Sophia’s Newsletter

September 15, 2011 Volume 4 Edition 9

Dear Family and Friends of La Ermita,

Today we wish to share with you some ideas concerning Scripture’s statement that we are made to the image and likeness of God. We invite you to contemplate and meditate on them. (1)

Everything created is, of its essence, a relationship with our Creator because nothing can exist outside of our Triune God. That relationship varies according to the created being. For us who are of an angelic and human nature the relationship becomes one of a special intimacy called Divine Parenthood. We - every angelic spirit and human being - are automatically an intimate part of the Divine Family of our Heavenly Father and Mother, the Holy Spirit.

We are individualized points of Their very Being and Love which is Their very Essence. If we were not, then we would not exist because nothing can exist outside of Their Being and Love. That means we are all One. There is no other possible way of existence.

Here is another thought: deep within each of us is a natural desire to be like our human parents. We are aware of it especially as children. We hug them and sit in their lap so that we can be more like them. We are proud to be told that we are a “chip off the ole block.” That desire in our conscious self, however, is the same desire in our spiritual self. We want to be more and more our Divine Parents.

In human life a person does not grow and development much into maturity unless they have to struggle. The same is true in our spirit self as well as in the angelic world. Consequently, in order to have the opportunity to struggle for maturity, our Heavenly Father and Mother had to create a place where their visible presence of unconditional love was not immediately experienced by both the created angelic and human beings. This lack of Their visible presence is called Original Darkness because it hides the now experience of who we are and of who They are.

That struggle for each of us consists in becoming aware that the love we are presently experiencing within and among us is “conditional love,” not unconditional love. Family, society and religion have also added to this struggle when they covered our natural unconditional love with all kinds of conditions, along with both divine and human punishment for failure to comply. What, then, is behind this individual and communal struggle that wants to use this experience of Original Darkness in order to convince us that the love we experience, a love covered with conditions, is all “unconditional love?” It is nothing more than our “needs.” Here is the crux of our struggle.

Remember, there are no “needs” present in the relationships between our Heavenly Father and Mother and their Son. Being God means that by their very essence They Are all that is. Therefore, it is impossible for Them to have and experience needs. There are no strings attached to their relationship with each other, no obligations towards one another, and certainly, no strings or obligations to their creation. They simply Are, as They share their being Love. Neither is Their being totally one in essence in any way diminishing their individuality. This is a divine mystery, but this is also the divine mystery of who we are! We are made to their image and likeness. So, our objective is to uncover our unconditional love so that we can be before ourselves and all others a “chip off the ole block.”

The struggle begins at birth as the conscious self grows externally, but usually at midlife the struggle moves to the inner self as we realize the external world didn’t uncover the unconditional love that we are. This struggle to uncover it, as difficult as it may seem, is not complicated when we become aware that we are not our needs. The very words reveal that truth when we say, “I have needs.” The “I” is different than the “needs.” Through our self introspection, our awareness of how we relate to others, prayer, counseling, divine help and inner healing we learn this basic reality.

Next, we realize that these needs are controlled and manipulated by deep inner fears, fear that we will not have enough of whatever to be who we think we are, fear that we will not be loved enough, fear of being rejected, fear of not being understood, and fear of losing control. These fears are recognizable by their pushiness that nonverbally translates most of the time into “my way is the only way.” They expose themselves by demanding their fulfillment now, either directly or indirectly, and by a feeling of anger or impatience that accompanies the request.

Recognition of our needs, and thus our fears, opens the door for us to embrace them with forgiving love. Then we are able to let go of them so that we can be Now who we are. That action brings to our awareness and experience the inner peace of Divine unconditional love, a love that has no needs. And that is who we are. We already are all. This is the life of Pentecost, a life where all contracts and obligations attached to acts of unconditional love are let go. This is being made to the image and likeness of our Triune God.

Brothers and sisters, these needs are our wonderful opportunities to become more our Divine Parents. They give us the opportunity to forgive and let go, to learn to just BE the very unconditional love that we already are. When we can just BE, then we are truly Them who are only a LOVING BEING.

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, which son finally became more the father? Contemplate that parable and the message above will come alive in your life.

That’s why it is such a joy to experience these fears pushing us to the bottom of the barrel, to the moment where we are completely lifeless and hopeless. At last, we arrive at just BEING. That is the divine moment when we become who we truly are!

“Welcome home, my beloved son!” says the father of the Prodigal Son. And “Welcome home, my dear conscious self!” says our inner spirit self. And “Welcome home!” says our beloved Divine Father and Mother and their Beloved Son, who is our Brother.

Teo, Rose and Javier

1. For La Ermita to contemplate is to experience and live an event within one’s whole being. To meditate is to think and reason about certain ideas and thoughts. Contemplation is of the heart and inner spirit. Meditation is of the mind and intellect.