In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, there are hymns, called Akathists,  which have refrains that begin with rejoice! Each line of the refrain offers something new to rejoice! about. Rejoice! redemption of the tears of Eve! Rejoice! height inaccessible to human thought! Rejoice! Depth indiscernible even for the eyes of angels!  and on and on, rejoice! How close to gratitude is rejoicing!

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Guiding Thought

Seek only to Love in Unity. Love is Pure in Oneness. Love All, including yourself, in Oneness, that you may Know gratitude as the result of Being Whole in Love.

Reflection

I began this morning, as I so often do, (working on) establishing a connection with the Divine. Today, it was the Divine Mother towards whom I was focusing my attention. I’ve been working on purity, depth, sincerity, authenticity: I want to approach the Divine with the right frame of mind and heart.

I tend to be very serious, believe it or not (really).  It’s like I just want to do things right. I want to be properly respectful, properly submissive, properly reverent in approaching the Divine. I never know if I’m doing it right, so I work really hard at it.

Do you know what it feels like to “work really hard at it”? Whatever that “it” is? Can you feel a time when you worked really hard at something, without knowing if you were doing the right thing to get the result you intended? It kind of feels like un-oiled gears, everything is just a little forced, a little slow and grinding, a lot of effort for little or no outcome.

That’s how I felt this morning. I was in that space of wanting to do it right, grinding gears, with SO much seriousness.

Then from out of nowhere, a line from the Akathist to the Holy Theotokos came to me: Rejoice! Thou Bride, unwedded!

I find it sometimes humorous how spirit chooses to communicate. Really? Rejoice! Thou Bride, unwedded! ?? What does that even mean?

But somehow, the words came with a burst of energy–the energy of Rejoice! The other words did not matter, Rejoice! was really what mattered.

All of the sudden in this energy of Rejoice! I felt a bridge to gratitude and peace, which then became a bridge to Love…Pure Love, in Oneness. It was like I was being told, “relax. just rejoice. appreciate. enjoy. just relax.” (I’ve been here before, by the way, but not for a long, long time.)

Gratitude is a bridge to Love. Rejoice is a bridge to gratitude. Love is a bridge to Oneness. Oneness is a bridge to Wholeness. Wholeness is a bridge to gratitude.

All roads lead to love, emanate from love, return to love. All roads intersect with every other road connected to love. All roads are infinite.

Rejoice! for thou treadest the path of love!

…very serious. very, very serious. 🙂