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Bartimaeus, a blind man began to cry out and say,
"Jesus, son of David, have pity on me."
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me."
Jesus stopped and said, "Call him."
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
"Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you."
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?"
The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see."
Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you."
Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.
- Mark 10: 46-52
Call and response – an instinctual, relational exchange imbued into the fundamental being of birds, insects, animals and humans alike. Even at the chemical and atomic level, we communicate with one another in what science might describe as quantum entanglement. Wisdom traditions call it interbeing.
In today’s teaching story, the call and response unfolds deeper and deeper through several cycles. It begins with an insistent plea and ends in metanoia – a completely new level of being and of life trajectory. The man asks for sight and is given it on a whole other level -- illumination. He does not go on his own way, but instead follows The Way.
Meditations
"Each human being is invited … to become a New Creature in Christ as cells in the Mystical Body. So, we bring our little holon or our little fractal expression of the divine geometry into ordinary life and everything we do cannot be separated from this Oneness. It dwells in us as a kind of deepest self. …
"In the Christian tradition love is the bottom line: Love God with your whole heart, mind, soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself because the same God is in them and in us. So that all humans basically are equal in dignity and in their nature, and they’re also inserted now into the Mystical Body of Christ with a call to be, to serve, and to build-up the Body of Christ in various ways. You’re a living cell in a living body that has the Holy Spirit as the life blood. It fills the whole, every cell and, indeed, every particle of cells. Since we are made up of trillions of them, we are saturated with God …
"Christian non-duality then is this increasing merging of all our interests and body and soul and emotions into the Body of Christ, the New Creation, who through the Spirit has given us the source of a new motivation …
"Effortless total receptivity is the best way to be open to God’s guidance. It is like being a container for God. So, for a container to be filled, what is the best response? Emptiness. Openness. It is very simple, but very hard to do. All you have to do is nothing. Try it! But it does not mean you actually do nothing. It means that you are empty of all will proposals but open to God’s actions, so that you do what God wants to do. Emptiness is not total nothingness, but emptiness with an openness to becoming more – by God’s will. "
- Thomas Keating, "Christian Non-Duality and Unity Consciousness," That We May One: Christian Non-Duality
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"Reality is being with another in a way that is open to more union and more being. … I do not exist in order that I may possess; rather, I exist in order that I may give of myself, for it is in giving that I am myself. This differentiated self-gift of personhood arises out of a deep center within where humanity is held in utter silence and freedom. [Quoting Beatrice Bruteau:] ‘This energy is an outpouring that is an act of reverence, of worship. We experience it as a projection of personal, spiritual, self-existent energy towards and into other persons, and even towards the … universe. We will to pour our own life, our own existence, into others that they may be and may be abundantly.’ … [This] energy does not originate out of thought or will; it is not the act of an individual. Rather, it comes from a deep transcendent center, the still point where we are held in being by the embrace of Divine Love. … To affirm another, we need not sanction the person’s behavior … we do not even need to like the person …
"[Jesus’] energy of love radiated outward as he encountered others. His deep and profound ‘I am,’ expressing his Abba-oneness, radiated outward toward the other as ‘May you Be!’ This deep relatedness, ‘I am, may you be,’ is a consciousness of interbeing arising from the very interiority of the beings united, from their presence in the midst of each other. … Relationality (and hence interbeing) is our most fundamental reality on both the quantum level of physical life and the higher levels of conscious human life."
- Ilia Delio, "Evolution Toward Personhood," Personal Transformation and A New Creation: The Spiritual Revolution of Beatrice Bruteau
Practices:
- Jesus asks, "What do you want me to do for you? " What is the deepest response of your being at this time?
- This week, practice silently blessing all those you encounter with the prayer, "I am, may you be." Bless yourself and the other as a new creation in Christ and trust that it is so on the deepest level.
- Post your reflections on the community forum here. Post prayer requests here. By clicking on the Subscribe link on the right-hand side of a thread, you can receive email notifications when someone posts a comment or a prayer request.
- All are welcome to join-in this free, online Zoom workshop with David Frenette on Sunday, November 14, "The Dynamic Center of Being: Awakening to Unity through Centering Prayer." Read more and register here.
Join In Two Word of the Week Prayer Chapels
- Tuesday, 8:00-9:00 AM Central (Chicago) Time
- Wednesday, 5:00-6:00 PM Central (Chicago) Time
You can use this time zone converter to assist in calculating the prayer groups in your local time.
To join use this meeting connection:
About five minutes prior to the time of prayer, you may either
or
- Open Zoom, click-on "join meeting," and enter meeting ID 445 909 4698. When prompted for a passcode, use COL.
Or, if this time does not work for you, there are additional opportunities to support your silent prayer practice and spiritual journey on The Meditation Chapel, a Zoom-enabled, worldwide meditation community. All groups are free and open to all. Read more about the groups on The Meditation Chapel here.
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