Theos-Talk Archives (August 1997 Message tl00174)

     Hello Gang, I noticed this on another list and thought that perhaps someone
on this list may find this interesting.
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-- [ . . . . . . . ] wrote:
[:->> How can we love God with all our heart, mind, strength and soul without
[:->> contemplation/meditation? This question is being asked by many at all
[:->> levels of Christianity with increasing strength and willingness to
[:->> change/grow current practices and notions of what the Christian path is
[:->> its details.  My point is that current Christian practice is not
[:->> something that Jesus gave whole and complete but is the result of the
[:->> Catholic Church principally and other Christian bodies deciding over
[:->> time and often with as many political as spiritual reasons what is and
[:->> is not valid Christian practice.  So saying the Christianity isn't a
[:->> religion of meditation and realization seems a bit overly stated to say
[:->> the least.  There is no full spiritual flowering without realization.
[:->> And how is it that we are to love in the way that Christ taught unless
[:->> we be transformed from what the average person is already?  The average
[:->> person is certainly not capable of loving their neighbor as themselves.
[:->> The average person (almost all of us in the sense I'm using it) is a
[:->> constantly changing collage of thoughts, feelings, urges with little
[:->> constancy or sustained awareness.  Something I believe the Church has
[:->> missed for a long time is that it takes good strong spiritual exercises
[:->> and meditation to develop enough individual coherence to be ready to
[:->> follow Christ.  Without that coherence merely saying the words and
[:->> wishing to follow does not do anything but lead to self-deception
[:->> and frustration.
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          [-  -]
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And whatsoe'er the Godward Path may be -
     the Utopian will give it dignity.
True brotherhood seeks only to ascend.
     All paths that lead to God must somewhere blend.

Let There Be Light -- Always in All Ways,   e.j. }*,*{
    http://home.earthlink.net/~ejlight/index1.html
"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction
is obliged to stick to possibilities - truth is not" - Mark Twain