ANSWERS TO
UNSPOKEN QUESTIONS

Transforming Suffering
An Interview with Basil Pennington
By Mary Nurrie Stearns

PT: We are talking about intimacy with God. What is your understanding of God?

Pennington: My understanding flows out of the Catholic expression of the Christian faith, of knowing that Jesus is God incarnate. God became man so that He can bring us into the fullness of the divine life. Jesus is the Son of the Father, and they have in them immense love, they embrace each other in Holy Spirit. I experience God as an immensely loving Father. I am very compassionate and sympathetic with women and others who have a problem with that name of Father, but it has been there for me for over sixty years. Also, I was blessed with a very special father, so it makes it easier for me to use Father. I look to Jesus in the gospel to help me understand this tremendously loving Father. As a monk of the Cisterian tradition, I have been fed by St. Bernard of Clairveau, who spent the last eighteen years of his life commenting on the Song of Songs, the beautiful love song in the Hebrew Bible. Their God is very much the lover, and I have grown to enter into that experience with God as an immense mother, an all-embracing love and creative energy. To enter totally and be completely embraced by divine love has all the richness of the very best experience and understanding we can have of personal love, and yet is so much more. Trying to talk about my concept of God is complex and difficult because it is so rich, and yet in experience it is absolutely simple, it is simply a communion in a totally satisfying love.

PT: I am quoting you, "Herein is the true purpose of our practice, to free ourselves from the empirious domination of our own thoughts, passions and desires, to free the spirit for the things of the Spirit." What are the things of the Spirit? I ask this because I see a relationship to things of the Spirit and the reduction of suffering.

Pennington: The first and most fundamental one is reality. The virtue of humility means acceptance of reality. If we are not in reality, then we can’t possibly be in the things of the spirit. The reality is that God is good, all loving and that his creation is good. What immediately follows upon the perception of reality is beauty and goodness, and what follows that is love. We love this immense beauty and we love most of all the author of this goodness and beauty, God himself. These are things of the spirit. It is astounding when we start to reflect that God, the source of all goodness, all truth, all beauty, all life, all love, did, in His enormous love, enter into our struggling evolving human reality and accept our suffering. Suffering is a thing of the spirit, too, for that reason. It has been made a vehicle of love and everything can become something of the spirit when it is informed by love.

A MEDITATION ON
Transitioning to My World   

Essentially Salvation consists of your gradual but unstoppable transition from life in the world of temporary to life in My World of Eternal Life in Love in Our New Jerusalem These are not just pious phrases that We share in you at this moment in your life.  These words pinpoint the very crux of the purpose of Our Interactions within you in Love, with Love and through Love. 

Oh! These interactions are subtle at times and quite obvious at times depending on what behaviors We seek to change.  We teach you repeatedely that the goal of life in your world is to come to know Our Love intimately and to be filled with Our Love in your temporary so that the transition from temporary to Forever is effected with a great deal of ease. That’s called Living on the Edge of Eternity 24/7

I asked you to wait for Me to speak to you this morning because you were too rushed to come to Me in the Sacred Space of Mutual Silence.  I wanted to have you complete attention without your mind wandering to appointments that you had to keep.  Now that you are free of such distractions I will speak in you.

I want to answer some of your lingering questions about the intent I have for sharing these words in you as I do on a daily basis. I know that you write the words that form in you without becoming sidetracked by your questions. You are quite obedient. I applaud you for that.

 1. Why do I persist in sharing words with you on a daily basis since you have obviously accepted My ability and My willingness to speak volumes in you as I do?  The answer to that is relatively simple. You always make yourself available to Me in these quiet moments that We share each day.  It is your openness to Me that initiates such verbal contact.  I welcome the opportunity to clear away the lies and distractions of life in your world and to instruct you clearly about Life in My New Jerusalem.

 2. Are these words to remain as obscure as they are?  In other words are they just     between you and Me?  I think you know that answer already.  You are beginning to share them with others in workshops, in response to inquiry for words from those in pain and, of course, on the internet. Dissemination is proceeding quite well. It is in accord with My Plans for these woirds.  No, My friend! They will not remain obscure. I intend to have them open gently and quietly across time to so many others like you who are seeking an intimate, internal, loving relationship with Me.  You will just have to be patient with Me as My dissemination plan for these words proceeds My Way.  I know how impatient you get. I will help you be patient.  You will be surprised at the response you will get to these words.

 3. Is this all the work that I have for you?  Isn’t this enough?  How much more do you think you can handle?  Let Me make this perfectly clear.  These words are the foundation of the ministry I have in mind for you. In time, and, yes, you will have time for this, this word gift will expand into your practice as others in need of this special verbal healing process come your way.  You will be asked to speak at many places.  I will guide you in where you are to speak. You can be sure of that. Thus relax.  I promise not to overtax you beyond your physical capabilities.

 4. Am I returning as has been prophesized in Revelations?  Of course, I am. My Words in Scripture are Truth.  They were written thousands of years ago. However, they are a valid today as they were when they were first proclaimed.
I, Jesus the Messiah, will return physically to claim My own. In the meantime, My faithful friends, such as you will have to be content with My Return spiritually through the indwelling of the Mutual Love of the Father and Myself in the Person of the Most Holy Spirit.  As you notice, I do not vary one iota from the revealed word in Scripture.  If a theologian were to analyze this monumental work of verbalizations abut Me, about My Love and about Salvation, he/she would see how consistent these words in you are with the words revealed in scripture.  The best part about this is that you are not a theologian and you are not that conversant with scripture.  Those facts alone make these words even more significant and authentic.

 5. How long must I wait for the things you prophesy will occur in my life to occur? My friend, they are already occurring. Are they not?  All I need for you to do is to continue on as you are.  Come to Me daily.  Write the words I place in your heart.  Receive My True Presence in the Eucharist. Allow My Love to control all that you think, say or do.  I promise that I will do the rest.

The time for your questions is up.  My answers are already beginning to unfold in your daily life. I promise you this.  I have many wonderful, pleasant surprises on the horizon for you and for those like you who in their hearts follow My Love faithfully. 

You and they are among the first of My Own that I intend to claim who are alive in the world of man. I will use such friends to help bring others into My Fold.

Trust Me.  Enjoy what I do.  Live as worry free as
possible.  Know that I will help you daily to put your needless anxiety to rest.

I am the Lord, thy God. You have no false gods before
Me.  You dwell in My Love. You live in accord with My Will for you.  That is all I ask of you and/or anybody who follows Me. I teach you and them to be still and know I am your God.

 Love,

 Jesus

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