The Cloud Of Unknowing

Bill — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:41:04 +0000

The Dark Night of the Soul, performed by Loreena McKennitt Loreena McKennitt performs a song called “Dark Night of the Soul” inspired by St. John of the Cross. She sings about the love of God and the pursuit of it in this song.

If you like ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’ and all that it implies, you should look into reading ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ by an anonymous author in 1375. There are more than a few present day English translations that make for a bit more easy reading than the 14th century English in which it was written. It speaks of the apophatic approach to ‘knowing’, trusting and allowing God. It is precisely pursuit of the internal mystical relationship with God via the path of allowing and consenting to God being with you through the vehicle of trust. The Dark Night of the Soul will make more sense after reading this! I have the olde english version here as a free download, and it can be bought on some of the web bookstores for only a few dollars. I am re-reading it after many times.

The Will to Will

Bill — Mon, 10 May 2010 03:33:35 +0000

The greatest gift we have is free will. The greatest give we can give is our will, our intent – freely, and with love.

God loves us so much that he gives us free will. Duly so, he will never intrude upon our own free will. We think we are free because we have free will. We are right… free to choose our destiny, free to choose as we please, and God loves us any way we choose.

God’s will is grand, ultimate, absolute and infinite. Why do we resist God’s will? We are afraid of what will happen to us. We are afraid because we do not have the faith or the trust to completely allow God’s will to have ascendency in our lives.

My challenge to you is to give your will up to God’s will. The gift of our own free will is the ultimate gift of faith and trust, as well as being the most powerful and humbling gift we can give.

What happens when you invite God’s will? Did you think you could plan things any better? What would you worry about, that it might not turn out the way you wanted it to? If you are still wrestling with this, you have not ever fully released your will to will God’s will.

If you have ever given your will up to God’s will you know that what happens when God’s will is moving – - it is infinitely more potent that any plans you could make. The movement and manifestation of his will is like a huge cosmic mosaic that moves like a fine watch – moving each piece into place so elegantly and smoothly, that when you experience it, you are awestruck. So there is no place for fear, only trust. Just know that the One who created all the infinitude of the universe, is so willing to love you, and overcome your every trial – just for receiving your consent to allow His will in your world!

I challenge you to walk the walk of trust in the power of God’s will which will lay the road down before you, and move events around you so smoothly you will forget it is God’s will. Stay in tune with God’s will simply by offering freely your will to will God’s will.

Happy Easter!

Bill — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:53:17 +0000

Jesus Christ

For the next 60 seconds, set aside whatever you’re doing and take this opportunity!

Let’s see if Satan can stop this.

THE (SCIENTIFIC) DEATH OF JESUS

At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to the death penalty.

At the time, crucifixion was the “worst” death. Only the worst criminals were condemned to be crucified. Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus, unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet.

Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long.

The nails were driven into His wrist. Not into His palms as is commonly portrayed.. There’s a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder.. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support himself so that He could breathe.

Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could not support himself with His legs because of the pain, so He was forced to alternate between arching His back then using his legs just to continue to breath. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage.

Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours.

Yes, over 3 hours! Can you imagine this kind of suffering? A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding.

He was simply pouring water from his wounds.

From common images we see wounds to His hands and feet and even the spear wound to His side. But do we realize His wounds were actually made in his body. A hammer driving large nails through the wrists, the feet overlapped and an even larger nail hammered through the arches, then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear.. But before the nails and the spear Jesus was whipped and beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the flesh from His body. The beating so horrific that His face was torn and his beard ripped from His face. The crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most men would not have survived this torture.

He had no more blood to bleed out, only water poured from His wounds.

The human adult body contains about 3..5 liters (just less than a gallon) of blood.

Jesus poured all 3.5 liters of his blood; He had three nails hammered into his members; a crown of thorns on his head and, beyond that, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into his chest.

All these without mentioning the humiliation He passed after carrying his own cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his face and threw stones (the cross was almost 30 kg of weight, only for its higher part, where his hands were nailed).

Jesus had to endure this experience, so that you can have free access to God.

So that your sins could be washed away by the blood of Chirst. All of them, with no exception! Don’t ignore this situation. JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR YOU! For you, who now reads this e-mail. If you will be obedient to His will, you can have eternal salvation. But you must follow His commandments. Jesus said: “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

Jesus said:

1. You must believe that He is the Son of God.

2. You must repent of your sins.

3. You must confess Him before men.

He died for you! It is easy to pass jokes or foolish photos by e-mail, but when it comes to God, sometimes you feel ashamed to forward it to others because you are worried what they may think about you.

Accept the reality, the truth that JESUS IS THE ONLY SALVATION FOR THE WORLD.

God has plans for you, show all your friends what He experienced to save you. Now think about this! May God bless your life!

60 seconds with God…

For the next 60 seconds, set aside what you’re doing and take this opportunity! Let’s see if Satan can stop this.

All you have to do is:

1. Simply pray for the person who sent this message to you:

Lord, you know the life of my friends. I ask You to bless them in all things and help them to be obedient to your will. Take care of their family, their health, their work and all their future plans. Lead them not into temptation, but deliver them from evil. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

2.Then, send this message to 10 people.

3. 10 people will pray for you and you will make that many people pray to God for other people.

4. Take a moment to appreciate the power of God in your life, for doing what pleases Him.

If you are not ashamed to do this, please, follow Jesus’ instructions. He said (Matthew 10:32 & 33): “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whosoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven”.

If you believe, send this message… But send it only if you believe Christ Jesus is your Lord and Savior.

Yes, I love God.. He is my source of life and my Saviour. He keeps me alive day and night.

Without Him I am nothing, but with Him “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me”.

Philippians 4:13.

This is the simple proof. If you love God and you believe and trust in salvation through Christ Jesus, send this to all those you love.

ascension, blood and water, cross, crucified, crucifix, crucify, Easter,forgiveness, jesus, Jesus Christ, nails, passion, redemption, sacrifice, salvation,suffering, surrender, thorns, wrist

The Interior Castle by St. Theresa of Avila

Bill — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:31:35 +0000

This amazing classic can be downloaded for free (or for a small donation of $2.95 for a PDF version) from http://ccel.org Classic Christian Ethereal Library. This is a great site as iit has many public domain books that are classics in Christian Literature. I have been using this site for years, and have found many of the great classics there.

The Interior Castle by St. Theresa of Avila seems as if it were written yesterday, instead of 1583. Her metaphors and descriptions of one’s various stages of spiritual capacity (mansions) are well done, and brilliantly illustrate the spiritual light and passion to which she is so well attuned.

Please pick this book up for free or download it for free (or PDF). If you have a nook, it can be downloaded to your My B&N folder on your computer from http://www.ccel.org and next time you update your nook, you can copy it over. OR you can download a free e-reader from Barnes and Noble and read the text version which is free.

This book is worth your time and investment of it, much the same as The Cloud of Unknowing. It is one of the mystical classics.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit & Holy Trinity

Bill — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:59:16 +0000

My prayer is to thank the Holy Spirit for always being with me, blessing me abundantly, being the source of my life. Let me be the vessel through which others see You and the Holy Trinity! With gratitude, I love you; with humility, I give you my heart.

The Jesus Prayer

Bill — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:30:29 +0000

Prayer as a true science

from Chris Erdman’s website

The Prayer of the Heart

The Jesus Prayer is an utterly simple method of prayer that unites you from the inside out with God. The older saints and mystics called it “scientific,” and I suppose it is, so long as you think of science in its truest sense—a line of inquiry that examines an object according to its own nature.

The Jesus Prayer, then, is scientific, for it provides not only the research method, but also the data. No more talk about God from a distance—in prayer, you are dealing with the Holy. No more chatter about prayer—you are entering the interior realm, facing your shadows, seeking the light, following the path of God’s mercy, and training yourself to climb, with grace, the ladder of prayer (Genesis 28.12).

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

The Jesus Prayer is for the Eastern Orthodox one of the most profound and mystical prayers and it is often repeated continually as a part of personal ascetic practice. Its practice is an integral part of the eremitic tradition of prayer known as Hesychasm (Greek: ἡσυχάζω, hesychazo, “to keep stillness”), the subject of the Philokalia (Greek: φιλοκαλείν, “love of beauty”), a collection of fourth to fifteenth century texts on prayer, compiled in the late eighteenth century by St. Nicodemus the Hagiorite and St. Makarios of Corinth. The monastic state of Mount Athos is a centre of the practice of the Jesus Prayer

This prayer can be used by anyone. To read a inspiring story “The Way of the Pilgrim” is a classic in which the prayer is the focal point of the story about a man devoted to the prayer, and the miracles the followed in his life.

Mysticism and Community

Bill — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:54:05 +0000

In Response to a Blog at: Anamchara.com

Carl,

You are right. While Community appears to be antithetical to Mysticism, the two are inexorably entertwined. As much as I like a simply said and intimate mass, I admit that I get impatient at the more elaborate masses that seem ponderous, with the somtimes lame and often repeated sermons. Some sermons actually energize me, some services are consistent, others are all over the place.

I know I can count on my own stillness to be the gateway to my relationship to the Holy Trinity.

I still believe we need community because none of us holds all the pieces of the Christian spirituality. We each of us pray for those and hold those up who do not hold our piece, and vice versa. (I got this one from a sermon on Sunday).

We have to realize that surrender also means being willing to depend on others, trust that the greater community actually binds us and makes us holy, as you said.

This is a point with which I have struggled in my studies and mystical understandings and practice. In the end a true mystic is humble, willing to surrender to the lower self, and can still participate and contribute to the community. Padre Pio comes to mind. What a great example to illustrate this point!

Bill

The Cloud and it’s protection

Bill — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:48:12 +0000

AS YOU LOOK AT THE DAY BEFORE YOU, YOU SEE A TWISTED, COMPLICATED PATH, WITH BRANCHES GOING OFF IN ALL DIRECTIONS. YOU WONDER HOW YOU CAN POSSIBLY FIND YOUR WAY THROUGH THAT MAZE. THEN YOU REMEMBER THE ONE WHO IS WITH YOU ALWAYS, HOLDING YOU BY YOUR RIGHT HAND. YOU RECALL MY PROMISE TO GUIDE YOU WITH MY COUNSEL, AND YOU BEGIN TO RELAX. AS YOU LOOK AGAIN AT THE PATH AHEAD, YOU NOTICE THAT A PEACEFUL CLOUD HAS SETTLED OVER IT, OBSCURING YOUR VIEW. YOU CAN SEE ONLY A FEW STEPS IN FRONT OF YOU, SO YOU TURN YOUR ATTENTION MORE FULLY TO ME AND BEGIN TO ENJOY MY PRESENCE.

THE CLOUD IS A PROTECTION FOR YOU, CALLING YOU BACK INTO THE PRESENT MOMENT. ALTHOUGH I INHABIT ALL OF SPACE AND TIME, YOU CAN COMMUNICATE WITH ME ONLY HERE AND NOW. SOMEDAY THE CLOUD WILL NO LONGER BE NECESSARY, FOR YOU WILL HAVE LEARNED TO KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON ME AND ON THE PATH JUST AHEAD OF YOU.

PSALM 73:23-24; 1 CORINTHIANS 13:12

Live in Trust

Bill — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:17:12 +0000

The culture of fear is being thrust upon us daily and relentlessly. Media outlets drive fear based messaging to sway public opinion. From Both Sides of Conservative and Liberal.

Live your life trusting Jesus, praying to him and falling into his arms for deep peace. I believe one should pay attention to the movements of the world, and be alert – take care and make good decisions. AND trust AND REMEMBER to Trust, remain humble and charitable. Call upon the Holy Spirit to guide you, and the Trinity to bless you!

Be in the world but not of it.

Bill

Listening to quiet

Bill — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:56:38 +0000

Listening to quiet where whispers the Holy Spirit to my soul, where my heart overflows with joy!

- Bill Fulbright