Something to think and pray about this week

The following reflection was given on Sacred Space today. Beautiful. Go to Sacred Space to see reflections and prayers for the day, every day.

Describing progress towards God, Von Hügel writes of an institutional stage, followed by a critical stage, and culminating in what he calls a mystical stage. This does not mean magic or heavenly voices, but rather this: we oldies have seen it all, and know that good and evil, like the wheat and cockle of the parable, coexist not merely in countries and institutions, but in each of us. Pitch darkness and pure light are seldom the order of the day. We learn to live with both, light out of darkness. We do the best we can, and are ready to renounce the seductions of having the perfect formulation of reality, or the perfect formula for everyone's life.

In the mystical phase we still carry with us the institutional phase: we still love the sights and sounds of worship well carried out, and the sense of participating in a great body of believers. We have not left the critical phase behind, but carry it with us: we use our heads about our religion, and have no illusions about the weaknesses of Jesus' followers -- after all, Peter, the first Pope, had to live with the memory of denying the Lord publicly, again and again. But when we have argued about all the great questions of human existence, especially the mystery of evil, we realise that we rely more on the gift of faith than on clear-cut reason.