When Sarah gathered herself together enough to speak without weeping, she had to ask:
"How did you know my most terrible secret? Is my lack of faith in God so obvious?"
"My lady, I assumed that you would have such thoughts simply because any human being in your position would HAVE to have them. You give no outward sign of it. And it is not lack of faith. You can't stop thoughts like that from entering your head. Faith doesn't mean that you never doubt. Faith only means that you never act upon your doubts."
Wisdom is change. Wisdom is both the process and the result of transformation. Wisdom creates, is in constant movement, bringing design to the universe... Wisdom is my commitment to life, my willingness to continue changing, developing, transforming. When I live my life and love the living, all of it -- the births and the deaths, the fullness and the loss -- I wring wisdom out of it. My life is distilled, and wisdom runs rich and strong, a fine essence, through every word and act.
Elders and mentors have an irreplaceable function in the life of any community. Without them the young are lost -- their overflowing energies wasted in useless pursuits. The old must live in the young like a grounding force that tames the tendency toward bold but senseless actions and shows them the path of wisdom.
Compassionate action -- balanced by wisdom -- is a very important component of spiritual life. It opens our heart and puts us in touch with the happiness that illuminates existence and gives us the strength and courage to continue on the path.
When we are able to trust our calling and accept the journey we've been handed, we trust in a wisdom beyond our comprehension, remembering that no matter what happens, we are part of sacred creation.
The acquirement of spiritual wisdom does not necessarily prevent us from making worldly mistakes; but because it develops the qualities that will prevent them, and because it takes to heart the lessons of experience, humbly and receptively, it does reduce the frequency of those mistakes.
When we are endowed with the Wisdom of the heart, but do not have access to knowledge, we are ignorant. Then we only believe what we see, or what has been proven to our satisfaction. Since it does not occur to us that we may be endowed with supernal wisdom, we do not open ourselves to the mystery of the Spirit that invisibly permeates the created world. So long as we limit our explorations and activities to the visible world as though that were all that existed, we must remain blind to the transcendent beauty of the eternal world.
