In my morning readings and prayer today, I came across a commentary by Thelma Hall in “Too Deep for Words” that struck home. I wanted to share it here with you. “…contemplative prayer is not a rare reward for excellence or virtue – nor is it a “spiritual high” to be pursued for our own gratification, much less a singular mark of God’s special love or approval … It is a effect of being literally “in love” with God…” Yes, please.
-
-
Love and the expectations that go with it.
Jesus tells us in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And for many of us, at least at one time or another in our lives, we hear those works and think how burdensome it is to keep those commandments, how stifling, how difficult. Yet, what Christ asks of us in this verse isn’t any more than what we ask of our children, our loved ones, or those we supervise. Keep my commandments. We expect others to treat our rules and requests with respect and to honor them; especially out of love! So ask yourself, how can you expect this of others if you are not…
-
Knowing God
To Know: to perceive, understand as TRUTH; to apprehend clearly and with CERTAINTY. Fixed in the mind or memory. How do we come to “know” anything? We come to know over the course of time, through experience, practice, study, relationship, the opening of oneself, sharing. In the same way, we come to know Christ, and note that TRUTH and CERTAINTY speak in terms of absolutes! By knowing Christ, we know God, God who became man. And we know them as TRUTH, with CERTAINTY. We, the image and likeness of God, because we know Christ (and therefore know God) can also know ourselves and know what God intended for us. Jesus…