Make Use of Everything

I received pushback from a few people after they read last Wednesday's quotation by Bernadette (In the Face of War). But if you go back and read the quotation you will see that no one is left out of heaven or kept from drawing close to God because they are not a monk or nun. Part of the last line is: “…and all those who love God with all their heart." 

When we hear ideas with which we disagree, especially from someone we trust, the most useful response for the contemplative is to see what it brings up and what that says about us. If they are wrong, they are just wrong – end of story. But does anyone really think they can be 'left out' of God? The ego wants God for itself. It wants to shine before God and display how great and spiritual it is.  But God already knows exactly how we are, both our highest aspirations and also how we blindly cling to self. The quotes in this blog are meant to be in service of the true focus of the contemplative, that is, away from self and toward God. We must each find God for ourselves, and then see what is true. Question what you read or hear, question even your own beliefs and your understanding. That is true humility.

This week the quotations will be about Humility, and after each quote, there will be some practices to learn humility from St. Maximilian Kolbe. However this is not suggesting how we can be perfect. Maybe we can try on some of these suggestions as a practice for self-understanding, a chance to see how far from perfection we truly are and how much we must depend on God's Mercy. To paraphrase Buddhist Teacher Chogyam Trungpa, use knowledge of your imperfections as “fertilizer for the Bodhi Field”.