DIGGING FOR HEAVENLY GOLD ON EARTH: HOW I MOVE FROM MY FALSE SELF TO MY TRUE SELF EACH DAY.

This blog is a long one because I plan to put it as part of a book. Read it in snippits.

THAT IN ALL THINGS, GOD BE GLORIFIED. –St. Benedict.

In my first blog, I explained the longings in my heart, that emptiness that can never be fulfilled by simply being a human. Here are my unrequited needs for being fully human.

1. Profound Knowledge, so that I might use my reason and free will to grow deeper into the mystery of what it means to be fully human.
2. Using this Knowledge, I can fulfill my need to Love Profoundly, utilizing all of my human potential.
3. Based on knowing and loving, one can access the Absolute Truth that exists entirely outside of human nature, absolutely.

In my second blog of the series on digging for heavenly gold, I addressed the conditions under which humans, and particularly this one, must struggle to find out where to dig, what to use as tools, and how whatever I find using mere human reasoning and free choice won’t allow me to grow to the deepest level of my humanity. Digging for heavenly gold is in itself a process of discovery. Here are some things I learned about original sin, where to dig in the right place, and which tools to use.

1. Original sin is the map all humans have upon being born into whatever human means. Original sin deals with the difficulties all humans have to make it to that ultimate level of their evolution, one which demands the complete abandonment (not rejection) of what you think you know about life, the aceptance of a reality outside of yourself to help each of us to attain that level of our evolution, and finally how to brush away the fog that just visible reality has of seducing us into think reality is just what we can see. Original sin has to do with the ability to know what the truth is and then freely act on it. Each person, like Adam and Eve, can know what is true but believe that they know more than nature or an absolute truth outside of human nature.
2. To know what is true, humans must dig deep within the upper room of their inner selves, a realm known only to each individual, a place no one wants to look. In the past, recent past, I might add, I was held hostage to the nagging of my reason that I must be able to prove God’s existence through human means (science, human logic, philosophy, human reasoning with the assumption that the only actual reality is one verified by human measurements). I always knew that was not possible, using the limited scope of human intelligence, but now I am thinking that I must track an elusive God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) by looking inside me for all the answers. There is a problem with that approach. Each of us is different inside due to the values, principles, ideologies, theories, learning experiences, sins, and uplifting behaviors that we acquire or shed during our tumultuous time navigating the perilous path of life, which seems to lead us to nothing but death. If you tell me what the center of your life is, I can tell you if you are in a position to move to that next level of your evolution, one that requires you to use your reasoning and free choice to abandon what you think you know to possess a higher knowledge, love, and truth. Not everyone can or does make that jump, but the way is relatively straightforward, and the help to overcome the effects of original sin is available.

The evolution of our animalistic self, where we inherited instincts for survival, procreation, dominance to lead the pack, self-defense, protection of the young, strength in pack numbers, and the pursuit of food and water, is inherent in animal behavior. As humanity moved forward from its animalistic roots, it continued to grow in complexity and consciousness, yet it retains the tendencies of our physical heritage, even to this day. These urges are longings we all have to revert back to our origins, or devolve. Initially, humans were likely more animal than rational. However, as consciousness grew with each age, generation, and individual, natural selection, as the engine of intelligent progress, ensured that everything (life, animals, and humans) continued to grow within its parameters. One nature was not the other, nor could they communicate by procreation, only by evolution.

This brings me to my computer, where I’m trying to type this out, but I’m making too many mistakes and wrong spellings, so it’s hard to read. This blog is the third in a trilogy about original sin, the longings of my human heart, and what it means for me to move constantly and continuously from my false self to my true self. This struggle is due to my living in a condition of original sin (living in the physical and mental worlds but not the spiritual one).

My current thinking is that my humanity is in continuous growth, moving with complexity and consciousness inerorably down the corridors of time with deliberate speed (not of light but of enlightenment). The more I ponder the mysteries of my humanity and my eventual outcomes (both as an individual and as a member of human nature), the more I am convinced that all Knowledge converges to just one point, and that might not be as a point on a piece of paper. This one point is Omega, the finality of Point Alpha, which began this incredible journey of matter just so that I might know the depths of my humanity and, in doing so, make a choice that my reason alone says is ridiculous. Some of the experiences and choices I make will be bad for me. They won’t allow me to grow toward the ultimate destiny of my humanity, either because I chose poorly (like Adam and Eve) or because I failed to realize there was a deeper level of evolution to explore, one that does not include matter or time, but depends upon it for its continued existence. Without denying my animality and humanity on the physical and mental levels, all of this provides me with the Knowledge and tools to move to that next level of my evolution, that of being a superhuman or an adopted son or daughter of the Father and heir to the kingdom of heaven. These longings go through what I consider to be the five steps of evolution as depicted in the Tailhard map (unattributed) as follows:

1. Cosmogenesis, the intelligent progression of matter and time as reality advanced with complexity and consciousness, which Teilhard suggests is ongoing, continues today. I term it the physical universe, for my own purposes.
2. Biogenesis, or the first indications of life.
3. Homogenesis, the first signs of human life that grew from Animality to Rationality in the context of matter and time.
4. Christogenesis is the second intervention of a divine nature, inserting itself into matter, time, and our human nature (the first intervention is the Genesis Principle with the Adam and Eve archetypes).
5. Pneumogenesis, or the ongoing movement of space and time toward originality to finality, is now capable of receiving directions (word) on how to love with the energy of our highest dimension of our human nature, and not get our neurons fried, and finally, how to discern what is absolute truth absolutely.

In my view of reality, there are three levels of complexity to my humanity: anamalistic, rationalistic, and spiritualistic.

Movement toward a more complex but simpler reality is why I hold that all reality, even though it is a river in which I have dipped my toes for 85 years (so far), is intelligently designed for me to move from this Physical/Animal level to the Human level. I then use my reasoning and free choice to move from physical and humanistic evolution to choose the deepest expression of my humanness, being a spiritual being with human experiences that take me to that next step, living in a state where I use all that I experienced on earth that was inspired by God, to live out eternity. God makes all of this possible by being God. I am not able to access what it means to be of divine nature. Still, I can use my reason and choices to transform myself, with the energy not of my nature, into what my creation initially intended.

Animality — (from the beginning of life, continuing even now, to include all humans as well). We not only come from star stuff, but only life can beget life. That spark, like lighting a campfire with flint and steel, is all it took to move from physical reality, the base upon which all living things depend, to organic life.

Animal nature is constrained by living without either reasoning or the freedom to choose something outside the natural rhythms of life. Nature dictates our behavior, our procreation, our need for power and dominance as alpha male or female, and the innate urge that the strongest (genes) are passed on towards the greater good of propagation. When I am born, the fingerprints of God and my human nature, like my parents’ DNA, are contained in my double helix, evolving just as all matter and time do toward a point of finality (Omega). For some reason, God chose humanity as the vehicle through which evolution would unfold as intended. The transition from animality to rationality was, and is, a rocky one, with humans (Adam and Eve, our protoparents) being trusted to choose good over evil to live in the Garden of Eden as nature intended. Instead, Adam and Eve reverted to their animality. They chose to be the Alpha male and female, denying the power of God to sustain them at the highest level of their humanity. I like to think of Adam and Eve as literary constructs of the writers to describe why people have to die and why a God that is supposed to be good would let this happen to humanity.

Humanity had to evolve from animality to rationality because both animality and rationality would not have the internal energy to make that next step to the spiritual level, one that is an individual choice of good over evil as God prescribes, and not the natural selection as typified by natural evolution and intelligent progression of our animal self.

There is no rationality without the platform of matter on which all of us depend for existence. There is no spirituality without the platform of matter in time and space, and the fulfillment of this stage of our humanity. Humans are still evolving both as a race and as individuals. The purpose of the physical and mental universes is to provide me, the individual, and each of you, with the tools to move to that next level of complexity and consciousness, the highest level of our humanity, the spiritual level. I can only reach this highest level of my humanity by an act of my will based on what my reason tells me is possible. Animality and rationality alone do not contain the energy needed for me to be lifted up so that I can choose this level of my humanity and have the energy from outside of my human nature to sustain me in this life and provide me with a place with a new time and space, one unlike anything my experiences have encountered.

My race and so my lifetime is surrounded by my animal roots and their tendencies. Even if I manage to ascend to that highest level of my humanity, while I still live in this shell of a body, I can drop to my animal self in an instant. That is why good people do bad things, or bad people can do good things. Animals do not have the capacity to choose good or evil. Humans must learn what it means to be human and what moves them forward in their evolution, or what causes them to devolve into their animal selves. When humans descend to acting on their animal nature instead of their spiritual nature, I call that original sin because we are not acting in accordance with our nature at that highest level. So, there is more to life than simply being encumbered by that lowest behaviors of our humanity from evolving to our intended purpose.

Humanity or Rationality — (From Adam and Eve, our prototypes to the end or Omega) Something happened to what it means to be human, according to that masterpiece of literature called the Old Testament, and then its growth in complexity and consciousness to fulfillment in the New Testament. Animals can’t choose good from evil as humans do, though they do choose self-preservation innately. There is that invisible line that only humans crossed successfully, at least so far. Whereas animals are held hostage by the limitations of their nature, innately imposed on them by being animals, humans, moving from that animality, received an upgrade to animality, or the ability to break free from the limitations of animal nature and grow with reason and the ability to choose without repercussions or harmful side effects, to be spiritual. Not everyone makes the jump from Rationality to spirituality. Human evolution of the species, and indeed all that lives, remains just human (which is not evil but merely limited) unless the individual makes a free choice that causes reason to quake in its boots, abandoning all to move toward an uncertain and invisible future. The evolution of humans to the next level of fulfilling their nature is achieved not by species, but by my individual reasoning and free choice, with each case being unique. The confusion of human Rationality is legitimate because choosing that next level of our humanity, the one that satisfies the hungry heart, is the opposite of the citizenship I know and cherish through much struggle and failure. It is not without significance that the cross is tattooed on our spirit as a sign that we struggle to become more and more like Christ and so fulfill what humanity has destined for us to become.

Even if we collectively assimilate learning and make the world a better place, there are some glaring roadblocks to sustaining spirituality. It requires much hard work and understanding the instructions Christ gave us to avoid life’s minefields. Not all want this. Not all even have a clue about this. Some deny any connection to a deeper meaning in humanity. It’s all about reason and the choices for good or evil each of us must make in our quest to soothe the longing in our hearts. Surely, there is more to life than growing old, watching the plastic flowers grow, and desperately hoping that they don’t blossom.

So, if my existential longing in that upper room of my inner self is to know as much as my humanity can hold, which leads to learning how to love with all my heart, all my mind, and all my strength (Matthew 22:38), then truth outside of the pull of my animality and mere humanistic urges for safety is only accessed at that level of spirituality by energy beyond human origination. My task, if I choose to accept it, is to spend my whole lifetime not focusing on who God is, which is impossible with my nature, but rather to look inside me, the individual, the only one who has reason and free will to know how to listen and learn. This is the third blog, which discusses how I discovered ways to access the God Whisperer and listen to the roar of silence, the language of God.

Spirituality — (from Baptism to our next level of human evolution, adopted sons and daughters of the Father).

For me, one of those knotty problems was: “Who determines what is good or evil?” Without the evolution of matter and time, and the subsequent parameters that determine what is living or not, or the animality of living and continuing to grow (evolution), there could not be a point reached at which animality “bubbles over,” as Teilhard de Chardin describes it, into a whole new paradigm. But, as with everything that starts from ground zero, humans are still learning how to use their defining components (particularly free choice). With this seemingly newfound freedom, individual humans became the receptacle for the mind, housed in the cloak of animality, where all the peculiarities of self-preservation and procreation were paramount. Humanity is about the individuals who make up our species. These individuals swim in a river that continuously grows in complexity and consciousness, so each must assent to something beyond themselves to behave, or risk being hostage to their whims and machinations informed by the residue of their animal selves.

All of evolution points to me, the individual, allowing me, in the time I have on earth, to discover how to make the jump from mere humanity to that next level of growth, spirituality, in thinking about this duality (here I am on earth, yet as an adopted son, I have a citizenship that is based on matter and mind plus I have chosen Jesus as the source of my principles).

Spirituality, as I use it, is giving up or abandoning human power to reach perfection in my human race, to embracing a power outside of myself, one capable of making me a citizen of that next realm while still living on earth. The problem comes when I don’t realize that it takes more effort than I have as an individual to sustain my adoption and keep original sin from corrupting or rusting out my pipes. Like cutting grass, I must mow my spiritual world (which looks the same as my physical and mental world) continuously lest the weeds sown by original sin and watered by Satan, who strives to be the ruler of the earth (John 14:30; 13:31; 16:11), take over and crowd out the grass sown by Christ. It is a daily battle that can grow unnoticed unless you work to take up your cross and follow the footsteps of Christ.

I am a citizen of the earth by birth, but a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven by Baptism and free, informed choice. Baptism is not the ceremony of me accepting Jesus (Confirmation) but instead of the Father accepting me and giving my parents instructions to hand on to me that which Christ wanted me to know to get to that next step in my humanity, adoption as Son (daughter) of the Father in this life (citizen of the kingdom of heaven on earth until I die). The struggle is to either remain that grain of wheat on the soil, which just remains a grain of wheat, or to die to being a grain of wheat to rise to being what it was intended to be from the beginning. If your Catholicism is easy, you are in the wrong place, or you have not yet entered that next level of your evolution. You are not even aware it exists, so your Catholic Faith, sincere as it may be, has not shed its skin to molt into that next level of reality within you.

Being a Lay Cistercian (or any other Lay Institute) means I consciously and consistently try to develop a passion for placing myself in the presence of Christ, where I am or as I am. The Sacraments, the Eucharist, Eucharistic adoration, Rosary, Way of the Cross, Lectio Divina, Liturgy of the Hours, and reading Sacred Scripture are essential, but not the only way I place myself in the presence of Christ. In my Catholicism, which requires that I make new wineskins daily to hold the new wine of Christ’s presence, I go to that place inside myself that humans fear most to enter. It is the upper room of my inner self, the place where only I can go and invite others to sit with me in silence and solitude, waiting for Christ’s energy, through the Holy Spirit, to overshadow me, as it did the Blessed Mother. The problem for me is that, because of the effects of original sin, I am prone to backslide, to think I am saved and forget about anything else, to take up a cross of my own making (balsam wood) to seek what is easiest for me. The Cistercian Way and thus My Lay Cistercian Way means I must grow in Jesus and less of my false self each day. I must convert myself each day to being aware that the presence of God is not limited to the Church or even to giving someone a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus. Still, all of it PLUS it peaks inside my inner room, my sanctuary, where I carry the Real Presence of Christ that I have discovered each day in prayer and repentance for being such a fool about Christ most of my life.

Galileo (Yes, that Galileo) says: The Scriptures are not there to show you how the heavens, but to show you how to get to heaven.

As this free choice applies to the question of who is to choose good from evil (what hinders progress toward the deepest part of our humanity), I have discovered two possibilities.

I. THE FAUX RULER OF THE EARTH — Satan. St. Paul calls this realm “World, or Flesh”. A citizen of this world looks around and sees what you and I see right now. There is nothing beyond what I can see, and certainly nothing of a reality that uses human reasoning and free choice from human nature to seek the opposite of what the world says is meaningful. The first citizenship, which pertains solely to the physical and mental universes, focuses on who chooses what is good or evil within those universes, with no power coming from outside themselves.

THE SOVERIGNTY OF THE INIVIDUAL ––WHAT YOU CHOOSE AS PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE, LOVE, AND ABSOLUTE TRUTH COMES FROM WITHIN EACH INDIVIDUAL, AND YOU CHOOSE YOURSELF AS THE CENTER OF ALL REALITY.

In this form of citizenship of the World (Flesh), I make the rules, I am my own Church, my own pope, and only believe what I determine to be good or evil, not only for me, but for all reality, and finally, I am my own God, answerable to no one. The first citizenship, which pertains solely to the physical and mental universes, focuses on who chooses what is good or evil within those universes, with no power coming from outside themselves. Again, free choice is at the core of what it means to be human because it involves living the truth and life of being a human on earth until you die (as an individual, not as a collective race). I call this approach humanistic, not in a derogatory way, but as a step in the evolution of each individual, who must choose what they think best for their purpose in life. This approach relies solely on the power of humanity and the energy each individual has to improve their life. Human nature is essentially good, and so are individuals, but they are flawed and prone to choosing what is good for them based on their feelings and selfish urges. Original sin refers to behaviors and values that lead to a false notion of self, where individuals believe they have power through their humanity but are, in fact, hostage to it in damaging ways.

II. THE AUTHENTIC RULER OF BOTH THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON EARTH AND CONTINUING WITH CHRIST IN THE PLACE HE PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.

Only Christ is capable of lifting up my humanity to the next level of its intelligent progression, while still retaining everything human as before. I have two citizenships: one in the world and the other, a deeper dive into my evolution, beyond matter and time. I just need to keep my reason and free will from the corrupting influence of the Faux Ruler of Earth. See Revelations 1:5; John 14:30; 12:31; 16:03.

GOD’S SOVERIGNTY IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY… FOREVER.

WHAT YOU CHOOSE AND ACCEPT AS THE TEMPLATE FOR LIVING A WAY IN WHICH HUMANS CAN ATTAIN THE THREE LONGINGS OF THEIR BEING COMES FROM NOT ONLY OUTSIDE OF THEMSELVES BUT OUTSIDE OF HUMAN NATURE.

Your center of reality is just one principle whose energy comes from outside both you and your humanity. You have a reason for a reason. You have the freedom to choose what you think is good or evil without interference from others or even GoGodThis choice is the most critical part of recognizing that moving to the next step in evolution depends on you and how you learn lessons that allow you to allow the energy that is beyond human to lift you up to that next step in your evolution, being an adopted son or daughter of the Father (and heir to the kingdom of heaven). Heaven is God’s slayground, and if I want to use it or be a part of it, I must give up (abandon) my earthly ties and values to put on the new cloak of invincibility, which I wear from Baptism to when I am with God in Heaven.

It is only at the deepest level of my humanity, my total reliance on a force beyond my human nature, that I can seek the power I need to continue to be an adopted son (daughter) of the Father.

God had to intervene in space and time because of a flaw in the ointment of intelligent progression by humans (Adam and Eve at types that represent human nature) and the side effects that their choice made for all humanity — called original sin because it is archetypal and describes how humans wrecked humanity from its intended outcome. God only gave humans a chance to choose good over evil, and they failed.

Someone had to get the train back on the track, someone who had to be both God and human. The intervention of God in the evolution of humanity aims to restore harmony to those dissidents caused by human beings having reason and free will, which can lead to good or evil and result in making the wrong choice.

God gave humans a second chance to do the right thing. Spirituality is accessing that energy that comes from a source outside my human nature, but, like a transformer, it allows my human nature to move forward constantly in space and time (Figure 1).

I have reason and free will to choose good or evil, but the wrong choice, even for me as an individual, has consequences. Scripture says: The wages of sin are death. God tells me what the roadmap is for avoiding the minefield of being my own God.

God’s Israelites were still not getting it right, so Jesus, Son of God, had to take on the sins of all humanity and restore each of us to the place in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. But humanity had to live with the effects of that original sin by having to die, endure pain, get sick, and fail to choose what is right over what is easy. This is the context humans find themselves in today. When the ruler of the earth is one who constantly promotes bad or evil choices, are they the ones humans should follow to be fully human? We witness the world as going to Hell in a handbasket and don’t seem to be able to stop it.

I realized that all these anthropomorphic representations of what humans think God is are like putting a drop of water in the ocean, and even that limps badly. We will know the truth now, through a glass darkly, as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13. Read it slowly and prayerfully, letting the holy words overshadow you and make you grow in grace and energy (capacitas dei).

“I. If I speak in human and angelic tongues^* but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.^a

2 And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.^b

3 If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.^c

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated,^d

5 it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,^e

6 it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.

7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.^f

8^* Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.

9 For we know partially and we prophesy partially,

10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

11When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.

12 At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.^g

13^* So faith, hope, love remain, these three;^h but the greatest of these is love.”

MOVING FROM MY FALSE SELF TO MY TRUE SELF —

• My false self, which is part of my citizenship of the earth, comes from the Seven Deadly Sins. These seven sins seem to be default behaviors; if I don’t keep vigilant and watch through the night for the Wiley One, I risk losing it all. These cardinal sins are my false self and the ones I must fight to keep Christ as my center, lest I slip back into my animality. Here are some thoughts I have about my false self.
• My false self is the animal and mental part of me (See Figure 2 above) that stops growing and seeks answers to the mysteries of my humanity, either within me or from the values I assimilate into my worldview.
• My false self is who I am without moving to the next level of my evolution. I am merely a human who lives and dies on this earth while trying to find out who I am.
• My false self is neither good nor evil, but the results and unintended consequences of a choice that I have made of what is good or evil for me. These choices may be good or evil, depending on who determines what is good or evil.
• My false self is the sole arbiter of what is good or evil for me, which, in and of itself, is amoral. It is the choice I make that determines whether it is good or evil.
• False choices are only false if I choose that second way of who determines good or evil: in this case, I freely let go of my humanity to choose something that I think is going to be pleasurable or without pain.
• False choices are false because I have freely abandoned my reliance on the goGod and think that the fulfillment of my humanity can only be reached without any spirituality.
• False choices always carry the mark of the Evil One. Scripture comments: “From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks.” If, in your speech, you hate others, guess what is in your heart?
• God tells us, through our two Adocates, Christ and the Holy Spirit, what is good and what is evil. Left up to each of us, because of original sin, our morality is what I think is good for me. The Old Testament is a collection of stories about how God led his chosen people through trials and rough times. When they call upon the name of the Lord, they prospered; when they did not, well, look at the dissolution of the Twelve Tribes and factioning that caused in-fighting. The same goes for me today. Factions (Galatians 5) are the most insidious of all the Devil’s tools, and all of us are prone to make the jump from God to worshipping the golden calf of our own ego. I make a conscious effort to use these seven deadly sins as markers that the Catholic Church says I should avoid. I took the descriptions of the 7 deadly sins and the 7 heavenly virtues from Google AI. They are:

“The seven deadly sins are a classification of vices within Christian teachings, with corresponding virtues that provide a moral framework for ethical living. 

Seven deadly sins

Also known as the capital vices, the standard list was compiled by Pope Gregory I around the year 600. 

• Pride: An inflated sense of one’s own worth or importance, without regard for others.
• Envy: A resentful or painful desire for something that belongs to another person.
• Wrath: An excessive, uncontrolled feeling of hatred and anger.
• Sloth: A spiritual or mental laziness that causes one to neglect duties and responsibilities.
• Greed: An excessive and selfish pursuit of material possessions or wealth.
• Gluttony: Overconsumption and overindulgence of anything, especially food and drink, to the point of waste.
• Lust: An intense craving for sexual pleasure. 

---

Seven heavenly virtues

There are two prominent classifications for the seven virtues. One includes the four cardinal virtues from Greek philosophy and three theological virtues. The other consists of seven remedial virtues meant to directly oppose the seven deadly sins. 

The seven remedial virtues

These virtues are considered the direct “antidotes” to the deadly sins. 

• Humility: Fighting pride by thinking of oneself less and acting in the service of others.
• Kindness: Combating envy with compassion, empathy, and goodwill toward others.
• Patience: Overcoming wrath with a sense of peaceful stability and mercy.
• Diligence: Counteracting sloth with a zealous and focused work ethic and perseverance.
• Charity: Opposing greed through selfless love, generosity, and self-sacrifice.
• Temperance: Defeating gluttony with moderation and self-control.
• Chastity: Conquering lust by exercising sexual self-control and purity.”
• (AI from Google.com)

I also am aware of the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy that are tied to the words of Mary: “Do what he tells you. The source of the list below is:

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10198d.htm

• To give drink to the thirsty;
• To clothe the naked;
• To harbour the harbourless;
• To visit the sick;
• To ransom the captive;
• To bury the dead.

The spiritual works of mercy are:

• To instruct the ignorant;
• To counsel the doubtful;
• To admonish sinners;
• To bear wrongs patiently;
• To forgive offences willingly;
• To comfort the afflicted;
• To pray for the living and the dead.”

NOTES:

• I see my false self as being susceptible to and having chosen one of these Seven Deadly Sins. My true self, which is in the process of daily conversion, is to move closer to what Christ wanted. I use these Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy as my guide, so I don’t have to make up new ones. The key to all of this is a conscious awareness of what I move FROM and TO.
• I consciously try to move FROM my false self TO my true self each day by being conscious of who I am in the presence of God.
• At the heart of my Lay Cistercian spirituality is the never-ending passion to move each day FROM my false self as a citizen of this earth TO my true self that exists only with Christ’s help and the energy of the Holy Spirit. (capacitas dei)
• I have a schedule of challenges that I must meet daily to deliberately place myself in the presence of Christ in that upper room of my inner self, and then wait in silence and solitude to be surrounded by Divine Energy.
• One revelation in my Lay Cistercian journey is that I must realize who I am in the sight of God, with eyes lowered (custos oculi), seek mercy for my failures to watch an hour with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemani. This is my true self, sitting in the presence of Christ as much as I can and waiting patiently in silence and solitude.
• Another of my conscious decisions to have in me the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5) is to place myself in Christ’s presence through Cistercian practices, expecially Lectio Divina (see next blog), Rosary, My Penitential Rosary that specificlly asks God to have mercy on me, plus, on those whom I have met in my lifetime, on all nuns, brothers, religious orders, deacons and their wives, and the Church Universal and finally for the whole of humanity. (conversio morae)
• I must fight against my natural inclinations to do as little as I can to as much as I can to make myself happy.
• I am in an existential war between the world (flesh) and the spirit. My default is not my spiritual level of adoption but rather my residence in my earthly physical and mental false self, which is the opposite of my true self.
• Two citizenships exist simultaneously. One of them, my physical presence, lasts from when I am born to when my body dies and returns to dust. The second citizenship comes at Baptism, when I move from merely being human to add the last section of my intended evolution, the spirituality of struggling while on earth and learning what to pack for the trip to heaven (the Seven Heavenly Virtues), so I can decorate the mansion the Father has waiting for me.
• This citizenship allows my humanity to access a form of evolution unlike my human or earthly one. Still, it uses the physical and mental universes to store up treasures that don’t rust or decay.
• It is like an Elon Musk rocket that has three stages: the first gives me a boost to my human nature to move to that next stage of the free choice (metal) to continue, but now both the first stage but adds the booster of Christ and the energy of the Holy Spirit to place me in orbit (Alpha) where my capsule contining my life with all its experiences expands to include all other rockets and their experiences.
• My Catholic Way, which is also My Cistercian Way (for me alone), is to realize that my will can be done on earth by giving away my power entirely to God through Christ and the energy of the Holy Spirit for each day of my life until my body turns to dust.
• Because I have the gifts of human reason and the ability to choose what is good or evil for me, there is a possibility that even though I think I am doing God’s will, I am only making God in my image and likeness to do what I say morality is or supplant my will for God’s. This actually happened to me for a short time (40 years of wandering in the desert of my false self without even realizing it).`
• Many churches claim to be the ones carrying the truth about what Christ wants. Still, only one has survived the gauntlet of time, bloodied and brused, to bring truth to me so that I can call upon the name the Lord, and, in that name I am saved from the wasted life of just remaining as a citizen of the world (earth) and not go to that next level of my humanity, which was intended by nature from the beginning of what is. Only I can choose which one is right for me, and just because I choose one doesn’t make it correct. It is correct because I made the right choice.
• Never ever ridicule anyone for believing in something that you do not. Not all Catholic believers believe the same (57 varieties of Catholicism), but all share One God, One Faith, One Baptism. Christ indeed is not the belief systems of all those who say, Lord, Lord, but rather those who do the will of God. All of us are trying to figure out what that is while our bodies still pump blood.
• Don’t think of the Scriptures as apologetical phrases to prove whose God is better than someone else’s God. Seek first, as best you can, with the experiences of your life, the kingdom of heaven, and it will open up the kingdom of heaven with you, which means you yearn to place yourself in the presence of Christ, the one you love, and be content to bask in His Being.
• The purpose and deepest part of my humanity is to love God with all my heart, with all my mind, and with all my strength and to love my neighbor as myself. (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:38)
• Being a Catholic means I am a miner who must constantly dig to discover spiritual gold within the upper room of my inner self. I must dig constantly lest I relapse into sloth and not grow as Christ wanted me to do.
• Renewal in the Church involves choosing what will not break the train track laid down in each century by the Apostles, and how I, even now, interface with the love of Christ through the Holy Spirit.
• The only Catholic Church is the one that serves me, just as I serve others, because Christ bid me to love others as He loved me. Do I do this perfectly all the time? That is what, in the great wisdom of God, the Catholic Church does as it wobbles through the centuries: it maintains an authentic path from the Apostles to me, allowing us to start over again. The Sacrament of Reconciliation, a public, not private, prayer, means I avail myself of the opportunity to admit to Christ, through His authentic representative on earth, the Priest, that I have sinned (did not do God’s will) and require God’s energy to move forward once more. I also call upon the mercy of Christ each day, not to remember my sins but the pleas for God to be gentle to me, a sinner.
• God intervened in human nature to show each of us how to access that deeper part of our humanity. All the while, God leaves us free to choose good or evil, but, like Genesis, tells us what is good and what is evil.
• God tells us what is good and what is evil. God, through Christ and the Holy Spirit, shows us how to access God’s energy by using the Catholic Church’s mandate to carry the Good News forward as Christ wanted, but as members of the Church want.
• Some individuals over the centuries have not liked the severity of the commitment to follow the way of the cross instead of their own fleeting needs. They have jumped off the train of the Catholic Church to follow what they think is a more perfect union. Away from the authentic train tracks of Christ’s presence in each age, they do what they think renews the valid message of Jesus.
• Genuine and authentic repentance and reparation for the sins of the individual and the Church, recognizing that all individuals are sinners (except Christ and the Blessed Mother), come from within, as exemplified by the Saints and honed to become more focused on Jesus as Lord. They all turned inward to restore Christ as the center of their way of life, so that the truth might become more evident and lead to a life in which Christ sits at the right hand of the Father and we are His ambassadors on earth.
• The Church’s Hall of Fame, like Cooperstown or the NFL, includes the names of those who excelled by embodying the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5-13). Sinners all, we honor that they overcame their personal demons to take up their designated crosses as Christ did, and follow in His footsteps.
• If I call myself by the name of Christ and carry the sign of the cross on my forehead, symbolized by ashes on Ash Wednesday, but my heart is always far from Him. I am but a clanging gong, a flickering light, a shallow representation of what it means to be fully human.
• So, it is up to me, the individual, to use everything at my disposal to fill those three longings of my human heart: Knowledge of who I am and my deepest level of evolution; love at this deepest level of my evolution; and what is absolute truth outside of the corruption of original sin. Christ is my center, and the Holy Spirit provides the energy. The Catholic Church provides me with ways to receive the Real Presence of Christ into my sanctuary to keep at my center, to safeguard me from the corruption of the world, until my body turns to dust.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever. The God who is, who was, and who is to come at the end of the ages. –Cistercian doxology

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