SHARING EXPERIENCES...Part One

The Spiritual life is a journey with maps and landmarks (theology), but the trip is very hard, and that is why the writings of the Fathers and others who have traveled this road are so important. We can orient ourselves and "sort of know" what is coming up ahead. Since every soul/heart is different (St. Therese says souls are as different as faces!), made so by God's own breath when he breathed it into us, one spirituality does not fit all. And since a soul must seek God with its mind, it has to do so in union with its very unique heart. So, same maps and landmarks but traveled in the spirituality the heart knows is made just for its unique self. For me, God set me up to walk with the Fathers toward theosis, and at the same time to see a cosmic Christ and a more positive view of God's love and of creation - evolving toward love and a healed creation with Christ reigning over all. All not in a few years but in sweeping periods of history. Melding such a strictly defined and practiced spirituality as patristic spirituality, and the expansive vision we see in Tielhard, S.J. and Ilia Delio, O.S.F. is no easy task. With St. Therese always at the foot of the Cross praying for me, I go where my mind and heart point, keeping one eye on my maps and landmarks.