maybe Jesus dying and resurrection is a symbol of dying to your ego (selfishness, insecurities, prejudices, hate, fears,desire for power and recognition) and then rising in perfect or more perfect love. Except i don't think its a one time thing, its more of a continuous cycle of dying and rebirth, and each time maybe your inner peace and ability to love, understand and forgive becomes bigger (if that makes sense). it is one hell of a sacrifice to make, but it results in more peace and a deeper ability to Love unconditionally and to forgive and understand. As you let go of your ego, you are more aware of other's suffering and pain, and the reason behind their actions. Jean Vanier said that part of forgiveness is seeing the pain, suffering and reasons behind the action, and understanding the circumstances that lead to the person's action. Anyway, why can't I be more coherent??
anywho. thats all for now.
p.s. lol, this is from Jean Vanier, but i suddenly just connected it to the cross, resurrection, dying thing more clearly in my own mind after listening to my favorite song from my christian era, sweetly broken by jeremy riddle.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
prayer
The other day in the Body and Soul magazine that comes to our house, I read an article about prayer. The article was written by a skeptic of religion who went on a retreat that involved prayer. At one point, she asked the retreat counselor to whom they were praying to. The counselor told her that it wasn't really about praying to someone, but rather expressing and articulating the deepest desires of your soul. Anyway. I think that is pretty cool! It is a good way to focus your mind, and to keep your thoughts on what you desire and want in life. anyway, I'll write more later.
This is more later too, that I wrote after the next more later, but it goes better here. OH shoot. I forgot what I was going to say blasssst.
Oh yea, so lets say you were praying to be more open minded, and to have less issues with wanting to be in control of situations even though its impossible to have control over everything. If you pray every night for that (directing your prayer to whoever/whatever), it will become imprinted in your mind and thoughts. Well I don't know if thats true, but thats what I am thinking. I think that is why many people write their deepest desires in a journal, so those desires are at the forefront of their thoughts, and they can't be overridden by daily distractions as easily.
This is more later. I was planning on trying to give up fartbook for lent (except for a few minutes every day) so i could focus more on focusing my mind. lol, did that make sense??? But I like writing notes too much, because the results are just way too funny. Really I only write these notes for myself, so I should just write them somewhere else, but then I'd probably lose them. plus, like i said, they are funny!! hahahahahahahahha love yall
This is more later too, that I wrote after the next more later, but it goes better here. OH shoot. I forgot what I was going to say blasssst.
Oh yea, so lets say you were praying to be more open minded, and to have less issues with wanting to be in control of situations even though its impossible to have control over everything. If you pray every night for that (directing your prayer to whoever/whatever), it will become imprinted in your mind and thoughts. Well I don't know if thats true, but thats what I am thinking. I think that is why many people write their deepest desires in a journal, so those desires are at the forefront of their thoughts, and they can't be overridden by daily distractions as easily.
This is more later. I was planning on trying to give up fartbook for lent (except for a few minutes every day) so i could focus more on focusing my mind. lol, did that make sense??? But I like writing notes too much, because the results are just way too funny. Really I only write these notes for myself, so I should just write them somewhere else, but then I'd probably lose them. plus, like i said, they are funny!! hahahahahahahahha love yall
Lent
Today I was learning about lent. I did not know this, but the word ‘lent’, back in the day, merely meant ‘springtime’. I mean I knew lent/Easter was all about new birth, re birth, creation and all that jazz, but it was nice to learn this (or maybe learn it again, because I most likely knew that already back in the day. I also got to listen to this one heck of an amazing lady!!! She is just the coolest lady ever, she’s been with l’Arche for 20 years, and is a Catholic sister. I met her a few weeks ago at this retreat for assistants, and man-o-man I liked this lady. She talked all about the interdependence of all things, and that we are a product of millions of years of evolution. She talked about us all having unique and irreplaceable beauty and gifts, and therefore we were the only person in the whole world that could offer what we could. Anyway, I completely agree with the idea of interdependence of ALL things, and that this is why we need to cooperate, sharing our gifts, receiving the gifts of others.
Anyway, at the community I am a part of, we are going through some serious transition and trying to figure out a lot of things. At one point, after hearing a lot of people say “we’ll just go with God’s plan”, she said something like, “remember that God doesn’t have a plan. We are co-creators, we are creating the world anew, your community anew, all we have to do is listen to one another” That just totally made me stop and want to jump out of my seat and hug her!!!!!! It was beautiful <3. We are part of this Universe, which is the closest thing to ‘Divine’ that I can possibly believe in. This Universe is constantly creating and re-creating itself, and we are part of that. Everything we do affects everything else, and one thing I never thought about that she said was, “If you do something for someone it is like doing it to yourself” . . . that’s just like Jesus. I mean just like something or other he said. Well actually I did think about that before, because I know from experience that doing things for others makes you feel so bubbly in side, and also you let go of your ego more and more when you do something for others. When you are an ass to others, you feel bad. Well anyway, she gave us this quote that she also gave us at the retreat. I don’t know who to credit for the quote but here it is, “"everything comes to being through relatedness is sustained through relationship and thrives on interdependence”. Think about it, its so true!!
Oh dear, I forget how I connected these two things together in the beginning, darn. Well lent/Easter, Springtime is new creation, and creation comes through things interrelating and cooperation and all that jazz.
Well the original point of my note was that anyone can participate in Lent then, even if they aren’t Christian. It’s a time for new beginnings, a new creation, re-creating your life. It is a time for personal re-birth, and a re-commitment to your values, your vision, your goals, etc. It takes a combination of things in order for your re-birth to realize itself. Catholics do prayer, almsgiving and fasting. I’m not really Catholic (at all) but I think they are on to something. Prayer is for keeping your mind focused on your goals/ aspirations/purpose/etc, almsgiving is giving of yourself (letting go of caring for yourself) and fasting is refraining from doing the things that keeps you away from realizing your aspirations. SWEEETT!!!!
Anyway, at the community I am a part of, we are going through some serious transition and trying to figure out a lot of things. At one point, after hearing a lot of people say “we’ll just go with God’s plan”, she said something like, “remember that God doesn’t have a plan. We are co-creators, we are creating the world anew, your community anew, all we have to do is listen to one another” That just totally made me stop and want to jump out of my seat and hug her!!!!!! It was beautiful <3. We are part of this Universe, which is the closest thing to ‘Divine’ that I can possibly believe in. This Universe is constantly creating and re-creating itself, and we are part of that. Everything we do affects everything else, and one thing I never thought about that she said was, “If you do something for someone it is like doing it to yourself” . . . that’s just like Jesus. I mean just like something or other he said. Well actually I did think about that before, because I know from experience that doing things for others makes you feel so bubbly in side, and also you let go of your ego more and more when you do something for others. When you are an ass to others, you feel bad. Well anyway, she gave us this quote that she also gave us at the retreat. I don’t know who to credit for the quote but here it is, “"everything comes to being through relatedness is sustained through relationship and thrives on interdependence”. Think about it, its so true!!
Oh dear, I forget how I connected these two things together in the beginning, darn. Well lent/Easter, Springtime is new creation, and creation comes through things interrelating and cooperation and all that jazz.
Well the original point of my note was that anyone can participate in Lent then, even if they aren’t Christian. It’s a time for new beginnings, a new creation, re-creating your life. It is a time for personal re-birth, and a re-commitment to your values, your vision, your goals, etc. It takes a combination of things in order for your re-birth to realize itself. Catholics do prayer, almsgiving and fasting. I’m not really Catholic (at all) but I think they are on to something. Prayer is for keeping your mind focused on your goals/ aspirations/purpose/etc, almsgiving is giving of yourself (letting go of caring for yourself) and fasting is refraining from doing the things that keeps you away from realizing your aspirations. SWEEETT!!!!
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