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Life is a journey and for me it is like climbing a mountain. As you get closer to the top, you are closer to heaven. Whether you are on a mountain with much glory or on the mountain of suffering, you journey.....and for believers like me the journey is to a place we call heaven.
We have many other small journeys that all belong in our life for some reason and even if it seems like some stuff doesn't belong, perhaps we can learn something from it. When others treat us poorly, we can turn the other cheek and learn how to treat others in a kinder way than we might have experienced. Anyway, before I ramble on too much, I will say see you blogging.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

WOUNDED BY LOVE-THE POETRY OF ST JOHN OF THE CROSS-by Fr Joseph Chalmers O. Carm

The " wound of love" is the way God touches us throughout life in order to waken us up to the fact that there is more to life.  God is the only sufficient food for our infinite desires because only god is infinite.  When we turn towards this light, or let God into our lives, our other loves are relativized and sometime we can feel that w have entered into a dark night because we see the bankrupcy of our normal way of loving and we feel touched by a deeper love.  The night is the stage of moving from one way of loving to the other.  We begin to love according to the logic of God's love, with no motive.  During the night "lesser gods" begin to fall from their pedestals and die.
Johon of the Cross writes about what happens to the human being who discovers the reality of being unconditionnally and boundlessly loved by God.  In order to receive this love we must let go of our own ways of grasping to "unknowing."

John of the Cross is a guide for the pilgrim.  He takes readers into the wilderness where the encounter with God can take place.  Our hearts can be lead astray by many disordered desires.  John's poem tell the story of love purified, healed and reoriented.  Only God can finally accomplish this purification.

The night of sense allows the "false god" from whom we have sought the happiness that can only come from God alone, to die as a God substitute.  The night of spirit is when instead of having made something finite into god, the person has tried to make God finite.

FOR REFLECTION:
Look over you life and try to remember when you were "touched by love", when God helped you look beyond the externals and see that there was more to life.

Do You have any "false gods" or "lesser gods", that is people, places or things from which you seek happiness that only God can give?

"The heart becomes free only by accepting the invitation of a deeper love."  Does that mean anything to you?









Stanzas Of The Soul
1. One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings
- ah, the sheer grace! -
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.
2. In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
- ah, the sheer grace! -
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.
3. On that glad night,
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything,
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.
4. This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
- him I knew so well -
there in a place where no one appeared.
5. O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.
6. Upon my flowering breast
which I kept wholly for him alone,
there he lay sleeping,
and I caressing him
there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.
7. When the breeze blew from the turret,
as I parted his hair,
it wounded my neck
with its gentle hand,
suspending all my senses.
8. I abandoned and forgot myself, laying my face on my Beloved; all things ceased; I went out from myself, leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.


Spirituality and Gods Love

Well, just go back from Carmelite retreat, entitled... "Wounded by Love."  It was just wonderful and in case you do not know, it was about St John Of the Cross and his 2 poems, which express Gods love and how he reaches us in the Darkness, Dark Night of the Soul.    The problem is that the enormity of the light that comes from the Lord often blinds us as we are not ready to receive the fullness of HIS gift, Union with Him......the Beatific Vision........Marriage....Oneness or however you want to word having complete union with Our Awesome God.  I am not good writing on this, but will share online the highlights of the retreat, as explained  and outlined by Fr. Joseph Chalmers, O.C.(he gave me permission to post his hand-outs on my blog).  They come with some self-searching questions and I hope some of you will be prompted to go deeper into your relationship with the Lord from this.  I will say it is a journey, see that mountain top, you do not get there overnight........so be patient with yourself and trust that God will take you where you need to be.
Shalom and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.