The Christian’s journey toward wholeness in the image of Christ for the sake of others progresses by means of spiritual disciplines. The first stage of this journey is the awakening, or waking up to the fact of how unlike Christ I am.
Holistic spiritual awakening is a two-sided experience as it is the encountering with the living God and an encounter with my true self. It is coming to see something of myself as I am and coming to see God as God is. This can be a gradual or a radical experience. It can take place in the everyday experiences of life or an extraordinary event. My awakening came through the fact that I didn’t know how to love a life-giving love. It was a gradual process; however, I remember being called to love and not really knowing what that meant. I started searching for truth and encountering God through silence, prayer, the Eucharist, understanding humility, asking God to teach me His truth, and knowing His voice.
Crisis does not necessarily bring sadness, no: being in crisis in service to the Lord very often gives you peace and joy… Anesthesia of the spiritual senses, in the excitement and stultification of those of the body, is a widespread syndrome in a society that cultivates the illusion of eternal youth, and its most dangerous feature lies in the fact that it is mostly unaware. We do not realize we are anaesthetized… It has always happened, and it happens in our times. Numbed senses, without understanding what is happening: when they are numb, the inner senses, the senses of the Spirit that enable us to understand the presence of God or the presence of evil, cannot distinguish between them.
Pope Francis
Thank You, Lord, for drawing me in the first step of my pilgrimage toward wholeness.
Smitten With Goodness 