All of us are enabled to love more and more inclusively as we become more deeply imbued with the realization that God is immanent, abiding Love, and that God indeed loves us and has never stopped loving us.
By means of this collection of reflections and “prayer-ways,” the pray-er may receive help to grow into an ever-deepening awareness of being loved, of being lovable, of finding others lovable, and of falling head over heels in love with God and God’s universe. The suggested exercises are devised to help enrich our love of God, and our love of all that the Loving-Source-of-All has fashioned. That “all” includes the whole of Creation: the natural world in its splendor, the wonderful self that each of us is in God’s eyes, and the gifted being that is in each member of the human race, as God sees each person and lovingly moves each one of us toward the perfection that God envisions!
Primarily, this book is meant not to theologize, but to lead us deeper into love. After the Introduction, Part 1 supplies a theological, scriptural, and reflective base for the book. In this part, there will be several sections that provide start-up prayer exercises. In Part 2, the prayer experiences will affirm the essential goodness of God. To proceed with this affirmation we will need the faith-eyes of Jesus, and so we will begin with a prayer simply asking Jesus to give us his vision. In Part 3, our prayer activities will affirm the goodness of all God has created. We will proclaim with the psalmist, whose words have been uttered daily down the centuries by faith-filled people, that everything God makes is good.
In Part 4, we will affirm the goodness of “my very own self.” Several of these prayer experiences are geared to enhance the pray-er’s awareness of being special, of being the beloved of God, of being purposely created by a birthing and nurturing God, of being uniquely gifted with talents by a munificent God, of being helped out of darkness by a redeeming God, of being believed in by a trusting God, and of being called to an eternity of joy by a Living God. These prayer techniques aim at counteracting the constant bombardment of negative, derogatory statements that have torn at the prayer self-image over a lifetime of being not-good-enough. If we can regain that balance of who we are as cherished children of a loving, embracing, nurturing, birthing, God—who has delightedly brought us into an existence which promises to be not temporary, but eternal and joyful—then and only then can we reach out, adequately, in love to other human beings.
That is what Jesus says to the scholar in Mark 12:31: “The second [commandment] is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself!’” Thus we get to Part 5, which concentrates on affirming the goodness of humankind. Here we will become particular in announcing our choice to believe that this person, whom we name (friend or less than friend), is, in God’s eyes, lovable and immensely loved. And, as a corollary, we are firm in the conviction that we love (or choose to love) them as well.
Finally, Part 6 will provide questions for reflection and discussion that will further deepen our affirmative and loving outlook.
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