Peter Csermely's blog 2.0 - the Lord's Prayer

How can the real freedom be attained?

Csermely Péter — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 17:33:51 +0000

Thoughts about the benefits of good ties

1. Freedom as a goal of life. Consumer society casts an amazing wasteful millions of free choices on us every day. The ideologies of the past few decades have extended the right and possibility of free choice on almost all questions of life and death. Man’s freedom has got to be the largest ever for the 21st century. How much this freedom can be still grown? Is it beneficial for us that our freedom has become ’total’? Is the extreme freedom we enjoy today real or does it just look like it? (For further details, please read my essay here.)

2. Limits of free will. Why is freedom given to us without life experience harmful? What are the decisions of mankind, where it has no free will? What are the consequences that a significant part of our freedom is a freedom realized at the cost of limiting others' freedom? Man’s free will is a tameless creature out of control. Its first manifestation was the devouring of the forbidden fruit which was followed by the expulsion from Paradise. The punishment of God is exactly the same as the modern Daddy. When God punishes us, all He does is let the man’s own "free" will work. We cannot receive any bigger punishment ever than this... (For further details, please read my essay here.)

3. How can the real freedom be attained? Man cannot live freely because he turns his freedom against himself, his fellow human beings and the nature nurturing him. What is the solution? The solution is the third wish in the Lord's Prayer: "let Your will be done". God is the only one from whom we receive not slavery but such freedom in return of our freedom that cannot be imagined by the human mind, cannot be comprehended, either experienced. Having God’s freedom also means two more little bonuses. The first and most important bonus is God’s endless love that smooths all the wrinkles that our own wasted lives have drawn onto us. The second bonus is that we do Good following God’s Path. We increase the light, love and life around the world – instead of decreasing them. We increase the purity of the world – instead of polluting it. At last: we increase the unity and order of the world – instead of tearing apart and scatter what was born as a Whole. We have our choice. THIS single and most important choice of our lives is our real freedom. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

Introduction. As I wrote in my first essay in September, I will go along a whole course of retreat with my essays until summer. With the Christmas essay we have arrived at the end of the first week of the four weeks’ long retreat: Christ may have been born within us, we may have been given places in the House of God and we may have realized that we were the Children of God. My four essays dealing with the second week of the retreat confront us with our sins. My New Year’s essay was about our community sins. My next essay described our own personal sins. My third essay was about the power of conscience and our choices. My present, closing thoughts summarize the issues of free will’s and good ties’ benefits. In the essays published until the summer I will invite the Reader to accompany me in the second two weeks of the spiritual exercise praying through the life of Jesus Christ (and beyond...) from immaculate conception until Pentecost. I wish all my kind Readers times full of contemplating self-analysis and change!

1. Freedom as a goal of life

The humanist, enlightened men have become men desiring freedom since the Renaissance. For Hungarians, who have been heroically engaged in a long series of freedom-fights, the question of autonomy and liberty became an especially important category. Civil liberties are laid down and guaranteed by constitutions and international treaties. Consumer society casts an amazing wasteful millions of free choices on us every day (should I buy a green hooded baby costume or one with a blue ribbon? etc. etc.) The ideologies of the past few decades have extended the right and possibility of free choice on almost all questions of life and death. Man’s freedom has got to be the largest ever for the 21st century. How much this freedom can be still grown? Is it beneficial for us that our freedom has become ’total’? Is the extreme freedom we enjoy today real or does it just look like it? I try to answer these questions in the coming section.

2. Limits of free will

"All things are lawful to me,
but all things are not expedient."
(1Corinthians 6:12a)

"Where should we go this afternoon?" – the modern Daddy (or Mommy) waits for the decision of his (her) three years’ old kid. The problem with this situation is not that Daddy is interested in the opinion of his child thus helping he (she) develop. The problem is that the "modern" Daddy does REALLY expect the decision from the child. It is a very perverse situation when we force the tail to move the dog... Freedom given to us without having the pieces of information helping take the responsibility of decisions and without life experience (i.e. together: wisdom) is: harmful. It is harmful because it leads to wrong decisions and it is harmful because it does not confront us with the bad consequences of these wrong decisions. It is also malicious because somewhere inside us the conscience blows the whistle and the ego starts to be anxious because of the nonsense you-must-make-a-decision situation. We and our children have no idea what a good decision looks like because the playing field requiring decisions has become too big too quickly.

The Cuban missile crisis of 1962 was one of those first clearly uttered decision situations with which mankind has reached the limits of its free will. Our ancestors could decide freely to start an atomic world-war III but in this case I would not be writing anything here and now, and You, dear Reader would not be reading anything either here or anywhere else. We owe big thanks to people’s wisdom living at that time (and the Mercy of the Holy Spirit shining on them) for realizing that "free decision" did not exist in these situations. Mankind gets into more and more such situations nowadays, in which its "free decisions" cause catastrophic consequences including the extermination of human life on Earth on the longer run (see e.g. my New Year’s essay on climate change).

The Earth’s resources are limited. Therefore the decisions of "the more for me" and "the better for me" that increase freedom in most of the cases go hand in hand with the implicit decisions of "the less for them" and "the worse for them". However the "them" is far away. The "them"'s suffering face can easily be switched to a happier channel with one free click while having our tasty and rich dinner. And if the "them" would like to come here so it would be free for them also what is free for us: stay away from here, please. A significant part of our freedom is a freedom realized at the cost of limiting others' freedom. The balance of the modern world will last until a strongly limited pretense of freedom can sufficiently be dripped to the "them". We are doing pretty well with this thought having our tasty and rich dinner. Do not we think sometimes that Someone is dripping Something for us, too? ... Do not we think that this collective "dripping game" is not a solution??

Man’s free will is a tameless creature out of control. Its first manifestation was the devouring of the forbidden fruit which was followed by the expulsion from Paradise. The punishment of God is exactly the same as the modern Daddy. When God punishes us, all He does is let the man’s own "free" will work. We cannot receive any bigger punishment ever than this. Let’s have a look at ourselves – from God’s omnipotent point of view. What size do we see ourselves? Any bigger than the three years’ old child whom Daddy expects the decision from?? Can we imagine WHAT A NONSENSE is that when such a tiny little tail, that we ourselves are, in his puffed up solitude, suddenly wants to move God like He was a dog? (As one of my sister in faith described it as a summary of a very hard life: "You know, God has His means to show us when we go down the wrong path." We should believe her: He does. And we should not want to know what kind of means they are...)

3. How can the real freedom be attained?

"A Christian is an utterly free man, lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is an utterly dutiful man, servant of all, subject to all."
(Martin Luther: On the freedom of a Christian)

Man cannot live freely because he turns his freedom against himself, his fellow human beings and the nature nurturing him. He cannot submit himself to laws either because he is persistent and clever and he always finds the way out from the laws he has created. (If we do not believe this, let’s look out of our window for a while…) What is the solution? The solution is the third wish in the Lord's Prayer: "let Your will be done". Man can find peace only if he gives up his freedom and places his whole life where it belongs: to God’s palm. "Is it the solution, Peter, that we live our lives as slaves?" -- some Readers may ask here. No. If we give our freedom to God, He is the only one from whom we receive not slavery but such freedom in return that cannot be imagined by the human mind, cannot be comprehended, either experienced. God gives HIMSELF in return for that we have given ourselves to Him. Nothing less. God is Totality itself. We blow up into this Totality’s immense dimensional freedom with our whole selves at the very moment we have given our lives to God’s Providence. God takes us to places and situations we have never had even the power to imagine – let alone to do it. God’s freedom though is an "advantageous swap" not only because it is incomprehensibly bigger than our little cherished "freedom" closed into our tiny egos. Having God’s freedom also means two more little bonuses. The first and most important bonus is God’s endless love that smooths all the wrinkles that our own wasted lives have drawn onto us. The second bonus is that we do Good following God’s Path. We increase the light, love and life around the world – instead of decreasing them. We increase the purity of the world – instead of polluting it. At last: we increase the unity and order of the world – instead of tearing apart and scatter what was born as a Whole. We have our choice. THIS single and most important choice of our lives is our real freedom.

Three closing notes.

1. Once I have heard a sermon saying "Christ's yoke is sweet and His burden is light (Matthews 11:30), since the yoke of the Old Testament has been so detailed and hard." I am fully sorry that the preacher might not have the chance to feel the real essence of Jesus yet. Christ’s yoke is sweet and His burden is light because Christ and the Father embrace us tight to Themselves, and give understanding and STRENGTH to bear even those what exceeds human capacities. Jesus asks for nothing less than the Old Testament does. In fact, Jesus asks for a lot more. Jesus asks for EVERYTHING. But he gives Totality instead. Together with the Totality of love.

2. Is there any kind of personal freedom left for man if he has given his life to Jesus? Some Readers might say here: "Do you want to make us crazy Jesus-robots, Peter?". God’s plans are very rarely interfered with whether I have bought a green hooded baby costume for my kid instead of one with a blue ribbon. So do not worry. There are far enough decisions left for us, so many what we really do not want. How can I determine the precise extent of the "issues of the world", in which I have freedom, and that of the "issues of God", in which I do not have any freedom at all? For certain godliness forms of lives the answer is quite easy: baby clothes belong to the "issues of the world", while going to Church belongs to the "issues of God". I have to disappoint my brothers in faith who furnish their life so squared: this is by far not so. There can be such a case when buying baby clothes instead of going to Church is the Path of God (as an example please think about the Saturday miracles of Jesus a little...). "Now I became completely lost, Peter... – the Reader might say – What should I do then?" We have three very important compasses: the first one is our conscience. Though there are more direct signal lights, too: love and pain. In the man who has given his life to Jesus, the pain of Jesus appears in all cases when he experiences any bad things around him that he could decrease. Let’s be brave enough to rely on the pain of Jesus! Do not worry: you will notice it... We have never felt such a big pain ever in our lives that His pain was (or a tiny bit of His pain He let us feel because we would die of a little more of it...). There is not a greater event in our lives than the flash of Jesus’s love. The pain and love of Jesus are such signal lights that "call" the Holy Spirit to us who shows how to do the necessary action and also gives the strength to accomplish it. Jesus does more than that: quite some times He carries out the majority of the burden for us! So are not Christ’s yoke sweet and His burden light? Yes, they are! NEVER EVER we have to carry that burden alone and Jesus ALWAYS takes the bigger part of it over if we cannot take it any longer.

3. If all this is so obvious, why are there only a few of those men who give their whole lives to God and take the yoke of Jesus? Let me quote the words of a Hungarian priest, Máté Skublics about this: "We often confuse what is normal with what is widespread. We think that it is normal what we can see in ourselves and in our fellow men every day, experiencing the reality of sin and its consequences – but it is only widespread. ... The heavenly glory that the Lord has prepared for us is not at all beyond humanity. On the contrary: it is the essence of being human ... there are some who can experience this as a testimony already living on Earth. This is what is normal." Let’s think a little: what is real freedom? If we go where everybody goes – just a little bit differently? Or if we find that narrow Path that leads us to Infinity? We do have a choice. This is the real freedom. This is the grace of Jesus. This is the gospel itself.

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The power of prayer

Csermely Péter — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 11:05:45 +0000

Thoughts about the forms of our connection with God

1. Lives in which prayer does not “fit in”. Here I describe the monologue of two people. One of them is extremely poor, the other is extremely rich. The end of the two monologues are the same: I have my own problems. Leave me alone with worlds I do not even know anything about. This world has already overwhelmed me. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

2. Prayers to ourselves. A prayer for a lot of people is a... a.) monologue; b.) relief; c.) complaint; d.) solution; e.) obligation, role; f.) salvation. „Even a badly told prayer is much better than a prayer not told.” (Saint Teresa of Ávila) (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

3. The thousand faces of the genuine prayer: The blissful paths leading us to God. A real prayer searches for the Giver, not the gift. The genuine prayer is Silence listening to the totality of God living within us. A real prayer is not about us. It asks for and awaits the love, truth and will of God to the center of our hearts. In a real prayer we make ourselves silent in order to let God fill us. A real prayer does not decrease but increases our freedom explosively. Only in full knowledge of our pitifulness and indignity we can accept the mercy that delivers us from our pitifulness and indignity. A real prayer has a thousand faces. A real prayer – is our lives themselves as a whole. A real prayer does not live in time. A real prayer opens the gate of Paradise again and places the re-creating hands of God into our lives. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

1. Lives in which prayer does not “fit in”

In these cruel and unequal times I could not even dream of the wellbeing that is handed to others as granted. All my energy is consumed to get the most important things for myself and for those who are in my care. I am responsible for them. I am searching for the opportunities desperately but they get out of my hands. In the meantime the need presses more and more. Responsibilities and obligations are closing me in. No-one helps us. Everyone passes us. No-one even has a look at us. Moreover: everyone threatens us. Me and my loved ones, too. We are terrified. We would like to escape, but we cannot. We are not let to escape. We are already unable to do so. I am afraid I get numb to fight. But I should make more efforts to survive. I should get some rest. But I do not have the time and opportunity for that. I have my own problems. Leave me alone with worlds I do not even know anything about. This world has already overwhelmed me.

In this fast-paced world I have not enough time to do everything. I am responsible for others. My life is already full of that plenty of things I am obliged to do by my expanding social network. There are a lot of inputs. There is a great deal of information. I have to meet many expectations. If I do not react immediately, I fall behind. In the meantime I get more and more possessions. What I get imposes new responsibilities and new obligations on me. I have got numb in the array of new experiences, new relationships and new possessions. I am burnt out. I should get some rest. I want to use all those things I have got. I have so many ties to this world that is fair enough. Even too much. I have my own problems. Leave me alone with worlds I do not even know anything about. This world has already overwhelmed me.

2. Prayers to ourselves

„there are men around who almost prescribe for God
what the target, the way, the order, the time and the measure of help should be.
There are people who propose God how to help them
according to their will, and if He does not help exactly this way,
they get desperate, and if they can,
they look for help somewhere else.”
(Martin Luther: 6th Penitential Psalm, 1517)

A prayer for a lot of people is a monologue. It is a place at last, where I can summarize my thoughts. A place at last, where I do not have to care about what other people think about what I say. It is a place at last, where I can be honest. It is a place at last, where I am alone.

A prayer for a lot of people is a relief. Something at last that is repeated in my life, that is safe, familiar and homelike. Something at last I have furnished for myself. It is a place at last where I may find peace.

A prayer for a lot of people is a complaint. It is a place at last where I can tell what hurts me. It is a place at last where I can complain. It is a place at last where I am not interrupted. It is a place at last where there is enough time for myself. It is a place at last where I am listened to.

A prayer for a lot of people is a solution. It is a place at last where I can utter my desires. It is a place at last where I can tell what I want. It is a place at last where everything comes true: all I have to do is: ask. Because it has been written! It is a place at last that provides me the solution.

A prayer for a lot of people is an obligation, a role. At last I could do my duty. At last it is not bothering me that people will raise their eyebrows because I have not prayed enough today. At last I could show Mr. Smith who is just lip-synching beside me what it is like when a real believer prays intensely. It feels good to become an example for others in praying, too.

A prayer for a lot of people is salvation. At last I can do something to ease my soul. At last I can get closer to the happiness that awaits for me in Heaven. At last I could do something for my salvation.

„Even a badly told prayer is much better
than a prayer not told.”
(Saint Teresa of Ávila)

3. The thousand faces of the genuine prayer: The blissful paths leading us to God

„If such an abundance of good thoughts comes to us
we ought to disregard the other prayers,
make room for such thoughts,
listen in silence, and under no circumstances obstruct them.
In these times the Holy Spirit himself preaches,
and one word of His sermon is far better
than a thousand of our prayers.”
(Martin Luther: A Simple Way To Pray, 1535)

A real prayer searches for the Giver, not the gift. The genuine prayer is Silence listening to the totality of God living within us. A real prayer is not about us. It asks for and awaits the love, truth and will of God to the center of our hearts. In a real prayer we make ourselves silent in order to let God fill us. That is exactly why a real prayer can gird us with all those we ourselves would never be able to. So a real prayer does not decrease but increases our freedom explosively.

Only in full knowledge of our pitifulness and indignity we can accept the mercy that delivers us from our pitifulness and indignity. At the same beautiful moment mercy given to us by the prayer makes us realize also the amazing extent of our pitifulness and indignity because it shows us what we are through God’s eyes. Through God’s eyes it is not only our pitifulness and indignity what we can see. Through God’s eyes it is revealed for us how much beloved we and others are – despite our fallibilities. A real prayer strengthens us in our humanity in that way that it raises us up to God.

The real prayer has a thousand faces. A real prayer can be the name of Jesus. It can be only one word of „The Lord’s Prayer”. It can be any prayer told with faith. It can be a long series of prayers where the heart does not listen to the words any more but the Space opened by the words. A real prayer is often a song or music: the soul resonates with special power to the sounds showing God’s greatness. A strong version of a real prayer is Silence. The contemplative soul can open to the touch of God more easily than the mind swimming in the stream of thoughts. The power of a real prayer is multiplied by a prayer group. It is a great feeling to "fill a church with prayers". A real prayer can be a glance or a flower placed with empathy. A real prayer is often an activity. All acts in which we share God’s love with someone – are the most genuine prayers. It is delightful that a real prayer can have an endless variety of manifestations. A real prayer – is our lives themselves as a whole.

A real prayer does not live in time. A real prayer is not linked to the moment it has been born at. In a real prayer God, who exists out of time, steps into our souls. That is why a real prayer does not formulate short term, concrete requests, but it gives us long-suffering of God as a gift. A moment will become a thousand years – and a thousand years will become a moment.

A real prayer is a huge power. A real prayer provides a manifestation of God’s omnipotence in our world. The closeness of God crushes sins. A real prayer moves such depths of love that we cannot even imagine as human beings. A real prayer opens the gate of Paradise again and places the re-creating hands of God into our lives. I wish all my Readers a lot of real prayers re-creating yourselves and others! Amen.

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About the nature of Glory

Csermely Péter — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 10:42:06 +0000

Contemplation about the Trinity – concluding part

1. Our human concept of glory. For us glory is the measure of our own value. A recognition given by others giving us integrity, stability, happiness and harmony. In its earthy meaning, glory is such a power for which you do not have to fight again and again. Our longing desire for glory may accompany us as an insatiable and burning feeling through a whole unsatisfied, and (according to our measures) inglorious life. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

2. The real nature of Glory. The Glory of God is the exact opposite of glory considered in its earthy meaning: it is the light and love flowing out of Him to those who become part of the community of God. With His Glory, God does not receive but gives. However, God does not overspread us with His Glory according to our merits but because it is the very nature of His existence. By pouring out His Glory on us, God gives US integrity, stability, happiness and harmony if we are open to a connection with Him. The human soul, accepting the Glory of God does not only absorb it (as the devil does) but becomes alive and begins to reflect the Glory of God through its entire life. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

3. The Glory of the Trinity. Glory radiates from God. However, the flow of Glory and its power (that changes those human souls, which are open to become connected with God and Christ) are very important characteristics of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit may be the part of the Trinity that is the least possible to be characterized using human words. On one hand, the drift of the Holy Spirit may be so obvious and overwhelming that man getting quite far away of his previous self may take plenty of actions one after the other he could never ever imagine before. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit works in us in the silence of every day, too. Thus the Holy Spirit is the "direct representation" of the Glory of God for the souls that have not become united with Totality yet, whom it resurrects in Christ and enables to live a life reflecting the Glory of God. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

Introduction: Before the summer holiday in July-August in my last three essays I would like to describe a few thoughts about the Trinity: the trinity of space/kingdom, power/truth and glory/love. In my previous two writings I summarized a few (fragmentary) thoughts about the infinitely large space of God and His power embodied in Christ. In my present, concluding essay I will summarize a few thoughts about the nature of Glory. Many Readers of the blog realized that all the previous posts were based on the consecutive lines of the Lord’s Prayer. The increasing number of X-es at the beginning of the posts has referred to this, too. Reaching the end of the Lord’s Prayer, please find its text with a link below each line leading to the essay it inspired.

Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our supersubstantial bread.
And forgive // us our debts,
as we also forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom
and the power
and the glory forever Amen.

1. Our human concept of glory

For us glory is the measure of our own value: nationwide (worldwide) fame, celebrity status, public honors that we receive due to our excellent performance or outstanding merit. According to this earthy interpretation, glory is recognition given by others. Our glorified status gives us integrity, stability, happiness and harmony arising from public recognition. In its earthy meaning, glory is such a power for which you do not have to fight again and again because it has become generally recognized and accepted. Moreover, instead of hate and fear of many forms of power, glory brings love and appreciation. Therefore, our longing desire for glory may accompany us as an insatiable and burning feeling through a whole unsatisfied, and (according to our own measures) inglorious life.

2. The real nature of Glory

"The love of God does not find, but creates,
that which is pleasing to it. The love of man
comes into being through that which is pleasing to it."
(Martin Luther: The Heidelberg Disputation 28, 1518)

The Glory of God is the exact opposite of glory considered in its earthy meaning. The Glory of God is not given to God by anybody else but it pours out of Him as an essential part of His very existence. The Glory of God is the light and love flowing out of Him to those who become part of the community of God. Thus with His Glory, God does not receive but gives: He overspreads those with His Glory who have found connection with Him. God does not overspread us with His Glory according to our merits but because it is the very nature of His existence. There is not any kind of recognition for us in receiving the Glory of God but this is such a Mercy that comes from the love spread by God because of Christ’s sacrifice. Integrity, stability, happiness and harmony are the very nature of God, who does not need Glory to complete them. On the contrary: by pouring out His Glory on us, God gives US integrity, stability, happiness and harmony if we are open to a connection with Him.

God always approaches us by giving a gift first. He gives us Himself, His love spreading from Him, His Providence, order and Glory. The Ten Commandments provide a beautiful example for this, where the first three commandments clarify man’s relation to God. In fact, these starting three Commandments are also great gifts from God meaning that we MAY HAVE a relationship with God. Christ’s incarnation and sacrifice of the Cross are the greatest gifts of God for us because we not only could get in direct contact with God, we were not only given Christ’s Path as our Direction to God but with forgiving our sins the Mercy of the Eternal Life became open for us, too.

The Glory of God, which spreads all over the whole Creation giving us harmony stands very close to the concept of Providence. Providence includes events when God directly intervenes the course of history, people’s lives or the development of the human soul. However, at the same time the flowing love of the Glory of God is an important element of Providence which continuously renews Creation and at the same time restores the order of Creation again and again.

Thus God is the source of Glory. On the contrary, we are the absorbers and beneficiaries of Glory. In one of my previous essays I wrote that devil is a sink, where all good becomes vanished. However, there is a large difference between human nature and devil in what they answer to the Glory and love of God poured on them. The devil fully absorbs glory and love spread on him. Those, who got connected with God, after they became able to leave their own original ego due to Christ’s sacrifice of the Cross, come alive because of the Glory of God shining on them. The human soul, which became alive due to the Glory of God spreading on it, gets even closer to God. During this process the human soul begins to show the Glory of God through its life and its acts, and with this reflects the Glory of God to others. Thus we do not merely "absorb" the Glory of God spread on us without any answer but we gain a new heart and a new soul out of it. With his new heart and soul we begin to praise God. Thus praising God does not only mean "a few sentences of doxology" but also our thanksgiving for the existence of God, His relationship with us, His gifts of Mercy, His blessings spread on us and (last but not least) for Christ Himself. Praising God becomes a state of our lives which have become radically changed by the Glory of God shining on us. Therefore man’s whole life becomes a continuous thanksgiving and an ongoing prayer in which he shows and radiates the Glory of God on the ones surrounding him.

3. The Glory of the Trinity

"The Spirit breatheth where he will;
and thou hearest his voice,
but thou knowest not whence he cometh,
and whither he goeth:
so is every one that is born of the Spirit."
(John 3:8)

Glory radiates from God. At the same time Glory (as kingdom – God’s divine space, and power – the Path showed by Jesus) is the indivisible characteristics of the Trinity as a whole. However, the flow of Glory and its power (that changes those human souls, which are open to become connected with God and Christ) are very important characteristics of the Holy Spirit.

The essence of the concepts of God and Christ’s divine nature cannot be approached by the human mind having only a rather limited vision. However, the Holy Spirit may be the part of the Trinity that is the least possible to be characterized using human words. The essence of the Holy Spirit can be found in its flow, its nature that cleans, transfers and encourages the human soul (and human communities) to make a chain of actions, and its nature of endowing men with characteristics (gifts and mercies) making them able to accomplish these actions. The firstfruits of the Holy Spirit are the intimate core of God’s creative strength that is the initiator of especially high-impact and long term processes. "The Holy Spirit does not lock us somewhere (e.g. to our own ego), but makes us free. It opens us, gives us future, and directs us towards serving others and spiritual gifts." (Reverend Benedek Dobszay) On one hand, the drift of the Holy Spirit may be so obvious and overwhelming that man getting quite far away of his previous self may take plenty of actions one after the other he could never ever imagine before. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit works in us in the silence of every day, too. So the Holy Spirit is the "direct representation" of the Glory of God for the souls that have not become united with Totality yet, whom it resurrects in Christ and enables to live a life reflecting the Glory of God. Amen.

I wish all my Readers
a summer that senses and passes on the Glory of God!

The next blog post can be reached here.

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Our daily bread

Csermely Péter — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 16:21:00 +0000

A personal confession about the Totality of life

The previous blog posts’ style was very 'general'. I wrote free of personal experiences, in a general way about the light of Christmas, happiness, the miracle of quality time, the wisdom of patience and the strength of humility. In the aims of the blog I have explained that the reason for generalizing is not that „I think that my thoughts are generally true. The reason of generalized statements is that I feel that our contemporary thinking became rather disintegrated, which drives a large demand of valid generalizations.” This post is a personal confession. I realized that it is impossible to write about the joy of Totality in a generalized fashion but only in a very personal way. Many thanks for reading my story here. It is my great pleasure that three friends of mine, Aniko Szecsi, Barnabas Póth and Csilla Fuszek joined me and shared their most important moments in life.

(The photo was made by my father about me in 1965.)

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Since I was a little child, for decades I have told The Lord's Prayer believing that at the line "Give us this day our daily bread" we ask that the hungry may have something to eat on that day. (It was a good feeling to ask for bread for the many hungry people but I have never felt that this line had referred to me because our family – very luckily – never lacked of the daily bread.) The Douay-Rheims (1582/1609) English translation of The Lord's Prayer is much more unambiguous: „Give us this day our supersubstantial bread.” Here it becomes clear that we do not ask the Father for bread but we ask for the joy of being together with Jesus – every day.

Let me tell you about my three encounters with Jesus which completely changed my life during the last year. The first encounter happened at the Pentecost of 2017, in the Manréza Retreat House at Dobogókő (Hungary). Approximately 15 of us (including several Lutherans, like myself) gathered there for an oecumenic St. Ignatian spiritual exercise at that weekend. Before the four days’ silence there was a short introduction when everyone could tell why he had come. Many came because of family problems or preparing themselves for an important life event (e.g. for marriage) or simply for the joy of being together with Jesus again. By that time I had been practicing an everyday St. Ignatian spiritual exercise at home for five months. I did not have a specific aim with the spiritual retreat. When it was my turn I had to say something though. Suddenly I said that "I have come for the Mercy of humility." Then I looked at myself shocked. "Why have I come here??? What have I just said? I have no idea at all what 'the Mercy of humility’ is'..." As I was walking in the forest next day, suddenly I felt that Jesus was standing in front of me. He stepped forward and embraced me. Never in my life I will forget that consummating, Total joy what I felt then. Maybe it lasted only for a few seconds or possibly for an hour, because I fall out of everything, and I was standing there dizzy, in the middle of the woods. Then I started to cry and pray to thank.

After that I walked for a while, prayed and then I had my way back to the retreat house. As I was walking, suddenly in the middle of the woods I was overwhelmed by Mercy. The storm of the Holy Spirit caught me and shook me. All parts of my body were shivering and shaking for minutes. I was extended to infinite dimensions. Meanwhile I felt that a giant waterfall was flowing over me. It was streaming and running through my whole body and washing me out completely. The whole experience was like a huge electric shock. I was left there reborn after a few minutes. As I become awake, this thought was formulated in my head: "Peter! You have been given the Mercy of humility right here and right now."

My mind was not able to comprehend what this could possibly mean. At the same time every bit of me felt that there and then my life’s most important event had happened to me. I felt this because many years before I had had a similar experience when – surprising myself profoundly – I had started to pray to the Holy Spirit and it „answered” me in a form of a storm shaking all my body. I wrote about this in a Hungarian book and in a previous blog post in Hungarian language. Every bit of me experienced the significance of the moment also because I was sobbing for minutes and I felt that I could not express the gratitude filling me up for the not deserved, inexpressibly intensive joy.

As become awake I realized that I was standing exactly at the same place where Jesus Christ embraced me at the start of my walk. This was the moment when my mind „surrendered itself” to the experience. I fall on my knees and started to pray in the middle of the small path in the woods.

Next day I went for a walk, too. As I was coming back, suddenly I noticed a blackbird. The blackbird was looking for worms and was rearranging the leafs. It pulled the rotten leaves from the bottom to the top. And it shook the upper dry leaves to the bottom. It did not find any worms but instead it was staring at me very intensively during all this busy activity. I went closer to the blackbird: it did not fly away, but it was rearranging the leaves and staring at me. When this „I go closer, it does not fly away, but rearranges the leaves and is staring at me” cycle was going on for minutes, I started to think. This blackbird was weird. Blackbirds do not usually behave like this. Doesn’t God want to send a message to me using this bird? May His message be that I should also rearrange my surroundings in the same way as this little Good Gardener does it in front of me? That was the moment when I realized that the blackbird was standing at exactly the same place where I met Jesus on the previous day and where the Mercy overwhelmed me. I became deeply moved, put this experience among my most important ones and thanked the „blackbird” for the message.

[A few friends of mine asked me the question that how can I mention a blackbird "in the same line" like Jesus? This question made me think about the reason. It was the intensity of inner feelings, which discriminated this encounter with the blackbird from other experiences even before I realized that it actually happened in the very same place where I met Jesus before. Most probably the same blackbird would not mean a lot to someone else. Thus the blackbird was actually "only" a symbol. A symbol of an important message.]

On the third day I took a walk again. Backwards I was looking at „my place” well in advance. I wondered what would be there this time. As I got closer, I was very surprised that there was a blanket laid down in the middle of the path at exactly the same place where all these things happened to me, and a young man was taking a sunbath there. (The Reader might not know the hill of Dobogókő. Please believe me that at Dobogókő I have never ever seen anyone to lay a blanket in the middle of the path deep inside the forest.) "Hey! It’s My place!", this was the first thought which came into my mind. The second thought though was a huge shame. "How could you have such a thought, Peter! You have been given so much mercy here. Someone else needs it now!" So I got on my knees and prayed for that the young man would get the mercy he needed at that very moment. As I returned to the retreat house, during the silent lunch it turned out that the young man had his Rite of Ordination to become a catholic priest on that morning...

My second encounter with Jesus happened not in the woods but inside of me. During the meditative prayers I often saw a heart in front of my closed eyes. After a while I noticed that an intensive light radiated from the heart but especially from its top and there was something on the top of the heart that I could not identify precisely. I became so fascinated by this sight that I started to search Google to find out what kind of heart this might be. The Reader surely shakes his head already: it was a huge surprise to realize that I saw the Heart of Jesus radiating its glory and that small something on its top was – The Cross. I spent the first weekend of Advent in 2017 at a retreat of the Society of the sacred Heart in Budapest. During my meditative prayers this sight was repeated together the previously observed, great feeling that the heart started to grow and gradually covered my whole vision with its love. But at this time I heard a voice inside. This voice was not mine. "Peter! I have come so far but the last step has to be taken by you. Step inside!" In a huge shock and in an intensive burst of joy I took an imaginary step forward. I stepped inside. With this, something broke through. I got into a completely different dimension where I found the Totality of joy. This feeling cannot be described by words. I can only wish to any of my Readers to have it.

"I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved:
and he shall go in, and go out, and shall find pastures."
(John 10:9)

(I copied these wonderful words of Jesus completely unexpectedly
into that file weeks ago, where I was collecting the thoughts of this post.
At that time I wanted to write a long essay about the Eucharist,
and I did not have the faintest idea that this post will become
a personal confession. Only when I copied the word into this place
I realized the meaning of what has been written one after the other.
An intensive flow of thanks carried me away after which
I could not continue writing for a long time.)

My third encounter with Jesus is an often repeated, beautiful sight. During one of the meditative prayers I had the vision of the white shining back of Jesus. First I became very embarrassed. "Why does Jesus turn his back to me? What wrong could I do?" Then the recognition hit me. "You fool! It has just happened now that you have desired for a long time! If you can see the back of Jesus, then – you are behind Him! If you are behind Him – then you follow the Path of Jesus!" An inexpressibly intensive joy overwhelmed me as I realized this. Since then I often feel that „we walk together” with Jesus. These are the times when everything becomes smooth, calm and well-arranged. Walking with Jesus you feel yourself in the middle of the endless and loving Silence of the Father where decisions become the right decisions made at the right time and at the right place.

Let me tell you one more story for what a fool you can remain even after getting so much mercy. At the beginning of February of 2018, I had a conversation with one of my friends and after recalling a misbehavior, I said accidentally: "Well, because of that even Christ would turn in his grave." Immediately after, I became very much ashamed of saying that. "You have not said a more capital nonsense than that in your whole life yet! How could he turn in his grave??? Idiot. He does not turn. He has Risen!"

There are many (and many more) who experience the intensity of inner depth. However, most people do not dare to get immersed in these experiences, and even less dare to speak about them. (I was also hesitating to publish them here thinking on Matthew 6:6: "But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee." but the necessity to share all these was urging me so strongly that I could not do anything else but to obey.) This is why I am truly happy that three friends of mine decided to share their spiritual experiences with the Reader (also first time telling them to the public -- we all thank for your empathy).

We wish all Readers the joy of experiencing Totality living in ourselves.

Dear Reader! Step inside!

Our inner depths 1: My multidimensional experiences (Anikó Szécsi)

I have had such experiences that a lot of people may experience, too. I dreamt about my son’s arrival, I felt the unexpected death of my Father, whose ghost has been sitting at the end of my bed at historic moments. So far I have had two determining and staggering experiences of Totality. The first one happened to me in 2010 when I was „reconnected” (about the method you can find more information here). I was taken to such a dimension which was covered all around by wonderful, not Earthly, delicate scents and immense light totally pervading me. Tunes and inexpressibly amazing feelings came to me while the most beautiful colors surrounded me – it was heavenly. Neither before, nor since then I have perceived anything like this.

I had the other experience at home, at one night in January, 2015. I wakened from sleep but I did not go out for a glass of water because something prevented me to do so. Suddenly a voice called me to go and look around. Where? At this moment I started to extend and I became bigger and bigger. First I was as big as the room, then as the house, and I saw myself lying below, then I could see the streets and the whole Earth and the stars among which I expanded with my whole spirit. I was outside in the Universe, surrounded by such deep silence and peace that I had never experienced before, and I felt that I got home. I do not know how long this state lasted because space and time disappeared. I was embraced by boundless tranquility, peace and love. I could see a thin string of light below me that connected me with my Earthly self (my body). Suddenly it came to my mind that if I was so enormously huge, how I would possibly fit my body again. And then the voice called me again and said that it was time for me to return. And it happened so, I returned gradually as I had to check whether I could fill and use my arms and legs properly… Everything was alright. It was a fascinating and outstanding experience that can hardly be described with Earthly concepts but it was self-evident, too.

What are these experiences good for? They can provide evidence for the invisible and with this they can help in becoming more conscious and stronger in faith. For me it is not a question that I am a part of the Universe, God, the Creator or Light (however you wish to name it), as we all are. Because I experience, feel and know it. The question is for me is that how I could serve my mission the best. I do not have the answer yet, but I already know that the key is allowing, i.e. unconditioned trust and devotion, acceptance of our smallness and at the same time experiencing our spaceless and timeless infinity in a humble way. Translating these into everyday life it is: meditation or prayer, helping others, doing useful things, practicing consciousness, humility and love with ourselves and all living creatures. Being human and having an opportunity to develop mean mercy themselves.

Epilogue: I feel deep gratitude for I met Peter Csermely a few years ago and that I had the opportunity to act for other people through and with him. Hereby I would like to thank Peter for offering me to share some of my experiences here which (because of fear or lack of understanding?) until now I have buried very deep inside me as something important but not presentable. Because how and when and for whom can these experiences be told without being considered a freak? (I have graduated as a teacher and later as an economist. I have 20 years’ of communications and marketing management experience, having had a lot of interesting challenges and an own enterprise – such as anybody else. My spiritual interest directed me towards Buddhism, so my experiences and wording are evidential of this. I know that there are different ways but all lead everyone to the same direction.) Although everybody is looking for the meaning of life, and has seen and heard amazing things, but often he rather intends to numb himself with a temporary pain killer (with a new handy or a relationship) and hardly opens his heart if he does at all. That is why it is worth not to keep back our lives’ most important experiences from each other.

Our inner depths 2: Golden prism (Barnabás Póth)

In the end of 2017 I had a magnificent spiritual experience. One evening I became tired to the extent, when you only go to bed because that's what you usually do, but you know that there is no chance you will be able to get asleep. All of a sudden my mind became so relaxed and calm, that I felt I am laying in perfect Calmness. I did not think, I did not judge anything and I did not make any prediction. I felt the prefect Silence (like that before creation) and I felt that I am in a calmness which is beyond existence. After some time a golden prism was emerging from my chest and glided above me. It radiated like a warm star. I remained in the state of perfect Calmness and Silence which deepened during this experience. It was a beautiful feeling to return to this state later (however, the prism was not there). To feel that I accept everything without judgment, I am together with everything was the best feeling I have ever experienced in my life.

Our inner depths 2: " 'I' is scarcely different, or actually exactly the same as 'he' or 'she' " (Csilla Fuszek)

I was almost ten years old; lying on my back in the grass I looked up at the sky as children do on summer afternoons, and - I cannot describe it more simply or plainly - this is what happened: the all-pervading, eternal grace of love descended upon me, enveloped me. There was a hush; the ordinary, the everyday course of things faltered, skipped a beat. I was startled, scared even, stumbling uncertainly in an unfamiliar state of consciousness. I suddenly found myself at a distance and outside myself and everyone else, while at the same time I knew with absolute certainty that I was now sharing in an infinite joy. The kind of joy that makes it clear to a child that she is inseparable from everything and everyone who ever lived in the past or shall live in the future. A joy that makes it apparent to the child that she shares the common lot, and makes tangible every sorrow of past centuries. From that moment on I knew without a doubt that the only thing that can cause us pain is becoming distanced from infinite love - the love that revealed to me, like a gift, the true face of reality, because by then I knew that the truest reality, the greatest gift of human existence is the joy that this love brings. As the hours passed – still beyond space and time – I also realized that this love is redemption itself, the force that fills up every empty space; the meaning of life. I went home, helpless, powerless I fell on my bed and stared at my family with the eyes of a stranger – whom I now saw as indistinct figures – and I could not understand why every conversation we held was not about the obvious miracle of love. And at night, once more, I became afraid: how would it be from now on? This happened 45 years ago, and the feeling has not faded; it has become the constant gauge of everyday life, the standard against which everything is measured: the all-encompassing, strong yearning, stronger than any other feeling, for sanctity. The promise of eternal return to heavenly, sacred love.

My next experience did not catch me unawares, one could say that I was prepared for it, yet because of its intensity, it became one of the most formative, defining moments of my life. We had been sitting in a circle, about seventy of us, several days of meditation on love and acceptance behind us, when, hunched and feet numb from sitting for so long, I stepped into the circle of people. I have no words to describe what happened to me next, perhaps it was the flow, the eddies and laws of eternal love that can manifest itself through light and music which coursed through every cell of my body: all pain ceased, it was as if I had shed my body, my anxiety, shame turned into a loving smile, and nothing existed any more except endless joy, and joy was present and again I knew without doubt that there is only one reality and that is divine love. If I do not open my hand, open my heart, my mind, if I do not allow myself to become part of the flow – if I do not accept the law - the eddies will sweep me away, vaporize me, but if your heart is open this love is redemption itself: and we were away, flying like angels, and this love was light and clear and certitude again, like on that childhood afternoon. I sat between heaven and earth and tried to find human faces, but all I saw was the flame of the Holy Spirit above gently swaying bodies.

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Christmas as a state of life filled by the creativity of humility

Csermely Péter — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 15:10:55 +0000

The Day, when the Light is born within

1. The Light and Silence. Christmas is the day when the Light is born symbolizing the continuous re-birth of goodwill, hope and love in the world. Try to find some silent moments amidst the joyful whirls of the Christmas feast! If you listen intensely, silence suddenly will turn to Silence in which your heartbeat will become the common wish, hope and joy of your beloved ones, their beloved ones and the whole love-network of mankind.

2. The humble, serving love. At the original Christmas the birth of Light was surrounded by the love and humility of the Holy Family. Think about, if you love those ones humble enough whom you love the most? Christmas is the celebration of creativity. Humility gives direction and meaning to creativity and thus helps goodwill and love expand in the world.

3. Christmas as a state of life. Christmas experienced in humble, but intensive attention towards others' totality may become a state of life. Christmas as a state of life expands our spirit, sensitizing it both to accept and give joy and the love of Jesus. With this Christmas as a state of life places us on the Path which is nothing else but our lives seeking for the right. I wish you a Merry Christmas and a lot of joy on this Path!

Xxx Xxxxxx,

1. The Light and Silence

Christmas is the day when the Light is born symbolizing the continuous re-birth of goodwill, hope and love in the world. The birth of Light and Hope is a moment of not an exuberant rejoice, but more of touched silence with bated breath. Try to find some silent moments amidst the joyful whirls of the Christmas feast! You will hear the beating of your heart in these moments of intimate silence. If you listen intensely, silence suddenly will turn to Silence in which your heartbeat will become the common wish, hope and joy of your beloved ones, their beloved ones and the whole love-network of mankind. A Miracle has happened. The Light was born within us, too! The Star of Bethlehem shines in our soul. The joyful, inner Silence of Jesus gives enlargement in love. This Silence is organizing everything to the good in us, and becomes a taste of the Completeness of the Father, which is promised by the Light born also in us at Christmas.

Jesus gave us the opportunity to become the children of God by exiting the timelessness of eternity and entering the linear, finite time of earthly existence. The first two words of the Lord’s Prayer give one of the strongest expressions of this gospel. Jesus has arisen us to be His own brothers and sisters with these two words: ’Our Father’. He has shown that His incarnation, life, death and resurrection made God our both common and personal Father.

In one of his 1543 sermons, Martin Luther compared the incarnation of Jesus to a ladder that Jesus has stretched between the Sky and the Earth and descended on it to let us ascend to God. One of the central principles (the five solas: sola Scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus and soli Deo gloria) of Luther and the reformation (being 500 years old this year) was that the Way of Jesus is the only way leading to God (John 14:6b) Jesus not only opens and shows the Way but protects us along the Path, too. St. Teresa of Ávila in her book "The Interior Castle" warns that when our spirit gets out of the comfortable status of its everyday earthly existence, and starts its Way to God, it becomes highly unprotected at the beginning of the Path. The spirit may here very easily get lost and often gets astray. Only the help of Jesus saves the spirit from this.

The frequent mistakes at the starting steps of the spirit’s Way to God resembles to the adaptation of complex systems to the change of their environment. When a complex system leaves a stable state (attractor) and goes to another stable state (attractor), its trajectories have a high scatter and the system may visit hidden attractors, which have never been explored before. As an example for this, cancer attractors are those hidden traps in which the cell, that became over-stressed by its environment (and by its own genome), moving from its original status may walk into on its journey looking for a better life. The starting state of the spirit’s Path is the earthly existence. The ultimate attracting Center (attractor) is God Himself. On the Path the protection is given by Jesus. How nice it would be if tumor cells could be directed and protected on their journey looking for a better life instead of plunging them into more and more bitter adventures with persistent attacks. Starting concepts of this new, 'tumor pacifying therapies' are about to be born (see here , and here).

2. The humble, serving love

What did surround the birth of Light and Hope at the original Christmas? At the most internal circle the love and humility of the Holy Family did. Pope Francis summarized the importance of humility in the history of Christmas as quoted here: "It is about the greatness that God brought about humble people, such greatness that the Lord makes with the humble in the world because humility is like emptiness that gives ground to God. Humble people have power: just because they are humble and not because they are strong. This is the greatness of humble people and humility." Let me highlight the most important sentence for me: "humility gives ground to God". How many and many are we who have almost never allowed to speak this immensely beautiful core of our spirit? Christmas is a great occasion to change this. At the celebration of love it is worth thinking also about whether we love those ones with enough humility whom we love the most. Do we help them only in a way how we ourselves have planned and wanted? Or – with large humility and openness – do we feel the way their desire of becoming better leads them? Do we help evolve this desire in them?

Christmas is the celebration of humble creativity, too. Christmas is creative not only in the sense of preparing smart gifts for our beloved ones. The creativity of value is humble. This true creativity does not keep asserting that "I am so much creative" but it helps the inner dreams of the beneficiary to be realized. Humility acts beyond opening new dimensions, it gives meaning and purpose to creativity. The creativity of humility helps goodwill and love expand in the world. The creativity of humility is not a single act but a continuously growing state of being that expands beyond the individual. With this the creativity of humility becomes more than both the creativity of the donator and the dreams of the beneficiary together. The totality of the creativity of humility includes all the goodness that mankind has ever given – and received. With this the creativity of humility, in its deepest sense, becomes Mercy itself. This is what we can experience and help expand at Christmas. (If you want to read more about humility, please click to this essay.)

The creativity of humility connects us with others. Human relationships can only grow by love: hate imprisons us behind the walls of closed communities. Positive expressions are much more frequent in the 10 most spread languages than the negative ones. Positive evaluations increase positive self-image and in a self-reinforcing circle they get back to the initiator of the love stream. Happiness is, indeed, the by-product of working towards the happiness of someone other than yourself.

3. Christmas as a state of life

(Photos of cardinal Christoph Schönborn
were made at the 2016 conference of the European Council for High Ability)

What is needed to feel and experience the totality of Christmas? Attention. Focusing on the moment, giving our whole self to the other one, recognizing nothing else, bearing no barriers, just giving TOTAL attention. This TOTAL attention creates such an intensive quality time, when time itself stops, and we may keep this precious memory forever.

And the child grew, and waxed strong, full
of wisdom; and the grace of God was in him.
And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age,
and grace with God and men. (Luke 2:40,52)

Christmas experiencing the totality may become a state of life. Light becomes born in us at each and every moment of our lives again – and again. If we can feel this, we will recognize how beautiful life is. Christmas as a state of life senses, unifies and expands the bits and pieces of everyday joy, it makes us responsive and sensitive to accept and give joy, and to transmit the Gospel of Salvation and the love of Jesus. With this acceptance and transmission Christmas as a state of life becomes a well-deserved and much-honored joy, the earthly image of transcendent joy. The Light, which is being born and reborn within us enlarges us and shows the center of our inner Self. Christmas as a state of life harmonizes our feelings, and gives purity to our thoughts. Experiencing the immersion to the world’s love-stream opens out our inner spaces explosively. It shows our real, deep feelings, gives security and places us on the Path which is nothing else but our lives seeking for the right. (If you want to read more about this, please click to my 2018. Good Friday/Easter essay here.)

I wish all the Readers a Merry Christmas

and a lot of joy on this Path!

Postscript: I would like to apologize that my native language is not English. I am especially not familiar with English phrases concerning spiritual life. I would like to ask all Readers whose native language is English to send any corrections to csermelyblog@gmail.com. Thank you very much for your help (and patience) in advance! (I hope as time passes there will be fewer and fewer mistakes in the text.)