{"id":27495,"date":"2026-08-24T08:22:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=27495"},"modified":"2026-08-24T08:56:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:56:39","slug":"27495","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=27495","title":{"rendered":"Discovering God Within"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WITHIN YOU, WITHOUT YOU (LYRICS) - The Beatles\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JoFt5PAATkQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Sunday, August 23, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard Rohr encourages us to look within to discover our true self, the presence of God within us:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are all looking for something utterly reliable, something loyal and true, something we can always depend on. In John\u2019s very short second letter in the New Testament, the writer offers us an invitation to discover what we are looking for when he writes of \u201c<strong>the truth that lives within us that will be with us forever\u201d<\/strong> (2 John 2). Most of us know little about this truth, so we end up as St. Augustine admits in his Confessions: \u201cLate have I loved you, Beauty so very ancient and so ever new. Late have I loved you! You were within, but I was without.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are right to go inside; otherwise, we become lost in an outer and revolving hall of mirrors, as Augustine confesses above. But the question is, \u201cWhich inside?\u201d I use the language of the true self and the false self, which many have found quite helpful in talking about this concept. [2] It is good and necessary to pull back into our true self, but it is quite a disaster if we pull back into our egoic or false self for too long (or, worse, never leave it). The confusion comes because both true self and false self feel like our \u201cself.\u201d One might be called truly \u201ccentering,\u201d while the other is the more common \u201cego centering.\u201d This reveals the core of the problem. Jesus and most other great spiritual teachers make it very clear that <strong>there is a self that has to be found and one that has to be let go of or even \u201crenounced\u201d <\/strong>(Mark 8:35; Matthew 10:39, 16:25; Luke 9:24; John 12:25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We might<strong> call the true self our soul, and we might call the false self our ego, our small or separate self<\/strong>. In finding our true self, we will have found an absolute reference point that is both utterly within us and utterly beyond us at the very same time. This grounds the soul in big and reliable truth. \u201cMy deepest me is God!\u201d St. Catherine of Genoa shouted as she ran through the streets of town, just as Colossians had already shouted to both Jews and pagans, \u201c<strong>The mystery is Christ within you\u2014your hope of Glory!<\/strong>\u201d (1:27).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once discovered, the healthy inner authority of the true self can be balanced with the outer authority of Scripture and Tradition. Our experience can be validated by others\u2019 experience. That\u2019s what assures us that we are grounded in reality, not a fantasy. That God is both utterly beyond us and yet totally within us at the same time is the exquisite balance that most religion seldom achieves, in my opinion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>==================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Recognizing Our True Self<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Monday, August 24, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard describes the characteristics and purposes of the true self in greater depth:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Searching for and rediscovering the true self is the\u202ffundamentum, the <strong>essential task that will gradually open us to receiving love from and giving love to God, others, and ourselves.<\/strong> We are created in the image of God from the very beginning (Genesis 1:26\u201327).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You and I (and every other created thing) begin with a unique divine DNA, an inner destiny as it were, an absolute core that knows the truth about our being. This true believer is tucked away in the cellar of our being, an\u202f<em>imagoDei t<\/em>hat begs to be allowed, to be fulfilled, and to show itself. <strong>\u201cYou were chosen in Christ before the world was made\u2014to stand before God in love\u2014marked out beforehand as fully adopted sons and daughters\u201d <\/strong>(see Ephesians 1:4\u20135). This is the true self. Historically, it was often called \u201cthe soul.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus revealed and accepted a paradox in his entire being: Human and divine are not separate, but one! His life shouted it. I wonder why we so resist our same destiny. For most of us, <strong>this seems just too good and too dangerous to be true. There is so much contrary evidence<\/strong>! Many clergy fight me on this, even though it is quite constant in the Tradition. Is it because we are afraid to bear the burden of divinity? As Marianne Williamson says: \u201cOur deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.\u201d [1] Maybe we realize subconsciously that if we really believed that we are temples of God (see 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16), then we would have to live up to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The true self is the Divine Indwelling, the Holy Spirit within us. I would say\u202fthat the true self is precisely the divine part of us that is great enough, deep enough, gracious enough to fully accept the human part of us. If we are merely human, we will tend to reject our embarrassingly limited humanity. Think on that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paradoxically, immense <strong>humility, not arrogance, characterizes someone who lives from their true self. They simultaneously know they are a child of God, but they also know that they didn\u2019t earn it and are not worthy of it<\/strong>. They know it\u2019s entirely a gift (see Ephesians 2:8\u20139 and throughout the Pauline writings). <strong>All they can do is thank Somebody Else, occasionally weep with joy, and kneel without any hesitation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The true purpose of mature religion is to <strong>lead us to ever new experiences of our true self. If religion does not do this, it is junk religion<\/strong>. Every sacrament, every Bible story, every church service, every sermon, every hymn, every bit of priesthood, ministry, or liturgy is <strong>for one purpose: to allow us to experience our true self\u2014who we are in God and who God is in us\u2014and to live a generous life from that Infinite Source.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>==============<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Thinking About It:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If God is already present within you, what part of you would you need to become quiet enough to hear\u2014and what part of you might you need to let go?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday, August 23, 2026 Father Richard Rohr encourages us to look within to discover our true self, the presence of God within us:&nbsp; We are all looking for something utterly reliable, something loyal and true, something we can always depend on. In John\u2019s very short second letter in the New Testament, the writer offers us [&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\/27495"}],"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=27495"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27501,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27495\/revisions\/27501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}