Wieczorne zamyślenia

Stanisław Barszczak, Last Friend

Twilight comes around six o’clock over Sakhari village. I did not exist, I melted into this twilight, into the street, our navel of the world. I was rocking in the clouds that were no longer visible, because my memory was moved by the information that went out into the world that I had been saved. But I’ll start at the beginning. My father sold me, a nine-year-old Parvana, to an elderly man. Thanks to the help of the foundation, I returned to my family. As a 9-year-old Parwana, I was sold by my father. But after two weeks, I was able to return to my family. It was the mass media that gave this information. Nine-year-old Parwana Budniak from Afghanistan was sold to a 55-year-old man in October. The girl’s father claimed that he did not have the money to support the family. Thanks to the publicity of the case and the involvement of the American foundation, Parwana returned to her family. – I was saved. I have a new life – I will say. Northwest Afghanistan, a mountainous region. A thin layer of snow covers the ground. A woman and her six children are sitting in the backseat of the car. This family has just left behind their entire life, which was based on a constant struggle for survival. There is also me, nine-year-old Parwana with my mother. „I’m really happy,” I say as I travel. – Because the Foundation has freed me from my husband who is much older than me – adds the girl. CNN reporters met her in October. Her father wanted to sell her, claimed he could not afford to support the family. He also said that he had already sold one 12-year-old daughter and would sell the rest if the situation in the country did not improve. – If I had no daughters, what would I do – wondered Abdul Budniak in October. Then the nine-year-old was bought by 55-year-old Qorban from a neighboring village. – I have a wife, four daughters and a son. I bought it for myself and I will wait until it grows up – he said then. CNN journalists documented the procedure a few weeks ago. In return for a girl, the man gave the family the equivalent of two thousand dollars. The head of the organization Too Young to Wed says: such stories raise a lot of controversy, but it really does happen. The story aroused great controversy and touched millions of people. There were offers from many NGOs that wanted to help Parwana and her sisters. Among them was the American foundation Too Young to Wed (For the young for the wedding). Its founder has been fighting for 20 years with arranged marriages with children all over the world. – I know that such stories are difficult to watch and difficult to comprehend. I know that they arouse a lot of controversy, but at the same time we have to make people understand that it is happening, that it really is happening – says the head of the organization Too Young to Wed. Activist: It will get even worse as hunger and poverty worsen in Afghanistan. The Afghan community was also outraged by Parwana’s story. The Taliban also say that they do not condone such practices. – I am asking everyone not to sell their children. Child marriage is not a good thing and we condemn it, says Mawawi Baz Mohammad Sawary of the Badghis Provincial Information and Culture Bureau. However, according to the few remaining children’s rights activists who have remained in Kabul, this particular story is just the tip of the iceberg. – A misfortune is happening here. Lots of bad. There is abuse around us, and it will be even worse as hunger and poverty worsen, says CNN activist Mahbouba Seraj. And these are very wise voices from Badghis. But young Parwana does not intend to end her story: – I have a new life, as you know. Thanks to the broadcast of the material and the help of the organization, I returned home after two weeks. – I’m glad that we managed to save her – says my father. Abdul apologized for what he did, but now owes a merchant to try to work it off. With his consent, it was decided to relocate the whole family, mother and six children, to a new place. They will live in a neighboring province. They had never had a real roof over their heads before, they lived in a tent in Qala-e-Naw, Badghis Province. – I was saved. I have a new life. Thank you for all your help – the girl is happy. – I have a dream that my children go to school. They have started their education – adds Reza Gul’s mother of nine years old in an interview with CNN. Parwana dreams of school. I would like to study and become a doctor or teacher in the future. The Too Young to Wed Foundation now wants to permanently engage in helping children from Afghanistan. – These are communities that have been relying solely on international aid for 20 years. We cannot stop providing them with support. We cannot allow these children to pay for such a fate. Ultimately, it is the girls who pay the highest price, says the head of the organization. Poverty in Afghanistan is increasing, and one of the main reasons for this is the suspension of funds by foreign governments after the Taliban took over. Even though marriages of persons under the age of fifteen
Having a year of age is illegal throughout the country, and has been widely practiced for years, especially in rural Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, thousands of girls cannot go to school, and some women cannot return to work due to the bans imposed by the Taliban shortly after taking power. Parwana, de-stressing the recent past, wants to tell you yet another story, about the fact that she had a teacher. You could never be sure who your classmates really were, and as we grew up a little, some of our classmates at a young age developed a mustache, and some disappeared for a few days and returned with their eyes lit with secret knowledge, and girlfriends whispered rumors about weddings in the countryside. We used to get married in those days. I don’t know what really happened then. My teacher was Mrs. Daniela. And I will tell you now about the first map that I saw thanks to it. I was seven when the teacher showed us this, even though I cannot say with certainty about the ages of the other girls and boys in the class. Seven is a good number. She held a chicken egg between her thumb and forefinger and asked us, „Who can tell me how to make that egg stand up at its end?” In this way, she presented us with the story of Christopher Columbus. It was a wonderful and unique moment, as if I, too, had stumbled upon an unimaginable and unexpected continent. The egg is not there, but suddenly it is standing, look. And such an experiment happened to Columbus. To go to China you need a little magic and wonder, Columbus showed the sailors an egg which he smashed at the bottom and gently broke the end of the egg. You have to be passionate, and having said that, he laughed. From then on, the sailors did not oppose Columbus and went to the great Khan in unison. I don’t know about that, I have no idea how the maps started talking to me, but I know I love to look at them and collect them, and Mrs. Daniela later handed me her grandfather’s old map. I laughed with pleasure when the gift arrived, but was also pretty sure I’d never see her again. One day, dressed in a bright chadari, she left the village. Why would she want to go our way to sell pieces of sandalwood and rose water when she could trade in Rangoon and Shiraz and in other remote places of the great world, places that are difficult to access and therefore beautiful? It was just for her that I endured the first maps of the attic. This is where we are at China. Mrs. Daniela put a dot on the northern Mediterranean and said: Christopher Columbus was here and he wanted to go to China, but going in the opposite direction. I don’t remember much of what she told us about the adventures of the greedy Cristobal, so many other stories silted over this innocent moment, but I remember she said that Columbus set off on his journey in the same year as the fall of Granada and the expulsion of the Muslims from Andalusia. These names at the top were new to me, as were many others, but she said them with such reverence and longing – the fall of Granada and the expulsion of Muslims from Andalusia that I never missed a moment. I can see her now, a short, plump woman, dressed in a faded and colorful jacket, sitting on the first or second pew in the house of prayer, her face scarred with smallpox but formed in an expression of understanding and tolerance. I remember the proficiency with which she created a picture of the world for us, my first map … As I said, one day, long before the trouble, she slipped out without a word and never returned. And then another day, forty-three years later, she collapsed right outside the front door of her home in a small English town. It was late afternoon when this happened, she was coming home from work, but it was quite late. She had left matters untouched for too long, and no one else could be blamed for it but herself. She felt the fall approaching. Not with the fear of the ruin she had in her since she remembered it, but with the feeling that something purposeful and muscular is constantly engulfing her. It wasn’t a blow from nowhere, but more like a beast that slowly turned its head toward her, recognized her, then reached out to strangle her. Her thoughts were clear as weakness sucked her insides out of her body, and with that clarity she thought absurdly that this must be her day, wanted to starve herself or freeze to death, or for a stone to crush the breath from her body. The comparison made her wince in spite of her anxiety: „Look what can cause melodramatic fatigue.” She was tired when she left work, with that kind of weariness that sometimes inexplicably fell on her at the end of the day, more in recent years than before, and that made her wish she could sit down and do nothing until the exhaustion was over. She wanted to die, even in an instant, when suddenly strong arms lifted her and carried her home. She was already very old, I’m getting old, she said gently. The wish was like a memory, as if she remembered someone doing her own thing. It’s a long time ago – who picked her up and took her home, she could feel it while she was awake. But she didn’t think it was a memory. The older he was, the more childish her wishes were at times. The longer she lived, the closer her childhood came to her, and the less it seemed to her to fantasize about someone else’s and not her own life. Death for Muslims is part of life and is a transition to extraterrestrial reality. “We have given immortality to no man before you. Every soul will taste death ”(21: 34-35), the Koran assures us. Mrs. Daniela is already looking towards Mecca, and I want to accompany her from now on always and everywhere.

Stanisław Barszczak, Ostatnia przyjaciółka

Zmierzch nadchodzi około godziny szóstej nad Sakhari. Nie istniałam, wtopiłam się w ten zmierzch, w ulicę, nasz pępek świata. Bujałam w obłokach, których już nie było widać, bo pamięć moja poruszona została informacją, która poszła w świat, że zostałam uratowana. Ale zacznę od początku. Ojciec sprzedał mnie, dziewięcioletnią Parwanę starszemu mężczyźnie. Dzięki pomocy fundacji wróciłam do rodziny. Jako 9-letnia Parwana zostałam sprzedana przez ojca. Ale po dwóch tygodniach udało mi się wrócić do rodziny. Właśnie środki masowego przekazu przekazały tę informację. Dziewięcioletnia Parwana Budniak z Afganistanu w październiku została sprzedana 55-letniemu mężczyźnie. Ojciec dziewczynki twierdził, że nie ma pieniędzy, by utrzymać rodzinę. Dzięki nagłośnieniu sprawy i zaangażowaniu amerykańskiej fundacji, Parwana wróciła do rodziny. – Uratowano mnie. Mam nowe życie – powiem. Północno-zachodni Afganistan, górzysta okolica. Ziemie pokrywa cienka warstwa śniegu. Na tylnym siedzeniu samochodu siedzi kobieta i sześcioro jej dzieci. Ta rodzina zostawiła właśnie za sobą całe dotychczasowe życie, które opierało się na ciągłej walce o przetrwanie. Przy matce jestem też ja, dziewięcioletnia Parwana. – Jestem naprawdę szczęśliwa – mówię w trakcie podróży. – Albowiem Fundacja uwolniła mnie od sporo starszego ode mnie męża – dodaje dziewczynka. Reporterzy CNN poznali ją w październiku. Jej ojciec chciał ją sprzedać, twierdził, że nie stać go na utrzymanie rodziny. Mówił też, że wcześniej sprzedał już jedną 12-letnią córkę i sprzeda pozostałe, jeśli sytuacja w kraju się nie poprawi. – Gdybym nie miał córek, to co miałbym zrobić – zastanawiał się w październiku Abdul Budniak. W październiku dziewięciolatkę kupił 55-letni Qorban z sąsiedniej wioski. – Mam żonę, cztery córki i syna. Kupiłem ją dla siebie i poczekam aż wydorośleje – mówił wówczas. Dziennikarze CNN udokumentowali kilka tygodni temu, jak przebiega ten proceder. Mężczyzna dał rodzinie w zamian za dziewczynkę w sumie równowartość dwóch tysięcy dolarów. Szefowa organizacji Too Young to Wed mówi: takie historie budzą wiele kontrowersji, ale to naprawdę ma miejsce. Historia wzbudziła ogromne kontrowersje i poruszyła miliony ludzi. Pojawiły się oferty z wielu organizacji pozarządowych, które chciały pomóc Parwanie i jej siostrom. Wśród nich znalazła się amerykańska fundacja Too Young to Wed (Za młode na ślub). Jej założycielka od 20 lat walczy z zaaranżowanymi małżeństwami z dziećmi na całym świecie. – Wiem, że takie historie trudno oglądać i trudno pojąć. Wiem, że budzą wiele kontrowersji, ale jednocześnie musimy sprawić, by ludzie zrozumieli, że to się dzieje, że to naprawdę ma miejsce – mówi szefowa organizacji Too Young to Wed. Aktywistka: będzie jeszcze gorzej, gdy pogłębi się głód i ubóstwo w Afganistanie. Historią Parwany oburzona była też afgańska społeczność. Talibowie też twierdzą, że na takie praktyki się nie godzą. – Proszę wszystkich, aby nie sprzedawali swoich dzieci. Małżeństwo dzieci nie jest dobrą rzeczą i potępiamy to – mówi Mawawi Baz Mohammad Sawary z Biura Informacji i Kultury Prowincji Badghis. Jednak zdaniem nielicznych już działaczy na rzecz ochrony praw dzieci, którzy zostali jeszcze w Kabulu, ta konkretna historia, ale to zaledwie wierzchołek góry lodowej. – Dzieje się tu nieszczęście. Wiele zła. Wokół mamy do czynienia z nadużyciami, a będzie jeszcze gorzej, gdy pogłębi się głód i ubóstwo – mówi CNN aktywistka Mahbouba Seraj. I to są bardzo mądre głosy z Badghis. Ale Parwana nie zamierza kończyć swej opowieści: – mam nowe życie, jak wiecie. Dzięki emisji materiału a potem pomocy organizacji, po dwóch tygodniach wróciłam do domu. – Cieszę się, że udało się ją ocalić – mówi ojciec. Abdul  przeprosił za to, co zrobił, jednak teraz ma dług wobec kupca, który ma spróbować odpracować. Za jego zgodą, całą rodzinę, matkę i sześcioro dzieci zdecydowano się relokować, umieścić w nowym miejscu. Zamieszkają w sąsiedniej prowincji. Nigdy wcześniej nie mieli prawdziwego dachu na głową, żyli w namiocie w Qala-e-Naw w prowincji Badghis. – Uratowano mnie. Mam nowe życie. Dziękuję wszystkim za pomoc – cieszy się dziewczynka. – Mam marzenie, żeby moje dzieci poszły do szkoły. Rozpoczęły edukację – dodaje w rozmowie z CNN matka dziewięciolatki Reza Gul. Parwana marzy o szkole. Chciałabym studiować a w przyszłości zostać lekarką lub nauczycielką. Fundacja Too Young to Wed chce teraz na stałe zaangażować się w pomoc dzieciom z Afganistanu. – Są to społeczności, które od 20 lat polegają wyłącznie na międzynarodowej pomocy. Nie możemy przestać dostarczać im wsparcia. Nie możemy pozwolić tym dzieciom płacić za taki los. Ostatecznie to właśnie dziewczynki ponoszą najwyższą cenę – mówi szefowa organizacji. Ubóstwo w Afganistanie rośnie a jedną z głównych przyczyn takiego stanu rzeczy jest wstrzymanie przez zagraniczne rządy funduszy, po tym, jak rządy objęli talibowie. Mimo że zawieranie małżeństw przez osoby poniżej piętnastego roku życia jest nielegalne w całym kraju, jest powszechnie praktykowane od lat, zwłaszcza w wiejskich regionach Afganistanu. W Afganistanie tysiące dziewcząt nie może chodzić do szkoły, a część kobiet nie może wrócić do pracy z powodu zakazów, jakie wprowadzili talibowie tuż po przejęciu władzy. Parwana odstresowujac niedawna przeszłość chce wam opowiedzieć jeszcze inną historię, o tym że miała nauczycielkę. Nigdy nie można było być pewnym, kim naprawdę były koleżanki i koledzy z klasy, a gdy trochę podrośliśmy, niektórzy z kolegów w młodym wieku rozwinęli wąsy, a niektórzy zniknęli na kilka dni i wrócili z oczami rozświetlonymi tajemną wiedzą, a koleżanki szeptały pogłoski o weselach na wsi. W tamtych czasach zwykle braliśmy ślub. Nie wiem, co wtedy wydarzyło się naprawdę. Moją nauczycielka była Pani Daniela. I powiem wam teraz o pierwszej mapie, którą dzięki niej zobaczyłam. Miałam siedem lat, kiedy nauczycielka nam to pokazała, nawet jeśli nie mogę z całą pewnością określić wieku pozostałych dziewcząt i chłopców w klasie. Siedem to dobra liczba. Trzymała kurze jajo między kciukiem a palcem wskazującym i zapytała nas:„Kto może mi powiedzieć, jak sprawić, by to jajko wstało na swoim końcu?” W ten sposób przedstawiała nam historię Krzysztofa Kolumba. To był wspaniały i niepowtarzalny moment, jakbym ja również natknęła się na niewyobrażalny i nieoczekiwany kontynent. Jajko nie stało, ale nagle stoi, zobaczcie. I taki eksperyment stał się udziałem Kolumba. Żeby płynąć do Chin trzeba trochę magii i cudowności, Kolumb marynarzom pokazał jajko, które rozbił u dołu i delikatnie złamał koniec jajka. Trzeba pasji, to powiedziawszy roześmiał się. Odtąd marynarze nie sprzeciwiali się Kolumbowi i zgodnie płynęli do wielkiego Chana. Nie wiem o tym, nie mam pojęcia, jak to się stało, że mapy zaczęły do ​​mnie przemawiać, ale wiem, że uwielbiam je oglądać i zbierać, i Pani Daniela przekazała mi później starą mapę swojego dziadka. Roześmiałam się z przyjemnością, gdy nadszedł prezent, ale byłam też prawie pewna, że już nigdy jej nie zobaczę. Pewnego dnia ubrana w jasne chadari wyjechała z wioski. Dlaczego miałaby chcieć iść naszą drogą, by sprzedawać kawałki drzewa sandałowego i wody różanej, skoro mogła handlować w Rangunie i Shiraz oraz w innych tak odległych miejscach wielkiego świata, miejscach trudno dostępnych, a przez to pięknych? Właśnie dla niej znosiłam że strychu pierwsze mapy. To jest miejsce, w którym jesteśmy przy Chinach. Pani Daniela umieściła kropkę na północnym Morzu Śródziemnym i powiedziała: Tu był Krzysztof Kolumb i chciał jechać do Chin, ale podążając trasą w przeciwnym kierunku. Niewiele pamiętam z tego, co nam powiedziała o przygodach chciwego Cristobala, tyle innych historii zamuliło się nad tą niewinną chwilą, ale pamiętam powiedziała, że Kolumb wyruszył w swoją podróż w tym samym roku, co upadek Granady i wypędzenie muzułmanów z Andaluzji. Te imiona na górze były dla mnie nowe, podobnie jak wiele innych, ale powiedziała je z taką czcią i tęsknotą – upadek Granady i wypędzenie muzułmanów z Andaluzji, że nigdy nie straciłam chwili. Widzę ją teraz, niską, pulchną kobietę, ubraną w wyblakłą a barwną kurtkę, jak siedzi w pierwszej albo drugiej ławce w domu modlitwy, z twarzą pokrytą bliznami po ospie, ale ułożoną w wyraz wyrozumiałości i tolerancji. Pamiętam biegłość, z jaką stworzyła dla nas obraz świata, moją pierwszą mapę… Jak powiedziałam, pewnego dnia, na długo przed kłopotami, wymknęła się bez słowa i nigdy nie wróciła. A potem innego dnia, czterdzieści trzy lata później, upadła tuż przed frontowymi drzwiami swojego domu w małym angielskim miasteczku. Było późne popołudnie, kiedy to się stało, wracała do domu po pracy, ale było już całkiem późno. Zbyt długo zostawiała sprawy nieporuszone i nie można było winić nikogo za to oprócz jej samej. Poczuła, jak się zbliża upadek. Nie z lękiem przed ruiną, która tkwiła w niej odkąd to pamiętała, ale z poczuciem, że coś celowego i muskularnego stale ją ogarnia. To nie było uderzenie znikąd, ale bardziej jak bestia, która powoli odwróciła głowę w jej stronę, rozpoznała ją, a potem sięgnęła, by ją udusić. Jej myśli były jasne, gdy słabość wysysała wnętrzności z jej ciała, i z tą jasnością pomyślała, absurdalnie, że to musi być właśnie jej dzień, pragnęła się zagłodzić lub zamarznąć na śmierć albo też by kamień zmiażdżył oddech z jej ciała. Porównanie sprawiło, że skrzywiła się mimo niepokoju: – popatrz, co może wywołać melodramatyczne zmęczenie. Wychodząc z pracy była zmęczona, z tym rodzajem znużenia, które czasami w niewytłumaczalny sposób opadało na nią pod koniec dnia, bardziej w ostatnich latach niż wcześniej, i które sprawiało, że żałowała, że nie może usiąść i nic nie robić, dopóki wyczerpanie nie minie. Chciała umrzeć a nawet w jednej chwili, gdy nagle silne ramiona podniosły ją i zabrały do ​​domu. Była już w bardzo podeszłym wieku, starzeję się, delikatnie mówiła. Życzenie było jak wspomnienie, jakby przypomniała sobie kogoś, kto robił właśnie to dawno temu – kto podniósł ją i zabrał do domu. Ale nie sądziła, że to wspomnienie. Im był starsza, tym jej życzenia czasami były bardziej dziecinne. Im dłużej żyła, tym bardziej zbliżało się do niej dzieciństwo i coraz mniej wydawało jej się to odległym fantazjowaniem nad czyimś a nie swoim życiem. Śmierć dla muzułmanów jest częścią życia i stanowi przejście do rzeczywistości pozaziemskiej. „My nie daliśmy nieśmiertelności żadnemu człowiekowi przed tobą. Każda dusza zakosztuje śmierci” (21, 34-35) – zapewnia nas o tym Koran. Pani Daniela już patrzy w stronę Mekki, a ja chcę towarzyszyć jej odtąd zawsze i wszędzie.

Stanisław Barszczak, The Christian honor

In this essay I was going to show you a postcard from Lesbos. This is a Greek island in the Northeast Aegean Sea off the coast of Turkey. Together with nearby uninhabited islets, it forms the regional unit of Lesbos and the municipality of Lesbos. In 2011, it had 86,436 inhabitants. Pope Francis had been on Lesbos first time in 2016. It is separated from Asia Minor by the Muzelim straits in the north and Mitilini in the east. It is characterized by a well-developed coastline. The Kaloni Bay cuts across the southwest coast, and the Jeras Bay cuts across the southeast coast. The surface of the island is mountainous (up to 968 m high). The capital and largest city of the island is Mytilene. The so-called geological and tourist peculiarity is Petrified Las, part of the global and European geoparks network. During his visit to Greece, on Sunday (December 5, 2021), the Pope will meet the migrants. Francis is to fly from Athens to the island of Lesbos, where there are currently about 2.5 thousand refugees. The Pope’s several-day journey to Cyprus and Greece is taking place. The 35th pilgrimage of Francis is marked by the ecumenical dialogue of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches and the migration crisis. Topics such as the Turkish occupation of Cyprus were also not avoided. During the pilgrimage, which lasts from Thursday to Monday (02-06.12.2021), the Pope will go to, among others once again to the religiously and culturally divided Cyprus or the Greek island of Lesbos, which has already become a symbol of the migration crisis in Europe. The island of Cyprus was divided during the Turkish invasion in 1974 into the northern part controlled and inhabited by the followers of Islam and the southern part inhabited by Orthodox Greeks. Catholics there are only about 38,000. The Vatican had previously announced that the issue of division would be raised during the papal visit because – as emphasized – it is an „open wound”. The Pope recently said: „Today the Mediterranean has become a ‚great cemetery’ for migrants who lost their lives in it.” I will come to Lesvos again, convinced that the sources of common life will only flourish in brotherhood and integration. Together. There is no other way and and I will come to you with this desire,” he said. Francis will be in Athens on December 4-5, 2021… The French Bishops’ Conference announced on Thursday (December 2, 2021) that Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of the Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit. This is sad news: the Clergyman last week proposed his resignation after French media reports of his relationship with the woman. I will give a happier one: who or what can separate us from the love of Christ? And the field of Christian love knows no bounds. This was already confirmed by Alfred Nobel with his immortal will to donate his legacy to mankind. „The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: – – one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction …” (Excerpt from the will of Alfred Nobel). The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2021 is awarded to the novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.” Ernest Miller Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize „for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.” This latter is writing as follows: They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason. There is no lonelier man in death, except the suicide, than that man who has lived many years with a good wife and then outlived her. If two people love each other there can be no happy end to it. Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another. All thinking men are atheists, said the author of „Who Beats the Ring”. The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it. Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth. And sometimes we still run away into cowardice. Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination. Learning to suspend your imagination and live completely in the very second of the present with no before and no after is the greatest gift a soldier can acquire… Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter’s honor, noted Ernest Hemingway. All stories, if continued far enough, end in death. Especially us Poles in the modern times of that time, listening to the brilliant media as if we were stroking our amethyst stones and waiting for death. But let us thank God for this one too the time when we have to give something of ourselves, when we do not hide our emotions and enjoy small gestures full of kindness. Aufully sorry, a real storyteller is hiding something, I ponder. Is the hell like a beautiful vacuum filled with wealthy monogamists, all powerful and members of the best families all drinking themselves to death? I cannot say that. Dying is a very simple thing. I’ve looked at death and really I know. If I should have died it would have been very easy for me. Quite the easiest thing I ever did. But the people at home do not realize that. They suffer a thousand times more, like I said. We do not live for each other at that moment, what a pity … We die, it is a big grace for reflection living, I hope. Since we are home for good, we probably suffer more. Personally, I went to Athens this time. Because we live in Europe for God. And that’s good, because God has made something new. On a short day, this December nights of 2021, we welcome in Athens, the homeland of cultures in Europe, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope of Christian believers. We do not live for ourselves, but we are the temple of the Lord in the East in the meantime, and we look towards Athens. Hence, God has allowed us to look westward to admonish him on gaining eternal salvation. „Jerusalem, put away the garment of your sorrow and affliction, and put on the glorious garments of glory forever given to you by the Lord … Lift up, Jerusalem! Stand high, look to the east, see your children gathered from the east at the word of the Holy One. until sunset, overjoyed that God remembered them. They departed from you on foot, driven by enemies, and God brought them glorified, as if on a royal throne … ” It is late autumn, so it is probably the most mature one. At the command of the Lord, forests and trees, which no longer smell this fall, are now judging Israel, judging us Christians of the beginning of the third millennium. God leads Israel and us with joy, he leads us to the light of his glory with his righteousness and mercy. That’s the Bible. Tomorrow, i.e. Saturday, the meeting of Pope Francis with bishops, priests in the Cathedral of St. Dionysius at 5:15 pm. In Sunday I will be at Polish Catholic Mission to celebrate the holly Mass. I haven’t managed to get a ticket, but maybe there would be some possibility of getting a ticket for Late Afternoon Sunday Mass with Francis. But I will still leave Athens very grateful for the precious time donated to me by Divine Providence. And I pray with my readers constantly for the people of the modern world that they may be clean and flawless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that we bring through Jesus Christ, for the glory and honor of God.

Stanisław Barszczak, I am not a heretic.
I repeat myself in these chosen thoughts sitting in my Historical corrections office, but what I said here, I wish my reader with all my heart … We are living in an age of information chaos. Multiple surveys show that people do not trust journalism over other forms of communications, the former editor-in-chief of Guardian News and Media has said. “All the surveys of trust show that the media is doing very badly. People don’t know what to believe any longer, who to believe and who to trust,” Alan Rusbridger told BBC Hardtalk. The monopoly on news, which was once confined to those who owned a printing press or broadcast studio, is now shared between billions of people on the planet, Mr Rusbridger explained. While many journalists are doing a wonderful job, it is not clear from surveys that journalism is as trusted as it should be, he said. Mr Rusbridger is now a member of Facebook’s oversight board. Progress is no longer humans, it is too late. World without Humans. We have to legalize love, some would say. We have the right to express ourselves, to go out. Continue to straight, fight, in discipline and consistency. Make a smile, even make a good face for a bad game. Do it listening to others. Don’t worry about getting up full of panic in order to see raising human values. I am not creating a bitter moon, a peculiar but happy atmosphere in the Roman Catholic Church, here I will tell. But it is always my dream to draw new and real boundaries for God’s State in the society of the beginning of the third millennium. My God-Lord will probably reach the moon, the natural brother of the Earth. But we Christians probably are not able to populate Mars and other objects in the vicinity of our sun. Yes, we should support Christians in the lands that they inhabit on the green planet. Be with them, let us defend their Christian good borders and beautiful values. There are Meister Eckhart Quotes here as follow you may read: If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough. The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love. (See, Sermons of Meister Eckhart). Be willing to be a beginner every single morning. And suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings. Only the hand that erases can write the true thing. Spirituality is not to be learned by flight from the world, or by running away from things, or by turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, we must learn an inner solitude wherever or with whomsoever we may be. We must learn to penetrate things and find God there. If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, „thank you,” that would suffice. Wisdom consists in doing the next thing you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it. I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and the presence of God. Some people prefer solitude. They say their peace of mind depends on this. Others say they would be better off in church. If you do well, you do well wherever you are. If you fail, you fail wherever you are. Your surroundings don’t matter. God is with you everywhere – in the market place as well as in seclusion or in the church. If you look for nothing but God, nothing or no one can disturb you. God is not distracted by a multitude of things. Nor can we be. When the Soul wants to experience something she throws out an image in front of her and then steps into it. Love is as strong as death, as hard as Hell. Death separates the soul from the body, but love separates all things from the soul. Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love a cow – for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage. We are all meant to be mothers of God…for God is always needing to be born. The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake. A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don’t know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox’s or bear’s, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there. One must learn an inner solitude, wherever one may be. One must not always think so much about what one should do, but rather what one should be. Our works do not ennoble us; but we must ennoble our works. There’s a place in the soul where you’ve never been wounded. My Lord told me a joke.  And seeing Him laugh has done more for me than any scripture I will ever read. I am what I wanted and I want what I am. If I had a friend and loved him because of the benefits which this brought me and because of getting my own way, then it would not be my friend that I loved but myself. I should love my friend on account of his own goodness and virtues and account of all that he is in himself. Only if I love my friend in this way do I love him properly. God is not good, or else he could do better. You know, all God wants of man is a peaceful heart. Nobody at any time is cut off from God. I need to be silent for a while, worlds are forming in my heart. Run into peace. God is at home. We are in the far country. Whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion. I tell you the truth, any object you have in your mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost Truth. For the person who has learned to let go and let be, nothing can ever get in the way again. The outward work will never be puny if the inward work is great. Every creature is a word of God. Whoever possesses God in their being has Him in a divine manner, and He shines out to them in all things; for them all things taste of God and in all things it is God’s image that they see. The more we have the less we own. We must come into a transformed knowing, an unknowing which comes not from ignorance but from knowledge. As long as I am this or that, I am not all things. We rarely find people who achieve great things without first going astray. In this breaking-through, I receive that God and I are one. Then I am what I was, and then I neither diminish nor increase, for I am then an immovable cause that moves all things. There is something in the soul that is so akin to God that it is one with Him… It has nothing in common with anything created. The outward man is the swinging door; the inner man is the still hinge. The most powerful prayer, one well-nigh omnipotent, and the worthiest work of all is the outcome of a quiet mind. The quieter it is the more powerful, the worthier, the deeper, the more telling and more perfect the prayer is. To the quiet mind all things are possible. What is a quiet mind? A quiet mind is one which nothing weighs on, nothing worries, which, free from ties and from all self-seeking, is wholly merged into the will of God and dead to its own. Isness is God. God is greater than God. Every creature is a word of God and is a book about God. I may err but I am not a heretic, for the first has to do with the mind and the second with the will! People should not worry so much about what they do but rather about what they are. If they and their ways are good, then their deeds are radiant. If you are righteous, then what you do will also be righteous. We should not think that holiness is based on what we do but rather on what we are, for it is not our works which sanctify us but we who sanctified our works. Where there is Isness, there God is. Creation is the giving of isness from God. And that is why God becomes where any creature expresses God. There exists only the present instant… a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence. The less theorizing you do about God, the more receptive you are to His inpouring. The most powerful form of prayer, and the one which can virtually gain all things and which is the worthiest work of all, is that which flows from a free mind. The freer the mind is, the more powerful and worthy, the more useful, praiseworthy and perfect the prayer and the work become. A free mind can achieve all things. When God laughs at the soul and the soul laughs back at God, the persons of the Trinity are begotten. When the Father laughs at the Son and the Son laughs back at the Father, that laughter gives pleasure, that pleasure gives joy, that joy gives love, and that love is the Holy Spirit. There is no need to look for God here or there. He is no farther away than the door of your own heart. But where is this true possession of God, whereby we really possess him, to be found? This real possession of God is to be found in the heart, in an inner motion of the spirit towards him and striving for him, and not just in thinking about him always and in the same way. For that would be beyond the capacity of our nature and would be very difficult to achieve and would not even be the best thing to do. We should not content ourselves with the God of thoughts for, when the thoughts come to an end, so too shall God. Rather, we should have a living God who is beyond the thoughts of all people and all creatures. That kind of God will not leave us, unless we ourselves choose to turn away from him. Now, you might say: how can this be? I cannot feel his presence in any way. Listen to this. Sensing his presence is not in your power but in his. He will show himself when it suits him to do so, and he can also remain hidden if that is his wish. This is what Christ meant when he said to Nicodemus: ‘The spirit breathes where it will: you hear its voice but do not know where it comes from, or where it is going’ (John 3:8). Now pay attention to this. God is nameless for no one can either speak of him or know him. Therefore a pagan master says that what we can know or say of the First Cause reflects ourselves more than it does the First Cause, for this transcends all speech and all understanding . . . He is being beyond being: he is a nothingness beyond being. Therefore St. Augustine says: ‘The finest thing that we can say of God is to be silent concerning him from the wisdom of inner riches.’ Be silent therefore, and do not chatter about God, for by chattering about him, you tell lies and commit a sin. If you wish to be perfect and without sin, then do not prattle about God. Also you should not wish to understand anything about God, for God is beyond all understanding. A master says: If I had a God that I could understand, I would not regard him as God. If you understand anything about him, then he is not in it, and by understanding something of him, you fall into ignorance, and by falling into ignorance, you become like an animal since the animal part in creatures is that which is unknowing. If you do not wish to become like an animal therefore, do not pretend that you understand anything of the ineffable God. But of God you can never have a sufficiency. The more you have of God, the more you desire. If you could ever have enough of God, so that you were content with him, then God would not be God. God, who is faithful, allows his friends to fall frequently into weakness only in order to remove from them any prop on which they might lean. For a loving person it would be a great joy to be able to achieve many great feats, whether keeping vigils, fasting, performing other ascetical practices or doing major, difficult and unusual works. For them this is a great joy, support and source of hope so that their works become a product and a support upon which they can lean. But it is precisely this which our Lord wishes to take from them so that he alone will be their help and support . . . in no way do our works serve to make God give us anything or do anything for us. Our Lord wishes his friends to be freed from such an attitude, and thus he removes their support from them so that they must henceforth find their support only in him. For God has not linked our salvation with any particular kind of devotion. Any one devotional practice has things which others lack, but the effectiveness of all good practices comes from God alone and is denied to none of them, for one form of goodness cannot conflict with another. Therefore people should remember that if they see or hear of a good person who is following a way which is different from theirs, then they are wrong to think that such a person’s efforts are all in vain. If someone else’s way of devotion does not please them, then they are ignoring the goodness in it as well as that person’s good intention. This is wrong. We should see the true feeling in people’s devotional practices and should not scorn the particular way that anyone follows. For God does not give us anything in order that we should enjoy its possession and rest content with it, nor has he ever done so. All the gifts which he has ever granted us in heaven or on earth were made solely in order to be able to give us the one gift, which is himself. With all other gifts he simply wants to prepare us for that gift which is himself. And all the works which God has ever performed in heaven or on earth served solely to perform the one work, that is to sanctify himself so that he can sanctify us. And so I tell you that we should learn to see God in all gifts and works, neither resting content with anything nor becoming attached to anything. For us there can be no attachment to a particular manner of behaviour in this life, nor has this ever been right, however successful we may have been. Now some people are of the opinion that they are altogether holy and perfect, and go around the place with big deeds and big words, and yet they strive for and desire so many things, they wish to possess so much and are so concerned both with themselves and with this thing and that. They assert that they are seeking great piety and devotion, and yet they cannot accept a single word of reproval without answering back. Be certain of this: they are far from God and are not in union with him. Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep the truth and let God go. in this way, seek wrongly, and the further they range, the less they find what they are looking for. They proceed like someone who has lost their way: the further they go, the more lost they become. But what then should they do? First of all, they should renounce themselves, and then they will have renounced all things. Truly, if someone were to renounce a kingdom or the whole world while still holding onto themselves, then they would have renounced nothing at all. And indeed, if someone renounces themselves, then whatever they might keep, whether the kingdom or honour or whatever it may be, they will still have renounced all things. For whoever does not truly have God within themselves, but must constantly receive him in one external thing after another, seeking God in diverse ways, whether by particular works, people or places, such a person does not possess God. The least thing can impede them, for they do not have God and do not seek, love and intend him alone. It is not only bad company but also good company that can obstruct them, not only the street but also the church, not only evil words and deeds but also good words and deeds, for the obstruction lies within themselves, since in them God has not become all things. You should not imagine that your reason can evolve to the extent of understanding God. Rather, if God is to shine divinely within you, your natural light cannot assist this process but must become a pure nothingness, going out of itself. Only then can God enter with his light, bringing back with him all that you have renounced and a thousand times more, including a new form which contains all things in itself. Why God sometimes allows people who are genuinely good to be hindered in the good that they do. God, who is faithful, allows his friends to fall frequently into weakness only in order to remove from them any prop on which they might lean. For a loving person it would be a great joy to be able to achieve many great feats, whether keeping vigils, fasting, performing other ascetical practices or doing major, difficult and unusual works. For them this is a great joy, support and source of hope so that their works become a prop and a support upon which they can lean. But it is precisely this which our Lord wishes to take from them so that he alone will be their help and support. This he does solely on account of his pure goodness and mercy, for God is prompted to act only by his goodness, and in no way do our works serve to make God give us anything or do anything for us. Our Lord wishes his friends to be freed from such an attitude, and thus he removes their support from them so that they must henceforth find their support only in him. For he desires to give them great gifts, solely on account of his goodness, and he shall be their comfort and support while they discover themselves to be and regard themselves as being a pure nothingness in all the great gifts of God. The more essentially and simply the mind rests on God and is sustained by him, the more deeply we are established in God and the more receptive we are to him in all his precious gifts – for human kind should build on God alone. A free mind is one which is untroubled and unfettered by anything, which has not bound its best part to any particular manner of being or devotion and which does not seek its own interest in anything but is always immersed in God’s most precious will, having gone out of what is its own. There is no work which men and women can perform, however small, which does not draw from this its power and its strength. We should pray with such intensity that we want all the members of our body and all its faculties, eyes, ears, mouth, heart and all our senses to turn to this end; and we should not cease in this until we feel that we are close to being united with him who is present to us and to whom we are praying: God. the man who sat naked in his tub said to Alexander the Great, who ruled the whole world: ‘I am a greater lord than you are, for I have spurned more than you have seized. What you think it is a great thing to possess, is too trivial for me to scorn. The only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won’t let go of your life: your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away, but they’re not punishing you, they’re freeing your soul. In Islam, and especially among the Sufi Orders, siyahat or ‚errance’ – the action or rhythm of walking – was used as a technique for dissolving the attachments of the world and allowing men to lose themselves in God. The aim of a dervish was to become a ‚dead man walking’: one whose body stays alive on the earth yet whose soul is already in Heaven. A Sufi manual, the Kashf-al-Mahjub, says that, toward the end of his tourney, the dervish becomes the Way not the wayfarer, i.e. a place over which something is passing, not a traveller following his own free will…it was quite similar to an Aboriginal concept, ‚Many men afterwards become country, in that place, Ancestors.’ By spending his whole life walking and singing his Ancestor’s Songline, a man eventually became the track, the Ancestor and the song. The Wayless Way, where the Sons of God lose themselves and, at the same time, find themselves. Obedience need never be anxious, for there is no form of goodness which it does not possess in itself. When we go out of ourselves through obedience and strip ourselves of what is ours, then God must enter into us; for when someone wills nothing for themselves, then God must will on their behalf just as he does for himself. Whenever I have taken leave of my own will, putting it in the hands of my superior , and no longer will anything for myself, then God must will on my behalf, and if he neglects me in this respect, then he neglects himself. And so in all things in which I do not will for myself, God wills on my behalf. Concerning this desert, Jeremiah writes: ‘I will lead my beloved into the wilderness and will speak to her in her heart’ (Hosea 2:14) . . . The prophet hungered for this desolate self-abandonment when he said: ‘Who will give me the wings of a dove that I may fly away and be at rest?’ (Psalm 55:6). Where do we find peace and rest? Only in abandonment, in the desert and in isolation from all creatures . . . Now you could say . . . if all this must be removed, then it is grievous if God allows us to remain without any support. ‘Woe to me that my exile is prolonged’ (Psalm 120:5), as the prophet says, if God prolongs my dereliction without casting his light upon me, speaking to me or working in me, as you are suggesting here. If we thus enter a state of pure nothingness, is it not better that we should do something in order to drive away the darkness and dereliction? Should we not pray or read or listen to a sermon or do something else that is virtuous in order to help ourselves? No, certainly not! The very best thing you can do is to remain still for as long as possible . . . You cannot think about or desire this preparation more swiftly than God can carry it out . . . You should know that God must pour himself into you and act upon you where he finds you prepared . . . just as the sun must pour itself forth and cannot hold itself back when the air is pure and clean. Certainly, it would be a major failing if God did not perform great works in you, pouring great goodness into you, in so far as he finds you empty and there. Only those for whom God is present in all things and who make the very best use of their reason, know what true peace is and truly possess heaven. How we should perform our works in the most rational way. There are many people (and we can ourselves easily be among them, if we wish) who are not impeded by those things with which they come into contact and in whom such things do not create a permanent image; for creatures can neither have nor find a resting place in a heart which is filled with God. But we should not rest content with this: we should also derive great profit from all things, whatever they may be, wherever we may be, whatever we see or hear and however alien and strange to us they are. It is then, and only then, that we are in the right state of mind. And no one can ever come to the end of this process, but rather we should grow in it without end and come to achieve ever more. We should make good use of our reason in all our works and in all things and have a clear understanding of ourselves and our inner nature, grasping God in all things and in the highest possible manner. For we should be as our Lord told us: ‘You should be like those who at all times watch and wait for their Lord’ (Luke 12:36). Truly, such vigilant people are alert and on the watch for their Lord for whom they wait; they look to see if he is not by chance concealed in what befalls them, however strange it may be to them. So we too should consciously look out for our Lord in all things. This demands much effort, and must cost us all that our senses and faculties are capable of. But this is the right thing for us to do, so that we grasp God in the same way in all things and find him equally everywhere. Works are different in kind, but whatever is done in the same spirit will be of equal value. For those who are in the right frame of mind, and for whom God has become their own, God will truly shine out just as clearly from their worldly acts as he does from their most sacred ones. But of course this is not to be understood as meaning that we should do things which are either worldly or wrong, but rather that we should offer to God whatever we see or hear of things in the world. Only those for whom God is present in all things and who make the very best use of their reason, know what true peace is and truly possess heaven. For those who want to achieve this, one of two things must always happen: either they must learn to grasp and to hold God in what they do, or they must stop doing things altogether. But since we cannot abandon all activity in this life, which is part of being human and which takes so many different forms, we must learn to possess God in all things, while remaining free in all that we do and wherever we are. Thus, if the beginner is to achieve something in company, then he or she must first enlist God’s help, fixing him firmly in their hearts and uniting all their intentions, thoughts, desires and faculties with him so that nothing else can take form in them. But if God endures it for the sake of the benefit for you which he has foreseen in it, and if you are willing to suffer what he suffers and what passes through him to you, then it takes on the colour of God, and shame becomes honour, bitterness is sweetness and the deepest darkness becomes the clearest light. Then everything takes its flavour from God and becomes divine, for everything conforms itself to God, whatever befalls us, if we intend only him and nothing else is pleasing to us. Thus we shall grasp God in all bitterness as well as in the greatest sweetness. For however devoted you are to him, you may be sure that he is immeasurably more devoted to you and has incomparably more faith in you. For he is faithfulness itself – of this we can be certain as those who love him are certain. How can we be directly in God, neither striving nor seeking for anything other than him, and how can we be so poor and give up everything? It is hard counsel that we should not desire any reward. Now be certain of this: God never ceases to give us everything. Even if he had sworn not to, he still could not help giving us things. It is far more important to him to give than it is for us to receive, but we should not focus upon this, for the less we strive for it, the more God will give us. God intends thereby only that we should become yet more rich and be all the more capable of receiving things from him. On the value of the renunciation that we should practise inwardly and outwardly. You should know that no one has ever renounced themselves so much in this life that there was nothing left of themselves to renounce. But there are few people who are properly aware of this and who remain constant in their efforts. It is a fair trade and an equal exchange: to the extent that you depart from things, thus far, no more and no less, God enters into you with all that is his, as far as you have stripped yourself of yourself in all things. It is here that you should begin, whatever the cost, for it is here that you will find true peace, and nowhere else. People should not worry so much about what they do but rather about what they are. If they and their ways are good, then their deeds are radiant. If you are righteous, then what you do will also be righteous. We should not think that holiness is based on what we do but rather on what we are, for it is not our works which sanctify us but we who sanctify our works. However holy our works may be, they do not in any way make us holy in so far as they are works, but it is we, in so far as we are holy and possess fulness of being, who sanctify all our works, whether these be eating, sleeping, waking, or anything at all. Little comes from the works of those whose being is slight. This teaches us then that we should make every effort to be good, and should worry not so much about what we do or the character of our actions, but we should be concerned rather about their ground. Yet if someone comes to know something well, they soon tire of it and seek out something new, and repeat this pattern again and again, continually anxious to know new things, never lingering on what they’ve learned. It is the nature of the Word to reveal to me what has been hidden. Yet the now of time is infinitesimally small. If you remove the now of time, you are in all places and possess all time. An angel exists and works as an intelligence, and its state is one of beholding God ceaselessly, who is the object of its intellectual essence. Furthermore, we should keep all things only as if they had been merely lent and not given to us, without any sense of possessiveness, whether it be our body or soul, our senses, faculties, worldly goods or honour, friends, relations, house or home or anything whatsoever. There are people who savour God in one way but not in another, and they want to possess God according to one manner of devotion and not another. I can tolerate this, but it is quite wrong. If we are to take God correctly, then we must take him equally in all things: in tribulation as in prosperity, in tears as in joy. He should always be the same for you. If you believe, without having committed a mortal sin, that you lack both devotion and serious intent and that, not having devotion or serious intent, you do not have God, and if you then grieve over this, this itself becomes your devotion and serious intent. Therefore you should not confine yourself to just one manner of devotion, since God is to be found in no particular way, neither this one nor that. That is why they do him wrong who take God just in one particular way. They take the way rather than God. Remember this then: intend God alone and seek him only. Then whatever kinds of devotional practice come to you, be content with those. For your intention should be directed at God alone and at nothing else. If you wish to know God, you should not only be like the Son, but you should be the Son himself. Thus the soul’s pursuit continues, for she holds to this knowing-by-unknowing. the two kinds of repentance. There are two kinds of repentance, one which belongs to time and the senses and another which is supernatural and of God. The temporal kind always draws us downwards into yet greater suffering, plunging us into such distress that it is as if we were already in a state of despair. And so repentance can find no way out of suffering. Nothing comes of this. But the repentance which is of God is very different. As soon as we become ill at ease, we immediately reach up to God and vow with an unshakeable will to turn away from all sin for ever. Thus we raise ourselves up to a great trust in God and gain a great sense of certainty. This brings a spiritual joy that lifts the soul out of her suffering and distress and binds her to God. For the more inadequate and guilty we perceive ourselves to be, the more reason we have to bind ourselves to God with an undivided love, who knows neither sin nor inadequacy. And so if we wish to approach God in complete devotion, the best path that we can follow is to be without sin in the power of that kind of repentance which comes from God. And the greater we feel our sin to be, the more prepared God is to forgive our sin, to enter into the soul and drive sin away. Everyone is keenest to rid themselves of what is most hateful to them, and so the greater and graver our sins, the more God is immeasurably willing and quick to forgive them, since they are hateful to him. And when the repentance which comes from God rises up to him, all our sins vanish more quickly in the abyss of God than the eye can blink, and are eradicated so totally that it is as if they had never existed, provided only that we have perfect contrition. For with God we can miss nothing. We can no more miss anything with God than God can. Accept the one way from God then, and draw all that is good into it. In true obedience there should be no ‘I want this or that to happen’ or ‘I want this or that thing’ but only a pure going out of what is our own. And therefore in the very best kind of prayer that we can pray there should be no ‘give me this particular virtue or way of devotion’ or ‘yes, Lord, give me yourself or eternal life’, or rather ‘Lord, give me only what you will and do, Lord, only what you will and in the way that you will’. This kind of prayer is as far above the former as heaven is above earth. We should rest content with nothing, however good it may seem or be, so that, when we find ourselves under pressure or constraint, it will be apparent that we are more worked than working, and so that we may learn to enter into a relationship of cooperation with our God. It is not that we should abandon, neglect or deny our inner self, but we should learn to work precisely in it, with it and from it in such a way that interiority turns into effective action and effective action leads back to interiority and we become used to acting without any compulsion. For we should concentrate on this inner prompting, and act from it, whether through reading or praying or – if it is fitting – some form of external activity. Though if the external activity destroys the internal one, we should give priority to the latter. But if both are united as one, then that is best for cooperating with God. If what is in the blood conquers the flesh, then one is humble, patient, chaste and has every virtue. If the flesh conquers the blood, however, one is proud, angry and shameless, having every kind of vice. On the two kinds of certainty of eternal life. In this life there are two kinds of certainty concerning the life which is eternal: the one consists in those occasions when God tells us of it either himself or through an angel or special revelation, although this happens rarely and only to a few. The other kind of knowledge is better and more beneficial and falls frequently to those whose love is perfect. This happens to those whose love for and intimacy with their God is so great that they trust him completely and are so sure of him that they can no longer have any doubts, their certainty being founded on their love for him in all creatures without distinction. And if all creatures were to reject and abjure him, even if God himself were to do so, then they would not cease to trust, for love is not capable of mistrust but can only trust all that is good. And there is no need for anything to be said to either the lover or the beloved, for as soon as God senses that this person is his friend, he immediately knows all that is good for them and that belongs to their well-being. For however devoted you are to him, you may be sure that he is immeasurably more devoted to you and has incomparably more faith in you. For he is faithfulness itself – of this we can be certain as those who love him are certain. This type of certainty is far greater, more perfect and true than the other and it cannot deceive us, while the first kind can be deceptive and can easily be an illusion. Indeed, the second type is experienced in all the faculties of our soul and cannot deceive those who truly love God; indeed they no more doubt it than they doubt God himself, for love drives out all fear. ‘Love knows no fear’ as St John12 (1 John 4:18) says, and it is also written: ‘Love covers a multitude of sins’ (1 Peter 4:8). For where there is sin, there can be neither complete trust nor love, since love completely covers over sins and knows nothing of them. Not in such a way as if we had not sinned, but rather it wipes them away and drives them out, as if they had never existed. For all God’s works are so utterly perfect and overflowing that whoever he forgives, he forgives totally and absolutely, preferring to forgive big sins rather than little ones, all of which creates perfect trust. I hold this kind of knowledge to be incomparably better, more rewarding and more authentic than the other, since neither sin nor anything else can obstruct it. For when God finds people in the same degree of love, then he judges them in the same way, regardless of whether they have sinned greatly or not at all. But those to whom more is forgiven, should have a greater love, as our Lord Jesus Christ said: ‘They to whom more is forgiven must love more’ (Luke 7:47). How we can appropriately enjoy good food, fine clothes and cheerful company as these come our way in the natural course of things. You should not worry yourself about food or clothing, feeling that these things are too good for you, but train your mind and the ground of your being to be above them. Nothing should rouse your mind to love and delight but God alone. It should be above all other things. Why? It would be a sickly form of inwardness which needed to be put right by external clothing; rather, as long as it is under your control, what is inside should correct what is outside. And if the latter comes to you in a different form, then you should accept it as being good from the ground of your being, but in such a way that you would accept it just as willingly if it were different again. It is just the same with the food, the friends and relatives and with everything that God may give you or take from you. And so in my view the most important thing of all is that we should give ourselves up entirely to God whenever he allows anything to befall us, whether insult, tribulation or any other kind of suffering, accepting it with joy and gratitude and allowing God to guide us all the more rather than seeking these things out ourselves. Willingly learn all things from God therefore and follow him, and all will be well with you. Then we will be able to accept honour and comfort, and if dishonour and discomfort were to be our lot, we could and would be just as willing to endure these too. So they can justifiably feast who would just as willingly fast.15 And that must also be the reason why God relieves his friends of both major and minor suffering, which otherwise his infinite faithfulness could not allow him to do, for there is so much and such great benefit in suffering and he neither wishes nor ought to deny his own anything which is good. But he is content with a good and upright will, or else he would spare them no suffering on account of the inexpressible benefit which it contains. As long as God is content, you too should be content, and when it is something else in you which pleases him, then you should still be content. For we should be so totally God’s possession inwardly with the whole of our will that we should not be unduly concerned about either devotional practices or works. And in particular you should avoid all particularity, whether in the form of clothes, food or words – as in making grand speeches, or particularity of gesture, since these things serve no useful purpose at all. But you should also know that not every form of particularity is forbidden to you. There is much that is particular which we must sometimes do and with many people, for whoever is a particular person must also express particularity on many occasions and in many ways. We should have grown into our Lord Jesus Christ inwardly and in all things so that all his works are reflected in us together with his divine image. We should bear in ourselves all his works in a perfect likeness as far as we can. Though we are the agents of our actions, it is he who should take form in them. So act out of the whole of your devotion and your intent, training your mind in this at all times and teaching yourself to grow into him in all that you do. (see, Meister Eckhart, Selected Writings). And what I said here, I wish my reader with all my heart.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.