose of God's redemptive work is that we may be restored to a life of
participation in His Life in Christ. </span>Hence true redemption, true
salvation, is the healing of the soul's capacity to receive and manifest the
love of Christ, present within us from the beginning.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Our Sacred Wounds</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Our
Wounds in the Paschal Mystery are the means of our redemption and opening to
the Risen Life of Christ. Think of those times in your life when you are
brought closest to your wounds, to your vulnerability as a human being. They
are times of crisis, when the habitual patterns don't work, when the usual
supports aren't present. They are a time of trial when the temptation is to dig
a hole and climb into it, or lash out in anger or self-defense and fear. This
is the moment when the cross of Christ is our redemptive path. In this moment
when we allow Christ to choose, and say "yes"- that we are given in
love, given in trust to love more deeply, more fully, more completely. That is
a Resurrection moment. The
beatitudes teach us that Resurrection happens only in our vulnerability when we
really exercise Faith to take refuge in Christ. When things are going well,
when the mind and psyche feel secure, we are comfortable in our habitual
patterns and old husks. When things fall apart, through grace, the self of
separateness can fall apart into the life of communion with Christ. </span>Holding
it together isn't always a good thing. When we fall apart into the arms of
Christ, that is a good thing indeed and we break free from our husks into
butterfly glory and flight.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">The
moment of trial, of doubt, in a relationship, in a human encounter, in
helplessness can be the moment of death and resurrection. (And isn't what we
fear the most helplessness?) Can I do this? Can I drink this cup? Can I give
myself without reservation to the love of God in even this? That is our Garden
of Gethesemane.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Think
of your Cross in life, and the carrying of it, as the particular way we bring
the wounds of our human soul, and the knot of separateness again and again to
the healing and restoration of God. Christ is the One who carries the cross in
us, the One who unravels the knots of isolation and separateness. He is the One
who opens us to the choice of self offering in Him; and His love, again and
again, ceaselessly opens us to Himself in the course of a life time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Think
of those choices you have made, when it was most dark, when you were most in
trial, most in crisis. Think of when you were most willing to reach out with
empty hands and ask for help in making the choice for what is most good, most
loving, and most healing, regardless of the cost. </span>In each moment, in the
darkest moment, this is the cross of Christ which brings us to the death of the
cocoon of our self absorption and into the flight of freedom to Love, as we are
called to, as we were loved into existence to do.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">In my
marriage, in my life as a father, as a counselor to the emotionally and
mentally afflicted, as a spiritual director, I have grown the most in love when
I had to reach with empty hands and a sense of helplessness and inadequacy. I
have opened the most when I asked for help to give of myself in love, the best
I could. This is the opening to the Risen Life of Christ, coming alive in me
and you. This is our death to the habit patterns and dead mental formations
that keep us locked in bondage. The times of my seeming failure and
helplessness, the death of my self-sufficiency and separateness, then become
the opening to consecration in the Risen Christ. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Brother Roger of Taize tells us
about the nature of this Resurrection in Christ: " </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">When Christ asks you, 'For you, who
am I? Suppose you were to reply; 'Christ Jesus, You are the One who loves me
into life that has no end.' "</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"> ( Brother Roger, p. 37)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus
said, <i>" I am the Resurrection and the Life, those who believe in me,
though they die, will live</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">."(
John 11:25) The way we come to
that realization is through our humanity.
Paul in his letter to the Corinthians (I CO 1:23) said that he came to
proclaim neither the law of the Jews nor the wisdom of the Greeks but Christ
crucified. No high minded philosophy will bring us to oneness with Christ, but
only the cross of our life experience, if we let grace happen. He was talking
to people about what is real, that life is tough, and you can't realize
goodness by making rules or expounding lofty ideals; rather you come to love's
completion through the hard things in life. M. Scott Peck said that life is a
school for loving. And so it is in our relationships, they are a dimension of
the cross, the school of our life, where we learn to love, fully and deeply<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Stations of the Cross</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">One of the important
devotional practices of my childhood was the stations of the cross. At some
level in my earlier life they made a deep impact because I understood they are
not about history, but about the mystery of living for you and me. Christ
crucified is about our living and our crucifixion as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Jesus is condemned</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">- We are condemned when the hurts and injustices of
life, and when our losses and vulnerabilities catch up to us. Things may come
our way that we think we don't deserve. Our diminishments, the works we have
wrought, the relationships that have disappointed or hurt us, they condemn us
as well. What we had placed our hope and security in vainly, condemns us.
Impermanence and death intrude and condemn us. We are mocked and humiliated by
the judgements of the culture around us and by our apparent failures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Jesus receives and accepts
the cross- </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We accept what life has
brought us, and let it be the means of our transformation to learn to love as
best we can, to learn to let Christ give Himself in us as best we can. We
accept the unavoidable and let it transform us, rather than give in to blind
resignation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Jesus falls the first
time, the second, and the third- </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We
fall, we fail, we don't live up to what is best and deepest in us, Our weakness
is revealed. The fall to the ground is acceptance of our humanity, our
limitations. We learn a great wisdom, the acceptance, and above all, the faithfulness
of getting up again and again and going on. When we fall seven times, the
important thing is the eighth time we get up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Jesus receives help- </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are not self sufficient and separate, Christ
carries our cross with and in us, and others walk with us on this journey of
transformation in His love. We are never entirely alone or abandoned as Christ
continually offers Himself as our companion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Jesus is stripped of his
garments- </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are stripped and naked
in our defenses before God, and our utter and complete dependence on Him. Our
life arises in God, and remains ever one in God. The paradox is that in our
nakedness we discover our essence in God and our ultimate security.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4 align="left" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus is
Crucified-</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Yeshua is
nailed to the cross of his death- We are nailed to the cross of our own losses,
our own wounded humanity, and radical need for God<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Jesus gives up His Life</span><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">- We give up the life we have
known in self-offering to God.</span> <span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">The prayer of consecration of Yeshua is our prayer-
"Into Your Hands, Abba, I commend my Spirit." For me this is the last
chant, the last mantra of the day. And in the official office of the monastic
tradition of Compline it is also the last chant of the day. It is the daily
commitment that we give up the life we have known that Christ can live in us.
And in our surrender the stone of our own separate-self life rolls away and the
life of Christ rises to live fully in us. In that moment we are offered up, as
the host in the Eucharistic liturgy, and are united in the offering of Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Resurrection Life in
Ordinary Life<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">As we
deepen our practice in the Way of the Heart we come to live Resurrection in
ordinary daily life. We experience not just crucifixion but the glory and joy
of the Risen Life of Christ. Our
Resurrection becomes our journey of singular refuge in Christ alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">We find
extraordinary joy in the ordinary life of walking with others, it is the road
to Emmaus, eating, drinking, cooking the fish for others. We find joy in
breaking bread; we sail on the sea of Galilee with Yeshua in the everday lives
of service. Resurrection life is sailing with Yeshua in this way, in the
ordinary life of ours. True enlightenment and mystic union leads to this state,
of living ordinary life with exquisite and extraordinary joy and love.
Resurrection leads not to separation but joining fully the unitive life of
humanity and all Creation. In us Christ can love and serve our loved ones, our
community, and the created world of all things around us. It is a life of
consecrated love and concern for all things. The true measure of a life then is
agape, unitive love, and its measure is the tender concern we bring to all we
do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">The transforming union is the birthing of Agape, self
-offering love, the journey that began in exile and alienation takes us back
into community. <b><i>The Way of the Cross takes us to the Golgotha of our
lives, and from there to the empty tomb. Resurrection takes us on the road to
Emmaus where we walk with others. Resurrection takes us on to the sea of
Galilee and sailing with Jesus and our brothers and sisters, back into
community, back into service and finding the Christ at the center of our own
heart, equally in the world and in others. It is the work of the Risen Christ,
His Resurrection and Life in us, coming to fruition in our life</i></b></span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-84084756392262121042012-05-28T12:46:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:23:20.190-07:00Serving Christ in the Way of the Heart<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><u>Serving Christ in the Way of the Heart <o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Contemplative Life-Active
life<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I grew up in a time when
religious educators made a false distinction between the "active
life" and the "contemplative life." A person seeking to live the contemplative life had to enter
a cloister and never be heard from again. The active life was one of outward
humanitarian service, a domestic married life, a life of involvement in the
world, whereas, the contemplative life was seen as outside of the "world." Nothing could be further from the
truth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">To live the contemplative
life is to enter into the depths of the world through a growing and expanding
communion with Christ in all things. This communion with Christ leads us to
love and serve Christ in the world, and not to try to leave the world. A
beautiful picture, was given to my spiritual friend and partner in ministry,
Sr. Antoinette Traeger. The picture presents three images of an expanding
heart, and is based on a phrase from the Benedictine Rule, "With Hearts Expanded." This image speaks directly to the life
and practice of Breathing Yeshua and is placed in prominence in the prayer room
at Shalom Prayer Center. This is a life where the Heart expands in communion
with Christ to encompass all of life. There is no place, no time, no condition
where we do not breathe Yeshua, and serve Yeshua in our consecrated love. The mystics and teachers of the great
spiritual traditions teach an important truth. <b><i>The end of the spiritual
journey in this life is not the mountain-top, but it is the return and service
to the world. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">My father, who recently died
two days after Easter at the age of 79, was a recovering alcoholic. In the last
twenty years of life in grace he and I had a healed relationship. My father had
been deeply wounded and broken by both the disease of alcoholism and the
violence of combat in World War II. As he grew and healed in recovery he found
his calling was to be a healer, especially to veterans who had suffered like
him from the violence of war and addiction to alcohol and other drugs. In the latter years of his life he was
an alcohol counselor and community leader. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">My father's name was Bill,
like mine. Dad told me that a turning point for him in his ministry to the
alcohol addicted happened early in his career as an alcohol counselor. On a visit to Portland, Oregon he
stopped for a conference at the Hooper Detox Center. On this occasion he was
ascending the stairs to enter the building. Leaving the building at the same
moment was an older man on whose face was etched the ravages of many years of
alcohol dependence. For a just a brief moment Dad said there was radiance that
shown from the man's face and he could see the glorified face of Christ in this
man. The Gospel words of Christ came to Dad: "I was hungry and you fed me,
I was homeless and you sheltered me, I was drunk and sick and abandoned and you
took care of me."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">From that moment on there was
never any doubt in my father that this was that path of service for him. The
love of Christ became the prime motivation of my father's life, and he knew
that same love took him into the middle of life, into the depths of serving his
Beloved in other human beings."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Compassionate Service- the
Fruit of Resurrection<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We, who venerate the liturgy
and sacrament of the Eucharist, as we mature in the spiritual life, come to a
deeper understanding of Eucharist.<b>
</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are the human elements of
bread and wine, lifted up and consecrated in adoration and self-offering to
God. We are consecrated and transformed into the living incarnate Christ in
human form and community. We become the broken Bread of Christ's Life given to
the world, in this human life. We become the consecrated wine of Christ's Love
offered to the world. Like St. Paul we are "… poured out as a libation." (Phil. 2:1)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our practice takes us to a
living out of the Eucharist of the Risen Christ of Easter. And if we give
ourselves to this Mercy then we become accessible to the grace that transforms
our human wounds and brokenness into consecrated humanity, the vessel of
Christ's Self- Giving to the world</span><b>. </b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">For
Bill, my father, his wounds became his sacred wounds, and the means of his
serving Christ in the world through what he called his “apostolate" of healing with the
alcohol and drug afflicted. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In my own life my parents
divorced early in my childhood. My earliest years brought great instability,
episodic poverty, and constant change and upheaval. This life inflicted wounds of insecurity and emotional
turmoil. Grace led me as a young child to turn inward to find the source of
inner stability and safety, to find my refuge in the Presence in my own Heart
within. My sacred wounds through
grace had led me to find a path to resurrection. Early in my life's journey my inclination
was to try to avoid life's vulnerabilities. In the course of time and the transformative love of Christ
I began to move from a life of avoidance and escape from the world to growing
engagement, service, and communion with the world. One of my choices in my
early twenties was to seek a career in mental health counseling, a sure avenue
of immersion in human suffering. In the life of Breathing Yeshua we find, each
of us, a way to actualize our own Prayer of the Heart apostolate. Our growing experience of personal
communion with Yeshua bears fruit as we find a way to have a life of service
and belonging in the Universal Christ in humanity and all Creation. Thus our
practice brings a life long development of expanding the Heart, moving from our
rigid and tightly circumscribed circle of the egoic self to the universal
circle of Christ that encompasses all. In this way we become His broken bread
given to feed the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The mystics teach the inner
and outer journey are one. To discover the truth of one's being is to discover
the Inner Christ, but this is just the beginning. Thomas Kelley, the Quaker
mystic of the 20th century says: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
" Deep within us all there is an amazing inner
sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to
which we may continually return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our
time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling
us home unto Itself.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In this Center of Creation all things are ours, and we are
Christ's and Christ is God's. We are owned beings, ready to run and not be
weary and to walk and not faint. The Inner Light, the Inward Christ, is no mere
doctrine, belonging peculiarly to a small religious fellowship, to be accepted
or rejected as a mere belief. It is the living Center of Reference for all
Christian souls and Christian groups - yes, and of non-Christian groups as well
- who seriously mean to dwell in the secret place of the Most High. He is the
center and source of action, not the endpoint of thought. He is the locus of
commitment, not a problem for debate. Practice comes first in religion, not
theory or dogma. And Christian practice is not exhausted in outward deeds.
These are the fruits, not the roots. A practicing Christian must above all be
one who practices the perpetual return of the soul into the inner sanctuary,
who brings the world into its Light and who brings the Light (of Christ) into
the world with all its turmoil and its fitfulness and re-creates it after the
pattern seen on the Mount." ( Kelly, "The Light Within<i>," A
Testament of Devotion, p.8</i><span style="font-style: normal;">)<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">With my own inclinations of
the introvert, afraid to be fully in the world, my spiritual journey in many
ways started as a retreat from the world. I wanted to find a way to be safe and
invulnerable in the world. So what
did I do? Paradoxically in grace I
chose to be a parent and to be immersed in the suffering of the human condition
as a mental health counselor. When I threw myself into the thick of life, and
chose to have children, a little voice said, "You are going to be hurt
more than you ever thought possible." And the voice was right. So where my
inward journey of contemplation took me was a vocation of compassionate service
as a mental health counselor and the relational life of husband and father. It
became like the Zen koan, the Christian paradox, the Christian cross of love
and responsibility. In my own way,
I was trying to answer Yeshua's invitation, "If you want to follow me,
pick up your cross daily." For me the curse of a painful fear of the world
and desire to escape it led to a gift of sensitivity and empathy, and a
vocation to the healing of others. What had been deficit over the past 30 years
has become strength, and hopefully a gift poured out to others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Breathing Yeshua in the
healing process of counseling has been my daily practice, my daily service. To
be with others in distress means full attention, a quality of presence, and a
reverence for boundaries that recognizes the sacred Christ in another. It means
the capacity to empty self of self, to release from any and every agenda, and
to take full responsibility to release from the projections and defense
mechanisms of the ego-mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">This practice involves the
kenosis of the humility of Christ, to learn from failure and mistakes, to learn
from the stories and experience of others, to learn from the suffering of
others, and above all, to learn to be with my own helplessness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">To Breath Yeshua in this
service of Christ means confronting the evil of self-absorption both in oneself
and in those who are being helped as it presents in the helping relationship.
Many who came to me in my earlier professional years had committed crimes and
compassion meant shining a light on their narcissism. To work in the field of
mental health is to learn from life and death, suicide and tragic sudden death,
disease and aging. Breathing Yeshua becomes the ground of our security, the
sanctuary of our earthly consolation, the font of our service of
loving-kindness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The Cross of
Responsibility</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The life of following Yeshua
is one of accepting responsibility, of acknowledging we are here with work to
do. <b><i>For what are we responsible? Just this, to offer the best of
ourselves in love. </i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To do this we
must relinquish every presumption of control, and do the best we can in love,
and know it is enough. We offer it daily on the altar of our consecration to
Christ, and it is enough. In truth
we are responsible also for the<b><i> consecration of attention which grows
into presence and adoration to Christ in all things</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. We are responsible for the depth and<b><i>
consecration of our intention, which grows into self-offering love. So that
Christ can serve others in us, we get ourselves out of the way. We ceaselessly
offer and release all outcomes to the Mercy of God.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In this process an important
question to keep asking is this: "Who is helping? Who is serving? Who is
being helped?" In this way we remind ourselves we participate in a flow of
Divine love and mercy that encompasses all and is vaster and deeper than any
personal agenda or compulsion for achievement that may intrude. Subject and
object, actor and action, disappear into the Oneness of God's Love and Mercy.
We are participants in the Circle of Christ's Mercy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Breathing Yeshua in the
Praxis of Helping-<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The same essential practice
of Breathing Yeshua in Prayer of the Heart applies to every form of helping,
every form of service. We breathe Yeshua in service to our loved ones at home,
to the most vulnerable and marginalized, or to the larger community in the form
of work-livelihood we have taken. In this integration of Prayer of the Heart
into activity and service we uncover utter simplicity:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>-The first movement</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">: Be there, fully with the gift of Presence and
Adoration to Christ who is there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>-The second movement</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">: Be there in the most loving, the most kind way we
can be, releasing from every agenda and attachment to any outcome, offering our
best effort to Christ who is there.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">-<b>Trust </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">that whatever skills we possess or require will be
accessible to us in the middle of our service.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Prayer of the Heart practice
in the middle of life leads us to a continual process of inward bowing and
inward offering of self to the Christ we encounter every day. It is enough to
recognize, be present, and be given in love, to the Christ in another and to
offer without expectation. Outcomes are not ours to decide. <b><i>We can
participate in the flow of Divine Compassion in the most loving way, just doing
the very best we can to bring forth Agape, Christ' s Self-Offering to the
world. This is the goal of all life.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Transformation happens in the
middle of service, in the middle of relationships, with every choice we make to
bring our thoughts, our emotions, and our behavior into harmony with a growing
interior union with Christ. Through ceaseless practice we align our humanity,
our life, and consciousness into this greater communion, into the Great Circle
of the Divine where we find our belonging. <b><i>We do this inner work of
transformation in the middle of Life, in ceaseless bowing in adoration to the
Christ before us, in ceaseless offering in love to the Christ among us. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Climbing the Mountain to
Live and Serve in the World- <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In my own journey I spent a
year and a half in an extended personal retreat. I took a sabbatical from the
"normal pattern" to be a hermit devoted to contemplation, while still
in familial life, to rest and heal in the depths of communion in God. (I did
domestic work and child-care for my wife and daughter.) My rest from the outer
responsibilities of life helped me unravel into the Mercy of God and unitive
experience. My mistaken
desire at the end of this time was to try to build a fence around the heaven I
had found.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">God's Providence brought me
from the mountaintop back into daily human life, where my first job was at
Dammasch State Hospital in Oregon. I found myself immersed in the world of
chronic and acute mental illness, of profound human suffering. My second
professional position made me a geriatric mental health specialist where I was,
and still am, immersed in the world of disease, old age, disability and death.
I found that fences around the Mercy of God don’t work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Bringing the Practice into
Every Aspect of Life<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I learned Brother Lawrence's
simple wisdom applies to every circumstance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">No form of service is
unworthy, every form of service is service to Christ, and can become prayer when
done with the full attention of presence and adoration, and the full intention
of self-giving love. Washing the dishes, chopping the onions, sweeping the
floors, cleaning the toilets, treating the mental and emotional distress of
others, are all worthy service. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Thus service to Christ is a
manifestation of praying without ceasing, expanding the Heart of Breathing
Yeshua. When we live the compassionate life of service, it is the Spirit of
Christ who brings compassionate help, healing and presence through us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Thomas Kelly says this of our
ceaseless prayer, "<i>We pray, and yet it is not we who pray, but a
Greater who prays in us. Something of our punctiform selfhood is weakened, but
never lost. All we can say is, Prayer is taking place, and I am given to be in
the<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>orbit. In holy hush we bow
in Eternity, and know the Divine Concern tenderly<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>enwrapping us and all
things within His persuading love. Here all human<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>initiative has passed into
acquiescence, and He works and prays and seeks<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>His own through us, in exquisite,
energizing life. Here the autonomy of the<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>inner life becomes
complete and we are joyfully prayed through, by a Seeking<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Life that flows through us
into the world of human beings."<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">** This "Seeking
Life" is Christ's Life, serving all beings.**<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Serving Christ in Peace
and Justice<u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">As our hearts expand in the
life of Breathing Yeshua we find they expand to include also a prophetic voice
for peace and justice. This can be the most frightening development of all.
When Yeshua says, "Blessed are you when you are persecuted and reviled for
my sake," it hardly makes us feel at ease. Yet the most needed expressions
of service to Christ are for the most poor and the most afflicted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I previously spoke about
Thomas Merton's koan of being a monk while being of compassionate service in
the world. What Merton discovered was that in his writing he was called to hold
accountable to the Gospel of Christ the American society around him and its
abandonment of the poor, its refusal to change the injustice of racism, and its
obsession with military and violent solutions in the world of foreign affairs.
(Are we called to any less in our time?) At the corner of 4th and Walnut Merton
discovered there is no difference between the life of inner communion with
Christ and serving and opening in compassion to Christ suffering in the
world. He proclaimed that the gate
of Heaven is everywhere and there is no such thing as an isolated life alone
with God. For Merton contemplative life and prayer, and service in peace and
justice are a seamless garment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Merton understood the whole
purpose why we seek solitude as monk or layperson is so that we might leap into
and live eternally in the unitive Circle of Christ. In describing Christian Meditation John Main says that we
meditate in order to enter the gateway to the Center of All. So our movement in
the practice of Breathing Yeshua is to break free from the constricted isolated
circle of self absorption and live into the circle that encompasses all
humanity, all Creation, God's circle of Eternal Love. In this way we live truly
a life of the prayer of St. Patrick’s breastplate-"<i>Christ before us,
Christ behind us, Christ under our feet, Christ beneath us, Christ within us,
Christ all around us</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Confronting the Evil of
Selfishness<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Helder Camara was a Roman
Catholic Cardinal in Brazil in the latter part of the 20th century. He believed
that the Christian life must of necessity involve confronting the source of
evil, which is selfishness, both in oneself and in the society in which we
live. "The true root of evil is selfishness. Mankind can only get out of
its present explosive situation when it realizes that selfishness is
international. It dominates the relationships between individuals, groups, and
countries." (Camara, <i>The Desert is Fertile</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, p. 34)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Fr. Camara said that in
global affairs evil is asserting national self-interest over the concern for
the well being of all. In the case of our consumer culture, the frenetic drive
to consume and buy over every other concern is an injury to Christ. Wholesale
abandonment of the poor, and the vulnerable, for the sake of consumption beyond
need is wrong and sinful. A consuming country where 2% of the population
consumes 2/3 of the world's vital resources, while many within its own borders
go without basic needs, is unjust and sinful. Violent war as a first choice
rather than a last choice seems too often policy of the United States and is a
sin against life and peace. For Fr. Camara the root of all of this evil is the
false center, and salvation is to find ourselves in God's center. And for Christians the way to
liberation from the little center into the Center of All is the Heart of Christ
and service to Christ in the world.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">"<i>Lord save me from the false center.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>In particular defend me<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>from self-centeredness</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">." (Camara, P. 7)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are called, each of us, to
a consecrated life, a life of risk and giveneness. In his book <b><i>No Greater
Love</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Brother Roger of Christ's call, "<i>You open for me the way of
risk. You are expecting from me not just a few crumbs, but the whole of my
existence. You are praying within me, day and night…simply calling you by the
name of Jesus fills the empty places in my heart.</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">' "(Brother Roger, P. 37 ) <b><i>We are
called without exception to break
out of the isolated life of self-centeredness to lead lives of service in peace
and justice. In Breathing Yeshua we call on His name and take refuge in His
Heart.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The Pain of Unitive Love</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Societal culture exists in
the world of separateness, a world of illusory small circles. A well-known Sufi story speaks of a
master who offers the student who has reached some attainment of enlightenment
the option of drinking the potion of forgetfulness. In the story the student
finds that the unitive life is one that is hard and brings him continual pain
and conflict with the human condition. He complains that living in the world in
the unitive state is too painful. In the story he elects to drink the potion of
separateness and forgetfulness again rather than face the pain and risk of the
unitive life. Too many of us drink the potion. And the world of television offers us a drink of that potion
each day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">To live fully alive is to be
open to the pain of cruelty and the suffering of all living beings and to
accept that suffering as Christ's suffering. <b><i>The life of Breathing Yeshua is a life of the expanded
heart. The expanded heart is the open heart and a heart that sees and hears and
receives a suffering humanity.
Living the Life of union with Christ is a difficult life, and it is the
only Real Life. The paradox we discover is this: the expanded heart opens us to
pain and opens us to joy. They are inseparable.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Unitive Life in Christ is a
life devoted to peace and justice.
The monotheistic traditions all use terms for God with a common root,
Allaha- (Christian- the word Jesus used for God), Allah (Moslem), Ela (Jewish).
They all mean the essential unity from which all things arise. This Unity is
the realization of communion with Christ. The invitation of the Gospel is to
enter the Realm or Essential Unity of God and live it fully.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In my father's story he saw
the face of Christ in the drunk. Through grace my Dad came to see Christ in
himself and he saw his life was about being Christ and serving Christ in the
world. In his life he served
Christ as an alcohol counselor, and in his later years as the prophetic voice
of conscience and the moral authority of a spiritual elder and community
leader, advocating for the drug and alcohol afflicted in his community. In that
capacity he was often a "thorn" in the side of the city fathers and
mothers. Yet he knew to live the fullness of the Christian spiritual journey is
to live a life of the 12 step commitment to compassionate service. This service
springs from the 11th step, that is, seeking conscious communion with God through
prayer and meditation and all the healing and conversion that has come from the
steps that precede.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Speaking the Prophetic
Voice of Christ</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are all invited to come to
the mountain to experience oneness with the Transfigured Christ, and to live
the return or full expression of that union in the Risen Life of Christ in the
world. The mountaintop and the world are inseparable. The developmental journey
of life leads us in the latter phase to become a spiritual elder. In that phase
of our development we come to express the prophetic voice of Christ in the
larger community. Our spiritual journey does not stop at the mountaintop. The
lesson of the transfiguration story in the Gospel is "Don’t try to stay on
the mountaintop. Don't build stagnant tents. Rather bring the mountaintop of
union with Christ into all of life." The lesson of the resurrection story
in the encounter with Mary of Magdala is the same. She is one who experienced a
profound and transforming communion with Christ. Instead Yeshua says to her and
to us, "Don't cling to me." (your idea or image of me) He commands
that we live and express the Risen Christ beyond image and form, His Essence as
Universal Christ in the world. He invites us instead to see Him and serve Him
in the "least of these."
"As I have done to you, so you must do for one another. "
" Love one another as I have loved you." John 13:16,15:9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are called to stand with
the powerless in the paradoxical invitation of Yeshua, "Blessed (Happy)
are you when you are reviled for my sake." To stand with Christ in those
who are injured by violence and by the injustice of poverty and want is to live
the fullness of union with Christ.
These are the crosses, the paradoxes of the Gospel of Christ. By being
in conflict with the culture in which we live we find happiness and live in
Truth. Being in conflict, fighting the adversaries of selfishness, cruelty and
abandonment, for the sake of the love of Christ is our path to happiness. Again
the inner work is to lay down the self-absorbed life, for the sake of the
consecrated life in Christ. And
this becomes the true measure of our life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Like my father we may
alienate some of the “principalities and powers" of the communities in
which we find ourselves, especially those who pride themselves on being good
Christians. And like my father,
Bill, we will seek to live the truth that "What you have done to the least
of these, you have done to me." These are the words he spoke in public
when the city and county government were making the decision to abandon the
drug and alcohol afflicted and close down a detox treatment center in his city.
Fighting this fight, while still **being** peace, justice, and compassion, is
difficult practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Brother Roger of Taize speaks
to us of this vital way to live life in Christ: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">"<i>But God is not an indifferent witness to human affliction; God
suffers with the innocent victim of incomprehensible trials; God suffers with
each person. That is a pain that God experiences, a suffering felt by Christ. Are you afraid of your fear? A
communion with Christ gives you the courage you needed for a commitment to make
the earth a place fit to live in, so that the most destitute, those most
overwhelmed by injustice, are not forgotten.</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"> " (Brother
Roger - p.15)</span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-75838823072927518612012-05-27T12:50:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:23:53.526-07:00Our True Refuge<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><u>Our True Refuge<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>"Abide
in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides
in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the Vine and you are
the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit."</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> John 15:4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Throughout Christianity in
the East and West there is a recurring theme in religious iconography of the
Heart of Christ presented with the hand pointing to the heart or divine Fire
arising from the Heart of Christ. This symbolism points to the centrality of
the heart in Christianity. Even more important is the insight proclaimed that
the Heart of the Universal Risen Christ is the refuge, home, and locus of our
life's completion. For the seeker this insight becomes the core of the journey
in the Way of the Heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">For those on this journey the
questions we must continually ask ourselves in each moment of life is,
"Where is our true Refuge?" To what do we give our life, unreservedly
and without question? What is the hub around which the wheel of our life turns,
the center of gravity where our life is anchored?" St. Benedict teaches us
in his timeless monastic <i>Rule </i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">that
the center of life and the core wisdom of spiritual praxis is this: <span style="color: black;"><i>"Prefer nothing to Christ."</i></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Salvation is correctly
understood as healing, as an annointing salve or balm of the soul. This
spiritual healing happens when our human life and consciousness is realigned,
re-ordered around the Essence of our life, rather than the peripheral and all
too deluded consciousness of our ego-minds. Our human journey is one of going
from "dis-membering" to
"re-membering." Re-membering is to recover what was lost or
make whole what was separate. Hence in the Middle East the practice of
contemplation has often been named the "Re-membrance of God." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Conditioned and
Unconditioned Life<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> In the Gospel of Thomas (logion 7) Yeshua says, " A lion
eaten by a human being is blessed as it changes to human form, but a human
being devoured by a lion is cursed as a human becomes lion." Our life's
transformation turns on the choice between having our humanity infused and
alive in the Heart of Christ or consumed and overwhelmed by the inclinations of
the ego-mind and our instinctual life. Therefore the real journey is the
divinization of our humanity with its biological instincts, and consciousness.
Through grace the earthen clay of our humanity can become servant of the
spiritual center or Heart, and therefore sacred vessel of the Living God's own
life, the Body of Christ. The Limitless
Unconditioned Life of Christ is our True Life. <b><i>We were born to live His
Life in ours.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">As we go through life
eventually we begin to understand that there are some things in life that just
don't last. Impermanence is linked to every aspect of our incarnate lives. And
yet in the Gospels Yeshua asks us to go beyond the impermanent appearances of
things. We walk in two worlds, the world of conditioned impermanent life and
loss, and the world of spirit and the Divine Eternal. He warns us, (paraphrase) "Don't put great value in
what moth and worm can destroy.
Look for the pearl of great price, and put your trust in what endures,
give up everything else if you really want to give yourself to Me. If you want
to find your Life, you must lose the life of illusion." <b><i>The habit patterns of a lifetime
must be relinquished. </i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We must
find freedom and detachment with even the most treasured of our familial
relationships. Yeshua invites us to find our home and full refuge in <b><i>That
which does not fail, His Own Heart. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The ego-mind sees all this
detachment as diminishment and loss.
The Heart sees it as freedom, as finding our way Home. To choose Refuge
in the Heart of Christ is to find our Home, our True Identity, who we truly
are. For as Paul says in
Colossians (2:9-10<i>)" It is in Christ that the complete being of the
Godhead dwells embodied and in Him you have been brought to completion.</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Salvation Practice<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">One way of understanding the
process of salvation in our lives is to continually ask ourselves in every life
dilemma, in every choice we make, in every moment, 'Where is our true Refuge?
In what are we seeking safety, fulfillment, and completion?' This is not always
easy to know, as the ego-mind is so skillful at co-opting even our most sincere
intentions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>The practice of
Christian Meditation, or Prayer of the Heart, therefore, is the practice of
continually seeking refuge in the Heart of Christ. </i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Christian theologians have stated that salvation is
the process of conforming our individual will to the will of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Mystical Christianity has
understood salvation to be the full surrender of the self to God in a process
of "uniting our human life and consciousness with Divine Life and
Consciousness." We can define this process of surrender as finding our
true Home and Refuge in the One Life of our belonging, and learning that every
other refuge, really isn't a refuge.
We need no longer "look for love in all the wrong places." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">One of the metaphors Yeshua
gives to us in the Gospel is the story of the prodigal child. This wonderful
story of limitless love and mercy depicts<b><i> </i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">the theme of leaving home and finding home. The story
takes us into the human cycle of dissipation of Essence and being restored to
Essence. We are brought into the universal human journey of lostness,
separateness, estrangement, and the journey home to rediscover and abide in the
true Parentage and the Home of our true belonging. To find our true refuge is
to come home to the Heart of Christ again and again. In Breathing Yeshua this
is what we actualize.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Salvation practice is the
practice of the singular commandment of Yeshua who says that everything in the
tradition, in the law, and in the prophets is to be found in the Love of God
and neighbor. We find our capacity for divine Love in the Heart of Christ.
Yeshua says that this great commandment is the only commandment, seeking any
kind of completion in life outside of the Love of God is only a blind alley and
results in our experience of being lost and isolated. The Cistercian monk and mystic writer Thomas Merton said
similarly that there is only one<b> </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">commandment.
All the other commandments are just elaborations; therefore all sins are a form
of idolatry, of seeking outside of God what God alone can give. God alone is
our refuge and Source of completion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The core of the Christian
Mystery is that we have a doorway, an entrance into the Heart of God. Christ is
the revelation of the Heart of God and the doorway in. In the person of Yeshua
God becomes fully accessible to us; and in our refuge in the universal Heart of
Christ we become accessible and divinized in the God of Mystery. <b><i>This God
of Mystery, the Life of Allaha, the Essential Unity from Whom all things arise
flows through us as the life-giving blood in our veins.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Leaping into the Great
Circle of the Heart of Christ-<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">For Christians this process
of divinization happens in a life consecrated in Christ. Through our devotional
love for the personal Yeshua we enter into the universal Christ who is the
Great Circle of our belonging in our practice of Refuge in the Heart of Christ.
As we find our refuge and belonging in Him, we are, in the words of Paul-
"… one person in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28) We are the One
person" in whom all things are made, and all things have their
being." (John 1:3)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">To take refuge in the Heart
of Christ is an actualization of this Mystery in every difficult circumstance
in Life. And is it not in crisis, when the ground is shifting, when our
established patterns no longer work, that we make those leaps of Refuge in His
Heart? Fear arises and we can do nothing about that. We can find a way to be
with fear, so that it doesn't control us, so that we can choose our true refuge
in the middle of fear. These are the true moments of conversion and opening. In
that moment of choice when we take refuge we become servant and companion with
the Eternal One in our own Hearts, within and among us." Whoever serves me
must follow me, and where I am, will my servant be." (John 12:26)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Meeting the every day
dilemmas of life with our practice of Refuge in the Heart of -Christ takes us
from the life of limits and conditions and impermanence into Limitless Life.
Such a moment came in my work one day as a geriatric mental health clinician
when I was called to consult in the case of a woman in a nursing home who was
rapidly declining from depression. When I arrived she was already dying from
onset of pneumonia. There was nothing I could do as a professional, and there
was nothing anyone could do at this stage to prevent her death. I reached for
the Limitless in that situation and asked her if she was afraid. She said
"yes," and I took her hand and talked with her for while. I prayed with her and in my interior
prayer offered my own communion with the Heart of Christ to this woman. I had
nothing to give but the quality of my presence and practice of refuge in the
love and Heart of Christ. And it
was enough; it was sufficient.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>The practice of Refuge
in the Heart of Christ comes with meeting the every day dilemmas of life,
releasing from the mind's compulsion for control and being given to the Heart's
willingness to love. That is the ground of our transformation, those are the
moments of our conversion.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Such
dilemmas happen when:<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We risk disapproval and
rejection for the sake of truth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We risk emotional insecurity
and safety for the sake of love and compassion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We risk temporal security in
things for the greater security of belonging in Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We challenge the culture and
risk attack and persecution around us for the sake of the integrity of Christ's
Love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b> <i>In such moments our own thoughts and emotions will fail
us.</i></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b> </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If we take our refuge in the mental and emotional
patterns of a lifetime, they will fail us and draw us back into the same dead
ends. We will remain trapped in our habitual patterns of fear and illusions of
control. Such a moment came for me when I held the body of my dead child when
he died from Leukemia, and the opening to leap into the Limitless was given me.
The limit of death for us is often the greatest limit. To take refuge in the
Limitless Heart of Christ in such a moment is our sole refuge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In such moments we are called
to lay down our life of refuge in pleasant feelings and the addictive patterns
and behaviors which feed them. We lay down the compulsion to re-create them
again and again where they lead us, far from finding true security and
fullness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In such moments our self
defense patterns and protective mechanisms will lead us to react in ways that
may create harm or injury, or at best greater rationalizations of our habitual
patterns. And we are called into the new life of forgiveness and open handed
offering. We release into the
freedom of the present moment where our humanity is offered in love to the One
who is Limitless Life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In those moments fears arise
and our only strength is the rootedness of our Praxis of Refuge in the Heart of
Christ. We learn to ride out the fear.
Like Yeshua we may say, "Let this cup pass" but let our prayer
be "my sole Refuge is Your Heart O Christ." In those moments the
strength of our consecrated presence and self-offering, our practice of Refuge
in the Heart of Christ, is our anchor and carries us through the emotional
storms of anger or fear, and He quiets the storm, saying "Fear not."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In all of this we are never
alone, never abandoned. Yeshua makes us this promise:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">"<i>Yet I am not alone
because the Father is with me. I have said this to you, so that in Me you may
have peace. In the world you face persecution<b>. But take courage; I have
overcome the world.</b></i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>"</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> John 16:32 Yeshua, the Christ, who is unconditional
Life and Love, has overcome all conditions and His Heart is our Refuge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Even
as we confront death, our death or the death of our loved ones, in our Refuge
in the Heart of the Deathless One we touch Eternity, and Eternity touches us,
We come home to Eternal Life as our True Life, a Life that is indestructible,
deathless, unchanging. This is the Life that Yeshua came to give us His very
own Life, His very Own Heart<i>. "I came that they should have Life, and
have it abundantly</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">." (John 10:10
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">He shares his Life of Love
with us without reservation: "<i>As the Father has loved me, so I have
loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my
love, just as I have kept the Father's commandments and abide in His love. I
have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy
may be complete</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">." (John 15:9-11)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i><u>Our sole and
essential commandment from Yeshua
is to take refuge, to abide ever in His Love. This is the ceaseless
practice of Prayer of the Heart.<o:p></o:p></u></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Brother
Roger of Taize speaks of our act of commitment, our consecrated "Yes"
to Christ in this way:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">"One day you
understood this, that without your being aware of it, a yes had already been
inscribed in your innermost depths. And so you chose to go forward in the
footsteps of Christ, a choice no one can make for another. In silence and in
the presence of Christ, you hard Him say, "Come, follow me: I will give
you a place to rest your heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">And so you are led to
that audacity of a yes that lasts until your dying breath." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">( Brother Roger, p.46)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Our Yes to Christ<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our "Yes" to Christ
comes when we drop the little circle of our prisons of separateness and leap
into the universal circle that is the Heart of Christ. An important leap for me
occurred on the occasion of the crisis of the terminal illness of my infant
son. In August 1980 I found myself walking the corridor of the Dohrenbecher
pediatric unit of Oregon Health Sciences Center. My son had been diagnosed with
acute myelocytic leukemia and he had been started on aggressive chemotherapy
that was quickly poisoning his little one year old body. I pulled a small red
wagon behind me where he sat upright with an IV bottle attached running the
chemotherapy poison into the arm I had held and kissed so many times. In a
state of mental torment my mind flooded with a thousand crazy thoughts stirring
anger and fear. A fantasy gripped me of scooping up my beloved little boy and
running out of the hospital to Mexico where he could be treated and cured
without torture, and with a hope this doctor and this hospital didn't offer. The
oncologists cold voice still cut like a knife, promising no more than a couple
of "good" years if my boy went into remission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Every evening after dinner at
this time, a caravan of young children with terminal illness trooped around and
around. In defiance of their condition they pedaled tricycles, pulled wagons,
and little toys on strings. I was in that caravan and fighting it, telling
myself again and again, "My boy, Carlo, isn't one of them. He's not going
to die." The inner struggle reached a point of paralyzed tension and I
pulled the wagon over to an alcove in the corridor. I was in torment. Sinking into my meditation practice to
find a whisper of quiet and peace, I heard the Beloved's voice. He said, "Look into his
eyes." I turned to look into
my beloved son's eyes. They were very clear and peaceful. They spoke a simple
and clear question, " Will you walk with me through this, or are you going
to run away from it?" There are a millions ways to run away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The whole question was made
clear and the answer was a resounding "yes." There was nothing I
could do to save my son from death. But I could choose to walk with him and
love him the best I could. To avoid and resist the fact of his illness and
probable death would be abandonment. To love is to hurt; to love is to be in
the fullness of Life. A joy beyond
description rose up in me and I knew nothing could take this "yes"
from me. I rejoined the circle of ill and dying children and knew Carlo and I
were and always will be in that circle of children. It is the circle of the
Heart of Christ and we can leap there with every step in this life. The Heart
of Christ is the Heart of God, is the Heart of the Universe. There is our home
and belonging.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Heart of Christ- Heart of
All Existence<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">When we leap into this
Circle, we awaken to the Mystery of Existence<i>, "God so loved the world
that he gave his Only Begotten Son</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">."(John
3:16) The truth of Christ as God's gift of His own Self to us becomes
true. The Living Word does truly
become Flesh and dwells among and within us. The Allaha, Source of All, pours out Its own Essence of
Self-Giving Love in Christ to us. From this Source we are loved into existence.
In becoming conscious creation in the Heart of Christ the Redeemer, in the
Spirit, we become gift and self-offering to enter the Mystery of the Abba who
has birthed us and receives us home Unto Himself. This is the Trinitarian
Mystery of Love, the Circle that encompasses all Circles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Isaiah 55:10- “<i>For
as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until
they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to
the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my Word be that goes out from my
mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I
purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it."</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In loving Yeshua we become
fully whole and human in form and flesh; in the Heart of Christ we open to the
oceanic and universal Heart of Being Itself who transcends all form and
substance. This is the rhythm of the cataphatic and apophatic, form and
formlessness, in the spiritual journey of each day. We are all the Word of God
in Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Celtic Christianity has
offered us a resolution of the dualism that has pervaded so much of the
Christian world. The Celtic Christians in the time of their development
independent from the Roman church drew on indigenous mysticism and folk wisdom.
They understood clearly that the Christ of history and scripture is also the
Christ of their hearts, the Christ that is the Light of all Creation before
Creation came into being. "The Christ who is with His people in the quiet
of the windless sea, is with them in the midst of the wild wintry storm. The
Christ who is within, at the center of their spirit, is the Christ who is to be
looked for in friend and stranger, Christ at the heart of all life."
(Newell, p. 26) In Celtic
Christianity therefore we not only believe that Christ is the Light of the
world in some abstract sense but that true salvation and spiritual path in the
words of Celtic theologian, John Scotus Eriugena, is "the true beholding
of the Light from the inner eyes." (Newell, p. 37) This vision of the
universal and personal Christ as Heart and Light of the world, is articulated
further in the scientific mind and mystical vision of the Jesuit philosopher
and anthropologist, Pierre Teihard de Chardin. De Chardin sees a universe
moving toward an Omega point where the fullness of the Light of Christ is
manifested in all incarnate creation. This cosmic, universal Christ De Chardin
proclaims, is the true pantocrator (ruler of the universe) depicted in the
icons of Eastern Christianity (see cover of this book). "Glorious Lord
Christ, the divine influence secretly diffused and active in the depths of
matter, and the dazzling center, where all the innumerable fibers of the
multiple meet; power as implacable as the world and as warm as life; You whose
forehead is of the whiteness of snow, whose eyes are of fire, and whose feet
are brighter than molten gold; you whose hands imprison the stars; You who are
the first and the last, the living and the dead and the risen again; You who
gather into your exuberant Unity every beauty, every affinity, every energy,
every mode of existence; it is You to whom my being cried out with a desire as
vast as the universe, 'In truth you are my Lord and my God.' " (De
Chardin, p. 132)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Dissolving into the Heart
of Christ<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In 1987 I received a teaching
that I will only attempt to live for the remainder of my days. On one of those
occasions of exasperation that nearly everyone encounters on the journey I
asked a question in prayer, pointed in the Divine's direction, yet hardly
expecting an answer: " Oh, what's the matter with my life anyway?"
The answer came in the form of a vision and an experience. The first part was
vision: I found myself walking along a long dirt road. There were countless
numbers of persons walking alone or together on this road. I found myself
walking behind three companions. The middle one stopped and turned to face me.
He was Yeshua. His eyes of compassion pierced me through and through and He
reached to touch me in the heart. He leaned forward and whispered to me,
"There's an empty place here, Bill." At His touch a lightning bolt
surged through me and the vision changed to formless, imageless, unmediated
experience. The "I" of Bill, dissolved into the Heart of Christ, and
in this dissolution came a union with the Heart of Christ within all things,
"the One in whom all things came into being." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> It is hard to know whether any time lapsed. When the
"I" of Bill came back to awareness, there was just astonishment and
joy. In the years that have passed I have come to realize, knowing or not, we
are all on the road to Emmaus. <b><i><u>The One we seek is the One who walks
with us. We recognize Him in the burning of our hearts, and the ancient
practice of Breathing Yeshua, in the ceaseless bowing and ceaseless offering of
ourselves to Him in love.</u></i></b></span><b><i><u><o:p></o:p></u></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>Beloved Yeshua, You are My Heart's Desire, I
take refuge only and always in Your Heart."<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the Way of the Heart the universal and oceanic
Heart of Christ is our heart's desire and true refuge and encompasses all of
existence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>Col. 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of
all Creation; for in Him all things in Heaven and on earth were created, things
visible and invisible… All things have been created through Him and for Him. He
Himself is before all things and in Him all things hold together.”</i></b></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>*****************************************************************</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>
</i></b></span><br />
<b><i></i></b><br />
<b><i></i></b><br />
<b><i><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b><u>References<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">1.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Ryan,
William. <i>The Beloved is My Refuge- A Guide to Consecrated Life in Prayer of
the Heart</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">. Lake Oswego,
Oregon: Avalon Counseling, 2003 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">2.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Brother
Roger of Taize, <i>No Greater Love. </i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">3.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">De Chardin,
Pierre Teilhard. <i>The Heart of the Matter.</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> San Diego: Harvest/HJB Books, 1978<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">4.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Freeman,
Laurence, Jesus, the Teacher Within, New York: Continuum Publishing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">5.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Hall,
Thelma, <i>Too Deep for Words: Rediscovering Lectio Divina</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">. Paulist Press<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">6.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">(ed.)
Hirshfield, Jane.<i>Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual
Poetry by Women. </i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">New
York: Harper/Collins Publishing, 1994<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">7.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Jager,
Willigis. <i>Contemplation-A Christian Path</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">. Missouri: Liguori,1994<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">8.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Kadloubovsky
and Palmer. <i>Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart. </i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Chatham/Kent:<i> </i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">MacKays of Chatham, 1992<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">9.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Kelly,
Thomas. <i>A Testament of Devotion. </i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">San Francisco: Harper Publishing, 1969<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">10.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Main, John. <i>The Heart of Creation. </i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">New York, New York: Crossroad Publishing,
1989<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">11.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Main, John. <i>Moment of Christ- the Path
of Meditation</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">, New York:
Continuum Publishing, 1999 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">12.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Mitchell, Stephen. <i>The Enlightened
Mind-An Anthology of Sacred Prose. </i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">New York: Harper/Collins, 1991<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">13.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Mitchell, Stephen. <i>The Enlightened
Heart-An Anthology of Sacred Poetry. </i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">New York: Harper/Collins, 1991<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">14.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Merton, Thomas. <i>Contemplative Prayer.</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> New York: Image Books,1996<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">15.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Newell, Philip. <i>Listening for the
Heartbeat of God. </i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">New
York/ Mahwah N.J.: Paulist Press, 1997<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">16.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Ponticus, Evagrius. <i>The Pratikos and
Chapters on Prayer. </i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Kalamazoo,
Michigan: Cistercian Publications,1981<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">17.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Taylor, Brian. <i>Becoming Christ-
Transformation Through Contemplation</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">, Cambridge, Mass: Cowley Publications, 2002 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">18.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Thompson, Marjorie J. <i>Soul Feast- An
Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">Ware, Kallistos. <i>The Inner Kingdom(Vol. 1- The
Collected Works).</i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"> Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir's
Seminary Press, 2000</span>
</i></b>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-89858885756862370712012-05-26T13:00:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:24:18.511-07:00Consecration to the Heart of Christ in Daily Practice<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><u>Consecration to the Heart of Christ<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><u>in Daily Practice-<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>The
Christification of our Live</b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">s:
A central theme of Eastern Christianity is that the life's journey is the
divinization of our humanity in Christ. The Praxis of Prayer of the Heart is
the actualization of this mystery.
Essential to this process is the way we consecrate the space, the
activity, and the motivation of our daily human life. We liturgically celebrate this consecration and
Christification of our humanity in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, in sacred
time and space we liturgically enact at the altar and Eucharistic table, the
movements of the self-offering of our humanity in Christ, and the receiving of
the Self-Offering of Divine Life in Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Consecration
of Time: </b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">To consecrate
time is to make it holy, to set it aside as sacred offering. On a practice
level, this means we set aside, or consecrate, time at intervals in the day to
give ourselves to formal practice. For most this means the time in the early
morning, just after rising, before the activities and responsibilities of the
day began to ask our attention. At this early hour we give our first attention
and responsibility to the vertical relationship with God alone, in solitude,
silence, and interiority. This consecrated time of refuge in the Heart of
Christ in interior silence and communion <b><i>is the pivot point for daily
life. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">It is recommended
in the early morning we set aside at least a half hour of silent sitting prayer
of the heart time in addition to the devotional, intercessory, and lectio
divina prayer we may practice. A similar amount of time in the evening is
recommended. For some an evening prayer session may be difficult because of the
demands of family. In that event it is recommended that two periods of sitting
practice be integrated in one's life in the morning time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Consecration
of Space: </b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">In our homes
too often we provide space only for what we regard as utilitarian purposes or
the habit patterns and cultivated distraction of our lives. It is a vital
necessity in the spiritual life to set aside space that is dedicated to the
life of inner communion with Christ.
The qualities of this space are quiet, reverence, and symbols which hold
the Heart of Christ ever before us as our refuge and home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">In our sacred
space the placement of an altar is recommended. In the mystical Christian
tradition the altar as symbolic and liturgical point of contact between human
and Divine is a primary way of establishing sacred space. The altar is also the
symbol in Judeo-Christian tradition of the Eternal wedding feast of union
between God and Creation. In the
Prayer of the Heart practice many people place icons or symbols of Christ on
the altar, to help us connect with our purpose and motivations for entering
sacred space. There are many
powerful versions of the icon of Christ Pantocrator, which symbolically point
to the Heart of Christ and Mind of Christ in the Torah or sacred scripture. For
some a Christ candle or light, representing the Light of Christ in our own
Heart is also a central expression of our interiority of communion in Christ.
This sanctuary of sacred space, where we reverence with silence, respect, and
devotional expressions of bowing and respect, becomes our daily space of
encounter and renewal of the practice of refuge in the Heart of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Consecration
of Intention</b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">: Many
motivations can be heard in this culture for undertaking contemplation or
meditative prayer. In the Prayer of the Heart practice there is only one
motivation, to be fully united and given in love to God in all things. This motivation is already present
within us. It can remain unrealized and unlived, however, unless we continually
consecrate our motivation in our practice. We renew our motivation daily in
prayerful expression and, as we purify our will, to be wholly given to our
singular desire to be one with God in all things. <b><i>This is the
actualization of the Great Commandment of love. Yeshua invites us to love God
with our whole, undivided humanity. <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> A short prayer of consecration to be
invoked at the beginning of our silent sitting prayer time can assist in this
purpose. In this prayer of
consecration we connect our consciousness and will with the deeper "willingness"
of the Heart. Each time we recite it in sincerity of purpose we are making an
ever-deepening commitment to give ourselves over in entirety to the Love of
God. We enact the deep willingness
and desire of our outstretched hands that continually bow, open, and offer, and
cling to nothing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Some examples of
a prayer of consecration of intention might be: <i>"Lord Yeshua, I give
myself to You." "O Beloved Yeshua, I take refuge in You alone."</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">
It is helpful for us to find the language that best expresses this inner
intention in a personal way. This may require some listening and attunement,
trying on language that fits for each person. This prayer of consecration may not only be invoked at the
beginning of our prayer period each time, but also at intervals during the day
when we need to "bring ourselves back". It is recommended to habitually bring the prayer word as a
continual and ongoing anchor throughout all activity in my life. But at
intervals in the day, one may take a short pause or breather, settling in deep
breathing, and invoke the prayer of consecration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Another form of
consecration of Intention is a daily recitation of a "Vow of
Practice." This is recited at the end of the first prayer period of the
day. An example of a "Vow of Practice" might be<b><i>: "O
Beloved Yeshua, this day I vow to love you in all things." "Heart of
Christ, this day I vow to take refuge always in you." "O Beloved, I
will love you in all my being, in all my doing. I will love my neighbor as
myself." </i></b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">This
vow of practice then becomes the basis of our recollection at the end of the
day. The inner desire and willingness, to offer ourselves, our humanity, to be
wholly united in love with the Self-Giving Life of Christ in us, is at the root
of our own Christification.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">In this way in ceaseless Prayer of the Heart I
participate in the receiving and offering of Divine Life which is at the heart
of existence. In "Breathing
Yeshua" I open myself to the divinization or Christification of my
humanity. I receive the gift of God, who is Christ, into my own humanity, and I
offer in love the totality of my human life in Christ to the Abba, the Source
of Life. Participation then in Divine Life, the Living Water of the Life of
Christ, is one <b><i>continual flow of endless bowing in adoration, endless
offering in love.</i></b></span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-66118892241579611552012-05-25T13:03:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:24:36.100-07:00The Practice of Divine Reading-Lectio Divina<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The Practice of Divine
Reading- Lectio Divina</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">“Yeshua Christ, the Word which came out of
Silence.” - St. Ignatius of Antioch</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“God spoke one Word in silence from all eternity and
He spoke it in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">silence, and it is in silence that we hear It."
–John of the Cross<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><u>Lectio Divina and Prayer
of the Heart</u>- </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">The
transformation of one’s life may be seen as the transition from living life
from the mind, the thoughts, the emotions and the instincts to living life
fully from the Heart, the Center of our being, the place of the Indwelling God.
In the Heart Christ can come fully alive in us, so that “I live, no longer I,
but Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20) Lectio Divina is the formalized movement
from the mind and conceptual reflection on scripture to listening and experiencing
the Presence of Christ in the Heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">There
are four interior movements of Lectio Divina or Divine Reading:</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">1. <u>Reading</u>-(Lectio)-
</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">We begin by choosing a
scriptural text. The choice is an intuitive one, or it may be the lectionary
readings for the day or week. We read the text slowly to ourselves, listening
carefully to each work. At this level we listen deeply to the written word of
God, listening to those words or phrases in the reading that seem to speak to
us in a special way. This is a receptive way of reading and listening, open to
receive, as the parable of the seed falling on fertile ground.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">2. <u>Reflecting</u>
(meditatio)- </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">We read
the scriptural text again a second time. In this movement we are listening to
an interior reflection to the word or phrase which speaks to us. How is it
touching us within? We are listening receptively rather than analyzing or
interpreting, asking the question, in what way God touching us, speaking to us
about our own life. It is important to remember that this is not Bible study or
objective interpretation, or a theological study, but a personal reflection to
the Living Word of God speaking to us through the written word. It is a deeper movement toward
listening and pondering in our interior life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">3. <u>Responding</u>
(oratio)- </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">We listen
again a third time to the scriptural text as it speaks to us. This time in the third movement of
Lectio we allow a spontaneous prayer to arise in response to the listening and
reflecting. How do we open in our desire in response God’s word? How do we open
in our longing for the Living Word of God, Christ, to flame up within us? In
what way do we respond to the call to be transformed in God’s Love? What are
the inner responses of praise, gratitude, contrition, or new commitment? We may express this response in words
and in human emotion and verbal prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt;">4. <u>Resting in God</u> (contemplatio) We<b> listen again to the words
of the text, moving into interior silence and communion. This is a movement
into intimacy beyond words and concepts. This is a movement into pure Faith or
Trust. Here we rest in the Heart of Christ alone and seek no other thing. Here
we anchor in the Heart, in the Center of our being, where the living Spirit of
Christ dwells. We move beyond the mediation of words and thoughts, into pure
Presence and Adoration, into pure self-giving Love. This longing, this desire,
this commitment to take refuge, to rest in Love of Christ alone, rather than
our own thoughts, emotions, agendas, and inclinations, is the movement into
pure Prayer of the Heart or contemplation. Through this process of Lectio
Divina, or Divine Reading/Listening, the textual Word of God has been the
bridge to abiding in Christ, the Living Word of God in our own heart.</b></span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-80610637118111450892012-05-24T13:06:00.000-07:002012-06-12T13:24:56.226-07:00Integration of Prayer of the Heart in a Rule of Life<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><u> Integration of Prayer of the Heart
in a Rule of Life<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">To unify our life
utterly with Christ we must make commitments that are incarnated in daily
praxis or actualization. In other words it isn't enough to have lovely thoughts
or intentions about our life of Refuge in the Heart of Christ. We must **do** something to deepen our
daily gift of self in love to the Beloved Yeshua. This is especially true for
those who follow the Way of the Heart. The most sublime illumination or unitive
experiences can become only pleasant memories if we do not consecrate our life
and commitment, moment to moment, to the living Truth of those
experiences. This consecrated life
takes expression in making every act of attention one of adoration of Christ in
the present moment and every choice one of self-giving love to Christ. St.
Benedict in his Rule says "Prefer nothing to Christ." We must make
each moment of life in the Prayer of the Heart a choice for singular Refuge in
the Heart of Christ. Yeshua must be our breath, Yeshua must be our life, and
Yeshua must become in the course of a lifetime our home and sole refuge. From
the monastic tradition we solemnize and incarnate this commitment in a personal
Rule of Life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>What is a Rule
of Life? - </b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Marjorie
Thompson, in her book on Christian Spiritual Disciplines, <i>Soul Feast</i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">, says: “ A rule of life is a pattern of
spiritual disciplines which provides structure and direction for growth in
holiness. When we speak of patterns in our life, we mean attitudes, behaviors,
or elements that are routine, regular, repeated. .... It is meant to help us establish a rhythm of daily
living, a basic order within which new freedoms can grow. A rule of life, like
a trellis, curbs our tendency to wander and supports our frail efforts to grow
spiritually.” (Thompson. p.138)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;">Why do we need a
Rule of Life? - </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">The spiritual journey in Prayer of the Heart starts with
the insight that Christ alone is our heart’s desire, and it is only when
communion with Yeshua is the wellspring of every action, every choice, and
every goal, that we find completion and essential happiness and peace in
life. At the same time the Prayer
of the Heart tradition acknowledges the tremendous resistance in the ego-self
to the life of transformation. Life long conversion takes us from private self
seeking and the impulses of our misdirected desires, to bringing Christ at the
center of all we do, "To prefer nothing to Christ." Spiritual maturation therefore requires
commitment, and commitment requires discipline, the capacity and willingness to
be faithful, moment to moment, and day by day, to our practices of relational
life and refuge in Christ. This goal of growing intimacy and realization that
for us Christ is both personal and oceanic presence of the Divine Beloved, is
to be realized through the life of ceaseless Prayer of the Heart, in all
things, in all moments of life. The Rule of Life is a commitment to ceaseless
prayer, ceaseless communion in Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><u> <o:p></o:p></u></span></h1>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b><u>Our Personal Covenant with
Christ in the Way of the Heart</u></b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Consecrated
Silent Communion</b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">- To
cultivate this communion we need established, consecrated times of the day
which we set aside for the central relationship in our life, from which all
relationships spring. The nature of that time of silent communion in formal
sitting practice can be restful and restoring, but its essence is our
self-giving to Christ. We keep watch with Christ and wait on His Presence, and
open to His love. We breathe Yeshua and it is enough.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Consecrated
Reading and Reflection- </b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">We
need to also give time to reading and reflecting about the Christ who is our
heart’s desire. The practice of Lectio Divina comes to us from the ancients as
a way of moving from the textual word of God with the mind to the Living Word
of Christ in interior silence. We should make of this a Holy Leisure, which is
both restoring and enriching. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Consecrated
Contrition and Conversion- </b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Contrition
and Conversion are ceaseless practice. Therefore it is essential to set times
of gazing in the mirror of self-reflection and recollection each day. This is usually best done in the
evening at prayer time in conjunction with our evening Prayer of the Heart
session. We do this not to judge or condemn or deem any part of our humanity
unworthy. Rather we do this so that we can be willing to look honestly and
nakedly at all those elements in our life, in our mental activity, in our
actions, in our ethics, in our inner and outer life, which are not in harmony
with interior communion with God. We stand naked and hold before the merciful
eyes of Christ all of our humanity, all of the dark places in our mind and
consciousness that need His love and truth to be healed. We look closely for
those aspects of our daily life that lead us from our deepest intention of
refuge in Christ or worse, bring injury to our intimacy with Him. This daily
practice brings the utter freedom of contrition, forgiveness, and release from
all that impedes the love of Christ in our life. In Yeshua the grace of
conversion is always being offered. We can only make ourselves accessible to
it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> <b>Consecrated Service/Work</b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">- The praxis of our love of Yeshua extends
to all of our community, to all beings, to all Creation, to love and serve
Christ in the world around us. Each of us will do this uniquely with our own
gifts. Without making vows of service of some kind, our Covenant of Communion
with God is incomplete and defies the purpose of Prayer of the Heart, which is
to bring forth the God-life of Agape into the world. This is true whether our
service is peeling potatoes, weeding the garden, caring for our families,
ministering to the sick, or cleaning up the polluted waterways in our
community. In consecrated work practice we bring the fullness of our presence
to the service before us, and do all we do as offering to the love of Christ.
We do consecrated work practice in the great tradition of Brother Lawrence and
the practice of the Presence of God, and in the Benedictine monastic rule of
prayer in work. This service is the praxis of Ceaseless Prayer of the Heart in
the service of Christ in all Creation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Community
Prayer and Liturgical Practice</b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">- We do not come to God alone. "Where two or three are
gathered" in Yeshua we find Him there. This may be more readily attainable
for some than others. We may need to be creative and flexible in finding our
community of practice in Prayer of the Heart, whether local or long
distance. We include the community
of those who walk with us presently on the Prayer of the Heart path and the
wisdom of those who have walked before.
We enter the stream of God's Love with other followers of the Way of the
Heart in the eternal Present. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Accountability-
Vows of Practice- </b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">It is
good to share our Rule of Life with at least one trusted soul friend or
spiritual mentor. It is good to ask that person to pray for you, to help us to
be faithful to our covenant of Refuge in Christ a friend in the spirit with
whom we can discuss our covenant and daily practice from time to time. Having
an experienced guide or teacher in Prayer of the Heart is a blessing indeed if
such a person is nearby.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Our "Rule of
Life" or " Personal Covenant with Christ" are vows of relational
practice. Our Vows of Practice are akin to marriage or friendship vows. They
are serious commitments. At the same time we must cultivate the humility to
accept that we will fail in our faithfulness at times.</span> <i>Yet we must
not give into discouragement, but as in a marriage or deep friendship, return
to our practice, our singular desire to give ourselves to the Love of Christ
and find no refuge in any other thing. This singular desire, to "prefer
nothing to Christ" is our life and the core of our vows of practice</i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<u><b>Our Wholehearted
Yes to Christ</b><o:p></o:p></u></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">Despite the value of having a formalized commitment to
the "whole cloth" of daily practice and the disciplines that sustain
it, we should never lose sight of the utter simplicity of this practice.
Everything we do in our life, in our Prayer of the Heart practice, is at the
service of this one central desire to respond to the invitation of Yeshua, to
abide always in Him, in His Love. To be fully offered, fully given in love to Yeshua,
our heart's desire, is the completion and fulfillment of the Christian path of
consecrated life.</span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-46783101652561954402009-10-03T20:29:00.001-07:002011-04-20T14:17:24.635-07:00The Fire in the Cave of the Heart<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Fire in the Cave of the Heart</span></div><br />
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In 1970 at age 21 I was lost in a cloud of despair, confusion, clinical and existential depression. Crowded by suicidal thoughts and the torment of my own mind I cried out for help. The help came in a remembrance, as the ancients of the Middle Eastern desert tradition would say, a “remembrance of God.” The experience began with a memory of being a small child, hiding in the tall grass behind my grandmother’s house (where we also lived). Seated on the ground, cross legged, with eyes closed my attention and intention were rooted in a shining Presence within, felt in the area of the anatomical heart. The Presence was alive, Life Itself, Luminous and enveloping. As was my pattern as a child, I stayed there for a while, immersed in that Presence. I thought of it as “the Friend,” and nothing unusual. In this remembrance at age 21, I remembered again the interior sanctuary of “the Friend” and went there, and the “Remembrance of God” became actualized in the present moment, and the hellish torments of the mind were lifted.<br />
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Heaven only knows why I, or any young child, “forgets” the Kingdom of God within. Yet expulsion from that interior Garden where we walk in the cool of the evening with the Beloved (Genesis) seems to be the human pattern of development. We become immersed in the world of socially constructed reality and form an egoic self to be our vehicle in this world, and we lose the memory of our Source and Origin immersed in forgetfulness until we may experience a spiritual awakening in adult life. But then, at age 21, I knew that this reawakening to the central truth of our existence was real and I could base my life on it. We “re-member” our divided life of separateness in this truth, or we lose it in the dissolution of forgetfulness.<br />
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It is good to encourage all those who nurture their longing for the “re-membering” of their Life in “the Friend.” The name often given for this interior sanctuary space of Divine Light and Presence across many traditions is the “cave of the heart.” This luminous Presence of Life itself in the ancient desert tradition of Christianity is the very Fire of the Spirit of Christ. This simple truth is the essence of the Christian mystical teaching. And our exploration of the mystical Coptic Gospel of Thomas is a focus on this simple truth, a truth too often ignored by the historical representations of Christianity that we know today as “churchianity.” In the canonical Gospel of Mathew Yeshua (Aramaic form of Jesus) says “ I have come that they might have Life, and have it fully.” (Matt. 10:10). He was referring to the transmission of his own Life and Essence as the purpose of his mission and teaching. His Life and Essence are the “Living Flame of Love” at the center of the heart or spiritual center, so poetically named by the mystic John of the Cross. And our purpose is to let our humanity be a vessel of this Light and Fire of Christ. As Abba Joseph, the ancient desert teacher and guide says, “<span style="font-style: italic;">Why not become all Fire</span>!” (Apothegmata) This theological teaching of Theosis is the core teaching of Eastern Christianity and the summation of humanity’s life purpose. To become “Yeshua’s Fire” is our life’s purpose.<br />
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Since that day in 1970 I have grown in the “re-membering” of a divided life, and based my life’s journey in the simplicity and immediacy of the teaching of that experience. I have found support and accountability through my work with spiritual teachers, both in Zen and contemplative Christianity. In reclaiming my Christian roots I have come to understand that meaning of salvation is spiritual healing, a coming home to the Center. As the Christian mystic and teacher John Main says, “<span style="font-style: italic;">Meditation is coming home to our own center and realizing it is the gateway to the Center of all</span>.”(<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Heart of Creation</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> )</span><br />
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On this path we realize that the gift and self-transmission of Yeshua is a divinized soul, and humanity, not a divinized institution. And we realize Yeshua’s truth that the real temple is the heart, and not the bricks and mortar building on the hill. It is the truth for which he was crucified by the religious and political authorities of his time. On that day in 1970 I learned that salvation is not a distant or historic event that happened in biblical times, nor at the end of time or biological life, it is a process of healing that is, and can be life-long in every moment of life through the soul’s accessibility to the Living Flame of Love within that extends outward into our humanity and all the world. I learned as Yeshua says “.<span style="font-style: italic;"> On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you.</span>” (Jn. 14:20) That day can be every day, when we live out our life’s purpose.<br />
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The world was introduced to a stunning paradox in 1945 when the atomic bomb was first exploded and used as an instrument of mass death at Hiroshima, the same year The Gospel of Thomas was uncovered in a dirt bank close to limestone caves near the settlement of Nag Hamadi in Upper Egypt. In December of that year, two Egyptian brothers found several papyri in a large earthenware vessel while digging for fertilizer. The Nag Hamadi scriptures were a collection of ancient scriptures that was not included in the canon of the Bible. Archaeologists believe the scriptures were hidden by nearby monks of the monastic community of Khenoboskion, founded by St Pachomius, to keep them safe from destruction by warring religious factions. The Gospel of Thomas was one work of 53 parchments written in Sahidic Coptic, the last remaining language still close to the extinct ancient Egyptian pharaonic language. I often think Divine Providence works in its own ways and gives to the soul of humankind those needed wisdom resources when it is ready. The Spirit blows where She will.<br />
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A few years ago in a public forum I asked Marcus Borg, scholar and theologian (author of Meeting Jesus Again for the First time, The God We Never Knew, and The Heart of Christianity) the question: “Is authentic religious faith about believing the right things?” His answer was. “No, it’s about right relationship.” I have spent much of my 60 years consciously in love with the relational Living Flame of Love within that Yeshua the Christ offers us, yet chronically disappointed with those denominations and historic structures who claim to be his representative and repository of his teaching and presence on earth. The great tragedy of the Christian movement is that it has lost its way in collective “forgetfulness” investing its energies in external forms and structures, becoming yet another manifestation of those “principalities and powers” who rule this world. The radical teaching of Yeshua of the “Kingdom within” that the temple is in the deep heart, and not in bricks and mortar on the hill, has not been fully actualized in our world.<br />
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What is the nature of this “right relationship” that is the foundation of true religious faith? As Yeshua says in the canonical Gospel, “ <span style="font-style: italic;">I am the Vine, you are the branches.</span>”(John 15:5) The ontological reality of our innate oneness with the Divine can however remain unrealized, unactualized. And that would explain the state of the human condition and its manifold brokenness. In the ancient mystic tradition of Eastern and Western Christianity, the image of God within, the Inner Light of the Divine at the center of our being, remains a hidden truth, until we actualize that Light in a growing inner communion with God and express it in our relational life with the other beings we walk with in this life. Hence our relational life with the Divine has both a vertical and a horizontal dimension of realization. The unrealized relationship with the Divine by the human soul is a study in existential failure, spiritual suffering, and even evil, when human consciousness implodes onto itself in a life of narcissistic self absorption, rather than God absorption, with all the resultant collective evils of violence, war, poverty, and exploitation.<br />
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Religious faith as relationship implies direct and conscious experience of the Divine, yet the religious denominations throughout time have emphasized the mediation of the Divine through scriptural interpretation of concepts or the institutional and priestly mediation of sacramental grace and ritual. This describes the historical struggle in Western Christianity between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, salvation alone through correct beliefs, or correct affiliation with the “divinized” institution, rather than interior union with the Divine Light within. Eastern Christianity, in contrast, has had a profound spiritual theology of transformative relationship with the Divine through unitive experience in the teaching of Theosis, or Divinization of the soul from within, but has relegated the ancient praxis of Prayer of Heart of inner communion with God to a few male monks on Mt. Athos or Mt. Sinai and beyond the reach of most ordinary humans.<br />
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The question presents itself to many sincere people of faith, why has Christianity as an historic movement failed to be a transformative agent in those historic communities who claim to be followers of Yeshua? Why the historic failures of religious wars, injustice, persecution, cruelty, and injustice? Why the negligence of the poor, complicity with colonial subjugation of entire peoples, complicity with mass exterminations of Jewish and indigenous peoples? Why has Christian faith failed to be a dynamic practice in modern secular societies? Why do so many contemporary Christians not experience an interior ongoing presence of God as a vital force in their lives? Today most Christians can tell you about their doctrinal and denominational affiliation and identity. They can tell you very little, if anything, about their daily practice of conscious interior communion with God.<br />
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In the space of my own lifetime (1948- present) humankind has embarked on a growth in technological knowledge and development at the service of military domination and commercial greed that has brought us to a point of a growing danger of extinction from a nuclear holocaust or environmental collapse of the life systems that support us. Prominent writers, philosophers, and spiritual teachers speak of a growing race between our capacity to grow in consciousness to guide the growth and use of new technologies that shape our earth and civilization, and our unconscious, destructive capacity to misuse these same creations to lead us to a path of destruction for our species and ecosystem.<br />
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The Gospel of Thomas stands in marked contrast to the Canonical Gospels. The Canonical Gospels were adopted as part of the official biblical Canon by the Council of Nicea that was called by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 325 A.D., who insisted that with the merging of the Christian religion with the Roman Empire there must be codified and standardized official scriptures and doctrines (Nicene Creed). At the time of the Council of Nicea there were a number of Gospel texts in circulation throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East. From among these the Council of Nicea chose four, in addition to other books and letters to be included in the official scriptures of the nascent Roman Catholic Church. The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of diverse sayings from Yeshua, the Christ. In contrast with the canonical Gospels there is no narrative. There is no beginning or end, no birth, death, or resurrection narrative. The Gospel of Thomas is above all a collection of mystical teachings. It addresses directly the question that the mystic seeks to answer, how to have conscious communion with ultimate Mystery, we call God, or whom Yeshua addressed personally as “Abba, or “papa,” and named more generally as “Allaha,” an Aramaic term as the Source of all being. The Gospel of Thomas is considered by many scholars to be an older text, and some believe it is the “Q” text, which has been a source for later texts, and possibly dates from 50 A.D. The Gospel of Thomas is organized into short sayings or “logions.” Many of these resemble the sayings of Yeshua in the canonical texts but clearly point towards a more mystical interiority.<br />
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In contrast the canonical Gospels, derived from the oral traditions of diverse Christian communities of the first century, have an emphasis on a narrative structure. Among the four books of the Gospel there are a number of mystical references, especially in the Gospel of John and the “I AM” statements made by Christ. However, the structure of each of these Gospels is a narrative encompassing the life of Christ and focusing on the three years of his active ministry. This is a critical point. A religion based on narrative is a religion based on a story. Without the mystical teaching at the core of religion, the task of the follower begins by believing the story, and culminates with an act of allegiance aligning oneself with the historic victor in the story. This is mythic religion, and it is what mostly passes for religion now and in times past. Essentially the believer makes the choice for membership on the winning team in the competition for dominance of history. The messiah or savior in this story is the one who comes solely at the end of time in a personal or collective parousia, not the one who comes each moment of life restoring the soul to oneness with the Divine in a lifetime of healing.<br />
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Now this understanding of the power of story is not surprising since the psychological school of social constructivism bases its theory on the idea that humans make meaning through story. We tell stories all the time to each other about where we come from and where we are going and what happens along the way. And we know through the psychotherapeutic school of narrative therapy that there are some stories that are liberating and some that are oppressive. Stories help with defining identity and tribal/group affiliation. A collectivized institutionalized religious story and our allegiance to it does not in itself provide us with an awakening to a unitive experience with the Divine and ongoing commitment to a transformation of the soul that is the rightful promise of the practice of authentic religious faith. Rather a rigidified and triumphalist identity is likely to lead to the pattern of colonial conquests, forced mass conversions, abuses of power, persecution of nonconformity, and religious wars that history has brought. Uniting the temporal power of the Roman Imperium, and the Catholic religious structures and ideology formalized at the Council of Nicea brought into being a social political order that would dominate the world for centuries, and an active persecution of any competing religious ideas or movements. Armed with the Augustinian ideology of original sin and salvation through the Church alone brought us a divinization of the institution in a manicheistic polarized view of human history rather than a divinization and healing of the soul from within leading to a more unified and healed world.<br />
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The Gospel of Thomas does not stand against the narrative Gospels. Rather it completes them. While the canonical Gospels present us a story rooted in time and history, the Coptic Gospel of Thomas is rooted in timelessness and the present moment. The Gospel of Thomas reveals the truth of the identity of Christ as the Living Flame of the Light and Fire of Divine Love at the center of the spirit, and reveals the mission of Christ as the One who kindles the Flame of His own essence in the soul human beings. ( <span style="font-style: italic;">“Yeshua said: I have cast fire upon the world, and now I tend it to a blaze.</span>” Logion 10) We are invited to draw near and become ourselves this lit flame of Divine Light and Love. (“<span style="font-style: italic;">Yeshua said:Whoever is near to me is near to the Fire.</span>” Logion 82) The Gospel of Thomas is called a gnostic text yet wrongly associated with gnostic dualistic mythology. What you see in the sayings of Yeshua in this work is the deconstruction of mythology and the invitation into living the experiential knowledge or “gnosis” or “nous”, or “da’ath” (Hebrew) of the ultimate mystery of the Living God. This is “Contemplation” defined by Gregory the Great as the unmediated knowledge of God infused by Love. Without the mystic teaching of Yeshua we are likely to have the result we have had historically, an institutional ‘churchianity” of diverse denominations rooted in historical conditions that no longer exist. A grounded mystic teaching can and will bear fruit in the development of a tradition of sustained spiritual praxis (practice) whose expressions are transmitted from teacher to student and from generation to generation, each growing from the learning of the spiritual elders of the preceding generation. It is a Fire that is kindled and tended in the Cave of the Heart.<br />
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In our world now and throughout time we have seen the results of human life without lived consecration, human life that is lived in forgetfulness and separation from the Divine Life within. The result of a life that is not holy, not consecrated, is desecration, of all that is good, holy, life-giving and healing. This has been the norm throughout time and history. We are at a juncture in history when this awakening to the immediacy and ever present Living Flame of Love within is necessary not only for our own individual salvation, but also for the preservation of the planet and for the web of life that sustains us all. The ancient mystic wisdom traditions of the world are reviving in our time, and that includes the ancient Christian wisdom tradition of Prayer of the Heart as a practice of inner communion with Christ in the sanctuary of the Heart, and with a theology of Theosis, the divinization of the soul of humankind. Christians must not only believe in the historical Jesus/Yeshua to find spiritual healing, they must come to experience the Christ, the Living Flame of Love at the Center of the Spirit. Christ Savior and Messiah of the Soul, here and now. To actualize and live this truth “Tending Yeshua’s Fire in the Cave of the Heart” must be the core, not the periphery, of Christian faith and practice.<br />
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<div style="font-style: italic; text-align: center;">You are the peace of all things calm<br />
You are the place to hide from harm<br />
You are the light that shines in dark<br />
You are the heart's eternal spark<br />
You are the door that's open wide<br />
You are the guest who waits inside<br />
You are the stranger at the door<br />
You are the calling of the poor<br />
You are my Lord and with me from ill<br />
You are the light, the truth, the way<br />
You are my Savior this very day.<br />
(celtic prayer)</div>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-48808448453528623832007-09-19T13:08:00.000-07:002007-09-19T13:20:26.957-07:00Theosis and the Center<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI_x-PVRKaGqUb8Hhaul1XJuSBSHnbK5_BeKlkO0WHDf2pcTBGaXetyVMDTYT66r4ns5Y-7WZv723MALo_h7OOuY27cPvXep2Dg8lOlv1tZ1dyNt9m_PvXTjV_UKEqEkpfepnn/s1600-h/Divine+Indwelling+Graphic-BW.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI_x-PVRKaGqUb8Hhaul1XJuSBSHnbK5_BeKlkO0WHDf2pcTBGaXetyVMDTYT66r4ns5Y-7WZv723MALo_h7OOuY27cPvXep2Dg8lOlv1tZ1dyNt9m_PvXTjV_UKEqEkpfepnn/s320/Divine+Indwelling+Graphic-BW.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5112012556392406898" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Theosis and the Center</span><br />by Bill Ryan<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"Meditation is returning to the Center and there finding the gateway to the Center of All.</span>" John Main<br /><br />We live in a time when humankind can no longer afford to misuse religion to seek power and domination over others. The voices that seek an apocalyptic clash of religious superiority and exclusive truth claims through military violence cannot prevail. Now, more than ever we must seek to understand the "sapientia perennis," the perennial wisdom that is at the source of all authentic religious inspiration and the common ground of awakening to Ultimate Mystery that the great sages and saints across time and traditions have pointed to. Militant fundamentalism in the 21st century, armed with nuclear weapons, presents a threat to human survival and the survival of all creation. As we speak at least one U.S. presidential candidate is advocating the nuclear destruction of Mecca and other Muslim religious sites as an appropriate strategy.<br /><br />Those of us who name ourselves as followers of Christ must also remind ourselves that in the name of Christ, a thirty years war was fought in Europe, decimating the population and infrastructure of entire nations, with countless acts of barbarity and brutality done for the sake of exclusive truth claims. We must also remind ourselves of the forced conversions of millions of indigenous peoples who were enslaved or murdered in the name of the cross of Christ. In similar ways other world religions have their own stories of inflicting violence and domination, and subjugation of others for the sake of allegiance to a creed. And today terrible civil conflicts continue in the name of religion in Iraq, between Muslim and Muslim, in India, between Muslim and Hindu, in Sri Lanka and Thailand between Buddhist and Hindu and Muslim. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Who Owns God?</span><br />Who owns God or the Ultimate? By any name or definition? Authentic religious inspiration should never be about exclusive pronouncements of allegiance to a "winning team" or the claim to have exclusive ownership of Divinity or access to God. Yet throughout time and history wars and persecutions have been about these exclusive claims for purposes of power and dominance. And yet, the mystics and saints remind us, though rarely we listen, that the real spiritual question facing a person on the journey is who owns us? Are we surrendered consecrated beings? Are our lives offered ceaselessly to the love of the Divine in service and healing to God's Creation, or are our lives possessed by the demons of our own obsessions for power, security, and greed in a vain attempt to escape the truth of the powerlessness of our own fragile and transitory passage in this life?<br /><br />As the Benedictine mystic and teacher of contemplation, John Main O.S.B. has said, the solution is for us all to "return to the Center" and there find the gateway to the Center of all. For those on the Christian path by returning to the Center we can find the center of our own Faith, the Heart of Christ, and the central teaching of the human journey, the journey of Theosis, of the call to become transformed in Christ. To find and realize Christ at the Center we must journey to the Center, the "Deep Heart" of our deepest inner being, the sanctuary of the Beloved, and innermost dwelling place of Christ within us. As Jesus has told us in his Gospel teachings, the really good news is this: God is accessible, forever offered, forever present in the Inner Kingdom, and that our true worship and sacred dwelling of Communion with Him is not the building of bricks and mortar on the hill but Love's sanctuary at the Center. Our primary impediment is the mind's obsessions and the behavioral compulsions that flow from them. Abiding in the Heart in Prayer of the Heart offers us this freedom from such enslavement. The book, Pathways to the Heart- Sufism and the Christian East is about the common ground of our liberation in the God Mystery in the Heart as taught in the Semitic mysticism of Eastern Christianity and mystical Islam.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />The Center and The Transformation of Theosis</span><br />One of the great contributions that Thomas Keating has made to the modern world is to synthesize the ancient wisdom of contemplative prayer and present it in modern terms. Among the teaching devices I received from him that remains helpful is a simple diagram. The diagram is a circle with concentric circles within. The circle is a metaphoric representation of the human soul or consciousness. Between the concentric circles are layers of soul or consciousness. The first layer near the outer layer or surface of soul is labeled as "ordinary consciousness." By this Fr. Keating means this is the layer that most human beings spend most of our time and focus in. It is a relatively unawakened state, based on the competitive separateness that dominates most social interactions, infused by the conditioning of the culture in which we have been socialized to live. The next layer is called "spiritual consciousness." For some this may be fleeting, for others it may be expansive and well developed. It represents the degree that our orientation to life comes from the interior life of God in contrast to a life dominated by egoic separateness and the values of the culture. Another circle close to the center is called "true self." This is the "unconditioned life" of our true identity and being as child of God, animated by the Divine Indwelling, the Imago Dei or Image of God within us. This is the outer layer of the "deep heart" or Center that John Main references. And deepest of all, beyond our intentional reach but still beckoning to us, is the Center of the center, the "Divine Indwelling." This is the seat of Christ's Presence within us. As Merton says, "it is not at our disposal," (Le Pointe Vierge) but those of us who are on the journey of transformative prayer, ever seek to bring our soul to the "disposal" or access of the Beloved's Presence within us. <br /><br />The process of prayer and transformative life in God is to bring the entirety of the soul to be accessible, to be a "lit flame" of this Divine Fire within, to be a lamp of the Divine Light within. Faithfulness in a lifetime of growing communion and surrendered self to the Source within is what makes "Theosis" or divinization of our humanity, possible. This "Light Within," as Thomas Kelly calls it, is the common ground of all true religious inspiration. Our mutual reverence of it, our realization of Divine Life in ourselves and our mutual adoration of the Beloved in all human beings, can be the basis of healing the great religious divides that so afflict and torment humankind. It can also be the basis of an appreciation of the diversity in the world that honors differences while not trying to make them disappear artificially.<br /><br />So much blood has been spilled between the Abrahamic Faiths who have common ancestry, over who "owns" God, over who is "chosen" and over who has the rights to possession and dominance over the historical sites of Jerusalem. Such delusion and such hatred stand in resistance to the Great Mercy that enfolds us all. What we all have is the common inheritance as children of the Most High. What we all have is the common challenge to become surrendered to that Great Mystery we so love and adore rather than seek to own or possess a fictional exclusive right over that same Holy Mystery. The sanctuary of the Most High is within each of us, in the "Deep Heart. Jesus said we need just come close to it, "as a little child." Why should bricks and mortar and stones be our obsession? In summarizing this simple Wisdom I recall the words of the Coptic hermit, Abuna Matta al- Maskin who stated: "Jerusalem the Holy is right here, in and around these caves; for what else is my cave except where my Savior Christ was born; what else is my cave but the place where my Savior Christ was take to rest, what else is my cave but the place where He most gloriously rose again from the dead. Jerusalem is here, right here and all the spiritual riches of the Holy City are found in this 'wadi.' (cell)." (Kallistos Ware, The Inner Kingdom, p.92) The cave of the heart, the interior communion with Christ we open to in our daily practice of Prayer of the Heart, is the path to peace within us and peace between us.Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-86327986866584248012007-06-01T22:26:00.001-07:002007-07-07T11:13:27.690-07:00Delving Deeply into the Jesus Prayer<span style="font-size:130%;">Theophan the Recluse says:<br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" >"Delve deeply into the Jesus Prayer." Martin Laird speaks in his book <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Into the Silent Land</span> of the use of the Prayer word as a doorway into the communion realm of Christ in every day life as well as formal silence. He advises us not to think of this as magic or as something mechanical, and he is right. I have written in my book, <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Breathing Yeshua</span>, in the opening of the first chapter, " </span><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica;font-size:130%;" ><i>Our inner spiritual work turns on the tension of the mind's compulsion for control and the freedom of the heart's willingness to open and surrender in love</i>. " This interior opening then, of the heart, the center of our being, to surrender to and in Christ's Love is this doorway. The Jesus Prayer, as we delve the depths of it, leads us not into magical thinking, but into the very Heart of Christ, who is mercy. What arises in the mind as we try to approach this limitless Mercy that we know as the Christ experience, are all our resistances to surrender, to releasing from the mind's compulsions for control. If we think about our "mental obsessions" sometimes called demons in the desert tradition, they are all about the compulsion for control in some form or other. And we live in a universe where we have no control ultimately over external things, we only have the choice to give ourselves in love to God in life, and in each moment. What allows us to make this surrender is trust in the Realm of Mercy that we know as Christ. And the root word for Faith, Fidare, or Fides (Latin), is trust or to trust in, to be entrusted to. We leap then, in this praxis of Faith. We leap in longing for our true heart's desire. The Heart knows what we frequently do not know, in our souls too often dominated by culture and the ego-mind, that our heart's desire is Christ, our Beginning and our End, our Life's completion, our true Beloved. Our Heart knows that the false refuges of the mind offer no true solace or home, no strategy for control, and that there is only one true Refuge, to Abide in Yeshua's Love, as he has invited.<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" >These are words of love, but what do they have to do with everyday, every moment existence, our practice of the prayer word? The prayer word, and most especially when our prayer word is the name of the Beloved of our Heart, is the homing pigeon, the anchor in what is real and true. It is the reminder of our continual bowing to our Beloved and the offering of our soul, our life, and all human existence as we know it, all of Creation's suffering to the Realm of Mercy. This is the only medicine for the healing of our obsessions for control. It is an every-moment practice.</span> <p> <span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" >I have a clear recollection pointing to this Realm of Mercy, coming to me from my earliest days in school. I grew up much of the time attending Roman Catholic parochial schools in a pre-Vatican II era. This was an expectation of all dutiful Catholic parents of that time, even for a single parent mother, as was my mother. I remember one of the prayer gestures given to me by nuns who taught me was this: -"<i>When you are in distress, or when you hear of another soul in distress, when you hear an ambulance pass by, when you find yourself disappointed in life, when you find yourself discouraged, no matter what is happening to you or to another, when you think of the tragic things happening to people in the world, think of Jesus and "offer up" whatever it is, to that greater Mercy that is Him, because it matters, for oneself and for all</i><b><i>."<br /><br /></i> </b>Now at the time I don't pretend to have understood what precisely all that meant, but intuitively it seemed "right". It fit. No doubt there were some nuns, or some students who incorporated that practice as a form of magical thinking. But I did not pretend, even then, that my prayerful practice would necessarily change events or remove suffering from the world. Yet, it always gave me somewhere to go, and it fed the trust in the Greater Life, the Greater Mercy, the Greater Healing that encompasses us all. It was a true practice of Faith, then as a first, second, or third grader, and it is today.<br /><br />Therefore it is important for us to look upon our practice of the prayer word in this way. It is a meeting of a contemplative prayer of union and a contemplative prayer of mercy (what we call intercessory prayer), for ourselves and for all God's creatures, all beings who inhabit our universe. When we truly let go of the mind's compulsion for control, and bow and offer our life and existence and everything in it, in love and givenness, in self-surrender and self-relinquishment, we become accessible to the God of Infinite Mercy who is total Self-Gift in Christ to us. There are practical teachings to be learned, yet this is not a mental technique. It is our lifetime of home-coming, and our Prayer Word is our calling out in love to the One who is our Home, as love beacon, and it will last until we draw our last breath and open to a finality of healing in the welcoming arms of the Divine Beloved who is the Source and Goal of our prayer. What was taught to me as a first grader has not changed. What I can do always is "offer it up." The "It" I am offering, I have learned, is everything in life. And I have come to know that there is a Greater who Offers and Receives in me. Our souls are the medium of this Eucharistic banquet of Life of God's Gift of Self to us and our self-giving to God. We are the consecrated bread and wine, lifted up in Christ, each moment of life and given, joined in the eternal wedding banquet and with the Bridegroom.<br /><br />To me this what it means to delve deeply into the Jesus Prayer, or the true meaning of our prayer word.</span></p><p><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" >Peace and Blessings to all,</span></p><p><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" >Bill Ryan<br /></span></p>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-91758513009037027892007-03-26T13:50:00.000-07:002007-04-03T12:01:06.435-07:00Yeshua- Our True Conscience<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Yeshua- Our True Conscience</span></span><br />By Bill Ryan<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center; font-style: italic;">"The Kingdom of God is very near; change the direction in which you seek for happiness." Yeshua of Nazareth<br /></div><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Nightly Examination of Conscience-</span><br />The foundation of a truly moral life is a life given to growth in love, love of God and all Creation, as stated in the great commandment of Jesus. The purpose of conforming our life to God's Life within us, is not to create a perfected "self" that is worthy of a reward at the end of life. Rather it is to become a clear vessel of God's healing love in the world.<br /><br />Before we retire at the end of the day, it is good to examine the residue of where we have been in our consciousness, choices, and behavior. Our conscience is the word we have for listening deeply in the Heart for the heartbeat of the Beloved and harmonizing our life and consciousness with the One Life, the I AM Life that is the Heart of Christ. Our failures and missteps, the acts and intentions that are disharmonious with the Heart of Christ leave an unquiet residue. By examining this residue each day, we learn from our suffering and lack of peace. An important measure of living the surrendered consecrated life was given to us by Yeshua in the teaching of the beatitudes. Those who are blessed and happy in the spirit are those who walk the path of giving their life over to seeking and finding refuge in what gives true blessing and happiness and the relinquishment what doesn't. The surrendered life is the life that is love-offering. Let us then focus on Yeshua's teachings as the means of finding our true refuge.<br /><br />Our decisions regarding our thoughts, words, and deeds, in what we do, in what we fail to do, or avoid doing, are the pivot-point of our spiritual life. If prayer is the turning of the will towards God, then all of life is prayer. Most especially the process by which we decide what we shall do is prayer and points toward the fruits of our inner life of God, or lack of it. The fullness of spiritual practice happens when deep Contemplation meets the conditions of life in the present moment.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Great Commandment</span><br />In the Christian tradition the great commandment of love cited by Jesus from the Jewish Torah is the basis of all moral discernment.<br />“ Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. This is the greatest commandment.” (Mark 12:29)<br /><br />Here Jesus tells us the basis of the spiritual life is also the basis of our moral life. Relational life, of which the essence is self-offering love, is the ground on which we base all decision making and discernment in our daily life and prayer practice. He tells us that the way into this kind of life is one of continual conversion, a letting go of those misdirections and attachments of the mind that have taken the place of right relationship in love. This includes and begins with the activity of the mind where misdirection or sin happens. Jesus also tells us here in the Shema' that the vertical and the horizontal relationship are not separate. God is the one Self that we love, and that loves in us, both alone in solitude and in all the relationships of our human life. What gives injury or neglect to either affects the entire matrix of our relational life in God. Christ is the living spring in our Heart; Christ is the living presence in those beings we encounter in our lives. The symbol of the cross in a circle so often found in the Celtic tradition symbolizes the totality of the vertical and horizontal relationship of the communion paradigm of Christ.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Every-Moment Practice of Conscience</span><br />We have a daily practice of silent communion with Christ at intervals in the day. As we orient the soul toward this communion as ongoing choice we become increasingly aware of what opposes or injures this state of communion. Those thoughts, those words and deeds that are unloving, injurious, exploitive or cruel either in intention or effect become increasingly disturbing to our interior life in God. The more we practice the more attuned we become to those disturbances. At the end of the day the residue of that disturbance is likely to be accessible and noticed by us, a disturbance to interior peace. That is why our evening practice is a good time to review the day in a daily examination of conscience. We can note where we have caused injury and where we have neglected to love and serve as our heart's desire calls us.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Becoming Accessible and Open to Receive the Gift</span><br />There is no room for the guilt of judgment of our worthiness as a person. All life is sheer gift of God and our task is to become accessible to God, not to prove our worthiness. (Does the branch prove its worthiness to the vine? No, it only opens to receive the Life of the Vine.) That error only feeds the fiction of a perfected ego and creates a block in our complete acceptance and responsibility for what we have done or what we have failed to do, and to fully direct our energies toward contrition and conversion. Acceptance means accepting the natural sadness when injury is done to love. Those injuries can come in many ways, lies, betrayals, harshness, pridefulness and self deception, taking what isn't freely given, hurtful anger, abuse, a lack of reverence for personhood, and the lack of compassion for the needs of other beings.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">True Contrition Arises Each Moment</span><br />True contrition comes from the understanding that life arises fresh each moment, and contrition allows us to drop the burden of the distant past, or even the previous moment and return to our heart's desire to be given to love. This is the freedom of conversion, and the wisdom that real repentance is re-directing our life towards true happiness, what we most want and desire. This is true metanoia, coming home, again and again and again, ceaselessly. We are all prodigal children, having dissipated and wasted the gift of our life essence, again and again. Yet the door is always open and the arms always welcoming us, a million times in the course of a day or a lifetime. The important thing is to return home to the Heart, and learn compassion from the pain inflicted on ourselves and others. The true wound is separateness, which heals as we harmonize the soul with unitive life of God within. We are not asked to create a separate and perfected worthy self. We are invited to come home and receive the gift of our belonging as true child of God. We will never create this perfected self, even if we try. We can always return to faithfulness, and return Home to God who is our Home, in this moment, in this breath.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Evening Reflection and Review</span><br />By examining the circumstance of the thoughts, words, deeds, and omissions we have made, we can learn from them and bring the fullness of our practice into that situation when it arises again, as it will in various forms. Our practice is always to observe the mind and to abide in the heart. When we are able to "see," to witness the arising of misdirected hidden thoughts and motivations, we can truly offer them up, and relinquish them to make space for our most essential desire, which is loving kindness or agape. The desert elders saw that true conversion must involve a praxis of freedom from addictive or destructive thinking patterns. Over time we cultivate Heart Presence as a ceaseless expression of Prayer of the Heart in daily life and activity, making each moment of life prayer.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reflection on the Beatitudes- Yeshua's Guide to Self-Offering Love</span><br /><br />1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.<br />I shall not seek solace in creating, promoting, and defending images of self. My personality, my social persona, and most importantly the ego-self are not who I am, but creations of the mind. I will seek not to defend or promote what is not true. I shall hold lightly any mask I wear in this life, necessary as it might be at times. I shall be ready to lay it down. In my true spirit is essence of being, the freedom of nakedness. In my true spirit I can be utterly at peace to be who I am in Christ, and shall always be, simply child of God, child of the Universe. It is enough that I am loved into being. I need not justify, deserve, or aggrandize my existence. I especially shall not seek to be something more than another or that I truly am, especially to compete or belittle, to dominate or divide. "In this nakedness of spirit the soul finds its rest." (John of the Cross- Prologue- Ascent of Mt. Carmel) Help me to rest always in Your Heart alone in my heart.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.</span><br />All of this passing life is impermanent. I shall not seek to hold on and hold fast to what is temporary and passing. Shall I insist that conditions, persons, and things remain fixed in my clenched fist so that I can have the deception of security? What I hold in my grasp, as dear and cherished as it may be, those people, relationships, roles, and conditions I love and desire, I shall offer and release when it is time. I shall accept the pain of grief and accept that it shall pass. In the continual release I shall seek and find the freedom to find my true Home and refuge, ceaselessly. And I shall deepen my trust that being Home in God is always enough, always sufficient. Help me to let go always into You.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.</span><br />I must remind myself that real strength and empowerment belongs in the commitment to act and live from the life of inner communion. The Communion Life is gentle and does not seek power over others. I shall not seek domination but healing and well-being for all. In this gentleness I shall seek real empowerment over my own self, my own humanity, my own gifts, and my own energies, my own behavior, the only power there is. I shall lay down any inclination toward retaliation or retribution for perceived injuries, and take pause, rest what in what is deepest, truest, and kindest for all, before I act. "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matt. 11:28) Help me to find my true security in your gentle Heart.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for uprightness.</span><br />Julian of Norwich has told us that we suffer spiritually because we rest where there is no rest. Indeed I hunger, I thirst to be one with you, to harmonize my soul with Your Heart in all that I do, in all that I wish for, in all that my soul becomes in this life. Let me seek only You and the action of your love and mercy in this life, and in the community of other beings. Let me always be disturbed by the disharmony and the disconnection and return to the life of Communion with You. I am happy when the One desire of my life is my only desire. It is Your desire, it is the same. As Marguerite Porete has said, "What you desire, Beloved, we desire. Tell me your desire nakedly.." This is uprightness. Help me to stand naked and unafraid, always before you, upright in the truth of my life, resting in the One Desire that is ours.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.</span><br />Too often my sense of justice and judgement towards others is a justification for exercising control and power. Too often I wish to retaliate for perceived hurts. I must learn to commit to the Mercy of Christ my outrage at the violence and injustice in the world. I must be willing to stand for mercy for all, especially those I don't like or don't agree with. I must be willing to stand in mercy for those who are powerless, beginning with my own powerlessness. Can I trust in Your mercy, that it is real and it is offered? Can I call on Yeshua's mercy each moment, and commit my need for healing and the healing of the world to Him as my every moment prayer offering. There is too much of "me" when what is needed is Yeshua's mercy. It is Home, and it is enough. Help me to find courage and heal my fear in Your mercy.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.</span><br />I am too often a house divided. Beloved, give me an undivided soul, a committed soul, a consecrated presence, a wholly surrendered will. Let my fist open to become only offering hands. Let there be no half measures, no avoidance of laying bare and laying down this life. Let my avoidance and my fear be opened to your touch, seen by your gaze, and receive the light and Fire of your given Life. Let my discipline be aflame with love alone, and not shaken. When I lapse, let me see it, and return home to my true desire. Let me not offer my soul to shallow substitutes or excuses, and to see them for what they are. Let there only be one Refuge in this life for me, in your Heart alone. Help me to know my lapses and find my way Home in You.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. </span><br />What is the state of your Shalom? It is to always be in harmony with You, to be oned with Your Life in my life. This is the well of health. May I always be vigilant and watchful with my anger, and my righteous thoughts, with my frustration with obstacles, with my fear of powerlessness. I possess nothing and my seeking any other thing than to be what I am destroys peace. It is enough to be in You alone, your own offspring, a ray of Your Light, a lit flame of Yeshua's Fire. There is nothing to be at war with, no conflict to provoke, no enemy to vanquish, only my own humanity to tame and bring to be at peace in You. Here is my only peace. Help me invite your healing to those wounds of conflict this day I have inflicted or received and find Peace.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.</span><br />I know it is human to desire approval, to be hurt by rejection, to fear retaliation and judgement from others, to stand alone when it is right and good and loving. Yet where is my freedom to be found? Too often I have denied the freedom of spirit, my true Home in You, my true belonging. Too often I have doubted in the truth of Your unceasing Love out of fear. You alone know me, You alone are my heart's desire. You alone are my true rest and belonging. Help me to accept and live the truth of Your freedom, and bring my fears and the wounds of my human existence to You, "Yeshua, the Christ, my love, my encircler, each day, each night, each light, each dark. Be near me, uphold me, my treasure, my Truth."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Christ as a light, illumine and guide me</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Christ as a shield overshadow me</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Christ under me</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Christ over me</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Christ beside me</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">On my left and my right</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">This day be within and without me</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Lowly and meek, yet all powerful</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Be in the heart of each to whom I speak</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">And the mouth of each who speaks unto me</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">This day be within and without me</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Lowly and meek, yet all powerful</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Christ as a light</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Christ as a shield</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Christ beside me</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">On my left and on my right.</span><br /></div>***********************************************************************Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-8596070873127952842007-02-25T12:05:00.000-08:002007-02-25T12:15:43.991-08:00Unified Life- Disciplined Life<div align="center"><u style="font-weight: bold;"><span style=";font-family:verdana,geneva;font-size:130%;" >Unified Life- Disciplined Life</span></u><br /></div> <div align="center"><span style=";font-family:verdana,geneva;font-size:100%;" >By Bill Ryan</span><br /></div> <p><span style=";font-family:verdana,geneva;font-size:130%;" ><b>Change and Motivations</b><br />This past year motivated by health concerns and a desire for more energy and zest in my life, I resolved to embark on a program of increased fitness and substantial weight loss. Late stage diabetes runs in my family and I knew I was at risk if I continued to maintain or increase the weight I had. I have been healthy in the past and slimmer. I had been a distance runner on a daily basis, running in the occasional road race, including marathons (26.2 miles) until 1998 when I developed an injury. With a low thyroid condition and continuing to eat as if I were a runner, I gained weight to the point where I weighed 230 lbs. as recently as last March. With it problems of higher cholesterol, borderline high blood pressure, and occasional back problems began to plague me.<br /><br />A past formula for conditioning involved running an hour every day. I resolved to make a serious attempt to make that a discipline in my life, combining it with a serious dietary change, I made a goal of returning to my high school weight of 180 lbs. After strengthening my legs with weight training I began with five minutes a day of very slow jogging on a treadmill. The treadmill is much easier on the knees and allows me to monitor my running style and speed and not have to contend with weather conditions. Each week I increased the time and distance by five minutes. I ran this each day of the week except for one shorter day. It was difficult and trying in maintaining the will and stamina to do this each day. In addition I found that a vigilant awareness and detachment of thoughts of eating or returning to previous patterns, or thoughts of giving up the daily discipline were essential.<br /><br /><b>Discipline is Commitment</b><br />Such a change involves an unraveling of previous habits, their associated thought patterns and the habit energy that sustains them. It was a great exercise in the necessity of discipline and faithfulness in any transformative process. In roughly five months time I lost 55 lbs. and settled into a daily pattern, initially of 65 min. or 7.5 miles a day running. I reduced that because of joint pain to 55 min. or 6.2 miles day (10 kilometers). I have come to a plateau of 175 lbs. Borderline issues of high cholesterol and blood pressure are resolved. I am taking a reduced dosage of thyroid medicine. My daily diet has changed significantly around a much healthier intake of protein, vegetables, and grains.Looking back I see how essential the moment to moment discipline is. At the same time I see how the motivations in life are powerful if we organize our will around them. When we learn to love our children, our spouses, our friends, we learn to orient, to commit ourselves to those purposes above the impulse or habit energy of the moment. At the same time I recognize how lacking I am in applying the same level of discipline to unify my life around the central motivation in life, the desire for oneness with God. By some measures the time I spend in formal practice is certainly high, yet the discipline is certainly not commensurate with the profundity of the Desire. Since we know that this singular desire is not of our creation, but it is the Beloved's desire for us, and it is limitless and enduring. Discipline is commitment. Why not be given to this discipline more profoundly in a discipline beyond the discipline I have given for the sake of health alone!<br /><br /><b>Lenten Spirituality</b><br />The discipline of giveness to the love of God, of ceaseless abiding and refuge in the Heart of Christ, this is the consecrated life. It is our heart's desire. Rather than the drama of self punitive measures of sackcloth and ashes, the spirituality of the season of Lent is a call to discipline, a call to the commitment of Love, a call to confront and transform the habit energies that hold our lives in constraint and bondage. In this way our life can be freely given, freely offered, an every moment love-offering to the One who offers Divine Life each moment, whose very nature is Self-Gift. The kenosis of Christ is not only our model, but it is Christ within us that makes this self-emptying, self-giving to the Source, the Father, the central dynamic of our human life. This circular self-offering manifested and present in the activity of the Spirit is the mystery of human existence and its participation in Trinitarian Life.<br /><br /><b>The Discipline of the Daily Rule of Life</b><br />" Tighten to nothing the circle that is the world's things. Then the naked Circle can grow wide, enlarging, embracing all." Hadewich of Antwerp<br /><br />Students who come to me to learn Prayer of the Heart often begin with the question, "How an I fit the formal silent sitting time into my present life?" As they progress the question changes, "How can I make all of my life into ceaseless prayer?" This quote above from Hadewich addresses this dynamic in our life. The consecrated given life excludes nothing, it is all within the "naked circle" that is God. The goal of the spiritual life is not to accomplish anything, to attain to anything or any state, but to offer everything that we are and that we encounter to the infinite love and mercy of God. This is the consecrated life. The essential requirement of this transformation is commitment in the form of discipline and faithfulness. Just like the gradual incremental quality of my running program, our willingness to open and stretch and grow in Christ, each moment and each day. Like the hands outstretched, we may begin with a clenched fist. But gradually the clinging fingers unfurl and we find a loosening in trust, an emptying and freedom from the bondage of our habit energy of thinking, feeling, and acting, a relinquishment of our compulsions, our addictions and all that support them. Then we become the chalice of our Lord's Life received, consecrated, and poured out in love.<br /><br />Our daily discipline must be incarnate. It must have form to be real. It is our covenant with the Beloved. Here are some elements of the Daily Rule of Life, reprinted from The Beloved is My Refuge:<br /><br /><b>Cultivation in the Garden of the Beloved-</b><br />As spiritual beings, humans may be compared to plants. The secret garden of our life in the Beloved needs to be watered and nurtured; it must be directed with supports, like a climbing tomato or bean plant needs a trellis or pole. Air and light and fertile ground are needed. A rule of life is a way of bringing together all those elements that will consecrate, nourish, protect, and sustain our life in God.<br /><br /><b>Elements of a Rule of Life: </b><br />The elements of a Rule of Life are the means of cultivating and expressing the garden of this relationship of communion with God.<br /><br /><b>Consecrated Silent Communion-</b> To cultivate this communion we need established, consecrated times of the day which we set aside for the central relationship in our life, from which all relationships spring. The nature of that time of silent communion in formal sitting practice should be restful and restoring, but also giving. The essential need of those consecrated times is faithfulness. This is the watering of the garden.<br /><br /><b>Consecrated Reading and Reflection</b>- We need to also give time to reading and reflecting about the God who is our heart’s desire. We should make of this a Holy Leisure, which is restoring and enriching. This is the fertilizing of the garden.<br /><br /><b>Consecrated Contrition and Conversion-</b> Contrition and Conversion are ceaseless practice. Therefore it is essential to set times of gazing in the mirror of self-reflection each day. We do this not to judge or condemn or deem any part of our humanity unworthy. Rather we do this so that we be willing to look honestly and nakedly at all those elements in our life, in our actions, in our ethics, in our inner and outer life, which are not in harmony with interior communion with God. We look closely for those aspects of our daily life which lead us from our deepest intention of love, or worse, bring injury to this intimacy with God. This daily practice brings the freedom of contrition and release from all that impedes the love of God in our life. The grace of conversion is always being offered. We can only make ourselves accessible to it. This is the weeding and the tilling of the soil of our garden.<br /><br /><b>Consecrated Service/Work-</b> The praxis of self-giving Love extends to all of our community, to all beings, to all Creation, -to love and serve God in the world around us. Each of us will do this uniquely with our own gifts. Without making vows of service of some kind, our Covenant of Communion with God is incomplete and defies the purpose of Prayer of the Heart, which is to bring forth the God-life of Agape into the world. This is true whether our service is peeling potatoes, weeding the garden, ministering to the sick or cleaning up the polluted waterways in our community. This service is the praxis of Ceaseless Prayer and the growing of the fruit of the garden.<br /><br /><b>Community Prayer and Liturgical Practice</b>- This may be more readily attainable for some than others. We may need to be creative and flexible in finding our community of practice, whether local or long distance. We include the community of those who walk with us on the Prayer of the Heart path and the wisdom of those who have walked before. We are in the stream of God's Love with other followers of the Way of the Heart in the eternal Present. This is the flowering of the plants of the garden, outward expression of the life of Inner Communion.</span></p><p><span style=";font-family:verdana,geneva;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Accountability- Vows of Practice</span>- It is good to share our Rule of Life with at least one trusted soul friend or spiritual mentor. It is good to ask that person to pray for you, to help you to be faithful to your covenant and with whom you can discuss your covenant from time to time. This is the sharing of our garden with our soul friend, or Anam Cara.</span></p><span style=";font-family:verdana,geneva;font-size:130%;" ><br />Our "Rule of Life" or " Personal Covenant with God" are vows of practice. Our Vows of Practice are akin to marriage vows. They are serious commitments. At the same time we must cultivate the humility to accept that we will fail in our faithfulness at times. Yet we must not give into discouragement, but as in a marriage, return to our practice, our singular desire to give ourselves to Love. This singular desire is our life and the core of our vows of practice.<br /><br /><b>The Simplicity of this Great Interior Work-</b><br />Despite the value of having a formalized commitment to the "whole cloth" of daily practice and the disciplines that sustain it, we should never lose sight of the utter simplicity of this practice. Everything we do in our life, in our Prayer of the Heart practice is at the service of this one central desire, this singular intention which Jesus proclaimed in the Great Commandment. All disciplines and practices are at the service of this great work to which all humanity is called. The author of <b><i>The Cloud of Unknowing </i></b>states it beautifully in this way:<br />"For I tell you this, one loving blind desire for God alone is more valuable in itself, more pleasing to God and to the saints, more beneficial to your own growth, and more helpful to your friends, both living and dead, than anything else you can do." (Johnston, p. 60)<br /><br />May your Lenten journey be one of new life transformed by Love,<br />Bill Ryan</span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-1165952790190096962006-12-12T11:36:00.000-08:002006-12-12T11:46:30.210-08:00The Prince of Peace is Born Within Us<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Yeshua- Our Prince of Peace</span><br />by Bill Ryan<br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Inner Peace</span><br />When I was growing up I loved to read Pogo, the cartoon creation of Walter Kelley, in paperback book form. One of those quotes I remember most readily from one of the Pogo characters who are on a crusade to make the world better: " We will force peace and love down their dirty rotten throats." It illustrates well how we think of peace as an external ideal that we try to impose from the outside. We can contrast this with the invitation of Jesus,<br />" Peace be with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives." (John 14:27) I suspect<br /><br />Pogo's character might have been trying to do the world's peace instead. When I was growing up I was also taught a simple prayer that said, "let there be peace and let it begin with me." That prayer taught a simple wisdom, that I understood intuitively, but the adults in my life didn't teach me how to live and abide in that peace within. The biblical tradition teaches us the word, Shalom; - the state of peace as the well being that arises from the soul being in inner harmony with God. When I was twenty one, in a moment of crisis, I cried out for help, and the help came in the form of a memory of myself as a child of age three. In the memory I would go to my favorite hiding place and close my eyes and leave behind my thoughts, and sink into a deep and secret place inside, and there be surrounded by a peaceful Presence. That was the beginning of my adult spiritual journey.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Center</span><br />One of my teachers along the way, the Benedictine monk, John Main, spoke of this secret place inside, "Returning to the Center within us, is the gateway to the Center of All."<br /><br />So this inner peace is a state, it is a state of communion with our Divine Beloved, an original state, a state of being Home, in the locus of our belonging. This is the state that Jesus invites us to, the peace that wordly human culture cannot give us.<br /><br />In the Middle Eastern Abrahamic Faiths this practice of going to the secret Center is called the Remembrance of God. An un-Forgetting, an uncovering and abiding in what is Real and Ultimate. The meaning of the word- Re-membering, is a making One, making whole.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Healing the Soul of Humankind</span><br />The healing of the soul of humankind begins and ends within us. It is a life-long process which the mystic Julian of Norwich called our "oneing" with God, "the sweet and secret work of the Holy Spirit." Julian says that all human ills spring from the fact that we seek rest where there is no rest, and that only God within us can give us rest. Jesus invites us to this rest and healing at the sanctuary of His Presence within us, "Come to me you who are heavy burdened, and I will give you a place to rest your soul." Matt. 11:28<br />"Abide in my love." Thomas Kelly, the Quaker mystic calls this Center, "the Inner Sanctuary," citing Meister Eckhart he says: ." Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continually return."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Communion vs. Domination Paradigm</span><br />When we turn toward the Divine Center within we enter the Kingdom, or the Realm of Communion, where all are connected all are in relationship. Jesus says it this poetically beautiful way. "On that day you will know, that I am in my Father, my Father is in me, and I in you, and you in me." (John 14:20) There can be no greater connection, no greater communion than this. The Communion relationship, abiding in one another, sharing One Life, One Being. In the Center we come home to the Communion Paradigm, we come home to the life of Unitive Whole, where we all belong to the Essential Unity from whom all things arise and all things return. In the root names of the Divine in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions this Source and Essential Unity is called "Ela', Allaha, Allah."<br /><br />The realm of societal culture is instead the realm of separation, where all are disconnected. The result is living the life of the Domination paradigm. All are separate, all are over and against one another, with the result of human life ruled by greed, wars, hatred fueled by differences of ethnicity, religion, and geography. The good news of the deep Wisdom traditions throughout the world is that we can learn to live life from the unitive state, life from the center that takes us into the Center of all. Instead of defending our little egoic, tribal, religious, and ethnic circles we can live and love from the One Circle that is within and encompasses us all.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Unitive Life</span><br />The Voice from the burning bush was the "I AM" Life. The voice that spoke in Jesus "Before Abraham, I AM", is the "I AM" Life. At the Center there is no Subject and Object, all is Subject. All is held within the " I AM" life. This is the true body of Christ for whom Paul said there is no distinction. There is no gender, religion, or ethnos. There is just the "I AM" the pure being of the Divine Beloved who holds all in the realm of Communion. This is where we find our True Life, and the True Life of all beings.<br /><br />One of my teachers, Thomas Hand, who taught both Zen and Christian Contemplation said, "The God experience is Oneness, and fully accepting and living the Consequences." Our inner peace is the ceaseless abiding in the Communion Realm, within and without. and our release from captivity in the Domination Paradigm.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">At the center of us is true peace. The peace that Jesus gives us, is the peace of inner communion with his Being within us. Nothing can destroy it, nothing can take it away, no fear or cruelty, or violence can stand against it. It is our home, our belonging, our security, our sanctuary, our true Life, and we can learn to live our life there. In that way we become peace, and share it with all we meet in this life. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Listening and Abiding</span><br />Not everyone will be drawn to meditation or Prayer of the Heart. But all of us can learn to listen deeply. When we do, we listen to the Heartbeat of the Universe in our own Center. The psalmist says, "Be still and know that I am God." "Deep calls on Deep." We cannot stop our minds from thinking but we can sink deeper than our minds into the spaciousness of the Center, and there listen. And cultivate that orientation like a homing pigeon, to bring us back home, again and again. When we enter into that inner quiet and listen we are accessible to the God experience, we are accessible to the Communion Realm.<br /><br />When we are with another, and we release from compulsion to insist that another understand and agree with what we say, and instead listen from the heart-center, then we enter the common ground of unitive love, the communion realm, and listen to understand. From that perspective peace between persons and reconciliation can happen, with or without agreement of ideas. In deep listening we are in the God experience, listening to the " I AM" who encompasses all, the common ground of the Being of all beings.<br /><br />Jesus invites us to "Abide in My Love". When we make a lifetime of learning to abide in the Ultimate we are following the "little way" of Lawrence of the Resurrection, the "little way" of our Buddhist Brother, Thich Nhat Hanh, the "little way" of the Quaker Mystic Thomas Kelly.<br />I have a favorite prayer chant that I practice alone or in groups it goes like this:<br />Listen, listen, wait in silence listening, for the One from whom all Mercy Comes.<br /><br />One of my favorite mentors on the journey has been the monk and writer Thomas Merton who incorporated the passion for peace and justice with the interior silence of contemplation: He reports having an extraordinary experience of "Oneness" on the<br />corner of 4th and Walnut in Louisville, Kentucky. (Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander)<br /><br />"Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire, nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way, all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other…..At the center of our being… is the pure glory of God in us. .. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Best Place to Pray</span><br />In the year 2000 while on retreat at a monastery in the mountains of Colorado I met a monk, named Theophane. He has since died. But he wrote a wonderful book called Tales of a Magic Monastery. He has said the stories are all true, not literally but metaphorically. The Best Place to Pray- (from Theophane the Monk)"I asked an old monk, "How do I get over the habit of judging people?" He answered, "When I was your age, I was wondering where is the best place to go to pray. Well, I asked Jesus that question. His answer was, "Why don't you go into the heart of my Father" So I did. I went into the heart of the Father, and all these years that's where I have prayed. Now I see everyone as my own child. How can I judge anyone?" (Tales From the Magic Monastery)Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12926873.post-1158200805348892352006-09-13T19:24:00.000-07:002006-09-13T19:26:45.380-07:00Sept. Reflections on Healing and Forgiveness<span style="font-size:130%;">Dear Sisters and Brothers,<br /><br />Sept. is a time when my soul begins to turn more inward and I am drawn to reflection after a time of outdoor activity and physical work. Significant events have happened in my life and in the life of the world I know in Sept. The shadows lengthen and past associations emerge from memory and consciousness. The recent commemoration of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, five years ago have also turned me towards reflection. I am troubled by the exploitation in the commemorations and rhetoric of grief and injury, and superficial sentimental patriotism to justify further injury and violence in the world, and to gain political advantage. These are the outward public manifestations of the "Domination Paradigm" articulated so well in our current readings by Beatrice Butreau. Rather than being entirely reactive I want to take my own revulsion at the culture of this society, of which I have been too often an adherent, towards a renewed commitment to live in the Communion Paradigm that is the Ultimate Reality that all of us are called to, to breathe Yeshua and be rooted in his Love, and to find my home ever in his belonging as the sole Reality to be lived, the gateway for followers of Yeshua to return to their true Home, in this life and the next.<br /><br />Sept. is the month I was married 33 years ago. Sept. is the month my son was born. Sept 13, today, is the day my son died, 26 years ago. And I recall so vividly as I held his lifeless body in my arms, the face, the body I had come to cherish, the feeling of utter desolation, that my beloved son was gone and there was nothing I could do, no one or no thing to blame or hold responsible. I recall the sense of failure as a father that I had, that I had not protected him from disease and harm and death. In such desolation, surrender and Grace, and even healing, can happen. Since then I have come to appreciate how the world we know can disappear, the loved ones we hold dear can be taken, our very life can be gone, in an instant. To face and live this truth with courage, and trust, and to love the best we can is how healing happens.<br /><br />Sadly the culture of this country has sought vengeance as a false means of healing, as a way of avoiding accepting our vulnerability. A country and a people that had nothing to do with the injuries of Sept. 11 have been targeted, (even a belated Senate Intelligence report verifies this). And for the 3 thousand Americans that died, more than a hundred thousand Iraqis have died, mostly non-combatant women and children(by report of U. of Johns Hopkins) and continue daily in the death squads and bombings of ethnic violence, in addition to another 3000 young Americans who were told they were fighting for the freedom and safety of their country, and another 27 thousand who are maimed and disabled in body, and the many tens of thousands who are maimed and disabled in soul. Americans continue to think that our losses and our injuries are the only ones that hurt, and our will, our power, our dominance, and our safety is the only imperative in the world. We forget that the whole of humankind suffers and grieves, and has a need to be safe and secure, especially those in the Middle East. And still the anger and the desire for vengeance goes on, the blaming and leveraging for political domination goes on. And so little of healing that the people need and long for is being sought. <br /><br /><b>From the mouths of children-<br /></b>I saw a television program this week interviewing children whose parents died in 9/11. It was touching and revealing and instructive. What was clear to me is that these children, who had the most devastating loss of all, (what is worse than for a child to lose his or her parent?) were in their own way, quietly seeking healing. A daughter who still cries when speaking of her dad, said that she learned after a while, that the only way she could feel any thing but sadness and despair, was to do a good deed for someone else, and that could bring her happiness. A son, who missed his father terribly, decided to pursue a career similar to his father and to emulate the fine and honorable qualities his father had shown him. The children found they could share their vulnerabilities with other children who had lost a parent in the attack. Such basic wisdom shows us the path to healing (the true meaning of the word, salvation) is open to all of us, if we find a way to let go of the mind's compulsion for control. (At a later time I also found purpose for my pain in working with other parents who lost children, and finding communion of love and purpose in our common vulnerability.) Some of wives and loved ones who suffered loss on 9/11 have involved themselves in projects to promote healing and peace, including a group of widows who have travelled to Afghanistan to make common cause with widows who have lost husbands there.<br /><br /><b>The Way of Peace and Healing-<br /></b>On Sept. 11 this week I walked in a silent contemplative group peace walk, in commemoration of another anniversary. On September 11, 1906, one hundred years ago, Mohandas Gandhi began what would become the non-violent, passive resistance movement for which he is so famous. It began, not in India, but in South Africa, at the time part of the British Empire, where he learned many of the skills he would later put to good use. </span><span style="font-size:130%;">Gandhi called this practice Satyagraha, the Indian Movement which is born out of truth and love or nonviolence. It became the motivating ethos and strategy for the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s led by the Rev. Martin Luther King. A strange juxtaposition....that events that have led to healing, and to injury and brutality should happen on the same day. Is humankind not being presented with a choice, to choose the path of healing and peace, or to choose the path of repeating the endless cycle of injury and retribution, and counter-retribution?<br /><br /><b>Forgiveness and Restorative Justice-<br /></b>Much was made on 9/11 about the strength of religious faith in helping people survive adversity, trauma, and loss. I recall at the time, the mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, who has been so lionized for his leadership in crisis, speaking of how religious faith was for him and New Yorkers the great salvific force. Yet I also heard him say that his greatest wish was to personally kill Osama Bin Laden in retribution for his role in the massacre. We all wished to be safe, but violent retribution is not safety. No one in those days spoke of the words of Yeshua inviting us to a better way, or his words saying that "whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do to me." And who, if not Osama Bin Laden, qualifies as "the least of these." No one said the words of Jesus as he faced his own humiliation and death, "Forgive them, Abba, for they know not what they do." No one invoked the beatitudes, "Blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the humble, blessed are you when you are persecuted." In our vulnerability and our no-thingness we find the Communion Paradigm, we enter the Kingdom and the Kingdom enters us.<br /><br />I say these things not because I practice them so well, but because I need to hear them myself. I know what it is to be captive of unforgiveness and to desire retaliation. When I was a young adolescent, someone in authority brought a terrible injury to me, willfully and maliciously. I nearly lost my life in despair. It is a human, healthy, and perhaps a necessary defense to have rage in response to injury. It is not helpful, healing, or holy to hold on to the injury, and to nurture the resentment and the desire to cause injury in return. As an adult at a certain juncture in my own healing of soul it became clear that this space in my soul needed the touch of the Healing Master, and I was the one who would give permission for this touch, to open it to the Light.<br /><br />To aid in this process I sought a guide and advocate and Grace brought such a person to me. She is an Episcopal priest, a woman who has made it her vocation to practice what she calls, "Restorative Justice." Restorative Justice is the companion to forgiveness. In forgiveness we eventually learn, out of compassion for ourselves and the desire to be more accessible to the love of the Beloved, we must find a way to let go of our identification with the pain and the injury, and our obsession with the perpetrator. With Restorative Justice we engage with the perpetrator in finding mutual healing and in a process of change so injuries are corrected and not repeated. Such is not always possible, but it is the inner work of the Communion Paradigm we are called to do. Prayer of the Heart opens us to the possibility.<br /><br />This process led to a face to face meeting, nearly two years ago with the perpetrator of the injury that was inflicted on me. There had been preliminary meetings and actions on both parties leading to this meeting. At the meeting I was surprised to find, in a place of empowerment I found no need for retribution, but saw how the injury had done much greater harm to the one who inflicted it as it was written on his face. And I saw the suffering of a lifetime it had imposed and was moved. And I was grateful for the way Grace had brought my injury to healing and, more than that, had made it a primary instrument of my growth as beloved child of the Holy One. I was able to speak my truth directly and hear the contrition and sorrow in return. Healing had happened for both. My guide was a witness to this great Mercy of Yeshua the Christ. <br /><br />In the debriefing with my guide afterward it seemed that old words "sin and salvation" had new and different meaning. I asked her how she came to do this work. She said at some time in her life, she just knew this was her calling. I hope it shall be one day recognized as a true spiritual profession of advocate and guide, a profession of healing. <br /><br /><b>The Cross and the Lotus-<br /></b>In the Christian Mystical tradition the Cross is a symbol of how Divine Love and healing make the wounds of existence into the sacred wounds of Christ that become for us the means by which we learn to be a vessel of Agape, the redemptive Self-Gift of God. In Buddhism, the Lotus is the symbol of the flower of enlightenment and awakening that brings forth compassion for all beings. It is rooted and born in the mud of the pain and suffering of existence, that becomes transformed through spiritual practice into unitive experience. Our brother, Thich Nhat Hanh, has so beautifully expressed this in his own life. He admits to periods of despair, depression, and post-traumatic stress in his life from the violence and loss of the Vietnam war. Out of this suffering he has grown through his spiritual practice the lotus of profound compassion and teachings to help people heal and find peace.<br /><br />What I and countless others have experienced on an individual level has relevance for the community and global level. When nations, peoples, and religions become so tired and spent with the suffering of endless cycles of violence and retribution, then perhaps the way of forgiveness and healing shall be the way of all. When humankind, out of profound suffering, can open to the grace of contrition and conversion, then shall healing be possible. The mystic tradition across the globe can lead the way. I have practiced in both the mystic traditions of Christianity and Buddhism. Mystics have the goal and the experience of learning to abide and live from the Communion Paradigm. A great teacher I encountered on the way, Thomas Hand S.J., proclaimed a simple truth among a group of retreatants I was with, "The God experience is an experience of Oneness, and fully accepting and living the consequences." This is true whether one names the Ultimate as God, Brahmin, Dharmakaya, Allah, Ela, or Allaha, Grandfather, Grandmother, or XYZen. In this Oneness there is no self, and no other, there is just the One Life, the One Self, in whom we all find our belonging. The Divine belongs to no person, no religion, no nationality, but we all belong to the Unity from which all things arise. In this Unity, this One Life, we can learn, in the words of Paul, "to live, and move, and have our being." As Jesus said in his promise to us, "</span><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica;font-size:130%;">On <u>that day</u> you will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you. </span>(John 14:20)<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">May <u>that day</u> be today, and every day, to the end of our days. May the Grace and healing of Yeshua's love be ours always, and may we continue in the work of healing our soul and the soul of humankind.<br />Sept.Blessings to all,<br />Bill Ryan</span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.com