Becoming: “Lazarus, Come Forth!”

Excerpts from my favorite prayer book…

“We die; indeed we have to die in order to be resurrected, restored, [transformed], and renewed. We die and we die and we die in this life, not only physically-within seven years every cell in your body is renewed-but emotionally and spiritually as change seizes us by the scruff of the neck and drags us forward into another life. We are not here simply to exist. We are here in order to become” Absolute Truths, by Susan Howatch.

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally, impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We would skip the intermediate stages [if we could]. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new, and yet, it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability-and that it may take a very long time… Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give our Lord the benefit of believing that His had is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete” Teilhard de Chardin

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place” 2 Corinthians 2:14.