- My dream is to move to Mexico one day and teach ESL at a beautiful and peaceful city.
- I want to be surrounded by music and art everyday. I want to have the freedom to travel, explore and meet new people.
- Teach ESL in the morning, go to the University in the afternoon to take Literature + Writing courses. Tacos and beer at night and have all sorts of fun and interesting conversations.
- Weekends will be dedicated to supporting missionary work in indigenous villages. Make meaningful connections, take pictures, collect stories and eat delicious food.
- I want to read and write to my heart's content in the Zocalo.
- I also want to join a local orchestra and play beautiful music for people's and my personal delight.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Visionboard
Friday, July 3, 2015
Mysterium Tremendum
"According to Rudolph Otto, the reason is mysterium tremendum, that sense of tremendous mystery that surrounds our every thought of God, our every prayer to him. Beyond faith, trust, love, peace and joy, we sense an element of bewildering strength - a strength so great that it would be humanly impossible for us to create, invent or manufacture such experience. For one reason it may come sweeping like a gentle but relentless tide, saturating the mind and heart in a self-forgetting spirit of profound worship.
At other times, the force of mysterium tremendum may erupt like a volcano, surging from the depths of the soul in spasms and convulsions. It may lead to intoxicated frenzy such as that experienced by the sixteenth-century mystic Philip Neri, who would press his hands with all his might against the walls to forestall spiritual inebriation, levitation, or ecstasy. At still other times, the force of mysterium tremendum may become the hushed trembling and speechless humility of C.S Lewis, who was "surprised by joy." Whatever the nature of the experience, we stand in the presence of mystery inexpressible, above all creatures and beyond all telling.
It is the decisive inbreak of God into our personal history, the transforming moment when tenderness is no longer congruent with our perception of reality; the felt intimacy of a bygone faith is inappropriate to the present parameters of spiritual experience; "Abba," "beloved Father," "brother Jesus," and "gentle Spirit" have become dry words, vacant images that resonate no more in the inner sanctum of our heart. Those words and images have served their purpose as anthropomorphic pointers to the reality of Too-Much-Love that lies beyond, and tenderness is redefined as mercy.
When that moment of truth arrives we no longer have any resources to resist the imperious summons of mystery, no credentials of independence to flash. The moment of truth has arrived."
-----Brennan Manning
The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens when God's Fierce Mercy Transforms our Lives
At other times, the force of mysterium tremendum may erupt like a volcano, surging from the depths of the soul in spasms and convulsions. It may lead to intoxicated frenzy such as that experienced by the sixteenth-century mystic Philip Neri, who would press his hands with all his might against the walls to forestall spiritual inebriation, levitation, or ecstasy. At still other times, the force of mysterium tremendum may become the hushed trembling and speechless humility of C.S Lewis, who was "surprised by joy." Whatever the nature of the experience, we stand in the presence of mystery inexpressible, above all creatures and beyond all telling.
It is the decisive inbreak of God into our personal history, the transforming moment when tenderness is no longer congruent with our perception of reality; the felt intimacy of a bygone faith is inappropriate to the present parameters of spiritual experience; "Abba," "beloved Father," "brother Jesus," and "gentle Spirit" have become dry words, vacant images that resonate no more in the inner sanctum of our heart. Those words and images have served their purpose as anthropomorphic pointers to the reality of Too-Much-Love that lies beyond, and tenderness is redefined as mercy.
When that moment of truth arrives we no longer have any resources to resist the imperious summons of mystery, no credentials of independence to flash. The moment of truth has arrived."
-----Brennan Manning
The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens when God's Fierce Mercy Transforms our Lives