Christianity and Enlightenment - Insights from the World's Largest Religion

Christianity and Enlightenment 1.

" I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples."

Jesus, John 15:1-9

Christianity and Enlightenment 2.

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

Jesus, John 17:1-26

Christianity and Enlightenment 3.

A master says: whoever speaks of God in any likeness, speaks impurely of Him. But to speak of God with nothing is to speak of Him correctly. When the soul is unified and there enters into total self?abnegation, then she finds God as in Nothing.

It appeared to a man as in a dream - it was a waking dream - that he became pregnant with Nothing like a woman with child, and in that Nothing God was born, God was the fruit of Nothing. God was born in the Nothing."

Meister Eckhart

Christianity and Enlightenment 4.

Glory to you, most high, omnipotent, and good Lord
Praise and honor forever, and every blessing.
To you alone, most high One, should these be given
And no man is worthy of naming you.
Glory to you, my Lord, for all your creatures
Especially our brother, the sun,
Who is the day, and by whom you give us light:
He is beautiful and radiant with great splendor
And bears witness to you, most high One.
Glory to you, my Lord, for sister moon and the stars
You have made in heaven clear, precious, and beautiful.
Glory to you, my Lord, for brother wind
And for air and cloud and serene sky
And all the different weathers
By which you sustain all creatures.
Glory to you, my Lord, for sister water Who is very useful and humble
And precious and pure.
Glory to you, my Lord, for brother fire
By whom you illumine night
And he is beautiful and joyful and robust and full of power.
Glory to you, my Lord, for our sister mother earth
Who sustains and governs us And produces different fruits
And brightly colored flowers and grass.
Glory to you, my Lord,
For those who forgive for love of you
And bear sickness and ordeals.
Happy are those who bear them in peace
For they will be crowned by you, most high Lord.
Glory be to you, my Lord,
For our sister bodily death
From whom no living man can escape

Francis of Assisi

Christianity and Enlightenment 5.

This earth and all that is in it,
and the whole cosmic order to which it belongs,
has to undergo a transformation;
it has to become a "new heaven and a new earth."
Modern physics helps us to realize that this whole material universe
is a vast 'field of energies' which is in a
continuous process of transformation.
Matter is passing into life and life into consciousness,
and we are waiting for the time
when our present mode of consciousness
will be transformed and we shall transcend
the limits of space and time, and enter 'the new creation.'

Bede Griffiths, Benedictine Monk

Christianity and Enlightenment 6.

An experience of this kind is probably not at all uncommon, especially in early youth. Something breaks suddenly into our lives and upsets their normal pattern, and we have to begin to adjust ourselves to a new kind of existence.

This experience may come, as it came to me, through nature and poetry, or through art or music, or it may come through the adventure of flying or mountaineering, or of war; or it may come simply through falling in love, or through some apparent accident, an illness, the death of a friend, a sudden loss of fortune.

Anything which breaks through the routine of daily life may the bearer of this message to the soul. But however it may be, it is as though a veil has been lifted and we see for the first time behind the façade the world has built round us.

Suddenly we know that we belong to another world, that there is another dimension to existence. It is impossible to put what we have seen into words; it is something beyond all words which has been revealed. There can be few people to which such an experience does not come at some time, but it is easy to let it pass, and to lose its significance. The old habits of thought reassert themselves; our world returns to its normal appearance and the vision which we have seen fades away.

But these are the moments when we really come face to face with reality; in the language of theology they are moments of grace. We see our life for a moment in its true perspective in relation to eternity.

We are freed from the flux of time and see something of the eternal order which underlies it. We are no longer isolated individuals in conflict with our surroundings; we are parts of a whole, elements in a universal harmony.

Bede Griffiths, Benedictine Monk