{"id":20846,"date":"2021-12-24T10:16:31","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T15:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20846"},"modified":"2021-12-24T10:28:55","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T15:28:55","slug":"20846","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20846","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Only One Message<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ulGqyckf-oI\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father\u2019s only Son, full of grace and truth.&nbsp;<\/em>\u2014John 1:14<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard describes the Christmas message ultimately as union, the healing of our separate selves and world through Christ:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know because it\u2019s Christmas Eve, you\u2019re surely hoping for some very special meditation. I don\u2019t think I have one, because there\u2019s really only one message. If we\u2019re praying, it goes deeper and deeper and deeper. If we\u2019re quiet once in a while, even on a busy day like today, it goes deeper and deeper and deeper still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s really only one message, and we just have to keep saying it until finally we\u2019re undefended enough to hear it and to believe it:&nbsp;<em><strong>there is no separation between God and creation.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em>That\u2019s the message. But we can\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so this Word, this Eternal Word of God that we read about in the prologue to John\u2019s Gospel, leapt down, as the Book of Wisdom [18:14\u201315] [1] says, and took its abiding place on Earth, in order to heal every bit of separation and splitness that we experience. That splitness and separation is the sadness of the human race. When we feel separate, when we feel disconnected, when we feel split from our self, from our family, from reality, from the Earth, from God, we will be angry and depressed people. Because we know <strong>we weren\u2019t created for that separateness; we were created for union.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So God sent into the world one who would personify that union\u2014who would put human and divine together; who would put spirit and matter together. That\u2019s what we spend our whole life trying to believe: that this ordinary earthly sojourn&nbsp;<em>means something.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes we wake up in the morning wondering,&nbsp;<em>what does it all mean? What\u2019s it all for? What was I put here for? Where is it all heading?<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I believe&nbsp;it\u2019s all a school. And it\u2019s all a school of love. And everything is a lesson\u2014everything.<\/strong> Every day, every moment, every visit to the grocery store, every moment of our so-ordinary life is meant to reveal, \u201cMy God, I\u2019m a daughter of God! I\u2019m a son of the Lord! I\u2019m a sibling of Christ! It\u2019s all okay. I\u2019m already home free! There\u2019s no place I&nbsp;have to&nbsp;go. I\u2019m already here!\u201d But if we don\u2019t enjoy that, if we don\u2019t allow that, basically we fall into meaninglessness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Friends, <strong>we&nbsp;need to&nbsp;surrender to some kind of ultimate meaning.<\/strong> We need to desire it, seek it, want it, and need it. I know no one likes to hear this, but we even need to&nbsp;suffer for it. And what is suffering? <strong>Suffering is the emptying out of the soul so there\u2019s room for love<\/strong>, <strong>so there\u2019s room for the Christ, so there\u2019s room for God.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ulGqyckf-oI\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"310\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/image-10-500x310.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20848\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/image-10-500x310.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/image-10-300x186.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/image-10-768x477.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/image-10.png 1814w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only One Message And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father\u2019s only Son, full of grace and truth.&nbsp;\u2014John 1:14 Father Richard describes the Christmas message ultimately as union, the healing of our separate selves and world through Christ:&nbsp; I know because [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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\/20846"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20846"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20852,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20846\/revisions\/20852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}