Midweek Message – May 8, 2013

Greetings,

Where are you right now in your spiritual life? Do you feel a deep connection to the God of your understanding? Do you feel an awareness that you are not alone and that you are loved, guided and protected?

Or do you feel like somehow your connection and awareness is not as you would want it to be? Do you feel that when you pray, you are knocking but nothing is answering? Do not be dismayed. Throughout history many mystics have faced the same thing.   John of the Cross called it the Dark Night of the Soul and everyone from Buddha to Jesus, to John to Teresa of Avila, to Mother Teresa to Eckhart Tolle have gone through the same thing.

The good news is that it is often in times where things seem difficult, and you feel like you are abandoned, that the greatest growth arises and the result is a heightened consciousness and connection to God.

It is like a butterfly that must go through the painful experience of emerging from the cocoon it wore as a caterpillar. When we understand this, rather than dive into self-pity, we can increase our prayer life, spend more time in contemplation and look for God in the small things in life.

Getting out of ourselves during these times by being of service to others is also a great way to experience God in life even if it seems we don’t feel God in our prayers. We can find God in the small things in life like the smile of a stranger, the encouraging words of a friend or in the feeling we get from reaching out to another.

We can look at the world around us and see the beauty in the new green leaves on the trees, the many colors of the flowers blooming, or enjoy the fragrance of the jasmine as it begins to blossom.

No matter where we are, we can look for all that is good, all that is God, and we can see that we are truly not alone, not deserted, and not forgotten.

Quote of the Week

“…the endurance of darkness is preparation for great light.”
St. John of the Cross