Today the Church puts before us another announcer of God's presence among. Not John the Baptist but the saint known as John of the Cross. Why that name? This man who felt so connected to God, realizing who he himself was and what it was that God wanted him to do with and in his life, came to see that the light of God shines out to us in so many ways. In the cross, in suffering, John saw and avenue to encounter the love of God. His message was that the love of God for us strips away whatever human failures there might be in us so that God can love us all the more. What this 16th century Carmelite teaches us is that having the love of God within our hearts and being aware of that love is what really matters in our world, in our lives. As we prepare to celebrate the redemptive gift of Jesus Christ and his birth into our world, is not this feast yet another invitation from God to us? An invitation to reconnect to the intention God has for us in our own creation, our own lives. In A Course in Miracles you will find this thought: I am perfect and whole as I was created. If you give some thought to this sentence, you might begin to sense how wonderful is the world we live in, how marvelous are the people in our communities we live and work in regardless of the difference of opinons we carry. Isn't the running around that we believe we have to do during these pre-Christmas days little nothing but a part of our mind and heart trying to separate us from our connection to the creative God who made us perfect and whole as he intended us to be? Isn't all that running around simply allowing distractions to divide us for being in the presence of the God who made us, separating us from something of the divine that is within us because we are created by the divine God? St. John of the Cross would see the running around as our avoiding the love of God, blocking the love of God from stripping away that which really hinders my relationshiop with the God who made me perfect and whole. Let this feast day, let this saint be an announcer to you: be connected, be in alignment with God's intention for you. Be what he wanted you to be.Thursday, December 14, 2006
DAILY REFLECTION: December 14, 2006
Today the Church puts before us another announcer of God's presence among. Not John the Baptist but the saint known as John of the Cross. Why that name? This man who felt so connected to God, realizing who he himself was and what it was that God wanted him to do with and in his life, came to see that the light of God shines out to us in so many ways. In the cross, in suffering, John saw and avenue to encounter the love of God. His message was that the love of God for us strips away whatever human failures there might be in us so that God can love us all the more. What this 16th century Carmelite teaches us is that having the love of God within our hearts and being aware of that love is what really matters in our world, in our lives. As we prepare to celebrate the redemptive gift of Jesus Christ and his birth into our world, is not this feast yet another invitation from God to us? An invitation to reconnect to the intention God has for us in our own creation, our own lives. In A Course in Miracles you will find this thought: I am perfect and whole as I was created. If you give some thought to this sentence, you might begin to sense how wonderful is the world we live in, how marvelous are the people in our communities we live and work in regardless of the difference of opinons we carry. Isn't the running around that we believe we have to do during these pre-Christmas days little nothing but a part of our mind and heart trying to separate us from our connection to the creative God who made us perfect and whole as he intended us to be? Isn't all that running around simply allowing distractions to divide us for being in the presence of the God who made us, separating us from something of the divine that is within us because we are created by the divine God? St. John of the Cross would see the running around as our avoiding the love of God, blocking the love of God from stripping away that which really hinders my relationshiop with the God who made me perfect and whole. Let this feast day, let this saint be an announcer to you: be connected, be in alignment with God's intention for you. Be what he wanted you to be.
