Food for the Soul | July 1st, 2020

7/1/2020

Dear Friends,

Do you every think about who you really are? Who your True Self is? Your True Self is what makes you, you. The true depth of yourself. It is the Holy Spirit poured into your heart. It is like the Risen Presence that comes and walks by your side while you are on the road to Emmaus. But over the course of our lives we tend to forget about this True Self and become fixated on the False Self, often expressed in greed, pretenses, and worldly success. Eventually we yearn again to find the True Self and the Oneness with God that comes with it. May you have a blessed week as you seek your True Self.

A PRAYER   -   A PRACTICE   -   A POEM

A PRAYER

 All things are born of you, O God.

We carry within us your light and your life.

In the mystery of matter

and deep in the cells of our souls

are your longings for oneness.

The oneness of the universe

vast and vibrating with the sound of its beginning.

The oneness of the earth

greening and teeming as a single body.

The oneness of the human soul

a sacred countenance in infinite form.

Grant us your longings for oneness, O God,

amidst life’s glorious multiplicities.

A PRACTICE

What follows is a very simple practice. It is a suggestion for meditation about what the true self is, what is real in this life, and what the path to achieve it is. I am giving you an excerpt of a children’s story you probably know very well. I suggest you read it once, twice, maybe even three times, and as you read it acknowledge the emotions it triggers in you. Enjoy the story and think about its possible meaning.

“’Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.

‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.

‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’

‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’

‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.’”

--Margery Williams Bianco, The Velveteen Rabbit

 A POEM

It is a wonderful day in a life

when one is finally able to stand

before the long, deep mirror of one’s own reflection

    and view oneself

with appreciation, acceptance, and forgiveness.

On that day

one breaks through the falsity of images and expectations

which have blinded one’s spirit.

One can only learn to see who one is

when one learns to view oneself

with the most intimate and forgiving

compassion.

--John O’Donohue