Each of us, have different saints cheering us on! Here are a few of my circle “in the Spirit”. The communion of the saints becomes more comforting and collaborative as we grow older!

Each master apprentice teacher usually has a central core teaching, if they have become humble enough, they usually offer it towards the end of their lives! Here’s a few of my mostly 20th C (or last 300 years) favorites….fun trying to raw note crystallize some of my favorites essential teachings today…

Nouwen—learn to be in the beloved, adored, dearly cared for space between the Father and His Son.

Willard: allow Him to enter into your entire being, including your unconscious, so that even your motivations are transformed.

Eugene Peterson: pray your way into scriptures into a transformational encounter with God. Pray as reading the Bible! Pray to meet and be transformed by God! Read the bible as a method of meeting and being changed by Him. Then life has meaning and is a long pilgrimage into, to and with God.

Victor Frankl—man’s most basic need is meaning! And God, offers us a purposeful suffering! And, people endure suffering, when it’s meaningful–is at least one of this great teacher’s earned wisdom spiritual notes.

Merton: bring your inner being into His Being, let them commune constantly. Find your true self by resting in His True Self! Learn your name, but losing it in His Name! Learn true contemplation which is most basically bringing your inner person, or inmost being to His!

Many other saintly sinners: serve others into meeting Him, and His Heart for them and you.

All of them, knew how to meet Him in their own personal sufferings!

CS Lewis, for instance, met Him through imagination. He invited folks into a baptism of the imagination, as he called it! Yes, that we can meet Him directly through vision, dream and art making, seems obvious from scriptures–Daniel, Joseph and all the prophets come to mind! Why not us! God is willing to meet us in all realms of Reality!

His Mentor, George MacDonald, a dear friend of mine historically, who i met spiritually in his home in Scotland—know Him as Father of ALL Reality. Consider all of life from the perspective of The Father God, and from there, interpret family, life, nations, cities and nature….

Francis Shaeffer, who i studied under in Switzerland, and other theologians—Jesus is Lord over all of Reality, so you are free to meet Him in whatever realms you are drawn to, and bring His Kingdom there.

A friend of mine: live as if, it were just you and The Father in the universe. This will transform you firstly, and then you will see all people as family in the same situation—as neighbors in need of that essential encounter. God is One and so each emphases through His students is included in His expression!

So many saints before us….why not continue to walk on!