THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE: PARADIGM SHIFTS THAT ADD DEPTH OF MEANING TO MY VIEW OF REALITY

This is a reposting of a previous blog. It is substantially long for a blog because it is a chapter from my book, The Christ Principle. I add it here because of its importance to my reflections about my humanity.

This is a very long and complicated Lectio Divina. I have never done this type of chain-linking contemplation like this before. I usually do one of my Lectio Divina meditations leading to contemplation every morning at 2:50 a.m. Nothing heroic about this. I just need to get up for a bathroom break every morning. Instead of my regular Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5), for the last three weeks, I have been having the same Contemplation about having in me the mind of Christ Jesus. I have attempted to write all I can remember (my mind is not what it used to be, or maybe it is). Each day, I just add to this compendium of reflections on reality. It is rather long. Also, I don’t pretend to speak for The Catholic Church, the Cistercian (Trappist) Order, or any Lay Cistercian organizations. I am just an old (81+ years old), broken-down, Professed Lay Cistercian, and all that you may read on my blog is what I wrote down from the Holy Spirit. Nothing more (typos are mine, not the HS’s).

PARADIGM SHIFTS, CHANGE, AND IMMUTABILITY

I became interested in paradigms about twenty years ago after watching one of Joel Barker’s videotapes. He is a futurist and has been one of the five great thinkers that have influenced my view of making up reality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0m6KJwwyNk It all started with a starfish video. Look at the story of the starfish thrower. If Jesus is the starfish thrower, throwing each of us back into the life-giving water, is that not salvation? Joel Barker provides us with the idea of a paradigm shift, a change of thinking, adding new assumptions about something while discarding others. Christ calls “making all things new” and invites us to live a remarkable life where love is the center of all reality. God is love. If you realize that the Church constantly changes how it adapts to the world with immutable principles, you are ahead of the game. Listen to what Joel Barker says about change. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uL2CXVTpp4 https://amzn.to/35USXCs

A paradigm shift causes a change in what has been considered the basis of all thinking. It is considered immutable. I will look at these significant mega-shifts from the beginning to the end of whatever is left. You might want to call them epochs of time or how what seems immutable is subject to change. Since its inception, I see life as having six paradigm shifts, constantly moving and adapting to its environment physically, mentally, and spiritually. It is the natural progression of reality from dissonance to resonance, of humanity growing towards its destiny, of growing ever more profound in the truth rather than just changing directions.

PARADIGM SHIFTS

Suppose, during my wanderings through the forest of Internet sites, I come across an exceptionally provocative idea. In that case, I find that it somehow wiggles its way into my Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5). It lurks in the background, begging me to try to integrate its ideas into my Meditatio (Meditation). Such is the case with my fascination with paradigms. You already have seen the Youtube from Joel Barker. Paradigm shifts happen when a new way of thinking takes place, resulting in a new direction or outlook on life. What fascinates me is how these paradigm shifts affect time and space as much as we know about them. These are my speculations fortified by some Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5) meditations.

TYPES OF PARADIGM SHIFTS

• COSMIC OR NATURAL — Given that pure energy that does not have a beginning nor an end created what does have a beginning and an end, this paradigm shift is one of the cosmic forces of nature brought on by the reaction of the elements with each other. The laws of nature interact, sometimes causing violent bursts of energy. This cosmic shift does not often happen, unlike personal paradigm shifts. This is the first paradigm shift.
• HUMAN -This shift occurs in the mental universe, which affects all of humanity and our future direction. Humans cause this type of paradigm shift. It happens every day, so much so that we have become immune to noticing it.
• MYSTERY– You can observe the effects of the paradigm shift happening but do not see its cause. It begins with the Christ Principle when all humans have the opportunity (invitation) to move from rationality to spirituality. This is the spiritual universe of reality that contains pure energy, pure love, pure service, and pure knowledge.
• INDIVIDUAL OR PERSONAL– Each of us can reason and then choose what we reason that we think is good for us. We are defined by the choices we make. Some choices are authentic and lead us to fulfill our human destiny. Other choices make us captive to our own delusions and false assumptions. What we choose has consequences for us and those around us. We use paradigm shifts all the time but don’t call it that. We change our assumptions about what is true because we know more or have experienced situations that confirm our beliefs.

SIX PARADIGM SHIFTS THAT HAVE CHANGED TIME

The following paradigm shifts are the results of my Lectio Divina over the past year (five or six different times). I offer them for your consideration. I offer these reflections on reality as a Lay Cistercian trying to seek God daily where I am and as I am. There are certainly more paradigm shifts than what I am sharing with you, but these are the ones I use to look at reality.

• All paradigm shifts go from one set of assumptions about what is real to another set with different consequences.
• All paradigms, except the first and last, all have a beginning and an ending.
• These shifts begin with the nothingness of pure energy, continue to be infused by their energy, and end as they begin with the nothingness of pure energy.
• The nothingness of pure energy (God, so that the human mind can begin to describe Him) is without beginning or end. Nothingness does mean nothing in the physical universe. It just is. Still, it describes the Mystery of pure energy, the nature of God whose nothingness is more significant than all the universes. We cannot comprehend that because humans lack the capability and capacity to see pure energy as a person whose power is pure love. It is for this reason to redeem humanity from just being locked into just a human paradigm to provide a choice to the next level of existence, the spiritual universe.
• All paradigm shifts involve reasoning and free choice. All of these paradigm shifts go from something to something else.
• All paradigm shifts, you will notice, build on one another in my model.
• Each of the significant paradigm shifts contains sub-level shifts. I offer six such major paradigm shifts for your reflection on this model.

I use the three-universe hypothesis whenever I look at paradigm shifts. As a matter of fact, I use the three-universe explanation for everything that is in my wheelhouse of control. Since this assumption is critical to how I view reality, let me take some of your time to dive deeper. Here is a piece about the three-universe concept I recently wrote in my blog. It deals with Power and Glory but illustrates how I view concepts and words through three separate but necessary views of reality.

SIX CORE QUESTIONS THAT DEFINE EACH PARADIGM SHIFT

The paradigm shift is the answer to the question posed by the paradigm. The six paradigm shifts do not happen in a vacuum. Interestingly, all these shifts, be they cosmic, mystery, or individual, are precipitated by reason and free choice. Looking at reality, here are my six questions that precipitated and necessitated the paradigm shift and my rationale for selecting them.

• QUESTION ONE: WHAT IS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO CREATE THE COMPLETE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE? This power can create something from nothing, energy beyond time, space, physical energy, and human knowing. This is the Alpha, and the Omega, only this pure energy with no beginning and no end is its own purpose. In creating that which has a beginning and an end, the physical universe, this energy unleashed a cosmic movement, i,e, physical time. This energy is divine in nature, pure love, service, and knowledge. This energy stamps all that is with the DNA of the one who created it. This energy is 100% of its nature. This is not only the source of all that is but the destination of everything with a beginning and an end. It is a Supreme Being that humans have difficulty comprehending, much like the mind-blowing distance between space galaxies. Even that analogy is just a way for us to describe and not define this pure energy that has one nature and three distinct persons. What follows is a blog that I wrote on the nothingness of God.

What follows is a series of thoughts resulting from one of my recent Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5) meditations. I experienced these thoughts while sitting on a park bench in the density of winter, waiting for Christ to come and share His Real Presence. I thought, “Here I am, sitting on a park bench in the dead cold, waiting for Christ to visit me, while not presupposing that I am even worthy enough for God to sit next to a broken-down, old temple of the Holy Spirit, but hoping He will do so.” There is a strange consequence of silence and solitude, the stillness that comes with letting go of everyTHING in your life that ties you to being human, the complete abandonment of a person you love but have never seen, and the realization that you can never approach God because He is God and you are, well, you. Yet, here you sit in the hope Christ will come into your heart and just sit there with you, no words, no thoughts, no need to fill up the time with idle chatter. This reminds me of the look between two people who have lived together for many, many years and endured the rocky fastness of their chosen paths, which now have become just one road they share. It is the look of deep, abiding, unconditional love, which the World and death cannot break apart in the hope that they will live together forever. That happiness is what I felt while in my contemplation. For lack of a good description, it is the happiness of doing nothing.

THE NOTHINGNESS OF GOD

In my view of what is real, the World (living only in the physical and mental universes) says that nothing makes you happy except what excites you, entertains you, and distracts you from all those foolish ideas that come from God, such as denying yourself daily, taking up your cross and following Christ. As I sit on the park branch, uncomfortable because it is so very cold, wishing I could be somewhere warm, the thought occurs to me that I must look at happiness and nothingness from the viewpoint of God, not the World. Then, I realized that the nothingness of God is more real than the nothingness espoused by the World. The paradox of God is at work. Only when I accept nothingness as the presence of Christ in my heart can I understand what St. Benedict wrote to his monks about humility in Chapter 7 of his Rule? I read Chapter 7 and the commentary by Abbot Phillip Lawrence, O.S.B., Abbey of Christ in the Desert, and encourage you to do the same. https://christdesert.org/prayer/rule-of-st-benedict/chapter-7-humility/

Chapter 7: Humility

1 Brothers, Divine Scripture, calls to us saying: Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted (Luke 14:11; 18:14). 2 In saying this, therefore, it shows us that every exaltation is a kind of pride, 3 which the Prophet indicates he has shunned, saying: Lord, my heart is not exalted; my eyes are not lifted up, and I have not walked in the ways of the great nor gone after marvels beyond me (Ps 130[131]:1). 4 And why? If I had not a humble spirit but were exalted instead, you would treat me like a weaned child on its mother’s lap (Ps 130[131]:2).

5 Accordingly, brothers, if we want to reach the highest summit of humility, if we desire to attain speedily that exaltation in heaven to which we climb by the humility of this present life, 6 then by our ascending actions, we must set up that ladder on which Jacob in a dream saw angels descending and ascending (Gen 28: 12). 7 Without doubt, this descent and ascent signify that we descend by exaltation and ascend by humility. 8 Now the ladder erected is our life on earth; if we humble our hearts, the Lord will raise it to heaven. 9 We may call our body and soul the sides of this ladder, into which our divine vocation has fitted the various steps of humility and discipline as we ascend.

10 The first step of humility is that a man always keeps the fear of God before his eyes (Ps 35[36]:2) and never forgets it. 11 He must constantly remember everything God has commanded, keeping in mind that all who despise God will burn in hell for their sins, and all who fear God have everlasting life awaiting them. 12 While he guards himself at every moment from sins and vices of thought or tongue, of hand or foot, of self-will or bodily desire, 13 let him recall that he is always seen by God in heaven, that his actions everywhere are in God’s sight and are reported by angels at every hour.

The nothingness of God is more significant than any reality in our physical or mental universes. If you look at the spiritual universe as the opposite of what the World says is meaningful, then nothingness means everything is one in Christ. He said that he would draw all things to himself John 12:31-33 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) ^“31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³² And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people^[a] to myself.” ³³ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.“

Here are some random reflections I had because of my Lectio Divina.

• How can nothing make me happy? Sounds like a conundrum, doesn’t it? The nothingness of Christ is the presence of the Supreme Being. Like a person who gets closer and closer to the Sun, the presence of God can annihilate our physical, mental, and spiritual being if we approach him directly. Baptism allows us to get close to Jesus Christ, Son of God, because he is our mediator, the transformer that allows us to call God Abba, Father. When we say we pray to the Blessed Mother or for the intercession of the Saints, what we mean is that our prayer does not stop with Mary or the Saint, but we ask them to join us to give glory, praise, and honor to the Father through, with and in Jesus in the unity of the Holy Spirit. The nothingness of God contains everything that is of value.
• In the World, nothingness does make me happy. I am uncomfortable with doing nothing. I must be productive and fill the time with anything to keep myself busy. I fill this hole with reading, watching television, or traveling to Cape San Blas, Florida, on the weekends to pass the time. This nothingness is nothing. It neither inspires nor transforms; it is just a way to count time. I am not proposing that something like work, a hobby, family reunions, or love, as the world sees it is somehow intrinsically evil. It is just not complete unless I see all of reality.
• The nothingness of God, as the name implies, contains no thing, thing being matter, physical energy, time, or space. The nothingness of God is all that is in Heaven, where there is only being who stands before the Throne of the Lamb, at the right hand of the Father, One God, yet three distinct persons, the Supreme Existence, the One who just is.
• St. Paul in I Corinthians 2:9 says, “⁹ But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”— When I try to move from self to God, using the tools of Chapter 4 of the Rule of St. Benedict, or my daily Lectio Divina meditations and contemplation, I make a conscious effort to just sit in silence and solitude and just “let it be done to me according to your word.” I want to move from the nothingness of the world, which means they lack anything, to the nothingness of God, which means the presence of everything. In this context, whenever I sit on a park bench in the dead of winter in silence and solitude, all I do is wait to be in the presence of Christ.
• I use the Three Rules of the Spiritual Universe to help me see what is invisible to the heart yet informs everything about my attempts to discover what it means to be fully human as my nature intended.

Unity in the Body.

1^* I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,^a

2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love,^b

3striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace:^c

4^* one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call;^d

5one Lord, one faith, one baptism;^e

6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.^f

In this first paradigm shift, don’t make the mistake of thinking that this nothingness of God somehow creates the physical universe, and then it ends. Everything that has a beginning and an end is overshadowed by this pure energy. It existed before there was matter and time, while there was matter and time, and as time slowly traveled to its end, beyond time itself. It overshadows it with energy humans cannot begin to comprehend because it is a person, the source of its own power and glory, self-sustainable,

• QUESTION TWO: WHY ARE HUMANS THE ONLY ONES WHO HAVE REASON AND THE ABILITY TO CHOOSE WHAT THEY REASON? MOVING FROM ANIMALITY TO RATIONALITY. Humans are the only species on the earth capable of reason and the ability to choose what they reason freely. Why is that? This is the mental universe where only humans can live. We have reason for a reason. When divine nature creates something, such as all matter, all physical energy, and all living things, it leaves its mark on how those move through space and time. I like to think of it as God’s DNA, with the analogy to human DNA. God’s products use natural law as the foundation of evolution from beginning to end.
• QUESTION THREE: WHAT IS THE NEXT LEVEL OF EVOLUTION FOR HUMANS? MOVING FROM RATIONALITY TO SPIRITUALITY. As part of the inexorable movement of all physical matter, energy, time, and space, from beginning to end, what happens in between is an ever-increasing complexity of energy. When that which has no beginning and no end lifted humanity from animality to rationality, humans caused a problem. They have the DNA of the Supreme Being, remember? This means humans now have what no other living species has, the ability to reason and choose something other than the natural law. This is a major paradigm shift from what went before, a cosmic shift. We continue to move down the human yardstick of time, but we also grow because of our collective and individual choices. They define what it means to be human and what it means to be an individual within that unique species. To get humans to the next level of their evolution, the universe of voluntary choice and reason that does seem reasonable to the World (physical and mental universes only), once again, Pure Energy, enables a Mystery paradigm shift from rationality to spirituality (my term for the spiritual universe or the Kingdom of Heaven). This is part of the plan for the physical, mental, and spiritual universes. Humans have reason to know and are aware of this grand plan of evolution. Humans have the freedom to choose the spiritual universe, God’s playground, where we must actually think the opposite of the World to enter. As a young boy of twelve, I learned that God re-opened the gates of heaven to humans as the Christ Principle by dying on the cross to redeem all humanity from its tendency to choose that which will lead to death and not life. With the Christ Principle, God not only became human but extended the Kingdom of Heaven to humans on earth, for those who choose this gift of Faith. Baptism is our ticket to enter this universe, where we continue to grow from self to God until we die (death of the body) and move to the final destiny for humans, life with pure energy forever.
• QUESTION FOUR: HOW TO SUSTAIN AND NURTURE THE GIFT OF FOREVER IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN? THE SCHOOL ON HOW TO LOVE OTHERS AS CHRIST LOVES US. Humans have a problem. With this next paradigm shift, we can see the wisdom of God who gives us what we need to sustain this free choice to love as Christ loved us. Jesus is sent to give those who choose the spiritual universe the help they need to sustain themselves as they live out their lives in the midst of the condition of Original Sin. The School of Love is to learn how to love others as Christ loved us. That is the only rule we have to master, and, believe me, it takes a lifetime of struggle to move from self to God daily. The third new paradigm, the Christ Principle, is actualized from the time of the Apostles until the end.
• QUESTION FIVE: HOW TO SUSTAIN AND NURTURE THE INDIVIDUAL’S MIND AND HEART WITH LOVE? Are humans, as individuals, just here for seventy or eighty years, or is there a reason why Christ founded the school of love? Love is the medium of the spiritual universe. Do you see a pattern in this plan to get humans to live in Heaven? If paradigm three is the WHAT and paradigm four answer the HOW then the next logical progression is to answer WHY. This is the fifth paradigm, the person who is at the free choice of the next shift in reality. It is to support me from my beginning to my end. This paradigm is about my ability to reason that love is at the center of all reality, in fact, love is a person, or more specifically three persons in one nature. All of reality exists so that I can have the opportunity to say, “let it be ” as God thought in paradigm one, as the Father created in paradigm two, as the Son of God became human to allow us to reason and choose the way, the truth, and the life, in paradigm three, as the Holy Spirit sustained the collective gathering of all those in heaven, on earth, and awaiting purification in paradigm four, as I must make a choice to enter the Kingdom of Heaven using Faith informed by reason, in paradigm five, as I fulfill my destiny created for me from the beginning of time, in paradigm five.
• QUESTION SIX: WHAT IS THE DESTINY OF ALL HUMANS? LIVING IN THE ALPHA AND OMEGA…FOREVER. If you ask the question, “What caused the physical mental universes, then don’t forget that this question assumes you also ask “What happens after there is an end to the physical mental and now the spiritual universe?” We are back to the beginning again with this exception, it is now the playground of the Supreme Being, where there is only one pure energy that overshadows all physical, mental, and spiritual universes, the pure energy of the nothingness of God. Because of all these paradigm shifts as growth and movement, we have a platform for human consciousness, the ability to reason and choose freely for humans, the option to choose a relationship with the Trinity of God, and a final destiny as humans to be adopted sons and daughters of the Father, although we don’t quite know all there is to know about that. We have hope that the words of Jesus to us are true. The end of the physical universe, the mental universe is the beginning as in paradigm one. Pure energy created reality, pure energy has no beginning and no end. Because of the Christ Principle, I am an adopted son of the Father and I will have no end, with the mercy of God.

POWER AND GLORY

Posted on August 20, 2020, by thecenterforcontemplativepractice

Who is the most powerful person you know? My answer is, my wife! To make it more specific, “What is the most powerful object in the universe?” I had to look it up on Google Search. Turns out that there is a Youtube video on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DFdAHiDljc In the face of such power, humans would not last a nano-second. Power is one of those interesting phenomena that seem to captivate the curiosity of many of us. In one of my Lectio Divina meditations (Philippians 2:5), I thought about the different kinds of power I had experienced in my lifetime, none of which contain the hyper-nova mentioned above.

As I always do when trying to decipher the reality about me, I use the “three universes” description to break down what I observe into three distinct, separate universes, each with its own assumptions and measurements. I refer to the physical universe in which all time, matter, energy, and humans reside. There is the mental universe, in which only humans live (unless you know of some other sentient beings). Finally, there is the spiritual universe, where God lives and it encompasses all three universes. This is a universe where you must seek admittance.

Let me walk you through how I use the three universes to distinguish levels of power. Let’s say that the most powerful object in the physical universe (all matter and time) is a hyper-nova. No question that it is able to destroy everything around it and no human or any life form could exist within the range of its influence. But, is it the most powerful object in all reality? To answer that, let me ask you a question; “Why is it that you know about a hyper-nova but it does not know about you?” If you can even ask the question, much less answer it, you live in a universe composed of only humans who have reason and the ability to choose what is good for them, the mental universe, for lack of a better title. We have a reason for a reason and the ability to choose what that reason tells us is good for us. So we have physical power and mental power to discover the why, where, how, what, and so what of all matter and its properties. We develop languages to search for meaning, both outside of us and within us. Sciences of the physical universe and the mental universes all have their languages, many of them only known to a few. We humans have learned how to harness some power to help us live more comfortably. Everything in both the physical and mental universes has a beginning and an ending. We, humans, find ourselves on a rocky planet of gases and water trying to find out how to use what we have to better ourselves. There is the power of a power plant that makes electricity, or wind energy to help us light our houses and cook our food. In the mental universe, there is an added dimension because of reason and the freedom to choose. Sometimes these choices are bad for either us or for society. Humans developed laws to help keep order and to uphold the dignity that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But, is that the only type of power that exists in reality?

There is another power, one not accepted by all humans (remember, they have the ability to reason and to choose whatever they think is good for them), the spiritual universe. In our lifetime, we are defined, not by our accomplishments in life but by the choices we make and their consequences. Remember, the spiritual universe may only be entered if you have an invitation and you accept that free gift and you accept the conditions of membership. You always will be a part of the physical universe. On top of that, you are a member of the mental universe with all its consequences. The two universes, the platform for life and the platform for human reasoning and choice are there to allow you to choose the spiritual universe or not. In the mental universe, you begin to realize the importance of immutable values and meaning, especially what it means to love. Why is this? Where does that choice take you? This next level of power is not human at all. It is the power of God, for lack of a better term. How do you know that? Because He revealed it to us. Humans from time immemorial, created gods of stone and myth to satisfy a desire for communication with a higher level of power, one outside of themselves. They created gods such as the Greek Pantheon of Gods or Roman deities.

Jesus Christ becomes one of us (Philippians 2:5-12) to tell us AND to show us how to use the power of being adopted sons and daughters of the Father to know, love, and serve God and others and to be fulfilled as a human beings in Heaven. Here are some characteristics of this spiritual universe that you need to be able to do to have the power to move from self to God.

• Heaven is God’s playground and if you want to play in His sandbox you need to respect His rules.
• There is only one rule: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
• Everything in the spiritual universe doesn’t make human sense to the world. St. Benedict, in Chapter 4 of the Rule, provides us with a list of those things we need to do to become more like Christ and less like our sinful and inconsistent selves. https://christdesert.org/prayer/rule-of-st-benedict/chapter-4-the-tools-for-good-works/
• Taking up your cross daily means seeking God where you are and as you are. If it is easy, you are probably carrying the wrong cross.
• All power and energy in the spiritual universe come from God. It is the energy of love, the relationship of service between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• The gulf between God and humans is so great that Christ (Son of God, Savior) had to become one of us to give us an inkling of what our inheritance is as adopted sons and daughters of the Father.
• In the physical and mental universes alone, individual humans are the center of their lives and they are happy to do what makes them satisfied. In the physical, mental and spiritual universes, the fulness of what it means to be human may be realized, not because of individual power but because all reality is in resonance and not dissonance. All reality is One.
• When we say the Lord’s Prayer privately or recite it together in the Eucharist, we say: “For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, Forever and Ever.” In humility, we approach the Father through Christ to make a profession of Faith, The Christ Principle a daily conversion from self to God.
• https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p4s2.htm
• In our own age, being corrupted by hatred and calumny and detractions, there are those whose center is hatred and burn incense at the altars of their own selves. These choices seem strong to their believers but won’t last long. They have no power.

WHAT’S MISSING? ROMANCING REALITY

These three universes each have their own purpose, their own laws, their own measurement, and their own power. In fact, the constant in all three universes is energy. If my reality contains only the physical and mental universes, there seems to be something missing. It is like dark matter that scientists are massaging. They can’t see it but they hypothesize that exists because they can measure its effects on the dispersal of galaxies moving away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cadNZJvfl7s

What science does is connect us with what is real and what is not. Science uses languages (chemistry, physics, mathematics, and logic) to delve ever more deeply into how things make us matter and the world in which we live. It deals with what is in the physical universe, the objects of its study and inquiry, and what can be seen. We don’t need less science and more spirituality, we need more science and more spirituality. There is only one truth and both the physical universe and the mental universe must align themselves together. I think that the spiritual universe is the natural consequence or the missing piece of the real equation. Granted that all these ideas are just my assumptions about what is real and what is not, I can only look around me and see how all of this fits together. Again, truth is one and not subject to change. What is subject to change are the assumptions we make about what that truly means. When I tried to force all three universes together using the tools I had acquired over a lifetime, nothing fit. By that I mean, if I just look at science and logic as the measurements of what is, the spirituality that I know doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t fit, and to make a more dramatic observation, it is the complete opposite of the physical and mental universes. That can’t be right, I kept saying for ten or more years. After I had been accepted by Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery (Trappist) and the Lay Cistercians affiliated with them, I began, very slowly to go to the part of me that I fear to go, the door that is there but I am afraid to open it. It took me five years of study and practice to have in me the mind of Christ Jesus, sitting on that park bench in the middle of winter and just waiting in silence and solitude. One day, in my midst of Lectio Divina meditations, the door opened by itself. Do you know what I found? The other side of the door looked just like the side of living where I had just come. All of this longing to seek God each and every day, to move from self to God, to have in me the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5) made me a bit disappointed. “Nothing had changed,” I thought, “It is the same world.” But wait! The thoughts that I received were nothing like I had ever imagined before. I could see reality now in three distinct universes, each one with different assumptions yet necessary for unity. I realized that I was and am living in a world of contradictions and ambiguities, but now I knew that the spiritual universe contained the opposite of what the physical and mental universes count as meaningful. I am not implying that all that is in the physical and mental universe is bad, far from it. What I am saying that the full meaning of being human, the reason for living, is the opposite of the World. This third universe, the spiritual one, is accessed by reason and free choice. I liken it to polar reversals that happen on earth. The earth remains the same but the shift is in the magnetic North. In one of the paradigm shifts below, I will speak about how these reversals (paradigm shifts) from what is to what is better. A form of growth from what is good to what is better.

THE FIRST PARADIGM SHIFT: EVERYTHING HAS A BEGINNING AND AN END — All shifts have a FROM, the default paradigm of current assumptions to the addition of new ones, and a TO, the new view of reality, not necessarily different but with more knowledge and a growth consistent with pure energy.

THE DEFAULT PARADIGM: THE ENERGY OF GOD WITHOUT BEGINNING OR END THE NEW PARADIGM SHIFT: THE ENERGY OF THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE WITH A BEGINNING AND AN END

The first paradigm shift, everything has a beginning and an end, is actually the TO part. It is the beginning of matter, time, energy, gasses. One characteristic is that everything that is in the physical universe has a beginning and an end. Look around you and name something that lasts forever. You will only live seventy or eighty years if you are lucky. All galaxies and stars will dissolve eventually, according to what I read. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA The question I keep asking myself is where do we come from? The answer comes at the beginning of what is, the physical universe. Science gives us a marvelous description of what that might be like, but no one was there to see it. Humans are the only ones that can ask the WHY and WHAT and HOW questions about what existed before time. When I ask those questions, using my three universe hypothesis, I think of how energy is the constant in all three universes, and, as each unique universe, and, there are three separate types of energy, one for the physical universe, one for the mental universe, and one for the spiritual universe. Allow me to elaborate.

Physical energy – We are most familiar with this type of energy. It is the energy of matter within the parameters of space and time. If something happened to our Sun and it flamed out, we would all be goners, dead. We depend on the physical universe as our platform for existence. The human mind and our natural curiosity for why things are and how to improve them, have led us to marvelous discoveries about energy.

Characteristics

• The physical universe does not depend upon the mental universe for its existence. This universe is governed by the laws of nature.
• Everything in the physical universe has a beginning and an end. Everything moves forward in time from what went before. There is a past, a present, and a future.
• Humans are a part of this physical universe and live in it with all other matter and energy with one exception–they are the only ones that know that they know. Humans are of delicate nature, existing on within certain parameters (oxygen, correct temperature, water, immune system to combat diseases).
• Humans have discovered how to harness some energy and use it to make life better.
• Astronomy says the universe began some 13 billion years ago. In the fullness of time, and life, then humans began to subdue and fill the earth. The beginning of humanity was, according to the Genesis account, Adam and Eve, certainly archetype for humanity. The mystery paradigm is that God, who has no beginning and no end became human to save us from just being hostage to what the world says is purpose. The person of Jesus had a beginning but no end. He was, as the archetype of Adam and Eve, the chosen one of God, and indeed He was God the Son, revealed to us as such. He suffered, died on the cross, according to the Scriptures, and rose from the dead, again all consistent with the literary devices of the time that describes the hero myth. He sustained His real presence through the Holy Spirit for those who gather in His name and love others as He loved them. Pentecost is the beginning of this new paradigm and it is without end. This special gathering is a collection of individuals who are one, holy, catholic, and join their Faith in each age with the Apostles; through the real presence of the Holy Spirit. All of this so far is so that I can know, love, and serve God in this life and be happy with Him in the next.

Mental energy — Of all the species living on earth, we are the only ones that know that we know. Why is that? Mental energy is what we use to look at the physical universe and try to discover meaning and purpose. Science and logic give us the ability to look at the macrophysical universe and its micro components and draw back the curtain on why and how things are. Mental energy is the power of the collective and individual minds to make life better for all of us. With our minds, we look at the physical universe and try to find ways to answer “Why? How? Where? When? How much? and So What?” questions.

Characteristics

• Humans are the only ones who live in this universe. Why is that?
• Everything in this universe has a beginning and an end.
• Humans have reason for a reason and that is to choose between what is good for us and what is bad for us. Humans have had a challenge figuring out what is good and what is bad.
• The mental universe is one of the choices we make to move forward. We are not defined by our activities, our talents, or our station in life. We are defined by the choices that we make.
• The mental universe is where we discover the meaning of love and the purpose of why we are here.
• The energy of the mental universe is enlightenment. It is not physical energy.
• The mental universe provides us with the possibility of moving from the Physical and Mental Universes (the world) to that of a completely separate and complimentary universe, the spiritual universe.
• The mental universe permits us to use Faith informed by reason to make choices that do not fit the normal paradigm of nature. We call that supernatural because it does not make complete sense, using the measurements of the world.
• Mental energy is all that we know about the sciences, medicine, philosophy, spirituality, and literature, all knowledge, in fact, helps us to figure out what is meaningful and our place in this space and time.
• The mental universe is the collective and cumulative knowledge of humanity as it addressed the fundamental questions of what is the purpose of life, and how it all fits together. Science is a very important part of the equation but it is not alone in its quest for what is true. Logic, philosophy, and trends in spiritual thinking also give us a perspective on what is real.
• The mental universe is one of the keys that bring us face to face with the spiritual universe, one that requires an act of the will to enter. No one enters unless they know what they are entering, maybe not totally, but certainly, enough to participate in Baptism.

Spiritual Energy

In this model, spiritual energy is so mysterious and unknowable just with human reasoning, that we just catch glimpses of what it might be. Spiritual energy is a person, actually, three persons with one nature (divine) all interacting with pure love, pure knowledge, and pure service. This divine energy is not consumed by using it but rather is pure energy, 100% of God’s nature, filled to the brim, just like Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and filled to the brim in her human nature. Humans access spiritual energy by being in their presence and waiting patiently. This universe of the Spirit may only be accessed by free will or choice by humans. Jesus, both human and divine natures, volunteered to become one of us so that we would even have a rudimentary knowledge of what it means to be an adopted son or daughter of the Father. Jesus showed us how to act (through Scripture) and receive gifts to help us walk through the minefields of life, e.g., Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Healing of body and spirit.

Characteristics

• This universe has no beginning or end. As you will read, this pure energy does not live in the world, nor does it have a beginning and end. Yet, God shared his divinity with humans by sending His only-begotten Son so that they might have life, and have it to the full.
• This energy is so powerful, it has a distinct nature, one whose beginning is its end. It is living, in as much as we humans can appreciate the meaning of that word.
• This is the universe of the Christ Principle, one which makes sense out of the seeming contradiction of the world. (Philippians 2:5-12)
• This spiritual energy does not make sense to the world (physical and mental universes alone) but makes perfect sense when you apply the rule of opposites. This rule (of my model) states that to make sense of the spiritual universe, you must see the opposite of what the world teaches. Even the words, such as love, peace, meaning, and purpose have different meanings in the spiritual universe.
• This universe does not contain matter, physical energy, or physical time, or occupy physical space.
• This universe has only one principle, love. This is not loved as the world perceives it, although human love is not bad. It is just that human love won’t get you to the kingdom of heaven by itself.
• This universe is alien to the human experience because we don’t have measurements that can qualify or quantify pure energy. Reason will only take us so far and then we lack both the capability and the capacity to define this universe. In the spiritual universe, we can only catch glimpses of what it might be like. It is like looking through foggy glass, as St. Paul says in I Corinthians 2:

Read these reflections on the spiritual universe from Scripture. In my writings, I favor putting the whole quote in its context rather than just using a sentence to justify my views. If I do use one citation (e.g. John 1:1) is to show you the anchor in the Scriptures I use as a source.

“When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God,^* I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.^a2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.^b3 I came to you in weakness^* and fear and much trembling, 4 and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive (words of) wisdom,^* but with a demonstration of spirit and power,^c5 so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.^d

The True Wisdom.^*6 Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.7 Rather, we speak God’s wisdom,^* mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, 8 and which none of the rulers of this age^* knew; for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written:

“What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,”^e 10^f this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.1 1 Among human beings, who knows what pertains to a person except the spirit of the person that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.13 And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.^*14 Now the natural person^* does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually.15 The spiritual person, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment^* by anyone.16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?” But we have the mind of Christ. ^g“

The spiritual energy in the kingdom of Heaven begins on earth with your baptism and for all of us when Christ loved us so much that he gave up his life for the forgiveness of sin (Original Sin of Adam and Eve).

So, at last, we come to the question, “What is the default, the FROM, that caused the TO in this paradigm shift?” I propose that it is pure energy that comes from the Spiritual Universe. It is a universe without a beginning or end. It is a universe without matter, time, physical energy, light, dark energy, or matter. It always was, always is, and always will be at the same moment. It is the Alpha and the Omega. It is the mystery of Faith. The paradigm shift is from what is without a beginning or end to that everything that has a beginning and an end. Human science, philosophy, or reason does not yet have the capability or capacity to grasp concepts beyond their nature (human nature). The paradigm for all reality is the spiritual universe. It is that from which time began and it will be the to which in which time will end. The spiritual universe envelopes all matter, time, and energy in the physical and mental universes, and surrounds it with Being. The spiritual universe is the divine nature having three persons. We could not come to this revelation without someone telling us about it. We could not have reasoned this by human intelligence alone because we did not even know what we did not know. Christ became one of us to tell us and to show us how to live in this spiritual universe, one for which we are aliens. Having a human frame of reference for whatever is meaningful, our nature is incapable of grasping the truth as it really is in the spiritual universe.

As I continue my meditations about my meditations, these thoughts about the highly controversial beginning of the physical universe squeezed themselves into my consciousness. This are thoughts from the edge of time itself.

This pure energy was the occasion of all energy in our frame of reference beginning.

Pure energy is also pure thought, and pure service (pure being 100% of its divine nature, to use a very inadequate human analogy).

PURE ENERGY: FROM SINGULARITY TO COMPLEXITY

Pure energy is a being, a Divine Nature, for lack of a better term. The movement within this Being is from singularity to complexity (One God having three distinct persons). This singularity has three distinct persons (revealed by Jesus the Christ), pure knowledge, pure love, and pure service. There is no movement in this Trinity of Persons.There is no time frame within this pure energy because it just is, unlike humans who must live in a succession of moments. Whatever is created by this singularity (not the black hole singularity) leaves its DNA on its product (the angels and the physical universe). The movement within the physical universe is based on time which has a beginning and an end. Within those parameters, physical energy and mental energy (the power to reason and choose what we have reasoned), matter, energy, time, and space, is subject to the influence of this pure energy, much like our DNA contains the building blocks of who we are and how we will be. This is the first paradigm shift, from what is invisible (pure energy) to what is visible (matter, time, energy, space, and all life).

The laws of this pure energy are only one law with three dimensions, i.e., knowledge, love, and service. The laws of the product of this pure energy (the physical and mental universe and spiritual universe) are paradigms about knowledge, love, and service. Paradigm shifts happen when, in the fullness of time, these paradigms have moved so much that they “bubble over” into a new paradigm shift. (See the concepts of Teilhard de Chardin as he describes the movement of all reality from Alpha to Omega.) http://www.teilharddechardin.org/index.php/biography Movement in the physical, mental, and spiritual universes comes from the evolution (don’t freak out at the term) of each universe to reflect the pure energy of its source. I term this whole process intelligent progression. Natural law is the foundation of the physical universe, including humans.

POINTS OF IMPORTANCE

• What has no beginning and no end created what has a beginning and an end, the physical universe?
• The law of nature directs all time and matter to its destiny. Time is the measure humans use to calculate the beginning to the end.
• Humans live in this physical universe as the platform of life.
• As far as we know, the Earth is the only planet that supports a variety of life forms. Why is that?
• The spiritual universe surrounds and envelopes all matter and time and allows it to seek its nature. Everything has a beginning and an end, in the physical universe.
• The spiritual universe is beyond human comprehension. It is actually one nature containing three distinct persons. All three are one.
• Each of these paradigms and their shifts happens because a living being who possesses reason and the freedom to choose said a Word that moved them forward. What was that Word? “Let it be! Yes!”
• These three persons exist in pure energy, using 100% of their nature, producing pure love, pure love, and sharing this love with all of reality. March 7 is the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P., the great Doctor of the Church with an even greater love for the Blessed Sacrament. After completing what many learned scholars think is the Church’s most important systematic explanation of theology, using the categories of Aristotle, he never finished it.
• The divine intelligence left its DNA on all of the physical universes. Not only does physical time move from Alpha to Omega, but there are stages of growth.
• Read the comments from Father Alban Butler (1711-1773) https://archive.org/stream/ButlersLivesOfTheSaintsCompleteEdition/ButlersLivesOfTheSaintsCompleteEdition_djvu.txt

“During his second, as during his first, period in Paris, the university was torn by dissensions of different kinds, and in 1272 there was a sort of ” general strike ” among the faculties, in the midst of which St Thomas was recalled to Italy and appointed regent of the study-house at Naples. It was to prove the last scene of his labors. On the feast of St Nicholas the following year he was celebrating Mass when he received a revelation that so affected him that he wrote and dictated no more, leaving his great work, the Summa Theologiae, unfinished. To Brother Reginald’s expostulations, he replied, ” The end of my labors has come. All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me.”

St. John, in his Gospel 1:1, speaks as a poet when he describes what is essentially undefinable, that which existed before there was a beginning and an end to everything. The Word denotes reason and the free choice was to enable the physical and mental universes to prepare us to do what we need to get to Heaven to be with the Father. How eloquent and profound are these words about how reality began, written by God through St. John. (John 1:1)

“1 In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.2 He was at the beginning with God. 3 All things came to be through him, and without him, nothing came to be.^b What came to be 4through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; 5 the light shines in the darkness,^d and the darkness has not overcome it.” (www.usccb.com)

THE SECOND PARADIGM SHIFT: FROM ANIMALITY TO RATIONALITY — HUMAN ENERGY IS THE CENTER OF REALITY

THE DEFAULT PARADIGM: FROM THE ENERGY OF THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE WITH A BEGINNING AND AN END THE NEW PARADIGM SHIFT: TO RATIONALITY OF THE MENTAL UNIVERSE WHERE HUMANS HAVE REASON AND THE ABILITY TO CHOOSE

You will notice that, in my model, each successive paradigm shift builds on the one before it. Where do you get this new paradigm shift? Was it always there? I asked myself the question, “Why are humans the only living beings that know that we know and why is that?” To even ask that question means I am not like my pet dog, Tucker, nor any animal, bird, or mammal. I enjoy watching Youtube videos on the distances between Galaxies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy7NzjCmUf0 This paradigm goes from the physical universe (all, matter, all energy, all time, and all life) as the platform for all living things. But, and here is the paradigm shift, one species made it from animality to rationality. In all of reality, humans are alone in this mental universe (unless other alien species are identified). Why is that? What do humans have that other living things don’t? The Jesuit philosopher, cosmologist, and paleontologist, Henri Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., wrote a book entitled The Phenomenon of Man (Human).

I take my understanding of reality, in part, from his notion of movement from matter, life, thought, and spirituality. In the first paradigm, reality begins with a mind and consciousness that is itself three persons in one nature, divine. This living reality created the physical universe in which we take for granted. This Unknowable Being left a divine DNA imprinted on all of reality as it moves from the beginning to the end, part of the natural progression. In the second paradigm shift, this DNA evolved from matter, time, gases, planets, galaxies, earth, life on earth, to rudimentary rationality. Like time itself, life keeps progressing towards the Omega Point in the future. Humans find themselves living in a separate universe, the mental one, as well as a physical one, which contains the platform for life. This is a cosmic paradigm shift, not dependent on humanity for its existence, but grounded in the natural flow of consciousness as it moves toward Omega. Once again, what propelled pure energy to create that which has no beginning and no end, now took animality or all life to this point and lifted up humans to a new level of cosmic resonance. The core of this new universe, the mental universe in which only humans exist, is a continued evolution of consciousness. The pure energy here is pure knowledge that is shared with our archetypal progenitors. Genesis speaks of adam and eve having that which other living things did not have, reason and free choice. There was a test, one that involved knowledge, human knowledge. Adam and Eve failed this test, one that involved not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. The Genesis account of creation is the most profound commentary on the human condition that I have ever read.

POINTS OF IMPORTANCE

• This second paradigm shift is triggered by divine nature, God, but more specifically by one person, The Lord of Creation and Life, The Father. This person is creator, pure knowledge, pure love, pure service, and pure energy.
• Reality began with consciousness, one that has no beginning nor end, pure energy, pure thought, pure love, and pure service. That concept does violence to our reasoning, if all we use to see reality is just the scientific model that we can only believe in what we can see and measure.
• Reality so far has two universes, that of the physical world, the platform humans use to exercise their ability to reason and to choose what they have reasoned.
• Reality is not only the physical manifestation of matter, energy, time, progression, there is a dimension that not only can ask WHY, HOW, HOW FAR, WHAT IS ITS COMPOSITION, but an invisible one that seeks to looked deeper into reality to see meaning, purpose, causality, the evolution of consciousness, and beauty.
• Poets and writers probe about the meaning of life and ask the question WHY. Scientists and philosophers probe WHY, HOW, WHAT, WHEN, AND WHERE reality is using languages of mathematics, physics, medicine, and chemistry. All of this is not only good but needed for us to keep searching for the truth.
• Why do only humans have the ability to reason and to make choices that affect them? Choices all have consequences. Life is about choosing the correct choice.
• Humans all have God’s DNA. St. Augustine says, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”

For me, moving from self to God means I become more and more aware of that divine imprint in my daily seeking of the truth. So, what is the measurement I must use to discover what is true in all of reality?

THE THIRD PARADIGM SHIFT: FROM RATIONALITY TO SPIRITUALITY –THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE IS THE CENTER OF REALITY

When I use the word “principle” I am thinking of it like the spokes of a wheel that allows movement and action. It is that which flows from anything in any way. In this sense, using the paradigm shift from rationality (the World) to spirituality (the Spirit), that which has no beginning nor end (God) becomes human (that which has a beginning and end). Philippians 2:5-12 is my “go-to” statement for this dynamic. If you remember, in the first paradigm shift, that which has no beginning nor end created all time, matter, physical energy, and life. In the third paradigm shift, God, once again, re-created reality so that humanity could fulfill its rightful destiny and claim adoption as sons and daughters of the Father.

This shift was a change in the fabric of time itself, not physical or mental time, but the addition of spiritual time which has no beginning nor end. We use terms to try to describe it (not define it) such as the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus Christ as the historical figure that is the shift in this third paradigm, the Christ Principle, one through whom all reality in the past flows and the center that points to Omega through which all reality makes sense.

There is always a person at the core of any paradigm shift, i.e., from rationality to spirituality.

Jesus, Son of God, became human with all its limitations (except sin) to tell us and show us in person how to prepare to live in a condition of pure love, pure energy, pure knowledge, and pure service. But, how can God become one of us that is consistent with natural law? He must be born like all of us.

Here we encounter one of the most amazing examples of God’s love for humanity, to select a humble woman to be the mother, the one to nurture and teach God only-begotten Son. Mary, the Church’s mother, was chosen by God to be the occasion for this third paradigm shift, but only if she consented freely and completely.

Through Mary and the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, that which has no beginning nor end, entered into our world, in order to allow us to live with God forever, even though we were imperfect, sinful, and not divine. Christ is the principle because it is only through him, with him, and in him that we can approach the Father in union with the Holy Spirit.

Christ revealed there is one God but three separate persons, each being Lord of a paradigm. God is Lord of the first paradigm. The Father is Lord of all creation which includes humans (the physical universe and mental universe). The Son is the Lord of the Spiritual Universe who paid the price by dying on the cross for our redemption. He rose from the dead and is not seated at the right hand of the Father, awaiting each of us as Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. (John 20:30-31.) The Holy Spirit is our second advocate, the Lord of God’s energy for the Church with Christ as the head, and we the members, who gather together to fulfill our destiny as humans. There is only one God, living and true, but three distinct persons, as revealed to us by Jesus Himself.

• As the Christ Principle, everything that came before Him, all reality, is because of Him.
• As the Christ Principle, all reality that happened during his time on earth is because of his love for us.
• As the Christ Principle, everything that came after Christ has a new meaning, one that allows humans to be adopted sons and daughters of the Father and to claim our inheritance in Heaven.
• The Christ Principle brings resonance and harmony to all reality (physical, mental and spiritual universes).
• For us now, and in each age, since the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Apostles, we are free to approach the Father with honor and glory due to His name, but only with, through, and in Christ Jesus, our redeemer, and our messiah.
• The Christ Principle is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. As St. Paul writes in his letter to the Hebrews, Chapter 13:

“Let mutual love continue. 2 Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.^a 3 Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you also are in the body.^b 4 Let marriage be honored among all and the marriage bed be kept undefiled, for God will judge the immoral and adulterers.^c 5 Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never forsake you or abandon you.”^d 6 Thus we may say with confidence: “The Lord is my helper, [and] I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”^e 7 Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.^f 9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teaching.^* It is good to have our hearts strengthened by grace and not by foods, which do not benefit those who live by them.^g 10 We have an altar^* from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.11The bodies of the animals whose blood the high priest brings into the sanctuary as a sin offering are burned outside the camp.^h 12 Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, to consecrate the people by his own blood. 13 Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the reproach that he bore.14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come.^j 15 Through him [then] let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.^k 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have; God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind.^l 17^*  Obey your leaders and defer to them, for they keep watch over you and will have to give an account, that they may fulfill their task with joy and not with sorrow, for that would be of no advantage to you. 18 Pray for us, for we are confident that we have a clear conscience, wishing to act rightly in every respect. 19 I especially ask for your prayers that I may be restored to you very soon. 20^* May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, Jesus our Lord,^m 21 furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will. May he carry out in you what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever [and ever]. Amen. 22 Brothers, I ask you to bear with this message of encouragement, for I have written to you rather briefly. 23 I must let you know that our brother Timothy has been set free. If he comes soon, I shall see you together with him.ⁿ 24 Greetings to all your leaders and to all the holy ones. Those from Italy send you greetings. 25 Grace be with all of you.^o“

This Chapter is a wonderful checklist for the Hebrews to put before them how to love Christ as He loved us. Remember, the word for Messiah is Meshiach in Hebrew. (the anointed by God) The word Christ means the anointed one and refers to Him as Messiah. I write down the whole passage so you can get the feeling expressed by St. Paul and hopefully transform yourself into that which you read.

In my model, that which has a beginning and an end, the World, is lifted up by God (no beginning nor end) so that humans may become adopted sons and daughters of the Father. God has a problem one of being a divine nature. Remember, there is animal nature, human nature, and the divine nature. Only God could move humanity (Adam and Eve) from animality to rationality. Only the divine nature could lift up rationality to spirituality. The difficulty is humans are not divine only human, yet God wants our destiny to be one where we can share in the inheritance planned for us from before the beginning of the first paradigm. Read Matthew 25 very carefully and very slowly.

The Judgment of the Nations.”^*31^f “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, 32g, and all the nations^* will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.33He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.35^h For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’37Then the righteous^* will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’40ⁱ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ 41 Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.42^k For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,43a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’44^* Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’45He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’46^l And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/25

Put another way, how can humans, who only live in a reality that has a beginning and an end, move from those limitations to exist in a totally foreign reality, the Kingdom of Heaven, where there is no time, space, physical energy, and matter? That does make sense to those just using the measuring stick of science and that of logic. The Christ Principle is the way, the truth, and the life.

POINTS OF IMPORTANCE

All paradigms build on all the ones that precede it. In moving from rationality to spirituality (the Spiritual Universe), there is a cosmic paradigm shift, one that, once again, begins with a person making a choice, in this case, Mary, choosing to obey the will of the Father and be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit so that her Son, both God, and Man, would have the freedom to redeem us from Original Sin. (Philippians 2:5-12)

Reality so far has two universes, that of the physical world, the platform humans use to exercise their ability to reason and to choose what they have reasoned. Some people only live in two universes, even though they might call themselves Christians or Catholics. These are the ones where Jesus could not work any miracles because of their lack of faith. For others, there is an additional third universe, the spiritual one, which is the movement of humans from their ability to reason to the second choice for that reasoning– making God the center of all reality, who, if you remember, started reality with His Word. (John 1:1).

Up to this point, there was no option, only the physical universe, and the mental universe, which, together with St. Paul calls The World. If humans were going to fulfill the DNA of God, they must move to this deepest level of reality, the Spirit.

The source of energy for the third paradigm shift is the same as for the first one. That which has no beginning nor end, we call God, opened up to us the spiritual universe. This is the pure energy of God becoming human nature in the form of Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of Heaven begins with our Baptism and ends with our claiming our inheritance as an adopted son or daughter…Forever.

This third paradigm shift, the Christ Principle, gave humans another option rather than just having a beginning and an end. In this option, revealed by God, through Jesus Christ, humans use their reason to make a choice to enter a universe without beginning or end. And, it begins with the Christ Principle, the way, the truth, and the life.

This is a universe or playground, as I like to view it, where God’s rules apply, not those of the World. Like the free choice that Mary had when she accepted her destiny in the Faith of the Holy Spirit, like the free choice of Christ to empty Himself to take on our nature, and freely suffer and die to save us from just one choice (the physical and mental universes), this paradigm allowed those who wish to become adopted sons and daughters of the Father through, with and in the loving heart of Jesus Christ, who is both God and human. It is the template for those to follow in Faith.

THE FULFILLMENT OF THE PAST AND THE SIGN OF CONTRADICTION FOR THE FUTURE

This third paradigm, the spiritual universe, is one in which the Christ Principle transforms reality that preceded Him, and fulfills the spiritual heritage that led up to his passion, death, and resurrection. Jesus told us that he did not come to destroy but to fulfill what went before. (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:36)

If humans find themselves with the ability to reason and to choose, and if the two choices are: The World and its meaning and The Spirit, and its meaning, then there are some huge hurtled for humans to jump, from what their human experience tells them to someone that may not seem logical, indeed the opposite of what they know. If you feel like all this God stuff doesn’t make sense and it is illogical, you have two possibilities: you are correct and none of it makes sense, or, it does make sense but you don’t have the ability to see how this dissonance can lead to resonance.

The Christ Principle, the personification of the sign of contradiction and paradox to those who make their assumptions about reality with the World’s view, makes all things new and is the conerstone which the builders rejected. Once we enter this realm or universe, the Kingdom of Heaven. everything is the opposite of what the World teaches. A reminder: what the World teaches is not all bad, it is just incomplete in terms of our ultimate destiny, to be sons and daughters of the Father.

Using God’s own gift of Energy to humans, we enter the Spiritual Universe (the Kingdom of Heaven) through Baptism and now find ourselves as pilgrims in a foreign land. Our destiny is not of this world, although we must live in it until we die. The Christ Principle becomes the Center for reality because with him as our advocate, we can exist in this next level of human reality without frying our neurons. The Christ Principle is “light from light and true God of true Gods,” as we recite in the Nicean Creed. All of us are linked together with Christ as the head and we are components of His body. Time continues to tick down from Alpha and Omega.

This third paradigm shift was so important that God Himself had to come down to reveal what we humans could not figure out just with reason alone. (Philippians 2:5-12) Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, is the Messiah proclaimed by all the Prophets. He was, and is, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. The Christ Principle is Lord of Salvation and an advocate who stands with us as we make our way down whatever life throws at us. This new paradigm is the fulfillment of the first two. It is the product of God’s DNA with the beginning of time, space, matter, and energy. It is why we have reason for a reason and the ability to choose what we reason, freely. It is why we have purpose and meaning to a reality that, by itself is lacking the big WHY.

This third paradigm shift means that we now have a way to communicate directly with God that is a step up from the Old Testament, not better than, but fulfilled. This third paradigm turns what we think we know about God on its head. Rather than using the categories of the world (physical and mental universes alone) to measure the spiritual universe, Jesus, Son of God, shows us how to not only claim our inheritance as adopted sons and daughters of the Father, but maintain that Spirit in each age and in each individual. Christ died on the cross for all humans, even if they don’t recognize it or know about it.

If Christ is the Master Teacher, what he founded was a school of how to love others as He loves us. This moves us towards the next paradigm shift, the fourth time the cosmic paradigm shifted. Love is the energy of God in the Trinity. In His divine wisdom and love, God shared with humans that energy. But, there is a problem. Humans have human nature and the gulf between human and divine is too great for us to jump using just our physical and mental universes. God had to reach across this impenetrable gulf and become one of us. (Philippians 2:5-12) This act of supreme, unconditional love had to include not only being born and being a teacher in how to love others as He has loved us but also being willing to give up his life on the cross so that we have the opportunity to enter the spiritual universe. As Christ voluntarily gave His life for us, He asks us to do the same by entering the spiritual universe through Baptism and the sustaining energy of the Holy Spirit. This brings us to the next paradigm shift, where humans in each generation seek God through their daily experiences and contact with reality. When Christ founded a school of Love, being the Master teacher, He did not leave his disciples abandoned. The Church is the continuation of his work, but with a few exceptions. Unlike many people who found schools of thinking, this school was actually a living part of His presence at each age. That the teach would trust his disciples to take this message of faith, hope, and love to all the world, is itself part of the next, great paradigm shift.

Christ is the Messiah awaited by the prophets and foretold in their writings. His coming was seen by the Jews of the time, and even now, as the exclusive savior to continue to perpetuate a people of the covenant with God. Read what Jewish rabbis say about the messiah. https://www.aish.com/jl/li/m/The-Messiah-in-Judaism.html?s=rab Remember, you are given reason for a reason and the ability to choose for a purpose. A Jew or a Catholic might hold differing views of the Messiah. You must believe in your approach in sincerity and truth. Both approaches cannot be correct, but we will all find out what is truth when we are judged against the way, the truth, and the life. John 20:30-31.

Jesus as Christ fulfilled not only what had gone before him in the Old Covenant, but also what was to follow until the end of time. Remember, everything has a beginning and an end. What is remarkable and part of the shift from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant is to see how Jesus fulfilled the prophets and the Law.

At the heart of this paradigm shift is the product of Christ’s mission (Philippians 2:5-12), the reason why there is even a paradigm shift at all. In his letter to the faithful in Corinth, I Corinthians 15, St. Paul gives us why Christ Jesus came to save us from death (physical and mental universes only). He writes about the resurrection of Christ from the dead in eloquent terms saying: “For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised,17 and if Christ has not been raised,^* your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.18 Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.” https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/15

THE FOURTH PARADIGM SHIFT: SUSTAINING THE ENERGY OF GOD IN THE MIDST OF ORIGINAL SIN

THE OLD PARADIGM: FROM RATIONALITY (JUST THE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL UNIVERSES) TO SPIRITUALITY (PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL UNIVERSES ARE ONE REALITY, YET SEPARATE)

THE NEW PARADIGM SHIFT: TO GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT SUSTAINING THE CHURCH FROM FAILING AND MAKING ALL THINGS NEW THROUGH CHRIST’S PRINCIPLE OF LOVE

Let’s review where we are to this point. In my view of reality, there have been three cosmological paradigm shifts: The foundation of the physical universe; The foundation for the move from animality to spirituality; The foundation for moving from the Garden of Eden to the Kingdom of Heaven. This fourth shift is one of the second advocate, The Holy Spirit, overshadowing the fulfillment of the Old Testament covenant to expand it to what it was always intended to be: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Remember that a paradigm shift always moves from what is to something that moves it forward towards its destiny as God’s DNA. If the purpose of the first paradigm shift is the base of matter, energy, time, and animality of living things to include humans, then this next step in our cosmic evolution is going from animality to rationality. Why is that? Is there an unseen force at work propelling matter, time, energy, toward a purpose? That is what I have termed God’s DNA or the laws of nature. Humans, as intelligent as they are, cannot stop time, the evolution of energy, and our cosmic journey to Forever. What we can do is observe the physical universe because we alone can reason and seek answers to the purpose is all of this. Not every thought or philosophy will lead us to fulfill our destiny in the bigger picture. Humans have been given reason for a reason and the ability to choose. Some will choose what is authentic and some will choose their own view of God. All of us will answer to God when we stand before him and show the results of our stewardship while on earth. Christ as both divine and human nature did for all humans what they could not do for themselves, He re-established the link between us and God. Christ, St. Paul says, became sin for us.

The Ministry of Reconciliation.11^* Therefore, since we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we are clearly apparent to God, and I hope we are also apparent to your consciousness.^g12We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you an opportunity to boast of us, so that you may have something to say to those who boast of external appearance rather than of the heart.^h13 For if we are out of our minds,^* it is for God; if we are rational, it is for you.14^* For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died.ⁱ15He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.^j16Consequently,^* from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.17^k So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. 18^* And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation,19 namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.^l20So we are ambassadors for Christ as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.^m* For our sake he made him be sin who did not know sin,ⁿ so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

This is such a rich passage, filled will all kinds of wonderful ideas about why Christ came to save us and your place in that new paradigm. If you will, take some time to read this passage very slowly, outloud. What does St. Paul want us to know about the spiritual universe and our place in it?

POINTS OF IMPORTANCE

The Father created all that is (first and second paradigm shifts), the Son, Jesus, restored humans to their original relationship with God (second paradigm shift), and the Holy Spirit took over from Christ to sustain humans as they struggle to love others as Christ loved them. This is the realm of those who are faithful to the teachings of Christ through the power of the Second Advocate, the Holy Spirit.

This fourth paradigm shift is about what happens in the Kingdom of Heaven in each age. It is how the message of Christ is transmitted to those who have not seen Christ yet believe.

The fourth paradigm shift moves from the Word being made flesh and dwelling among us to making that same Christ Principle exist in each age as humans move towards their ultimate destiny, the Kingdom of Heaven.

The fourth paradigm shift is about how those who are gathered together love others as Christ loves them. This paradigm begins with Pentecost and the Holy Spirit overshadowing the Apostles with tongues of fire. This is a paradigm about the gatherings of believers, Jews, Romans, Greeks and others. This is a paradigm about how a group of Twelve, having no instructions on how to govern, had to address the questions of “Who is Jesus?” “Are the Jewish prescriptions of the Law binding on the followers of Jesus? How do you move from the New Jerusalem to include the whole world?” “Who determines what is true about all the letters and writings about who and what Jesus came to bring us?”

If the third paradigm is now the WHAT, then this fourth paradigm shift is to HOW this message of God’s love for us is played out in each age, consistent with what The Christ Principle taught us. Our energy, once again, like all the paradigms before, is the energy of God, this time revealed as the second Advocate, whom we call the Holy Spirit.

This realm of the Spirit (Galatians 5) poses serious problems for human reasoning because it is invisible. As anyone knows, the problem with invisibility is you can’t see it. The challenge for human reasoning is to believe in reality that does not seem reasonable.

Once Christ ascended into Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father and be our Advocate, He did not leave us orphans but left the Holy Spirit, our Second Advocate, the revealed third person of the Trinity to help sustain us against choosing what the world sees as meaningful to that which God says we should do. To do this requires support from the Holy Spirit, present in the collective gathering of those who long for the coming of Christ again. Those who believe in Christ as those who have not seen him but are blessed because their Faith overcomes the incredulity of the World scoff at the resurrection of Christ. What we freely choose at Baptism is indeed folly for the Gentiles and a stumbling block to the Jews, yet, for those who persevere to the end, it is being with Christ…Forever. This is what enabled the early disciples of Christ to endure pain, suffering, persecution, and martyrdom if only they could be one with Christ, and Him crucified. When Christ leaves us one command: love one another as I have loved you, living that out in the context of the local Church is the challenge of each age.

The Church, the branches with Christ as the vine,

The Church, being immersed in Original Sin with the temptations of the World, is governed by sinful persons who have been signed with the sign of Faith (the cross).

The Church is the visible manifestation of God whom we cannot see. Many humans only view the Church as a building or something for old ladies to go to when they feel guilty about their lives. As time passes in this fourth paradigm from Pentecost to this very day, there seem to be four quadrants evolving out of the Christ Principle. In my view of reality, they are:

I. THE ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNANCE OF THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE– The power of the Church Universal is not individual, sinful humans lording it over the rest of us, but is the paradox, those who serve must be the servant of all. Sadly, not all Popes, Bishops, Deacons, Laity, got the message and some were seduced by riches, power, glory, sexual gratification, coveting others and their riches.

II. THE INFORMATION AND AIDS TO HUMAN REASONING FROM THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE

III.THE FORMATION OF A SCHOOL OF LOVE TO DO WHAT THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE TAUGHT

IV. THE COMMUNICATION AND GROWTH OF THE HUMAN MIND AND HEART TO SIT NEXT TO THE HEART OF THE CHRIST PRIINCIPLE

These four expressions from the beginning of time are contained in God’s DNA. They are what we must do to sustain our Faith in times of conflict. We take up our cross daily to follow what The Master taught us. Each day is a lifetime with its own beginning and its own ending.

This paradigm is a continuation and fulfillment of the Old Covenant. With the Christ Principle, Church moves from salvation for a few to a universal statement of love for all humanity. When I went to Starbucks recently (of course observing all the social distancing protocols) I chance to talk with a young college male who noticed I had been reading the late Dom Andre Louf’s book, The Cistercian Way. The conversation eventually turned to my reasoning for being a follower of Christ and how that did not make sense. His argument was: that is just your opinion and I have my opposite opinion and both are correct. I have the freedom to believe whatever I want and what I believe is correct. I told him that he was wrong that it was just my opinion. I said that it was indeed a free choice on my part but it was based on my desire to love others as Christ loved us and I do that through a gathering of like-minded believers. I continued to explain that my individual belief in something doesn’t make it real but I believe it because it is reality. My belief is based on the foundation of those who have struggled with the same principles of meaning going back to the Christ Principle from whom all truth flows. This is the apostolic tradition from the Holy Spirit who is to safeguard our Faith from the gates of Hell prevailing against it. I believe that is when he got up, gave me a disdainful glance, and walked away. One of the great paradoxes of our Faith is how the Church can be holy and yet be filled with sinners (with the exception of Christ and His Mother).

Part of the uniqueness of this paradigm shift is that is a transfer of authority from Christ to his undisciplined and sinful Apostles. From now on, followers will be responsible for establishing the Kingdom of Heaven in the hearts and minds of their followers. This is a period of great uncertainty, as the Apostles gathered in the upper room. There were only Eleven of them, Christ left them no book of instructions or “How to Build and Run a Church for Dummies”, and they were with a leader to tell them what to do.

^* 1 When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.^a2 And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind,^* and it filled the entire house in which they were.Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,^* which parted and came to rest on each one of them.^c4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues,^* as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.^d

There are

The Church is composed of all those who are alive now (Church Militant), those who have died in the peace of Christ and have been declared worthy by God to claim their inheritance as adopted sons and daughters of the Father, and finally, those who have died and need a second chance at how to love others as Christ loved us (Church Purgative). In this paradigm, Christ is head of the body and we are all members.

The Church is collective way for communities of those gathered together in Faith to practice love.

THE FIFTH PARADIGM SHIFT:

THE OLD PARADIGM: FROM GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT SUSTAINING THE CHURCH FROM ERROR AND MAKING ALL THINGS NEW THROUGH CHRIST

THE NEW PARADIGM SHIFT: TO THE INDIVIDUAL HAVING THE CHOICE TO BELIEVE HOW TO LOVE OTHERS AS CHRIST LOVED US WITH OTHERS IN THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL

Let’s do a quick review.

In the first paradigm, reality moved from just being without a beginning or an end to the physical universes that contain all matter, time, energy, dark matter, dark energy, and life on earth. It exists right now as the base for our existence as humans. Humans live in the physical universe with other species and share characteristics with animals. e.g. procreation, a beginning and end, intelligence, and an atmosphere to sustain life. Remember, each of these paradigm shifts is successive and builds upon the other, as reality moves from the beginning to the end.

In the second paradigm, something changed . Reality moved from just a physical base and evolution of life on earth with all species to humans the only ones that live in the mental universe.

The fifth paradigm shift is from the Faith of the collective individuals, we call the gathering of those seeking God through Christ, to me, as I present myself to what the day brings and try to transform myself through Cistercian practices and charisms to be more like Christ and less like the me still struggling in the secular work of Original Sin.

If I am a leaf on the tree where Christ is the root and the Holy Spirit is the trunk, then I am one with many, many other leaves. Christ is the vine and we are the branches. What gives life to the tree is its roots, nourished with the energy of the Father, the Grand Gardener. My individual life as a leaf is only for one year. I am born from the branch, grow as a leaf, according to my nature, and provide life to those around me with photosynthesis (good works as in Matthew 25). I live for a season and then die. My value is to act according to my human nature to help the tree sustain itself in my own leafy way. I am not the branch, I am not the other leaves, I serve the others. In the analogy of the spiritual universe, all the leaves have One Lord, One Faith, and One Baptism. Other trees do not bear good fruit because they do not possess the links to life-giving nutrients. They may be sincere and don’t know what they don’t know. St. Paul gives a poignant reflection on the unity of Faith in Ephesians 4.

“Unity in the Body.1^* I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,^a2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love,^b3 striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace:^c4^*one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call;^d5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;^e6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.^f” https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ephesians/4

THE PARADIGM: TO THE INDIVIDUAL HAVING THE CHOICE TO BELIEVE HOW TO LOVE OTHERS AS CHRIST LOVED US WITH OTHERS IN THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL

THE NEW PARADIGM SHIFT: THAT WHICH HAS NO BEGINNING NOR END WELCOMES YOU AS ADOPTED SON OR DAUGHTER AND INVITES US TO LOVE OTHERS…FOREVER (The same as paradigm one.)

DID YOU NOTICE?

THE SIXTH PARADIGM SHIFT

• The nothingness of God permitted the physical universe to begin. The nothingness of God is pure energy.
• The physical universe has God’s DNA, it contains the image and likeness of God, the consciousness of God.
• Everything in the physical and mental universes has a beginning and an end. The spiritual universe has a beginning (Baptism) but no end.
• At the beginning of each paradigm shift, there is consciousness and pure energy to move the cosmic and individual paradigm from what is to make all things new.
• Reality contains one paradigm with three paradigm shifts. One reality with three separate universes, the physical, the mental, and the spiritual.
• When I freely choose to enter the spiritual universe, it is only because Christ has first chosen me before there was a time and matter (the first paradigm).
• The first paradigm is the last paradigm, the Alpha, and the Omega. Everything in the physical universe has a beginning and an end. In the physical universe, all energy is imbued with the DNA of God’s energy, not in the sense that we are God, but that we, so to speak, fill up with the energy (grace) of God through being present to Christ and thus give praise to the Father through, with, and in Him, in the union with the Holy Spirit. At the beginning of the paradigm shift from these six paradigms, there is the presence of pure energy to move it from what is to the next step in its destiny.
• Pure energy is one in simplicity but three in diversity. Pure energy is a nature, one that one does have a beginning nor an end. Pure energy, God, has three distinct persons, each with a role to play in what is real. The Father is the creator of LIFE, the Son became human nature to redeem us and show us the WAY, and the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, gives God’s energy in each age and to each individual as the TRUTH.

“The True Wisdom.^*6 Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.7 Rather, we speak God’s wisdom,^* mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, 8 and which none of the rulers of this age^* knew; for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,”^e10^f this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. 11 Among human beings, who knows what pertains to a person except for the spirit of the person that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.^*14 Now the natural person does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually. 15 The spiritual person, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment^* by anyone. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?” But we have the mind of Christ.^g” https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/2

The simplicity and complexity is God is evident. God is one, yet reveals that there are three separate persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). In terms of paradigms, God is pure energy, yet the complexity of this simplicity is that the Father is the Lord who creates LIFE (John 1:1) with a Word. Son is Lord of re-creation who creates THE WAY we humans fulfill our destiny as intended from the beginning of time. The Holy Spirit is the Lord of TRUTH which gives to the Body of Christ a way to share the divine energy, through Christ, with others. I offer this Scripture for your reflection on the majesty of God. When you read these references from Scripture, I don’t offer them to prove anything, rather that you might read them at least three times and ask yourself the question, “What is the Holy Spirit trying to tell me?”

Last Supper Discourses. 1^* “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith^* in God; have faith also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3^* And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.^a4 Where [I] am going you know the way.”^*5 Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”6 J Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.^b7 If you know me, then you will also know my Father.^* From now on you do know him and have seen him.”^c8 Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father,^* and that will be enough for us.”^d9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?^e10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.^f11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.^g12 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.^h13 And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.ⁱ14 If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.

The Advocate.15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.^j16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate^* to be with you always,^k1 7 the Spirit of truth,^* which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.^l18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.^*19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me because I live and you will live.^m20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.ⁿ21 Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/14

TAPPING INTO THE FLOW OF LIFE