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go here to buy my stock photography Alan Creech
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Know, O beautiful soul, that you are the image of God. Know that you are the glory of t God. Know, then, O man, your greatness, and be vigilant. That'll do to get us started I think. Those are some great little quotes from some of our Fathers in the Faith from way back. I'm pretty sure it's always helpful to get their perspective on things. In cruising through those, I think I've found a new phrase to love - "seedlings from heaven" - wow, that's amazing. Sometimes it seems we've gotten too far from thinking like that these days - we're so advanced you know - that it would be hard for a Christian thinker/theologian type to come up with a phrase like that. So, we go back and find them. Hopefully we can mine them for all they're worth when we do. I was talking to Liz about this last night. This is what you get when you sit out in front of the house with me on a nice evening - metaphysical union with God connected with thoughts about our original state as Humans, and why the hell so many Christians have utterly forgotten about these things. Lovely. She loves me, though, and I tried not to ramble on too much. The basic idea that we deal with that causes so many monumental problems down the line is this: that we humans were actually intentionally created to be weak, faulty, imperfect and basically sinful beings. Now, you probably won't hear many people explicitly come right out and say something like that, but it doesn't take much to draw it out of what they do say and how we live. "We're only human" has become deeply embedded into our psyches such that we think it's normal - that it is not only presently "normal" but originally intentional. That's not good. Just for the record, that's not how it is. God, eternally perfect and perfectly eternal, flow out of the essence of His own Being and create a mess. Now, He did create Beings like Him, who shared His Divine Nature and who had freedom. And then - well, and then, you know the story. The freedom was used poorly and caused a fracture of monumental proportions. So if we were to weave the idea back into our heads and hearts that we were created to have intimate union and fellowship with God, sharing His Life, with no barriers in between, we would be doing well. Such a shift in thinking would lead toward what our actual call to salvation is. That is not just to be forgiven and stamped, but to begin a journey of reversal and renewal of our very being. Reversing the cursed and tainted life we've inherited and have perhaps been living, and having the original Life and Nature we were created to have renewed. You see how it would be a problem to fully participate in this renewal process if we're thinking that it's not the point? That's good, I thought you might not see that. You can see/hear a good lot of this being talked about now in circles where it once wasn't. The language is a little different than that used by medieval mystic monastics such as St. Bernard of Clairvaux, but the deep subject matter is the same I think. Unfortunately, though, some of the talk about process as linked with salvation has become a concept of never reaching a goal, wandering with no real hope of actually being transformed in any real way. This is simply another way of thinking that hinders us from the true process of renewal. A couple of verses pops into my head. I think I'll end here with that. Peace to you. ...let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who inspires and perfects our faith.technorati tags > human nature, divine nature, union with god, theology, early church fathers, salvation Labels: spiritual formation, theology :::
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three quotes |:: "Then, if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike. Herein we cannot possibly do amiss." "Keep your eyes on the crucifix, for Jesus without the cross
is a man without a mission, and the cross without Jesus
is a burden without a reliever." "...I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be
completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self."
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