Category: God and guides

From a fear of God to a Divine connection

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Growing up Catholic, I was taught about fearing God, often at the expense of teachings about a loving God.  From my theological studies, I know that the original Hebrew words, that were translated into fear, could also mean awe, reverence, and respect. The sad result of translating them as fear for me and so many others is that God and even Jesus became unreachable because our feelings of fear turned into feelings of unworthiness and separateness.

From my counseling studies, and from personal experience, I know that a fearful person closes down to protect him or herself from harm. When felt in relation to the divine, in effect, that person is protecting themself from God and thus limiting their ability to feel love and support.

Various spiritual teachers have talked about how fear can hinder our connection to the divine. In his book, Angels Whisper in My Ear, Kyle Gray writes about people pleading for help from angels but feeling like they are hitting a wall. I suspect that often desperation and fear underly that. And believe me, I know that from personal experience too. Now, you never want to imply someone’s feelings are wrong, because they aren’t. They just are. However, if you let the fear or desperation be in control, you are more limited because you are closed down. Kyle suggests that rather than pleading for help with angels, expect help from them, because that in fact is their role. I love that idea because it sort of turns things around – both recognizing your feelings but also acknowledging that you are more than your feelings.  This in turn, opens you up for a deeper connection with the divine, including feeling their support.

Recently, I became aware that I still have some walls up with the divine, even though I chat with God, guides, and angels, every day. I likely built those walls in response to childhood fears. While the walls served me as a child, as an adult they only limit my connection with the divine and my use of my spiritual gifts. I’m still puzzling through the nature of those walls with my divine teachers. But without a doubt, I know that as these walls start to crumble, my connection will deepen exponentially.

My wish and prayer for all of you who were taught to fear God is that you can release that limiting belief, and truly feel your innate connection with the divine and their support, enabling your gifts to more fully emerge.

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You don’t have to do everything

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As a workaholic and perfectionist in recovery, I developed a habit of pushing myself hard to do everything. After years of therapy and twelve-step work, I learned mostly to let go of that. When it comes to living my calling as a healer of the spirit, I must admit that it still creeps in. For example, I may sign up for a workshop even though it wouldn’t work well with my schedule, because I falsely believed I wasn’t doing enough.

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Repeatedly, in talking to my guides and God, I’ve been reminded to trust them. Recently though, I realized that for the most part my trust was somewhat limited to acknowledging their support and love. It didn’t include understanding that I don’t have to do this calling alone in terms of actions. While I must take actions, and do, like attend workshops, write blogs, and so on, I must also believe that my guides and God are taking actions on my behalf. In other words, it’s not 100% on my shoulders.

Have you been in a similar situation, believing that God or your guides support you, but think that it all rests on you? As part of our calling, we are asked to let go and allow them to do too.

So, what might they do? While they certainly can’t submit applications or a resume, if you are looking for a new job, they can bring your attention to opportunities or people that might make your work easier. For example, a friend might mention work that you hadn’t thought about or note a skill you have that is marketable. For me, as I continue living and learning as a healer of the spirit, it might be directing a spiritual teacher my way or a potential client.

The bottom line is that I and you are part of a team with God and our guides. So, we don’t have to do everything by ourselves.

Peace and blessings to everyone.

The Story Tells It All

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This is a different kind of post for me. Two nights ago, in a dream, a group of us had to tell the story of the creation of earth and life by decorating hard hats, attaching them to the ceiling of a room, and presenting them to a panel of sages. When it was my turn to present, I believed that my hats were “lame” in comparison to the others. I thought that I had to compensate by making up a story. My first hat depicted the creation of mountains and my second the emergence of plants, animals and humans. As I was sharing the story, though, I felt like I was channeling Mother Earth and the divine, which was confirmed when I heard the message that “the story tells it all.”

I never presented my third and fourth hard hats, nor do I recall what they looked like. But, as I was coming awake, I had the feeling of great potential but also uncertainty, and that the earth and life were at a turning point.  One direction would tap into great potential and result in wonders. The other would lead to collapse and devastation. Soon after I realized that the odd use of hard hats in my dream made a kind of poetic sense as they are worn by construction workers who build up or tear down.

I felt like Mother Earth was sending a message to me and all of us, In fact, Mother Earth gave me a precursor of this through Michael Jackson’s Earth Song that I stumbled upon a couple weeks ago while watching “The Voice” auditions. With the evidence of global warming so apparent all over the world, given the changing weather, droughts, hurricanes, and so on, we’re at a turning point to determine how our future evolves.

As a healer of the spirit, my calling must include healing the earth through my actions and my attitudes. So I am being challenged to determine what my contribution to the story will be to ensure that our future is wondrous.  What will your contribution be?

Intuition – touching the divine (3/28/21)

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Towards the end of my meditation this morning, I realized that I wanted to chat with God. In college, I started having daily chats with God and found them very important in getting to know God and myself. For the last couple years, though, I’ve been chatting more with my spirit guides. Simply put, I missed my God chats.

So, after greeting God this morning, I told God that I just wanted to check in. I didn’t have a particular topic to talk about though. However, my casual chat quickly morphed into talking about the confusing messages that God and my guides sent me recently in my dreams. Because aspects of them repeated, I knew they were important but I couldn’t figure them out. I had previously told my guides that if they wanted me to get something, they needed to be clearer. I must also admit that I was worried that I was letting them down.

What I came to understand from God this morning was that these dreams are part of their training of my intuition. While my intuition is developed, it still needs refining and deepening, because I often default to my mind to figure things out. So God was inviting me to let my mind rest and just be open to learning.

As our conversation progressed, I came to understand that through my intuition I am touching the divine. Touching the divine! What a powerful and rich idea. That truly blows my mind, which ironically reflects God invitation. By listening to my intuition, I am connecting to my divine self, my spirit guides, God, and all others in that divine realm. And by living through my intuition, I am truly being with them.  

At the end of the chat, I felt greater attuned to the divine, more grounded, more full and just plain grateful.

Vatican’s decision about gay unions (3/16/21)

Joe1 Comment

Yesterday, the Vatican, or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, pronounced that priests cannot bless gay unions because they are considered a sin, as they are not objectively ordered or words to that effect.

As a gay man and a former Catholic priest, I am saddened, a little angry, but not surprised. Growing up Catholic, I was taught that being gay was a sin and intrinsically disordered. As I wrote in my story, pronouncements like that contributed to my low self-esteem, even before I came out. As a priest, it was hard to be part of a church that would not celebrate and honor love between two people of the same sex, whereas time and again, I would see opposite gender couples taking marriage casually.

What further saddens me is that Pope Francis, a pope who has been loving and accepting of gay people, approved of the statement. Again, I say I am not surprised. A number of church teachings, along with theological writings and scriptural interpretation, have led him and others in leadership positions to a narrow view of God, and humanity in relationship to God.

As a gay man, married to a wonderful husband, not only do I not believe that I or my marriage are a sin, I believe they are richly blessed. In fact, having been married for more than two decades now, my relationship with my husband has helped make me a better person. If I had been married while I was a priest, the ministry I did with couples especially would have been so much more rich and real.

To LGBTQ people who choose to remain Catholic, I send you my love and support. Know that you/we are all blessed people, and blessed by God, as we chose to be born into our current lives knowing that we might face discrimination, even from religious leaders who are called to be vehicles of love and acceptance.

Handling a bad day (2/20/21)

Joe2 Comments

As a person on a spiritual path, connected with God or your guides, have you ever had a bad day, and felt disappointed and discouraged?

I certainly have. At times I’ve even wanted to climb back into bed and pull the covers over my head. For me, the hardest days are those when I feel like I’m failing in my calling. I look to others who seem to be clearly living out their spiritual calling, and find myself lacking. The key for me is to first remind myself that even though I know who I am, I may still have these days simply because I’m human.

So, when I turn to my guides and God, I don’t look to them to take my feelings away (most times) but to honor, make space for them, and be open to understanding what they mean. Admittedly, during these times, I don’t always feel connected to my guides. But I do try recall those times when I did feel connected and when they did provide guidance and support. That can give me a little hope, and help me look for their help in other ways, through friends, spiritual readings, music, and other media.

Equally important is that I remind myself to do the best I can. For years, as a perfectionist and workaholic in recovery, I pushed myself and judged myself harshly. After having therapy and spiritual direction, I’m gentler with myself. So, on a bad day I try to adjust my plans, find ways to take care of myself, and limit the impact of my mood on others.

Time and again, my guides have reminded me to trust the unknown, and believe that the answers will come. It’s still not always easy but it does take the edge off usually.