The Alchemy of the Heart, Part Three

The Magnificat! The Beatitudes! Together, they are the true revelation of the glory of us human beings. They are not commandments for semi-barbarians: they are, again, a revelation of how the Divine Beloved sees us! Our possibilities are virtually limitless, so much so, that a human being can justly claim to be a paradise possibilitarian!

​Mother Mary raged in the Magnificat precisely because she was, day-by-day, increasingly aware of the divinity that was growing in her: indeed, growing toward us! Toward, here is the operative word: the Cosmic Consciousness, while already in-filling all of being and matter, was nevertheless hungry for a still deeper connection: consciousness to consciousness, as it were... And! The Beatitudes assumes (and rightly so) that we are fully capable of the manifestation that matters: this manifestation isn't the hope for a new spouse, car, or island home. Rather, it is the intrinsic manifestation of our fulfilled possibilities...

​The Eastern Church has taught a core, an essential, truth long forgotten and buried by the churches of the West: theosis... as Fr. George Maloney, S.J. put it in his masterwork The Breath of the Mystic, "an ever-increasing consciousness of being assimilated into the ocean of God's allness." The Beatitudes are the very deliberate path of living fully alive which opens our hearts and opens our hands to the conscious flow of loving: this is the great hunger of the Divine Beloved: to see Itself fully reflected in and through us in a brand new symbiotic relationship... St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote: Our beatitude consists in the participation of divine happiness"...

​In mystery, Yeshua bar Alaha is the New Creation: the Living Beatitude... We put on Christ by our identification with the Beatitudes: we put on the mind of Christ by our practice of the Beatitudes: we join in the Marian revolution by working the Beatitudes... The practice of the Beatitudes (as an expression of a living faith, a regenerative economics, and a liberation politics) moves us, very deliberately, into divinization: the radical paradise of the possibilitarian...

Grace is not some sort of spiritual gravy. Rather, it is the conscious encounter with the Liberation promised by the Mother and the Son: a new Earth through this seed of deification... Athanasius and Iranaeus before him stated that the Divine became human in order that the human might become Divine. I don't know about you, but holy moly! This, this, takes religion to an entirely different level! St. Maximus the Confessor wrote: God and those who are worthy of God have one and the same energy. And further, we remain creatures, while becoming God by grace... This is definitely not spiritual gravy!

The Beatitudes, following after Mother Mary's Magnificat, is the proclamation that neither matter nor life are "evil". This Earth, indeed, this entire Universe, is the touchstone for contact with the Beloved: this is why we cultivate the practices of transformation outlined in the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes profer a movement, radical in nature, from our birth, through our life, through our steady transformation of consciousness, into the boo! of the beatific vision... The joy of the Magnificat and Beatitudes both is the reintegration of the Divine with the Earth and all of her peoples: deliberately and consciously... Contemplation and Action, open minds, hearts, and hands, is the living work of the Beatitudes... which is the building of the Beloved Community (Martin Luther King, Jr.) and our entrance into the Communion of Love (Welcome Home!)...

​Finally, a few words about practice... first, in regards to developing a contemplative practice: develop a rhythm of prayer, devotional chanting of the Divine Name, and meditative remembrance of the Name, linked with the easy and natural flow of the breath, have been proven to be effective and very useful for the student mystic. Entering a "thin place", a mountain, a forest, a lakeside, an ocean side, a temple dedicated to the adoration of the Divine, regularly, is very advantageous... Becoming a lover of the Divine Beloved, through and within every practice, is of fundamental value: read the Song of Songs as a sign, symbol, and sample of the intense yearning of the Divine for you and for your own growing hunger for the Divine... the Song of Songs is a wonderful handbook of the mystical life (which will also serve you well in your earth / community building!)...

Adore and Surrender: Organize and Resist: Contemplate and Dialogue with fellow Travelers: Build Community: If male, stand behind women: If female, get ready to lead... A new world is ready to be born: there is no particularly important reason that you and you and you can't become the Moms and the Pops of this birthing...