So, what is the purpose of my blog? It is hoped that as I chronicle my attempts to reach for greater degrees of spiritual unfoldment, others will be inspired to reinvigorate their journeys and perhaps share their discoveries about the many roads, the shortcuts and the pitfalls, that lead home to God.
Below is an excerpt from the prologue to The Would Be Saint. It tells of an early attempt of mine to have an up close and personal relationship with God. Upon reading it, you may find it a bit desperate and silly, but, hey, I was only twelve at the time. As with most journeys, it began from what I thought I knew. That day was a marker in my life, a point at which I defined, if only to a degree, my desire for God.
My search has provided me with past life recalls, out of body experiences, and larger-than-life dreams. It has led me into benign desert places and into seemingly endless dark nights of Soul. My spiritual sojourn has gifted me with many teachers and put me in the company of wondrous fellow travelers. It has given me the unspeakable joy of knowing my true nature, and sublime albeit fleeting glimpses of the One I seek above all others.
What more lies ahead? Perhaps time, effort, and this blog will tell.
In gratitude,
Excer
pt from The Would Be Saint available at amazon.com
At an early age, my life dream was to become a saint. Admittedly, I was under the influence of my Catholic school upbringing with its gold-edged holy cards picturing the saints, tales of miracles, and the mysterious, cloistered life of my teachers. Not that the nuns encouraged me to make sainthood a goal. Quite the opposite, they encouraged humility and reverence toward the saints, those chosen few who were special in God’s eyes.
But I too wanted to be special in God’s eyes.
It wasn’t that I thought myself to be apart from anyone else, particularly worthy or holy. I just knew what I wanted: an up close and personal relationship with God.
Growing up, there were two girls in my neighborhood who shared my interest in sainthood by tacit agreement. Even though they were a year older than I, and a grade ahead, we spent many summers together.
I remember so clearly how on one sweltering August day, we knelt, the other two would-be saints and I, in front of a rose bush in Rene’s back yard. Heads bowed, hands wrapped in rosary beads, we prayed for a miracle. Nothing specific, just some sign that would signify the presence of God.
One of my friends had the idea of pricking our fingers with the thorns from the rose bush as a sacrifice. Although we weren’t really too clear on this point, it seemed that the stories we read about the saints always included pain and sacrifice of some sort. We were willing to go the distance in hopes of acquiring our goal.
We’d been told in our religious classes that a certain number of miracles were required in order to be declared a saint. We were in search of those miracles.
Many decades later, I was able to better formulate my early need for sainthood after reading these words from Paul Twitchell, “A saint, master, or spiritual traveler, whatever you wish to call him, exists not because he has devised to become a saint, but because his heart has discovered that he is a master.” * Simply put, we wake up to the master, saint, savant, pundit that is already present within. It is terribly important to me that you notice the word, we. We awaken. And when we do, miracles abound and the power to create heaven here on earth is ours.
* Paul Twitchell, The Key to ECKANKAR, (ECKANKAR 2000)
♥
Contemplation Seed: God is in the deeds and doings of everyday life.
Quote of the moment: “If we do not strive for inner perfection, we will remain what we are now—talking animals.” —Konya Sheikh Suleyman Loras, The Whirling Dervishes, Ira Freidlander, (Collier books, 1975)