Poets & Saints

1 John 4:16 (NIV)

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God,

and God in them.

I am known in relationship and held in love.

Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ

"If that mirror is withdrawn for any reason,

it causes sadness, emptiness, or even anger.

We are normally disoriented,

even heartbroken for a while.

We die in some way. But why?

Because we only know ourselves in another's eyes.

We receive our identity — all of it — good and bad,

from another.

The other both creates us and saves us.

The universe is relational at every level,

and even between levels.

Relationship is the core and foundational shape of Reality."

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Genesis 1:27 (NIV)

So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

In God's gaze, I come alive.

Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ

"When we learn to love anyone or anything,

it is because they have somehow,

if just for a moment,

mirrored us truthfully yet compassionately to ourselves.

And we grab on to it! Why wouldn't we?

In this resonance, we literally 'come to life.'

But have no doubt, it is an allowing from our side.

And such pure, unfiltered Presence

is accessed only by presence in return.

Nothing more is needed."

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1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV)

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;

we see only a part,

but then we shall see face to face.

Now I know in part;

then I shall know fully,

even as I am fully known.

God sees me clearly and loves what God sees.

Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ

"A mirror receives and reflects back what it sees.

It does not judge, adjust, or write commentary.

We are the ones who do that.

A mirror simply reveals.

And invites responsibility.

A mirror, the sun, and God are all the same.

They are all there, fully shining forth.

Their very nature is light, love, and infinite giving.

You can't offend them or make them stop shining.

You can only choose to stop receiving and enjoying.

As soon as you look, you will see they are there.

And fully radiating.

And always have been."

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Colossians 1:16–17 (NIV)

For in him all things were created:

things in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible,

whether thrones or powers

or rulers or authorities;

all things have been created through him and for him.

He is before all things,

and in him all things hold together.

I am a willing traveler in something larger than myself.

Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ

"That the way things work

and Christ are one and the same.

This is not a religion

to be either fervently joined or angrily rejected.

It is a train ride already in motion.

The tracks are visible everywhere.

You can be a willing and happy traveler,

or not."

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Romans 8:22 (NIV)

We know that the whole creation

has been groaning

as in the pains of childbirth

right up to the present time.

The pattern of death and rising is everywhere.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, from How I Believe

"I believe the universe is an evolution;

I believe evolution proceeds towards spirit;

I believe spirit, in human beings,

completes itself in the personal;

I believe the supreme personal

is the Universal Christ."

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John 12:24 (NIV)

"Very truly I tell you,

unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies,

it remains only a single seed.

But if it dies,

it produces many seeds."

In letting go, I find what truly lives.

C.S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity

"The more we let God take us over,

the more truly ourselves we become —

because He made us. He invented us.

He invented all the different people

that you and I were intended to be.

It is when I turn to Christ,

when I give up myself to His personality,

that I first begin to have a real personality of my own."

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Philippians 1:21 (NIV)

For to me, to live is Christ

and to die is gain.

Jesus is the path. I choose to follow.

Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ

"If Christ represents the resurrected state,

then Jesus represents the crucified/resurrecting path

of getting there.

If Christ is the source and goal,

then Jesus is the path

from that source

toward the goal of divine unity

with all things."

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Matthew 5:3 (NIV)

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

The way down is the way in.

Francis of Assisi, from The Peace Prayer

"O divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying

that we are born to eternal life.

Amen."

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James 2:17 (NIV)

In the same way,

faith by itself,

if it is not accompanied by action,

is dead.

My faith is alive when it is lived.

Howard Thurman, from Jesus and the Disinherited

"The religion of Jesus says to the disinherited:

'Love your enemy.

Take the initiative in seeking ways by which you can have the experience

of a common sharing of mutual worth and value.

It may be hazardous,

but you must do it.'"

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Colossians 1:17 (NIV)

He is before all things,

and in him all things hold together.

I am awake to God in all things.

Mechtild of Magdeburg, from The Flowing Light of the Godhead

"The day of my spiritual awakening

was the day I saw —

and knew I saw —

all things in God

and God in all things."

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