Simone Weil

"In what concerns divine things, belief is not appropriate. Only certainty will do. Anything less than certainty is unworthy of God."

Woah thats heavy stuff. I constantly say "I believe this" or "I believe that..." when i should be saying "I am certain!" Well in dealing with matters of God and faith anyways. The definition of believe is to accept something as true or feel sure of the truth. The definition of certainty is a fact that is absolutely true or a person that can undoubtably be relied on. Which one would you prefer? Accepting something as true, or knowing something as undoubted fact. I would definitely choose fact.

"Perfect and infinite joy really exists within God."

I really like this quote. It almost sounds like it came right out of the bible. haha. I dont know how i feel about the rest of it though..."My participation can add nothing to it, my non-participation can take nothing from reality of this perfect and infinite joy." Well I understand that with or without me God is perfect...but I'd like to think that each and every person that comes to know the Lord adds to that infinite joy. 

"Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer."

In other words...absolute focus and concentration on God and nothing or no one else is prayer. Not gonna lie this can be hard at times. First of all, how hard is it to find a secluded place where you can give your complete attention to God. pretty dang hard. Secondly, how hard is it to focus on one thing and one thing only for a long period of time. Well for me its very hard haha Our brains are designed to think of a million different things within seconds....i mean our train of thought alone is so weird and random. However, I find that its much easier to control your train of thought in prayer than at any other time. That must be God' doing because I know I would not be able to do that on my own haha

Isaac of Nineveh

"There is a love like a small lamp, which goes out when the oil is consumed; or like a stream, which dries up when it doesn't rain. But there is a love that is like a mighty spring gushing up out of the earth; it keeps flowing forever, and is inexhaustible."

So the lamp in my opinion would  be an earthly love. One that someone has with a spouse or a friend. The oil would be like a persons life span....so when the oil runs out (or a persons time runs out) the love technically goes out. But there is a love that lasts no matter what....under any circumstance. "like a mighty spring gushing up and out of the earth; it keeps flowing forever" And that is the love of God. Inexhaustible. Today in class we had a big discussion about suffering and death, and the whole time a Lincoln Brewster song was playing in my head called The Love of God. The lyrics say "in brokeness, i know you hold me, safe in redemptions arms, and i confess you alone restore me, leading me to your heart. Where else can i turn but to the love of God. "

"When we trust God with our whole heart, we dont fill our prayers with "Give me this" or "Take this from me.""

This is actually something that was recently discussed at the church i regularly attend. The pastor talked about how often when praying, people will ask God for things or to do things in their lives. He said that instead you should just surrender everything to him and lift your heart to him and ask that his will be done. Well at first i was like "why should i pray a certain way...its my prayer not yours..." haha but then i thought about it and what place do i have to ask God to give me something or do something for me when i have no way of knowing if it is his will or purpose for me. 

Thomas Traherne

Thomas has the same idea in his writings about God manifesting in people's souls as in Johannes'. His description of drinking wine really got my attention. I mean the obvious action taking place is the drinking of wine. But symbolically you are quenching your thirst with a gift from God. This makes me think about everything I do and how it is a gift. I mean when we go throughout our day, we dont look at everything being from God. I mean a person can claim they do and more power to em but in all honesty I know i dont. I get caught up in my daily routine and dont think twice about something as small as walking. But we walk because God created us to have legs and have that function.
Something about nature really makes me think about God though. I went to the beach this weekend and as I looked at the beach and the ocean I just couldnt help but feel complete gratitude to God. The creator. I also went to a redwood camp a few months ago with my church and something about the tall trees that reached beyond sight just gave me such peace.
The very last sentence "Which now I unlearn, and become as it were a little child again, that I may enter into the Kingdom of God" describes an idea that has come up in many of the passages in this book. When we become childlike and innocent again we will enter the Kingdom of God. I dont know about you but I long for the day i become like a child again :)

Johannes Scotus Erigena

"How can there be any place not filled with the glory of God?"
Thats what im sayin!
God is everywhere. EVERYWHERE! That alone just shakes me up...in a good way of course. How awesome is that though... I dont know about you but knowing that God is everywhere makes me feel so safe. Because if God is everywhere...then he is always with me...and I am always under his protection. I loved the descriptions used in this passage...."superessential essential...supernatural natural...simple composite..." So basically this is saying He is the opposite and parallel, the same and different. He is everything! haha thats crazy stuff.
I like how he tlaked about God manifesting in the creature. The creature obviously would be us. So in my opinion this means that God manifests(grows) in our hearts until we cant deny that he is there anymore. And then we are consumed by him in every possible way. This concept reminds me of a song called "From the inside out" by Hillsong United. The lyrics say:
"In my heart and my soul I give You control. Consume me from the inside out Lord. Let justice and praise become my embrace to love You from the inside out."
I think those lyrics just really reiderate what Erigena is saying here.