The Spiritual Journey
“There’s no arrival unless there is a plan to go.” — John Cassian, Fifth Century
“The Creator is always the same, but those who are created must pass from a beginning and through a middle course, a growth, and progression. And it is for this increase and progress that God has formed them.” — Irenaeus, Second Century
“On earth we are wayfarers, always on the go. This means that we have to keep on moving forward. Therefore be always unhappy about where you are if you want to reach what you are not. If you are pleased with what you are, you have stopped already. If you say, ‘It is enough,’ you are lost. Keep on walking, moving forward, trying for the goal. Don’t try to stop on the way, or to go back, or to deviate from it.” — Augustine, Fifth Century
A Sojourning Prayer
O Lord, my Lord, I am a stranger in a strange land. Absent are all the subtleties of custom and language and sight and smell and taste which normally give me my bearings.
Jesus, everliving Teacher, use my out-of-placeness to remind me again of my alien status in this world. I belong to another kingdom and live out of another reality. May I always be ultimately concerned to learn the nuances of this eternal reality so that when it becomes my permanent residence, I will not find it strange in the least.
In the name of him who entered a foreign land so that whosoever will might come home to that for which they were created. Amen.
Richard Foster, composed in the midst of an extended trip to Southeast Asia