Session 9

Chapters 76-86

1. Ch. 76 - “When the sins of others come to mind, the soul that wants peace should flee from such thoughts as she would run from the pains of hell. She should seek within God for the remedy to help her resist this impulse to judge, for when we pay attention to the faults of others, a thick mist descends over the eyes of the soul, and for the time being we cannot see the beauty of the Divine.”

2. “The wisest thing any creature can do is to act in accordance with the will and guidance of the supreme friend. Christ.”

3. Though I may deserve the pain I am in because of my own wrongdoing, God is “All-Goodness and loves me tenderly.”

4. Remember Christ’s passion and bear your burdens with patience and humility.

5. Woe is a part of life, don’t feel guilty about it when suffering comes upon you.

6. “Let us rush into the arms of the Divine.”

7. Be imitators of Christ

8. Ch. 78 - Our sins are not shown to us by Jesus, but only by the light of his love. Like dust illuminated floating in a room by sunlight coming through the window.

9. It is his will that we have knowledge of 4 things:

1. He is our ground from whom we have our life and being

2. He protects us from our sins

3. He guards us and lets us know when we get off track

4. He waits patiently for us and desires only that we be “transformed and one-d to him in love, as he is already united to us.”

10. Ch. 79 - God does not want us to be overly anxious about our sins, just aware enough to change course and shift our attention to him.

11. Ch. 80 - Humanity is grounded by 3 things in this life:

1. Natural reason

2. The teachings of the Holy Church

3. Grace-giving action of the Holy Spirit

12. “All of our truest feelings of contrition and compassion are actually Christ within us.”

13. Ch. 81 - “The greatest penance of all is our natural yearning for God.”

14. Remember the parable in Chapter 51? “The Master sees the servant with compassion and not with blame.”

15. Ch. 83 - 3 attributes of God: 

1. Life - “wondrous familiarity”

2.  Love - “gentle courtesy”

3.   Light - “everlasting kindness”

16. “I saw that our faith is our light in the darkness of night, and that light is God, our endless day.”

17. Ch. 84 - “all shall be love in the end.”

18. We love what God loves because we love God. Thus when I am hard on or toward another I am being unkind to a creature whom God loves endlessly.

19. In the end we will see that all is and was and ever will be - well.

20. Ch. 86 - All the showings were given “so that we would understand love better.”

21. Fifteen years on, Julian longed to know the meaning of the Showings. It was revealed to her that love was the meaning. It was all for love.  “[The love in which God made us has no beginning. God’s love is our true source.]” Love is all.