Despair, Sleep, and Heavenly Mother

Bruce Charlton has posted a really good essay over at his blog, one of those posts that stopped me in my tracks. I commend it to you.

I’ll include here the checklist Bruce wrote to assist in spiritual re-encouragement, and then a couple of thoughts.

1. Reality is ultimately created by God – and continually being-created by God; and I participate in this creation (as a sub-creator) insofar as the world is understandable to me. I look around and remind myself of this. 

2. The world is Not dead, mechanical or random; the world is alive and conscious: this is a world of beings. Every ‘thing’ is actually a being, or part of a being. (These beings are (by choice) either on the side of God, or against God.) 

3. The so-called dead are actually alive, in some way and in some place; and those of ‘the dead’ in Heaven remain active in this mortal life: we may help them, and they may help us. This is important work for us. 

4. Sleep is a vital part of our mortal lives. Sleep is an experience from which it is intended we shall learn. It requires our attention. 

5. We need to become consciously aware of much that is currently unconscious – indeed this is a major task of these times. A false non-reality is being imposed on us when we are passive, unconscious and refuse the responsibility of choosing; therefore, we need to be conscious of reality (of truth) and actively-choosing the ‘real reality’.  

6. God is the eternal (loving and creating) dyad of heavenly Father and Mother – yet I tend to neglect my Heavenly Mother. She surely deserves my attention, and I would surely be the better for giving it. 

7. There is no fixed limit to my knowledge except my capacity of knowing – and that may be developed by spiritual experience and learning; by right alignment and right choices. Anything I need to know – for salvation or theosis – I can know. If I don’t yet know it, then I have not yet asked properly. 

8. My current spiritual task is related to my current situation – including bad things about Now; because my current situation is continually-being fitted to my spiritual needs by God. 

9. Whatever is my current motivation or obsession has some meaning, some lesson to impart (maybe positive, maybe negative) – so is worth attending to. 

10. Think about Heaven and the everlasting resurrected life to come for all those who choose to follow Jesus Christ. This choice is free and cannot be compelled – or excluded. Heaven is awaiting after the end of mortal life – if we want it, if we are prepared to acknowledge our sins and allow ourselves to be cleansed of all that contradicts eternal love. So – assuming we intend to accept the gift of it: think about Heaven. 

The three items that I have been intensely thinking on this morning are:

#3 — My prayers and conversations with the saints and with loved ones who have died are very frequent and intense these days. This has been helped along by something a monk told me. “The dead are more intensely alive than you are. So it makes perfect sense to talk to them and ask them to pray for you. After all, look at the people here on earth you’ve asked to pray for you!”

#4 — This really rocked me back on my heels. I’ve always known that sleep is physically necessary, for recuperation and repair. But I have never seen it as a learning experience. This likely stems from the fact that I’m one of those (probably) dullards who cannot remember most of his dreams and who also sees sleep as an inconvenient necessity. Based on my musings this morning, I am going to try and very specifically focus on my sleep and all things related to it. It’s an exciting prospect to look forward to learning something heretofore un-thought-of.

#6 — I instinctively believe the Mormons are correct about the Heavenly Mother concept and have given this some thought. However, I’ve noticed that my devotion to the Maid, Saint Joan of Arc, grows by the hour. And assisted by the writings of some ancient Catholics, my awareness of and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary has been increasing as well. Perhaps this is due to the female nature of our Heavenly Mother being directly reflected in the Blessed Virgin and the Maid. I must meditate more on this; it is a very interesting thing to  be more and more aware of it.

So again, I commend this essay to you. We are living in a time in which being re-encouraged spiritually is more vital than we can even imagine.

~ S.K. Orr