Reading: Imperatives on pages 57 to 88 (Imperatives 33 through 49)
You all continue to amaze us and honour the group by journeying with us this Advent. We want to thank each of you for your participation whether you are following along silently or blessing us with your honest, open and profound sharing. It is obvious that each and every comment has touched another person in the group – and that includes the comment you shared! So thank you.
This week’s readings provide plenty more to reflect upon. Remember that you certainly don’t have to read and reflect on all the imperatives! You might select the ones that seem in line with the theme that God has been speaking to you about, or just focus on ones that stand out to you. Again, we offer this process if it is of help to you:
- Briefly look over the 16 imperatives assigned to this week (33 through 48), either by simply reading the title or by lightly skimming the text.
- Select a few (perhaps 2 or 3) imperatives that stand out to you, and read them thoroughly, perhaps several times.
- Consider:
- The thought or concept that stands out to you
- How does it relates to your personal experience? Look at your experience with the benefit of Henri’s insight. Does that help you to see things differently or to know yourself better?
- What is God speaking to your heart? What do the Scriptures say?*
- How you will respond? Carefully (prayerfully) consider how your heart responds to the insights gained during your reflection. Are there small steps you can take to incorporate these insights and to move toward spiritual freedom in your life? Perhaps you would like to write your own Spiritual Imperative.
- Pray!
- Please share with the group to the degree you are comfortable
Anticipating another rich week together!
Ray and Brynn
As I waited in the hospital with someone close to me who was having a kidney stone attack and surgery for that, I was reminded of the Imperative – Acknowledge Your Powerlessness. I was reminded of another of Henri’s writings.
“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our life means the most to us, we often find that it is those who instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.” Henri Nouwen
Janet
This week I have browsed through the Imperatives, tucking in reflection here and there during a very busy time. What has jumped out to me in doing this though is the centralizing thought of pulling God into the center of one’s heart. I am starting to become aware that once this is done, if in fact it is ever truly “done”, much of the sadness, anxiety, and loneliness we all experience is stripped away and we are left with love and peace.
This speaks to my fervent goal and deepest desire.
allow yourself to be fully received spoke to me this week. this really is the essence of our spiritual life . to be able to purely give. it is pure ,Father Nouwen says , when you know yourself as unconditionally loved- that is , fully received. this made me reflect on the prodigal son’s story. the father giving unconditional love to both sons. the Rembrandt painting of the father embracing the returning son home is an image i visit frequently. there is further illustration of unconditional love by the father to the homebound son.when the son has feelings of envy the Father consoles “Son,you are always with me,and all that is mine is yours.” i chose to fully receive this unconditional love so i can give purely. FatherNouwen ties this to Faith. he says Faith is precisely trusting that you who gave gratuitously will receive gratuitously but not necessarily from the person who gave. i desire this Faithfullness. this imperative also lead me to the Beautitude ” Blessed are the pure in heart , for they shall see God. the organ that sees God is the heart( soul).i strive for a purified heart .when i become one with him. when we are fully received and now fully give.”It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. “( gal 2:20).
Once again, thanks to each of you that have shared so openly and generously and supported each other this week. It is a blessing to be able to take this Advent journey together, whether you are posting comments or reflecting in the silence of your heart.
Last week, I was touched by Henri’s spiritual imperative “Open yourself to the first love” and my reflection focused on my difficulty in believing and living in a way that manifests the truth that, like Jesus at his baptism, God calls us his beloved sons and daughters. This week three spiritual imperatives spoke to my heart and each of them is related to accepting God’s “first love”as the foundation for all loving relationships: Accept your identity as a child of God (p 70-71), Know yourself as truly loved (p 74-75), and Avoid all forms of self-rejection (p 86-87).
Linking several sentences from these imperatives captures their essence for me.
“Your true identity is as a child of God…. You belong to God and it is as a child of God that you are sent into the world. You need spiritual guidance, you need people who can keep you anchored in your true identity (p 70)… The more you come to know yourself–spirit, mind, and body–as truly loved, the freer you will be to proclaim the good news. (My comment: To proclaim the good news is why we are sent into the world). That is the freedom of the children of God. (p 75)… You must avoid not only blaming others but also blaming yourself. But self-blame is not a form of humility. It is a form of self-rejection in which you ignore or deny your own goodness and beauty… Avoid all forms of self-rejection. Acknowledge your limitations, but claim your unique gifts and thereby live as an equal among equals. (p 86-87).”
The most challenging of these imperatives for me is to avoid self-rejection. As I wrote last week, God tells me, “You are the beloved” and I often respond, “I don’t believe it.” Consequently, I don’t fully open myself to a deeper relationship where I can experience God’s love. And why is that? I think it may be associated with self-rejection–with not considering my self worthy, despite what the Lord says. (That’s arrogance and pride, isn’t it: God says, “I love you” and I say, “I’m not good enough. You can’t possibly love me. I know better than you do God.”) It seems to me that to more fully open myself to receive God’s love, I need to simply “get out of my own way.” I now realize it is my “self-rejecting self” that is blocking the path and that I need to get out of the way so I can open myself to the first love and accept my identity as a child of God.
May the Lord give you peace.
Ray
Thank you for that insight, Ray — that ultimately, our refusal to believe that I am beloved by God is rooted in arrogance and pride. Knowing that helps me know what to pray for, and what I’m really fighting against. It’s not the people of the past who hurt me (for they are not present, and are not presently hurting me). I must get out of the way and allow the Lord to slay my pride with the sword of His Word.
The imperative which spoke to me this week was Allow Yourself to be Fully Received.
“Only when you know yourself as unconditionally loved—that is, fully received—by God can you give gratuitously.”
“You cannot give yourself to others if you do not own yourself, and you can only truly own yourself when you have been received in unconditional love.”
I often wonder if knowing ourselves as loved unconditionally by God is the crux of our faith and our life here on earth. Is not love what we yearn for, search for? While I often heard the words, “God loves you”, I’d say to myself, “Yes, and He’d love me more if I’d change this or that….or improve this, or be better….” In other words, I’d put conditions on God’s love, so it was on me to make God love me better (which is crazy when we stop to think about it!).
I am not sure when the shift happened, or even how it happened, but I have come to the beautiful place of knowing that I am loved beyond measure, and that God helps me to receive His expansive love, which in turn helps me love myself as God loves me. (OK, I do know how it happened—through many years pain, grief and crying out and a dark night of the soul.)
I am reminded of the verse in Isaiah 49:16a, “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;” As God has tattooed His name on me in Baptism, He has also tattooed my name onto the palms of His hands.
“When you know yourself as fully loved, you will be able to give according to the other’s capacity to receive, and you will be able to receive according to the other’s capacity to give. You will be grateful for what is given to you without clinging to it, and joyful for what you can give without bragging about it. You will be a free person, free to love.”
The imperative that leapt out at me was “Claim Your Unique Presence in Your Community”!
Nouwen talks about having an inner knowledge of your true vocation. I have been discerning for the last year or two about my call from being a deacon to priest. And at times it is difficult to hear God’s voice or feel God’s presence. Part of it is trying to figure out my place as a hospital chaplain and as a deacon for a small church. My role in the community has changed and giving up my old ways of how to be in the community has been challenging. The nuances are subtle. When my place or role changes I feel very vulnerable and am not sure how to be. Will I be needed, what will I do?
And it is learning to appreciate that different ways to be in the community. The struggle as I grow older is that I cannot be like I used to be – do not have the interest or energy and recognizing there are others who want to do what I did.
I appreciate this integration of my true vocation takes time- longer than I expected! I liken it to a new job – where in the first year the learning curve is so very steep but as the years move along the curve lessens but the learning is deeper and probably the serious business of integration is happening.
From Scripture both Peter and Moses are good models. Actually heroes! Watching them grow into their true vocation – with their charged personalities is reassuring! God continues to use them and doesn’t give up on them!
Dear Beth,
I share your same concerns about vocation, energy,and ability. I pray often asking what am I to do. Recently God’s People called me to a new position which was a surprise. It is something I can manage. I am trusting God will grace me for this time. I too take comfort in Moses, it was a surprise for him when God called him at 40, then God took years to form him, at 80 God called him to free his people and at 120 he saw the promised land. Vocation may be a still pond or a running river. I will pray for you Beth as you discern and that God will give you his peace. Pat
The imperative which spoke to my heart this week was to “avoid all forms of self-rejection”. Henri says that “self-blame is not a form of humility”…but a “form of self-rejection in which you ignore or deny your own goodness and beauty”, and “you idealize others.” I have done this so often in my life sometimes I wonder if I don’t think negative of myself what thoughts could I possible have? But he provides the answer in the imperative: “Accept your identity as a Child of God”. I sing hymns with these words at prayer meetings and my head knows I am a child of God but my heart seems to have had difficulty accepting this until now. The only time I have to truly embrace my identity as a child of God, beloved daughter of the Father, sister and friend of the Son, and temple/dwelling of the Holy Spirit is NOW, the present moment. And Lord I do accept!!!
In my first week’s sharing I said I wanted “a new life of freedom and joy”. Henri states that “it might take some time and discipline to reconnect fully to your deep, hidden self and your public self, which is known, loved, and accepted by also criticized by the world”. I experience this acceptance and I sense it would be a journey and not a one time event. I also accept it will take DISCIPLINE and I have been given the means to discipline myself through scripture, prayer, community and the sacraments. Most of all I know that God is “holding me by my right hand” Is 41:13. Henri ends this imperative by stating that “there lies your real freedom”. This is my longing.
Longest night is coming. These readings are giving me candles and hope. Yet even darkness is as light to our Light. I am grateful to have this time of reading and sharing to help me. They are glimpses of fellow travelers and some of you have created clear trail markers as you are up ahead. Thank you.
I have a magnet that hangs on my refrigerator with this quote by St. Francis de Sales:
“Be who you are and be that perfectly well”. A big part of my journey has involved figuring out exactly WHO I am. Henri repeatedly refers to our “true identity” in Imperative #39 “Accept Your Identity as a Child of God”. It is so simple really…but yet so terribly hard.
At one point in this imperative Henri states “But it is precisely that experience of abandonment that called you back to your true identity as a child of God”. And later he states that becoming more fully who I am (a child of God) is where lies my real freedom. I love that word “freedom”…I have spent most of my life being held captive by my experiences of abandonment as well as the guilt, shame, insecurities, people-pleasing, and self-rejection that has resulted from that. Yet Henri reminds me that freedom from all of these is possible if only I will accept and embrace that I am the beloved, a child of God. It’s a struggle. Henri says “The temptation to disconnect from that deep place in you where God dwells and to let yourself be drowned in the praise or blame of the world always remains.” This is indeed a lifetime journey towards wholeness and freedom. I am grateful to be able to travel with all of you. Thank you for reminding me that there are others who struggle to “be who we are and be that perfectly well.”
Blessings…we are all wounded healers
Diane
I would like to uplift two phrases in “Keep Moving Toward Incarnation” on page 52, “You are tempted to think…that your friends are far beyond you in this journey. But this is a mistake” I trust more in my spiritual capability now, but that was hard-won through a difficult journey of being disillusioned by my priests and church. There are so many people blogging about their troubles and exposing their vulnerability, and I think we are all called to return to what Nouwen says over and over again: put your trust in God, keep your trust in God, deepen your trust in God.
This speaks to me because I used to put all of my trust into spiritual authority figures, and give them too much power. But I discovered something as I started to put more trust in God than them. Every time I felt like I was in communion with God, I would always come out of that prayer knowing or feeling MORE of my self, my true SELF, i.e. incarnation. This was true even (or especially) at times when I felt God’s action judging. It always came from a place of love and light, and I would come through it healed and transformed rather than condemned (and this action continues today and will continue, thankfully, leaving me more able to love than before).
Nouwen describes this on page 52 when he says, “It leads you to become what you already are–a child of God; it lets you embody more and more the truth of your being; it makes you claim the God in you.” This stands in stark contrast to the priests who inspired, excited, and challenged me, but always left me with feelings of inadequacy. Maybe this wasn’t their fault, but it is important when you are vulnerable to discern who are your true spiritual guides. Again…put your trust in God, keep your trust in God, deepen your trust in God.
I am now more sensitive to my tendency toward blind admiration, which does me and the other person a disservice. This week’s Gospel readings in the daily office have been the incidents when Jesus really took the scribes, Pharisees, and Saducees to task, particularly the first two. That admiration that tempts the Pharisees is so destructive, because they DO have real power, real authority. In Matthew 23 he instructed those who were listening to listen and do as the scribes teach, but don’t listen and follow what they do, for they don’t follow the teaching. He saw these leaders in their spiritual poverty, and called them out not only for hypocrisy, but for using their power in such a way that it kept the children of God from really knowing that they are beloved children, “locking them out of the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 23:16). He said “you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.”
Your spirit and The Holy Spirit will guide you. If a person isn’t helping you, God will tell you, you will know. The only yardstick is God’s love.
” I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.”
Do you know that hymn? It’s a good one.
Thank you for this inspiration, Marianne. I played your song suggestion on the piano as it was in my hymn book. Beautiful and meaningful words in every verse. Do you know the song “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord”. That reminds me of all the faithful followers of Jesus in the group. LJ
From Kristen
Father Henri’s writing so normalize my struggles and heart breaks. Each one brings me to repent of my selfish and self center needs. The needs are necessary….the way I wrap myself around them is full of disorientation.
Understanding the limitations of others and the necessary boundaries and limitations in my own life. At this time in my life it is necessary to “listen” to my own limitations.
Suffer through wishing I could bring joy to suffering while seeing our Lord Jesus remain true to His promise, “I will never leave or forsake you.” as my own limits hinder me from being able to make such a promise. It is His place and not mine. So in my life as well and the longing belongs to Him. (Father Nouwen’s writings are my instruction book).
This quiet and lonely place is becoming a safety to me. For myself as well as knowing my loved ones (adult children) are so loved and cared for in His love and provided for in His care.
I think the forever space where another is so longed for will not be filled in this side of eternity. Since I am about thirty years into the process I want to say the joy our Lord Jesus has brought me is through an orphanage/hospital in Romania. The young ones I first came to know are now range in age from twenty to thirty years. Some living in various parts of the world; others confined to a room in hospital. I think each one of these friends is a true gift from God. I hope for more.
I’m just joining this reflection group. Henri’s book “Inner Voice of Love” was just given to me last week by a dear friend who knows me quite well. I, too, am a religious sister and could immediately relate to what Nuala Doherty shared — almost every word! Thank you, Nuala, for articulating these thoughts so well! I’m quite taken by the few imperatives I have already reflected on and hope to share a bit as well. Blessings to each of you.
I was just thinking about the imperative on “Boundaries”. I used to be a very sociable person, but after being hurt various times, I sort of retired into my “shell”. I vowed not to ask any one personal questions– and didn’t want anyone to know about my personal life. I had a very good friend–but that relationship ended when she became mentally ill. So I tried to find another friend. I need someone to talk to besides my therapist.
Boundaries are difficult for me, also, Stefanie. It is so sad that your friend struggles with mental illness. I have only a few friends, now, whom I met over the years at various churches on my path. I will pray that you find the friendships that will help you trust again. LJ
I wish I could take all the pain I am reading about today and tell you that “this to shall pass”. I to had a heart breaking split with family. For years I could not celebrate, everything seemed so awful to me. I would start about spring, and continue through May, Mother’s Day. July brought more disappointment birthdays, anniversary. Then came the dreaded fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was all I could do to get through them. I did not celebrate, decorate, shop, cook. I had a suicide plan once. But I would cry and cry, ask God to end it. After about eight years He did, I was purified in the water of my tears and finally given a new life. Nothing changed with my family, but I changed. Or rather God changed me. Now I am happy again, I now decorate, bake, shop with JOY. It took ten years but God has given me a new life. I hope other don’t have to wait as long as I did, but my advise it to pray, cry, pray some more and cry, and cry till it all over. I pray that all of you can find JOY and PEACE that only our Lord can give.
I know….I thought I would never stop crying……but healing tears, releasing many, many bottled up emotions….helpful to me…..Psalm 56:8 “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?”
Thank you, for reminding me…..as I read this Psalm again, truly ” a tiding of comfort and joy” this advent season…….
Thank you.
My Imperative for this week is on page 42 “Befriend Your Emotions” My son was married last weekend. It was a long travel alone by plane for me and then several nights in a hotel room. My son had encouraged me to come a few days early so we could spend time together but that never happened. I offered to help in any way but I was kept at arm’s length and it was very painful. The wedding went by so quickly and they were off for their honeymoon and I was on my flight home. Alone. I am struggling with feeling unloved and I am missing the whole meaning of Christmas. Like Henri, this a difficult time in my life so the Imperatives give me hope that I will find the light I am seeking. I am so grateful that this book was published. The Scripture “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God” is what I need to write on my heart. From Henri Nouwen, the final words in the Imperative are “It will help you not to expect that fulfilment ( of my needs) from people who you already know are incapable of giving it.” I need some radical acceptance of this Imperative!
Dear Lori Jo,
I went back and reread #42 and looked at the last paragraph:
“Do not be discouraged. Be sure that God will truly fulfill all your needs. Keep remembering that. It will help you not to expect that fulfillment from people who you already know and incapable of giving it.
How sad that our loved ones get caught up in their own thing and neglect the ones who raised them. May God Bless you and help you in this situation. My prayers are with you. I appreciate this book by Henri Nouwen and am glad I’m reading it right now. Adele
Oh, Lori Jo, I can only imagine your disappointment. The closer people are to us, the deeper they can hurt us. I, too, find Henri’s writings on focusing on being Beloved by God the only way I can peacefully handle the rejection by ones I expected better from. Sometimes I have to cling to that image of being God’s Beloved in order to work through yet another failure in relationships. I’ll be praying for you, that the peace of this beautiful Advent season will heal your hurt and allow you to celebrate the unleashing and explosion of God’s love into the world – the first time and again this year – when Christmas comes. Blessings!
Praying for you as well. Thank you for your courage to be so open here.
I can so identify with your pain! We currently have our adult daughter and twin grand babies living with us, and the poor choices she’s making continue to disappoint us! I too was looking forward to this Advent book discussion because I desperately need hope and light to envelop me this Christmas! Walking this journey with you!
Dear Lori Jo
Let this season of Advent be a blessing to you as you walk with God and Henri.
Please don’t let your dissapointments overtake your Joy. Be glad for your son and his new wife and their new life together. Please don’t submit to rejection as your expectations were not fulfilled.
Acknowledge the failings of others. You were on your sons heart and his intentions were loving and considerate but they just got swept up in their marriage plans.
Step outside yourself and think of them and not of yourself. Be glad, praise God that you have raised your son and you now have a precious gift of a daughter in law, even though they are at a distance. Accept their frailties and shortcomings. Be glad and praise God for their happiness and new life together,and just love them for who they are.
Leave your emotions and feelings of rejection at the foot of the cross and move forward in Gods love and will to be happy for them and yourself.
Christine
Thanks, Lori, for your honest comments! Henri never ceases to “rekindle” hope with his spiritual insights. I, too, am so grateful for The Inner Voice…and like you, continue to pray for radical acceptance. Do not be discouraged!
Lori Jo,
Your writing so touched me. I want to say I will be praying for you.
Times like this with our children sink our hearts an empty place that hardly seems to hurt it is so unattended to and loved.
To me it is a time of helpless courage. The courage to be before our Saviour….
I am praying.
Kristen
“Different people have different ways of being present. You have to know and claim your way. That is why discernment is so important. Once you have an inner knowledge of your true vocation, you have a point of orientation. That will help you decide what to do and what to let go of, what to say and what to remain silent about, when to go out and when to stay home, who to be with and who to avoid.”
I think this is great advice in ” knowing your unique place in the community.” When we can’t be who and what we want to be with family, there are other people who want what we have to give. This is where the discernment comes in, I think – to decide to move on from our biological families onto “family” who truly need and want what we have to give. Very painful. In my experience, though, family relationships improved once I let them go. Best to you. M
The two imperatives that spoke to me this week were, Receive All the Love That Comes to You and Claim Your Unique Presence in Your Community. Like Henri, I sleep well and work well and on the surface I feel Ok. But there is an “undercurrent of anguish” below. I feel so fragile at times, because I only have to think about a new job or a new responsibility that is looming and I can worry like mad!!!! So I have to put Henri´s advice into practice and “hold on to my chosen direction “(as a Franciscan sister), ” live a faithful , disciplined life” and be strengthened by my times of prayer,my receiving of the sacraments, my spiritual guides and my dear friends that really love me. I also need to accept and embrace “the frightened little me” that comes knocking on my door from time to time. The more I embrace her and accept her as she is, the less frightened she will become. (Perfect love casts out all fear). The verse from scripture that gives me comfort during these times is, “Unload all your worries onto Him since He is looking after you.” 1Peter 5,7
The words in the second imperative that encouraged me were, “Your way of being present to your community may require times of ABSENCE, prayer, writing (in my case reading), or solitude. These too are times for your community.” Being more of an introvert than an extrovert I need these quiet times alone to recharge my batteries, to draw from the well, so I can then be fully present to my community or those I minister too. I also need to go outside of the community from time to time and spend quality time with others that I am close to, in order to “be a source of hope and a life-giving presence”. John 4,14 says, ” but those who drink of the water that I shall give, will never be thirsty; for the water that I shall give, will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.” Thanks Henri for encouraging me to keep on returning to the well of eternal life, without which I would die of thirst. And that I have a “unique” way of being present to my community – and THAT’S OK!!!!!!! Thanks everyone for the unique ways that you are contributing to this community.
Nuala, Thank you! Your reflection mirrors my own search for balance as a religious and an introvert. I’m grateful for your open sharing as it sheds light on my own hopes, desires and struggles with fear, the fearful child within. Kathleen
These are two that also spoke to me, but you said it all, perfectly, so another deep introvert needs not add a single word. Thanks!
This is so much…
I’m still pondering the 3 Imperatives from week one…
I will continue to monitor the suggestion while continuing to mine what I have already identified…
Love & Luck to all
“Whether or not you are fully aware of it, you are also asking your brothers and sisters to follow you.”
“…your choices also call your friends to make new choices.”
Today, I am struck with the phrase, “make the great passage”. (p.57) In another advent reading(Rohr), I read of the “narrow birth canal” in the journey out of darkness into Light. I think of the Exodus, God liberating His people from captivity and slavery, then how many years in the wilderness?? And then I had to go back and revisit the intro to this book…….. Nouwen describes this period of life as “a time of intense purification” and that “spiritual freedom often requires a fierce spiritual battle?” It is so easy to “lose heart” during this kind of time and so hard to keep one’s “eyes fixed on the prize”.
As my father lay suffering and dying this May, I realized the importance of keeping vigil, of battling the powers of darkness that confusion, suffering bring….thus, journeying with dad through this, also led to new birth for me as it led him into new birth, forever in God’s Presence. None of us can remain “untouched”(p. 58)…….or, remain the same. Thank You, Lord! God does not leave us powerless……today I feel called to simply say, do not lose heart….for myself, for others, this I pray………
Thank you for your insights. Often, the image of closing a door on something which will not bring life, comes to my thoughts and is a source of strength. It is a way for my heart to be open to “first love.” And in that love, I feel I am able to tell my story now in a way that it no longer dominates me. As a recovering addict, I see my humiliating story of recovery as blessing. The “experience” has proved gift for me, a gift drawing me
into compassion and love. In my aging years I have come to peace because I’m rediscovering my first love and live my painful, shameful story with gratitude.
(Imperative 34 Tell Your Story with Gratitude) Kathleen
Thank you, Kathleen, for your very honest and poignant comments. They really speak to my heart! Blessings to you as you continue telling your story in freedom…and gratitude.
I told the Lord I would follow His deepest calling – which is writing and mentoring, that I would accept His invitation. I have learned that I am not in the driver’s side, that He alone was my Lord and Master. I will obey and allow Him to drive and I will follow where He leads and I will speak and write the words of love to all. I to be beside my Lord and listening to that voice of love, with knowing when I should turn the corners or when I should be quiet and pray. I cannot withhold my love to others for to the Lord I have surrendered all of myself. Oh to have words of faith that are always sweet and tender. Being that person Christ wants me to be. So I sit and write, I confess that I make mistakes then come and pray for forgiveness. He forgives and I am to remember all His lost sheep. It it is the message He has given me. This is my way of coming Home and giving back my love for what my Savior did for me. This is what Henri talks about in “Follow Your Calling” and Lord this is what I aim for.
May each step as you walk into your calling be filled with more and more of His presence and His compassion. Doris, thank you for your vulnerability and courage. In writing down your intent, you have made yourself accountable to us as His Body here on earth. It is now our responsibility to be available to pray for you as He may lead us.
A fellow traveler,
Linda
From Charles (Comment copied from previous post.)
Keep moving toward full incarnation spoke to me–specifically, the image of the cone and the open doors as a movement to our full incarnation. The image of journeying from the flat base to the apex (the highest point) of the cone stuck with me. The cone becomes narrower the deeper you get always seeking to get to the highest point. The highest point is where we are unified with Jesus. In our journey there are many escape routes. Will we escape or will we have the steadfastness to close the open exit doors? Do we commit ourselves to go deeper into your heart? Close the door of immediate satisfaction. thank you Jesus. Close the door of distracting entertainment. Thank you God. Close the door of busyness. Thank you Lord. Close the door of guilt and worry. Thank you Holy Spirit. Close the door of self -rejection. Thank you Abba. Thank you for the gift of courage. Thank you for journeying with us. Thank you for your Grace. We are journeying deeper into the heart of God–which is why we were created, created in his image and likeness, the true self, our full incarnation. You must trust the depth of God’s presence in us and live from there. As St . Augustine said, God has created us for himself . Thus, we will be restless until we rest in him. I think we should keep moving towards the full Incarnation unless we like to be restless.
I copied this into my notebook, because it spoke so poignantly and directly to my present situation. I felt directed to choose for my imperative this week “Let deep speak to deep” but couldn’t even begin to wrap my mind around the “how” of this–the action I should take. Charles’ image and words opened a breakthrough in understanding for me, a directional arrow, as I began to contemplate the paradox that journeying deeper into the heart of God’s love is not a descent, but an Ascension. And letting “deep speak to deep” is something connected to the hidden life, with Christ at the throne of God in heaven, where we are dead to the flesh and fully present to faith. This is a great mystery, but after 30+ years of contemplation, I am getting a glimmer of its deeper meaning.
The imperative that caught my attention this week is: Stand Erect in Your Sorrow.” This is a challenging question for me, can I stand erect in the pain of my current family crisis, my loneliness, and my fears? My temptation is to isolate and be overwhelmed in my depression, feeling that I am eternally unique in my struggles. I’m invited into real community by allowing those to come along side and assist me in standing, no matter how weary I feel. Exodus 17 tells the story of how Aaron and Hur held Moses up, and God will give me the strength as well!