The Heart of Matter: Waking up
Tuesday, April 5th
“Conversion is awakening to the interior desire for God and the need for God. One becomes liberated from the selfish ego, the desire to possess and control, by letting go and trusting the power of divine life at the heart of life. In this respect, conversion is a means of becoming more authentically human, as one awakens to the presence of God. As the mystics tell us, awakening to God within the self is awakening to God within the world. As we wake up to the divine light, our level of awareness changes, we start attracting a new reality. Our eyes are open to the truth of God shining through the people we meet and the events of our lives.”
—Ilia Delio, “Return to God and God will Return to You”
“Conversión es despertar al deseo íntimo de Dios, a la necesidad de Dios. Nos liberamos así del egoísmo, del deseo de poseer y controlar, abandonándonos y confiando en el poder que la vida divina tiene en el mismo corazón de la vida. En este sentido, es un medio para llegar a ser más auténticamente humanos despertándonos a la presencia de Dios. Como nos dicen los místicos, despertarse a Dios dentro de nosotros mismos es también despertarse a Dios en el mundo. A medida que nos despertamos a la luz de Dios, nuestro nivel de consciencia cambia y comenzamos a atraer una nueva realidad. Nuestros ojos están abiertos a la verdad de Dios que brilla en las personas que conocemos y en los acontecimientos de nuestras vidas.”
Ilia Delio, “Return to God and God will Return to You”
Incarnational Practice: Waking Up
As we wake up every day opening our eyes to the light of a new day, what do we see? Let’s take a moment this week to really notice what we see as we first wake up and carry this intentional seeing through the events of the day. What is hidden and revealed after the first light, after the first sight?
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What is being revealed? What is being moved? What is being asked?
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Denis, your citation of Joel Goldsmith suggests his ideas of an individual not raising a hand in self-defense may have resonance to many others. It may to some. But to choose surrender, maiming or death more likely is intolerable to many more. Consider Ukraine’s brave resistance to Russia’s attack, bombing, rapes and slaughter of non-combatants. Surely there are Ukrainians who offer themselves like lambs. We admire pacifists, whose place in the Mystical Body is honored. Yet it is also a faithful expression of Christian love to resist evil, even with force, as (I think) countless people throughout the ages have done when family, friends and homeland are unjustly attacked. As humanity evolves toward the Omega Point of Christian maturity, it will carry within traces of a sense of just and fitting self-defense which must entail deadly weapons.
When I first wake up! My favorite time of day….so quiet…peaceful. Things are calm. I can listen to God’s creation with the sound of birds. I breathe…before the “to-do list of the day begins in my head”, I remind myself to go back to this moment of Peace and Listening throughout my day. Contemplation keeps me close in to God. Blessings to all.
Joel Goldsmith
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“If you can eliminate the word I, you have no life to lose, including your children’s. It is God’s life and God can take care of its own. If you say “God is my life,” you must trust your life to God, not to an atomic bomb. Neither can you feel that “we” are more righteous or more civilized. The word I must entirely disappear. You must be willing to give up the good as well as the evil–you must be willing to give up the rewards as well as the punishments. You must be willing to accept: “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” I do not have to raise my hand in defense of my life, but I must not take credit for the good that flows through me, whether it is healings or whether it is dedication to this message. It is Christ living individual life; truth manifesting itself and projecting itself into human consciousness. We are fortunate that we can be instruments or avenues which show forth God’s glory. “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork.” Much more are we the glory of God when “I” has been overcome. When the Master said “I have overcome the world,” I believe he meant I have overcome me–the me who can be rewarded and the me who can be punished. Both have to go.”
Joel Goldsmith, “Consciousness Transformed,” talk “ABOVE KARMIC LAW: PRINCIPLES TO LIVE BY,” given at the Princess Kaiulani Hotel on July 28, 1963.
Each new day is gift. I see the light of God shining through the whole of creation Including the people I meet. I am called to express this giftedness of God’s Creation each time the opportunity arises.
I feel blessed with faith, and that God enables me to see and feel more human as a member of the family of God today than in the past, when I saw and wanted things with much less interest in the will of God. As the old saying goes, I’m glad that God hasn’t finished with me yet. Maturation for me has taken a long process of affiliation with many different people. Reading, music and the school of experience help me daily. So many gifts.