Is it really Love? Spiritual Way of the Six Loves

What is it like to experience the presence of God? Drawing from the Contemplative Prayer tradition there are three general ways Gods presence has been described: an intellectual vision or grasp God, an intuitive sense of God, and a social interactive sense of God's presence. The intellectual vision first requires that our emotions are quieted and mistaken images of God are removed from the intellect. With the intuitve sensing of God's presence, the intellect is stilled since God is beyond our full understadning. After the emotions have been cleared of old hurts, resentments and angers, we can begin to sense God as a calming presence,

In the next episode, we will look at the social interactive sense of God's presence.

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In this episode, we begin a series on spiritual discernment, how to find out what is Gods will for us in different situations. Or if you prefer, what is the spiritual purpose of one's life. First we look at what will not be covered in this series regarding spiritual discernement. A related issue is how spirituality is defined. In particular, what is meant by the phrase "I am spiritual but not religious?"

Finally, a definition of spirituality is suggested that will be our beginning point.

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At last we have climbed the ladder to reach gratitude. Along the way we have looked at several values that help us reach gratitude. Gratitude is possible about little things such as a good meal or a good movie. What we aim for is a broader understanding of gratitude. We look again at Fr. Thomas Merton's advise and discover one more value, humility. With so many values supporting gratitude, how do we keep them up? Gratitude is an ongoing dance between these various values that helps us to be thankful for the many good things in our lives.

In the next episode, we will start a new series on Spiritual Discernment.

How can beauty and wonder help us reach gratitude? When we see beauty, we often feel a sense of wonder at what we have witnessed. This sense of wonder can help us break out of our bubble of personal concerns. Beauty and wonder can remind there is so much more in the world besides our own daily routine and struggles. Especially in relation to gratitude, wonder can lead to joy, which can lead to hope, two key values we have looked at on our way to gratitude. If all of us can experience beauty in some form, and a sense of wonder that comes with it, does this not give us some basis to reach out to people beyond our own circle of friends who think like us?

In the next episode, we will finally look at what is gratitude and how these other values relate to gratitude.

We consider joy in the growing list of values that can lead us to gratitude. Joy is something that most of us have experienced before, but it helps to stop and think more about it. What is joy? Is it the same as happiness or is it different? How do we find joy? One challenge for many of us, how do we hold onto joy when we feel crowded by many different concerns? How do we tell good joy from bad joy? We continue to find that there is a growing network of values that leads us to gratitude: caring, hope, happiness, humility, compassion. To that list we will now add joy plus one extra, reverence. In the next episode we will take a look at beauty as another value that can help lead us to gratitiude.