{"id":23047,"date":"2023-10-24T08:54:26","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T12:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23047"},"modified":"2023-10-24T09:04:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T13:04:17","slug":"23047","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23047","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"David Crowder Band - How He Loves Us (Slideshow + Lyrics)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GzfPHnoT0-0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Body and Soul Are One in God<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Lie down in the Fire;<br>See and taste the Flowing Godhead through your being.<br>Feel the Holy Spirit moving and compelling you within<br>the Flowing Fire and Light of God.<br>\u2014<\/em>Mechthild of Magdeburg,&nbsp;<em>The Flowing Light of the Godhead&nbsp;<\/em>6.29<em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Mechthild of Magdeburg was a member of the beguines, lay women who lived communal lives of Christian devotion and service in the Low Countries of Western Europe and in France and Germany. Scholar Carol Lee Flinders writes:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Describing the soul\u2019s relationship with God, [Mechthild] marvels at \u201cthe powerful penetration of all things and the special intimacy which ever exists between God and each individual soul\u201d (<em>Flowing Light&nbsp;<\/em>3.1).\u2026 <strong>The paradox enchants her: God is everywhere and surely, therefore, impersonal; and yet in relation to the individual soul, God is entirely intimate and surely, therefore, personal.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur redeemer has become our bridegroom!\u201d Mechthild exults. Others had said as much, but in a relatively formal, allegorical mode. When Mechthild writes of the soul\u2019s romance with God, she is no allegorist: in the depths of her being, she has found a lover who is fully, deliciously responsive. \u201cThou art my resting-place,\u201d God tells her, \u201cmy love, my secret peace, my deepest longing, my highest honour. Thou art a delight of my Godhead, \u2026 a cooling stream for my ardour\u201d (1.19).<strong> God is there, Mechthild insists, for every one of us, not in a general, impersonal sense, but&nbsp;<em>there<\/em>\u2014so exquisitely right for you it\u2019s as if you\u2019d made him up. He \u201cwhispers with His love in the narrow confines of the soul<\/strong>\u201d (2.23). Her language is almost shockingly erotic at times; for Mechthild, the sweet goings-on between God and the soul are the reality\u2014all-consuming and exquisitely fulfilling\u2014of which human sexuality is only a pale shadow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Mechthild\u2019s sensual language may surprise us, but it would have been familiar to readers of her own time:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps we need to emphasize this. The astonishing concreteness of Mechthild\u2019s imagery\u2014its unembarrassed physicality\u2014is somewhat deceptive if she is read casually. One might think she was celebrating the senses, the body, and even sexuality in and of themselves. In a way, she is, but readers of her time would have understood unequivocally that she conjures up the <strong>pleasurable experiences of the physical realm as presentiments, or intimations, of an awakening into supreme joy<\/strong>\u2014joy that is interior and immaterial and unending. Rather than distinguish sharply between the physical and spiritual realms, then, and reject the physical, <strong>she joins them in a natural continuity and progression. We are led inward by way of everything in this life: everything in this life, therefore, has its own sanctity.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-10-500x483.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23049\" width=\"687\" height=\"664\" srcset=\"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-10-500x483.png 500w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-10-300x290.png 300w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-10-768x742.png 768w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-10.png 1044w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 687px) 100vw, 687px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Body and Soul Are One in God Lie down in the Fire;See and taste the Flowing Godhead through your being.Feel the Holy Spirit moving and compelling you withinthe Flowing Fire and Light of God.\u2014Mechthild of Magdeburg,&nbsp;The Flowing Light of the Godhead&nbsp;6.29&nbsp; Mechthild of Magdeburg was a member of the beguines, lay women who lived communal [&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":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23047"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23054,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23047\/revisions\/23054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}