tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35487748.post6210648204896769194..comments2022-03-02T01:22:27.783+00:00Comments on John-Francis' Blog: IN THE DESERT OF THE HEART LET THE HEALING FOUNTAIN STARTJohn-Francis Friendshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566171172212687893noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35487748.post-21360463885677080602011-11-19T22:39:05.062+00:002011-11-19T22:39:05.062+00:00I will always remember how repelled I was to hear ...I will always remember how repelled I was to hear Jean Vanier say that "our enemies can heal us" - but who better to reveal our "true selves"... ? Love wills us not to turn away... <br /><br />I have spent a long time reading ' Merton's Palace of Nowhere' [James Finley] On one level I get it, aspire to it, but haven't yet reached the starting blocks [interesting choice of metaphor] - or is that the point? Finley writes,<br /><br />"The transformation of the Christian consciousness in Christ, the emptying of all the contents of ego-consciousness, is thus not a matter of psychology but of ontology. The contemplative's experience of self-emptying is a manifestation, a revelation of the emptiness of God.... since God is nothing [no thing] He moves in perfect freedom as the ground, the source, the fulfillment, the no-thing that sustains all things. We are 'real' because we are in existence. God, however, is not in existence, but is rather Existence itself. He is that by which we are....."[p.142]<br /><br />We are 'in' love - in freedom.Annenoreply@blogger.com