Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Brother Lawrence and Singularity

We are made for God, and for Him, alone; He cannot therefore take it ill that we forsake all, even ourselves, to find our all in Him. In God we shall see more clearly what we lack than we could in ourselves by all our introspection; which in reality is but the remnant, unexpelled, of self-love, which, under the guise of zeal for our own perfection, keeps our gaze down on self instead of raised to God....But having given myself wholly to God, to make what satisfaction I could for my sins, and for love of Him having renounced all that is not His, I have come to see that my only business is to live as though there were none but He and I in the world." - "Practice of the Presence of God", Brother Lawrence

Is that even... legal? What about the starving children? What about my next door neighbor? And how the heck is that even possible?

"No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and be devoted to the other, or love the one and hate the other. You cannot serve both God and ____" - Christ

Singularity... Kierkegaard wrote a book called "Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing" (yes, that is a massive title.) The Psalmist asks God to give him an "undivided heart."

But how to be undivided in a world that we are called to engage and love?

"From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away" - Paul

Singularity... the soul undivided, the mind focused, how does it all fit together?

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