Our True Estate on Earth

 Bernadette Roberts

The usual language to describe the Unitive State is of someone newly-arrived, whose perspective is always comparative or relative to their previous estate -- the [Dark] Nights, that is. Nowhere are we told anything about what this state is like 20, 30, 40 years down the road, there is absolutely no literature on it. As it stands then, the impression is that there is no further to go and that the Unitive State is a kind of heaven on earth. To disabuse a beginner of this, however, might only discourage him. At the same time, it would be a great mistake to under-rate this state, after all, it is God's own doing and the true estate of man on earth; nothing is of greater value than living this life in oneness with God.

Contemplative