Countless Signs of Love

One of a Kind Mushroom

The will, after seeing countless signs of love, inclines the soul to love in return. The will shows the soul that this is a Lover who will never leave her, that he walks with her always, giving her life and being. The intellect steps in to help the soul understand that she can never hope to have a better friend as long as she lives. P. 58 The Interior Castle St. Teresa of Avila, translation by Mirabai Starr

A person’s will, intellect, and soul work together in harmony to bring the knowledge of God’s love into a person’s being.

Red Light Flow

Gifts of Harvest

There are, St. Teresa tells us, countless signs of God’s love shown to us every day, reassuring us that God will never leave us—God walks beside us every step of the way; God gives us life and being; God dwells within us and we in God.

This does not mean that we won’t suffer difficulties but that God will be with us through all these difficulties, giving us strength, comfort, and support in whatever circumstance we find ourselves.

Our lives will not be that of constant difficulties. We will have ample experiences of joy and laughter, and throughout these happy times God will be with us, also—God shares our life whether our time is filled with sadness or joy, sickness or health, poverty or riches—God is our Lover and Friend, our constant Companion and Support.

It is through this realization of God’s complete love for us that we cannot help but love God in return.

© Judith Lawrence

God Calls to Us Constantly

Sunlit Stroll

God calls to us in countless little ways all the time. Through illnesses and suffering and through sorrow he calls to us. Through a truth glimpsed fleetingly in a state of prayer he calls to us. No matter how half-hearted such insights maybe, God rejoices whenever we learn what he is trying to teach us. St. Teresa of Avila, translation by Mirabai Starr, The Interior Castle Page 37

“God rejoices,” St. Teresa says, “whenever we learn what he is trying to teach us.”

You might wonder what God could teach you through periods of illness, suffering, or sorrow. To humans these three things are so negative that we cannot possibly imagine learning any good lesson by having to go through them. However, we often learn more about God’s goodness and mercy when we go through difficult times than we do when our lives are full of joy.

Milky Way over Grand Tetons

Sometimes we are so busy in our daily lives, heaping on more and more activities, that we don’t have time to think about God and his gifts to us. When we become so sick that we have to stop doing our regular everyday work, we suddenly have time to think and perhaps our thinking might dwell on God.

Certainly, one of the first things we might think about in times of illness is why God is making us sick, why he is making us suffer, why he is making us sorrowful. Yet, when everything is going our way we might not give a thought about God; we might not think how wonderful it is to be healthy, how amazing it is that we can do so much without suffering pain, how good it feels to be joyful.

A time of illness may be God’s only way of getting our attention so that we can hear him calling us—calling us to come to him, calling us to give thanks to him, calling us to listen to him and speak to him.

Take a moment now to give thanks to God for his love, mercy, and goodness to you; and ask him if there is something he is calling you to do, if there is some way in which you can serve him and love him for all that he has done for you.

© Judith Lawrence

Free Access to our Souls

Dinas Lodge Entry Door

We have free access to [our souls] whenever we please. …All we have to do is be still and go within. Page 23, The Interior Castle St. Teresa of Avila, Translation by Mirabai Starr,

To go within, to enter the soul, the very essence of our being, which is deep within our very core, we enter through the door, which is Christ. We must cross the threshold of Christ; we need not hesitate at the threshold as if there is something to fear by entering our souls, for here, in the silence and stillness, we are at one with God.

Open Door in Summer

Christ himself tells us that he is the door or the gate where we may freely go in and out and find fresh pasture. We need not be afraid to follow him; he leads us on safe paths and shepherds us, taking care of each one of us. (John 10: 6-16)

We need to cultivate a time of silence and stillness through which we have ease of access to the open door of Christ. The time of silence and stillness generates in us a holy place and a reverence for God into whose presence we are entering.

© Judith Lawrence

The World is Our New Cloister

Canadian City

 Reverence and devotion open the soul to intimacy with God…

When you pursue a relationship with your soul and God you are answering a call. You are being called to build your spiritual stamina so that you can channel grace in this world for this world. Our new monastery, the world, is in desperate need of the strength of your soul. Caroline Myss, Page 96, Entering the Castle

Jesus challenged us to be in this world but not of it. The mystics of today try to fulfil Christ’s challenge. Though some mystics still do enter a convent or a monastery in order to pursue a relationship with God, many more live in this world as contemplatives without a cloister. They pursue their ordinary day to day lives while living out a life of prayer within their souls.

These modern-day mystics are answering the call of God to channel grace into the world. They see the desperate needs within the world and they bring them before God in their time of prayer and praise of the Sacred One.

Getting Boats to Harbour, Italy

As they open their souls in intimacy with God they build up their spiritual stamina. They receive grace from God in order to channel God’s grace into the world. They live in this world whole-heartedly and, by living in God and God in them, they understand the call of God to them is to be an intermediary for God’s grace and blessing on the world that God has created for us to live in.

© Judith Lawrence