If we are called to be observers and contemplators, we are also called to nourish, to be nourishers, not consumers. Only a nourisher knows when to stop, not to overeat, overindulge, to draw back. To say no. I have a friend who has a coffee mug with the inscription: DON'T JUST DO SOMETHING, STAND THERE ... We often underestimate those who stand there. But I have had to do some new thinking about all this, as I have had to do some new thinking about the sound of the tree falling in the forest. If we are unwilling to practice the gift of contemplation, we are likely to get stuck in one position, and to be fearful of changing it, and so we cling, unable to laugh at ourselves and move on.
In the immense field of divine compassion, countless small
life fields are interwoven with each other. When human
hearts deepen through some form of contemplation, there
emerges in them an intuition of human oneness prior to all
separation ... a "communion of saints". In each religion's
communal story, there is a way of handing on from
generation to generation this transforming perception of
universal solidarity in the Mystery. We do not learn such
wisdom on our own. We receive this wisdom from
someone else.
~ Carolyn Gratton in THE ART OF SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE
In the immense field of divine compassion, countless small life fields are interwoven with each other. When human hearts deepen through some form of contemplation, there emerges in them an intuition of human oneness prior to all separation ... a "communion of saints". In each religion's communal story, there is a way of handing on from generation to generation this transforming perception of universal solidarity in the Mystery. We do not learn such wisdom on our own. We receive this wisdom from someone else.
~ Carolyn Gratton in THE ART OF SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE
In the immense field of divine compassion, countless small life fields are interwoven with each other. When human hearts deepen through some form of contemplation, there emerges in them an intuition of human oneness prior to all separation ... a "communion of saints. "In each religion's communal story, there is a way of handing on from generation to generation this transforming perception of universal solidarity in the Mystery. We do not learn such wisdom on our own. We receive this wisdom from someone else.
~ from THE ART OF SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE by Carolyn Gratton thanks to June Schulte
Unless we are grounded in Mystery -- unless we experience both ourselves and others as co-participants in Mystery -- we find it almost impossible to live in compassionate love of one another for any length of time. Unless we have "new eyes" that can see others contemplatively, it is easy to miss the many-spendored thing that is our life together.
~ ~ from THE ART OF SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE by Carolyn Gratton thanks to June Schulte
