I am sharing a reflection on the many ways we experience separation and division in our lives and the reconciling hope that I have experienced through my personal soul work, belonging in community, what I offer to those I love and serve as a spiritual companion, and pray we may all carry and deepen into in 2019!

This reflection explores what I understand to be one of the most critical issues of our day: The apparent and experienced division and separateness within ourselves, in meaningful relationships, and in the interconnectedness of all created life. Alienation is deeply affecting the wellness, grounding and flourishing of the human ‘soul.’ 

I see a deep hunger in many people and communities to be accepted with a true sense of belonging. I believe the sense of disconnection and the challenge to live in harmonious relationships stems from generations of dualistic thinking and teaching, some unhealthy cultural belief systems, unhealed emotional and psychological wounding, and underdeveloped spiritual maturity. My deeper reflection in this critical dilemma is to ask where is there hope in this massive sense of separation and how do we heal from this loneliness and sense of lostness?

Catherine of Sienna tells us our deepest self is God which highlights there is no separation in God. She is not saying we are God, she is saying God can not be separated from us, nor we from God. If we believe or sense a separation, it is an illusion.

As a Christian, I rest in the belief that we are one with God. In 1 Corinthians 8:6 I read that there is one God from whom all things exist. I believe we are in God, and God is in all of us, as taught by Jesus when he prays to his Father asking that his disciples be protected so that they may be one with him and the Father even as they are one (John 17:11).