The Divine Now

"True spirituality is not a search for perfection or control or the door to the next world; it is a search for divine union now. The Great Discovery is always that what we are searching for has already been given!"

~ Richard Rohr. The Naked Now

A Little Fellow In The Wider World.

“Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion!" said Bilbo.

"Of course!" said Gandalf. “And why should not they prove true? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself?

"You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little
fellow in a wide world after all!"

~ J.R.R Tolkein, The Hobbit

Surrendering to The Moment

"The spiritual journey is a constant interplay between moments of awe followed by a process of surrender to that moment."

~ Richard Rohr

A Few Predictable Responses

"To begin to see with new eyes, we must observe—and usually be humiliated by—the habitual way we encounter each and every moment. It is humiliating because we will see that we are well-practiced in just a few predictable responses."

~ Richard Rohr

God is Found In The Ordinary

"One great idea of the biblical revelation is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life. Our experiences of ordinary life will transform us if we are willing to experience them fully."
~ Richard Rohr

A Selfish Pilgrim is Not A Pilgrim

"The presence of the weak among us opened a deep conversation in the group. Do we stay true to the plan at all costs? Not allowing the slower ones to slow down the progress of the rest?  Have we turned the way of Saint James, and maybe our lives, into a competition only for the strongest? What good is it to reach our goal if we don't learn to walk alongside those who are weaker? The suffering of others reveals the truth about each one of us.as a result, we discovered that a selfish pilgrim is not a good pilgrim. We are learning to live as brothers.

Footprints: The Path Of Your Life. Documentary (Netflix)

Letting Go For A New Shore

""Transformation usually includes a disconcerting reorientation.......
Change of itself just happens; spiritual transformation is an active process of letting go, living in the confusing dark space for a while, and allowing yourself to be spit up on a new and unexpected shore."

~ Richard Rohr

Noncooperation

"A gentle but firm non-cooperation with things that everyone knows to be wrong, together with a sensitive, nonofficious, nonintrusive, nonobsequious service to others, should be our usual overt matter."

~ Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy

Lord Promoted, Self Neglected

"The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his Saviour glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see his Lord promoted and himself neglected. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk."

A.W. Tozer

Loneliness Is So Few Share Your Inner Experiences

"The pain of loneliness arises from the constitution of our nature. God made us for each other. The desire for human companionship is completely natural and right. The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world. His Godgiven instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorption in the love of Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share his inner experiences he is forced to walk alone."

A.W. Tozer

Walk Away From The Christian Crowd?

"There are times when to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in our life we must walk alone, which goes contrary to our natural inclination. Sometimes we must walk away from the crowd, even the Christian crowd."

A.W. Tozer

Old Experiences.......

"Saint Antão was living in the desert, when a young man came to him: - Father, I sold all my belongings and gave to the poor. I kept only a few things in order to survive here. I want you to teach me the way to salvation. Saint Antão asked the young man to sell the few things he had kept and, with the money, to buy meat in town. He was to return with the meat tied to his body. The young man obeyed. On his way back, he was attacked by dogs and falcons, who wanted a piece of the meat. - I am back - said the young man, showing his scratched, bitten body, and his clothes in rags. Why did you tell me to do that? - To show that what you brought from your past, is of no use in your present. When you must choose a new path, do not bring old experiences with you. Those who strike out afresh, but who attempt to retain a little of the old life, end up torn apart by their own memories."

(Paulo Coelho: Warrior Of The Light)

Wanting It To Be Something Other Than What It Is

"God has a way to nudge you into life.....To know this, God is at work in the world, He's at work in your life. If you don't see it right now, it's not because he is not doing it, it's because you want it to be something other than it is. And If you relax into this, and let it be what it is, he will lead you into a bigger space than you ever dreamed of, or would ever find on your own. "

 (Wayne Jacobsen​ The God Journey​ Podcast, April 17, 2005))