GEORGE'S GEMS

[Agnostic_Gabe]

Dumbfounded by the conclusion saint m has on GMD…

[anon12438761]

Me too.

[St_Michael]

Okay Paidion. I just ordered “The Gospel in George MacDonald: Selections from His Novels, Fairy Tales, and Spiritual Writings”. I’m looking into him. I see that he was Scottish. I’m Irish on my mother’s side. The “Browns” and the “Bryants”. Anyway, I see he also influenced G.K. Chesterton and J.R.R. Tolken. I read a sampling and it didn’t look all that bad. The book will be here tomorrow. Give me a little time and I’ll give you an update.

[St_Michael]

My favorite song from Celtic music:

[St_Michael]

Here’s union Paidion

“Love is one, and love is changeless.

For love loves unto purity. Love has ever in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds. Where loveliness is incomplete, and love cannot love its fill of loving, it spends itself to make more lovely, that it may love more; it strives for perfection, even that itself may be perfected–not in itself, but in the object. As it was love that first created humanity, so even human love, in proportion to its divinity, will go on creating the beautiful for its own outpouring. There is nothing eternal but that which loves and can be loved, and love is ever climbing towards the consummation when such shall be the universe, imperishable, divine.

Therefore all that is not beautiful in the beloved, all that comes between and is not of love’s kind, must be destroyed.

And our God is a consuming fire.”

― George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons: Series I, II, III

[St_Michael]

“I do not say we are called upon to dispute and defend the truth with logic and argument, but we are called upon to show by our lives that we stand on the side of truth. But when i say truth, I do not mean opinion. To treat opinion as if that were truth is grievously to wrong the truth. The soul that loves the truth and tries to be true will know when to speak and when to be silent.”

― George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons: Series I, II, III

[St_Michael]

“Jesus tells us we must leave the self altogether-yield it, deny it, refuse it, lose it. Thus only shall we save it… The self is given us that we may sacrifice it. It is ours in order that we, like Christ, may have something to offer- not that we should torment it, but that we should deny it; not that we should cross it, but that we should abandon it utterly.”

― George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons: Series I, II, III

[St_Michael]

Amazing truth:

The true question is forgotten: “Have I left all to follow Him?” The important thing is whether we are letting God have His own way with us, following where He leads, learning the lessons He gives us. ~~ George MacDonald

[St_Michael]

But yet there is another way. Go and do God’s will and you will know. That is the remedy to the gloomy doubts and the terrible depression of this age. And remember what so many forget, the Christian duty of joy. You say: It is not in my power to rejoice now." Well, I deny it. You have the power, if only you will exert the will. And don’t let slip the youthful dreams. Such things will help you against that false self which comes with the Tempting voice to despair. And don’t let gloomy pictures of results keep coming before you. “Tomorrow” has no existence till it actually comes. Let it take care of itself. ~~ George MacDonald in The Gospel in George MacDonald: Selections from His novels, fairy Tales, and Spiritual Writings, page 94

I like George MacDonald’s remedy here for deflating the ego or as he says getting out of the “false self”. “Tomorrow hasn’t arrived” he says. Indeed God hold’s the future in His hands and He’s a God of love. I have all the reason to have hope and not let the “youthful dreams slip”. This shouldn’t make one inactive though. MacDonald speaks here of doing God’s will and being of service. Getting out of yourself by doing the will of God helps when things are gloomy. And keeping away from sin and you won’t be shameful or depressed. Even exercise helps. I walk around an outdoor track where there is beautiful scenery of ponds, fountains, ducks. I try to go at sunset or sunrise so that the beauty helps cleanse my mind and thought. Stilling my thoughts while walking is like a meditation but an active meditation. Doing God’s will doesn’t have to be volunteering to help the homeless but it can. Simply working around the house doing yard work of helping someone at A.A. Hard work helps relieve depression as you get out of yourself. And don’t let the false self take control. As George MacDonald says in the same book quoted above on union:

To be right with God is to be right with the universe; one with the power, the love, the will of the mighty Father, the cherisher of joy, the lord of laughter, whose are all glories, all hopes, who loves everything, and hates nothing but selfishness, which he will not have in His kingdom. page 57

[St_Michael]

This is taken from the Novel by MacDonald “What’s Mine is Mine”. It’s about a woman named Christiana as she is falling in love with another man.

She was nearer God than she had ever been before. But she did not know this - might never in the world know it; she understood nothing of what was going on in her, only felt it go on; it was not love of God that was moving her. Yet she stood in her white dress like one risen from the grave, looking in sweet bliss on a new heaven and new earth, made new by the new opening of her eyes. To save man or woman, the next thing to the love of God is the love of man or woman; only let no man or woman mistake the love of love for love!

She started, grew white, stood up, grew red as a sunset - was it? - could it be? - Is this love? she said to herself, and for minutes she hardly moved.

It was love.

To save man or woman, the next thing to the love of God is the love of man or woman; only let no man or woman mistake the love of love for love!

Here MacDonald is describing love of God as being in love with love. God is love. And the closest thing to love of love is the love between a man and woman. We are not to mistake the love of love with the love between man and woman. It’s the same thing Rumi is talking about:

I Am In Love With Love

I am in love with love
love is in love with me
my body fell in love
with my soul
and my soul fell in love
with me
we take turns in loving
we take turns in being loved

Rumi

The existence of the universe itself is sheerest grace, the result of God’s infinite capacity to fall in love. Salvation is returning the favor - Bishop Robert Barron

[Paidion]

[Paidion]

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Doubts are the messengers of the Living One to the honest. They are the first knock at our door of things that are not yet, but have to be, understood. . . . Doubts must precede every deeper assurance; for uncertainties are what we first see when we look into a region hitherto unknown, unexplored, unannexed.

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[anon12438761]

That is a wonderful and wise quote.

Also: Beuchner:

If theres no room for doubt, theres no room for me.

• originally published in The Alphabet of Grace

[Paidion]

[size=130]We often think we believe what we are only presenting to our imaginations. The least thing can overthrow that kind of faith. — Donal Grant, Chapter One[/size]

[Paidion]

Donal with a smile, “An abiding city seems hardly necessary to pilgrims and strangers! I fell asleep once on the top of Glashgar: when I woke the sun was looking over the edge of the horizon. I rose and gazed about me as if I were but that moment created. If God had called me, I should hardly have been astonished.”

“Or frightened?” asked the minister.

“No, sir; why should a man fear the presence of his saviour?”

“You said God!” answered the minister.

“God is my saviour! Into his presence it is my desire to come.”

“Under the shelter of the atonement,” supplemented the minister.

“If you mean by that, sir,” cried Donal, “anything to come between my God and me, I’ll have none of it. I’ll have nothing hide me from him who made me. I would not hide a thought from him. The worse it is, the more he needs to see it.”

—Donal Grant

[Eaglesway]

And there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

[Paidion]

Donal Grant to Lady Arctura (who was raised up in the Church of Scotland to think that correct belief is everything, and especially the belief that Christ died for the elect to save them from God’s condemnation to hell of the non-elect):

“No other than the God exactly like Christ can be the true God. It is a doctrine of devils that Jesus died to save us from our father. There is no safety, no good, no gladness, no purity, but with the Father, His father, and our father, His God and our God.”

“But God hates sin and punishes it!”

“It would be terrible if He did not. All hatred of sin is love to the sinner. Do you think Jesus came to deliver us from the punishment of our sins? He would not have moved a step for that. The horrible thing is being bad, and all punishment is help to deliver us from that, nor will punishment cease till we have ceased to be bad.” — Donal Grant, Chapter XXXIII

[anon12438761]

Oh that is a JEWEL of a gem!

[Paidion]

[size=130]From GMD’s novel “Donal Grant”:

To have what we want is riches, but to be able to do without is power.

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[Paidion]

[size=130]From GMD’s novel “Donal Grant”:

We often think we believe what we are only presenting to our imaginations. The least thing can overthrow that kind of faith.

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