CONTRASTS AND CHALLENGES
Revelations

In the midst of sorrow, find joy. There is little else need be said when the human experience is so trying that the soul struggles to meet challenges that seem insurmountable. It is the very nature of life that man constantly finds himself faced with choice, and often these choices seem to him beyond his capacities. It is the nature of human striving that man finds in himself the strength to do what seems to him at the beginning impossibly difficult, far beyond his ability.

Each time that man triumphs over adversity he is immeasurably strengthened, and each time he finds in his strength a source of unending joy. It may at times seem unreasonable to expect joy to be born in sorrow and travail, but indeed this is truth. Let us consider the very nature of birth itself. Man is born in pain and suffering. There is no experience which is comparable either in its anguish or in its subsequent joy. You may say that the coming of a new soul to earthly experience would be joyful under any experience, that suffering is not necessary to produce joy. Yet all of life is contrast, and the greater the contrast the deeper the emotion. Man cannot sense the joy of loving companionship in its fullest unless he has known the anguish of loneliness. Man cannot savor success unless he has known failure. Man must know hunger to appreciate fully sustenance.

In all of this there is much to be learned. Man must learn to embrace challenge to know the joy of solution. Man must embrace sorrow to know joy in its cessation. Man must find comfort in companionship when it replaces loneliness. In this series of contrasts which the human experience offers constantly there is much to be learned about the triumph of the human will and the strengthening power of adversity. Man comes to learn and to experience is to learn.

Saturday, 6/3/00 11:55PM - Lessons

When man considers his experiences at the end of each day, it is easy for him to be discouraged if he has not known peace, joy, love, and a sense of accomplishment. Ideally all men should end each day pleased with all he has experienced but this is not constantly the case. Life is strewn with disappointments and frustrations, and although not each day is so marked in human existence, it is a part of man's journey from time to time. Sometimes these misfortunes are minor and temporary. At other times they are a significant impact upon man's sense of well being and they may be lingering in their effect.

In all these cases it is important for man to remember at the end of each day in his journey from birth to death that he has deemed himself capable of responding to all earthly challenges with loving acceptance and full confidence in his ability to not only survive but to do so in full awareness of its importance to him in spiritual progress.

In all of life there is learning. There is learning in pure joy. There is learning in intense sorrow. Man needs to remember the transitory nature of both joy and sorrow in earthly life. He needs to remember that he has promised to experience both and to accept both in complete awareness of his capacity for love, the single essential ingredient in all human experience leading to spiritual perfection, the ultimate achievement, the key to all glory.

TRIUMPH IN TRAGEDY
Revelations

In the best of times man finds it within himself to meet the challenges of life with a willing heart and to feel within himself the certainty that marks progress to spiritual perfection. He finds within himself a ready acceptance of all that he is asked to do and to take into his heart those he encounters in his daily life. He seeks to please both himself and those whose lives touch his. He lives with a steady awareness that all he experiences has reason and purpose and that even the seemingly most insignificant of decisions demands loving response.

There are times when man is sorely tried, times when it is difficult for him to keep a steady faith, but it is precisely at these times that it is possible for the soul to triumph in the most meaningful of ways. The more difficult the challenge, the greater the reward in spiritual progress.

Be aware then that at all times there is triumph in tragedy, and that at all times victory over material defeat is possible. Know that all strength and goodness finds its reward. Know that at all times man must live in love if he is to achieve all that is needful to fulfill his purpose in this life and to find the inner harmony that gives meaning to human experience.

HUMAN SUFFERING
Revelations

In the midst of life and all that is challenging and sometimes painful, man tends to forget the value of physical suffering. While there is no onus attached to good health --- indeed man is meant to enjoy this luxury --- it is in the nature of human existence that man be plagued with infirmities. These infirmities are not the work of a cruel and capricious god. They are rather trials of the body and spirit fully accepted as a part of the inevitable progression each soul makes to perfection and oneness.

There is much to be learned and much to be taught in the case of human frailty. There is much opportunity for growth for all those concerned with affliction. Reflect, if you will, upon the caring ministers of health who tend the ill. They are enriched by each experience they share. Their compassion and devotion serve them well, and their healing skills bring new hope and comfort. Think, too, of the family of the afflicted. If they accept the problem of sickness they can grow in stature. Their love deepens and their caring lends strength to the ill. In case of prolonged illness those who attend the person threatened by disease or deformity are often blessed with a special grace --- a growth in forbearance and a spirit of loving support.

The soul is tried in many ways, and among these the suffering involved in sickness is significant. While it is man's duty to do all that is within his power to keep his body sound, there inevitably comes a time when his body is not his to command and he must learn to accept with equanimity and tolerance all the pain he encounters. It becomes his responsibility to respond with gratitude and love to all who seek to aid him. It is his responsibility to realize that life is often painful but that out of this pain comes awareness.

Inevitably to all men comes the time when the human body has completed its assignment and the soul is released. This transition is often the most trying of times for those who love the individual leaving this world, but again I say to you that this may be the time of learning, of progress, of deepened love, the time of greatest spiritual achievement.

So, my children, look upon illness not as a curse but a necessary part of human existence, an opportunity for all those involved in the caring, all those sharing the suffering, to grow beautiful in their spiritual perfection in the sight of their God.

Friday, 10/9/98 10:00PM - The Divine Nature of Man

In the darkest of nights, man knows hope. Whence comes this hope? Is it in the despair that fills his soul? Is it in the most desperate of circumstances he knows? Is it in the dark alleys of escape that evade him in his desperation? Is it cause for optimism?

No, My children, it is none of these alternatives. Hope is a gift of divine origin, bred in the soul of each man born to a life of trial and tribulation. Hope is a gift which survives the most traumatic of experiences. Hope is fed by the divine spark that animates the soul of man at all times.

What, you ask, is the value of hope? Is it not misleading? Does hope not encourage man to believe in a better day to come when there is little or no cause for such optimism? Does not hope cause man to feel foolishly optimistic in the face of unremitting bleakness? Is hope not misleading? Is hope to be trusted? Does it profit man to hope when all he surveys says he should be without hope?

Think, My children, of these questions. Answer them for yourself and then search your minds and souls for the truth of all you have concluded. Ask yourself what life as you know it would be like without hope. Could you bear each day in pain without hope? Could you face loss without hope? Could you know joy without hope? Would you abandon hope in the most desperate of circumstances?

I question much here, and I do so with reason. Hope is at all times man's salvation. It is a gift to be appreciated and cherished, never to be abandoned, always to be nourished by love and faith.

Wednesday, 10/21/98 10:55PM - The Divine Nature of Man

It is at all times incumbent upon man in his earthly journey to be aware of his limitations and his strengths. It is often tempting for man endowed, as some are, with unusual talents or insights to fail to recognize that earthly capacities are just that -- earthly. It is often beyond his inclination to see a limit to his talents and inventiveness. Even if he finds himself less that he would choose to be in his creativity and insight, he looks to his fellow men he regards as more complete in their capabilities. In all of his seeking he fails to consider the possibility of a force beyond the apparent, an intelligence beyond easy perception, a divine plan revealed only partially to him.

I speak here primarily of those who embrace scientific method to explain the mysteries of the universe, but they are not alone in their striving. There are and have been through history men of letters, humans extraordinarily gifted, who have confused their own capabilities with knowledge absolute, their understanding of the world they know with truth complete, certainty about the reason for man's existence.

In assuming total knowledge beyond proof positive, many err in neglecting the world of the human spirit. In the mind they find all they seek, and in neglecting to examine the importance of the spirit they fail in their quest for truth. Some fail utterly in their assumption of correctness. Others realize that though they may enjoy a measure of understanding and wisdom they fall short of absolute comprehension.

No man grasps truth complete. Closest come the mystics, those gifted souls who, aware of human limitation, seek heavenly guidance and embrace its wisdom. This is not to say that all men claiming divine insight have the right to do so. Charlatans abound in the earthly domain, but equally sensitive souls abound and are prepared always to share the perfection they know in awareness of all that life demands. Listen to these pure souls and be guided. Listen even more closely to the voice within and know peace. Know that there is right and reason in human limitation and glorious power in submission.

Saturday, 10/24/98 11:07PM EST - The Divine Nature of Man

Into each life comes a mixture of joy and sorrow, of need and fulfillment, of all desires denied and all desires satisfied. Into each life comes a cycle of happiness and sadness, of richness and poverty, of acceptance and rejection. This is not to say that all lives are equal in these extremes, but no life escapes the trials that these extremes represent. No life is so idyllic that it escapes completely the difficulties inherent in the human road to eternity.

All men need to remember when they feel most abandoned that they are not so, that no matter the nature of the challenge they are aided in meeting that challenge and know satisfaction in doing so. Some times man finds within himself not only the strength to achieve victory but the means to do so. At times man in time of need is amazed at the coincidences that seems to mark his life. He experiences need and that need is met in unexpected ways. Sometimes he finds aid and assistance from those he loves and who love him in return. At other times mysterious forces seem to be at work and he enjoys a sudden stroke of luck, perhaps a reversal of fortune that meets his needs exactly.

Always there is an answer whether or not it is immediately apparent.

Man is never abandoned, never alone, even when all he seeks in life seems to be denied him. He need never lose hope. He needs to remember the bonds he shares both earthly and divine with so many who look to him for love and who seek to be loved by him. In the darkest of days, the man most deprived should know in his heart that the love that is his birthright is his to be his strength in the struggles that life imposes.

Love then is always the answer. It never denies. It never questions. It is endlessly giving, and it belongs to all men.

Sunday, 11/1/98 11:53PM EST - The Divine Nature of Man

In all lives man knows the stirrings of the divine. There is no limit to the variety of human experience that affords him this privilege. He knows it first in the love he enjoys as an infant, totally dependent, totally demanding, totally responsive to love given. As he matures each man experiences love in various forms, and in each of these experiences there is a link with his divine origin. Only when man forgets that love received demands love given does he stray from the perfection of human love that is a precursor to celestial love and a reminder of his divine origin.

All too often man abuses the privilege of love given and received which he knows in his earthly sojourn. He is tempted to be selfish in love, to feel that he is justified in demanding more than he gives. The balance of love thus upset begins to seem to him unfair. He strays further and further from the generosity in love given that he was born to know and this causes disruption. The object of his earthly love senses his desertion and knows hunger. All too often love fails in its divine task and both the giver and the receiver suffer.

Some souls agree to be born into a difficult relationship, one in which they must survive the start of life without the nurturing love that is the food of life. These deprived souls seek beyond all enduring to find love to satisfy their needs and to learn to return this love. There are varying degrees of success among these brave souls. Some succeed despite all limitations, and their success lights the way for other souls in need. Others struggle for a longer time, but it is rare that the soul does not feel eventually the strength of the divine nature that is his and does not succeed in finding a source of love and hope in this life and in this discovering find his way.

Always the link with the divine is man's hope and source of joy. He is never abandoned by those loving spirits who remind him constantly of his origins and his capabilities. They remind him of the absolute need to know love given and received. Those rare souls who fail in this life to know their divine capacity and absolute need for love find comfort in their discovery after the conclusion of their earthly sojourn and they know with new appreciation that learning has no end.

Tuesday, 11/3/98 11:59PM EST - The Divine Nature of Man

Man is by nature a creature of joy. He comes from a world of joy and he brings to this earth both an awareness of joy and a capacity for joy that has no limit. Once again, this heavenly attribute is seen most clearly in the days and weeks and months following birth into human life. Listen to the laughter of a child and know that you hear a divine gift. Listen to laughter in all its manifestations and know divine presence. Man is meant to find joy and satisfaction in his earthly journey and he comes to this life equipped to do so.

It is pleasure at all times for those who guide man in this journey from birth to death to know the times when man's joy in this life reflects the joy he knew in his heavenly home. Ideally, man should experience joy at each moment of his earthly visit. In fact, much interferes with this constancy. Man is subject to trial and temptation and, always seeking joy that is his rightful heritage, he is at times tempted to forget the source of earthly and heavenly joy and stray from the path of love given and received.

This is not to say that man's departure from total joy is at all times a departure of his choosing, the result of his actions. Indeed man's joy is challenged in greater or lesser degree during the course of his human existence. Yet joy is never, whatever the human experience, totally stamped out. It survives the most adverse of experiences. It survives the most trying of challenges. It survives even the desolation of total loss of love.

It is man's salvation that the spark of joy is never fully extinguished and that even in the direst of circumstances when man is most desperately lost, he finds in this total desolation reason to hope and in this hope recognition of joy not totally lost. He survives the most dreadful of human experience knowing that he has advanced in his understanding and in this triumphant spiritual progress, minute as it may be, he finds the joy that enables him to take the next necessary step to where he knows he needs to be. Thus, My dear ones, does man progress joyfully.

Sunday, 12/13/98 11:18PM - The Divine Nature of Man

One of the pleasures man knows most fully in his life's experiences is the pleasure of doing good. The desire to benefit others is a significant part of man's nature from the moment of birth, and each time he is able to satisfy this need to please others it becomes a more complete part of his nature. He knows such satisfaction in affording others joy that he becomes a part of that joy.

There is no man born in any circumstance at any time who is not capable of affording pleasure to others. The infant in his crib is a source of joy to all who behold him and share in the love he engenders. The child in its growing years continues to afford pleasure to all who are involved in his development, all who follow his progressing from dependence to independence. With adulthood comes more complete control over behavior and more responsibility for responsiveness to others.

The happy man is one who reaches adulthood with full awareness that the key to happiness in this life is sensitivity to the needs of others and absolute willingness to meet these needs. It is of little import whether the soul in need be a dear one or a stranger. Truly the degree of satisfaction is at all times magnified by meeting the needs of one completely separated from family and friends. In all, man's pleasure in doing good, in befriending friend and foe alike, in seeking to satisfy the needs of his fellow man in all ways is supremely important in all he seeks to achieve in this life.

There is no man so deprived that he cannot find pleasure in assisting his brother in need, in demonstrating the love that binds man to man and man to God. There is no end to the miracle of giving, of bringing a smile to the face of his brother. In this way man pleases himself, his brother, and the God whose love embraces both.

Monday, 12/28/98 11:44PM - The Divine Nature of Man

I speak often of the great nature of man born to earthly life, of his capacity for love, his tolerance for suffering, his willingness to accept trials in good faith. I speak of the hope that buoys his spirits in troubled times and of his certainty that he is learning through trial and error. I speak of his gratitude for all the wonders he knows in love given and received and of his steady progress to the perfection of love that he came to this world to learn and to attain.

Man is indeed a source of wonder. He reflects the goodness inherent in his divine origin, and under the most difficult of circumstances this innate goodness not only survives but thrives and grows. It is a constant source of strength both to the soul and to those who love and depend upon him.

Man does not exist in a vacuum. He depends upon others at each point in human life and others in turn depend upon him. This interdependence is a source of great learning for man. He find himself sensitive to the needs of others and in turn he finds others sensitive to his needs. His impulse is to reach out a hand to those in need and to offer all he can in the way of support both practical and emotional. In his helping he finds not only satisfaction but growth and new awareness of his own capacities. He knows pleasure in his caring. When the tables are turned and he is in need of help he finds himself comfortable in accepting whatever aid is necessary and grateful to be so befriended.

Need creates a bond between the giver and receiver and this bond enriches both souls. Never doubt this truth. Never hesitate to give. Never be loathe to accept. Both the giver and receiver are blessed. One could not exist without the other. Both please God.

Friday, 1/8/99 11:45PM - The Divine Nature of Man

Brief as human life is, it offers great opportunity to all to reach a full awareness of their significance in the divine plan. As children we are aware only of the vitality of each day's experiences. We seek joy in all our doings. We look to those we love for all we need. We expect no less than total support in every way in all we seek to do. When we are deprived, it is not only a source of disappointment but a source of challenge to be met. Each deprivation demands compensation.

I speak here as one who has known over and over the experiences each human knows during his journey. Man's life experiences have a universality that transcends time, distance, and culture. There is no environment so far removed that those who live in its confines do not share. There is no age when man does not share the strengths and weaknesses of his brothers separated from him in temporal identification. The simplest of cultures and the most complex of cultures each produce man barely distinguishable each from the other in their innermost striving and in their need for love.

No man exists in a vacuum. All men share in their striving and in their need, and in this striving and in this need they seek always the companionship and the support that makes life meaningful. The solitary individual does not know the joy of brotherhood, but he seeks it always and in its discovery knows delight and fulfillment.

Man needs no more to satisfy his desire to understand the reason for earthly existence than to know the joy of brotherhood and to be capable of sharing his material and emotional riches. In this sharing he knows reason. In this reason he finds joy. In this joy he recognizes his divine identity.

Friday, 1/8/99 12:25AM - The Divine Nature of Man

Before man reaches the end of his earthly existence he has known much in joy and in sorrow. Man at all times experiences contrasting emotions. In his sorrow he seeks joy and he finds this joy in the love of those who share his sorrow and in the full awareness of the love that surpasses all other emotions. Man is gifted in his capacity to experience both joy and sorrow and to know that they are equal partners in his journey. Both teach him valuable lessons.

It is easy to understand the learning man finds in all the joy he experiences in life, for joy is closely allied to love and in love man knows the supreme emotion and knows in his heart that without love, joy is impossible, at best a hollow victory. What man may find more difficult is acceptance of the truth that sorrow teaches as well, that it offers to man opportunity to appreciate the enormous importance of love as a source of comfort in time of travail. There is no comfort greater to the sorrowful man than love freely given. In this love he finds both distraction and surcease and eventually realization that the intensity of sorrow fades with time but that the intensity of love knows no limit to its growth.

Life in enriched by the contrast it offers to the soul seeking progress. Having experienced sorrow, the soul is increasingly grateful for joy. Having experienced joy, the soul becomes more aware of its preciousness with the advent of sorrow. Thus does man learn and in this learning progress.

Monday, 1/18/99 11:24PM - The Divine Nature of Man

There is beauty in all of human life even when this beauty is most difficult to perceive in the midst of earthly travail, Man, suffering as he does so often in his journey through life, is a creature to be envied if he accepts the trials he faces with a heart full of love and a mind determined to best serve him and those he loves. It is not difficult, perhaps, to comprehend the logic in the axiom that earthly success may be a barrier to spiritual progress. Conversely, it is not difficult to equate earthly suffering with spiritual success. Man tends to find that the human who is beset by difficulties, sorely tried in all ways, is experiencing earthly travail as a prelude to spiritual success, that each human deprivation finds its reward in heavenly largess.

While there is a measure of truth in this interpretative oversimplification, it is equally true that there are glaring exceptions to this assumption. Many humans who know material success accept their good fortune in the purest of gratitude and seek to share in all ways with those less endowed with worldly goods. Conversely, among the most materially deprived one can find souls who, having lost awareness of this divine relationship and the promises they made, become bitter at the deprivation they know and fall utterly into despair. They forsake all their human responsibilities and neglect those dependent upon them for all things, primarily the gift of love. Such men find bitterness a friend and neglect in all ways their inborn capacity for a loving response to all that life offers and demands.

So runs the cycle of life. The man who remembers his divine origins and his firm intent to live in love and sharing is the man blessed in all ways whether he be rich or poor, sick or well. The man enticed into rebellion against the divine will finds himself deserted and lonely. Having served well those who sought to dominate him in the path of iniquity and rebellion, he finds himself seeking answers to his spiritual stagnation and human desperation. He finds in time the answers he seeks, but he is acutely aware of lost opportunity.

Man in his capriciousness chances much when he departs from the habits of goodness and grace. In time all men recognize their erroneous ways, and in time all return to the awareness they so easily discarded earlier in their life experience. In the end, all men are equal, but some are to be envied in their progression.

Friday, 1/22/99 11:40PM - The Divine Nature of Man

Rarely does man feel fully a failure in this life. There exists in each human a core of resiliency which serves him well. No matter how decimating his experience, man does not despair completely. There is in the very core of his being strength and hope, and in the most extreme despair the soul struggles to recover and to renew itself.

Often man is hard pressed to explain this inner strength. He seeks to find rational basis for this new found optimism and he most often fails in this inner searching. He is forced to conclude that there is no simple answer and to consider that what he knows of new hope comes from a force within himself that he does not fully understand. It is at this point often in the human experience that man comes to an appreciation of his link with powers beyond his perception, source of this new found strength. He rejoices in this new awareness and becomes further aware that no matter the nature of earthly trial he is never going to know total defeat. Thus armed he finds himself able to reach out and help his brothers in times of trouble and to rescue them from despair, to help them to discover within themselves the reservoirs of strength that are their salvation.

All men possess this divine capacity. No man is without the power he needs to meet the most difficult of trials and to emerge from all struggles strengthened in his awareness and prepared in all ways to confront the demands of human existence in a spirit of loving acceptance and full faith.

Look then upon despair as a source of strength and know the power within.

Wednesday. 1/27/99 11:40PM - The Divine Nature of Man

There is infinite joy in man. From the moment of birth, the soul newly arrived creates joy. He arrives in pain and travail, and instantly this pain is translated into joy and quickly forgotten. There is no end to the happiness that this innocent child, full of love and needful of love, generates. There is no limit to the capacity each innocent soul knows of goodness. There is no limit to the contagious return of this goodness. The hardest heart is softened by the love of a child.

The love of a child is freely expressed, undemanding in its nature, undiscriminating in its choice of recipient. All are overjoyed by this gift, one which serves a further purpose of binding together all those who share the love of this child and now return this love fully.

When the child progresses from infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood, he experiences little by little the challenges that life presents in this maturation. He is aware from an early age that his will struggles for expression, sometimes in conflict with those he has grown accustomed to respect and obey. It is difficult to reconcile conflicting urges and loyalties at any age, but it is acutely difficult to first face these difficult decisions. Yet such conflicts and such choices are almost inevitable as the child emerges into independence and feels the need to cast off controls, no matter how loving they may be.

In all of this exploring, the child is well served by the loving security it has known in its formative years. The stronger the love, the more secure the adventurous soul. Yet there is always an element of regret on both sides. The parent rues the loss of his dependent child. The child flounders sometimes in strange and dangerous waters.

The bond of love, shared since birth, provides a link during these difficult times. It seems, at times, too tenuous to survive separation, but more often its deceptive strength proves powerful enough to bridge estrangement, disagreement, and all threats to the precious relationship that began at birth.

All are strengthened. All are enriched. And when in the cycle of life the child inherits the role of parent, memory creates wisdom.

Thursday, 1/28/99 11:30PM - The Divine Nature of Man

When man faces choices, he is at his most vulnerable. Some choices are less demanding, and in the choosing man is not even aware of his vulnerability. Some choices are made impulsively, unthinkingly, totally without consideration. These choices too do not cause man to be aware of his limitations, but in the course of all lives times come when man is stripped of his total self assurance, is faced with a decision which causes him to agonize in uncertainty.

It is at such times that man, aware newly or perhaps once again of his human limitations, searches in his soul for answers. He calls upon whatever wisdom his experience has afforded him. He considers the impact of his decision upon those dependent upon him in any way, and he tries for a time to postpone the moment of decision.

The wise man, having so considered, turns inward once again and listens to the dictates of his heart. He may feel disappointment. He may not know immediate response. He may reject the impulse that drove him to seek within himself. If he perseveres, he may have a different experience. He may know certainty where he once knew uncertainty. He may see solutions where he once saw unsolvable problems. He may find a path that had not been within his thinking.

Altogether man may find, if he is trusting and desirous of right doing, that he has insights and wisdom beyond his original awareness and that the still small voice he hears in his innermost seeking provides all the answers he needs. He may find himself no longer vulnerable.

Wednesday, 2/3/99 11:55PM - The Divine Nature of Man

In all men there exists strength that survives all failure, all tragedy, all unhappiness.

It is apparent early in human life that man is capable of experiencing problems and learning from the difficulties inherent in these problems. The very process of confronting difficulty and solving the problems inherent in such difficulty is enriching. In the process of seeking and finding solutions man discovers in himself resources beyond those he was aware he possessed. He gains in confidence in his triumph over problems he had not either prepared for or anticipated, and he becomes aware of capacities and strengths he had not heretofore either valued or considered. In all of his striving he knows success as a sweet reward and begins to feel that he is bound to succeed in future trials.

Not all men know the sweetness of success. There are cases where humans in trial, equally endowed with talents and confidence, fail to accomplish their goals. They do not succeed as they would choose in overcoming the obstacles that bar their way, and in the bitterness of defeat they begin to doubt their God given ability to confront all the problems that life presents. If one failure is followed by another then the sense of desperation is compounded and man does indeed consider himself lost.

Often in the depths of despair man finds reason to hope. He finds himself aided in ways that redeem him, that take him back to the place he thought lost forever. Often he has little or no comprehension of the nature of his redemption, his return to all he had thought lost. Sometimes he is moved to mindless but heartfelt thanks to forces he does not even dimly comprehend. Yet in his soul he knows that if he is not responsible for his salvation, some one or some thing else is.

It is enough for man to recognize such outside forces at such critical times in his life. If he is thoughtful he will dwell upon the mysteries of his victory and will begin to see light. He will be thereby infinitely enriched.

Thursday, 2/18/99 11:35PM - The Divine Nature of Man

In all of life, man emerges as a creature capable at all times of glorious achievement.

From the very start of life until its final moments he knows this profound capacity. I speak here of an achievement which takes him closer to his eternal goal. It matters not at all what material goals he manages to achieve. It matters not at all the status he achieves in the eyes of others who judge him. It matters entirely the state of his soul.

Man born to great trial and tribulation is often sorely judged by the world in which he lives. All too often he is evaluated in terms of earthly criteria. He is judged less than able if he lacks achievement materially. He is judged incapable if he fails in his efforts economically. He is often the victim of baseless prejudice and suffers thereby. He is rarely considered worthy of praise and approval. He knows disrespect and contempt.

Blessed is the soul who willingly accepts the role of the sufferer, who does not rail against his fate and who knows in his heart his own worth in the face of insult and injury. Blessed is this soul treated unjustly who holds in his heart the capacity to love and to forgive and who knows at all times that the trials of this world are as nothing compared to the glories he will know in the world to come.

The world is enriched by the masses who suffer without complaint, who accept humbly the suffering that they know and who turn to each other for love and comfort and find their lives so enriched.

Do not pity the downtrodden, for they are blessed. Look to them for inspiration and example, and in the fullness of love seek to ease their suffering and in your efforts know blessedness. You are one.

Friday, 2/26/99 11:56PM - The Divine Nature of Man

All the children of God, and they are infinite in number, are joined in a common cause. All seek the perfection of belonging.

In this life it is the ultimate joy to be totally enjoined in love. This love and this belonging can take many forms, and the blessed soul knows that he experiences belonging in many ways. He finds joy in allegiance, in love given and received, in fellowship and trust, and above all in the sure knowledge that his being is cherished in all ways.

No man can achieve happiness without this awareness of belonging, and it is in man's nature to seek these sources of loyalty and love. The soul who fails to achieve this security continues his search for it at all times. Most men succeed in this quest and live lives of great satisfaction, secure in the awareness of their own caring for others and the caring of others for them.

There is always joy in belonging. Each time that man reaches out in love to a fellow traveler in this life he insures himself of this joy. Rarely will he be rebuffed, and if he is, he rests secure in his confidence that his next gesture of love and caring will meet acceptance and returned caring.

Man creates many networks during his earthly journey, and if those networks are based on giving and caring they are sources of both strength and satisfaction. Man is not meant to live a solitary life. He is meant to offer and respond. He is meant to recognize need and to fill it. He is meant to recognize proffers of love and to accept gratefully. He is meant to be a part of a community of love and of needs cheerfully met and of satisfactions generously shared.

When man finds himself secure in the bonds of love and belonging, he knows a full heart. All he gives he receives. There is no more equitable bond.

Monday, 3/8/99 11:17PM - The Divine Nature of Man

It is often tempting for man to feel tried beyond reason, to consider himself unfairly singled out in the woes he knows. It is further tempting for him to turn to others and to blame them for the trials he must endure.

When this happens, man is most in need of absolute loving support. It is often difficult to feel sympathy for the man who strikes out at others and assigns to others responsibility for his own failures, and yet this is a common failing and a certain indication of the desperation felt by the soul in need of aid and comfort.

It is the fortunate soul who finds in others awareness of his terror and sense of absolute despair and who seek to comfort and assist. Wonders are wrought when human unhappiness is alleviated by a loving response, and in all cases the desperate soul finds comfort in the concern he is offered.

Not all human difficulties are easily solved, but it is indeed truth that the soul seeking elusive solutions finds itself less desperate when it knows the loving concern of others. The lonely soul is a soul whose torment knows no cessation. The soul confident of the loving caring of another knows full well that there is cause for hope. This hope grows with the continued ministrations that speak of love, of awareness of his need, and of unlimited desire to ease his suffering.

The brotherhood of man is at all times a source of joy and satisfaction to all those who share in all ways, whose needs are met, whose loving care is joyfully received, and who knows at all times that there is no such thing as loneliness.

Man's greatest gift to his brother is the gift of caring.

Wednesday, 3/10/99 11:42PM - The Divine Nature of Man

In the infinite variety of life on earth, man sometimes finds himself confused. He tries to evaluate the quality of life as it is lived by so many disparate cultures in so many geographically distant parts of the world, totally alien from his existence. What he sometimes forgets is that in these far off places, alien to him, his is the life that differs. His is the experience and the belonging that are alien.

It is understandable that man born into a specific culture and within that culture to a specific national or economic or ethnic group will find it difficult to understand fully all those outside his specific frame of reference. There is no harm in this awareness of differences among men so long as it does not breed intolerance, but man finds it infinitely enriching when he makes the effort to overcome ignorance and misunderstanding and to embrace fully his brother regardless of the differences that separate them geographically and socially and sometimes spiritually.

When man attempts to achieve full understanding of the world he lives in, when he is willing to surrender prejudice and long held beliefs, he comes to a rich understanding of the community in which he lives. He realizes that man, whatever his origins, whatever his beliefs, whatever his earthly home, is one with him as a child of God come to seek understanding and salvation. The wise man is thankful for this enlightenment and feels compassion for all those not so blessed with awareness.

It is not easy to arrive at this complete awareness and acceptance of the total and unconditional brotherhood of man, but it is a step in spiritual progress that all must take, and it affords the soul in progress comfort in all ways, for it frees him to know the unconditional love that is the key to all else he seeks on the road to perfection and oneness.

Thursday, 3/18/99 10:56PM - The Divine Nature of Man

Man is born to know pleasure in being. He is meant to succeed in all his endeavors during the path he takes to the end of human existence. He comes to this world with full faith in his ability to do all he has promised and to know further advancement in his eternal goal.

The world today reflects the extent to which many men have strayed from original commitment. The vast majority of souls come to life seek, sometimes in the midst of chaos, to fulfill their earthly duties. Even when the world is not riven by conflicting claims to superiority, man finds it difficult at times to pursue perfection. All too often he is seduced by worldly satisfactions and he neglects the inner being so needful of nourishment.

Man, deprived of proof absolute, yields too often to the inner voices that urge him to indulge himself at all costs, to deprive others to enrich himself, to find pleasure in total self gratification. Look about you and see the results of such weakness of will. Learn from the folly of others and let this lesson guide you well.

Man is meant to know the joy of inner satisfaction, to look at the world about him and envy no other man, to know that he lives in goodness and giving and needs to do no more.

All men who achieve this inner peace find no need for further striving. Many go beyond this individual awareness and seek to share with others their certainty that success lies within.

Blessed are those who reach the level of awareness that permits them to live lives of awareness of the absolute necessity of the full exchange of caring and responsibility that their lives demand. In meeting fully all that is asked of them in love and giving they are infinitely enriched and in the wonder of their awareness seek to share infinitely.

Man is meant to live in joy, and he is blessed if he unlocks the source of joy and knows positively that its source is absolute surrender of self and endless care for all others. This is the pattern of love given and received, the ultimate wisdom.

Tuesday, 3/30/99 11:48PM - The Divine Nature of Man

In the blessedness of his being, man knows the fullness of love under all circumstances. He knows love in joy and in sorrow. He knows love in success and in failure. He knows love as a child and as an elder. He cherishes love shared at each juncture, each changing aspect of his life.

This love nourishes always. It increases joy. It deadens pain. It makes triumph sweeter. It mitigates the bitterness of defeat and disappointment. It binds soul to soul in full acceptance and understanding of strengths and weaknesses. It survives trial in miraculous ways and speeds recovery from tragedy.

Man deprived of love is deprived of purpose and meaning in his earthly journey. Man deprived of love is at best a survivor. Rarely is man content to live a loveless existence. He reaches out to find this precious gift. Rarely does he fail in his search, for he encounters others equally hungry for this nourishment, and they find in each other the answer to their longing. They learn the completeness of a life of love shared.

Love is a universal gift, the single absolute necessity in human life if the life is to be one of joy. No man, however he may try to persuade himself otherwise, is content to live without love. His soul withers and his outlook darkens. Only when he recognizes the absolute necessity of love is he capable of true happiness.

There are those unfortunate souls who abuse this divine gift, who fail to sense its supreme importance. These souls are to be pitied.

Friday, 4/9/99 11:40PM - The Divine Nature of Man

Among man's greatest gifts, and those gifts are many, is his capacity to survive all trial and tribulation with a spirit capable of infinite hope. All men who ponder the history of the human race cannot escape being aware of this wondrous human capacity.

From the very start of human life, the soul come to earth is imbued with this gift. Even in the earliest days of childhood, even in the direst of circumstances, the child knows hope. Each day of his life is brightened by this divine capacity, and even in the face of continued disappointment this hope survives and lends beauty to human experience.

This wondrous quality all men know is often sorely tried, but man, even in the depths of despair, when he finds all of his life darkened, knows hope. This hope may take many forms in its effect on his life. It may so buoy his spirits that he finds hidden strength and solution to all that threatens his equanimity. This hope may sustain him through repeated trials and persuade him that in the face of repeated failure and disappointment he has cause for optimism. It guards him always.

If hope is at times fragile, it needs only love and faith to restore it to its vitality.

Treasure hope, My children, as one of your greatest gifts.

Sunday, 4/11/99 11:43PM - The Divine Nature of Man

In all of life there is infinite variety. In all of life there is divine unity. All souls come to earth choose the guise they wish as man. Yet all come with a single purpose. All share a single demand. All strive for perfection in love given and received.

It is difficult for man observing a disordered world, a world rife with strife and discord, to believe in the perfectibility of man or indeed in the beneficence of the Almighty. It must be remembered at all times to ease this doubt, this tendency to disbelieve in man's perfectibility, that the world is as a school, a place of learning in which man is free to err and to learn from error. But what, you ask, of the victims of human error, of those who suffer without cause or responsibility? What of them?

The answer to this question is one which is infinitely simple and yet complex in its implications. Life, as I have said, is not only ephemeral but is as well a time of spiritual trial and spiritual progress. It is not the divine intention to inflict pain upon any soul come to earth, though the physical embodiment of the soul is subject to physical disability. Yet all suffering, whether inflicted by man or implicit in physical limitation and frailty, serves the purpose of strengthening the soul in progress.

This is not to say that the infliction of pain by one man upon his brother is in any way defensible. Indeed it is deplorable. Yet man, tempted in many ways, all too often forgets the responsibility he assumed in his earthly journey to live and act in love of all men and to aspire to perfection in this love. When man victimizes his brother he suffers more of the two.

In the end, all is all. All is acceptable to all. All is understandable to all. Until that time of total enlightenment the soul in progress is blessed if he is able to accept without full understanding and to believe against all odds that his happiness and his salvation lie in the pursuit of perfect love, love that knows no resentment, love that accepts completely his brother's fallibility, love that is divinely sanctioned.

Sunday, 4/18/99 11:30PM - The Divine Nature of Man

In every aspect of human life man knows responsibility for his actions.

It can be argued that some souls come to earth are less equipped in various ways, that their responsibility for all they do must be weighed in terms of their abilities. This, of course, is a valid observation and one which has never been denied. Man is at all times judged in terms of his abilities. Never is more expected of him than he can give.

There is no injustice ever in the assigning of responsibility, but it must be remembered that man's primary responsibility is to act in love, and even those with the most severe physical and mental limitations are capable always of meeting this single demand. Indeed in some ways they are privileged in their capacity to give and receive this precious gift. Far from being deprived, they are in this respect privileged.

There are many complexities in the nature of human existence that man finds difficult to grasp or in some cases to accept. The world tends to regard those souls who have chosen physical or mental or emotional deprivation as souls to be pitied. There is in this pity failure to recognize that the aim and purpose of earthly existence is spiritual progress.

Those who elect to live in hardship do so in full awareness that they will know opportunity to progress rapidly in the perfection that all souls seek. They rejoice in this awareness and serve as examples to those who sense their joy. They meet fully the demand to live in love and to be glad of their inner happiness. They are in all vital ways responsible.

Monday, 5/3/99 12:46AM - The Divine Nature of Man

Whatever the source of the sorrow that man experiences in his earthly journey, it must be remembered that this trial is of his own choosing.

I have said that each soul come to earth is master of his destiny insofar as he is allowed to choose much of the life that he enters willingly and with firm resolve to meet all the trials of that life in a love that knows no bounds. Those who share his earthly existence are equally aware of the roles they have gladly and hopefully assumed, and at all times they share in the spiritual progress each of the other in all ways.

It is of consequence that man has no memory of his divine compact only insofar as he must depend upon faith and trust when life seems to him unbearable in its demands. He needs always to depend both upon his inner resources and his given strengths to be confident of success. He needs to look within himself and to seek to know the counsel of those heavenly spirits dedicated to his welfare who seek to lend him strength and insight. Always he must depend upon the love of those who have chosen to be part of his earthly existence and whose concern for his well being mirrors their love for him.

Thus armed, man has no need of the memory of promises made before human birth, for he is at all times enabled by the awareness he has of the love that gives him the strength and the faith to persevere at all times under all circumstances. The time will come when he will rejoice in the extent to which he has fulfilled his divine compact. He will know infinite love and gratitude for all he has known in love received and he will know great satisfaction in the love he has given.

Tuesday, 5/4/99 12:53AM - The Divine Nature of Man

There is wonder in all of man's journey from birth to mortal death.

He knows at all times a sense of wonder in his very being. Even when he feels most self important and powerful, he cannot escape awareness of his frailty and his limitations. His body is subject to the ravages of disease and of time. He cannot turn back the clock and retain his youthful vitality. He cannot escape illness when it is thrust upon him, and his best efforts to keep his body sound have limited value. Death will come at his will. Though he has no awareness of this choosing, he is the master of his fate in this regard.

Despite all the limitations all men know in their physical existence, they are at all times unlimited in their spiritual aspirations. No matter the nature of their physical well being, man's spirit remains at all times capable of all wonders. In the midst of pain he is capable of tolerance and optimism. In the middle of tragedy he looks to the future with hope. In the midst of deprivation he seeks to alleviate need. He rarely surrenders to despair however trying his experience, and even if he does temporarily, he finds cause to strive once again to overcome difficulty.

This human resilience is indeed wondrous and is shared by all souls come to earthly experience. Not all souls succeed fully in their earthly striving, but few fail completely, and when the earthly journey is ended, all souls return to their origin rejoice in the sure knowledge that they are destined to know full success before their striving is complete.

This is to all a source of total joy and pleasurable anticipation. Thus man finds his reward.

Saturday, 7/3/99 11:32PM - The Divine Nature of Man

In all of life pleasure is mixed with duty.

It is all too easy for man to deny himself pleasure in the cause of duty. It is equally easy for man to deny duty in the cause of pleasure. Only at times is denial necessary. Man needs to reach a compromise in accepting both duty and pleasure as integral parts of his daily existence. Man is meant to know pleasure, but not at the expense of ignoring or neglecting duty. Man is meant to reach all the demands of his life in dutiful response, but he is not meant ever to deprive himself of earthly pleasure. It is rare that man's journey to eternity does not encompass both these extremes.

When man permits himself to pursue earthly pleasure to the extent of neglecting those dependent upon him in any way, he denies both those who look to him for support and himself. He lessens himself both in his own eyes and in the eyes of others. He finds himself more often than not aware that he has erred, that the pleasures he sought in life are not achieved at the expense of others. He knows in his heart the hunger for loving approval that is the source of all encouragement in the earthly experience.

Conversely, there are those who fail to experience the joy they are meant to know in earthly experience because they deem any form of self indulgence in joyous expression unworthy and therefore to be shunned. Their lives are both darkened and deadened by a denial of all joy and an obsession with denial of life's pleasures that colors for them all of existence. Their belief and their experience taints the lives of others who depend upon them.

It is important, therefore, that man achieve a balance between duty and pleasure that serves him well in affording the joy he is meant to know and in avoiding the overwhelming dourness that is involved in rejecting joy in favor of total unthinking surrender to a life which rejects joy as incompatible with responsibility and duty.

Most men avoid this extreme in choice and in their avoidance most succeed in achieving the balance that is deemed wholly wise and acceptable. Man is meant to know both joy and dutiful response, and when he achieves this balance he knows joy and pleasure in achievement and progress. He is pleased with himself and with life. He needs no more.

Wednesday, 7/7/99 11:47PM - The Divine Nature of Man

Among man's greatest concerns in his journey through life is to act in such a way as to inspire love.

This wish is not confined in any way. It is a natural desire in the heart of man to express love and to know love in response. Love as well is not narrowly defined. It may be a casual pleasure in the company of another, a pleasurable response to a gesture of good will, a receptive response to a kind word. Love is an emotion which enriches the soul and gives it warmth. Love in any form is positive in its results. It thrives in expression and thrives further in loving response.

Love is not unlike a melody which may live in the mind but which uplifts the spirit. When the atmosphere is permeated with love, all souls thrive and all who know this loving persuasiveness are moved to contribute to its glory. It would be a wondrous world indeed if all of life at each moment knew this contagion of love fully expressed and fully experienced. That day has not yet come.

Yet man is privileged on occasion to know this wonder. There are times in each life and in each society when all those joined in loving relationship come together in celebration. The occasions vary, but in all cases the spirit of joyous acknowledgment of the bonds of love prevails and man is granted a glimpse of the perfection that is possible in this life and certain in the next.

Man's capacity for total happiness rests first in his own hands, but he is aided at all times by the contributions to this happiness of those bound to him in ties of family and friendship. His happiness can, indeed, be enriched by total strangers who offer words and acts of kindness in casual encounter.

It is man's nature to seek happiness, and it is equally his nature to extend to others in all ways this joy in life. When man forgets this divine capacity he is diminished as are all those whose lives touch his.

Sunday, 9/26/99 11:35PM

All of life is a matter of joy. This is a concept difficult for easy acceptance, but upon consideration it becomes easier of acceptance.

Think of the start of human existence, the birth of a child, a miracle of creation. Under the direst of conditions the emergence into the world of a new soul is cause for exultation. Those most directly concerned see this new being as a creature of love humanly expressed, divinely created, joyfully received into the world of man.

All through the development of this new life, through childhood into maturity, this new soul retains the capacity to create joyful response. This is not to say that this life is free of sadness and difficulty, but it is to say that the joy outweighs the sorrow. In all cases the soul retains a buoyancy that lends light to its path through life.

Even when life becomes marred by difficulty, by confusion, by conflict and alienation, there remains in the soul of man come to life a capacity for joy that defies all trial. The dourest of men know moments of lightness and humor. The saddest of companies can be stirred to laughter by a soul intent on spreading joy.

This innate need to know joy and to respond always to joy is man's salvation in many ways. There is no man so deprived that he is incapable of a joyous response. Joy lives in the very soul of man and survives all trials and all rejection. It lives to assert itself in times of greatest need, and for this the soul in need is eternally grateful.

© 2010 Cornelia Silke dba New Light Publishing