Larry's Inklings Larry

The spiritual quest is an awakening. Most of the people you meet on the street, regardless of their status or achievements are asleep. But the Christian spiritual life is about being awake –– about having a "dawn" within us. It is about being conscious of the numinous, aware and attentive to the mysterious presence of God –– to the poetic, or divine life. This series of podcasts, concludes with this 52nd episode. I may come back later to answer some frequently as...

This episode continues to explore Christian spirituality as a spirituality in which community is essential, and faces squarely the reality that there are times when the church is neither beloved nor community ––times in which the institutions church has, in the name of Christ, perpetuated evil. How are those consecrated to the Christ, the Sacred Page, and the Beloved Community to respond?

Looks at the church, when it is truly the church, as community –– The Beloved Community of Christ. Did Jesus intend to create a church? What about the terrible things done by the church as established authority? Can I just be a Christian at large? Was Thomas Merton, the modern Christian mystics correct in saying the church is the antidote to the sort of individualism that leads to human despair?

Saint Paul speaks frequently of being led by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, living in the Spirit. But what does Spirit walking mean when considered as a mark of Christ –– the stigmata of Christ?

This episode, number 48 of "The Quest / Claiming the Marks of Christ, looks at the marks of wisdom, listening, and knowledge of God's will (God's dream for humanity) as identifying marks of walking the kairotic path –– the "redeeming of the time."

Continues to explore Christian spiritual transformation –– what it means to bear the marks, or stomata, of Christ –– particularly in light of Jesus's saying: "You shall know them by the fruit they bear." The meaning of Galatians the fifth chapter "(the works of the flesh" and "the fruit of the Spirit") as it related to the Way of transformation.