SPIRITUAL ESSENTIALS

Myth is “deep truth” not “falsehood”

and it is the secret door

through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos

pour into human life – religion/philosophy/the arts

have all boiled up

from within the magic ring of myth

 and myth stems from the innate desire of humans

to find meaning

in a simultaneously overwhelming/frightening/confusing/

amazing/glorious universe –

humans are the universe’s meaning-makers

and therefore myth-makers

 

out of myth comes religion and contemplation

and the key to contemplation

is to realize that the love of God

pours into life

seeking us in every situation

and particularly in hard situations

the love of God seeks our good/awakening

 

myth begets religion begets contemplation

and after contemplative prayer

the second essential of the devout life

is spiritual friendship –

joining with two or three others

for mutual support

 

spiritual friends vivify and grow each other

and, according to Ruth Barrows

“God is not glorified by half-persons”

but rather, according to Irenaeus

“The glory of God is human persons fully alive”

 

when we affirm ourselves and others

we participate in the infinite spiritual love

with which God contemplates God’s own Self

 

and what God finds in God’s own Self

is Grace –

 and Grace is not something God does

it is who God is

and Grace makes up for

all the deficiencies and suffering in the universe.