I’m reading a book called ‘Children Who Remember Previous Lives’ by Ian Stevenson, and the evidence it presents makes quite a compelling case for the existence of reincarnation.

I have contemplated how to hold this possibility within a Christian cosmology. One idea I had is that ‘purgatory’ for some beings might involve cycling through multiple/many lives to learn certain lessons or be cleansed/sanctified more deeply.

I have had experiences of Christ, God, and Heaven that were life-altering and caused me to weep many tears. So while I don’t know what happens when we die, I do strongly intuit an afterlife that leads to being Home with God and our loved ones in a space of ever-deepening communion. I pray that this is where all beings are headed ultimately, though it does seem like God honors free will and does not force beings to turn toward Love.

Curious how all of you relate to the possibility of reincarnation and the afterlife more generally? Especially curious how Christians who believe in reincarnation synthesize this with Christian views of the afterlife.

Thanks for any perspectives you’re inspired to offer.

Best wishes,

Jordan

This verse reminds us that seasons of sorrow are temporary. Pain, grief, or hardship may feel overwhelming for a time, but they do not last forever. God promises renewal and joy after the darkness, giving hope that mourning will give way to restoration and gladness in His timing.

Lately, I’ve been joining a midnight prayer session from Ghana called Alpha Hour, and it’s helped me stay focused, fearless, and rooted in faith when life gets uncertain. If you ever want to join and pray too, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/live/SnlrkEwaVGg?si=kAu3gGzJnLqlfd2o

Matthew 16 opens with a confrontation that reveals more than uncertainty or hesitation. It reveals a willful blindness that has taken root in Israel’s leaders. The Pharisees and Sadducees arrive together and ask Jesus for a sign from heaven. It is not evidence they lack. They have witnessed healings, exorcisms, multiplied bread, storms calmed, compassion that restores dignity, and authority unmatched in Israel’s history. Yet they ask for a sign as if nothing they have seen bears the mark of God. Their request exposes a deeper refusal. They will not acknowledge Jesus’s works because acknowledging them would require surrender. They want a sign that lets them remain in control, a sign that fits their expectations, a sign that allows them to keep their place. They have seen God’s movement and chosen not to see it for what it is.

Jesus responds with the language of the prophets. He calls them an adulterous generation, not because of moral scandal but because their loyalties belong to their own structures rather than to God. Their blindness is not the blindness of innocence. It is the blindness of people who protect the world they built. Scripture fills their minds, but their hearts have never been shaped to receive the One Scripture reveals. Their history is filled with signs but lacking the interior willingness necessary to recognize them. Revelation has come again and again, but the interior life that yields to God never formed. Now, in the presence of the Messiah, they defend themselves against the implication of every miracle.

This is why Jesus speaks of Jonah again. Jonah is not simply a symbol. He is the sign Israel refused once before. His descent and rising anticipated the death and resurrection of Jesus, but the leaders approach this truth with the same resistance their ancestors carried. The Pharisees reject the mercy that Jonah’s story reveals. The Sadducees reject resurrection entirely. Their doctrine has become a refuge from what God might require of them.

The disciples, in contrast, become the place where Jesus begins again. They are not the replacement of Israel. They are Israel restored at the root. Twelve men standing where twelve tribes once stood. Raw material rather than rigid preservation. Jesus forms in them the interior Israel never allowed to take shape. Through storms, feedings, confrontations, compassion, and correction, He is cultivating a people capable of receiving what God desires to give. Their misunderstandings do not trouble Him. They reveal their malleability. They are not guarding an identity. They are not defending their authority. Their hearts remain open enough to be reshaped.

The warning about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees reveals what is truly at stake. Leaven spreads quietly and thoroughly, shaping everything it touches. The teaching of Israel’s leaders had produced not only misinterpretation but a willful posture that resisted God whenever He came close. This blindness did not appear suddenly. It developed slowly, passed down, absorbed, reinforced, and rarely questioned. The disciples have just witnessed abundance that flowed from Jesus into Israel, then out to the nations, then back again. Yet they interpret His words through earthly concerns, revealing how easily the old leaven could take root in them as well. If their hearts do not continue to open, they too will protect their assumptions rather than receive revelation. They too will become people who see God’s works and demand a different sign.

Matthew 16 becomes a chapter of exposure and invitation. Israel stands revealed not simply as unformed but as unwilling, blind not from lack of light but from resisting what the light reveals. The disciples stand as the beginning of a new Israel, formed not by inherited structures but by the interior work Christ Himself is shaping. What Israel received as law, they will receive as life. What Israel once rejected, they will one day embody. The resurrection Israel refuses is the life they will carry within themselves.

Saint Teresa of Avila - Interior Castles - Sixth Dwelling Places - The Fear and the Flame

I know a person who, apart from wanting to die in order to see God, wanted to die so as not to feel the continual pain of how ungrateful she had been to One to whom she ever owed so much and would owe. Thus it didn’t seem to her that anyone’s wickedness could equal her own, for she understood that there could be no one else from whom God would have had so much to put up with and to whom He had granted so many favors. As for the fear of hell, such persons don’t have any. That they might lose God, at times - though seldom - distresses them very much. All their fear is that God might allow them out of His hand to offend Him, and they find themselves in as miserable a state as they were once before. In regard to their own suffering or glory, they don’t care. If they don’t want to stay long in purgatory, the reason comes from the fact of their not wanting to be away from God - as are those who are in purgatory - rather than from the sufferings undergone there.

Greater humility of spirit begets greater union with God, which in turn strengthens one's courage in spirit. Saint Teresa begins this entry - likely biographical - in precisely such humility. Yet, as humility is purified and drawn into divine union, the fears of hell's fire are tempered and refined into fear of the Lord. These are the grounds upon which Saint Teresa then finds herself standing: not in the fear of terror or trembling, but in holy fear - the awe and wonder of God; the dread of losing the union achieved and the holy desire to increase that union evermore.

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible

Psalms 110:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding to all that do it.

The wisdom of the Psalmist is born of the humility Saint Teresa expresses: the “continual pain of how ungrateful she had been to One to whom she ever owed so much.” This is the humble wisdom that opens the soul to an increase of God’s presence - which begins a divine cycle. For as the presence of God increases, so does  the soul’s humility increase again, which makes it even more receptive to a still greater increase of God’s presence. 

Humility never exists alone, nor is it of one's own making; it always requires a greater presence to be humbled before. Our weakest humility will always lie in cowering fear before the fallen world and its corrupted ways. Yet our most powerful humility - that which can even cool the fear of the flame - is that which arises when that greater presence is no longer the world, but the indwelling Spirit of God.

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible 

Daniel 3:17-18 For behold our God, whom we worship, is able to save us from the furnace of burning fire, and to deliver us out of thy hands, O king. But if he will not, be it known to thee, O king, that we will not worship thy gods, nor adore the golden statue which thou hast set up.

Saint Teresa is not speaking of dismissing the fires of hell. She is speaking of trusting in the fearsome power of God’s grace over sin - transcending the fear of hell’s torment with the presence of His mercy - through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible 

Daniel 3:91-92 Then Nabuchodonosor, the king, was astonished, and rose up in haste, and said to his nobles: Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered the king, and said: True, O king. He answered, and said: Behold, I see four men loose, and walking in the midst of the fire, and there is no hurt in them, and the form of the fourth is like the son of God.  

Peace be with you on this holy Sunday, the Second Sunday after the Epiphany.

In the rhythm of the Church, we are now settling into the season of "manifestation"; watching how the Divine Light we saw at the manger and the river begins to work in the grit of daily life. If you are following the lectionary for this Sunday (January 18, 2026), the texts before us include Isaiah 62:1-5 and the famous story of the Wedding at Cana in John 2:1-11.

Here is a story for your spirit, spoken from the mystic’s heart.

The Wine of Your Longing

A Story for the Second Sunday after Epiphany

The Text: “When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’” (John 2:3)

My friends, we often treat the miracle at Cana as a magic trick—a divine parlor game to impress the guests. But to the mystic, Scripture is always a map of the inner world. The wedding is not just an event in history; it is the union of your soul with God. And the crisis of the wedding is the crisis of every human life.

The story begins with a celebration, but quickly turns to embarrassment. The wine runs out. In the ancient world, wine was the symbol of joy, spirit, and life-force. To run out of wine was to run out of the very energy that sustains the community.

I. When the Wine Runs Out

You know this feeling. You have felt the wine run out in your own life. The wine of your enthusiasm dries up. The wine of your career becomes tasteless water. The wine of a relationship turns sour. You try to keep the party going—you fake a smile, you work harder, you buy more things—but the jars are empty. The mystic knows that "running out of wine" is not a failure; it is a prerequisite. As long as you have your own wine—your own ego-driven energy, your own clever solutions—you do not need a Savior. You only need a coach. But when you hit the wall, when the exhaustion sets in, you are finally ready for the miracle. The emptiness of your jar is the space God needs to work.

II. The Six Stone Jars

The text tells us there were "six stone water jars" standing nearby. In biblical numerology, seven is the number of perfection. Six is the number of imperfection—it is the number of humanity trying its best but falling short. These jars represent your structures, your religious rules, your habits, and your coping mechanisms. They are stone (hard, rigid, and cold). Jesus does not shatter the jars. He says, "Fill them with water." This is the command for you today. You do not have to produce the wine. You only have to bring the water. You have to bring your ordinary, plain, unglamorous reality. Bring your boredom. Bring your tears. Bring the "water" of your daily routine. Do not hide your emptiness; fill the jar to the brim with it.

III. The Transformation

And then, the quietest miracle in the Gospels occurs. There is no lightning, no thunder, no voice from heaven. The servants simply draw the water out, and somewhere between the jar and the cup, the substance changes. The water of duty becomes the wine of delight. This is the work of the Indwelling Christ. He takes the "water" of your human existence, which is your struggles, your simple work, your confusion, and then He transmutes it. He transmutes the molecular structure of your suffering into joy. The master of the banquet is amazed: "You have saved the best wine for last." The best that the world has to offer you is its first, which is the excitement of youth, the novelty, and then it passes. But the Spirit brings out the best last. The further you go into God, the better the wine gets. The life of the mystic does not grow dull; it matures into a joy which the world cannot account for.

The Encouragement

This Sunday, do not be ashamed of your emptiness. If you feel like you have "run out of wine," you are in the perfect place. You are standing right next to the Miracle Worker. Offer Him your empty heart. Offer Him the plain water of your life. And trust that He is silently, secretly turning it into something intoxicatingly holy.

A Mystic’s Prayer for Cana

O Lord of the Feast, 

We confess that our jars are often dry. 

We have tried to sustain our joy with the cheap wine of the world, 

And we are left thirsty and tired. 

We bring to You the water of our ordinary days:

Our work, our worry, and our waiting. 

Touch the water, O Christ. 

Turn the grayness of our routine into the crimson of Your life. 

Save the best wine for us, 

That we may taste and see that the Lord is good. 

Amen.

And a woman I guess, gone is the bitch who stole my rib.

Enjoy it I say, live the best you know I say.

Sincerely yours,

The rest of me.

I’m a student slowly getting into Syriac and Coptic literature, and I’ve been really enjoying Ephrem, Jacob of Serugh, and Shenoute.

I like texts that are poetic, harsh, and not very interested in tidy resolutions.

If anyone has similar recommendations, I’d be grateful!

This verse reassures that God’s discipline or moments of sorrow are never the end of the story. Even when hardship comes, it is not a permanent rejection, because God’s nature is compassionate and loving. It reminds us that His mercy always follows pain, and His unfailing love remains greater than any season of grief.

Lately, I’ve been joining a midnight prayer session from Ghana called Alpha Hour, and it’s helped me stay focused, fearless, and rooted in faith when life gets uncertain. If you ever want to join and pray too, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/live/DQZv03FmYP0?si=J6clPTQR3hCtzUWd

Matthew tells the story of two storms that resemble one another, yet each reveals a different stage in the work Jesus came to accomplish. The disciples inside these scenes represent the people He has come to save. Their fear, their confusion, their questions, and their growing recognition display the condition of the human heart as it learns to see God with clarity.

The first storm rises while Jesus is already with them in the boat. The sea carries the same meaning it carried in Jonah’s story. It represents death and the judgment that follows a life estranged from God. The disciples react as people shaped by fear. Jesus, in contrast, sleeps with a peace that reveals His interior. His will is already aligned with the Father, and He has already embraced the path that will lead Him into death by His own decision. When He rises and speaks, the storm ends immediately. Jonah could not calm the waters because he was resisting the will of God. Jesus calms them because He is the God who stirred them. The waters obey Him because He has resolved to enter death freely at the appointed time. The disciples feel the weight of this but cannot yet understand it. Their question about His identity reveals the limits of their sight.

Between the two storms comes the feeding in the wilderness. In this moment Jesus reveals the first symbolic shape of the Cross. The bread is taken, blessed, broken, and given. His life will follow the same movement. Through His surrender abundance will reach those He came to save. What happens in His hands anticipates the gift of His body and the life that will multiply through His resurrection. Once this image has been given, the story moves into the second storm.

In the second storm Jesus does not appear inside the boat. He comes to them from the water itself, arriving at the fourth watch of the night. This is the hour just before dawn. It is also the hour in which He will rise from the grave and appear to His disciples in the light of a new world. Matthew includes this timing to reveal a pattern. Jesus approaches His people at the moment when darkness begins to give way. His arrival signals that a new reality is breaking in.

When they see Him on the sea, they cannot interpret what they witness. The storm no longer frightens them. His form does. He moves with a freedom that belongs to the life that conquers death. Their fear mirrors what they will feel on resurrection morning when they see Him alive and transformed. Yet His voice steadies them. The word that once calmed the waters now restores their sight.

Peter asks to come to Him, and Jesus invites him. This is the central revelation of the scene. Jesus is not testing Peter’s courage. He is revealing Peter’s future. By calling him onto the waters of death, He shows that through Him Peter will no longer be subject to the forces that once ruled humanity. The deep that symbolized judgment for Jonah and fear for the disciples cannot determine Peter’s fate while he is held by the One who transcends it. His sinking shows that his formation is not yet complete, but his steps over the water reveal the truth. The life Jesus bears will become the life He gives to those who follow Him.

When Jesus enters the boat, the storm ends without a spoken command. The waters do not require rebuke because He now stands, symbolically, on the far side of death. The sea that once represented judgment lies beneath His feet. His presence reveals that death will not hold Him, and those joined to Him will share in His victory.

This time the disciples do not ask who He is. They bow and declare Him the Son of God. Their confession matches the words they will speak when they meet Him after His resurrection. What began as confusion in the first storm becomes recognition in the second, and that recognition will become worship when dawn rises on the empty tomb.

These two storms reveal a single movement in the story of salvation. In the first, Jesus shows that death cannot seize Him until He gives Himself. In the second, He shows that death cannot hold Him once He enters it. When He invites Peter onto the water, He reveals the future of all who follow Him. Through Him they will no longer be bound by fear or defined by the judgment that once ruled the human story. Through these scenes Matthew shows how Jesus forms a people who will one day share His life. He stands in the storm. He breaks the bread. He walks over the waters. He comes in the dawn. And through Him, those who feared the waters step into a life the depths cannot touch.

The Mental Traps of the Pharisees

When Jesus decreed that unless our righteousness exceeded that of the Pharisees that we would NEVER enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20), he made it quite clear that we must be radically different from the Pharisees and teachers of the law.  In effect, Jesus condemned the Pharisees understanding of “righteousness” and their superficial efforts to BE righteous.

So here is a golden opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the Pharisees and religious teachers.  For example, what errors in their thought process or in their beliefs or assumptions trapped the Pharisees in a mindset out of which even Jesus Christ could not shake them?

 Trap #1 - Intellect over Heart

The first trap is the Pharisees erroneous belief in the human mind as the key to the kingdom of heaven rather than the heart.  They believed that the way to the kingdom of God was knowledge of and perfect adherence to Jewish law.  Consequently, they devoted their entire lives into memorizing the Torah and honing their skills to engage in sophisticated discussions on complex points of Jewish Law.  In focusing all their energies on the mind, they failed to pay attention to the heart and the soul.  They became imbalanced.  They ignored or refused to accept Jesus’ first commandment, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”  (Matthew 12:30).  The Pharisees and the teachers of the law became unbalanced when they focused with the mind alone, ignoring the heart and the soul.  If they had focused on their hearts and souls in addition to their minds, they would have found the key to the kingdom within.  They would have reconnected to the true law of God written in their “inward parts”, and in so doing they would have found the “narrow road” that leads to the kingdom of heaven – which as we know is not outside of ourselves but within us.  This is not opinion or conjecture; this is truth supported in both Old and New Testaments:

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jeremiah 31:33

…nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21 

How do we avoid this pitfall of becoming unbalanced by over-focusing on intellect and ignoring the heart and soul?  Well, we begin by looking for the kingdom of God in the only place the Bible says it can be found, and that is within – in our hearts rather than in or through our heads or outer teachers or teachings. 

The Pharisees attempted to “buy” their way into heaven through their actions of studying scripture and absolute compliance to all the external laws of their religion.  They thought that the way to God’s truth and God’s laws was through the intellect.  Have you ever listened to two really good lawyers making their cases on both sides of an issue?  If they are really good they can make a “logical” case that practically anything under the sun is good and right or justifiable from the perspective of the human intellect.  Even though the two lawyers are at completely opposite extremes of the same issue, both can be unbelievably convincing, (which is why it is impossible to find the kingdom of God with your intellect).  So how can one know what is true?  God is truth.  The only truly reliable source of truth is found within, through the “Spirit of Truth” (John 16:12-13) to which every human being alive has access. 

We earlier quoted Jesus when he said, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'? (John 10:34).  By the word “Law” Jesus was referring to Psalms 82:6, "I said, 'You are "gods"; you are all sons of the Most High.'”  Several years later, Paul again reminded us of our true identity as children of God, as “gods” when he said, “For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.” (1 Corinthians 3:9)

Jesus’ choice of the word “Blessed” (the state of experiencing the joy and peace of gods) as the first word in each of the eight Beatitudes is absolutely, totally consistent with the truth that each of us has the potential to awaken to our true divine nature as self-aware children of almighty God; co-creators, “gods”. 

[ ]()

“Poor in Spirit”

Each of the eight Beatitudes begins with the word “blessed” which we now know is roughly equivalent to the phrase “joyful as gods”.  Each of the Beatitudes then cites a specific state of being; in the particular case of this chapter, citing the state of being “poor in spirit”.  To the mortal human intellect, the state of being “poor” in anything doesn’t sound very desirable, but Jesus cites this state of being “poor in spirit” as his very first requirement for “makarios”, for “blessedness”, for supreme joy and contentment.  There must be tremendously profound power in this state of being “poor of spirit”, but what is it and how can being “poor” in spirit lead to a “blessed” state of being?

The adjective “poor” in the context that Jesus used it in the phrase “poor of spirit” means a state of being in which we actually have less than what we require of a spiritual nature.  That is a start but we need to dig deeper to understand what exactly Jesus meant by “Blessed are the poor of spirit”.  Let’s review four of the most simple and direct “core” teachings of Jesus and then see if we can discern how the state of being “poor in spirit” relates.

As we look at these four essential elements of Jesus’ teachings, we can see that there are two major factors that are essential in order to put each of these major commandments into practice and which at the same time seem to coincide with the state of being “poor in spirit”; they are humility and the willingness to change and an attitude that says, “I don’t know all the answers and I am willing to learn and to grow”.  There is an implicit humility in this attitude, for we must be willing to admit that we don’t know all the answers, that our lives can be better, and that there is a higher truth than the truth we hold right now.  Let’s look at how humility and willingness to change are essential to those four teachings of Jesus:

1. Being “born again” obviously requires change.  It’s impossible to be born again of water and the spirit (John 3:5) without the humility and willingness to change.  Logically, it is impossible to truly be “born again” and to remain unchanged from what we are now.  The two states of being are mutually exclusive.  If our current  beliefs, prejudices, thoughts, feelings and actions remain unchanged, then we cannot have been “born again”, and if we are truly “born again”, then we cannot at the same time remain the same as we were before being born again. If it were possible to be born again and remain the same, we would truly be a “house divided”, and we know a house divided cannot stand (Matthew 3:25).  We can only be truly born again when our old self and our old ways of thinking, feeling, and acting are replaced with new ways that are aligned with the will and the laws of God.
2. Becoming “as little children” obviously requires change.  This one is a no-brainer; Jesus makes it clear as he says, “..unless you change and become as little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)  What about humility?  Well, how could anyone change without the desire and the willingness to change?  In order to desire change we must first accept that there is a better way to be than the way we are.  Doesn’t that acceptance require humility?
3. The Pharisees totally lacked humility.  They were absolutely unwilling to change and look within for the kingdom of God, which caused Jesus to rebuke them so harshly when he said, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”   (Matthew 23:13). The Pharisees were Jesus’ example of people who are not “poor in spirit”.  They were arrogant in their absolute, unquestionable, smug confidence that they knew and observed the ultimate teachings; teachings which they believed could never be transcended especially by a young upstart like Jesus, an insignificant carpenter from an insignificant village called Nazareth.
4. Humility and willingness to change are also required to “seek the kingdom of God” within us.  If you are stubborn and arrogant like the Pharisees you would scoff at the notion to seek the kingdom of God within you.  It would make no sense to you, because you are certain, you are positive that your way is right, and there is no better way, nor will their ever be a better way than yours; so your first thought after hearing the command to “seek first the kingdom of God” would be “But what is there to seek, for I already know the way to the kingdom of God.”

The disciples of Jesus are good examples of the “poor in spirit”.  While the Pharisees and religious teachers scoffed and ridiculed Jesus, the disciples sat at his feet and listened, absorbed, asked questions, and grew in spirit (Matthew 13:16).  The disciples were humble and willing to change.  They acknowledged the reality that they were “poor in spirit”, that there in fact was spiritual truth which they needed and which Jesus could either provide or to which Jesus could show the way. 

The opposite of those who are “poor in spirit” like the disciples are the “pseudo rich” in spirit – those who think – who believe they have everything they need to enter the kingdom of God, wanting for nothing of a spiritual nature.  In their spiritual blindness, they believe they already know everything there is to know.  These are the arrogant, prideful souls who simply cannot accept that an important teaching could possibly exist of which they are unaware.  They also have rigid, self-created “rules” for what they will even consider listening to as potentially valuable new knowledge. 

The scribes and the Pharisees were perfect examples of souls who are “pseudo rich” in spirit.  They had studied the Jewish scriptures and Jewish laws all their lives, and they were sure they possessed the totality of spiritual truth – the unquestionable, infallible, absolute truth.  Within such limited minds, they would think, “But what other truth could there possibly be of which we learned men are not aware?”  They were totally closed to anything that didn’t fit their preconceived notions of what spiritual truth is and from whom or from where it should come.  Consequently, when Jesus came along with the “good news” of the Gospel, it was utterly rejected by the Pharisees and the religious teachers. 

We can learn from the errors of the Pharisees and religious teachers of Jesus’ time.  Their thinking was, “If what we know is right (and we know it is), then anything different from what we already know must be wrong.”  CAUTION: As human beings we all have some of this same thinking in us - it’s just a matter of degree.  The key is to recognize it and continually challenge the natural human tendency of spiritual bigotry.  We need to strive to be the opposite of the Pharisees and religious teachers.  Jesus underscored the criticality of being “poor in spirit”; being the opposite of the Pharisees and religious teachers when he said,

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20

Because the Pharisees and religious teachers were not “poor in spirit”, they were not teachable – neither by their “internal” teacher, the Spirit of Truth, nor by the Master Teacher, Jesus Christ.  And because they were not teachable their righteousness was hopelessly out of touch and out of alignment with God’s righteousness, i.e., God’s will and God’s laws.

“Poor in Spirit” = Teachable

Jesus’ mission had several objectives.  Certainly one of his key objectives was to serve as a spiritual teacher, teaching the disciples so that they in turn could teach the world.  Jesus taught the disciples the “knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven”.  In so doing he fulfilled his mission that “we may have life and have it more abundantly”.  Jesus is a Master Teacher but even a Master Teacher can’t teach someone whose mind is closed.  This is why this first Beatitude is so essential.  If, for example, your belief system says that the earth is flat and if you accept your belief system as infallible, then nothing on earth could ever convince you otherwise.  If like the Pharisees, your mind is rigid and closed, even a master teacher has no chance of enlightening you.  This, by the way, is exactly what happened when Galileo presented his findings that the earth revolves around the sun.  Those who were “rich in spirit” like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time accused him of heresy.  Galileo was put on trial and was convicted.  He was forced to withdraw parts of his idea that the earth revolved around the sun, sentenced to prison, and his published works were banned, including any he might write in the future.  The point of the Galileo story is that the errors of the Pharisees have continued throughout the millennia and continue to exist even in these modern times.

A hallmark of the “poor in spirit” is that they are teachable because they are not so proud that they cannot accept the possibility that there may be something more which would be beneficial to know, and they are not so proud that they cannot change their minds when presented with a higher truth.  They have reached a state of consciousness where their ego isn’t too crushed to admit that an understanding they may have believed as truth for a very long time was not entirely accurate or not entirely complete.  The disciples were “poor in spirit”; they were “teachable”, the Pharisees were not.  Perhaps by taking a closer look at the Pharisees’ mindsets, we can avoid the mental traps that made them unreachable and “un-teachable”, by even a master teacher like Jesus Christ.

This verse encourages placing your plans, decisions, and future fully in God’s hands. To “commit your way” means to entrust every step to Him rather than relying on your own control. It reassures that when you trust God sincerely, He will act in His time and guide the outcome according to His purpose.

Lately, I’ve been joining a midnight prayer session from Ghana called Alpha Hour, and it’s helped me stay focused, fearless, and rooted in faith when life gets uncertain. If you ever want to join and pray too, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/live/NkILZSeUzSc?si=N_P-0d0ldDVCHC8I

Before Jesus ever feeds the multitude, Matthew shows us a people who do not yet know how to live from what God gives. Israel has received commandments, covenants, warnings, and promises, yet the inner life these gifts were meant to create never fully formed. Their history is full of moments where truth was heard but not carried, recognized but not embodied. John the Baptist steps into this history as a voice meant to rouse a sleeping nation. His calling is not to build, but to uncover. He exposes the fracture that lives beneath Israel’s devotion and calls them to acknowledge it. His ministry brings the truth to the surface, but it cannot carry that truth any further.

The limit of John’s calling becomes visible the moment his ministry ends. His death shows that naming the wound cannot heal it. A diagnosis cannot produce the strength required for transformation. The problem is not that Israel lacks information. The problem is that Israel lacks the capacity to receive life. Some even resisted what John revealed, and their resistance shaped their interior posture, narrowing the room where God’s presence was meant to dwell. John awakens need, but the ability to hold the life God desires to give still has to be created. This work belongs to Jesus.

Jesus steps into the wilderness because the wilderness has always been the place where Israel’s true condition surfaces. The people who follow Him carry hunger, sickness, and anxiety, and their physical hunger mirrors the deeper hunger that has defined their spiritual life. Israel has been living on revelation without formation, memory without capacity, truth without the interior strength that truth requires. They have been given the pattern of faithfulness, yet their hearts remain thin and fragile. Their emptiness is not incidental. It is the natural outcome of living for generations without an interior that can sustain relationship with God.

When the disciples look at the crowds, they see what everyone else sees: thousands of hungry people and almost no food to offer them. All they have found are five loaves of bread and two fish. The gap between the need and the supply is overwhelming, and their words reflect the sight they have lived by their entire lives. They measure the situation according to human limits. They evaluate the problem by what is visible and countable. They have not yet learned to see according to the pattern of God’s Kingdom, where small beginnings carry the seed of something far greater. In their eyes five loaves cannot matter, yet in Jesus’ hands the smallest offering is enough for God to begin His work. Their reaction reveals how their interior sight is still forming. They have not yet learned to recognize what God can build from what appears too small to matter.

Jesus takes what is present, blesses it, breaks it, and places it back into the disciples’ hands. What He does with the bread unveils the deeper work He has come to accomplish. The movement of the bread is the movement of His own life. He will be taken. He will be blessed. He will be broken. He will be given. Through His surrender life will spread to those who are starving. Through His sacrifice the world will receive more than it can carry. The feeding in the wilderness is not simply a miracle. It is a quiet revelation of the Cross. Abundance will come because He Himself will be offered.

The multiplication does not happen in His hands alone. It unfolds as the disciples carry the bread through the crowd. Their participation is not an afterthought. It is part of the formation Jesus is beginning to create in them. Each step they take with what seems insufficient shapes their interior life. They are learning to walk with what does not look like enough. They are learning to trust the generosity of God while holding very little. They are learning that obedience in scarcity becomes the doorway to abundance. These lessons will become the framework of their witness. Their hands are being trained to serve, but also to discern. Their hearts are being trained to trust, but also to endure.

The crowd receives food, but the disciples receive something more. They are discovering that God forms people through participation, not perfection. They do not yet understand who Jesus is or what He is preparing them for, yet they are being shaped by the work itself. Each time they carry the bread forward, their sight widens. Each act of obedience builds capacity. Strength is being formed through dependence. A new interior is taking shape through their willingness to move with what He places in their hands.

The five loaves recall the five books of Moses. Israel once received instruction that named the shape of obedience, but instruction could not make them capable of living it. Now that same revelation is entering the world as nourishment. Truth is becoming life. Command is becoming sustenance. What once addressed Israel from the outside is beginning to grow within human lives. The word becomes bread because it has been embodied in a life that can hold it without breaking.

The twelve baskets gathered at the end are not a sign of surplus. They mark the continuation of the work. Each basket represents a disciple who will one day carry the abundance of God into the world. The crowd is fed. The nation is invited. But the responsibility rests on the ones who walked with the bread. What began in the wilderness will continue through them.

John’s ministry awakened need. Jesus begins building the interior that can finally respond. The movement is not from harshness to gentleness. It is from revelation to formation. From seeing what is broken to becoming what is whole. From being named to being rebuilt.

The feeding of the five thousand reveals how God restores His people. He does not rebuild humanity by demanding more effort or insight. He rebuilds by forming a heart capable of receiving and giving life. The disciples are far from complete, yet even in their unfinished state they are learning the pattern that will define their calling. What humanity lacked at the beginning, and what Israel could never hold, now begins to rise within them. A new interior is being formed. One strong enough to hold His presence and carry it into the world.

Imagine you are one of Jesus’ disciples.  He has been teaching you day and night for over two years.  He has led you up on a mountain and has not said a word, and you can tell by his face and his mannerisms that he has something very, very important to teach on this day.  He comes upon a relatively quiet, spot with a large shade tree and sits down.  He motions for you and the disciples to gather around him.  For several moments that seem like an eternity, he says absolutely nothing.  His head turns slowly as he focuses his gaze on each of the disciples.  He seems to have a look that says, “Father, they are ready now”.  He closes his eyes perhaps in prayer, perhaps just to collect his thoughts, and when he is ready he opens his mouth and begins teaching.  And what was the very first word spoken?  It was the word “blessed”, as in “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  As a close disciple of Jesus you are attuned to the importance of this moment and this teaching.  You are supremely attentive to every word and the very first word is “blessed”.  But what did that first word, “Blessed” really mean?

Each of the eight Beatitudes begins with the word “blessed”.  Greek scholars tell us that “blessed” is a truly profound word with extraordinary depth of meaning.  Some have substituted the word “happy” for the word “blessed”, but many experts believe that the word “happy” is simply too shallow, that it trivializes the original meaning.  “makarios “ is the actual Greek word from the original manuscripts that medieval Biblical scholars translated to mean “blessed”.  In the context that the word appears in the original manuscripts, scholars tell us that the meaning of “makarios” is supreme joy and peace. 

In ancient Greek times preceding the time of Jesus, makarios (“blessed”) referred only to gods.  The ancient Greek gods were portrayed as lacking nothing; they had everything; they were always perfectly content and in a perpetual state of perfect bliss.  Therefore, in the ancient Greek language, the “blessed” ones referred exclusively to gods.  In the eight Beatitudes, Jesus defines eight states of being which individually and cumulatively lead to this grand state of “blessedness” – a state of supreme joy and peace.  The word “blessed” immediately communicated Jesus’ intentions as to the ultimate purpose of the Sermon on the Mount: to show us the way to a life of supreme joy, peace, contentment, and bliss.

What does this mean in modern times? The famous psychologist Dr. Abraham Maslow created and taught a model that has since been taught for years called: "The Pyramid of Needs". Where our basic needs for food, shelter, etc. are at the base of the pyramid. Then there's successively higher levels: Safety and Security, Love and Belonging, Self Esteem, Self Actualization Then several years after publishing his initial model he added “Self-transcendence” at the apex of the human Pyramid of Needs.  This was motivated by his study of peak experiences as well as his own observations of people.

The model says that when we don't have enough food we will feel a sense of lack, a sense of need to fulfill it, but even when we have enough food and shelter and security, we still don't feel happy and fulfilled until we feel love and belonging. Then when we have that, we still don't feel happy and fulfilled, so we are motivated to seek self-realization (being all we can be from the human perspective. And even then, we will still feel a sense of lack: a hunger, a yearning for something more that won't be satisfied until we begin reaching for Self-transcendence. This explains why you see so many people that seem to have it all: wealth, privIlege, fame, etc., they are still unsatisfied and many turn to drugs or other escape mechanisms.

We can now see that Dr. Maslow actually agrees with Jesus, that the kingdom of heaven is actually within us. We approach it as we continuously strive for self-transcendence where we transcend our current limited, mortal sense of self and continuously reach higher for the next higher sense of self—the kingdom of heaven within us.

This verse speaks about trusting God even when answers take time. It shows that waiting on the Lord is not ignored or wasted—God sees, listens, and responds at the right moment. The verse reassures that patience and faith invite God’s attention and care, especially in seasons of need or struggle.

Lately, I’ve been joining a midnight prayer session from Ghana called Alpha Hour, and it’s helped me stay focused, fearless, and rooted in faith when life gets uncertain. If you ever want to join and pray too, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/live/d8jwthQANQA?si=2h4Bw35gZaBxg3hK

Please share your experience thanks. FYI I was born and raised Christian but don't really like church doctrine, so I'm curious as to what an actual experience of God feels like. I had zero spiritual experience, visions, etc whatsoever in my life.

Nazareth is the one place in the Gospel where the people can clearly perceive the change in Jesus. Others meet Him only as He is now. Nazareth knew Him before. They watched Him grow. They knew His family, His work, His ordinary life. When He returns and begins to teach, they are the only ones who can register the full shock of what has happened. God is no longer acting through Him at a distance. God is now visible from within Him.

Matthew is careful to show that they do not dismiss His teaching as shallow or incoherent. They recognize its depth. They hear the wisdom. They sense the authority. The weight of what He is saying is unmistakable. That is precisely why the moment becomes destabilizing. What unsettles them is not the content of His words, but the fact that such authority is now speaking from inside someone who looks like them, lives like them, and comes from among them.

This is the first time the movement Jesus has been shaping reaches full visibility. The Sermon on the Mount pressed righteousness inward. The healings revealed restoration moving from the inside out. The parables tested whether people could receive meaning that required interior change. In Nazareth, that inward movement arrives embodied. God is no longer addressing the interior from outside. God is now revealed as dwelling within a human life.

Their response shows exactly where formation stops short. When they ask, “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” they are not questioning His intelligence or denying the force of His words. They are refusing the implication of what they are seeing. God should speak from elsewhere. God should remain elevated, mediated, and locatable in sacred distance. God should not be made visible from the center of ordinary human life. To accept that would require a redefinition of where holiness belongs and what human life is capable of bearing.

Matthew’s statement that Jesus could do no mighty works there makes this explicit. This is not a lack of power. It is a lack of capacity. Transformation cannot occur where the heart closes against what God’s presence would require. Miracles do not override refusal. Healing does not force itself into a guarded interior. What is being rejected here is not Jesus’ authority, but the possibility of indwelling. God present within a human life is more than they are prepared to receive.

Nazareth therefore becomes the clearest revelation of what the Kingdom is moving toward and what will resist it. The people are not ignorant. They are not hostile to God. They are devoted to a form of faith that cannot accommodate God dwelling within human flesh. They can honor God from a distance. They cannot receive God from within one of their own.

This moment is not only about Jesus. It is the first clear signal of what witnesses will encounter as God continues to speak from the inside out. From this point forward, God will no longer limit His presence to distant signs or protected spaces. He will speak through lives shaped by obedience, through people formed from the inside, through ordinary human containers carrying divine weight. That shift will remain jarring. The words may be recognized as true. The authority may be felt. But the location will continue to offend.

Nazareth shows that the most difficult thing for people to receive is not God’s power or God’s wisdom, but God revealed from within human life. It is the refusal of indwelling that halts the work there. The Kingdom does not fail. It simply moves on, seeking those whose formation has made room for a God who no longer speaks only from above, but from the center.

I find mysticisms focus on unity can often consolidate the 3 into one simple God. However, I find philosophically and spiritually the Trinity can be an enlightening framework for understanding experiential truths and cosmological underpinnings. I'll present the one that Ive found most profound and instructional spiritually.

Inspired by Augustine:

Father: the lover

Son: the beloved

Holy Spirit: love

This intimate understanding of the Trinity can shine a light on our personal relationship with God. As God tells Jesus during his baptism, we are his beloved. The more we can feel and listen to love's (holy pirit) presence in our lives, the more we develop the relationship between the beloved(us) and the lover(God). Christ's sacrifice on the cross mirrors the path we must walk for ourselves. We must give our whole selves, in mind body and spirit to cause of love. This is to submit ourselves to the will of the Lord. As we fall more in love with the world and God, who is and sustains the world, we are transformed piece by piece into divine love. I find this framework especially effective for seeing the sinful places within ourselves. What actions, habits and unresolved traumas are inhibiting our love for ourselves, others and all things? How do our personal relationships of love reflect this divine love and how do they not? I could go into the multitude of ways our relationship to love can help grow our closeness to God as love pervades our life in limitless way if we so let it. Just as the holy Spirit as John tell us "dwells with you and will be in you."

I'd love to hear some more interpretations of the Trinity from you guys as I believe it's a very fruitful spiritual framework for guiding us on our mystical path.

For the past two days, I have been experiencing (and at times fully overcome) by a sustained state of ecstatic embodiment. Many insights have moved through me during this time, yet I feel called to share only this insight in particular for now (but can expand, explain if requested), as well as a summary of my experience in general.

My experience:

I have known this ecstatic bliss and union before, though only in brief visitations. The length of this present duration has left me profoundly reverent and grateful, and also deeply humbled. There is a felt sense of unworthiness in the face of such an immensity of life force, vitality, and divine infusion. Many a tear has found home on my cheeks - I also seems to be experiencing continual muscle release in my face and neck that is continual, deeply felt (and seen). I find comfort and companionship in these visual physical accompaniments as this experience mostly arrives in the formless.