{"id":17430,"date":"2018-11-01T09:11:50","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T13:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17430"},"modified":"2018-11-01T09:36:45","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T13:36:45","slug":"self-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17430","title":{"rendered":"Self-Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Richard Rohr;\u00a0 Love: Week 1<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Self-Giving<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Thursday, November 1, 2018<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>All Saints\u2019 Day<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MP4jVs97q24\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nDivine love is compassionate, tender, luminous, totally self-giving, seeking no reward, unifying everything. \u2014Thomas Keating [1]<br \/>\nEvery act of complete self-giving in the name of the fullness, even though you feel like you are isolated, ignored, unconnected, and meaningless, connects you immediately and becomes a sacrament of the manifestation of that dance of perichoresis [the circle dance of the Trinity], the fullness of love. That\u2019s what happened in Jesus\u2019 case, that\u2019s what he is teaching. . . . Give yourself fully, hold nothing back because in this act of complete self-giving you make manifest what the kingdom of love looks like. \u2014Cynthia Bourgeault [2]<br \/>\nIt seems to me Christianity has put major emphasis on us loving God. But in the mystics, I consistently find an overwhelming experience of how God loves us! This comes through most of their writings: God is the initiator, God is the doer, God is the one who seduces us. It\u2019s all about God\u2019s initiative. Then we certainly want to love back the way we have been loved. As my father St. Francis (1181-1226) would often say, \u201cLove is not loved! Love is not loved!\u201d I want to love back the way I have been loved. But it\u2019s not like I\u2019ve got to prove my love for God by doing things. My job is simply to complete the circuit!<br \/>\nThe mystics experience this full body blow of the Divine loving and accepting them, and the rest of their life is about trying to verbalize and embody that. They invariably find ways to give that love back through forms of service and worship; but it\u2019s never earning the love, it\u2019s always returning the love. Can you feel the difference? God\u2019s love is almost a different language. It\u2019s not based in fear, but in ecstasy.<br \/>\nGod is always given, incarnate in every moment and present to those who know how to be present themselves. It is that simple and that difficult. To be present in prayer can be like the experience of being loved at a deep level. I hope you have felt such intimacy alone with God. I promise it is available to you. Maybe a lot of us just need to be told that this divine intimacy is what we should expect and seek. We\u2019re afraid to ask for it; we\u2019re afraid to seek it. It feels presumptuous. We can\u2019t trust that such a love exists\u2014and for us. But it does. And I just told you.<br \/>\nOften the imagery used to illustrate the human-divine relationship is erotic, because it is the only adequate language to describe the in-depth contemplative experience. I have often wondered why God would give us such a strong and constant fascination with one another\u2019s image, form, and face. Why? I think it\u2019s because all human loves are an increasingly demanding school preparing us for an infinite divine love.<br \/>\nToday we recognize this school as the only real training ground for \u201cAll the Saints,\u201d and it can never be limited to those who have fully graduated. As the entire New Testament does, we must apply the word \u201csaints\u201d to all of us who are in kindergarten, primary school, middle school, high school, college, and doing graduate studies. Love is one shared reality, and our common name for that one shared reality is \u201cGod\u201d (see 1 John 4:7-21). &#8211; NIV: <em>Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>November \u2026.And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. PHILIPPIANS 4: 19<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sarah Young, Jesus Calling<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>November 1, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED by the difficulty of keeping your focus on Me. I know that your heart\u2019s desire is to be aware of My Presence continually. This is a lofty goal; you aim toward it but never fully achieve it in this life. Don\u2019t let feelings of failure weigh you down. Instead, try to see yourself as I see you. First of all, I am delighted by your deep desire to walk closely with Me through your life. I am pleased each time you initiate communication with Me. In addition,\u00a0notice the progress you have made since you first resolved to live in My Presence.<\/p>\n<p>When you realize that your mind has wandered away from Me, don\u2019t be alarmed or surprised. You live in a world that has been rigged to distract you. Each time you plow your way through the massive distractions to communicate with Me, you achieve a victory. Rejoice in these tiny triumphs, and they will increasingly light up your days.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ROMANS 8: 33\u2013 34; 3 Who shall bring any charge against God&#8217;s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>HEBREWS 4: 14\u2013 16; Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet he did not sin. 16Let us then approach God&#8217;s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Rohr;\u00a0 Love: Week 1 Self-Giving Thursday, November 1, 2018 All Saints\u2019 Day Divine love is compassionate, tender, luminous, totally self-giving, seeking no reward, unifying everything. \u2014Thomas Keating [1] Every act of complete self-giving in the name of the fullness, even though you feel like you are isolated, ignored, unconnected, and meaningless, connects you immediately [&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\/17430"}],"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=17430"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17435,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17430\/revisions\/17435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}