Dear All of Us,
So, how would it go
if we were
to go out to work, or
go out to a social event,
dressed with absolutely
all our clothing
INSIDE OUT
underwear to jacket and hat?
Of course it just wouldn't be a
"go"
at all, would it,
except for a hasty
"go"
right back home,
voluntary or otherwise.
In our spiritual lives
it's just the opposite.
The "go"
the dynamic
is decidedly
INSIDE OUT
And we don't have
to beat a hasty retreat
to go home because
we're already
and appropriately
right at home
and ready from there
to be
OUT GOING
This is more than
a play on words.
It's how
our spiritual
lives play
OUT
God is our
Center,
the core,
the essence
of who we are.
We "be" in BEING.
We live OUT
that Goodness,
that Godness.
A far away God
doesn't have
to come to us
from the
OUTSIDE IN.
God's already
"All IN"
"In him
we live
and move
and have our
being."
Acts 17:28
We are embers of
THE LOVE BLAZE
THE MYSTERY
WE CALL GOD
"GOD IS LOVE"
1 John 4:8
Our spiritual lives are
a flaming outward
of that intensity,
ignited and igniting
in creative Love.
That's who and
how we are
at our deepest
and from there
we are vigorously
OUT GOING
Sadly, much religion goes
the other way, it goes -
OUTSIDE IN
In so doing it
dampens,
denies,
even does in
a lot of healthy spirituality.
It sets separation
between God and us.
It reads and routes
our spiritual life
with lots of distance:
We're here.
God's out there.
In select
moments and manners
God comes into
our separated souls
from that afar -
OUTSIDE IN
That means we start
and stay alone a lot.
This flaw in
a lot of religion
is the failure to see
that God
starts,
stabilizes
and holds us
in being,
energizing us
to be
OUT GOING
Yes, at our center
we are
AFLAME IN THE LOVE
WHO IS GOD
We can bask in it.
That's what lovers do.
In the very best sense of it,
we're hot, so hot that
we are hot to trot,
OUT GOING
to meet and meld into
Oneness
with all the other
embers of
of being and doing,
embers of God's
LOVE BLAZE
- flowers, babies, music,
- establishment of just
social structures,
- ecological care,
- romance and sex,
- philosophical insight,
- the hurt and the hurting
- meditation and
contemplation,
- scientific research
and development,
- good meals and wine,
- sacred scriptures,
drama, literature and art,
- partnering and parenting,
- people on the check-out line
to members of our
spiritual community,
happily and endlessly
without end!!
Richard Rohr puts us right
by putting it like this:
"God cannot be found
'out there'
until God is first found
'in here,'
within ourselves,
as Augustine
had profoundly
expressed
in his Confessions
in many ways.
Then we can
almost naturally
see God
in others and in
all creation too. (1)
Put another way,
it's essential to be
right at home
right
at
home.
That starts in
the habitation of self,
centered in
The Love Blaze
who is God.
The intensity of
that Love Blaze
flames us forth
OUT GOING
in union, support
and service because
we are equally
right at home
in the habitations of
Creation all about us
in whatever condition
we find it in:
people and place,
matter and spirit,
need and hurt,
gift and grace,
expansive co-creation,
redemptive reconciliation
We discover that
what is at our center
is the very same center
and endless extension
that is at the core
of all that is about us in
Creation
We start from
where we are
and how we are -
God centered,
loved to life,
divinely intimate.
From there
The Love Blaze
flames us forth
OUT GOING
in joyous union
and
passionate care,
no degree of separation
from a distant God
or God's presence in
Creation.
Hildegard of Bingin
tells the tale:
"Love abounds
in all things,
excels from
the depths
to beyond the stars,
is lovingly disposed
to all things."
"All living creatures
are sparks from
the radiation
of God's brilliance,
emerging from God
like the rays of the sun."
Oh yes!
In God we are
right at home,
happily inside out
and endlessly
OUT GOING
Love to us all
John Frank
******
(1) Richard Rohr,
Eager To Love
Franciscan Media,
Cincinnati, Ohio,
2014, p.8
******
PRAY
and
PONDER
For those of us
who wish to
reflect and pray
more and deeper
on the dynamic of
OUT GOING
please consider
drawing from
what is offered here.
It is comes from
Hildegard of Bingin,
a medieval mystic.
She saw and spoke
so dearly,
so deeply
so clearly
of innerness
and outerness -
the divine dynamic.
Over the coming week(s)
may The Spirit
fill ours, drawing
from her sharings.
******
To Prepare
Calming to our center,
we slowly and deeply
breath in and out.
IN: "Yah"
OUT: Weh
Yahweh
In Hebrew: Y-H-W-H
When ready,
we
Soul See
a passage from Hildegard.
We let it speak and spark
rather than trying to master it.
The Spirit leads.
******
"Our souls should be like
transparent crystal
through which
God can be perceived."
******
"O, You who are
ever giving life,
moving all creatures,
root of all things,
washing them clean,
wiping out their mistakes,
healing their wounds.
You are our true life,
luminous,
wonderful,
awakening the heart
from its ancient sleep."
******
"Humankind, full of
creative possibilities,
is God's work.
Humankind alone
is called to assist God.
Humankind is called
to co-create.
With nature's help,
humankind can
set into creation
all that is necessary
and life sustaining."
******
"Be not lax in celebrating.
Be not lazy in the
festive service of God.
Be ablaze with enthusiasm.
Let us be an alive,
burning offering
before the altar of God."
******
"The soul is kissed by God
in its innermost regions."
******
"God has arranged
everything in the universe
in consideration
of everything else."
******
"Holy Spirit,
the life that gives life.
You are the cause
of all movement.
You are the breath
of all creatures.
You are the salve
that purifies our souls.
You are the ointment
that heals our wounds.
You are the fire
that warms our hearts.
You are the light
that guides our feet.
Let all the world praise you."
******
"Humanity, take
a good look
at yourself.
Inside you,
you've got
heaven and earth,
and all creation.
You're a world -
everything is
hidden in you."
******
"I am the fiery life
of the essence of God.
I am the flame above
the beauty in the fields;
I shine in the waters;
I burn in the sun,
the moon, and the stars.
And with the airy wind,
I quicken all things vitally
by an unseen,
all-sustaining life."
*****************
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"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
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Thank You!
******
Have a rip roaring great week,
"ablaze with enthusiasm"
Out Going
in
The Love Who is God
******************
