Saturday, April 06, 2019

Great souls & rainbows


But while [the prodigal] was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)

Great souls & rainbows 

We are called to greatness, everyone one of us, and every one of us can be great regardless of status or station, age or health, learning or lack.

True human greatness has nothing to do with how much money you make, how large your house is or how important others think you are. In fact, health and wealth can be the greatest obstacles.

The Spirit within our spirit draws us toward becoming magnanimous … great souls, which is the most literal sense of the word.

Great souls are large and embracing. They welcome life in its fullness, eager to love every moment, to see good and grace, beauty and wonder on days others merely slog through. They receive each day, however mundane, as a gift of grace in which something special will happen, something that will touch and fill your heart.

Great souls are expansive, with room for others to be themselves, and they are full of blessing. Having savored much of life’s fullness, they have much to give. They are rainbows in the gray skies of other lives, finding joy in every act and word of blessing they share.

The father of the prodigal son runs to greet his wayward child when he returns home from wasting his life. The old man enfolds him in his arms and holds him near.

This is a great soul, an embracing heart who has long ached for the moment of return when sadness becomes ecstasy to be shared in exultation with everyone near. The beloved has come home where he can touch and bless and let him know how precious he is … and always will be.

The father is the image of who God is … and of what we are to become. Becoming like the father, a great soul, is the final stage of spiritual growth. It takes a lifetime of love and longing, giving and receiving, enduring pain and disappointment … and believing that love never ends and is all that truly matters.

Pr. David L. Miller


Friday, April 05, 2019

Coming home


But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father … (Luke 15:17-18a)

Coming home

It is to myself that you call me, dear Friend. And I return, home.

It is not a place, although this place of quiet is especially blessed to me, and I pray it will always be: a desk littered with papers, books partially read, notes for articles yet to be written, a red candle (of course), and the chant of gentle voices across the room.

This is the place of retreat where I come to find you … or shall I say where you find me … and take me home?

Love … is my home, which is to say you, my Lord, for what are you if not this Love that aches in me until I come here to be with you, alone?

You call me to come back to myself, to release all pretension, all effort, all striving and know one thing … this Love, you, who dwell within.

Life is a prodigal journey where we get lost. We lose ourselves, wasting ourselves, our years and talents, expending vast amounts of energy trying (much too hard) to be something other than what we are, something we imagine others require or demand or expect of us.

Being what we are not, we live far from the center of our souls, far from the deep, inner connection with the mystery of our own identity and the mystery of your indwelling. These two are one and the same. For what are we if not expressions of you who are Love, each so unique and precious?

To find love within is to find you. To feel the ache of love and the ache for love is to know you. To discover something that gives joy and frees you to give a piece of your heart back to this world … this is what it means to come to yourself, to remember and feel who you truly are and know: Love, this Holy Mystery living through the particular shape of your life.

Find what fills your heart and frees you to touch the world with grace. Let go of the delusion that you need to do or be anything else. You will know yourself … and the Love who lives in you … in the very same moment.

Love will take you home.

Pr. David L. Miller