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Wisdom Saying
God is beyond but also near, transcendent and immanent. Seen not only with telescopic vision but also in the microscopic view of deep intimacy. God is the Source beyond any imagining and also the Lover who is immediately present. God, the Center of all, dwells at the center of my being. So when I am centered, I open the eyes of my heart to perceive God's presence, transcendent in glory and present here and now. I receive the gift of intimate relationship with God deeper than words can express.
*J. David Muyskens. Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God: The Practice of Centering Prayer.
Comments
A friend and Spiritual Director spoke to me recently, "Anything we say about God is blasphemous." We were sharing what it is like for us to experience the boundlessness of mystical consciousness.
In what sense is all speech about God misrepresenting God? God is Infinity. All designations for God, even the word God as I here use it, are not in union with Infinity; they are drawn from finite images, culture, language, ...
We might not be open to saying our God-language is blasphemous. We can say, however, that all descriptive language pertaining to God is as untrue as true, and is as true as untrue.
The true pertains to the extent the finite informs us relatively but accurately of the Infinite. The untrue is that even the most true God-representation is finite and, so, to that extent necessarily misrepresentative.
The finiteness and contradiction of God-language is evidenced in its paradoxical qualities. Muyskens gives an example, as in, "beyond ... also near," "transcendent ... immanent," ... "the Center of all ... dwells at the center of my being," ...
God-language, when taken not seriously enough, becomes trite and domesticated, losing its capacity to evoke thoughts and emotions proper to true, spiritual religion. God-language, when taken too seriously, becomes an idol and, also, obstacle to helping persons outside religious faith connect to this One who longs to be in intimacy with us all.
Suggested Reflection
What are your favorite ways of naming God? Do you use images of transcendence and immanence? Feminine and masculine? Concrete and abstract? Theistic and non-theistic? Earthy and cosmic?
Are you open to expanding and, thus, enriching the extent of your references to the Divine?
List five ways of referring to God that you could add to your vocabulary of worship and devotion.
See next page for Invitation to writer's contemplative village, purpose of OneLife, data on ordering author's book and upcoming devotionals 2008, and material on citations.
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