{"id":17343,"date":"2018-10-11T10:50:43","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T14:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17343"},"modified":"2018-10-11T11:07:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T15:07:56","slug":"unknowing-week-2-the-power-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17343","title":{"rendered":"Unknowing: Week 2; The Power of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Richard Rohr<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Unknowing: Week 2<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>The Power of Love<\/strong><br \/>\nThursday, October 11, 2018<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FBJJJkiRukY\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe anonymous, 14th century author of The Cloud of Unknowing conveys the fathomless mystery of God and that God can only be known by loving presence\u2014contemplation. The Cloud of Unknowing was the inspiration for practices such as centering prayer and Christian meditation. Today and tomorrow I will share some of my favorite excerpts from Carmen Acevedo Butcher\u2019s translation of the old English text. [Bracketed words are my own.]<br \/>\nLift up your heart to God with a gentle stirring of love. Focus on [God] alone. . . . Don\u2019t let anything else run through your mind and will. Here\u2019s how. Forget what you know. Forget everything God made and everybody who exists and everything that\u2019s going on in the world, until your thoughts and emotions aren\u2019t focused on or reaching toward anything, not in a general way and not in any particular way. Let them be. For the moment, don\u2019t care about anything. . . .<br \/>\nThe first time you practice contemplation, you\u2019ll only experience a darkness, like a cloud of unknowing [which now happily envelops you]. You won\u2019t know what this is [and will have to learn how to live there by \u201cforgetting\u201d your previous methods of knowing]. You\u2019ll only know that in your will you feel a simple reaching out to God. You must also know that this darkness and this cloud will always be between you and your God, whatever you do. They will always keep you from seeing [God] clearly by the light of understanding in your intellect and will block you from feeling [God] fully in the sweetness of love in your emotions. So, be sure you make your home in this darkness. Stay there as long as you can, crying out to [God] over and over again, because you love [God]. It\u2019s the closest you can get to God here on earth, by waiting in this darkness and in this cloud. Work at this diligently, as I\u2019ve asked you to, and I know God\u2019s mercy will lead you there. . . .<br \/>\n[God] measures us and makes . . . divinity fit our souls, and our souls are able to take the measure of [God] because [God] created us in [God\u2019s] image and made us worthy. [God] alone is complete and can fulfill our every longing. God\u2019s grace restores our souls and teaches us how to comprehend [God] through love. [God] is incomprehensible to the intellect. . . . Nobody\u2019s mind is powerful enough to grasp who God is. We can only know [God] by experiencing [God\u2019s] love.<br \/>\nLook. Every rational creature, every person, and every angel has two main strengths: the power to know and the power to love. God made both of these, but [God is] not knowable through the first one. To the power of love, however, [God] is entirely known, because a loving soul is open to receive God\u2019s abundance. . . . [God\u2019s] very nature makes love endless and miraculous. God will never stop loving us. Consider this truth, and, if by grace you can make love your own, do. For the experience is eternal joy; its absence is unending suffering.<\/p>\n<p>______________________________________________<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; cursor: text; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\">Young, Sarah. Jesus Calling <\/span><\/p>\n<p>October 11, 2018<\/p>\n<p>I AM THE CULMINATION of all your hopes and desires. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last: who is and was and is to come. Before you knew Me, you expressed your longing for Me in hurtful ways. You were ever so vulnerable to the evil around you in the world. But now My Presence safely shields you, enfolding you in My loving arms. I have lifted you out of darkness into My marvelous Light.<\/p>\n<p>Though I have brought many pleasures into your life, not one of them is essential. Receive My blessings with open hands. Enjoy My good gifts, but do not cling to them. Turn your attention to the Giver of all good things, and rest in the knowledge that you are complete in Me. The one thing you absolutely need is the one thing you can never lose: My Presence with you.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-align: left; color: #333333; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; cursor: text; orphans: 2; float: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent;\">PSALM 62: 5\u2013 8; Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. (He is) My salvation.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-align: left; color: #333333; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; cursor: text; orphans: 2; float: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent;\">REVELATION 1: 8; I am the Alpha and the Omega,\u201d says the Lord God, \u201cwho is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-align: left; color: #333333; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; cursor: text; orphans: 2; float: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent;\">1 PETER 2: 9 NKJV; But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-align: left; color: #333333; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; cursor: text; orphans: 2; float: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent;\">JAMES 1: 17;\u00a0Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Rohr Unknowing: Week 2 The Power of Love Thursday, October 11, 2018 The anonymous, 14th century author of The Cloud of Unknowing conveys the fathomless mystery of God and that God can only be known by loving presence\u2014contemplation. The Cloud of Unknowing was the inspiration for practices such as centering prayer and Christian meditation. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17343"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17343"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17348,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17343\/revisions\/17348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}