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- God speaking to Symeon the New Theologian in a vision -
"... according to the nature which is Mine, I am altogether invisible, uncircumscribed, formless,
intangible, impalpable, immovable, ever-moving, filling all things while altogether nowhere at all, not in you, not in any of the angels or prophets who have approached Me of old or who now draw near, by whom I have never been seen at all,
nor am seen now."
- On the Mystical Life (Vol. 2), p. 107 -
(Mystics like St. Symeon remind us that we ought never become too attached to a particular image of God. How does it feel to approach God as Mystery?)
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DN 9:4B-10; PS 79:8, 9, 11, 13; LK 6:36-38 R. Lord, do not deal with us according to our sins. Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come to us,
for we are brought very low.
Help us, O God our savior,
because of the glory of your name;
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your name's sake.
Let the prisoners' sighing come before you;
with your great power free those doomed to death.
Then we, your people and the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
through all generations we will declare your praise.
USCCB lectionary
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Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. As we enter the second week of Lent, we are given advice for self-improvement. This Gospel suggestion will be especially difficult for anyone who watches TV, where judging and condemning have been raised to a popular form of entertainment. In fact, the harsher the criticism, the higher the ratings become. Lent is the perfect time to examine our own behavior and how we treat people. Instead of judging others, we are instructed to show mercy and compassion. Can we go a whole day without making negative comments about someone? Does condemning another person help us in any way? Instead of giving up something tangible, why not try giving up criticism? With God's grace, we can gradually become the merciful people Jesus counsels us to be.
Lord, for your mercy and guidance, we pray. - by Portia Clark
My Daily Bread
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The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
For we know well that the bosom of the Father is our ground and origin, in which we begin our being and our life. And from our proper ground that is from the Father and from all that lives in Him there shines forth an eternal brightness, which is the birth of the Son. And in this brightness, that is, in the Son, the Father knows Himself and all that lives in Him; for all that He has, and all that He is, He gives to the Son, save only the property of Fatherhood, which abides in Himself. And this is why all that lives in the Father, unmanifested in the Unity, is also in the Son actively poured forth into manifestation: and the simple ground of our Eternal Image ever remains in darkness and in waylessness, but the brightness without limit which streams forth from it, this reveals and brings forth within the Conditioned the hiddenness of God. And all those men who are raised up above their created being into a God-seeing life are one with this Divine brightness. And they are that brightness itself, and they see feel, and find, even by means of this Divine Light, that, as regards their uncreated essence, they are that same onefold ground from which the brightness without limit shines forth in the Divine way, and which, according to the simplicity of the Essence, abides eternally onefold and wayless within. And this is why inward and God-seeing men will go out in the way of contemplation, above reason and above distinction and above their created being, through an eternal intuitive gazing. By means of this inborn light they are transfigured, and made one with that same light through which they see and which they see. [75] And thus the God-seeing men follow after their Eternal Image, after which they have been made; and they behold God and all things, without distinction, in a simple seeing, in the Divine brightness. And this is the most noble and the most profitable contemplation to which one can attain in this life; for in this contemplation, a man best remains master of himself and free. And at each loving introversion he may grow in nobility of life beyond anything that we are able to understand; for he remains free and master of himself in inwardness and virtue. And this gazing at the Divine Light holds him up above all inwardness and all virtue and all merit, for it is the crown and the reward after which we strive, and which we have and possess now in this wise; for a God-seeing life is a heavenly life. But were we set free from this misery and this exile, so we should have, as regards our created being, a greater capacity to receive this brightness; and so the glory of God would shine through us in every way better and more nobly. This is the way above all ways, in which one goes out through Divine contemplation and an eternal intuitive gazing, and in which one is transfigured and transmuted in the Divine brightness. This going out of the God-seeing man is also in love; for through the fruition of love he rises above his created being, and finds and tastes the riches and the delights which are God Himself, and which He causes to pour forth without interruption in the hiddenness of the spirit, where the spirit is like unto the nobility of God.
- Third Book, Chapter 3: How our spirit is called to go out in contemplation and fruition. Paperback (kindle edition available)
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