Honest prayer

By Melanie Jean Juneau

Real prayer

Is not a mental exercise, a game.

Honest prayer

Opens our core, our heart to the Almighty,

The Creator of the universe.

Such prayer is necessarily humble because

He is God and we are not.

No room for pride;

He knows us better than we know ourselves.

Continue reading at Melanie's blog joyofnine9.

Who is the center of my universe?

By Melanie Jean Juneau

Observable universe logarithmic illustration by
Unmismoobjetivo (Wikimedia Commons).

An interesting question to ask ourselves, “Am I Christ centric or ego centric?”

I was shocked when I discovered that I functioned as if I was the center of the universe.

Shocked because I  really did not grasp that my whole paradigm was skewed.

Shocked because I thought I had given my life to God.

Shocked to understand just how much inner transformation it takes to say with St. Paul,

 Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 Until we allow our false selves, our egos to die, we  view the world through our eyes with events and other people revolving around ourselves as the centre.

Only surrendering that false self to Christ on the cross can free us from this prison of selfish isolation and plug us into the Mystical Body of Christ.

Then we are free to simply be children of God as we gather with others to worship Christ at the center of all life.

I do not make Christ  the center of my life because Christ isn’t merely the center according to St. Paul, He IS my life!

Colossians 3:4 “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

 Melanie originally posted this at:

http://melaniejeanjuneau.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/me-my-mine/

 

Come. Now is the Time to Worship.

By Melanie Jean Juneau

St. Augustine, artist unknown
(Wikimedia Commons).

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless
till they find their rest in you;
so lead us by your Spirit
that in this life we may live to your glory
and in the life to come enjoy you for ever;

Last night I attended a mass, followed by  healing prayer led by Fr. Albert MacPherson. For over 30 years, Father Albert MacPherson, O.S.A., has traveled the globe on a healing mission. He takes his special healing ministry to parishes and provides parish communities with healing Masses and retreats.

After mass, dressed in a black cassock, using holy water, blessed salt, holy oil and traditional prayers of the Church, Father simply blesses the people with God performing wonderful miracles in his wake.


Continue reading at Melanie's blog joy of nine9.

Our home: A flexible tabernacle

By Melanie Jean Juneau

A Happy Family by Eugenio Eduardo Zampighi

My husband and I discovered how to build relationships with our children and encourage their relationship to God  through a combination of the grace of God, parental intuition and perhaps a dash of sheer luck.

In order to nurture authentic Catholic family life, we learned that we had to first nurture our own intimacy with God. When parents are in communion with the Trinity (who are the first community), our children are also drawn into a spiritual relationship with their parents and in turn with God as well. A blessed home, dedicated to God, could actually be called a tabernacle because it is filled with a tangible Presence of God. 

When we give God permission to be Lord of our lives, our children and our family life, then the Holy Spirit is in the very air we breathe.

The image God gave me of Christian family was a triangle of light with strong bars of light flowing from the heart of the mother and father at the base  and up to God at the top of the pinnacle, with the children protected in the middle of the triangle. The light of God’s love filled the triangle protecting and nurturing the children. This is a vision of family as a community, submersed in the community of the Trinity.

Continue reading at Melanie's blog joy of nine9.

Connecting spirit to spirit with infants

“Contemplation is learned at the mother’s breast.” St Bonaventure


I was delighted to discover that it is possible to connect with infants, not simply with their hearts but with their spirit as well. It is a gift to connect with a newborn, knowing that they know, that I know, that they are not idiots but vibrant souls who are in communion with God.

Michael and I were lucky because we somehow understood, right from the start, that we were relating to another human being when we communicated with our babies. I stopped and listened when they cooed and then I answered them when they finished cooing. It might sound foolish but I believe that this attitude instilled respect for themselves and others. I tried to treat them as people, albeit little people.

I learned that we can bless our unborn child. pray over them, relate to our babies while they are in the womb just like the women in the Old Testament who prayed psalms and were often in seclusion. An unborn child hears and reacts emotionally not only to his mother but also to the people and activity around him.

Prenatal babies have personalities before they are born. As any mother can tell you some babies move around energetically both in and out of the womb, while other infants are physically passive. Some infants are night owls both in and out of the womb and others actually sleep well at night.

Continue reading at Melanie's blog joy of nine9.

What is really important in life?

By Melanie Jean Juneau

 

Nordic Madonna by Neuhuys (Wikimedia Commons).

 When Life is Stripped Down to The Basics

One afternoon before Easter, I was ironing cotton dresses and shirts for church the next day. Six year old Claire watched for a while and then pointed to the iron and asked,

“What is that mummy?”

I laughed because I realized that this little girl had never seen me iron; I usually used the clothes dryer as my wrinkle smoother when I wasn’t looking for perfection but rather efficiency. Actually it was not just the iron that seldom received attention as I mothered a large family, something that I considered essential was eliminated from my life with the birth of every child.

Painting portraits went with my first-born. Other births gave the boot to crafts, dusting, bread making, interesting meals and laundry folding ( each child dressed out of their own personal laundry basket). As every mother knows, a newborn takes at least eight hours a day to nurse, burp, rock and comfort, bath, change clothes and diapers( at least ten times a day), and to wash diapers, clothes, receiving blankets, sheets and baby blankets as well as your clothes which tend to get covered in vomit, and other nasty surprises.

The lack of sleep leads to a rather narrow existence where the best days are when you can sneak in a nap or shower and dress before noon. Oh, those were the days when life was reduced to the basics.


Continue reading at Melanie's blog joy of nine9.

Is it truth or sophistry?

By Melanie Jean Juneau

St. Mary Magdalen Listens to
Christ's Teaching by Brisset
(Wikimedia Commons)

 


Years ago, I was washing up some pots, just before dinner, when all of a sudden a word popped into my head, seemingly out of nowhere. I turned around and blurted out to my kids, who were doing homework around the kitchen table,

“Sophistry! The word that keeps coming to me is sophistry.”

Of course everyone burst out laughing because no one had a clue what I was talking about or what that word even meant. The word sophistry describes language and logic used by Satan, in Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. Sophistry could describe the logic used by a lawyer intent upon persuading a jury to find a criminal not guilty. When the intent of words is not to reveal the truth but to confuse people, the speaker is using sophistry. Sophistry is all too common in out society, from the world of politics to the world of advertising,Modern man uses words to influence people for their own purposes.

Just the other day, the word sophistry popped into my head again because we often resort to sophistry without realizing exactly what we are doing. Words often keep us running in circles and keep us from discovering freedom and truth. Thank God for the power of the Holy Spirit. The word of God cuts through sophistry like a two-edged sword.

My only hope of living in reality, to cut through lies, to see myself  and others in  truth and to embrace truth is by embracing the Word made flesh.Sometimes I might think that I am in the truth or that I am ruthlessly speaking the stark truth to another but if I do not speak with Love, it is still sophistry.  The evil one can speak a condemning truth, a truth without love that seeks to destroy.Only God and those who carry the Love of God speak a liberating truth that heals and sets free.


Melanie originally posted this on her blog joy of nine9.

Presence Evangelism is the New/ Old Evangelism

By Melanie Jean Juneau

 

Painting by Wilhelm Amberg (Wikimedia Commons).

This move of the Spirit is quiet, subtle and entirely grassroots. 

The stars have fallen. The big names have grown old.

Society is weary of huge, dazzling Christian shows. People crave reality.

Evangelism has gone through many stages to reach the place we are today.Up until the late 60′s, evangelists were mainly preachers of the Word. In the Protestant camp, Billy Graham shone the brightest while for Catholics,the first name that pops into my head as an example is Bishop Fulton Sheen and his radio program.These men focused on an evangelism of the word, a preached sermon or talk with the purpose of convincing people to repent, change and commit their lives to God.

The primary way the Holy Spirit touched people in large crowds in the 70′s, 80′ and 90′s was through power evangelism. Rather than preaching long sermons, the evangelists who drew the largest crowds were prophets and healers. The Spirit fell in a tangible way.This was not restricted to the Protestants. The Catholics experienced their own Charismatic Renewal with crowds of 30,000 gathering in Rome in the mid 70′s. I remember one Catholic Charismatic Conference in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where 10,000 people sang gently, harmoniously in tongues like angels and I am sure with angels. Organizers allowed the Holy Spirit to move gently among the crowd, healing physically and emotionally.


Continue reading at Melanie's blog joy of nine9.

Where do I stand this night?

By Melanie Jean Juneau

The Last Supper by Jaume Huguet (Wikimedia Commons).

It is Holy Thursday, the night we celebrate the Chrism Mass.Tonight, churches around the entire globe will wait in  prayerful vigil, with lights dimmed, all images covered with the congregation in respectful, sombre silence. The Church is remembering the end of Jesus’ public life as a teacher and healer and walking with Him as He begins His most important work, the work of salvation in His passion, death and resurrection.

Yet today’s Gospel takes us back to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. He has just emerged from the desert, filled by the power of the Holy Spirit, astonishing crowds with His words. As He stands on the podium in the synagogue to read from the book of Isaiah, repeating the Old Testament reading which we have just heard minutes before, Jesus summarizes His entire ministry in a few short verses.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Continue reading at Melanie's blog Joy of Nine9.

Litany to the Love of God

By Melanie Jean Juneau

St. John and Jesus at the last Supper
by Valentin de Boulogne (Wikimedia Commons)

God whispered:

You think that you are building my church with all your business

 but you are hindering my work on earth,

not helping me.

All I want,

all I need is for you to stand before the cross

and allow the love of my Son to transform you

into His Presence on earth.

 

 

 Read Melanie's revised version of the Litany to the Love of God at her blog, joy of nine9.

 

Sacrificed on the altar of success

By Melanie Jean Juneau

 

14th century depiction of the Holy family and the Presentation

Have you  sacrificed all on the altar of success?

Since preschool, society has pushed you to excel, to rise above your peers.  You were groomed for success, to get into the best universities and snatch the most prized careers. Well, it is nice to have confidence, to fulfill your dreams, and have a sense of satisfaction in your chosen field of work but that will not make you happy. Just take a look at the generations that have gone before you.  The all too common mid-life crisis is a testament to the failure of a life focused on career advancement to the exclusion of family. Men and women bemoan the fact that they did not have time for nurturing and loving their spouse or children.

All too often, family life crumbles to ashes, sacrificed on the altar of success.

As for childcare, society relegates this arrangement to women who are often treated as second class citizens. I want to yell out as loudly as I can that raising children is definitely not a default chore for women who were not successful in the world of business, power and wealth. Exactly how you, the next generation, love and form your children will directly influence the kind of society that they in turn create.

Continue reading at Melanie's blog  Joy of Nine9.

Advent Promises

By Melanie Jean Juneau

The Visitation by Albertinelli (photo credit:
Wikimedia Commons).

He will come.

I can trust that He will come.

For He comes even on a  frosty whisper,

Lighting the darkness with pinpoints of hope

Just as the stars appear each dark night.

He will come,

In spite of myself;

His arrival does not depend on my preparations.

Only that I wait expectantly in the dark.

In the silence

If I open my inner stable door.

He will come like a tiny child

Silently slipping into the open spaces in my heart.

Unconsciously,

I smile

Eyes Twinkling,

Automatically.

My heart burns with newborn life.

He always Comes.

images are personal photos

Melanie blogs at Joy of Nine9.

Self-important humility

By Melanie Jean Juneau

Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake by Stilke
(photo credit: Wikimedis Commons)

When many Christians think of  humility and sanctity, they often think of ascetic fasting and the heroic acts of the saints, but these sorts of practices often focus more on self than on God. It is actually a subtle sort of self-delusion that is difficult to discern, but God is finally getting through to me, helping me shake off self-defeating,  pious actions that actually drive me further from God.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves it is the gift of God not by works-Ephesians 2:8,9

I cannot earn His love or Presence.
He must do everything in me.
This is true humility.

Pride entices me to work harder, pray more, fast religiously and perform heroic looking acts of virtue.  Humility accepts that only God can save me and those around me. 

Why?

We must come to the realization that we need a Savior. It usually takes even contemplative monks decades to finally let go of the last of their pride and arrogant striving to humbly surrender control to God. Pride makes us try to earn our salvation with good works. Humility realizes that we are sinners. Period. Nothing can change that fact, except Christ's work on the cross. 
 
Melanie writes at Joy of Nine9.

A mother's prioritites

By Melanie Jean Juneau

The Child's Caress by Mary Cassatt (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

One afternoon before a special occasion, I was ironing cotton dresses and shirts for church the next day. Six-year-old Mara watched for a while and then pointed to the iron and asked,“What is that mummy?”I froze in shock and then laughed because I realized that this little girl had never seen me iron; I usually used the clothes dryer as my pwrinkle smoother when I wasn't looking for perfection but rather efficiency. Actually it was not just the iron that seldom received attention as I mothered a large family, something that I considered essential was eliminated from my life with the birth of every child. Painting portraits went with Matthew. Other births gave the boot to crafts, dusting, bread making, interesting meals and laundry folding ( each child dressed out of their own personal laundry basket).

As every mother knows, a newborn takes at least eight hours a day to nurse, burp, rock and comfort, bathe, change clothes and diapers (at least ten times a day), and to wash diapers, clothes, receiving blankets, sheets and baby blankets as well as your clothes which tend to get covered in vomit, and other nasty surprises.

Guess what? The lack of sleep leads to a rather narrow existence where the best days are when you can sneak in a nap or shower and dress before noon.

Oh, those were the days when life was reduced to the basics. This basic truth was actually miraculous when I relaxed and allowed myself to live in the moment, enjoying my newborn rather than bemoaning all the important activities that I couldn't seem to even start. The very fact that everything that my little one required to grow and thrive was inexpensive and near at hand was amazing. My baby didn't need a lot of money spent on him, he simply needed arms to hold him, mother’s milk to drink and warm clothes and blankets.  A friend who had five children, couldn't quite grasp my peaceful demeanour as I sat nursing a newborn with family life whirling about me. She finally surmised that I was content to enjoy the present experience of mothering a tiny, dependent newborn.Really though, the basic truth I learned was that my first priority as a mother was to love and cherish my children as gifts from, God. They were not inconvenient, or simply extensions of my ego but unique wonderful people, albeit little people.

Catechism of the Catholic Church:

III. THE DUTIES OF FAMILY MEMBERS
2222 Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons.

I think that I was given the gift of understanding that although I strove to run the household well, little people's needs come first.   


 Melanie Jean Juneau blogs at  Joy of nine9.

Mary is in my heart? Help!

By Melanie Jean Juneau

Window in the Cathedral of Cordoba, Spain (photo credit: Wikimedia)

What would be the absolute worst thing that could happen to a nice Protestant girl?

Why Mary, the Blessed Virgin, would do a little interior house cleaning, then make a home for herself in the poor girl's heart, that's what! If that was not bad enough, this perplexed young woman's belief system would stay staunchly anti-Catholic for oh, about another 10 years, even though she had converted to Catholicism. I mean what choice did she have? Nobody but the Catholic Church even wants someone who craves the Eucharist and has a relationship with the Mother of Christ.

Obviously this young woman was and is me. God has a peculiar sense of humor and now I can look back and laugh at my dilemma. At the time, though I was shook up. As Pope Francis said at the Easter Vigil, God delights in shaking us up, or as I like to say, ripping the rug from underneath us. Nope, God will not stay in a nice, neat little box of our own making. Just when we think we have Him all figured out, He pulls another fast one on us. Thank goodness; life is never boring when you give God permission to work in your life.

I was reluctant to turn to Mary, I couldn't help but feel like a heretic somehow turning from Jesus as my only Savior. Yet over and over, God only offered healing and peace when I turned to His Mother. Finally a wonderful priest from Madonna House, the Director General of Priests. Fr. Bob Pelton, smiled at me compassionately and said something like this:

"Melanie, why don't you relax for a few months and stop tormenting yourself with guilt? Simply relax into the bosom of the Church and Her teachings and allow your relationship to Mary grow naturally, without fighting everything with your intellect? Trust in your own heart as well."

Even now, some 30 years later, tears are welling up and I could weep with relief all over again as I write these words. Somehow I was given the grace to lay down my logic, reasoning and Protestant theology and simply throw my self into the arms of my Spiritual Mother.

Actually, we really do not have a clue what we are saying “yes” to in the beginning of our Christian walk. At our wedding, 34 years ago, I sensed these words within my heart:

"I will change the way the two of you work and play, the way you walk and talk, the way you laugh and cry, everything about you, so that you will reflect the glory of my Father in Heaven."

Foolishly we thought that this was a nice word from God! Little did we know that 34 years later we would still be being turned inside out. I agree whole heartedly with Pope Francis, God does seem to delight in shaking us out from our narrow little lives. I could not live any other way.

Thank-you God for not listening to my opinions or plans for my life.

Thank-you for the grace to give You permission to take over and make me yours.

Melanie originally posted this at her blog Joy of Nine.

Mary is my real mum

By Melanie Jean Juneau

Madonna and Child by Bellini (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

God has inscribed a moral code on my heart. It is  hidden in my deepest self. Actually, if  as an adult, I can block out my own ego and simply stop to listen, I can live a holy life. In fact Christ  offers an easy way to sanctity, to loving God and each other.  A spirituality that a child understands. A spirituality that St.Thérèse of Lisieux understood. Relax. Give up striving.
Surrender to His love and let it saturate every cell of your body. Then simply let His love flow through you. It ends up being a long journey to embrace such a carefree lifestyle because pride and ego get in the way. It is so simple that it seems complicated to our adult, logical minds.

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14).

And in even stronger terms: “'I assure you,'” He said, 'unless you are converted and become like children,  you will never get into the kingdom of heaven…’” (Matthew 18:4).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church:  To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become “children of God” we must be “born from above” or “born of God”. Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this “marvelous exchange”:

O marvelous exchange! Man’s Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity. (526)

A relationship with the living God is child’s play. Listen to this exchange between my young children:

One afternoon, I was making dinner, standing at the counter with my back to our three youngest children. Grace and Daniel were lounging around the kitchen table, with three-year-old Rebecca perched like a little elf on a high stool, happily swinging her legs. Simply making conversation, Grace who was eight, asked Rebecca,“Rebbecca, whose your favorite, Mum or Dad?”

Rebecca replied,”Both!”

Still facing the counter, I looked over my shoulder and intruded on their conversation, “Smart answer, Rebecca.”

Rebecca was not done though, “But she’s not my real mum, Mary is.”

Grace rolled her eyes, slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand and said incredulously, “Where does she get this stuff?”

I tried to explain as simply as I could, “Well, the Holy Spirit is in her heart and she listens to His voice.”

Rebecca jumped right back into the discussion and chanted in a sing-song, lilting voice, “That’s right. God the Father in my heart. Baby Jesus in my heart. Holy Spirit in my heart. Mother Mary in my heart…but…I still like Mum and Dad the best!”

Grace rolled her eyes and plunked her head down on the table with a loud sigh, “Where does she get this stuff?”

I just laughed.

Continue reading at Melanie's blog The Joy of Nine.

Our biggest delusion

by Melanie Jean Juneau

Morning  by George Inness (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

There is a world of difference between a man who is aware of himself, sitting on a hill and looking at a beautiful sunrise and a man so enthralled with that very same sunrise that he forgets himself and becomes  absorbed in the scene. In the first instance the man is egocentric; he is at the center 0f his world, not God

When I see beauty everywhere, I experience joy and a sense of connection because my eyes are not on myself. The truth is that I am simply part of the whole. Everything does not depend on me. I am free to relax and enjoy the beauty of nature and the Spirit of God which permeates all when I am in the right place in the scheme of things.

I am living in a fantasy when I see myself as the center of the universe, viewing everything as it circles around me. As believers we sing and recite prayers that proclaim that God is the center of all but our psychological make-up screams the exact opposite. I view people, events, history and yes even God through my eyes, judging what is right, trusting my thoughts and my feelings as the final judge of what is real. When Jesus says that we must die to ourselves, He is not speaking about some pious self-sacrifice that makes us look holy, no He has something much more radical in mind. The kind of inner transformation Jesus desires literally rips the rug up from under our feet and shatters our world view.

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

Why is modern man so anxious, nervous, out of sorts? Part of the reason is probably that many people barely see a blade of grass during their normal work day. Surrounded by concrete and glass, our innate self craves connection with the rest of the natural world, other people , the communion of saints, (both living and dead) and at an even deeper level, God Himself. Instead we live in isolated, man-made prisons which shut out other human,s never mind other living creatures and God.  Each person is at the center of their little artificial universe. That means that each of us has assumed the role of king or queen of our tiny kingdoms with everything depending on us.

I was never designed to live alone like an island unto myself. Yet, in my pride, I cling tenaciously to my throne and crown. Only when I was completely depleted and shattered, only then did I resign and give God  back His job. Only the did I surrender an ego centric point of view and embraced reality which is that God is at the center of the universe and I am simply part of the Mystical  Body of Christ.

Definitely absurd, but I only saw this fact after I surrendered and let go of control. What is really important in life is not found in self-created delusion but discovered as I learn to live in harmony with a bigger universe than the one I created.

"In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, ‘That is mine!’" (Abraham Kuyper).

St. John of the Cross (San Juan de la Crux), who lived in the 16th century, explains the inner process of becoming one with Christ:

I lose myself and remain,
With my face on the Beloved inclined;  
All has come to rest,  
I abandon all my cares  
There, among the lilies, to die.

 Melanie Jean Juneau blogs at  Joy of Nine.

Prayer unites us with God and each other

by Melanie Jean Juneau


 

The Holy Spirit by Corrado (Photo in Public Domain).

Our whispered hello to God and each other is called prayer.

I am not just reciting theology when I remind you that there is neither time nor distance when we live and move and breathe in the Spirit. As believers, we are all connected not only to God, but to each other, in the Mystical Body of Christ. It is as if  the Lord has plugged us into an invisible circuit board where a mere thought lights up a surge of power and love that moves with the speed of light directly to the heart of God and to the soul we are praying for. Many times my parents, sister and children realized that when I mention exactly when I interceded for their needs, they had felt a burden lift.

Although it seems inconceivable to our modern, western logic, the intercession of the saints both living and dead is vital to our spiritual health. I know that there are men and women of prayer who have interceded for me for decades. Perhaps they are contemplative monks in monasteries or invalids who constantly pray the Rosary, but the Father uses their prayers to enlighten, guide and heal me. I am near tears of gratitude.

God is the great “I AM” who exists  yesterday, today and tomorrow. His Spirit mysteriously unites all of us, intimately present to each soul, all at the same time. Our whispered hello to God and each other is called prayer.

We are never alone. We live in the Spirit and He dwells in us. A cloud of witnesses surrounds us with prayerful support. They are as near to us as our next breath, because they are also in the Spirit and He is in them. Let’s welcome the Word of God and the prayers of the faithful, because they are like rays of Sonshine in our hearts.



This post was published simultaneously at Melanie's blog,   Joy of 9.

Are you living a shadow life?

by Melanie Jean Juneau

St. More Cave, France (Photo by Luke Bales, Wikimedia).

The worst possible fate for me would be to die and discover that I had lived an existence similar

to the allegory described in Plato’s Cave. Plato describes man’s condition as similar to living chained in a cave, looking at shadows on the wall cast from a candle; believing that was what life was all about.

When one person manages to break free and stumbles out into daylight, he realizes that what he thought was real was merely shadows of real objects. After he makes his way back into the cave to explain his revelation, no one believes him because they have no reference point;they simply cannot grasp this alternate reality.

This allegory is a great explanation for the difficulty that Christians have as they try to explain their life in the Spirit. The spiritual life ultimately cannot be taught, it is caught.The light of God must be experienced, passed on like a living flame.

As for me, I need God to continually break chains and lead me out into His SonShine.

I need to live in reality.

I refuse to play games, wear masks and costumes to fit into a false persona which I have crafted in my mind. To live in truth means discovering my true self at my core, in the ground of my being.

The longest journey is from our heads to our hearts. It is a silent journey within.

As Catherine De Heuck Doherty said, "Close the wings of your intellect and open the wings of your heart."

Read more of Melanie's musings at her blog   joy of nine9