My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness.
- 2 Corinthians 12:9
"Am I here to do the will of God and to act for the glory of God? If I do, everything else will be taken care of. If it's God’s will that I make a fool out of myself, then it must be for good because more than any altruistic or good acts or anything that I do, it was given to me to understand that this God is interested in the 'one.' By that I mean, the one – 'the Shepherd who went after the lone sheep' – is more interested in my transformation than all of the work that I can possibly do, and that is how God is with everyone. Humiliation or no humiliation, if done in the motivation of serving God and the will of God, then everything else will be taken care of. There is a certain freedom and fearlessness that comes from that, but it [usually] comes from a certain painful journey to come to that awareness. …
"God reveals [God]self to all and every one of us in a particular way. …
"We have everything we need for this journey. It's already inside of us … the Indwelling Spirit that lives and breathes us. … but the overlay of … the emotional programs and all our doubts … build a layer that covers over these things. As this opening happens … it really could have the feeling sense of being emptiness … but on the next level, it's a pathway for faith, hope and charity to arise in us and then allow virtues to grow within and to take over our inner motivation. And it is almost as if those emotional programs transform by the process into these virtues. The virtues are already there and they're just waiting to emerge because they are of God."
- Mary Anne Best and Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler, excerpt from last Thursday's audio conversation
A Meditation
"In the dead of night,
In the dark of the Moon
I beheld Thy Might
And craved a boon.
Not in thunder nor in storm-wind
Did'st Thou answer
But in the stillness of pure meaning.
Then I knew if the boon were granted
I would die comfortably
The most terrible death of all
Which is spiritual death.
Like a single chord of vast music
Containing all inexpressible divine truth
It entered the limitations of my language.
It became words — as once before:
'My grace is sufficient for thee
Because my strength is made perfect in thy weakness.'
So I understand that when a man can do nothing
And when he comes to that far knowledge
Only then is Thy divine power recognized
And his soul freed to turn to Thee."
- Poem by Maurice Nicoll, cited in Maurice Nicoll, A Portrait, by Beryl Pogson
To Practice
Examen: We are invited to participate in the fullest, deepest sense possible in this great plan of creation. Pause and give gratitude that such wonders have been given to you.
If you would like to catch-up or review any emails and videos, an archive of previous emails may be found here. Videos and transcripts may be found here.
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