Living Deeply

Once or Twice-Born?(Elizabeth Lesser)

The philosopher William James wrote that there are two kinds of people in this world—the Once-Born and the Twice-Born. Once-Born people do not stray from the familiar territory of who they think they are and what they think is expected of them. If fate pushes them to the edge of Dante’s famous dark woods—where the straight way is lost—they turn back. They don’t want to learn something new from life’s darker lessons. They stay with what seems safe, and what is acceptable to their family and society. They stick to what they already know but don’t necessarily want. Once-Born people may go through life and never even know what lies beyond the woods—or that there are woods at all. Perhaps a Once-Born person awakens one morning and feels the beckoning finger of fate loosening disturbing questions: “Is this all there is to life? Will I always feel the same? Do I not have some purpose to fulfill, some greater kindness to give, some inner freedom to taste?” And then he gets out of bed and dresses for work, and he doesn’t attend to the soul’s questions. The next morning, and all the next mornings, he lives as if the soul was a figment of a flighty imagination. This inattention makes him confused, or numb, or sad, or angry. A Twice-Born person pays attention when the soul pokes its head through the clouds of a half-lived life. Whether through choice or calamity, the Twice-Born person goes into the woods, loses the straight way, makes mistakes, suffers loss, and confronts that which needs to change within himself in order to live a more genuine and radiant life.

Anne Rice has gone from Goth to God (New York Newsday)

Link: Anne Rice has gone from Goth to God (New York Newsday).

It was 1998, and Anne Rice thought she was going to die. The writer, best known for the gothic vampire novel "Interview with the Vampire" and its many sequels, had recently found her way back to the Roman Catholic Church after decades of estrangement. She had even managed to convince her husband, Stan, a poet and staunch atheist, to get remarried in the church.

How Long Must I Fall and Rise Up? (Ignatius Byranchaninov)

A brother once sorrowfully asked Sisoes the Great: "Father, what can I do? I have fallen into sin." The Staretz answered him: "Rise again." The brother said: "I rose up and fell." The Staretz answered: "Rise again." The brother answered: "How often must I fall and rise up?" The Staretz said: "Until your death."

Go To God To Be Transformed and Changed (Anthony Bloom)

We see that we cannot partake deeply of the life of God unless we change profoundly.  It is therefore essential that we should go to God in order that he should transform and change us, and that is why, to begin with, we should ask for conversion.  Conversion in Latin means a turn, a change in the direction of things.  The Greek work metanoia means a change of mind.

Conversion means that instead of spending our lives in looking in all directions, we should follow one direction only.  It is a turning away from a great many things which we value solely because they were pleasant of expedient for us.  The first impact of conversion is to modify our sense of values:  God being at the center of all, everything acquires a new position and a new depth.  All that is God’s, all that belongs to him, is positive and real.  Everything that is outside him has no value or meaning.

But it is not a change of mind alone that we can call conversion.  We can change our minds and go no farther; what must follow is an act of will and unless our will comes into motion and is redirected Godwards, there is no conversion; at most there is only an incipient, still dormant, and inactive change in us. 

No Tears Are Wasted (Frank Peretti)

God does not waste an ounce of our pain or a drop of our tears; suffering doesn't come our way for no reason, and He seems especially efficient at using what we endure to mold our character. If we are malleable, He takes our bumps and bruises and shapes them into something beautiful.

True Conversion (Jim Wallis)

Conversion is a fundamental decision to return to God and God's ways. It marks nothing less the ending of the old and the emergence of the new. When anyone is united to Christ, there is a new world; the old has gone, and the new order has begun. This decision to be reconciled is not a once finished event. It is both a moment and a process of transformation.

Becoming a Christian (Jean Vanier)

The whole of the mystery of Christ is to change us so that we become the face of Jesus, we become the hands of Jesus, that we become the heart of Jesus, that our body becomes the body of Christ, that our words become the words of Christ.