{"id":20812,"date":"2021-12-14T08:24:53","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T13:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20812"},"modified":"2021-12-14T08:28:46","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T13:28:46","slug":"a-return-to-devotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20812","title":{"rendered":"A Return to Devotion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1CH5QaYzinI\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>As we continue in the season of Advent, Father Richard shares why he believes devotion, or heart-centered faith, is essential to the Christian journey.&nbsp; <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I want to encourage the uncovering of what we mean by the\nword <em>devotion.<\/em>\nWe have to somehow live a life that\u2019s connected to the heart. Otherwise, we get\ninto head ideology, righteousness, opinionatedness, and insisting on the right\nor wrong words. All are ways of avoiding the heart and staying in the head!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have to admit that I\u2019ve learned this kind of devotion\nfrom good old-time Catholics and healthy evangelicals. They\u2019re invariably\nheart-based people who look out at reality with soft eyes. We can usually see\nit in their calm face or the natural smile on their lips before they even start\ntalking. Trust that first impression, it is seldom wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If our message at the CAC is not heartfelt and creating\nheartfelt people, I predict it will not last, and it doesn\u2019t deserve to last.\nIt\u2019ll be another head trip that we can argue about. I think it was the gift of\nthe early Franciscans, although I don\u2019t know that we, as the later Franciscan\nOrder, always kept it. Francis and the early friars had a heartfelt quality\nthat made them dear to people. Not everyone always agreed with Francis on\nthings such as not going to war or radical poverty\u2014but authentic, heartfelt,\ndevoted people cannot be dismissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps this is what Jesus was talking about when he\ntaught, \u201cBlessed are the pure of heart\u201d (Matthew 5:8). It\u2019s having achieved a\npurity of intention, desire, and motivation that isn\u2019t about me\u2014how I look and\nwhether people are going to like me or affirm me. I think we all have to purify\nour intention several times a day: \u201cWhy am I doing what I\u2019m doing?\u201d If we don\u2019t\nlocalize our intention in the compassionate space that we call the heart, it\nall becomes about making an impression that will ultimately benefit ourselves.\nWe are all attracted to those loving people who are concerned about others more\nthan themselves <em>and concerned about us specifically<\/em>. It\u2019s really quite\nbeautiful. We feel softened, we feel held, we feel more tender around people\nlike that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can\u2019t fake devotion but sometimes I do suggest we\n\u201cfake it till we make it,\u201d as many say. We need to practice some kind of\nheart-opening prayer and practice being compassionate and kind toward others.\nEventually our hearts, as John Wesley said, will surely be \u201cstrangely warmed\u201d\n[1] and no one is more surprised than we are!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is one of the hardest things in\nthe teaching of spirituality because we cannot manufacture devotion. It is the\nwork of grace, but of course we have to want it and create the conditions that\ncan allow it to happen. Anything that helps us to be less willful, less pushy,\nless judgmental toward ourselves is a good place to start, because the face we\nturn toward ourselves is the face we turn toward the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>REST IN ME, MY CHILD, forgetting about the worries of the\nworld. Focus on Me\u2014Immanuel\u2014and let My living Presence envelop you in Peace.\nTune in to My eternal security, for I am the same yesterday, today, and\nforever. If you live on the surface of life by focusing on ever-changing\nphenomena, you will find yourself echoing the words of Solomon: \u201cMeaningless!\nMeaningless! Everything is meaningless!\u201d Living in collaboration with Me is the\nway to instill meaning into your days. Begin each day alone with Me so that you\ncan experience the reality of My Presence. As you spend time with Me, the way\nbefore you opens up step by step. Arise from the stillness of our communion,\nand gradually begin your journey through the day. Hold My hand in deliberate\ndependence on Me, and I will smooth out the path before you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MATTHEW 1:22\u201323; All this took place to fulfill what the\nLORD had said through the prophet: \u00b2\u00b3&#8221;The virgin will conceive and give\nbirth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel&#8221; (which means &#8220;God\nwith us&#8221;).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>HEBREWS 13:8; Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and\ntoday and forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ECCLESIASTES 1:2; Meaningless! Meaningless!&#8221; says\nthe Teacher. &#8220;Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PROVERBS 3:6; \u2076in all your ways submit to him, and he\nwill make your paths straight<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Young, Sarah. Jesus Calling Morning and Evening\nDevotional (Jesus Calling\u00ae) (p. 720). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we continue in the season of Advent, Father Richard shares why he believes devotion, or heart-centered faith, is essential to the Christian journey.&nbsp; I want to encourage the uncovering of what we mean by the word devotion. We have to somehow live a life that\u2019s connected to the heart. Otherwise, we get into head [&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\/20812"}],"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=20812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20815,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20812\/revisions\/20815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}