Rev Brian’s Devotional Contemplation

Experiencing the inner Kingdom of God requires devotion, humility, surrender & a contemplative lifestyle. Unconditional forgiveness is the gateway to unconditional love, as resentments displace love & peace. Ego is impatient & justifies resentment. Am I living out of devotion to God or resentments? Giving my all? Lord, help me do so. Feeding or starving the ego? Building barriers to God or releasing them? Pursuing “wants” more than God? Being patient? Loving omni-directional like the sun or a flashlight? Withholding love from anyone? Being led by the Holy Spirit, or validated by peers? Being kind, allowing all souls to be themselves, or pridefully trying to change them? Lord, help me love & accept everyone as is, without exception, including myself. Let go worrying about the future & fuming over the past. I forgive myself for past mistakes, I did my best at the time, Lord, help me forgive all others for not “meeting my expectations.” Lord, heal & soften my heart, that it be loving & complete, not needy, but freely devoted to Thy Will. Dissolve ego’s pride that believes its opinions are superior. The core of addiction is seeking happiness outside myself. Let go craving outer sources of satisfaction. Love has no expectations of others, including being loved in return. Release all grasping without & dissolve into the Kingdom within. Pause when triggered, don’t be a puppet to pride & lash-out. Seek out ego’s vulnerability, sit with humiliating feelings by diving into sources of anger, as long as it takes, until desensitized & resentments vanish. Let go of the obsession to defend or be right. Remain calm & peaceful when wrongly judged, knowing it reveals the soul’s maturity & pays off karmic debt. Suffering lasts as long as believing “this shouldn’t be.” Absolute acceptance eliminates suffering. Look for opportunities to grow: stress & anger reveal fear & pride to release. Take nothing personal; assume all are doing their best. See disagreements from an eternal perspective, a pop quiz revealing spiritual & emotional progress. Welcome conflict - seek win/win, don’t attack or defend, melt resentments & forgive; desiring the Highest Good for all. Remain patient during conflict, allow space for others’ anger; souls are eternal, opinions aren’t. Own my junk quickly & never project blame. Release the addiction to the “juice” acquired from being: right, special, clever, judging, winning, playing the hero or the victim. Pride fears embarrassment; allow it to be humiliated regularly, without defending. Fear, anger & pride displace the experience of God’s Presence (Peace, Love & Joy). Move from being the center of the universe to the witness/observer, concerned, but not emotionally attached to outcomes. Absolute humility dissolves the ego. Lord, remove the ego structure of pride & cunning thoughts from this soul, set it free to the Infinite Silence beneath, so that only Love & Peace remain. 

God, grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, Courage to change the one I can, and wisdom to know that one is me.

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
To be understood, as to understand,
To be loved, as to love,
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

 ~Prayer of St. Francis

This soul is already eternal, not subject to illness or death; only what is held in mind. Be a steward of human existence, select each moment to build good karma & undo negative karma. Out of devotion to Thee my Lord, I surrender my life, every experience, memory, story & laugh, the existence of “me” - beyond Theosis & Voidness. “The experience of the Presence of God is available and within at all times, but awaits choice. That choice is made only by surrendering everything other than peace and love to God.” All fear is an illusion; walk straight ahead, no matter what!  Straight & narrow is the path, waste no time!  Gloria in Excelsis Deo!