posted July 31, 2006 08:27 PM
"What is the best consolation in suffering and distress? It is this, that we should accept everything as if we had desired and prayed for it, for you would have desired it if you had known that all things happen from, with, and in the will of God....
"Lord, supreme father, master of the highest heavens, I am ready for all that you will. Give me the will to will what you will!"
- SenecaAll things are the will of God. Were it conceivable to stray from the path, one might stray by thinking, "I have strayed," or, "He or she has strayed," but, we may well thank divine providence that no such thing is possible. The almighty directs all our steps, though we may imagine ourselves alternately clumsy and adroit. He leads us heavenward by mysterious channels, and where the path zigs or zags, and we seem to turn toward, or away from the summit, still, we follow the shortest route a soul may take. Discover the truth of this, and you are saved. Cast away your compass, trust in his ways, and you shall never dream of straying. For, whosoever understands that all things are the will of God, can suffer no blame. If you do appear to sin, know that this is the will of God, and you shall suffer no reproach. But, if you should reproach yourself, simply return to the contemplation of this truth; know that your reproach is also the will of God, - and you shall not reproach yourself for reproaching yourself!
"If you believe... that you lack both devotion and serious intent and that, not having devotion or serious intent, you do not have God, and if you then grieve over this, this itself becomes your devotion and serious intent. Therefore you should not confine yourself to just one manner of devotion, since God is to be found in no particular way, neither this one nor that. That is why they do him wrong who take God in just one particular way. They take the way rather than God."
- Meister Eckhart
This is the greatest, perhaps the only, truth. Know and receive God's Will in all things, and you shall know and receive the Acceptance of all things. Knowing Acceptance, you will know Trust. Trusting, you will enter into the Kingdom of Peace, whose law is Perfect Trust, and whose sovereign is The Love Divine.
hsc
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'Would you know your Lord's meaning in this thing? Know it well. Love was his meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did he show you? Love. Why did he show it? For love. Keep yourself therein and you shall know and understand more in the same. But you shall never know nor understand any other thing, forever.'
- Julian of Norwich
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posted July 31, 2006 08:27 PM