the sensation of life
[See Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, inter-mission, & 5] Spiritual direction relocates authority from out there to in here. It’s about an authority that emerges from yielding not to an alien will but an affirming source … [We] are empowered, emancipated, to use the transforming energy we can exercise by acknowledging our dependence upon an unconditional source of affirmation.Rowan Williams: … Continue reading An affirming source (6): Empowered
[See Parts 1, 2, 3, & 4] If people destroy something irreplaceable made by mankind, they are called vandals;if they destroy something irreplaceable make by God they are called developers.Joseph Wood Krutch (quoted in David R Loy, Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis, p. 16) You may be wondering why I am banging on … Continue reading An affirming source: Inter-mission
[See Parts 1, 2, & 3] When God is “an alien will” I may feel the pressure to make amends for the mistakes of the past and to work towards an improved self in the future. When God is an alien will there is a to-do list. I do not advocate that we abrogate responsibility … Continue reading An affirming source (4): Presence
[See Part 1 & Part 2] … yielding … When we are freed from the idea of God as “an alien will” we can fall back into an utterly relaxing Presence that is our “affirming source”. The alien will is jealous and requires attention and conformity to an arbitrary set of standards. The affirming source … Continue reading An affirming source (3): Yielding
[See Part 1] … yielding not to an alien will but an affirming source … The trouble with an alien will is that it is … alien, other. How can I know, respond to, and, in time, love something that is so far from and other than me? I will look outside myself, beyond this … Continue reading An affirming source (2): Emancipation
Christians are adopted into a dependent relationship to that which Jesus called ‘Abba, Father’. Our human identity therefore becomes one in which we both acknowledge in prayer this dependence and respond to the gift that sets up not only our being but our renewed being in Christ; and in acknowledging that dependence we are empowered … Continue reading An affirming source (1): an alien will
Every day I go to my chair and I sit in the early morning light or dark. I set down my glass of water. I look into Your face. I’m pretty consistent about this. I get anxious if it is put off or I miss the appointment. Every day I struggle.I come with feelings of … Continue reading Are we there yet?
I keep returning to The Blessing that was given to me a couple of years ago. I see it as is a tectonic shift in image and attitude: from a god that is demanding, jealous, that needs to be appeased, to which we have to prove ourselves; to God whose Body is this world (and … Continue reading The shift
Winning and losing doesn’t matter. It’s about making something beautiful and surprising. So says the character, Kimi Muroyama, in the Australian film, Paper Planes, which I have watched a couple of times with my younger daughter, Esther. The film is about an international competition to see who can make a paper plane fly the furthest. … Continue reading Beautiful and surprising
Then sigh not so, but let them go,And be you blithe and bonny,Converting all your sounds of woeInto hey nonny, nonny.Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing People will often say that they can't pray. When asked they will say that they are unable to make their minds still or empty of thoughts. Somehow they have acquired … Continue reading Sigh no more