July 2025

I’d like to first acknowledge The Fourth of July:

A day to reflect on the values of freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, and to acknowledge the sacrifices made to secure these rights.

Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted (healed).

Remember, the state of one’s consciousness will enable one to comprehend the spiritual message behind the words. Jesus went up into the mountain and his disciples followed him. The Beatitudes richer meanings are not for the masses. But for those searching for more, not more material things but an everlasting fulfillment, one that does not come and go as things of this world comes and go.

So, in essence The First Beatitude is telling us to empty ourselves of all unnecessary desires, those things that we cling onto that block us from our Inner Peace., our Inner Fulfillment. We do the best we can, in the material world but we must remember to let go with the understanding that everything that comes or doesn’t come is from God and for our highest good.

Blessed are those that mourn. This is not the mourning that one thinks of on the material plane of existence. The loss of someone, a relationship, our savings, our health, etc. This type of mourning only leads to more suffering. Yes, we can miss someone who passes on, a relationship that ends, loss of wealth, health, etc. But on the material plane, this mourning does not bring inner peace, only a misunderstanding from a spiritual platform.

The mourning of which The Christ speaks of is one of the spiritual plane. Remember, Spiritualty is an inner sufficiency that is not dependent on outer circumstances for fulfillment. But nevertheless, suffering and trouble certainly does bring some of us to our knees. Most of us on this journey will come to look for more than the life we have on the material plane due to suffering and trouble. Very few of us come through a state of enlightenment. 

For some of us, no matter how much you might have of material things, relationships, there still seems to be an emptiness. Something that no thing on the material plane can give a lasting fulfillment.

This reminds of an old song written by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, “I just wasn’t made for these times”.  In the song, I get the sense that he just doesn’t fit, doesn’t get all the things that others are doing around him. It’s a kind of despair he is feeling. For some of us, no matter how much we gratify our senses through diets, relationships, jobs, etc, we are continually look for more until we have that inner realization that the outside fulfillment does not last and yet will still desire more. What is that calling? We begin to realize that everything that has been put in our lives, has happened for us to get to this very place of a mourning for more. We come to a realization that nothing on the outside fulfills this morning. Nothing fills the “hole” of our donut so to speak from the outside.

“Only that which is eternal can satisfy us”

St Theresa of Lisieux



And so, the Journey Within begins.

Only Love, Michael John

Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted/healed

That journey Within, is the journey in and of Divinity. It is this spiritual loss, this spiritual loneliness, this mourning which is necessary before we experience the comforting and healing that comes from God.

For a lot of us, there always has been this awareness of a lack of something, which of course we tried filling with lots of other things until the awareness, pain, or whatever brought us to the journey Within happens. This comforting for most of us is an evolutionary process. Most of the time, others will notice it before we ourselves do. But over time, we do see that the things that disturbed us in the past, does not today. But my brothers and sisters, do not stop here. There is so, so, much more comforting and healing as we give up those desires and old perceptions/concepts that are spoken of in the first Beatitude.

My spiritual advisor told me, “The measure of your spiritual growth is not what you received, but what you have given.”

What we give up, our willfulness of all things, how we think things should be, we give up one desire and others pop up, when each one is given up to God’s will, then as others appear, and they to also are to be given up. And as we give, give and give, our comforting and healing is experienced increasingly.

A great sage and avatar Sri Ramakrishna once said “People weep rivers of tears because a son is not born or because they cannot get riches. But who even sheds one teardrop because he has not seen God”

Yes, this is the mourning that Jesus, The Christ speaks of as well. The desire to know and continuously want to experience God, His Love. Then we will be comforted with His divine knowledge. This mourning, and this experience, this despair is our Creator, our Inner Self, our Inner Christ, our Inner Guru calling us back home. It is a beginning to arrange our heart, mind and activities in a way to draw us to Him, a sort of steering us back to our full potential. And what is our full potential. To live this human life we each experience differently from a consciousness of Divinity. Jerry Thomas

John of the Cross said: “God is Within Himself offering Himself to be known and loved and we must wake up and seek Him where He is” and that is Within.

And as my spiritual advisor constantly reminds me, this going Within is done through meditation, prayer, contemplation and eventually through Practicing The Presence, being willing to acknowledge and to see Him as ALL Things.

Swami Prabhavananda says in The Sermon on the Mount “We must come to this stage, when we feel that nothing can give us peace except the vision (Union) of God. The God draws man’s mind to Himself as a magnet draws a needle, and comforts (healing) comes.

Only Love, Michael John

All of the above might sound daunting, but that's just the mind unable to understand the unlimited possibilities of Divinity. The value of Spirituality in the world today is needed, which is Love Itself, Being One Spirit, Unity Consciousness. This results in Peace. Make time to be The Peace you want to see in the world.

You can start by joining the weekly retreats, which last only one hour. See below for more information.

Please join the StillPoint community (see below) for our weekly retreat. Until then, be the peace you want to see in the world.

Only Love

Michael John