Thank you Barb.
I read this thread yesterday and spent some time thinking about it.
This reminds me of what St John of the Cross said ‘Nada, nada, nada’, ‘Nothing, nothing, nothing’.
I love the Cross greatly, but when I try and express even the simplest facet of the Cross I am at a loss for words. I can’t express it. Many times I read back to myself posts I have made on this forum regarding the Cross and think, ‘No that’s not it’. My words to express God are simply ‘not it’. I know and I don’t know I understand and I don’t understand even upon the same facet of the Cross. My mind stumbles and whirls in a state of unknowing. In gaining a little understanding I realise how little I understand. In knowing God a little I realise I do not know God very well. Most often I am at a loss.
I cannot contain God. I cannot write about Him sufficiently let alone adequately. I receive and grasp at one light only to lose it in the greater and unknown Light of God.
I may say ‘God is Love’ and that would be a true statement and a Divine Truth but what do I know about that, what is my gain? Most often my gain is knowing my own poverty at considering this, but can I fully express this? No I can’t. Can I know it in fullness? No I can’t. Yet dimly I see it, still I lose so much of what this statement means and what the fullness of that Truth is even though this Truth is my Beloved Jesus, my God.
If I attempted to say ‘God is Love’ and define it I would limit God. I must lose my ideas and submit to trusting God in not fully knowing, though I must strive ‘to love, know and serve God’.
How do I perceive ‘know’? Most often the spirit can know some light about God and not fully understand it, still the ‘knowing’ effects the grace in the soul and this is sufficient for God’s will to be done. Here understanding is ‘nothing’, but ‘knowing’ is everything. The spirit perceives more than the mind can and the grace is actualised in the soul and in their life.
It is true that in contemplation the mind is so stilled it cannot think a thing and God imparts Himself intimately in this prayer; all the faculties are halted the soul does nothing for itself and cannot even attain this state itself even by many methods of prayer or sincere effort in good works. Therefater the soul cannot fully express it either, yet God has done His work in the soul and the soul is united to Him. The mind cannot perceive ‘how’ this is done by God, yet it is simply glad and thankful for this greatest of gifts.
In losing the ‘self’ man finds God and in finding God man loses God and in losing all man gains all by God’s grace.
In the Living Prayer of my life
