Are you living as God’s burning bush, without being consumed? Or might you be headed toward burnout?
We will rediscover the blessing of this mutual love relationship with God, overflowing to others, as God’s sheer gift. Could it be that the first and greatest commandment is for our greatest joy, and not some mysterious burden to fulfill?
One metaphor is the vine and the branches from John 15:1-11. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches; apart from the vine the branch can do nothing. God wants to be our supply, our source, in an intimate encounter of the finite with the infinite.
God was the source for these heroes of faith: Augustine of Hippo, Bernard of Clairvaux, Catherine of Siena, Ignatius of Loyola, John Calvin, and Teresa of Avila. Using a descriptive process called the Classic Three Ways, including the purgative (letting go), illuminative (seeing with the heart), and unitive (intimacy), dating back to around 500 CE, we now add a fourth way, the unitive/active (the dance). From that dance of mutual love, ministry overflows. We do it together; it is participatory, humankind following God’s lead.
It’s not a formula. It’s our living God!
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Catherine Skinner Powell, raised in Clearwater, Florida, discovered that God is love, and knew she was to encourage others to encounter God. After thirty years of computer programming, she founded The Anchorage: A Contemplative Community. The Shalem Spiritual Guidance Program, the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, and training to lead eight-day retreats provided her formation. Her DMin at LTSP was in spirituality. Catherine lives in Greenville, South Carolina with her husband, Skeeter, and their pets.