Faith and Trust If I tell you I have faith in the church it's because I trust that everyone in the CSC the [[What is Creation Spirituality|creation spirituality]] communities is doing their best to make the world a better place and I really truly believe that I wouldn't have joined if I wasn't sure that that was the case. I have faith in my husband. I know that he loves me. I know that we have been together for 19 years and I know that that faith has been returned over and over and over again. I trust him. I trust in God because in my darkest hours and in my greatest triumphs I have experienced the presence of the Divine. And sometimes that's really really hard. When my mother was in the hospital so many times with various ailments over the years it's not easy to just have faith to believe that everything is happening as it needs to happen, as it wants to happen, as it is happening. But I know that there is a good God. I know that there is a God who loves the universe and wants us all brought to him. I know because I have felt it. I have experienced it. I have seen it in my own life and you can too. Trust is so much harder than assent. I trust that Mary prays when I ask her to pray. I trust that when I partake of the Eucharist that I am partaking of the very body, blood, soul, and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. I trust these things not because I heard an idea and said OK that sounds interesting but because in my heart of hearts I have experienced the truth of it. I have sought the truth both logically and I know. I know. I know and you can too. It's a harder faith and that's why I think people prefer to have this idea that you just say OK well if that's what I have to Believe then OK. No it's not OK. You have to seek out. You know the apostle Paul said, Seek out the truth with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12)." And you do in those darkest hours when you're asking yourself is there a God? Is there anything out there? Do I have a soul? That's not easy. It's easy to just say well somebody told me, so okay. It's a lot harder to do the work yourself. The fall redemption path tells us to control our passions. Christian spirituality tells us to embrace ecstasy, to embrace eros, to celebrate passion itself. Now that doesn't mean that we go crazy. We have morals. We have ethics but passion- Read the Song of Songs, read the Song of Solomon whatever it's called in your Bible read it. It is a sheer expression of exuberance of two lovers finding each other and exploring each other's bodies. Find passion live passion find strength. The fall redemption school tells us that God is Father. While we agree that God is Father, God is also mother, God is child. God is in all of us wanting to be born. God is mother pregnant with all of us hoping that we will be born in the fullness of the Divine Light. That's a huge difference. In the fall redemption world we are told that suffering is the wages of sin. In [[What is Creation Spirituality|creation spirituality]] we believe that suffering is the birth pangs of the universe. Suffering is part of life. Suffering is what gives birth. Suffering happens. Suffering does not have a the ultimate divine purpose. Suffering is just.. suffering as a thing. Suffering is something that happens to us and we learn to live with it. We learn to let go. That may not be the answer that people want to hear. It's so much easier to tickle people's ears was saying if you say these magic words all of your suffering will go away, all your pain will go away, but it won't. Those words are a lie. Storms are terrible things but they renew the earth. Earthquakes are terrible things but they renew the earth. Volcanoes are terrible things but they renew the earth. Suffering is a terrible thing, but it renews the earth. We are in a universe that is trying to be born to its fullest potential and that entails a certain degree of pain. The universe like a mother in labor is groaning to bring about perfection And we groan with her. In the fall redemption tradition. It always begins with sin, the fall, the darkness, the Breaking, the badness the evil. In the creation spiritual tradition, we believe that it began with the [[Word of God]], the creative energy of God that gives life to all things. It makes things whole. We do not believe as they do that must be in control all the time we believe in [[5- Kenosis|letting go]]. We believe in ecstasy we believe in breakthrough. Sometimes you're not in control and you just have to accept that but you don't just give into it. You find the good and the holy and the strong way through it. Fall redemption is particularistic. It says that it is the only place that has truth. Jesus said he had other sheep that were not of this fold (John 10:16). We are universalist in this respect. We believe that Jesus is the Cosmic Christ. He is the one who holds the universe together. He makes it with his word. We believe in art as a form of spirituality. They believe in building up a church we believe in building out the kingdom of God, the Imperial realm of God, the perfect world of Godm the pure land of God. They believe that mysticism is the mortifying of the senses. We believe that it is letting go of our ideologies and letting God speak to us and through us. There are a lot of differences. I wanted to go through some of these because this school of thought that we are different from is one rooted in guilt and redemption who should feel guilty. Just this weekend I heard Ravi Zacharias talking about guilt and how guilt is the basic mindframe of the universe and he basically gave in to it and said that you should accept that you're guilty and just repent. That's not what we believe. We believe that you should give thanks, you should [[1- Prayer as an overflowing fountain|praise]]. Your entire life should be one of giving thanks to God for all that he is and all that he has done and all that he will ever be. They believe that God is out there. We believe that God is in all things and all things are in God. And that's a little bit of the difference between creation spirituality and the fall redemption mode. Now for the rest this week we're going to go into some of the core thoughts of [[What is Creation Spirituality|creation spirituality]] which is [[08- The Four Paths|the four paths]] of [[What is Creation Spirituality|creation spirituality]]. The four via. The [[01- Via Positiva]], [[The Way of Bliss]]; the [[Via Negativa]], the silent way; the [[Via Creativa]], the creative way; and [[Via Transformativa]], the way of transformation. This is the spiral dance that we practice. It is a spiral dance that informs everything that we do. And I invite you to come and dance with me. If you don't like the tune more power to you. That's your decision. But I think you might find something here that you've been looking for for a long time. I know I did about 15 years ago when I first discovered [[What is Creation Spirituality|creation spirituality]]. I found a home, a place where I belong. And I hope that you will too. If not I hope you at least enjoy the discussion. I can't wait to hear what you're thinking.