Thank you, this is very helpful.
Thank you for sharing a really excellent article.
My favorite readings on spiritual intimacy are St Teresa of Avila and Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God.
Recently I was deep in prayer, crying to God to lift me back into the intimate relationship I had when I died. I wanted to leave my physical body again and just be in the presence of God whom made me feel whole. I prayed the question, “God, how can I get back to being with you?” “I Love you so much.”
As usual, I heard His answer. “Love Me in all the people around you.” He replied.
I went back and read 1 John 4 with new meaning. It invigorated my Love and Intimacy for God. I could feel the Holy Spirit more frequently as it flowed through me toward others. It is not a possessing or sexual Love for others, it is a freeing unconditional Love, available even when they act in evil ways. It is my desire that they too can have this relationship with God and be free.
At this level, it becomes an experiential presence of God, not just a theoretical relationship based upon faith. It is a knowing, not just a believing.
We all and our Father are One.
I have found that it is easier to understand this by looking at it from the perspective of “self.”
When we are born, our self identity is through our relationship with our parents with whom we are dependent. As we grow we transfer to a peer group identity.
We grow separate from our parent and often think that we are our own God as we develop a self empowered ego identity. We have no room for God when we are full of ourselves. Thus the new wine cannot go in an old flask.
That ego identity dies daily and becomes and empty vessel where upon we transcend ego self and look for our strength in God. We continue to build our identity with God upon whom we are now dependent. The more humble, meek and God focused we become, the more we grow.
Only then can we truly experience God.
When you were in your mother’s womb, you could only perceive through her experiences. When you were born in the flesh, you developed a sense of self based upon your own sensory input. When you experience God, you begin to perceive from your soul or spirit rather than just your physical body senses. Only at that time do you begin to experience God as you have transcended the physical self. Your vessel is broken and you find you are in a much bigger vessel.
Thank you for posting this article. It presents several good ideas. Having gone on several retreats at the White House, a Jesuit retreat center in St. Louis, I have found that the Spiritual Exercises presented by the Jesuits have been very helpful in my prayer life. On one of the retreats, the retreat master, Fr. Edward Brennan, would start each conference with the following prayer:
We enter into the presence of God.
A God who is greater than we can possibly understand.
Yet a God who is close to us, closer to us than we are to ourselves.
A God who loves us.