This is beautiful Walter. I can tell how much more clearly your mission is crystallizing for you. I sense that some people will find this aspect perplexing:
the friendship you describe between a heavenly spiritual mentor and the mentee is initiated by the mentor—ie the Saint—not the mentee. Your experience with Joan and Therese can’t be replicated by others just by reading about it. How does your work benefit someone who may never experience a “divine glance” of their own?
Hi Amy, sorry for the delayed response. We've been on the road vacationing, and I've had a difficult time getting any "response" time. I think the best answer to the question lies hidden throughout the post and my work in general. It's not a didactic effort, at least not in the traditional sense. It's more in the realm of story and myth. The reader is invited to join the journey-to take part in the story. The reader must draw out the lessons for themselves. My work is a testimony, yes. But more than anything, it's a journey that the reader must choose to participate in.
As far as the Divine Glance goes, I don't think that's the critical element for the traveler. It was for me. That's how I came to know Joan. But I think the reader prepared to journey can look at the broader lessons which are more important: our relationship with God and the saints is not 'in our head' as imaginative consciousness. It's hypostatic and 'in the world.' This relationship takes us beyond speculative metaphysics and the scaffolding of 'ideas' in our subjective consciousness. It's in our world, engaging us, and enchanting us. The mystical is a living experience, a "magical" experience if you will. It's not something that is just 'in our mind.'
So, Divine Glance or no, the reader can ponder these deeper messages hidden throughout my work. But they must journey to experience them. They do not do us much good when they are only thoughts 'in our own mind.' The Divine Glance is not a requirement for the journey. Living 'in the world' with Joan and the saints as lived experience, seeing what is known but remains hidden, opening ourselves to what we are certain about but cannot explain - are.
This is beautiful Walter. I can tell how much more clearly your mission is crystallizing for you. I sense that some people will find this aspect perplexing:
the friendship you describe between a heavenly spiritual mentor and the mentee is initiated by the mentor—ie the Saint—not the mentee. Your experience with Joan and Therese can’t be replicated by others just by reading about it. How does your work benefit someone who may never experience a “divine glance” of their own?
Hi Amy, sorry for the delayed response. We've been on the road vacationing, and I've had a difficult time getting any "response" time. I think the best answer to the question lies hidden throughout the post and my work in general. It's not a didactic effort, at least not in the traditional sense. It's more in the realm of story and myth. The reader is invited to join the journey-to take part in the story. The reader must draw out the lessons for themselves. My work is a testimony, yes. But more than anything, it's a journey that the reader must choose to participate in.
As far as the Divine Glance goes, I don't think that's the critical element for the traveler. It was for me. That's how I came to know Joan. But I think the reader prepared to journey can look at the broader lessons which are more important: our relationship with God and the saints is not 'in our head' as imaginative consciousness. It's hypostatic and 'in the world.' This relationship takes us beyond speculative metaphysics and the scaffolding of 'ideas' in our subjective consciousness. It's in our world, engaging us, and enchanting us. The mystical is a living experience, a "magical" experience if you will. It's not something that is just 'in our mind.'
So, Divine Glance or no, the reader can ponder these deeper messages hidden throughout my work. But they must journey to experience them. They do not do us much good when they are only thoughts 'in our own mind.' The Divine Glance is not a requirement for the journey. Living 'in the world' with Joan and the saints as lived experience, seeing what is known but remains hidden, opening ourselves to what we are certain about but cannot explain - are.