love as basis for all human longings
desire for freedom
what do we mean ..
no one forcing me to do something?
.. first understanding of freedom but it isn't enough
can have that degree of freedom but be dominated by needs within myself .. for example, obsessive compulsive ... how free am I with something like that?
that's a negative freedom (from something)
but there is also a positive freedom -- to do things
guy in prison but has found that he can do something is more free than someone who has no one telling him what to do but no idea what to do
freedom to do things .. can take a lot of hard work but is a deeper freedom
peace .. most people understand it as "nothing's happening" .. "an hour or two of peace"
augustine: peace is the tranquility of order
all peace needs energy .. it's hard work!
if you want peace, work for justice
happiness .. illusive thing .. can find a moment of happiness but it's gone again
ice cream, party meal with friends .. great but can't last
'
where do I find the deeper happiness?
John Powell -- happiness is an inside job .. have to fullfill certain lifelong tasks
- learn to accept myself as I am .. self-liking peopleare at peace and can reach out to others
- blame myself ... not others .. Make my life an act of love
what is the most loving thing I can do here?
I'll live a good life and find happiness
- step outside of comfort zone
- learn to look for what is good for myself and others .. we're good at saying wht's wrong but we need to look at wht is good
.. look at what's good in myself
people that are happy look for the good in themselves and others
when seeking growth , don't set up impossible standards
"bar ever higher" leaves you always feeling a failure .. bad psycology
learn to comunicate effectively .. for we are as sick as we are assumed
lif you look for happiness, how deep are you prepared to go? how much are you willing to make it a product of your entire life?
desire for love (greatest of them all) deepest longing of the human heart
insatiable desire .. never fully satisfied
to have one other person meeet all needs is asking too much .. we must also find these things in ourselves and in the world around us
we as ourselves the impossible of that word love
greeks at least have 3 words
- eros .. desire .. any kind of desire .. I Love an ice cream .. great motivating forces
- filliat .. affection .. what we feel for those close to us, for a child, etc
- agape - disinterested love .. sort of love that we might have for the people of sudan, darfur, etc.
not the way I love my family .. no love in return .. and yet you can love them
the three are a circle
young couple want a baby (desire), then they have the baby and are filled with affection, but they very soon discover it's all about agape .. but they all help each other
we become what we love
so it's not an accident that husband and wife start to look alike
3 conditions for love
- all genuine love must give the freedom to grow .. can't be possessive, conditional, etc .. love is not an ability, it's a capacity
- must in some manner be returned
- must be balance and proportion among the things we love .. so that it doens't become an obsession.
we are spirtual to the extent that we try to live within the deepest desires
what are the deepest desires that I have and how can live with those desires
Please send to. Thanks,
session 2: our ideas of God
starting point has to be we don't know who god is
all our ideas are so inadequate that it's better to say they're wrong than right
stunned appreocicate of an otherness beyond the reach of language
and not tryiong too quickly to put owrds on all of this
with God we have to use analogy
like explaining the theory of relativity
God is not like ANYthing we know in this world .. there are no analogies that can really get us to god .. 1000x more difficult than explaining relativity
constant search is more important than the few threads of truth I might possess
search for answers to questions conerning the presence of evil in the world is more important than any answers I've found
life, love is a search and God is a search
people with certainties repel me! politics and religion :-D
God will ask were you searching .. for truth, justice, love
talking to people like we are on a search together
it's our desire for love that leads to God but then we can be lead astray by the idea of the angry God.
we have desires but we also have fears
.. of cancer, death, etc.
the fears have created ideas of an angry God while the desires have created the idea of a loving God ... creates a skitzophrenic God.
caught between angry and loving God
and it's not easy to change an idea of God ... have to experience somehow the love of God
Jesus presents a loving God .. but the angry God keeps coming up .. safetynet ... "just incase God is angry, we have to appease him"
best ideas are between the two extremes
God as a good teacher / parent.
the best teacher loves you .. want what's good for you .. for every student
but they also challenged you
make them think! best teacher make you think
combination of love & challege .. least unhealthy ideaer of God I can find today
loves me with all my failings but also constantly challenges me to grow to become a better person .. respond to deeper and deeper longings ... God of love and challenge
not a soft God ... not no challenges
so the church presented the too angry God .... ex: inquisition
but the 2nd mistake that the church made .. instead of seeing love as a circle, it was seen as a straight line .. meant to move to agape .. denied the importance not only of our love for other but our need of love from others and of the need of the love of ourself. we need love .. it's part of who and what we are .. we cannot continue to give if we do not also receive
but need to learn to say no to myself
lent is best used to fast from what you need to fast from .. so it's good to say no sometimes
but I need to say yes to myself in the fundamental needs
I can deny myself any material goods, but in loving others, I should not deny my own deepest good or my own spiritual growth
woman who does everything alll the time for her family ... not that it's not genuine, but it's not the wisest form of love .. she needs love too!
so can be a genunine but mistaken love
olympic atheles combine self denial with self belief and proper self-love ... not selfishness but there is an imaplence .. too much insitance on agape and not enough on the circle .. agape renewed and strength regained.
in any religion, everything depends on the God being worship .. so angry, loving, love and challenge, whatever it is ... that will determine every last detail
no when appropriate, but yes to our deepest needs.
uscatholicpriests.org association of priests that learn what they can do
if all we see is the bad, we'll never see the good
there ARE priest that communicate a God of love, some bishops too
jesus asked questions in the imperfect tense ... process of adult learning ... get them to think it through ... socratic method
confronted the scribes with cryptic questions to MAKE them think
jesus in becoming human gave up divine privileges and divine knowledge .. gradually came to understand his mission
Jesus suffered out of Love, not to satisfy an angry God
intentional eucharistic communities
part 3 -
love god and love your neighbor form one command for jesus. A belief in God means that I must reach out to others
leads to community .. must reach other -- work together with others
every community is based as a story
the person of Jesus christ.. the depth of that story, the beauty of the gospel .. the community then needs to be a christian community because that's the story from which I come
from it flows truth, worship, but the person and the story come first
otherwise, the worship, etc. is empty
with the story the worship becomes lifegiving
I love you exactly as you are --- I don't demand that you change
and the only genuine to that is a response of love .. so faith is a response of love from one person to another person
so bishop rejects the idea "you have faith if you believe the propositions"
you have faith if you respond to God's love and say however timidly I love you too.
all communities share the same flaw .. they are made up of human beings
never been a perfect religous community , there never will be.
I've had my massive problems with the catholic church community over recent years
then I came to a saying of John Henry newman. "there is nothing on this earth so ugly as the catholic church and nothing so beautiful"
the ugly abounds ... inquisitions, indulgences, etc.
but remember all the beauty that's there
- some of the leaders. John 23 ... spoke of opening windows, bringing the church up-to-date .. knew he didn't have all the answers .. listened to the wisdom of the whole church.
story in NCR about priests who lived through vatican II
romero ... wanted to walk away from it all but found that he could not
inspiration in people around you ... finding the soure of their dedication in the faith
Holy saturday ... so beautiful
inspiration in confirmation ... funerals
the beauty is there ... it depends on where you look -- I can look at all the bad things and get more and more upset but it would be a great pitty if I ever lost sight of what is there
in everything I do or think I am seaking to respond to love's urgent longings
end of retreat, start of symposium
Richard Rodriguez
Love.
they loved and they were loved
as jesus spoke of it .. a noun and a verb
great to be able to speak about being gay
ethical arrangement of america .. we will allow you public voice but don't go too far (DADT)
was lincoln gay?
unwritten command .. thou shalt not love
oscar while lived in england while women where marching for their right to vote
the miracle of hatred is how hard it is to maintain it .. really hard -- you have to be really strong to hate someone
deepest part of our experience is suffering .. we don't like to deal with that in the US
not afraid of suffering
wonderful thing to be loved but it's essential that we recognize that homosexuality is love
will the church give us that noun ... marriage
if you want to alighn yourself with the world, there are women out there who are oppressed
don't go looking for suffering -- you'll learn to see it
I have to be assuured by my church that I am a man capable of what we call love -- of knowing it
.. if not, the recpetion of your love is a great gift, but I can't answer it back
when I love you back, it's teh completion of the event
I love you = responsibility for you
women's rights <=> gay rights