Purity lies deep within...

 Create in me a clean heart,O Graceous One
                                            Fill me with the right spirit,
                                               Enfold me in the arms of love,
                                                   and fill me with your Holy Spirit
                                                                 Psalm 51        
                                                     

True Life!

 True Life is in Me! In Me you will find it!
                                       Live and let live! Laugh,be happy and care much for others!
                                        The seeds you plant today will only blossom later,so
                                                        sow seeds of Peace,Joy,Happiness and eternal GRACE!
                                      I love you deerly...Grow in Peace, and Blossom in due season
                                                                           Dr JJ      

Divine...

I am watching over you...
                                           I love you...
                                              I created you...
                                                 I live in you...
                                                  You are my beloved and I am yours...eternal!
                                                                        The Divine                        

Everyday a step closer....

 everyday you live,you give a step on the staircase of your life,
                                                   make sure your steps are grounded on the right foundation.
                                                    do you know where your staircase leads?
                                                   dont step on others on the way,instead love, eat and pray...
                                                    ensuring you step in Grace, and His unfolding love....eternally!
                                                                                         Dr JJ

Thoughts like birds!

  Thoughts are like birds
                                Let them come, and let them go...
                                          Dont let them stay too long,
                                         or they might shit on your head!
                                                                    Dr JJ

Inspirational

Believe it!

Love love love!

Being alive!

Why not become a Mystic?

In wordless prayer we hand these lower faculties (memory, imagination, and rational mind) a “pink slip” informing them that their services are no longer needed. They rebel and immediately begin to “entertain” us with an ongoing “theater of the absurd” on the screen of our mind—coming attractions, cartoons, newsreels, short subjects, and perhaps a “feature presentation” . . . How we respond will determine whether or not we progress in prayer and advance along the spiritual journey. As soon as we learn to allow our stream of consciousness to simply amble on through and out of our mind and remain at peace . . . our time will be well spent and extremely fruitful . . . It is our sincere intention to be in God’s presence at the time of our prayer that is important and at the heart of all contemplative prayer practices

The Five Kinds of Thoughts

We have classified thoughts into five categories to help you become more aware of them when they surface and to subsequently learn to release them. These categories are not meant to give you more thoughts to ponder during the prayer; in other words, you are not asked to identify these types of thoughts during the prayer period. They simply provide a useful context to understand what is meant by the term “thoughts” in the context of Centering Prayer periods:

1. Ordinary distractions or wanderings of the imagination: These thoughts may consist of sensory perceptions, flights of imaginative fancy, or things you were thinking about prior to the time of prayer. Treat these as background music in a supermarket—don’t get sidetracked by these meanderings of consciousness.
2. Thoughts that give rise to attractions or aversions: Some thoughts have an attractive or aversive quality to them that when engaged can trigger your emotions. Depending on whether these are pleasant or unpleasant, you will feel spontaneous likes or dislikes that are often attached to people, events, memories, or future plans. Resist the overwhelming urge to latch onto these emotionally charged thoughts.
3. Self-reflections: As humans, it is natural for us to want to assess how we are doing when taking on new endeavors. These assessments include thoughts such as “How am I doing?” or “This peace feels so great!” Rather than resting in a surrendered relationship with God, self-reflections become an attempt to possess or control the experience. When these thoughts arise, keep in mind that the presence of God is like the air you breathe—you can have all you want as long as you don’t try to possess it.
4. Insights: When you allow yourself to quiet down in Centering Prayer, it is not uncommon for theological insights, discoveries about the spiritual journey, or psychological breakthroughs to come into your awareness. These may come in the form of a solution to a pressing problem, a call to help someone in need, or even an insight about the nature of life. Even the most altruistic feelings or realizations are considered “thoughts” in the context of Centering Prayer. While these are the most tempting to follow, while in prayer allow yourself to come back to the one activity again and again—consent—by returning to your sacred word.
5. Thoughts and feelings arising from the unconscious: Centering Prayer encourages a purely receptive disposition toward God. For this reason, thoughts and feelings arising from the unconscious may immediately arise in your prayer period. This “unloading of the unconscious” is explained in great detail in session five. As the unconscious becomes purged of painful or repressed memories, surges of primitive emotions, physical tension and pain, and even mental anxiety may begin to surface. These unconscious blocks are all a very normal and healing aspect of Centering Prayer. As you notice these types of thoughts when they arise, let them go as if watching water wash over and cleanse the surface of a muddy rock.
   Taken from Centering Prayer online course

See beyond the visible!

As I drove out of Kimberley hospital this afternoon I was very surprised and slightly irritated when a young black boy and his mother walked hand in hand across the road and I almost drove into them by accident because they just walked infront of me very suddenly.I was luckily just pulling away-so I wouldnt have killed them or anything.

When I half angry-half frustrated looked after them as they unnotisingly walked away I could see that the mom's eyes were not well-in fact she is almost blind!

I immediately felt such compassion for the two of them when I realised that this little boy-literally is his mom's eyes wherever they go, and that he wasnt fully able to calculate properly that I was driving etc...

I decided to pull-off at the side of the road to get to meet them, and because I couldn't ignore the urging of immense compassion that I felt in my cheast for them, and their predicament.

I introduced myself to the mom by touching her gently on her shoulder-not wanting to startle her as she cannot see: "Hi, I'm doctor Botha" she turned her face toward me and half-smiled, obviously not able to see, as I noticed that her right eye is completely blind and her left eye is massive from the pressure inside the eyeball caused by the underlyning disease that she told me she has(glaucoma)-the condition is caused by ineffective draining of the fluids inside the eye-leading to increasing pressures in the eye-and eventually leads almost exclusively to blindness -if left untreated."I'm Porcia" she said, and asked me if I was one of the doctors at the eye clinic that she had attended.I told her that I wasn't." I just experienced God wanting me to stop and talk to you and your son"-I said. She was a little startled and didnt know what to say. She introduced me to her son(Theo), and told me that their family has this condition as an inherited one, and that eventually Theo would lose his eye-sight too!!!!!!! Wow when I heard that I almost cried.I mean, here I am, a doctor, young and healthy, with perfect almost everything,complaining about people walking infront of my car-this is just wrong!

Can you imagine that this young man,propably only 4 years old,is leading his mommy everywhere they go-across the busiest of streets,all the way to their home in a location somewhere outside of town.Porcia was happy when I told her that I would like to pray with them.So there we were, the three of us praying on the sidewalk outside Kimerley hospital.I prayed that Jesus would please heal her eyes, and that He would prevent Theo from going down the same road as his mommy.I also prayed God's supernatural protection over the two of them, that He would put His angels around them to guide and protect them wherever they go!.I also explained to Little Theo the magnitude of his task, and the responsiility that he has to look very carefully before they cross the street, as his mommy trusts him completely!

O Lord,please heal them and guide them,protect them and keep them safe,Porcia and Theo.I ask in Jesus' name! Amen.

Dear friend-how blessed and priviledged we are! I thought that I would share this with you, and hope that you would be touched and pray for them too!

Lots of Love....Johan

To: God in me

In the inner room!

Very profound!

BREATHING UNDER WATER: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps We humbly asked [God] to remove our shortcomings. ~ Step Seven of the Twelve Steps Prayer is a symbiotic relationship with life and with God, a synergy which creates a result larger than the exchange itself. God knows that we need to pray to keep the symbiotic relationship moving and growing. Prayer is not a way to try to control God, or even get what we want. As He says in Luke’s Gospel, the answer to every prayer is one, the same, and the best: the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13)! Step Seven says that we must “humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.” Don’t dare go after your faults yourselves or you will go after the wrong thing, or more commonly a clever substitute for the real thing. “If you try to pull out the weeds, you might pull out the wheat along with it,” as Jesus says (Matthew 13:29). Instead you have to let God (1) reveal your real faults to you (usually by failing and falling many times!), and then (2) allow God to remove those faults from God’s side and in God’s way. God’s totally positive and lasting way of removing our shortcomings is to fill up the hole with something much better, more luminous, and more satisfying

Think and do!

Guarding Our Souls

The great danger of the turmoil of the end-time in which we live is losing our souls.  Losing our souls means losing touch with our center, our true call in life, our mission, our spiritual task.  Losing our soul means becoming so distracted by and preoccupied with all that is happening around us that we end up fragmented, confused, and erratic.  Jesus is very aware of that danger.  He says:  "Take care not to be deceived, because many will come using my name and saying, 'I am the one' and 'The time is near at hand'  Refuse to join them" (Luke 21:8).

In the midst of anxious times there are many false prophets, promising all sorts of "salvations."  It is important that we be faithful disciples of Jesus, never losing touch with our true spiritual selves.

Poem by Khalil Gibran

"When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you,yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may hurt you.
And when he speaks to you,
believe in him.
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden."

Taken from Love letters in the sand-Khalil Gibran

Do you know who you really are?

In order to understand contemplation and the contemplative mind, we need to talk about the “True Self,” who you are in God from all eternity.This is the only self that has ever existed. It's the only self that exists right now. The trouble is that most people don't know it or even know about it! The work of religion is to get you to know your True Self, “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3) as Paul puts it.

You came from God. Your deepest DNA is divine. You're already spiritual beings, and the daily concern and question is “How do I become human?” I believe that's why Jesus came as a human being. He didn't come to teach us how to go to heaven but how to be a human being here on this earth—which is heaven now

Practising your Presence-Richard Rohr

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER

Presence is a relational term, and it implies at least two parties who both give and receive. The “Real Presence” is the Catholic term for Jesus’ presence in the bread and wine, but if we don't know how to be present to another presence there is no Real Presence—for us! There must be an opening from both sides for presence to exercise its transformative effect. What we're doing in contemplation is learning, quite simply, how to be present. That is the only way to encounter any other presence, including Jesus in the Eucharist. The change is all and always on our side. (There really is not much point in arguing about IF and HOW, just be present and you will know what you need to know.) We know that God is always given from Jesus’ side, but we have to learn how to receive such total givenness. Believe it or not, that is major work on our part, because we are all filled with blockages to pure, naked presence. It is too vulnerable a position.

Choose life!

A Choice Calling for Discipline

When we look critically at the many thoughts and feelings that fill our minds and hearts, we may come to the horrifying discovery that we often choose death instead of life, curse instead of blessing.  Jealousy, envy, anger, resentment, greed, lust, vindictiveness, revenge, hatred ... they all float in that large reservoir of our inner life.  Often we take them for granted and allow them to be there and do their destructive work.

But God asks us to choose life and to choose blessing.  This choice requires an immense inner discipline.  It requires a great attentiveness to the death-forces within us and a great commitment to let the forces of life come to dominate our thoughts and feelings.  We cannot always do this alone; often we need a caring guide or a loving community to support us.   But it is important that we both make the inner effort and seek the support we need from others to help us choose life.

Richard Rohr on True/false identity! Its amazing!

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER

I think some kind of experience of God is necessary for mental and emotional health. You basically don't belong in the universe until you are connected to its center, and one word for that center (and everything else by implication) is “God.” When you live in the false self you are “eccentric” or off center. You're trying to make something—yourself—the Center that is not the center. It will never work in the long run, because it is not true. A part can never pretend to be the Whole. So I would call the false self your “relative identity,” and I would call the True Self your “absolute identity.” A relative identity is not bad. The false self is not bad either. It's simply not the True Self! If you do not have some experience of your True-Self-in-God, by which to relativize and limit your false self, it has to pose as the real thing—and tries to get away with it. But it cannot work. It is not true. An edge can never pretend to be the Center

Richard Rohr says...and I totally agree!

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER The false self is your psychological creation of yourself in space and time. It comes from your early conditioning, family, roles, education, mind, culture, and religion. The false self is who you think you are! But thinking doesn’t make it so. The false self dies and passes away. Yet it is the raw material through which you discover your True Self in God. The True Self is not created by anything you have done right or wrong. It is never about requirements; it’s about relationship—the quality and capacity for relatedness. This lays the foundation for contemplative prayer. The false self will say prayers but the True Self is a prayer and looks out at reality from a different pair of eyes larger than its own. This is why in Ephesians it says "pray always" (6:18). We pray always whenever we actin conscious and loving union with God, which eventually can be all the time—even in our sleep!