Villa La Paz Newsletter September 2018
Namaste: An ancient Sanskrit greeting. Translated roughly it means “I bow to the God within you,” or “The Spirit within me salutes the Spirit in you,” knowing that we are all made from the One Divine Consciousness. The gesture Namaste represents the belief that there is a Divine spark within each of us located in the heart.
Something infinite, immortal, mysterious, loving, and alive abides in me and it is from this light that I bow toward that which is infinite, immortal, mysterious, loving, and alive in you. What if this was our setpoint, our baseline, the fundamental assumption we had about every single person we encountered? Mystics from every tradition testify to the aliveness and sentience of all things, that the natural world is lit up with the flame of Divinity. This does and must include us.
Father Richard Rohr, OFM
Our supreme purpose is not to make a fortune, nor to pursue pleasure, nor to write our name on history, but to discover this spark of the Divine that is in our hearts.
Eknath Easwaran
How to understand, how to accept that each of us bears God in our hearts, that the Triune God Who created us cannot bear to be apart from us, cannot countenance separation from His creation. An astounding proof of His unconditional love and humility. His indwelling in us is not to seek power or control but simply to share His infinite goodness with us and bring us to the realization that He waits for us and wants us to participate in the Trinitarian dance of total submission and love. An astonishing, even frightening thought which enjoins us to see Him and love Him in everyone: in our family, in the homeless, in the addicted, in the nettlesome, in our enemies and especially in the poor with whom He so closely identifies. Possible, yes, but improbable since we choose to separate ourselves from persons who do not share our religious beliefs, whose skin color differs from ours, who do not Thank you for supporting the children of Villa la Paz. Please make your tax deductible donation payable to: Villa la Paz Foundation • PO Box 76507 • St. Petersburg, FL 33734 Please visit us on our website www.villalapazfoundation.org Page 2 Page 3 speak our language, who are not of the same gender. The Divine Indwelling imparts a unity to all of creation since all of creation is indwelled by its Creator, but our false self, our ego or who we presume ourselves to be, elevates us above the rest of creation and leads us to believe that we are superior to others in the created order. How do we tear down the walls that separate us? We do it by humbly realizing that all that we are and all that we have is pure gift granted to us gratuitously by a loving Father and the gifts are to be used in stewardship to help others on their journey to their true home. Our sins and vices are our only true possessions. All else come from the heart of God. This means that everyone has received existence and gifts from one Source, no matter their religious beliefs, skin color, language, gender, or country of origin. This imparts an undeniable unity to creation since it reinforces the concept that we are all brothers and sisters of a Father who loves us with an unconditional, infinite love and gifts us with all that is necessary to eventually rest in His embrace.
Nowhere is the divine spark more obvious than in the children of this world. Their incandescent eyes, trusting unconditional love and vulnerability mirrors the God Who became a little child when He entered time and space to share our human existence with it joys and sorrows. Children come into the world free of prejudices, free of biases, free from the inclination to judge and denigrate. What they become depends on us. If we are to promote unity and love among men we must teach our children to see the Divine in all men, indeed in all of creation.
Dear God of light and peace, thank you for the gift of our children. Help us to nurture them in Your ways, to see You in all of creation. Help us to teach them that all who are different with regards to religion, race, language, country of origin, and gender are their brothers and sisters and are to be cherished as such. Grant them the grace to be a beacon of Your unifying love in the world. We ask this through Christ, Our Lord, Amen.
We thank you for supporting our children. We love you and wish you God’s peace.