Hints and Guesses

"We have to know the darkness to be able to search for the light," according to Henri Nouwen.  And he goes on to claim that we need lostness, in the search for meaning.  With so much disorder, lostness, darkness, denial and confusion, I'd like to read most of a letter written by Nouwen that seems to address our age, people like you and me.  I hope you'll hear something encouraging, no matter how wild and meandering your path.  Enjoy!

In an age obsessed with "knowing oneself," how do we not get stuck in endless autobiography and self-absorption?  At its best, a healthy spiritual and religious life helps free us from the cul-de-sac of narcissistic feedback.  In the episode, we'll look at a story from Saint Antony, a paragraph from C.S. Lewis about hell, and I'll outline the four foundations of a spiritual life from the book Journey Into Emptiness by Robert Jingen Gunn (a book about Dogen, Merton and Jung).  See below for the link I promised in the episode about the Cree mountains of human development.  Enjoy!   https://decolonialfutures.net/portfolio/fourmountains/#:~:text=Each%20mountain%20represents%20a%20stage,one%20mountain%20to%20the%20other [https://decolonialfutures.net/portfolio/fourmountains/#:~:text=Each%20mountain%20represents%20a%20stage,one%20mountain%20to%20the%20other]. https://www.patreon.com/c/kentdobson [https://www.patreon.com/c/kentdobson]

Here's the final episode of The Christ Symbol.  This episode is about Authority and Resurrection (stage 6 and 7).  What does real authority look like?  What does it mean for a "grain of wheat to go into the ground and die?"  What is the nature of real change?  Hope you hear something from Jesus own transformed life, that may in fact trans-form your own.  Enjoy!

Here's the next episode in The Christ Symbol.  This episode is about Wilderness and Mission (stage 4 and 5), the necessity of the desert and the nature of a soul-oriented mission in the life of Jesus, a life transformed.  Hope you hear a hint or guess for your own spiritual growth.  Enjoy!

Here's the next episode in looking at Christ through a symbolic lens, a life transformed.  This episode is about Transcendent Encounter (stage 3), those moments we could not have predicted, manufactured, controlled, or made up.  Those moments when we know we are ushered into something larger.  Hope you hear a hint or guess for your own spiritual growth.  Enjoy!