journey inward

If you want to find God, then honor God within you, and you will always see God beyond you. For it is only God in you who knows where and how to look for God.

When you honor and accept the divine image within yourself, you cannot help but see it in everybody else, too, and you know it is just as undeserved and unmerited as it is in you. I call this the “Principle of Likeness.” From this frame you stop judging and start loving unconditionally, without asking whether someone is worthy or not. The breakthrough occurs at once, although the realization deepens and takes on greater conviction over time.

                                                                        Richard Rohr

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Spirituality requires two journeys

First a journey inward

And then a journey outward

The journey inward is that profound effort we must make

Not to the center of the earth

But to the center of our selves

That journey into the depths

To that place that defines us, and makes us who we are

Our core

Our soul

The place where the Sacred dwells

And is at home

We must go to that place

And find that Sacred Presence

And we must become intimate with it

There really is no other word

Intimacy

Intimacy implies closeness, connection

It implies “knowing”, “being awake” to the other

It implies passion, and uniting

The moment we become intimate with the Sacred

When we have become connected to the divine within us

Something happens

What happens is that we discover the divine image

We discover who we truly are

We become, ironically, intimate with ourselves

With the Divine Child

And loving the Sacred within

And loving ourselves

We are then ready for the journey outward

We are then ready, to seek to connect with others

We go forth transformed

Because we are now going forth out of authenticity

We are going forth out of fullness

Not out of need

Not out of emptiness and fear,

And this transformation shows

In a profound way

In the way we interact with others

If we have made the journey inward

The journey outward produces

Generosity, kindness

Compassion, and love

If we have not made the journey inward?

If we are not intimate with the Sacred presence

If we have not discovered our Sacred heritage, the divine image?

Then our journey outward

Is made out of emptiness

And everything we do, is an attempt to fill that emptiness

To ease the fear

And what emerges is greed,

And domination

Grasping

Hate

Aggression

Worse

How we interface with others

How we treat them

Is a clear indicator of the quality of our connection with God

Jesus made that pretty clear if you think about it

“By their fruits you shall know them”

“By this all people will know you are my disciples, that you love one another”.

The journey inward

Determines the journey outward

We cannot truly love others

We cannot be God’s people in this ungodly world

We cannot resist the temptations of wealth and power

We cannot be Sacred Children

Without it