Practicing Lovefulness (# 1831)

1.Julian says:

“We may not be blissfully saved until we are truly in peace and in love, for that is our salvation”

and:

“But we are not blissfully safe in possessing our endless joy until we are wholly in peace and in love–that is to say, fully gratified with God and all his work and with all his good judgments, and loving and peaceable with ourselves and with our fellow Christians*, and with all that God loves, as love pleases. And this is God’s goodness carried out in us.”

both on page 223. *Julian’s world was limited to Christians, so I feel safe to substitute “human beings”

2.Something interesting happened last night while sleeping or pretending I was sleeping. When my devil mind would begin obsessing on worries and building up stress, I found I could simply “pray” the word “love” and connect to this inner place of light and compassion. The love would well up inside me and give me a great sense of peace and bliss. I used the word “pray” instead of “mediate” or “cultivate” because of the Cloud of Unknowing author who recommended praying using one word like “God” or “Love”.

3.I am intrigued and delighted with how quickly I have reached this state of wonder; I wonder if it is connected to the Play of Being practice of meditating for 9 seconds every 15 minutes (give or take 24 hours or so). At PaB I think the emphasis was to look, see and explore; at least it was for me. Maybe if I had meditated on love, it would have been different.

4.On my way to the computer this morning, I recalled the editor of Julian of Norwich’s Revelations note that a passage was the first hint of Julian’s equation of God’s love as mother’s love and God as our mother. Some Buddhists believe that all sentient beings have been our mother in one our previous lifetimes and that we should treat all beings as our mother. If we think of God as our mother, and that all beings have God within them, is that the same thing?

ssages from p.223