{"id":21704,"date":"2022-10-06T09:57:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T13:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21704"},"modified":"2022-10-06T10:04:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T14:04:00","slug":"a-web-of-infinite-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21704","title":{"rendered":"A Web of Infinite Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ocqcEgvZ3s4\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>God, for Bonaventure, is not an offended monarch on a throne throwing down thunderbolts, but a \u201cfountain fullness\u201d that flows, overflows, and fills all things in one exclusively positive direction<\/strong>. God is a one-directional waterwheel of love, with no backsplash. <strong>Reality is always in process, participatory; it is love itself.<\/strong> \u2014Richard Rohr, <em>Eager to Love<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Franciscan mystical\ntheologian Bonaventure (1221\u20131274) used dynamic, creation-centered metaphors to\ndescribe God. Theologian and Franciscan sister Dawn Nothwehr summarizes: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>God, as Trinity, is like a gushing fountain\u2014that is, the source from which the river of all reality flows and to which it ultimately returns. <\/strong>Again, God is like the water of an overflowing fountain, generously showering all of creation with love. Or, <strong>God is like the expansive deep oceans that are like the vast depth of God\u2019s faithful love. Like a song\u2014where all of the notes in a carefully crafted order must be heard for the song to be known\u2014<\/strong>so too, in its wide diversity, the various dynamic cosmic elements make up the interrelated cosmos. God\u2019s self-revelation is like a book: it is first \u201cwritten\u201d within the consciousness of God . . . and then becomes the book \u201cwritten without\u201d as the whole creation\u2014all created things are the expression of the divine Artist. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then there is Bonaventure\u2019s window metaphor. Each element\nof creation reveals something of the Creator like the array of colored glass in\na stained-glass pane, which flashes with dynamic hues as sunlight passes\nthrough it. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Drawing insight from Bonaventure\u2019s metaphors for God, <strong>Ilia Delio writes that contemplation naturally leads to compassionate care for the earth:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While this Franciscan path of contemplation is desperately needed in our world today as we face massive suffering and vast ecological crises, we still live, in our western culture, with an emphasis on rationality, order and mind. <strong>Because our \u201cI\u201d is separated from the world around us, we struggle to be incarnational people and to see our world imbued with divine goodness. <\/strong>We fail to contemplate God\u2019s love poured out into creation. . . . <strong>The Franciscan path to God calls us to gaze on the crucified Christ and to see there the humble love of God so that we may, like Francis, learn to see and love the presence of God\u2019s overflowing goodness hidden, <\/strong>and yet revealed, in the marvelous diversity of creation. The one who contemplates God knows the world to be charged with the grandeur of God. <strong>Contemplation leads to a solidarity with all creation whereby all sorrows are shared in a heart of compassionate love, all tears are gathered in a womb of mercy, all pain is healed by the balm of forgivenes<\/strong>s. The contemplative sees the threads of <strong>God\u2019s overflowing love that binds together the whole of creation in a web of infinite love. We are called to see deeply that we may love greatly. And in that great love, rejoice in the overflowing goodness of God.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sarah Young&#8230;..<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be willing to follow Me wherever I lead; follow me with great anticipation; expecting my richest blessings right around every corner. Walk by faith, surrender and expect to rise above all daily issues of life, returning back into community to allow your light and the reflection of Christ to shine on others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2Corinthians 5:7  <br><sup> <\/sup>For we live by faith, not by sight.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 96:6  <br>Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John 8:12  <br><strong>He that follows me shall in nowise walk in darkness<\/strong>&nbsp;&#8211; In ignorance, wickedness, misery: but shall have the light of life &#8211; He that closely, humbly, steadily follows me, shall have the Divine light continually shining upon him, diffusing over his soul knowledge, holiness, joy, till he is guided by it to life everlasting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 36:9  <br><strong>With thee is the fountain of life<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 From which those rivers of pleasure flow. Life is in God as in a fountain, and from him is derived to us. As the God of nature, he is the fountain of natural life; in him we live, and move, and have our being. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>God, for Bonaventure, is not an offended monarch on a throne throwing down thunderbolts, but a \u201cfountain fullness\u201d that flows, overflows, and fills all things in one exclusively positive direction. God is a one-directional waterwheel of love, with no backsplash. Reality is always in process, participatory; it is love itself. \u2014Richard Rohr, Eager to Love [&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\/21704"}],"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=21704"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21708,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21704\/revisions\/21708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}