“There is a Divine Center into which your life can slip, a new and absolute orientation to God. A Center where you live with God, and out from which you see all of life, through new and radiant vision, tinged with new sorrows and pangs, new joys unspeakable and full of glory.”
Thomas R. Kelly
5 comments:
The one word that moves me in this beautiful quote is 'orientation.' For me, I tend to judge whether or not I am oriented and centered in the Divine by the use of factors for reference such as a feeling or sense of satisfaction- even the interpretation of outcomes. After all, we are taught that in order to be oriented in the outside world we need other points of awareness to know our standing in the present.
I realize that even as I am trying to find and stay in the Divine Center- I am already there, absolutely oriented- I need only forsake the senses, feelings, and outcomes as reference because they are only illusions of the ego attempting to keep me away from the center. When I known I am centered- I am not...when I slip into the gaps between knowing and doubt I briefly glimpse the Divine with 'new and radiant vision.'
I will not try and lose myself to the Center as ardently and determined as I have been trying before. I will wait patiently for those quiet, still moments when I slip away from the familiar and find myself in new joys that are an uncommon oasis and true home.
Thank you for this inspiring and beautiful post.
Isaiah, your insightful response here brings further richness to this quote. You write, "...when I slip into the gaps between knowing and doubt I briefly glimpse the Divine with 'new and radiant vision'" Yes, it seems to be in the letting go, the 'slipping' into nothingness, that we are most apt to glimpse this powerful, yet subtle, Divine nature.
In Light, M
Earlier this morning I was reading the Gospel of Mary, and began to wonder if you are familiar with it. Mary's gospel seems much closer than the canonical ones to the viewpoint you (and Thomas Kelly) express here. I think I'll put it in my hypertext Bible and include some notes and comments.
Thank you; you always lift me up to the Graceful Presence.
Many thanks for this inspiring quote from Thomas Kelly -- and thanks also to those who have added such wonderful comments to it! The quote from Kelly reminds me of a passage from Thomas Merton's "The Contemplative Life":
"The fact is, however, that if you descend into the depths of your own spirit...and arrive somewhere near the center of what you are, you are confronted with the inescapable truth, at the very center of your existence, you are in constant and immediate and inescapable contact with the infinite power of God."
Many blessings for the New Year!
Darrell
http://wildfaith.blogspot.com/
Larry and Gratefulbear,
Right. Both Kelly and Merton point to the divine center, the "the very center of your existence," where we become oriented to "the inescapable truth" of God, of Graceful Presence - right there within us!
M
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