Weekly Pause & Ponder

Once the call of the True Self is heard not only with the heart but also with the mind and conscience there will be no way back to the way things have been. Sooner or later we will recognize that we no longer have any choice but to allow ourselves the extraordinary freedom to go all the way in this life. Because, after all, if we have begun to see through the illusory world that the ego creates and have heard the call of the True Self to live our lives for a greater purpose – what else is there to do?

Living Enlightenment by Andrew Cohen, found in En*theos, Inspirational Quotes.

Weekly Pause & Ponder

God’s bestowal of grace began with time itself. It is interwoven in our history. Through the work of the Holy spirit, all creation has been pressured from within to evolve. Inert matter evolved, becoming ever more conscious, until, at a particular moment in the concrete history of the world, self-reflective consciousness emerged in a species we call human. The material universe that came into existence and was maintained by grace finally became aware of the grace that had been there all along, the self-communication of the Holy that was at the heart of life.

Field of Compassion: How the New Cosmology Is Transforming Spiritual Life, by Judy Cannato, p. 148.

Weekly Pause & Ponder

God’s bestowal of grace began with time itself. It is interwoven in our history. Through the work of the Holy spirit, all creation has been pressured from within to evolve. Inert matter evolved, becoming ever more conscious, until, at a particular moment in the concrete history of the world, self-reflective consciousness emerged in a species we call human. The material universe that came into existence and was maintained by grace finally became aware of the grace that had been there all along, the self-communication of the Holy that was at the heart of life.

Field of Compassion: How the New Cosmology Is Transforming Spiritual Life, by Judy Cannato, p. 148.

Weekly Pause & Ponder

Evolutionary spirituality, though it comes in many colors, has a message much more suited for the life conditions of the modern and postmodern world: The evolution of this  world is the goal of spiritual life. And by “world” I mean the manifest cosmos of time and space, both the interior and exterior realms – consciousness, culture, and cosmos. The action is here – in this time, in this place, in the possibilities that lie in the near and distant future of this culture, this world, this universe. Yes, there still may be spiritual transcendence of the most radical, sublime, and subtle forms, but transcendence is in the service of evolution, not the other way around. And that difference is everything.

Evolutionaries; Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science’s Greatest Idea, by Carter Phipps, p.272. 

Weekly Pause & Ponder

Cosmologists Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry have suggested that we are a culture that is presently in between stories (1992), between world views. Both science and spirituality have a stake in the story that is being created. Each alone has only partial answers to the questions of who we are and what we are capable of becoming. Indeed, as twenty-first century life unfolds, it is becoming increasingly clear that each of us has a voice in the answers to these questions. Through transformations in consciousness, each of us is empowered to help craft a new story–one that is more just, compassionate, and sustainable, now and for future generations.

  

Living Deeply: the Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life
by Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, Ph.D., Cassandra Vieten, Ph.D., and Tina Amorok, Psy.D., pp.210-211.