The Center for contemplative practice
A Lay Cistercian Looks at Spiritual Reality
For Behold, I Make All Things New
Here are some of my Lectio Meditation thoughts on forgiveness.
What is the distance between your birth and death? What is the distance between when a flower germinates and when it drys up? Everything has a beginning and an end in the physical and mental universes, even thoughts. In terms of behaviors, humans move from activities that have a beginning but also will end sometime in the future. Love has a beginning, struggles to maintain its integrity and then an end. You are the center of these two universes unless you add the spiritual one
Once you add the spiritual universe to the mix, which means that God is the center of all three universes and not you, there is a different dynamic at work. Now each day becomes a new beginning because you never love God with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, and ALL your strength. Each day we all far short. This is due to the effects of the sin of Adam and Eve. We get sidetracked from doing God’s will and even forget about God for large stretches of time. It happens to every human. Notice what happened to St. Peter and his profession of faith in his Master. Matthew 26:69-75. St. Peter’s denial merits a full paragraph in Matthew’s Gospel account, so it must be important. In the spiritual universe, which exists on earth and in Heaven, the beginning and end start with a morning prayer to think about your purpose in life and to commit, unlike Peter, to do the will of the Father in Heaven each day. Each day! Take up your cross each day and follow the Master.
As an aspiring Lay Cistercian, my morning offering takes the form of a thirty-second prayer for God to help me love with all my heart, forgive my failures in the past, and make all things new for just this one day, one day at a time.
It only takes a moment, but, in the spiritual universe, a moment is a lifetime.
That in all things, may God be gloriied. –St. Benedict
The Center for contemplative practice 