This post is the final in Fr Philip Carter’s series Approaching Life. It is also the final post for this year. We will be taking a break during the month of January and will see you again February 2023. In the meantime we will provide you with some links to previous posts that you may like to revisit.
We wish you a happy and blessed Christmas season.
The mysticism of everyday life
Karl Rahner
To look and find God in everything.
Ignatius of Loyola
Do you want to understand our Lord’s meaning in this experience?
Understand it well: love was His meaning. Who showed it to you? Love.
What did He show you? Love. Why did He show it? For love.
Julian of Norwich
Image: Andrey Yanev, Give me your hand
God graces us with all the gifts of creation.
God gives life to all things.
God works in and through all things.
God lives within us, giving us everything we need.
Love’s exchange – uncovered in Jesus – is that as beloved, we receive, and as lover, we give.
What matters is how we live our lives. “Love ought to manifest itself in deeds rather than words” (Ignatius).
What are you doing to maximize your attentiveness to the God who encounters us in everything?
How are you fostering this disposition of “availability, welcome, receptivity”?
“Love is mutual and responsive”. (Ignatius).
Is your life characterized by self-giving,
or at least the desire to make a sincere and full gift of yourself?
Can you name when and where love is touching your life?
When love is inviting you forward?
If love is life’s meaning – are you in touch with your inner depths
and listening to the contemplative moment in your life?
Do you allow room and space for yourself?
Can you “waste time” in God’s presence?
And your own?
Do you allow time for sleep, recreation, leisure?
How do you feed your soul?
Are you your own best friend?
I must give others not only something that is my own, but my very self;
I must be personally present in my gift.
Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est
….It is the slow and difficult
Trick of living, and finding it where you are.
Mary Oliver
The images in this post are of paintings by Andrey Yanev, a contemporary Bulgarian artist.
Prof. Mito Ganovsky on Andrey Yanev
‘Balkan artist Andrey Yanev draws his inspiration from the legends, music and rhythm of his homeland that are deeply ingrained in his subconscious.” International Artist magazine on Andrey Yanev…His painting Forgiveness has captured the minds of art aficionados and beginners alike; it has been presented on the covers of magazines, web sites, it was connected to existential events in our world. There is some sort of magic in this painting that pierces the consciousness and makes one think about it, through it and to strive to be better, wiser. It is truly prayerlike.’ Source: Andrey Yanev
If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father,
and he will give you another comforter, that he may bide with you for ever,
e’vn the spirit of truth.
John 14: 15-17
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click on the link below.
