Ascension
Ascension / Transformation
Definition of Ascension:
The process of spiritual awakening that moves you into a higher level of consciousness.
This requires the discarding of egoic thinking and moving into a lighter realm of love and light. Through this processes of Ascension, you will become aware of the interconnectedness of all things and will be able to let go of thought patterns and physical structures that cause stress and fear.
Spiritual ascension, also known as spiritual awakening, is a natural evolutionary process which involves the process of shedding the old self and experiencing an inner rebirth. Many people speak about spiritual ascension in terms of being “upgraded,” “rebooted” or being elevated in vibrational frequency. All of these terms are a way of referring to the inner evolution and expansion of the mind, heart, or soul. As the name implies, spiritual ascension is about reaching new heights and transcending old limiting habits, beliefs, mindsets, and ways of being - see Oneness
Definition of Transformation:
Spiritual transformation involves a fundamental change in a person's sacred or spiritual life. Psychologists examine spiritual transformation within the context of an individual's meaning system, especially in relation to concepts of the sacred or of ultimate concern
Definition of Consciousness:
the state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings.
the awareness or perception of something by a person.
Similar: awareness of, knowledge of the existence of, alertness to, sensitivity to, realization of, cognizance of, mindfulness of, perception of, apprehension of, recognition of the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world.
Awakening and Stages of Higher Consciousness
Jesus came not for forgiveness of our sins, but for our consciousness to be awakened. See John 16:7)
Sin is the rejection of the beauty and goodness of God's image in every person. (Freeing Jesus)
Original sin or brokenness is falling out of, or being exiled from, the infinite oneness that alone is real. (Rohr)
Awakening—which in Jesus’ teaching really boils down to the capacity to perceive and act in accordance with the higher laws of the Kingdom of Heaven—is a matter of piercing through the charade of the smaller self to develop a stable connection with the greater Self.(Rohr,9/4/20)
In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus says when one is in the Christ consciousness that one would be the Christ, thus doing away with the uniqueness of Jesus.2,p22
The alchemist's secret: Consciousness transmutes form.2,p26
Adam represents the first man to have evolved a soul. Man didn't fall; he evolved.2,p38
We are trapped behind a series of veils that distort reality. Nonduality is a monistic system of total unity: only one reality and all multiplicity is imaginary.3,p38-9
Evolution is the process growing us into our own divinity and explains a rational for the presence of evil being a secondary cause that precedes fulfillment. The world of good and evil is what fuels the evolution flowering your consciousness. 2,p40-1
By becoming consciously aware of unity in complexity, we can simplify complication and escape from obsolete dualistic teachings.2,p43
Mystical consciousness is the belief that direct knowledge of God, of spiritual truth, of ultimate reality is attainable through intuition, insight, or illumination in a way differing from ordinary sense perception. 2,45
Being fully conscious means having the capacity to be simultaneously aware of the physical without losing sight of one's spiritual significance.2,p47
In the beginning was Consciousness, and Consciousness was with God, and Consciousness was God.2,p50
Consciousness is the fundamental reality, out of which space, time, matter, and energy emerge.2,p51
Our (mankinds) consciousness - our intuition - is of the same construct that created the universe.2,p51
Reconciliation can't really take place until we think equally about two different and often contradictory ways at the same time.2,p56
Ascension consciousness is where the whole is not only more than the parts, but when they come together they become different from the sum of the parts.2,p59
We cannot experience illumination until our consciousness has evolved through having an appetite to study and to fill our minds with spiritual concepts.2,p61
We can understand or conceive of what the masters have experienced when we transcend the pairs of opposites.2,p62
The great spiritual messengers of all the sacred traditions are a universal human treasure, are an exemplar of a higher level of human consciousness. —Cynthia Bourgeault
The Work that Reconnects: Gratitude, Honor our pain, Seeing with new eyes, Go forth into action. (Rohr,4/23/21)
Until we move to self-reflective, self-critical thinking, we don’t move to any deep level of consciousness at all. In fact, we largely remain unconscious, falsely innocent, and unaware. Thus, most people choose to remain in that first stage of consciousness, secure and consoled. Until an objective inner witness (the Holy Spirit; see Romans 8:16) emerges that looks back at us with utter honesty, we cannot speak of being awake or conscious. Until then, most of us are on cruise control and cannot see our egocentricity at work. (Rohr)
No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it. (Albert Einstein) Only the contemplative mind can help bring forward the new consciousness needed to awaken a more loving, just, and sustainable world.(Rohr)
Spiritual, not Religious
Spirituality strives to deepen and transform our consciousness, to put us in touch with a world of reality below and above and all around our ordinary daily experience. We discover God at the very center of our being. With this discovery a new life dawns where we are liberated from selfishness. We come to discover our true selves that all the while have been hidden in God. (p47, Paradise Journey by Merton)
Most of our wounds are buried in the unconscious. So, it is absolutely essential that we find a spirituality that reaches to that hidden level. If not, nothing really changes. (Rohr)
Thérèse called her simple, childlike path her “little way.” It is a spirituality of imperfection. A “perfect” person ends up being one who can consciously forgive and include imperfection rather than the ones who think they are totally above and beyond imperfection. The gospel of radical grace had been forgotten by many Christians.
The Holy Spirit makes us “spiritually” alive. It inspires and strengthens us and gives us aspirations, inspirations, and intuitions. It opens us to new truths and enables us to integrate these truths into our minds and lives…. We want the Spirit to open us to its presence so we may be transformed. (Rohr)
Follow Your Heart, Not Your Head
An open heart is an open mind. A change of heart is a change of mind. (Dalai Lama)
Knowing the Great Mystery is for Rumi, more like falling in love than like receiving instruction from a written text. This is a longing for mystical union with the Beloved, with the divine lover from whom one has been separated. For Rumi, religion isn’t primarily what you think, or even the actions you perform. It is what you desire. You embrace its mystery only in losing yourself, in finally becoming what you love. In the process, you discover that what you had thought to be entirely outside had been within you all along. (Rohr)
Transformation and Salvation
Definition of Spiritual Transformation:
involves a fundamental change in a person's sacred or spiritual life. Psychologists examine spiritual transformation within the context of an individual's meaning system, especially in relation to concepts of the sacred or of ultimate concern.
Symptoms of Transformation: Heightened sensitivity and awareness, physical changes, changes in mood, changes in energy, changes in sleep patterns, changing relationships, a sense of longing
Definition of Salvation:
1. preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss.
2. deliverance from sin and its consequences, believed by Christians to be brought about by faith in Christ.
Liminal space transforms us when we are attentive to the presence of God in times of change. The Latin word limen means “threshold.” Liminal space is an inner state and sometimes an outer situation where we can begin to think and act in new ways. It is where we are betwixt and between, in transition, having left one room or stage of life but not yet entered the next. We usually enter liminal space when our former way of being is challenged or changed. Liminality is a form of holding the tension between one space and another. Liminal space is where we are most teachable, often because we are most humbled. Liminality keeps us in an ongoing state of shadowboxing instead of ego-confirmation. (Rohr)
Real spiritual life is about loss of self, sacrifice, inner transformation and change. It involves radical alteration of attitude. Union with God is brought about by total surrender of self and all things in perfect detachment. We are held by various bonds of attachment which make our surrender only partial and qualified.11,p104-5
St Francis looked to the underside of his society, those who had suffered, for an understanding of how God transforms us.6, p5
When we don't transform our pain we will always tramsmit it.6,p29
Sacred wounds is the unique Christian name for salvation. We always learn our mystery at the price of our innocence (“not yet wounded”).(Rohr,9/13/20)
Insiders are by nature dualistic because they divide themselves from the so-called outsiders. Choosing to live on the margins can be privileged places for spiritual growth and transformation. (Rohr,9/27/20)
Salvation, or "being saved" means redemption from the power of sin. In practical terms, God's salvation is what we need to get to heaven or attain eternal life. We must be justified, or made acceptable to God. In our natural human state, we are all sinners and unworthy of heaven. However, God, in His mercy, may choose to overlook our faults and admit us to heaven. Salvation comes only by the grace of God. There is nothing we can do on our own to guarantee our salvation. (https://www.christianbiblereference.org/faq_salvation.htm)
In Christian theology, the beatific vision is the ultimate direct self-communication of God to the individual person. A person possessing the beatific vision reaches, as a member of redeemed humanity in the communion of saints, perfect salvation in its entirety, i.e. heaven. The notion of vision stresses the intellectual component of salvation, though it encompasses the whole of human experience of joy, happiness coming from seeing God finally face to face and not imperfectly through faith. (Wikipedia,Beatific Vision)
The experience of "no-self" is a radical stripping is far deeper than the dismantling of our “emotional programs for happiness” (Rohr,10/27/20)
Each one of us must personally pass through in order to accomplish the “one thing necessary” here, according to his teaching: to die to self. Jesus teaches, is to grow beyond the survival instincts of the animal brain and egoic operating system into the kenotic joy and generosity of full human personhood. (Rohr,4/1/21)
So, how do we respond to the daily deaths we experience and embrace resurrection today? WE EMBRACE UNCERTAINITY.10,p173
The Christ Archetype, “an almost perfect map” of the whole journey of human transformation. A Great Story Line connects our little lives to the One Great Life, and even better, it forgives and uses the wounded and seemingly “unworthy” parts (1 Corinthians 12:22), which Jung would call the necessary “integration of the negative.” Those who truly live in The Story have embraced and integrated their personality, shadow, woundedness, family issues, culture, and contextualizing life experiences under The One. This is a truly integral spirituality. Only people who went on to develop a contemplative mind could finally grow and benefit from the message that they heard.(Rohr)
We can receive the miracle of new life by embracing our own difficulties and “deaths” as Jesus did. Ironically, the depths of our own sin—we can come out the other side transformed, more alive, more open, more forgiving of ourselves and others. And when we come out the other side, we know that we’ve been led there by a larger force. That’s what it means to be saved! God has found the most ingenious way to transform the human soul. God uses the very thing that would normally destroy us—the tragic, the sorrowful, the painful, the unjust deaths that lead us all to the bottom of our lives—to transform us. Are we prepared to trust that? Jesus’ death and resurrection is a statement of how reality works all the time and everywhere. He teaches us that there’s a different way to live with our pain, our sadness, and our suffering. None of us crosses over this gap from death to new life by our own effort, our own merit, our own purity, or our own perfection. Each of us is carried across by unearned grace. We’re finally indestructible when we recognize that the thing which could destroy us is the very thing that could enlighten us. God’s one and only job description is to turn death into life. That’s what God does with every new springtime, every new life, every new season, every new anything. God is the one who always turns death into life.(Rohr)
When the daring search for God is replaced with the search for personal certitude and control, then we are protecting our self-image as moral, superior, or 'saved'.(p57, Jesus' Alternate Plan))
"Today salvation”—healing and wholeness—“has come to this house!” (Luke 19:9)
We must approach the Scriptures with humility and patience, with our own agenda out of the way, and allow the Spirit to stir the deeper meaning for us. Otherwise, we only hear what we already agree with or what we have decided to look for! We must teach spiritual things spiritually” (1 Corinthians 2:13). This mode of teaching is much more about TRANSFORMATION than information. That changes the entire focus and goal of our reading and study. The biblical revelation invites us into a genuinely new experience. The trouble is that we have made the Bible into a bunch of ideas—about which we can be right or wrong—rather than an invitation to a new set of eyes. We need transformed people today, and not just people with answers. (Rohr)
Love / Compassion and Redemptive Suffering
Contact with God is not a matter of spiritual effort or intellectual learning. It is an identification with God by love, for it is love that constitutes in us the likeness of God.(p134, Merton's Paradise Journey)
The task is not to do big things, but to “do small things with great love.” (Mother Teresa)
We’re here for one thing, ultimately: to learn how to love, because God is love. Love is our origin, love is our ground, and love is our destiny. (James Finley)
Living out of love transforms both ourselves and the world. (Rohr)
If we agree to hold opposing energies creatively until they transform us, it becomes redemptive suffering.6,p19
We are awakened to the reality that all life issues from the same creative love. This awareness causes us to grieve all divisions. (ePost,9/20/20)
Our task is to be obedient all our lives to the Will of God [which is Love] for the world. Between religion for show and religion for real. Between personal spirituality that dedicates itself to achieving private sanctification and prophetic spirituality, the other half of the Christian dispensation. (Rohr,11/2/20)
We are called by the Spirit to use these gifts in service and love for our hurting world and not just for our private sense of “holiness.” (Rohr,11/1/20)
What Jesus calls “the Reign of God” we could call the Great Compassion. Compassion changes everything. Compassion heals. Compassion mends the broken and restores what has been lost. Compassion draws together those who have been estranged or never even dreamed they were connected. Compassion pulls us out of ourselves and into the heart of another, placing us on holy ground where we instinctively take off our shoes and walk in reverence. Compassion springs out of vulnerability and triumphs in unity.We contradict our own good common sense when we seek ritual purity or any kind of moral superiority instead of loving who and what is right in front of us.(Rohr)
Christianity has been made into a set of morals and rituals instead of an all-embracing mysticism of the present moment. People look for something visible, seemingly demanding, and socially affirming to do or not do rather than undergo a radical transformation to the mind and heart of God. Moralism and ritualism allow us to think we are independently “good” without the love and mercy of God and without being of SERVICE to, or engaging deeply with, anybody else. Obedience is normally a higher virtue than love in religious circles. The good news of an incarnational religion, a Spirit-based morality, is that you are not motivated by any outside reward or punishment but by PARTICIPATING in the Mystery itself. It is not mere rule-following behavior; rather, it is our actual identity in God that is radically changing us. Henceforth, we do things because they are true and loving, not because we have to do them or because we are afraid of punishment. Now we are not so much driven from without (the false self method) but we are drawn from within (the True Self method).(Rohr)
Accept the whole world with open arms because you realize in your heart that we are all ultimately deserving of love and compassion. (Rohr)
Once we are awakened to love as the lifelong purpose of our hearts, then feeling love for all the world becomes the meaning—and greatest joy—of living. St. John Chrysostom [c. 347–407] says: “If you have found the way to your heart, you have found the way to heaven.” (Rohr)
We even need to suffer for ultimate meaning. And what is suffering? Suffering is the emptying out of the soul so there’s room for love, so there’s room for the Christ, so there’s room for God. (Rohr)
Until we find the communal meaning and significance of the suffering of all life, we will continue to retreat into our individual, small worlds in our misguided quest for personal safety and sanity. A Crucified God is the dramatic symbol of the one suffering that God fully enters into with us—not just for us, as we were mostly taught to think, but in solidarity with us. (Rohr)
Suffering is how we get to Love. (ePost,5/17/22)
If we love greatly, it is fairly certain we will soon suffer, because we have somehow given up control to another. (Rohr)
Those who respond to the call love what God loves—which is both the good and the bad—and to pay the price for its reconciliation within. They have entered into heaven much earlier and thus can see things in a transcendent, whole, and healing way now. Saints are those who wake up while in this world, instead of waiting for the next one.(Rohr)
See Everything does NOT happen for a reason
Enthusiasm and Action
Emerson said "Nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm." AA say "analysis is paralsis." The word enthusism in Greek means "filled with God"6,p62
The only path forward for the survival of our species and perhaps even our planet is a path of nonviolence, of contemplation and action prioritizing justice and solidarity, an affirmation of Oneness and the interconnectedness of all things, which science confirms, and spirituality has always known on its deepest level. (Rohr,10/30/20)
Blessed in Arabic means "to set yourself on the right way for the right goal; to turn around, repent.”. . (Rohr)
Restorative Justice
A justice that seeks not to punish, but to heal. A justice that is not about getting even, but about getting well. A justice that seeks to transform broken lives, relationships, and communities, rather than shatter them further. A justice that seeks reconciliation, rather than a deepening of conflict. (Rohr,9/9/20)
Sin and failure are an opportunity for the transformation of the person harmed, the person causing harm, and the community. Mere counting and ledger-keeping are not the way of the Gospel. Our best self wants to restore relationships, and not just blame or punish. This is the “economy of grace” and an operative idea of restorative justice. Two-thirds of Jesus’ teaching is directly or indirectly about forgiveness. (Rohr,9/6/20)
“You will be judged according to your ability to love,” says the great stone under which I spent my purgatory waiting for perfect love to grow within myself, that which Jesus brought to earth for me. (Rohr)
Peace, Stillness, and Silence
In the space of stillness within meditation, we can become aware of our connection with all that is.(sumaiyawood.com)
Moving forward is not easy, but the truth is letting go of what we do not have control will always grant us peace with ourselves, other people and things, too. By placing complete trust in God, above and beyond all others, including oneself, one can ensure the restoration of tranquility. (Post Std,8/16/20)
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)
In humility is the greatest freedom. As long as you have to defend the imaginary self that you think is important, you lose your peace of heart.(Rohr,11/24/20)
Eventually, we find that place of inner peace, where we are aware of the presence of creator, we as the observed, realize that we are also the observer. This state of awareness, or cosmic consciousness can only be achieved however, once we let go of the ego mind, and fall back into spirit, into the ocean of divine love, the Godhead, the Source. (https://www.quantumlove.net/practical-spirituality.html)
We are unable to find God amid noise and activity until we have first found him in inwardness and stillness.11,p106
My house, at last, grown still. (Songs of the Soul, Dark Night of the Soul)
Contentment, Satisfaction, Happiness
Any “mystery,” by definition, is pregnant with many levels of unfolding and realization. (Rohr)
We live in a 'mixed' world that is human and divine, bad and good, simultaneously broken and utterly whole. Jesus agreed to carry the mystery and not to demand perfection.6,p44
The cross calls all of us to a mystery of transformation that none of us can possibly understand.6,p47
Rejoice in your secret, that you are both priest ans supplicant, that you live in the house of God. Be happy because you possess the pearl of great price, the realization of your own I.2,p110
The pearl of great price [Matthew 13:45–46] is what we sell all we have for the sake of; riches, fame, security do not ensure simple happiness in being. What, then, is that pearl of great price? It is feeling alive and real, vibrantly the aliveness that belongs to each of us. We want to be less lonely, less exhausted, less conflicted or afraid... more awake, more grateful, more energized and purposeful. (Rohr)
Everything in creation is the infinite self-emptying of God, and as such has inherent dignity and deserves respect and appreciation. Our job as conscious humans is to awaken early to this innate beauty and goodness in all of creation. Being fully present to the soul of all things allows us to say, “This is good. This is enough. In fact, this is all I need.” And then a leap of deep contentment! (Rohr,4/19/21)
Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony. (Thomas Merton)
Gratitude and Appreciation and Reverence/Respect
Gratitude is a form of wisdom. If you view the world through the eyes of gratitude, the world begins to change and intuitive guidance becomes even more deeply available to you. (p218, Divine Intuition)
The feeling of gratitude has a powerful effect on happiness and well-being. Gratitude is a gracious acknowledgment of all that sustains us, a bow to our blessings, great and small, an appreciation of the moments of good fortune that sustain our life every day. We have so much to be grateful for. (www.downtoearth.org/articles/2016-10/9351/gratitude-awakens-compassion-and-wisdom)
Even a plant (which gives off oxygen) should be appreciated. (Gaia.com conscious fulfilling our higher evolutionary potential)
Creation did not actually demand or need Jesus (or us, for that matter) to confer additional sacredness upon it. From the first moment of the Big Bang, nature was revealing the glory and goodness of the Divine Presence; it must be seen as a gratuitous gift. The true and essential work of all religion is to help us recognize and recover the divine image in everything. (Rohr,4/18/21)
The soul who deeply desires to remain in Christ’s holy company, and is sincerely grateful for the intimacy with him that is possible, and finds herself truly in love with this Lord who does so much for us — is the soul whom I consider to be most evolved. (St. Teresa of Ávila, The Book of Her Life)
Valarie Kaur teaches us that awe and wonder can make us available to greater depths of compassion, union, and love. Wonder is our birthright. It comes easily in childhood. (Rohr,8/12/20)
From Edith Eger an Auschwitz survivor: Thank you for life, and for the ability to finally accept the life that is. (Rohr,5/20/21)
In our periods of withdrawal and imageless prayer will lead to our perception of the glory of the Kingdom in our inner life.11,p111
The whole of creation is the place to encounter God. It is we alone who desecrate everything by our lack of insight and reverence. The finite manifests the infinite, and the physical is the doorway to the spiritual. All created things point beyond themselves to their Creator. (Rohr)
Finding gratitude can be the secret to making the most of every day. When we look through the lens of gratitude we can choose to see there is always something positive we can celebrate.(Post Std, 12/12/21)
Rather than taking things for granted, St Francis expresses gratitude to their source (which is grace). He realized that everything is present and everything we need is given. He became grateful and truly embraced life as a gift, finding true happiness and joy.(SRC Mendicant,Fall 2021)
The greatest honor we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love.(Julian of Norwich)
I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.(Shakespeare)
Worthiness is not the issue; the issue is trust and surrender. As Thérèse understood, “Jesus does not demand great actions from us but simply surrender and gratitude.” We’re all saved by grace. We’re all being loved in spite of ourselves. “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” Our imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that we’re all in this together. Imperfectly, but together. (Rohr)
Gratitude is the doorway to divine intuition, which allows us to be guided by our connection with the Creator. Practicing gratitude disrupts negative thoughts and changes our mindset to see the world in a positive way. When we live in gratitude the most ordinary things can become extraordinary, creating a fuller, more beautiful expression of our life.(Rohr)
Gratitude begins with awareness of God’s grace: The words “gratitude” and “grace” come from the same root word, gratia in Latin. Gifts are the nature of the universe itself, given by God or the natural order. Grace reminds us that every good thing is a gift—that somehow the rising of the sun and being alive are indiscriminate daily offerings to us.(Rohr)
I came to realize that maintaining a grateful perspective is a true practice.... This capacity for grateful perspective is a muscle I needed to build and use, and it is still something I need to nurture and tend daily.(Rohr)
Receives God’s favors with humility and gratitude (Rohr)
Gratitude Journal:Obviously with family, friends, health, security, self-esteem. Also, in sunsets, flowers, freedom, and knowledge. Subtlely in life itself, every breath, the breeze,.... Most difficult in suffering and troubles.
If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will suddently be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nutures the soul. (Rabbi Harold Kushner)
see Quantum Reality: reality is what you choose it to be
Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice of an echo. Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning. (Karl Barth) When we go from rashy and clenched to grateful, we sometimes get to note the experience of grace, in knowing that we could not have gotten ourselves from where we were stuck, in hate or self-righteousness or self-loathing (which are the same thing), to freedom. The movement of grace in our lives toward freedom is the mystery. The movement of grace toward gratitude brings us from the package of self-obsessed madness to a spiritual awakening. Gratitude is peace. (Rohr)
GRACE (an unmerited gift) and FORGIVENESS
Also see Forgiveness/Reconcilation and Mercy in Oneness
The entire gospel reveals the unfolding mystery of forgiveness, when we offer grace or forgiveness. The ongoing experience of being forgiven is necessary to renew our flagging spirit and keep us in the infinite ocean of grace. Zechariah said that God would “give God’s people knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of sin” (Luke 1:77). Such unearned and undeserved forgiveness is necessary to break down the quid pro quo world that I call meritocracy. Only when we experience undeserved love does this inward and outward flow begin to happen. Grace re-creates all things; nothing new happens without forgiveness. (Rohr)
The mystery of forgiveness is God’s ultimate entry into powerlessness. Non-forgiveness is a form of power over another person, a way to manipulate, shame, control, and diminish them. (Rohr)
The economy of grace in which God desires us to live. To deal with the actual gospel of grace, the only way we can actually understand this is if we’ve had at least one experience of being given to without earning. It’s called forgiveness, unconditional love, and mercy. To understand the gospel in its radical, transformative power, we have to stop counting, measuring, and weighing. We have to stop saying “I deserve” and deciding who does not deserve. None of us deserves! We need to realize that it’s all a gift — all the time. (Rohr)
Wisdom (the Tree of life) is the realization of 'GRACE'
Faith (the Tree of life) is the realization of 'GRACE'
We do not have to rely upon grace in the illusion of an unbroken world. The ego needs to be right, superior, and in control. Evil people are always certain they're right, suffer no self-doubt, and certain they have the whole truth. To bear the mystery, to hang with Jesus on the horns of the human dilemma, to agree to FIND GOD IN A CLEARLY IMPERFECT WORLD.6,p456,p45
My grace is sufficient for you for my strength works best in weakness.2 Cor 12:9
It is by grace that you are saved through faith, not by anything of your own, but by a pure gift from God, and not by anything you have achieved. Nobody can claim the credit. You are God’s work of art. (Ephesians 2:8–10)
By grace you notice, nothing to do with good deeds, or grace would not be grace at all. (Romans 11:6)
Metanoia (transformation / change of life style) is GRACE from nowhere. Te recipents always know for sure that it is an utterly unearned gift.6,p50
For example: if a police officer pulls you over for speeding and gives you a ticket, that's justice. If he lets you off with a warning, that's mercy. But if he gives you the ticket and then pays the fine himself, that's grace. (Biography of God, p104)
It's All Grace!!! (my epitaph?)
There is still an element of awakening into the heart space that happens spontaneously and without effort. Some call it ‘grace’, others call it a ‘mystery’, but nonetheless shifting awareness to heart is something we cannot force. We must ultimately accept that one of the most beautiful parts of a spiritual journey is that awakening into the heart space happens through absolutely no effort of our own and at the perfect moment in time planned by our soul. Until then, just try to enjoy the ride. (fractalenlightenment.com)
To experience grace is one thing; to integrate it into your life is quite another. For me, grace is the key to accepting all deaths—and experiencing all resurrections. Grace is not something God gives; grace is who God is. If we are to believe the primary witnesses, an unexplainable goodness is at work in the universe. Death is not just our one physical dying, but it is going to the full depth, hitting the bottom, going the distance, beyond where I am in control, and always beyond where I am now. We are dying throughout our life, and this is what we learn if we are attentive: grace is found at the depths and in the death of everything. After these smaller deaths, we know that the only “deadly sin” is to swim on the surface of things, where we never see, find, or desire God or love. Worthiness is never the ticket, only deep desire, and the ticket is given in the desiring. (Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss)
The more we see [and know our failures], the more by grace we shall long to be filled full of endless joy, for we are created for that.(Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, chapter 8)
Grace, arising from God’s limitless love, is the central theme of the entire Bible. Unless and until we understand the biblical concept of God’s unmerited favor, God’s unaccountable love, most of the biblical text cannot be interpreted or tied together in any positive way. It is, without a doubt, the key and the code to everything transformative in the Bible. People who have not experienced the radical character of grace will always misinterpret the meaning and major direction of the Bible. The Bible will become a burden, obligation, and weapon more than a gift. Grace is the life energy. (Rohr)
God’s love / grace enables and energizes us to change. I got the Gospel, saved by grace! And I knew it had nothing to do with legalism, priestcraft, or punitiveness. I just knew that everything was grace.(Rohr)
Most of my spiritual journey has been about learning how to be present and, from that grounding in presence, learning how to allow love to be what moves me. We come to understand that our will does not operate quite as we might imagine. There is an element of grace, of something miraculous arising in us which gives us the capacity to be awake to our experience. This is hard enough when conditions are favorable. Come to understand the importance of practices—contemplation, meditation, and prayer—as methods to cultivate in ourselves a capacity to be with larger emotions and bigger triggers in our lives - “Practice when it is easy and it will be there for you when it is hard.” (Rohr)