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 The spiritual quest  is an awakening.  Most of the people you meet on the street, regardless of their status or achievements are asleep.  But the Christian spiritual life is about being awake –– about having a "dawn" within us. It is about being conscious of the numinous, aware and attentive to the mysterious presence of God –– to the poetic, or divine life.  This series of podcasts, concludes with this 52nd episode. I may come back later to answer some frequently asked questions at a later date, but that is by no means for certain. So, I conclude with what could also be a beginning –– "Awakening."

This  episode continues to explore Christian spirituality as a spirituality in which community is essential, and faces squarely the reality that there are times when the church is neither beloved nor community ––times in which the institutions church has, in the name of Christ, perpetuated  evil.  How are those consecrated to the Christ, the Sacred Page, and the Beloved Community to respond?

Looks at the church, when it is truly the church, as community –– The Beloved Community of Christ. Did Jesus intend to create a church? What about the terrible things done by the church as established authority? Can I just be a Christian at large? Was Thomas Merton, the modern Christian mystics correct in saying the church is the antidote to the sort of individualism that leads to human despair? 

Saint Paul speaks frequently of being led by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, living in the Spirit. But what does Spirit walking mean when considered as a mark of Christ –– the stigmata of Christ?

This episode, number 48 of "The Quest / Claiming the Marks of Christ, looks at the marks of wisdom, listening, and knowledge of God's will (God's dream for humanity) as identifying marks of walking the kairotic path –– the "redeeming of the time."

Continues to explore Christian spiritual transformation –– what it means to bear the marks, or stomata, of Christ –– particularly in light of Jesus's saying: "You shall know them by the fruit they bear." The meaning of Galatians the fifth chapter "(the works of the flesh" and "the fruit of the Spirit") as it related to the Way of transformation.

Podcast 46  The Quest / Claiming the Marks of Christ continues the discussion of faith begun in Episode 45 as the Stigmate of Christ. Faith is considered not only as mental belief, but also as qualities that are beyond belief –– trust, surrender, knowledge or wisdom, a response to the goodness of God, and as a kind of force or energy.

Looks at the multiple meanings of faith (all of them necessary), and finds faith to be "beyond belief." Faith is the foundation that makes everything in life worthwhile. Like love it  is a way of insight and understanding; and, therefore,  is the path to wisdom.

This episode, number 44 in The Quest Series, continues to explore the question of what are the identifying marks, the "stigmata," of Christ that the Apostle Paul talks about in his letter to the Galatians. In doing so it notes that one need not be religious in order to be a "good person," or to do good.  It maintains that the primary and essential  identifying mark of the Christian is love for God and for others. In doing so it further explores the question: "What is love?"

Episode 43, "Claiming the Marks of Christ," begins a new chapter in The Quest series of podcasts. What are the spiritual marks, the stigmata, identifying the Christian –– the people of the Way? Can we make that determination or are we just being judgmental when we attempt to do so? What is the difference between claiming the stigmata of Christ in the sense of receiving the marks of Christ, and merely claiming to have received them.

42 The Quest / Meeting Jesus On the Road reflects on the resurrection of Christ as a reason for placing faith in him. There is also a brief summary outline of the various factors that lead to a reasonable faith in Christ––faith both as mental assent and as a giving of the heart in trust.

The is a reflection of beauty as a path to God. It reasserts the belief of the ancient philosophers that the true, the good, and the beautiful are one. We are mysteriously drawn to the source of beauty, and just as God is love, so God is the beautiful and Christ is the beauty of God incarnate drawing us into the beauty of God's truth, goodness, and love.