Reflection
In us, as creation comes to consciousness, its destiny as an expression of divine love calls for a response. We remain lost and lonely, searching for completion, until we recognize our fulfillment in this love affair with the Holy One. It is a gift unconditionally given, a love present from all eternity. Contrary to past theories of salvation, God’s love was never lost and does not need to be “bought” back. We never lose God so to speak. It is probably more accurate to say that God lost us, and in Christ Jesus came to claim us, to remind us of our heritage.
Barbara Fiand
Prayer
Be still and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10
Action
Examine your belief system. Have you expanded your understanding in light of current theology and science? Read current material such as Barbara Fiand’s book Come, Drink Deep of Living Waters.
Suggested Reading
Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
Isaiah 54:10
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
1 John 4:16
God looks with love upon every man and woman, calling them by name. The secret of Christian living is love.
Pope Francis
Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about God.
Thomas Merton
I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and the presence of God.
Meister Eckhart
We need a God that is big enough for our minds, close enough for our hearts, and us enough for our deepest identification.
Paul Smith
God is not a superior Being who lords it over us; rather God stands “under” us, hidden within ordinary reality as the “real”, the whole of the whole, the depth of love . . . Divine power is not a force over us but the humility of love beneath us, the love that makes existence possible.
Ilia Delio
God is love, the radical fulness of love, a love that can also pour itself out kenotically in a world of creatures.
Denis Edwards
Most of us were taught that God would love us if and when we change. In fact, God loves you so that you can change. What empowers change, what makes you desirous of change is the experience of love. It is that inherent experience of love that becomes the engine of change.
Richard Rohr
To be contemplative we must become converted to the consciousness that makes us one with the universe, in tune with the cosmic voice of God. We must become aware of the sacred in every element of life.
Joan Chittister
It is time to take seriously what Christianity has always proclaimed: that this Mysterious Presence we call “God” is everywhere and is beyond all our human concepts. It is time to make a significant shift in our understanding of “God.” It is time to shift from notions of a deity to an understanding and appreciation of the Divine Presence always here, always and everywhere active in an expanding universe and in the evolution of life on this planet.
Michael Morwood