Downloading.

Labyrinth, movement 2

This three-part blog series builds upon the labyrinth video from my recent retreat at Mepkin Abbey, and is based around its three movements: inward, center, and outward. The second movement occurs at the center of the labyrinth where, having walked the path in, there is a pause to wait and encounter. The ancient term for this movement is “illumination,” and it refers to what happens when we stop and place our attention fully on Presence in a receptive posture. In my words, there is an inevitable “download” from the Spirit.

Sometimes waiting on God and looking for an impartation induces anxiety: Am I doing it right? If I don’t receive something, am I unworthy? These feelings are natural enough, but they are irrelevant once we know who God is and who we are. God is a bubbling fountain of unceasing generosity, and we are the beloved…and even these words are but a dim picture of the reality that is even more daring: When we encounter God, there is a mystical mutuality of self-disclosure, and it’s the most natural thing in the world. We are hardwired for it…just inexperienced.

It’s only about showing up and being open, curious, attentive. And then we receive something. Simple or profound, there is no encounter that leaves us unchanged. Maybe refreshed like a cool breeze, challenged with a kind invitation, or directed toward a path. Always loved. Always belonging. Always welcome. Always home.

To gaze lovingly at God is to receive God’s loving gaze. It is to know our essential union with God (a nod to the third movement). The small separate self is our least significant reality in the face of an all-encompassing reality: that we are indelibly joined, with God and with all things. As the medieval mystic theologian Meister Eckhart said, “The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” Get the download.

growing the soul

The practice of Presence, or the practice of Encounter, is our truest purpose. All of us. Does your soul long for a fresh experience of the divine eye-to-eye, face-to-face? Then pause, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, and savor God’s delight in you. Then receive what is given.

serving the world

There is nothing better you can do for the world than reflect the glory of your daily divine encounter. Having been illuminated, you will now illumine.

meditation

takeaway

Freely receive, freely give.