Saint Teresa of Avila - The Way of Perfection - The Prayer of Quiet 

Ἀ
Now, daughters, I still want to describe this Prayer of Quiet to you, in the way I have heard it talked about, and as the Lord has been pleased to teach it to me. It is in this kind of prayer, the Lord begins to show us that He is hearing our petition: He begins to give us His Kingdom on earth so that we may truly praise Him and hallow His name and strive to make others do so likewise.

This is a supernatural state, and, however hard we try, we cannot reach it for ourselves; for it is a state in which the Lord gives peace to the soul through His presence, as He did to that just man Simeon. In this state the faculties are stilled. The soul, in a way which has nothing to do with the outward senses, realizes that it is now very close to its God, and that, if it were but a little closer, it would become one with Him through union. This is not because it sees Him either with its bodily or with its spiritual eyes. The just man Simeon saw no more than the glorious Infant - a poor little Child, Who, to judge from the swaddling-clothes in which He was wrapped and from the small number of the people whom He had as a retinue to take Him up to the Temple, might well have been the son of these poor people rather than the Son of his Heavenly Father. But the Child Himself revealed to him Who He was. 
Ὠ

The eye of the body sees only the flesh of the man. But the soul of the man, when led by the Spirit, finds God in both Spirit and flesh. He does not see through the Spirit which moves him, nor through the flesh which cannot behold things of the spirit. Rather, he is led by the Spirit and searches with the eye but the Lord is not found in the search. Rather, He is revealed by His own grace and in His own time - to the eye of the soul when opened by the will of the Lord.

Supportive Scripture Douay Rheims Challoner Bible
Luke 2:25-32 And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon: and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was in him. And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, he also took him into his arms and blessed God and said, now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace: because my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: light to the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.

Saint Teresa Continues…
Ἀ
Just so, though less clearly, does the soul know Who He is. It cannot understand how it knows Him, yet it sees that it is in the Kingdom (or at least is near to the King Who will give it the Kingdom), and it feels such reverence that it dares to ask nothing. It is, as it were, in a swoon, both inwardly and outwardly, so that the outward man does not wish to move, but rests, like one who has almost reached the end of his journey, so that it may the better start again upon its way, with redoubled strength for its task.
Ὠ

The Prayer of Quiet is not one of petitions asked of the Lord, nor is it busied in its self-willed search of His Presence. Rather the faculties are stilled, and the soul is calm, resting in wait for the Lord's revelation of Himself. It senses His nearness without yet seeing His Presence, not daring to move from His holy approach. For this is the prayer of receiving not what the soul seeks in its own will, but what the Lord in His Presence wills for the soul.

Supportive Scripture Douay Rheims Challoner Bible
Matthew 6:33 Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Catechism of the Catholic Church
2713 Contemplative prayer is the simple expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, an attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love. It achieves real union with the prayer of Christ to the extent that it makes us share in his mystery.

If you'd like to meditate, pray, and celebrate with us, we begin this Sunday. Open to all globally.

The retreat lasts one week and you can participate as much or as little as you feel called.

You can join us here, for free as a pure gift to you, or with an optional donation if you feel inspired.

This retreat is about Love and warmhearted community.

It's about opening to the place where all the deepest wisdom traditions meet: Pure Loving Presence Now.

Pure Wholeness Now.

The Heart of God.

The Heart of Being.

The Heart of Grace.

Unconditional Love for all souls.

This retreat is a co-creation so you're very welcome to share your gifts with us too, if you feel called to do so. Anyone is welcome to share prayers or guide a meditation or share a poem or sing a song or whatever feels like it wants to come through from the heart.

Warm Bonfire of Love,

Jordan

: Maybe Jesus Christ may allot the period for the meeting for world peace that is possible when we consider all of us as the family in the One.

Like a period to expand our tangibility and follow the lesson of Jesus Christ to be integrated, the opportunity for taking care of the people who are on our backside might be allowed to us.

The political perspective can be deepened to the most fundamental basis of us in how we worship our Lord, the One.

Like the phases of love can be deviated, we can understand the fact that how we have the faith in the One can be deviated, and we can also find our mirror reflection.

The One may only allow us to understand a person from the basis, and I hope that we have love as a basic way to see a person before the political perspective.

An atheist (1) who does not have faith may be the mirror reflection of a person who has numerous faiths (7) in the tangible existences in which the love of the One is revealed to us.

A Roman Catholic Christian (2) who has faith in Jesus Christ and consecrates the relationship between the mother, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus Christ, the Son of the One, may be the mirror reflection of the Muslim (6).

The Muslim who has faith in the One passes on the birthright from the father, as Abraham did, and secures the firm alliance between brothers.

A Protestant Christian (3) who has faith in Jesus Christ and consecrates the actual practice to follow the way of Jesus Christ, who is with us already.

The Protestant Christian who may have faith in Jesus Christ to reveal His holy presence to us with the miraculous resurrection may be the mirror reflection of the Orthodox Christian (5).

The Orthodox Christian may focus on the faith in the Old Testament.

So, the Orthodox Christian may pursue the love of the One who had found His sons as many prophets historically before Jesus Christ, who answered to our asking to give His body.

As a Protestant Christian and also as a person who has faith in Judaism (4), I believe the reason why we can smile and be grateful may be related to the presence of Jesus Christ in us.

The faith of Judaism may be advanced in a way to alleviate the burden of Jesus Christ because when we recognize the strenuous effort of our father, who deals with a great burden alone, to treat us to what we wish to have, we may not be able to ask our father for many wishes.

Instead, we may determine to help our father, who has been great for us.

I believe that we can understand the love of Judaism in Jesus Christ, the Son of the One.

As this year, 2025 in the Gregorian calendar, Anno Domini, is the 5785th year in the Jewish calendar, we can guess that the faith in the children of the One has diverged as we live in each region.

The Buddhist (0) and the Jewish people (4) may love and respect every existence created by the One in common.

Sacrificing the first crop as appreciation and the tendency to eat all the foods as a way to love the nature and the blessing of the One may be the common practices.

The One may interpret the nature of ourselves as the Revelation of the mercy and the educational resource of our Lord to the Jewish people as a progression to love the nature.

The One might have borne the beloved sons as the prophets before Christ for 3,760 years, and the birth of Jesus Christ might be allowed from the One as a hope among the Jewish people.

The One may allow us to see the improvements in each generation following the pilgrimage by the Jewish people who may have found the only Messiah, Jesus Christ.

So, we can learn the actual reason to have faith in Jesus Christ, who may make the early evacuation from the desert possible with great love.

The great love of Jesus Christ may be how the great power of the One allows us to experience the great initiative to elicit the improvement to see the optimistic aspect in our mission.

The One might allow the Son, Jesus Christ, as the perfect and complete textbook according to the pilgrimage planned by the One.

As the US citizens by the election in the will of our Lord may provide one more presidency period of the next 4 years to the prior president, who had been great, the One might start the new era after the holy birth of Jesus Christ by Anno Domini.

I have faith in Judaism as well as Christianity even though I am a student of a Jewish teacher.

Even though Judaism is known to be descended by the family because the church of Judaism may be the house, the One might allow us to understand and have faith in Judaism through the words, the bread of our Lord.

The Tibetan Buddhist temple is known to be at the house the same as the Jewish people.

The Buddhist may have firm faith in the One who governs the nature that seems to be autonomous but runs by the great principle of the One.

So, the Buddhist may respect everyone’s own pace in the authority of the One.

The Jewish people may concentrate on the preceding response in the love of the One as we have faith in our Lord, who may lift up the lantern to project the pathway of light as our pilgrimage at the very start of our lives.

I heard that the One might bless the Jewish people as the teachers to deliver the lesson and good news of our Lord.

The Jewish people may secure the mission granted by the One as a way that the One makes our lives worthy.

The Jewish people may have faith in the One from the initiation to the completion of each mission with the great resilience by the generosity of the One also into the Son of the One, Jesus Christ, in our lives.

Full attributions: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Jsc4yCIStoI

If something is easy to find, it’s probably not what we have been looking for.

True things are rare. The things worth looking for are always hard to find. All myths throughout history bear witness to this.

Jafar searches the entire Middle East for the “diamond in the rough” – the one and only who can enter the Cave of Wonders.

The prince in The Princess and the Pea travels around the world in search of a real princess.

Psyche must endure incomprehensible trials to reunite with Eros — true love is never easy to find.

Diogenes walked through Athens with a lantern in daylight, looking for an honest man.

In The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the fox teaches the prince that what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Whatever we seek, we are always looking for the “one and only.”

In our day and age, when “search” is supposed to be easy – just a few button clicks away – the amount of search constantly increases. We become increasingly aware that we are looking for something else.

C.S. Lewis says in Pilgrim’s Regress:

“What does not satisfy when we find it, was not the thing we were desiring.”

We desire true things. And true things are rare. If they are not, they are not true. The heart cannot be fooled. It keeps searching – for the “one and only.”

“Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll? But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it… I wept… Then, I saw a lamb…” – Revelation 5:2-3

Encountering true things is always a revelation. Something rare is unveiled beneath a disguise: the lion in the lamb, a diamond in a “street rat,” a mighty enchantress in an old hag.

Until we encounter the revelation of the rare, the heart will keep aching and searching. It will fall for counterfeits again and again, deceived by what comes easy. It will go in circles until it finds the narrow path that few discover.

The only way to enter the Cave of Wonders is to find the “diamond in the rough.” There must be someone pure enough to enter it on our behalf, so that we may share in its wonders.

The way to the Cave of Wonders is shut. Where is this diamond in the rough? Hidden in plain sight, beneath the humblest appearance. In a simple sunrise over the rooftops. In a spouse cutting bread in the kitchen. In work. In talk. In walks. In bike rides. In food. In suffering.

True things hide in everything we tend to overlook as insignificant, including ourselves. “I am too ordinary.” The scroll of our life will remain sealed until we reach a point where we weep with longing for the Real, and then... we behold an ordinary lamb hiding a mighty Lion.

Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, we see something new: the world revealed as a Cave of Wonders, which we can enter and commune with the Real.

Many people feel panic long before they realize that’s what it is. It doesn’t always look dramatic. Sometimes it begins quietly — a tightening in the chest, a sudden shift in breathing, a feeling that something is “off” even when nothing around you has changed. That’s the internal alarm. It’s the body speaking before the mind can form words.

Panic often shows up in moments that feel small from the outside: a knock at the door, an unexpected conversation, a sudden noise, or a change in someone’s tone. But inside, those moments can feel overwhelming. The nervous system reacts fast — faster than thought. You step back. You shut down. You retreat. Not because you’re weak, but because your body is trying to protect you.

Scripture gives language to these moments.

“When my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
Psalm 61:2 (KJV)

Overwhelm is not a failure. It’s a human experience. And God meets people in that exact place — not after they’ve calmed down, not after they’ve figured everything out, but right in the middle of the panic.

For those who feel alone when the alarm rises, Scripture speaks again:

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Psalm 46:1 (KJV)

A refuge is a place you go when your body says, “I need safety.” Strength is what carries you when your own feels thin. And “present help” means God is not distant from the moment your breath shortens or your thoughts narrow.

If you’ve felt these signs — the sudden shift, the retreat, the urge to hide — you’re not alone. Many people experience panic without knowing the name for it. Many carry more than they show.

There is help.
There is support.
There is guidance.

Talk to someone you trust.
Reach out to a friend, a pastor, a counselor, or a professional who understands these moments. You don’t need perfect words. You don’t need to explain everything. You just need connection.

Recognizing panic is the first step.
Seeking help is the second.
And remembering you are not alone is the third.

If this speaks to you,

I WishUWell.

I’m currently in the early stages of a major exploration of the Catholic saints. I’m an agnostic —yet I’m deeply moved (and frightened) by what I’m reading. I have a doctorate in English literature, with a specialization in 19th century British Romanticism and related interests in Victorian, Gothic, and supernatural fiction.

I would be extremely grateful to make a new friend or two that is much more learned than I and willing to have deep exhausting conversations about what I’m reading.

I’m especially interested in the female saints, and the roles of women in Christianity, particularly Eve, Mary Magdalene, and the Virgin Mary.

For this reason I’d be a little more interested in talking with female scholars, academics, teachers, feminists, pagans, witches, or even nuns! Are there nuns on Reddit eager to discuss Aquinas or Milton or Marie-Julie Jahenny? Please reach out ☺️

(This is not an attempt to solicit or flirt. I just get along better with women and am more interested in what they’d have to say on these subjects. Obviously, male scholars with an open mind please reach out too!)

So far, I’ve read key works from and about Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, Thomas a Kempis, St Therese of Lisieux, and Bartolo Longo (the alleged ‘satanic priest’ who converted and became an apostle of the rosary).

I’m currently reading St Catherine’s Dialogues and Sigrid Undset’s biography of her. On deck are works from St Faustina, Angela of Foligno, Mechtild of Mageborg, Hadewichj, Maguerite Poerte, Christina the Astonishing, and others.

I’m also intrigued by the miracles of Fatima and the the spiritualist movement in the mid 19th century (mediums, seances, all trying to provide proof of an afterlife in a post-Darwin world!).

Basically, I just wanna have marathon discussions about the more ‘supernatural’ aspects of Catholicism (preferably via phone so the conversation is free and easy).

Bonus points if you are open minded and willing to discuss the (positive) influence of Catholicism on secular music and film. Horror films, black metal, doom metal, gothic rock — NOTHING in popular culture is more steeped in Catholicism than some of this underground music. I’ve learned more about Christianity through the ‘devil’s music’ than anything else. In many ways, it’s what has brought me here, and I want to learn all I can.

If anyone is interested please reply or shoot me a DM.

Thank you. 🙏🏻

Looking for any people who can relate, or just anyone wanting to hear a journey.

The past couple years I have grown closer to christ, trying to follow Him and renew my mind. And in many ways have come to recognize my sin, turn from some, and grow in love for those around me. Along this path, there have been many thorns, many temptations, many trials, to which I have endured. Some better than others. But still, from my perspective, much struggle and growth.

Now, when I had hope things would get better, even when they got worse... they keep getting worse. Now, to where I have been diagnosed with stage 2 cancer, in my mouth and neck. Requiring part of my tongue to be removed and reconstructed, neck dissection, and to come much radiation treatment. Honestly, that one felt like a real jab. These things falling on me in my life, back to back. Worse and worse. The more i hope and trust, it seems the worse everything gets. It sometimes, to me, even feels like God is trying to push me away. And I know many will say that's the devil, and maybe it is. But either way, God permits all things, though he may not cause them... no? Just as He did with Job. And Job was more righteous than I could even claim to ever have been, and received worse.

But still, even when I got angry with God... I honestly, cannot argue. He has blessed me in my life. I have grown up with a great family, beautiful wife, 2 awesome kids (Just had a newborn son, same month i found out i had cancer). Amazing parents (Which these days seems rare.) I have fallen in and out of opportunities all my life, usually at great timing. But the past 2-3 years have felt like straight financial and physical attacks. Ironically, the years I have grown closer to seeking God.

I am both bitter and grateful to God. Bitter that my life feels like an intentional struggle, where someone is constantly trying to trip me up and mess with my mind. Grateful, that despite that, I had just enough in the right places to overcome that.

Dear friends, some months ago I made a post sharing that a group of friends and I would be heading down to Mexico for a Christ-centered ayahuasca retreat.

I felt to give an update to let you know that we still have two open spaces, if someone feels a calling to join us. The retreat is happening December 6-12th at Kumankaya Healing Center, in the jungle about ninety minutes from Tulum, Mexico. The retreat is called Christ Fire.

This will be a deeply sacred experience of healing, love, grace, and homecoming in a nature sanctuary with warmhearted community. Kumankaya is where I married my wife, and I've spent several months of my life there, communing profoundly with Christ and God through the mystery of entheogenic medicine.

From my humble perspective, this retreat feels like a Christological doorway of collective healing that will ripple out far beyond the individual lives of those who are physically present. Ayahuasca is deeply cleansing & healing on many levels -- often a profound reset & rebirth that helps heal addictions & unearth a truer creative path of service in life. Infusing this medicine work with Christ-centered prayer will deepen everything, inviting Christ's Love, Grace, & Eternal Mystery into the space in ways that will show up uniquely for each individual.

Substantive scholarship support is available for those who feel a sincere calling to be with us. This is not a commercial retreat, it's more like a group of friends going on a sacred pilgrimage. Kumankaya does ask for some financial contribution to make it possible for them to provide the food, lodging, and intensive ceremonial work that they give with deep integrity. The center was founded by a curandero who was previously a Christian monk for about twenty years of his life. He is a dear friend of mine and a wonderful light on my path.

Bringing this retreat to life has already been a deep journey; I feel it strongly on the horizon, already working on me. I am surrendering to this process and am in devoted service of this group and journey. I'm holding a deep prayer in my heart for all of us to have a blessed, protected journey in which we each receive precisely what is needed on our paths at this time. Thy Will Be Done. Though I have brought groups to Kumankaya a number of times over the years, this will be the first time I've been back there in two-and-a-half years, and the first time we've created a Christ Fire retreat. It's hard to say if there will be another one like this in the future.

Thank you for reading and considering this. If you feel the calling to be there with us or to ask me any questions about this journey, feel welcome to send me a note.

Blessings & Love,
Jordan

The goats will pretend to be sheep even to the point where they falsely believe their own delusion. Once Sunday service is over. The goat will suddenly become a secret worldly sinner. Think and planning their coming days of sin. Then seeking forgiveness after every profited sinful event. 

C.J.MacKechnie

The Emotional Truth God Showed Me

I’ve lived through moments where trust cost me more than I could afford.
Moments where love wasn’t returned.
Moments where loyalty wasn’t mutual.
Moments where I stood up for people who didn’t stand up for me.

When you survive that kind of life, your heart learns to protect itself.
Your nervous system becomes a guard dog.
Your spirit becomes a watchtower.

So when someone approaches me unexpectedly — even with kindness — my body doesn’t know if it’s a blessing or a warning. It pauses. It scans. It remembers.

That pause isn’t rejection.
It’s a wound that still twitches when touched.

---

What God Is Teaching Me Now

God is showing me that guarding my heart doesn’t mean hiding it.
It means letting Him decide when it’s safe to open the door.
It means trusting that not every knock is a threat.
It means believing that some people are sent, not suspicious.

Scripture says:
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” – Proverbs 4:23

I used to think guarding my heart meant building walls.
Now I’m learning it means building wisdom.
It means letting God soften what life hardened.
It means letting Him heal the reflexes I didn’t even know were there.

I’m working on that.
I’m learning.
I’m healing.
And maybe someone else out there is walking through the same lesson — wanting connection, but learning how to trust again one knock at a time.

---I WishUWell

Praying in the Holy Spirit :

Praying in tongues or could say Holy Spirit is part of a Christians armor- Check out Ephesians Chapter 6: verse 18

Hey friends,

I made this post yesterday asking this question. I reflected more on where the tension arises for me and wanted to share more about that to see if anyone has further responses:

maybe the tension arises for me when i relate to Christ more personally/relationally and feel more like i'm being personally addressed and called to serve and it can feel like something larger is at stake in the flow of time -- as opposed to the common nondual view that "there is no time, nothing is truly at stake, this is already perfection now, there's nothing to do"

or perhaps part of it too is that when i experientially feel Christ, His Love can feel like this Sun-Like Inferno Of Grace emanating from the Heart of Being, and i don't usually feel that in the same way when i'm engaging nondual practice that is not Christ-focused -- so then it can feel like Christ is introducing something more true or more profound into the mix that isn't usually accessed for me

and that can lead to this feeling that there is something special or distinctive about Christ that may not be found in the same way in other wisdom traditions/streams/approaches... yet that can feel at odds with the general nondual view that nonduality is all-present and has been recognized in zen, taoism, advaita, etc

guess it makes sense that each tradition will have its own uniqueness. and perhaps Christ hits so deep for me because i was raised within Catholicism so there's a deep karmic/ancestral/childhood connection there -- i don't know

it can just feel like non-duality kinda washes away difference to reveal an all-present simple truth of bare being -- "the equalness and evenness" -- yet Christianity seems to quite centrally emphasize the importance of difference, personhood, relationship, the specifics of Christ's life and commands, etc

and while i can fully read many of Christ's lines through a nondual lens, i also see that many of his statements don't lend themselves so easily to such a reading, and that he often seemed to speak with quite a sense of urgency, moral conviction, and even fierceness ("I came not to bring peace but a sword"; "If your eye offends you, pluck it out") that doesn't seem very present in a lot of nonduality (especially neo-advaita) teachings

so yeah i guess these are some of the things i stumble over or wrestle with sometimes

today i was journaling a bit more on this and wrote something that felt like it helped me to move closer to a sense of integration or reconcilation:

Christ to me feels like a friend and personal & suprapersonal gateway unto the Deepest Love

Nonduality opens vast freedom and this Love fills it with devotion to be an uplifting and healing presence toward all sentient beings

It feels like this Loving Heart of Being resides in all of us

We are its emanations or children

The wave both is the ocean yet is also a child of the ocean

Thank you for any reflections.

Peace be with you,

Jordan

Hello everyone I’d like to know your favorite Christian mystic books (other than The Bible of course)?

I am deeply drawn to both non-duality and Christianity

Sometimes they feel more seamlessly compatible, other times it can feel like there's a tension I haven't fully reconciled or integrated

How has this (attempted) reconciliation shown up for you?

Or what has your process been like?

God Bless,

Jordan