Encountering Holiness
Wednesday Self-Reflection
Seeking Deeper Meaning in Life?
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Today, I invite you to spend some time in silent consideration. Imagine me sitting with you and asking the following questions. Allow the time to turn into an internal conversation with me. I think this works best as a journaling exercise.
While you were growing up, what did “holiness” mean to you? What imagery evoked it? How did the thought make you feel?
How has your understanding of “holiness” changed over time? What does it mean to you today? If you had to describe it in another word, what word would you use for “holiness”?
Where do you sense the “holy” most? When you experience “holiness”, how does it make you feel? Why do you think it makes you feel that way?
Peace, Bo
The Evolving Christian Faith Network
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This sent me looking for an old favorite poem, which changed my answer about Holiness from ‘up there’ to ‘down deep in everything’:
God’s Grandeur
Gerard Manley Hopkins
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
I try to find holiness wherever I go & usually find it in the most unexpected places. Often I'm surprised daily & it is often found within the characteristics mentioned of which transcends all else