Contemplation - Mysticism - Divine union - Embodiment - Kinship

Relationship - Presence - Accompaniment - Journey - Love

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Born and raised in the Catholic faith, I had my first deeply spiritual encounter with God while on a retreat as a teenager.  On Saturday evening of the weekend retreat, while sitting in quiet prayer, reflection and meditation, I experienced the all-loving embrace of the Divine.  A feeling of love, peace, tenderness, compassion and joy overwhelmed me in this moment, and my journey of Living the Way began. 

As I engaged my new-found faith, I began attending a Bible study made up primarily of Protestant students from my High School.  I will be forever grateful to them for leading me to a deep love of Scripture, especially the Gospels.  In the Gospels, I was able to see in Jesus the traits I experienced on my weekend retreat. Jesus, a person of love, acceptance, inclusivity, compassion, peace, tenderness, non-violence, restoration, and transformation came fully alive for me.

The lived experience of my encounter with the Divine, and with the Jesus of the Gospels became the yardsticks against which I was able to understand the Way and measure the Truth.  In this, I oftentimes felt like a "fish out of water" both in my Catholic faith and among my many Protestant friends.  There was much I was able to hold on to, when we spoke of the love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness and the inclusiveness of God. But, the punitive, guilt-ridden, shaming aspects did not fit with the yardsticks of my own experience of God and the Jesus portrayed in the Gospels.

Over the years, I have come to see that within the history of the Catholic and Christian faith, that although there is plenty to criticize, there have also been many who have had deep mystical experiences of their own with God. 

I found myself drawn first to Franciscan Spirituality. A spirituality that starts with the idea of Original Goodness as presented in the first two chapters of Genesis, and sees the coming of Christ, not as "Plan B" to clean up our mess. But rather, as the always-planned, Plan A, of the Divine becoming part of their creation through the Incarnation.  It was in and through Franciscan Spirituality, that I could see a God who was consistent with both Jesus and my own lived experience of the Divine.

Through the likes of St. Francis and St. Clare, Thomas Merton, Thérèse of Lisieux, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Dorothy Day,  Peter Maurin, John Dear, Daniel Berrigan, Richard Rohr, Ilia Delio, Meister Echart, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Matthew Fox, Thomas Berry, Ronald Rolheiser, Pedro Arrupe, Gregory Boyle, Brennan Manning, Mother Teresa, Pope Francis, and many others within the Catholic faith, I was able to see within the Catholic Church those who understood and have experienced the Love, the God, that holds the universe together.

Additionally, I have found like-minded understanding of this God who is Love in other faith traditions, whether Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or indigenous religions.  Through people like The Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Mohandus Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Howard Thurman, Barbra Holmes, Brian McLaren, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Black Elk, Joy Harjo, Bill Plotkin, Adyashanti, Rumi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and so many others.  

There is much that we share, and much that we can learn from one another if we are willing to listen deeply to one another and enter into dialogue about our understanding of the Divine, meditation, contemplation, care for creation, kinship, connectedness, and unity.  By humbly sharing our faith stories and dialoguing in a spirit of being fully present to each other, fully present to the moment, we can experience true joy and freedom, even in the midst of our pain and suffering.

We are all part of One Great Puzzle.

We need only be willing to be present to the moment, to be companions with one another on the journey of Living the Way.

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