God Is Good

If you believe in Love, you believe in God.

Asking God for mercy and forgiveness is like asking the sun for light and heat, since these belong to the incorruptible nature of divinity itself; they are self-evident attributes of it; they proclaim and describe it; they speak on it's behalf, and even prove it's existence by their own.

Religious feeling is only a higher octave of natural feeling. Collectively or singlehandedly, the mere ideas of goodness, kindness, mercy, charity, compassion, forgiveness, and love are enough to make a true believer out of one who is highly sensible of them, -- provided only that one has not been too heavily contaminated by malformed notions of God, which may either inhibit or prohibit the transmission of an original revelation; regardless of how pure and simple that revelation may be.

In the abstract, the virtues are full of potential, they are perfect. Yet, when considered under the mantle of a divine-human being who personifies (because he exemplifies) them, how much more likely are they to lift up mortal minds, which almost require some manner of form upon which to perch; like fledgling angels incapable of prolonged flight? It may be that, as we progress in spiritual understanding, the forms we attach our minds to will become, not only nobler, but finer in another sense; more delicately articulated; more richly detailed; and, yet, somehow more vague; nuanced, like a thousand whispered suggestions conveying one ineffable, thundering insight. We must regard those sublime forms which most compel us, in order that we might ultimately be compelled to regard the sublimity in all forms, and, finally, in formlessness.

If something is intensely beautiful, it beautifies all that surrounds it. Nothing is so prosaic that it may not appear in a stranger, more poetical light, when placed beside an article of overwhelming sublimity. The insects are ennobled by the flowers. The rags which cover a beautiful peasant girl partake somehow of her charms, and we may even come to imagine that they suit her, in an odd way which no finery ever could. Might it not be that evil, too, somehow does justice to the benevolence of God? We may try to imagine Christ seated upon an immaculate throne, attended by the most gorgeous angels, yet, it seems that he is never so much "at home" as when he is on earth, condescending before some dangerous or leprous wretch. Not by coincidence do carpenters make both crosses and frames. Good is the portrait, and evil what frames it.

In reality, God is always present, always condescending to appear beneath the peculiar-yet-fitting mantle of some new form. Mostly, we don't see Him. Our prayers float up, but the Lord has already come down, and granted us an intimate audience with Himself. Our part, then, is not to speak, but to place ourselves in this divine presence; at the foot of the beloved one. 

We must be humble and we must listen. (Now, these two really are one, for we must be humble enough to listen, and listening itself is what humbles us, so, the more humble we become, the more deeply we listen, and the more deeply we listen, the more humble we become.)

Lovers are silent in the presence of what they love.

What can we demand which our beloved has not already granted us; the very qualities she exudes, -- being herself no more nor less than the essence of their substance, -- which alone have endeared her to us? Though beggars in the eyes of the world, we should enjoy the most immeasurable riches before our beloved.

To pray is to count one's blessings, not to ask for them.

Such solicitude is mere ingratitude. Not love, but avarice. Tell me, what further blessing can we ask of God which God, in His foreknowing wisdom, has not already chosen, once and for all, to decree?

Grace is co-eternal with God, beyond compromise,
for grace is only from God, and God is always gracious.

How can you ask the Lord for ought?
It only proves you know Him not.

Merely receive Him, and you shall have it,
for no grace is greater than His presence,
and He would give you no less than Himself.

God has made blessedness an attribute of His nature, as light is of the sun.

Though clouds of ignorance may cast shadows of guilt over the souls of men,
the sun does not go black, nor does the Lord condemn.