Garment of Royal Beauty

I have studying a mix of materials that all seem to be blending, over time, into a seamless garment of royal beauty. Last Spring I began reading Self Abandonment to Divine Providence also translated as The Sacrament of the Present Moment. I am also revisiting materials regarding Codependency and the 12 Steps. Throw in there a life long desire to cover The Imitation of Christ  and I have a heady mix going on.


I found the Imitation in a CD format, so I have been listening to that as well as looking up references in the printed version. Thomas a`Kempis wrote in Imitation "Inward Christians put their spiritual progress before all other concerns, and those who diligently attend to themselves seldom have much to say about others." Wow! He knew that self-care was important for the believer. How often do I put off my time with the Lord for silly things like getting the clothes into the dryer?

In the Sacrament of Present Moment  Claude De Caussade teaches: "If we do not concentrate entirely on doing the will of God we shall find neither happiness nor holiness, no matter what pious practices we adopt, however excellent they may be. If you are not satisfied with what God chooses for you, what else can please you?

Does the food prepared for you by God Himself disgust you?

Well, can you say what other food would not seem stale to someone with so perverted a taste?

We must realize that we cannot be really fed, strengthened, purified, enriched and made holy unless we fulfill the duties of the present moment.

What else do you want?

Why look elsewhere?

Are you wiser than God?

Why do you seek anything different from what He desires?

Do you imagine, considering His wisdom and goodness, that He can be wrong?

When you come across something ordained by this wisdom and goodness you must surely be convinced of its excellence.

Do you for one moment imagine you will find peace by resisting the Almighty? It is rather this resistance, which we often keep up without realizing it, that is the source of all our trouble."

It seems that present moment living is all the rage in some circles, but when I realized that De Caussade was promoting it in 1750, I have to ask, "How did we lose that idea?"

JPdC taught that the present moment is a sacrament from God and that self-abandonment to it and its needs is a holy state. How fitting for the 12 Steps! Step 3 reads "Made a decision to turn our will and lives over to the care of God as we understood God." That also requires obedience to the working of God within us in the most consistent way we possibly can. 

“Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life,” Thich Nhat Hanh said. I cannot pronounce the man's name, but has me beat to pieces in his understanding of centering and getting still and quiet. For you see, I cannot even enter the present moment unless I can turn my attention to it. Taking charge of my attention and where my mind and soul go is my job.

When I entertain the "What ifs?" and "If only's" I leave the present moment for the future or the past. Yet God is present to me right now through the power of the Holy Spirit if I will but PAY ATTENTION. Sounds so simple. Very difficult to do at first try. He keeps showing me that if I will, as Brother Lawrence taught in  "Practice of the Presence of God" (1690s) I will find it the most delightful way of living and source of fulfillment and joy. I have been trying Lawrence's way of following God for decades.

This clock at Spring Grove Cemetery intentionally does not have hands, for the dead are no longer bound to  chronos, the measured, sequential time. And we who are alive can rise above that chronos way of living by entering the present moment and staying with Christ in it, abiding as He calls us to do. This is known as kairos time, the ordered but unmeasured sort of time, a life changing time.

So I continue to study and quiet myself and try to use what Richard Foster called "the center down silence" to quiet my heart and open my full attention to Christ. Does any of this resonate with your walk with the Almighty?