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You're listening to

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a podcast by

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the Center for

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Action and Contemflation.

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To learn more,

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visit cac.org. Greetings,

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I'm Jim Finley.

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Welcome to Turning

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to The Mysteries.

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Greetings, everyone. Greetings,

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everyone. Greetings, everyone.

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Greetings, everyone. for trustworthy

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guidance to the teachings

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of Gabriel Marcel. In

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the introductory session with

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Kirsten, and also in the

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previous session, we explored the

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way Marcel tries to help

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us cultivate a spiritual worldview,

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how to be established

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in experiential spiritual understanding

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of ourselves in all of

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life, really. And we saw at

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the very heart of this vision. is

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his distinction on the

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winding path between problems

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and mystery. Problems in life,

1:03

those problems where we seek

1:05

a solution or an answer

1:07

to things that are dualistically

1:10

other than ourselves. So the

1:12

example we use is for

1:14

a car won't start, or

1:16

if there's a leak in the

1:18

roof, or if we're trying to

1:20

find the answer to a complex

1:22

math problem, all these are problems.

1:24

and in the facing of a

1:26

problem we look for a method

1:28

to solve the problems where we

1:30

go to someone who's trained in

1:32

that method to solve the problem.

1:34

And then once it's solved, we're

1:37

done, we move on to the

1:39

next problem. But mystery is very

1:41

different. Mystery, we realize that when

1:43

we turn towards things that are

1:45

mysterious or mystery, we ourselves are

1:47

included in what we're turning towards.

1:49

So if I ask, what does

1:52

it mean to be a human

1:54

being, it's I as a human

1:56

being that I am that's asking,

1:58

what does it mean to be

2:01

a human being? If I ask,

2:03

what is conscious? If I in

2:05

my consciousness is asking about consciousness,

2:07

if I ask what is love,

2:10

it's me and my desire to

2:12

love and be loved. Just asking

2:14

what is love. If so, these

2:16

things are not problems or mysteries

2:19

that I'm included. But here's the

2:21

key to ourselves. It's not, in

2:23

the reductionistic sense, or everything refers

2:25

back to me, like my personal

2:27

opinion. about who I am, my

2:30

personal opinion, what consciousness is, my

2:32

personal opinion or feelings or attitudes

2:34

about who others are. It's the

2:36

opposite. I realize that I'm included

2:39

in that the very presence of

2:41

myself extends out into and is

2:43

woven into the mystery of humanity.

2:45

The very consciousness of my cell

2:48

extends and is woven into the

2:50

mystery of consciousness. The very mystery

2:52

of myself is woven into the

2:54

mystery of love. And what he's

2:57

really saying to ultimately is that

2:59

my very cell is woven into

3:01

being. That's the ontological mystery, ontological,

3:03

ontology means our being. And he

3:06

understands being to be infinite. And

3:08

Kenneth Gallagher points out that he's

3:10

doing this in a way to

3:12

seeking the presence of God outside

3:15

of religions. Later he's going to

3:17

look at religion. So right now

3:19

we're looking at kind of an

3:21

experiential exploration of the presence of

3:23

God outside of belief systems in

3:26

religious faith. But he says practically

3:28

speaking the infinity of being as

3:30

God. So really what mystery is

3:32

what he's really concerned about. is

3:35

how do I realize I'm being

3:37

carried along in a present, an

3:39

infinite presence that transcends me, but

3:41

it always includes me, that my

3:44

very presence extends out into the

3:46

infinite presence of God, because the

3:48

infinite presence of God is giving

3:50

itself to me as the very

3:53

presence of me, and that transsubject

3:55

of communication. union is what he's

3:57

trying to help us find. He's

3:59

trying to find this. And we

4:02

said too then, we see this

4:04

in certain moments, which are the

4:06

moments of thou, he uses as

4:08

a prime example of this. So

4:11

father, mother, sister, brother, friend, loved

4:13

teacher, student, community that you're serving.

4:15

To be in the presence of

4:17

thou is you're in the presence

4:19

of someone that you love. And

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you see who the person is

4:24

factually. That is, you know what

4:26

they look like. You get to

4:28

know them, you know their personality

4:31

and so on. But to know

4:33

them is thou. Her exactly and

4:35

her, Martin Booper, fills the entire

4:37

horizon of your being. You realize

4:40

that the infinite presence of God

4:42

is presenting itself in and as

4:44

the presence of the beloved. So

4:46

that to be in the presence

4:49

of God. And your ability to

4:51

see the thou. of the beloved,

4:53

reveals you to yourself as thou.

4:55

This thou moment would love empowers

4:58

us to see, that kind of

5:00

transcends, and to see means to

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interiorly realize what our finite eyes

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can't see, to recognize or to

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realize what our conceptual mind can't

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define or explain. It really evokes

5:11

a sense of awe, the thou

5:13

moment, like an awakening. We also

5:15

saw this thou dimension is carried

5:18

out throughout all of life. So

5:20

there's the thou dimension of the

5:22

darkness of the night. There's the

5:24

thou dimension of the smell of

5:27

flowers. There's the thou dimension of

5:29

silence, the thou dimension of solitude.

5:31

There's the thou dimension that echoes

5:33

in the voices of poets. The

5:36

artists is visual mystics that they

5:38

help us to see the landscape

5:40

and flowers to help us see

5:42

the thou dimensions of all of

5:45

reality. So that's Marcel. That's what

5:47

we're talking about. Now we're going

5:49

to see Marcel does what all

5:51

the noticeable in turning to the

5:54

mistakes all the mistakes do this

5:56

too The mistakes talk about certain

5:58

moments that were quick with

6:01

a sense of oneness, of God's

6:03

oneness with us in life itself.

6:05

And then we see how these

6:07

moments of oneness, these moments of

6:10

intimately realize oneness, evokes the desire

6:12

to abide in the oneness. That

6:14

is, the intuition is at the

6:16

thou moment. We realize it isn't

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that something more is given in

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the realization of thou. But rather

6:23

a curtain parts in that moment.

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that reveals the true nature of

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every moment. See, that every moment

6:30

is thou. And realizing that every

6:32

moment is thou, then I become

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aware that I'm not aware of

6:36

the thou nature of myself. Hence

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my suffering, hence my fear, hence

6:41

my confusion, hence my wayward ways.

6:43

So the real question then is

6:45

how do I stabilize in a

6:48

path, a way of life, to

6:50

be ever deeper, more habitually stabilized

6:52

in the thou dimension? which is

6:54

really the dimension of my very

6:57

presence extending out into and woven

6:59

into the infinite presence of God,

7:01

this extending out and woven into

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the very presence of me and

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trans subjective communion and of everyone

7:08

and everything that I see. What

7:10

is the way of life where

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I become abitually established in that

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unit of awareness? So this is

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Marcel's concern. As with all the

7:19

mistakes we've been looking at. We

7:21

also saw that each mystic has

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his or her own way of

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voicing this. We looked at John

7:28

of the Cross or Teresa Julianne

7:30

of Norwich. So Marcel has his

7:32

own way of voicing this path

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and he voices it as fidelity,

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hope and love are his three.

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And he gives it what makes

7:41

Marcel so accessible as always. He

7:44

always starts with an actual example

7:46

in real life. Turning then to

7:48

Kenneth Gallagher. Chapter 5, where we

7:50

find this material infidelity. He gives

7:52

an example of fidelity. What does

7:55

it mean to be faithful? And

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what conditions can there exist of

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being capable of fidelity? Let us

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take a simple instance. I have

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been to see my friend in

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a hospital. His life is drawing

8:08

to an end. He knows it.

8:10

He knows that I know it.

8:13

In the presence of the terror,

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which each day advances nearer, in

8:17

the presence of his loaniness and

8:19

heart-wrenching attempt at courage, my whole

8:22

being is flooded with pity, with

8:24

a necessity to stand with him

8:26

at all cost. I promised faithfully

8:28

to come back and see him

8:30

again very soon, and when I

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made that promise, my feelings were

8:35

completely sincere. It's fidelity. And what

8:37

he's really suggesting here, this way.

8:39

is that in that moment I'm

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so moved because the dying friend

8:44

I was seeing the dying friend

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of my love for my friend

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is thou. And then the thou

8:51

in me responds in fidelity to

8:53

the thou. I'll keep coming back.

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I will stay close. He's calling

8:57

this a moment of fidelity as

8:59

an event. Or so it continues.

9:02

But several days have passed and

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what I felt on that occasion

9:06

is just a memory. I tell

9:08

myself I ought to go. that

9:11

he deserves my sympathy, that I

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ought to feel the same way.

9:15

Through conscientious self-flagellation, I can even

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conjure up a kind of abstract

9:20

assembly of sympathy I felt, but

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its unworthy falseness inspires me pugnance

9:24

in me. The question is, am

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I bound by the promise I

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made, and if so, why? So

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I did it, I meant it.

9:33

A couple days of past, I

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no longer feel it. And therefore,

9:37

should I be bound? to something

9:40

I said in a feeling that

9:42

I no longer feel, and if

9:44

I should be bound, why should

9:46

I be bound? And then Marcell

9:49

says, and this is so good

9:51

because it's like psychotherapy. He's inviting

9:53

us to be, to relate to

9:55

how experiential this is. Like he's

9:58

helping us to see this is

10:00

how our minds work. He suggests

10:02

two ways that we might continue

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to stay faithful to see the

10:07

friend, but neither one of them

10:09

is fidelity. One is, I want

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to see my friend because it

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would be so insensitive if I

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would say to the friend, I

10:18

promise I'll stay close if I

10:20

feel like it. This isn't something

10:22

very good to your dying friend.

10:24

So you're going to avoid that

10:27

one. He also says I could

10:29

continue to see the friend to

10:31

be true to my image of

10:33

myself as someone who's faithful to

10:36

his word. But Marcel says this

10:38

is not fidelity, this is me

10:40

being faithful to an image I

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have of myself in my own

10:45

eye. And so that's not fidelity

10:47

either. So if neither one of

10:49

those is fidelity, we can understand

10:51

this psychologically. How are we to

10:53

understand then fidelity as an access?

10:56

to the death of our very

10:58

presence woven into and one with

11:00

the very presence of God woven

11:02

into us, the trans subjective communion

11:05

of fidelity. This is where he's

11:07

taking us. Such a view consists

11:09

of a purity of heart, consists

11:11

of an ingenuous response of the

11:14

unsullied demand of the instant. Only

11:16

thus will I refrain from a

11:18

betrayal of my true self. Now

11:20

there is quite evidently a dialectical

11:23

refutation which suggests itself here. We

11:25

can only set up the principle

11:27

of fidelity in the instant as

11:29

a sumum bonum as a supreme

11:31

good in so far as it

11:34

transcends the instant. Remember when we

11:36

were going through TSL is four

11:38

quartets and he did a lot

11:40

about time and about eternity. And

11:43

here's something that helps me to

11:45

see this. what we're getting at

11:47

here poetically. We might say that

11:49

we live in incremental realization. of

11:52

infinite generosity, echoing when we were

11:54

doing Meister Eckhart. If we think

11:56

of God as generosity, the generosity

11:58

of the infinite is infinite, and

12:01

we are the generosity of God.

12:03

We are the song that God

12:05

sings. And so there's nothing incremental

12:07

about it, that infinity is infinitely

12:09

giving the infinity of itself away

12:12

as us. that are nothingness without

12:14

God. That's the constancy of the

12:16

infinite generosity of God that is

12:18

the nature of the person that

12:21

we, the mystery of the person

12:23

that we are as the beloved.

12:25

What's incremental is the degree to

12:27

which we're conscious of that. So

12:30

in the thou moment, the infinite

12:32

generosity of God that is our

12:34

very being. The self-donating presence of

12:36

God presenting itself is our very

12:39

presence that are nothing without God.

12:41

The thou moment is where it

12:43

breaks through into consciousness, like the

12:45

sun shines through the clouds. And

12:47

just for a moment, we see

12:50

the thou nature of ourselves in

12:52

consciousness. There's always there is our

12:54

very being, is our very ontology.

12:56

That's the moment. But the moment

12:59

passes. And these moments were saying,

13:01

they come in all kinds of

13:03

ways lying in the dark listening

13:05

to our own breathing, looking up

13:08

and seeing the face of a

13:10

friend who comes walking into the

13:12

room, the pause between two lines

13:14

of a poem. These happen in

13:17

endlessly varied ways. These moments, these

13:19

are moments. But there is supreme

13:21

good when they pass. The moment

13:23

that transcends time has to be

13:25

continued in time. And that's fidelity.

13:28

I will not break faith with

13:30

my awakened heart. In the thou

13:32

moment, I know, I realize the

13:34

fullness, the oneness, without which my

13:37

life is forever incomplete. And although

13:39

I no longer feel it, I

13:41

will be faithful to it, because

13:43

I will not break faith with

13:46

my awakening heart. That's fidelity as

13:48

a path. I will be faithful,

13:50

this way. And notice in any

13:52

kind of committed love. You're not

13:55

true to the love when you...

13:57

like it. It's not capricious like

13:59

that away at all. Likewise, any

14:01

deep call this way to any

14:03

depth of things, called a solitude,

14:06

the call to silence, the call

14:08

to creativity, the call to service,

14:10

it's not capricious, it's not capricious,

14:12

it's not this way at all,

14:15

there's like a fidelity, like an

14:17

inner imperative of your awakening art

14:19

to continue to be true to

14:21

the awakening that's been great, that

14:24

has graced your life, now moving

14:26

into what he wants us to

14:28

see about fidelity. continues.

14:30

The question is, how do we

14:33

transcend the instant? If fidelity is

14:35

a victory over time, it must

14:37

not be thought of as an

14:40

entrenchment in some kind of formal

14:42

identity not involved in the temporal

14:44

flow. Certainly, one requirement of fidelity

14:47

is a unity of the self

14:49

beyond and across the immediate states

14:51

of consciousness. It is literally unthinkable

14:53

that I can be united with

14:56

another unless I'm united with myself.

14:58

We can see this, so now

15:00

we can see the direction we're

15:03

headed in, like this rings true.

15:05

This rings true, to be faithful

15:07

in this way. Through fidelity, I

15:10

transcend my becoming, and I reach

15:12

my being. But the being I

15:14

reach is not a being which

15:16

is already there. It is only

15:19

there in as much as I

15:21

reach it. So it isn't that

15:23

there's some ethereal kind of me

15:26

a fidelity. A fidelity. but rather

15:28

it is the fidelity of me

15:30

and my ongoing intention to constantly

15:33

live in this fidelity. I'm actualizing

15:35

it. And here I went, this

15:37

is a subtle point, but I

15:39

think it's important really. Marcel says

15:42

that in the moment of I

15:44

choose to be faithful, that fidelity

15:46

then creates my fidelity to this

15:49

creates me in my fidelity. But

15:51

here he's saying something, he can't

15:53

say yet, because he's not speaking

15:56

religiously yet. What are you saying?

15:58

We're saying, if we look at

16:00

the mistakes, and he's implying this,

16:02

that what begins in time ends

16:05

in time. So in one of

16:07

our previous sessions, we quote somebody,

16:09

said, we don't understand human nature

16:12

until we understand why a child

16:14

on a merry-go-round will wave at

16:16

its parents every time around and

16:19

they always way back. Death in

16:21

resurrection, death in resurrection, death in

16:23

resurrection. So every time the child

16:25

swings around again and appears, the

16:28

appearance is in time and they

16:30

weigh, with the child's appearance that

16:32

begins in time, ends in time

16:35

as the child disappears again. And

16:37

so here's the point. The point

16:39

where we appear in time, our

16:42

birth, is not our beginning. It's

16:44

where we appeared. And us that

16:46

appeared in time, and we're now

16:48

in time, so I'm speaking now

16:51

I'm in time as you're listening,

16:53

you're in time, as you're listening,

16:55

you're in time. and death are

16:58

all going to disappear as mysteriously

17:00

as we appeared. But the point

17:02

is that when that the moment

17:05

we appeared in time is that

17:07

we began rather the moment we

17:09

appeared is who God exhaled us

17:12

out of the eternal depths of

17:14

God hidden with Christ and God

17:16

before the origins of the universe

17:18

and we were exhaled out of

17:21

the depths of the eternal depths

17:23

of ourselves in God into time

17:25

and it's through time then there

17:28

were to discover this to fidelity.

17:30

that in time we see the

17:32

eternality of ourselves, that we see

17:35

that in us, that it is

17:37

beginningless, which is also the self

17:39

that will never die, we're all

17:41

eternal. But through fidelity we see

17:44

that in us that will never

17:46

die, it never ends, a mysteriously

17:48

ribbon through everything that keeps ending,

17:51

the fleetingness of... This conference I'm

17:53

giving now, we're well into it,

17:55

but it's going to end. We're

17:58

going to come to the end

18:00

and ring the bell, it's over,

18:02

like everything. But what we're bearing

18:04

witness to in this reflection, we're

18:07

bearing witness to the... that which

18:09

never ends, which is shining through

18:11

this moment together. And this is

18:14

the sensitivity myself trying to help

18:16

us to cultivate here. He said

18:18

the key to holding us together

18:21

is presence. Fidelity is not an

18:23

erred dedication to the preservation of

18:25

one's title of self-esteem. Its axis

18:27

is not the self at all

18:30

but another. It is a spontaneous

18:32

and unimposed presence of an eye

18:34

to a thou. This sheds an

18:37

indispensable light on self-creation which has

18:39

been spoken of. The creation of

18:41

the self actually is accomplished in

18:44

the emergence of a thou level

18:46

of reality. I create myself in

18:48

response to an invocation which can

18:50

only come from a thou. It

18:53

is a call to which I

18:55

answer present. In saying here, I

18:57

create my own cell in the

19:00

presence of a thou. Fidelity is

19:02

the active perpetuation of presence. And

19:04

here we were saying what we

19:07

were saying earlier, we would say

19:09

in the light of the mistakes,

19:11

I don't create myself, but I

19:13

co-create with God the uncreated mystery

19:16

of myself in the desire to

19:18

be faithful. Because we see each

19:20

other thou unto thou as siblings

19:23

of the infinite thou of God,

19:25

of being that's giving itself as

19:27

the thou of us, intimately realize

19:30

realize. And he also then says,

19:32

what we're talking about is an

19:34

appeal in our heart to exist

19:36

at the level where fidelity makes

19:39

unassailable sense. It's like I can't

19:41

explain it, but I know this

19:43

is true. And I also know

19:46

that knowing about this fidelity, if

19:48

at least I don't try to

19:50

stay faithful, I will not be

19:53

who I deep down really am

19:55

and am called to be. I

19:57

just know that it's true. I

19:59

can't explain it. But it's the

20:02

truth of my very being. And

20:04

Marcel's helping us to... words to

20:06

and helping us to see and

20:09

to experience. It goes on. Fidelity

20:11

implies an ontological permanence that is

20:13

a permanence in being, eternity, beginningless

20:16

and endlessness, but a permanence which

20:18

exists in time into an unfinished

20:20

unity which continually needs moments in

20:23

order to recreate itself as a

20:25

unity. That is to say, I'm

20:27

constantly, say when I'm giving this

20:29

talk in preparing this, and preparing

20:32

this. in creating this talk gave

20:34

me an opportunity to experience fidelity.

20:36

And when I'm sharing this talk

20:39

with your actualizing fidelity this way,

20:41

in the moment, that's why this

20:43

moment of sharing this is a

20:46

gift to me, and in so

20:48

far as you're touched or moved

20:50

by the subtle beauty of what

20:52

you're listening to, it bears witness

20:55

of fidelity being awakened in you.

20:57

It's only because this rings true

20:59

to your heart. that he bears

21:02

witness that you're already on this

21:04

path of which Marcel speaks, creating

21:06

this fidelity. There's a philosopher that

21:09

he was very influenced by Royce.

21:11

He says, there only is a

21:13

person in as much as there

21:15

is the acceptance as a certain

21:18

task assigned to us by the

21:20

absolute. You will know that you

21:22

are a cell precisely insofar as

21:25

you intend to accomplish God's will

21:27

by becoming one. God creates me

21:29

that I may realize in through

21:32

my life of fidelity who God

21:34

eternally knows me to be hidden

21:36

with Christ in God forever this

21:38

way. And so I'm actualizing and

21:41

co-creating through my fidelity, God's fidelity

21:43

to me, Marcel says, the intelligibility

21:45

which is revealed in the Rome

21:48

of existence, which fidelity makes possible.

21:50

is simply not there for a

21:52

self which has not inhabited this

21:55

room and which it does not

21:57

inhabit in thought. And I want

21:59

to reflect on this. There are

22:01

words which break the silence, which

22:04

Martin Heider calls chatter,

22:06

but there are also words

22:08

that embody silence, the

22:10

words I love you. The words,

22:13

are you okay? The cry of

22:15

the poor, the healing word. And

22:17

there's also thoughts, the

22:19

distract fidelity,

22:22

as distractions. But

22:24

there's also the thought

22:27

that embodies fidelity. And

22:29

notice we're doing it right now,

22:31

and that's what makes this lexio

22:34

divina. See, notice we're not defining

22:36

anything, it's not definable. We're not

22:38

explaining anything, it's not explainable. But

22:40

rather, we're speaking in such a

22:43

way that makes sense to us

22:45

because it's words that are putting

22:47

words to the mystery of fidelity,

22:49

which is the very mystery of

22:51

myself. extended out into the presence

22:53

of God, presence in itself in

22:55

me, each unto each, this fidelity.

22:57

And so we're now in Lexio

22:59

da Vina, and this is in the

23:01

first session that I gave

23:04

too, is this is secondary

23:06

reflection. So primary reflection is

23:08

factual and objective. Secondary

23:11

reflection is a reflective state

23:13

in which we see the inadequacy

23:15

of primary reflection. as being

23:17

adequate to who we are.

23:19

So we have to drop down

23:22

into a reflective attentiveness. And in

23:24

that reflective attentiveness, we come to

23:26

the deeper level because we're being

23:28

immersed in our very presence. This

23:30

is immersed in the very presence

23:32

of God, presenting itself is our

23:35

very presence. And so these, like

23:37

the words of the mystics, like

23:39

the deep understanding of everything that

23:41

Jesus says, the Psalms, we're not

23:44

a lexio stance, of thought. that

23:46

embodies and expresses this

23:48

fidelity. It is now

23:50

quite evident, Gallagher says, that what

23:52

we have all along been calling

23:55

fidelity to being could just as

23:57

well be called fidelity to God.

24:00

An appeal can only issue from

24:02

a thou, and a being as

24:05

the presence that calls for fidelity

24:07

can be nothing but personal or

24:09

super personal. And yet the alternative

24:11

expression was used deliberately, that is

24:13

calling it fidelity instead of faith.

24:15

There seems a good reason to

24:17

believe that fidelity to a transcendent

24:19

may precede a well-defined definition of

24:21

a deity. It is in fact

24:23

in function of our fidelity that

24:25

the true notion of God can

24:27

be sculpted as we shall see.

24:29

The more our unrationalized response to

24:31

being takes cognizance of itself. The

24:33

more perfect becomes our conception of

24:36

the being that evokes it. In

24:38

no case, however, is fidelity tied

24:40

to a specific dogmatized version of

24:42

the absolute. Insofar is it remains

24:44

an adherence to a presence. It

24:46

always overruns our attempts to delineate

24:48

its object. For the more effectively

24:50

I participate in being the less

24:52

able I am to know or

24:54

to say what it is and

24:56

what I participate. What's that mean?

24:58

We'll use this as a way

25:00

to end for today. It's this.

25:02

You know, it is perhaps when

25:04

I think of God. It is

25:07

perhaps most helpful. before I turn

25:09

to any theological belief system, like

25:11

dispensations of grace, Christianity, Judaism, Islam,

25:13

Sufism, whatever. That I first turn

25:15

to the unrationalized response. That is

25:17

to say, I have to first

25:19

turn to the all moment, where

25:21

I'm immersed in a boundaryless presence

25:23

of the all moment that I

25:25

cannot define. St. John of the

25:27

Cross says, St. John of the

25:29

Cross says, we're looking at St.

25:31

John of the Cross in earlier

25:33

sessions. He said, when we're out

25:35

walking in the mountains, do possessiveness

25:38

of heart, we think we can

25:40

maybe own it. like real estate.

25:42

He said, but we get a

25:44

little deeper in our awareness of

25:46

the mountains. We realize the beloved

25:48

has passed this way in haste.

25:50

We get even deeper. He says,

25:52

my beloved is the mountains, that

25:54

the world is God's body, that

25:56

is bodying forth the love that's

25:58

uttering it into being. John of

26:00

the Cross says, to have no

26:02

light to guide you, except the

26:04

one that burns in your heart.

26:06

And it's the light that shines

26:09

forth in the thou moment of

26:11

fidelity this way. And so you're

26:13

really, the rains fall from your

26:15

hands. And you're giving yourself over

26:17

to the substantiality of all that's

26:19

evoked in the presence of yourself

26:21

and the presence of God. And

26:23

it is perhaps the more we're

26:25

grounded in that. the more authentically

26:27

we can turn to any belief

26:29

system. And by the way, we

26:31

might say this, this is the

26:33

essence of fundamentalism. See, fundamentalism is

26:35

looking for proof text, as though

26:37

there's certain revelation of a set

26:40

of facts as an answer that

26:42

you can flip back and forth

26:44

and prove things. Where this way,

26:46

we open the scriptures and we

26:48

see the truths of God, not

26:50

as facts, but as poetic metaphors,

26:52

that are luminous or invitational. to

26:54

see the presence of God shining.

26:56

This is why Jesus spoke in

26:58

parables instead of giving lectures. And

27:00

notice he always invited us to

27:02

look at life. Always looking at

27:04

a moment like Marcel is doing.

27:06

So how can we learn to

27:08

be more authentically present to our

27:11

own presence, realizing it to be

27:13

immersed in the presence that's giving

27:15

itself to us an infinite presence?

27:17

Those are very presence. Not just

27:19

in a momentary moment where it

27:21

flashes forth. But how can we

27:23

choose a path? And this is

27:25

why later we're going to be

27:27

looking about how to pray with

27:29

Gabriel Marcel. How to use him

27:31

as lexio, meditation, and prayer, how

27:33

it becomes contemplation. And so this

27:35

is our meditation. On the fidelity

27:37

is path, as an obituated. state.

27:40

So with this we'll

27:42

end with a end

27:44

with a sit. So I

27:46

about you to

27:48

sit straight? By the way,

27:50

By the way,

27:52

to enter this decision

27:54

to enter into

27:56

this meditative state

27:58

is fidelity. fidelity

28:00

This is a

28:02

moment where fidelity

28:04

renews itself in

28:06

the free choice

28:08

to give ourself

28:11

over to this

28:13

infinite fidelity to

28:15

us. It inspires

28:17

us to be

28:19

faithful to this.

28:21

So this very

28:23

act now embodies

28:25

it. it. So I'll invite about you

28:27

then to sit straight. Hold your

28:29

hands and bow. bow. You

29:56

can wow We'll

30:04

slowly say the Lord's Prayer

30:07

together. Our Father, who art

30:09

in heaven, hallowed be thy

30:11

name. Thy kingdom come, thy

30:14

will be done, on earth

30:16

as it is in heaven.

30:19

Give us this day our

30:21

daily bread, and forgive us

30:23

our trespasses, as we forgive

30:26

those who trespass against us.

30:28

and lead us not into

30:31

temptation, but deliver us from

30:33

the evil one, where thine

30:35

is the kingdom, the power,

30:38

and the glory forever and

30:40

ever, amen. Mary, mother, contemplatist,

30:42

pray for us. St. Francis,

30:45

pray for us. Julian of

30:47

Norwich, pray for us. Blessings

30:50

till next time. a podcast

30:52

created by the Centre for

30:54

Action and contemplation. We're planning

30:57

to do episodes that answer

30:59

your questions, so if you

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have a question, please email

31:04

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or send us a voicemail.

31:09

All of this information can

31:11

be found in the show

31:14

notes. We'll see you again

31:16

soon. Do

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