Contemplation, transcendentals, "greatness of the soul".

The pure Transcendalists saw everywhere evidence of the greatness of the soul. -Octavius Brooks Frothingham

And what of the "greatness of the soul"?  That which is part and parcel imputed by our Creator, in as much as their is a Divine Idea, and we thusly are part of the Divine Idea, the infinite imagination of God.

The purest sensibility would be the rank ignominy of speculation, and the orgasmic bliss of the realization of the soul; we have a sin nature, a sin debt, but that is a terminus of knowledge--the very subject of speculation in the realization is so very beyond the intellect, and exponentially more sensible--hands in the air, and the brain unfurled and in a thousand different directions, countings accountings statistical metering and tabulations, forwards and backwards and tangents and cosines--the alchemy of a mathematic synthesis of what appears but fog in the glass.

The magic of absolutely nothing at all--that particular alchemy, as of contemplation--parsing that which is without paucity, and the emotional uptake of it, whatever one might have imprinted upon one's mind but such indistinction--realizing nothing in particular, but aware that there is, somewhere beyond the senses, an entire world: that was as much the faith, the practice of faith being sort of an empty, unoccupied stare, rather than the shot-gun repetition of scriptural sessions or hymnal singings.

Contemplation of God, for those precisely oriented in that regard, is a communion with God.

 "A humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe."

-AW Tozer

 

mysticism: joy and heaven.

Joy: the reflection or residue of God within us.

As if that were not mystical enough, we are told that heaven is the perfected reflection of Earth, in the eyes of say, a sage.

"no fear in love"

John brooks partly-mystic, saying that God is Light, God is Truth.  Christ is the Divine Word.  He gives us something more than a "daddy-motif" or the Jewish Messiah, but something that transcends those concepts, those sects, and those regions, to reach into the very concepts of nature itself.

No darkness at all in God or Christ.  No untruth at all.

Perfect Love, without fear.

God and storm; storm and God.

A clear manifestation of God's glory, or just a nuisance?

Lord forbid I was ever so disconnected from nature!  I was on the porch before daylight listening to the light mist of rainfall.  It was pleasant, and soft wind, in my area, at the halfway point between Myrtle Beach SC and Charlotte NC, and also equally so between Columbia, SC and Fayetteville NC.

Such clear manifestations seem, at once, neither good nor evil, seeming to stymie mankind's notions of good and evil, and here, the corn just coming up around the 12 inch mark: in some respects, the storm did our area a world of good.  I've also got potted Marigolds that needed some of that natural moisture.

In the War of 1812, as British troops assaulted the capitol and set fire to some of the most important buildings in the land, including the White House, they were met with overnight hurricane force winds, and then they just left, missing so much of their invasion force thanks to the storm.

Its almost God whispering, and at His own ends, which transcends good and evil as we know it, and in terms of theology, the believer assumes that God is purely good, such as purely light, or purely truth, with the theologists linking all three things together in orientation towards the Godhead.  Or at least, those latter two things, light and truth, are how the humans manifest, how the humans put the Creator into perspective, and then further, live the message.

in Him is no darkness...

if we live the word, we are the light...

There is a silence before the storms: something of atmospheric pressure, cloud cover, and the birds having fled.  In that silence, that's our prayer time, come what may Oh Lord, come what may.

 

some notes on the internal and external in regards to mysticism, and E.L.Doctorow.

a golden crucifix set on the top of building, in secret, in good old NYC.  What could it mean to a resigned priest?

Marcus Aurelius saw all of the universe, the body natural, as the City of God, but yet others subdivide, seeing the mind as sometimes either self-contained, or part in parcel of the body natural.

Doctorow the novelist worked, like peeling layers of an onion, on the inner world, the obscurities: probing, stoking the pangs of the mysterious until once we confronted with something either repugnant or unsatisfying.  We could be in such circumstance, perpetually unhappy, or we could realize we enjoyed the unfurling of the thing.

One orientation of mysticism is man approaching God from within, as of acknowledging or communing with the creator from his own little City of God within himself, and yet another lensing might be man's position towards nature, elapsation, resumption.

 

God hears the cries of the imperfect: Cloud of Unknowing.

We are told some of approaching God, or unity, or "being like unto Him", or something.  But unity with God is almost heresy, if we were to think we'd be co-equal; in death, however, we can assume no-God like traits for ourselves, but a perfect union between us and the Father.

For now we are imperfect copies, just as we say our fellow men "through a mirror glass darkly", so too does perhaps God see us, ourselves, in a broken physical nature, but knowing more of the future of man, the spirit to rise and go into perfect communion with God and the Son.

I watched a huge cloud bank come over this morning, a dark huge patch of sky moving across over an otherwise picturesque morning.  I thought this was the cloud of unknowing, which is our own minds, physically, a barrier, but also a vessel for communicating with God, knowing or feeling, in faith, this writer, that God's hears the cries of the imperfect.

 

the week's prayers.

"The universe from the beginning has been in constant motion, a constant, "workaholic" bundle of energy in which vast fields of energy connecting across cosmic spaces continuously form, a hyper-energetic mass of bursting mind-like stuff, spewing molecules into the atmosphere with the creativity of an artist."  

-Ilia Delio(Christogenesis.org)

The United States experienced a nervous hiccup with the Balloon Crises last week, while Turkey and Syria experienced a massive earthquake.  Could we remember those who are made to suffer?  Can we spare a prayer for the downcast?

We speak sometimes of the "perseverance of the saints", which is taken to mean all kinds of things, from contending for the faith, to Eternal Security to who knows what.  Let us hope that the downtrodden just keep heart during their difficult hour.

Delio's words about the robust energies of the universe perhaps enthrall us, but we should also never forget that we are part of that energetic universe.  Therefore, we are energetic, too, no matter the circumstance, as we press forward.

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But more importantly remember international aid organizations like the Red Cross during this time.

on signs in Mysticism

This was the test of some, and a game to others, the old Rorshach thing of, "what does this cloud remind you of?"  and whatever you said first was the most important thing to you: you imprinted on the world around you.

Or the kooky, would be mystic, and the mystic himself, to think the shape of the clouds are messages from God, writ large in heavenly typeface across a sky as changeable as the wanton little hearts of the commoner.

They even hear it from the birds, it is told.

It is made, as it were, manifest, in the whisper of the wind, that voices do call on the wind, and the birds, even, have their appointed time in the grand scheme.  Early today, even, I heard the boy-cats talking, testing out each others mettle, talking of impetus and pathos and all that, speaking their obscure poetics to the tune of something only animal ears tend to hear at all.

-from Mirror Glass Darkly

cs lewis, william paley and Father God.

Earlier in the week I came across a CS Lewis line, that you don't get to know a builder by looking at the houses he's built.  If you want to know the builder, you talk to that builder himself.  In the same sense, Lewis meant that to know God, we needn't necessarily do the mystical and look to the natural world around us, but seek God through prayer.

In that same way, Paul reminds that we are spiritual, and not bound to the flesh.  We may, through prayer, seek God in the spiritual way.

Mind also, in a book called Natural Theology, a scientist brilliantly said that if he walked on a beach, and found a pocket watch in the sand, he wouldn't think it was just a random miracle of nature, that it was "created".  By the same token, he talked at length about how natural items are "created" in the same way, that if he picked up a pebble or a shell on the beach, he wouldn't think it was a random accident of the cosmos, but a thing that was consciously created.

God is that creator, and the book is called Natural Theology by William Paley.

servant's heart: remarks given on veterans day

In washing the disciple's feet, Jesus became a servant, but a shepherd always tends to his flock.  Remember that Jesus was the good shepherd.

Consider also that we are called to deny the world for His sake.  Part of cleansing their feet may have been to purify their connection to the earth: their feet.

Consider also that anointing the Lord's feet, may have also been a way of petitioning for more of His divinity, instead of the earthbound.  Surely the sinless Christ did not need anointing, but yet it was done anyway with pricey perfumes.

Truly the connection to God and the connection to earth-the feet-were worth the trouble.

 

We are but powerless to be but ever mindful of our connection to both heaven, above, and earth, below.  Without a doubt, we belong to God, but we are commanded to love our neighbor too, which is a bond to the earth, the earthly life and the sons of Adam, the first man, who was constructed from the dust of the earth.

 

The ceremony of wiping over the Lord's feet with one's hair, too, is emblematic of having the Lord on one's mind.  Connecting the head to the Lord is but one ceremonial dedication of one's thoughts on the things divine.

verse of the day: nov 8, 2022

 

Wellness and even Buddhists talk about mental presence and awareness.  Christ is his earthly bound-days had something that brought sort of a peak mental awareness; imagine him fasting and spending hours in prayer.

I like to think Christ and God are not just love, but also an awareness: a generosity, but a mental presence that feels all those interconnections.  I apologize for sounding mystic, but I remind that, as in the book of Philippians, I am equal to much, because my faith in Christ strengthens me.

we are his hope; he is our hope.

I struggle with this idea....

first.  We are His hope in glory.

second.  He is our hope.

But our hopes, so often, as even the Bible says, that the understanding is darkened and there is inequity in the heart.

Yet we are His hope.

Like the faith that moves mountains, can we harness this to achieve the best of our desires?  The most providential?

I come down on the side of that, if it fits God's plan, if it doesn't destroy another maybe, that we could be granted something.....  but such parameters are so vague and foggy.

I'm inclined to think my faith is a powerful tool, as per Word of Faith pastors.

What we are not given is a set of parameters or conditions; Christ says the mountain will move, if one's faith is set on it.

Dare we think parabolically, a kind of circles-in-on-itself way that we can remove, by mindset, various lapses in judgement, dignity, personality flaws, all by will, and the will the tip of the spear of the believer's own faith?

We could pray for a million, or we could already have the effect, the happiness of the "million" of popular thinking.

We could have that feeling, and that feeling is pretty much as good as having the million dollars, and that accomplished by will, like we moved a mountain inside our own minds.....

We are His hope.

He is OUR HOPES.

Paul orients this towards the endpoint of our earthly existence, to keep our eternity in focus.  Eternity matters so much more than arguing with the people next door, anyway, but what indeed of the everyday minutia?

We have various interpretations, mystical things, like feeling the feeling of victory irrespective of the reality, contemplating victory, speaking it out to make it happen, or just settling back like lambs waiting, lambs waiting but all the while, petitioning the Shepherd for the outcome.

Or those that force contentment, and that no false peace from the inner perspective, but very real, all the while, trying to ignore the world, trying to think not on the things of man.

At time of writing, Eagle Mtn church is airing basically a political rally hosted by a dubious politically-oriented pastor.

At time of writing, the Catholic church is throwing weight behind what is politically offensive for some.

At time of writing, my good friend and compatriot LD Oneal takes unto himself mostly, for days at a time, and keeps a circle of believers at his little country church.  He stays inside himself, but in frequent prayer, and then also interacts with that tight-grained, tight-knit church family, advising and encouraging, guiding, and staying on the look-out for God's will and purpose.

I'd say this, of God being my hopes manifested: not all my hopes are just or good, and God's plan, and God himself, is always just and good.  Therefore I suppose God is the most just and good of our hopes.

*God is the most just and good of our hopes.

He is our hopes, and we are His hopes.  We loved him, because He first loved us.

If God is the most just and good of our hopes, as believers, all we can hope is that our own private hopes are as just and good as God himself, that there is nothing that God has to overlook, or at least not much, not much to bypass or ignore in His love for us.

Let us be just in our hopes, and as Paul says, Let brotherly love continue.

Pray for the addict that still suffers, pray that the poor are fed, and the meek in spirit are lifted up.

The man that heeded the birdsong.

 

A man was concentrating hard, prayerfully concerned about his family. There were five of them, he and his family, all at various stages of life. Like anyone else, the family was not so different from others in the sense that they each had struggles of their own.

He was reaching out to God with his heart and mind, hoping for solace, for not only himself, in his concerns, but for the his family: the object of his concerns.

In hopes of relief from his weary mind, he went into his yard and walked around in the morning light.

The Bible tells us that there is nothing better than to lay down one’s life for his friends, but here he has invested, not his life, but his emotional well-being, leading him to a perplexed countenance. But here, too, he was prayerful and carried his cares to the Lord.

Suddenly there came a bird to nearby tree branch in the man’s yard, and the bird sang briefly.

“There you are Lord”, said the man.

Lost in culture and centuries of enforced church doctrine, is the concept of different levels of heaven. Peter and Paul each had writings about varying levels of heaven, and again, today, the concept is lost, exorcised from the consciousness of the church.

In Paul’s writing he noted a man caught up in the “third heaven”, who wasn’t sure at the time if he were alive or dead. He was having an experience, likely in the province of the mind or soul. Paul notes this as an experience of the Gospel and the Living God. Consider, as a side note, that this was before clearly established church doctrine, during a time when varying ideas circulated, even before some of the infamous heretics of the early church era.

Calling it being “caught up in the third heaven”, the text indicates an experience of God, a mystical experience that befuddled the mind, but encompassed and utilized the spirit—the person seeming out of body, and possibly even unaware of time and space. This is just as Thomas Merton defines Christian Mysticism as trying to reach to God with the spirit, instead of the mind.

Just as the world gets in the way of some good deeds and good intentions, for whatever reason, established doctrine, centuries ago, stamped-out some of those stray concepts. Here we are told so much in the so-called “secular world”, via capitalism and cultural items shared with various religions and forms of governments, that a thoughtful person can scarcely catch a moment of reverence of God, beyond an hour or two in a church service.

Doctrine is, at best, a pathway to God, but at worst it can seem like a locked doorway that blocks us from egress towards God, locking us into ritual and rote, “vain repetitions” more than the experiential Joy and Peace that can be accessed by earnest religion. We could become quite lost in all the rules and minutia that, while living a good life, we do not live our best life, in the full light of realizing the Lord’s grace.

And even that much can become empty, or even an object or dread, perhaps even boring as the believer goes through repetitive motions of corporate worship without any inner-prayer life, without the spirit or the consciousness taking time for reverence or communion with God.

Think on, pray on, lest we become like Paul, sinking below the waves.

Like that concerned man in the lines above, we look to creation, sometimes, natural formations for a revelation of God.

We know God to be the chief architect, the grand designer and the physical builder of everything that is. As science marches on, men observe and research ever-increasing layers of complexity, and even the most learned of them marvel at God’s handiwork.