THE DAILY SPARK

CONTRITION, YES. GUILT, NO.

“I don’t think being human has any place for guilt.  Contrition, yes.  Guilt, no.  Contrition means you tell God you are sorry and you’re not going to do it again and you start off afresh.  All the damage you’ve done to yourself, put right.  Guilt means you go on and on belaboring and having emotions and beating your breast and being ego-fixated.  Guilt is a trap.  People love guilt because they feel if they suffer enough guilt, they’ll make up for what they’ve done.  Whereas, in fact, they’re just sitting in a puddle and splashing.  Contrition, you move forward.  It’s over.  You are willing to forgo the pleasures of guilt.”

Quote from Sister Wendy Beckett a Roman Catholic Nun – as quoted in BROKEN OPEN  How Difficult Time Can Help Us Grow by Elizabeth Lesser

REFLECTION:

  • Are you living with guilt?  What guilt trap are you caught in?
  • Are you willing to STOP feeling guilty? 
  • Are you willing to seek contrition? Are you willing to tell God… tell someone you are sorry?
  • How can you embrace contrition so you can move forward?

Really Hungry for…

“I listen to the silence I have in the past called, inertia….  The more I listen, the more I can hear these hungers echoing in the stillness.  They seem to be calling for a few basic soul needs to be filled:  to express and receive love; to be present with and for what we love; to know and be known; to be peaceful and satisfied; to create peace and satisfaction; to be acknowledged as making a difference and to acknowledge that others make a difference to us; to find meaning and purpose in life as well as having life find meaning in our existence.”

This excerpt from Dawna Markova speaks of the deepest human needs.  We are so busy living life at such a frenetic pace that there isn’t time to explore our truth in the stillness.  We never want to feed this deep desire – keeping busy allows it to be kept at bay.  Yet there will come a time when you must… you will be forced to if you don’t.  

From: I WILL NOT DIE AN UNLIVED LIFE   Reclaiming Purpose and Passion.  by Dawna Markova

REFLECTION: 

  • Are your soul needs being fed now?
  • Are you so busy and  not willing to look at what actually feeds you… what do you need?  How can you take some time… make some time to explore and face into your deepest human needs? 
  • What action will you take to quell your “real hunger”?

Spiritual Hospitality

Spiritual hospitality is helping kindred spirits further into their living… to help others/encourage others to cross barriers of our own making into moments of full aliveness.

From: BOOK OF AWAKENING  By Mark Nepo
 

REFLECTION:

  • Is there a kindred spirit you can help across a barrier?
  • What can you do?  Take some action to help them be more fully alive.