The Gate of Heaven Is Everywhere

The Great Yes

SCRIPTURE Luke 1:38 (NRSVUE) Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her. REFRAIN I open myself to what God wants to bring to birth in me. QUOTE Meister Eckhart "We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself? And, what good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of Man is begotten in us." ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Feminine Incarnation

SCRIPTURE Romans 1:20 (NIV) For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. REFRAIN God is more than any image I have been given. QUOTE Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ "Although Jesus was clearly of the masculine gender, the Christ is beyond gender, and so it should be expected that the Big Tradition would have found feminine ways, consciously or unconsciously, to symbolize the full Divine Incarnation and to give God a more feminine character — as the Bible itself often does." ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

A Full Body Tune Up

SCRIPTURE Isaiah 45:15 (NIV) Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, the God and Savior of Israel. REFRAIN God is at the depth of all things, including me. QUOTE Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ "I doubt if you can see the image of God in your fellow humans if you cannot first see it in rudimentary forms in stones, in plants and flowers, in strange little animals, in bread and wine, and most especially cannot honor this objective divine image in yourself. It is a full-body tune-up, this spiritual journey. It really ends up being all or nothing, here and then everywhere." ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Image Cannot Be Extinguished

SCRIPTURE Ephesians 2:4–6 (NIV) But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. REFRAIN The image of God cannot be extinguished. QUOTE Walter Wink, from Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way "There is no one, and surely no entire people, in whom the image of God has been utterly extinguished. Faith in God means believing that anyone can be transformed, regardless of the past. To write off whole groups of people as intrinsically racist and violent is to accept the very same premise that upholds racist and oppressive regimes." ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Something in Common With All Creatures

SCRIPTURE Hebrews 4:15 (NIV) For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin. REFRAIN Christ is present in the depth of all things. QUOTE St. Bonaventure "As a human being Christ has something in common with all creatures. With the stones he shares existence, with plants he shares life, with animals he shares sensation, and with the angels he shares intelligence." ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.