I recently read an email from Cynthia Bourgeault; in this piece, she quotes Abba Poemen: “Do not give your heart to that which does not satisfy your heart.” I believe that in my heart dwells my soul. My soul is the presence of my spiritual perception.
I vision God in every way He wants to manifest Himself to me. I am nothing without His presence within me. In this post-Christmas period, I recognize the light of Christ that fills me, overcoming any darkness I may feel or experience. Jesus as the Christ wants to live in me, as He wants to live in you. It is our holy gift.
All of the Trinity, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, loves us and wants us to share this love with all we meet and all we think about each day, even those who we have not met but have heard of through tragedies in the news. We are all God’s beloveds, just as Jesus taught. I pray that God’s justice and peace to come to earth, restoring us to His holy presence, filling every heart, every soul with these Graces. We are doomed without our submission to God’s presence, and not just the presence that churches too often offer.
All churches must represent God in His true manifestation of Peace and Justice all over this planet we call Earth. By this I mean God’s peace and justice, not man’s; man’s can be and often is corrupted by selfishness.; God’s peace and justice is not; it is for everyone equally.
The only way that we can agree on anything is to allow Wisdom into our hearts and minds. And by Wisdom, I mean holy Wisdom, the Hole Spirit, whom I call Mother Wisdom, because in every language wisdom is a feminine noun, not masculine, boys. True Wisdom brings Grace to all, brings understanding to all, brings God’s Love to all. . . without exception, any exception. This is God’s way! Wisdom leads us to the eternal presence of God, as THE PRAYER says, for ever and ever. I give you this complete reflective quote from Brother Nicholas Bartoli of the Society of Saint John Evangelist, “All is truly well, because God’s Christmas gift of eternal life, of peace and joy beyond understanding, is already ours; we need only notice. The gift of Christ being born in our hearts, like a beautiful flower brought into being within the stillness of desert, is waiting only for us to trust in God, emptying our hearts of all that is not Christ.”
All we have to do is notice this. All we have to do is notice. This is what God asks us to do every day. I question if we have it in our hearts to keep this as our way of life. Greed is too prevalent in our society. There is too much pressure to succeed, to get ahead, to get rich. All of this is material possessions that wither away.
There is hope for us. Life would be worthless without this hope. I live every day in prayer. I share my prayers and meditations because that is all I can do at my age. . . pray and write and share. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, I experienced a wake-up call due to an icy road and a drunk driver. I suffered for a while, but God lifted me back to life, to a life much more productive than my previous life of greed and want. I was angry at first, but when I walked through the door that God had opened for me years before this, I awakened to the beauty and peace that Jesus taught.
I trust! I trust in God! That is all I desire to do.
© Russell Kendall Carter
Meditating to Heal 