Taking on the mystery is yielding to grace, letting go of all explanations, analyses, ideologies, self-images, images of God, agendas, expectations. Taking on the mystery is undergoing the finitude of years, hallowing diminishments, and living into the solitude of our own integrity. Taking on the mystery is undergoing the pain of learning that there are no empires favored by the Holy One: not the Roman, or the British, or the Soviet, or the American. Taking on the mystery is undergoing the grief of understanding that there are no theologies favored by the Holy One: not communism or capitalism, not Islam, Judaism, or Christianity. Taking on the mystery is acknowledging that we cannot name the mystery, though we try; we cannot claim the mystery, though we do. The mystery names and claim us, inviting us to take it upon ourselves as if we were God's spies.
~ from A TIME TO LIVE: SEVEN TASKS OF CREATIVE AGING by Robert Raines
Quiet the mind
Be still
And watch the breath of God
Rise and fall
In all things.
Allow God's breath
To be your breath;
Allow God's nature
To be your nature.
The nature of God
Is to love and be loved;
Your desire to love creates intention,
Intention focuses attention,
Attention illuminates understanding,
Understanding manifests forgiveness,
Forgiveness is the fountainhead of Love.
Intend to be Love
And know death for what it is:
The inbreath of God.
