The last two lines of Christopher Frey’s Sleep of Prisoners is a call to the great need of our time:
Affairs are now soul-size;
The enterprise is exploration into God.

“God” has been imaged and worshiped in many
ways by humans over our thousands of years of history and throughout the Earth. Many religious seekers have realized changes in their own sense of the Mystery we call God. (This is often referred to as “stages of faith.”) In our time, when “affairs are soul-sized” and participation in the Great Work is growing, understandings of Incarnation have deepened.

What follows are quotes from theologians and others who have written about this. Following the last quote are questions for reflection/prayer:

Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ: God is Holy Mystery and as such can never be captured in a single image or set of images.

Joseph A. Bracken: God, the world of nature, and the world of human beings are intimately interconnected and interdependent.

Margaret Galiardi, OP: Although more and more people are realizing that we cannot continue to treat the Earth as we have done in the past, the prior realization of the presence of God dwelling within the planet [and all creation], and the consequent intrinsic value of the planet, is still seriously lacking.

Mary Ann Zollmann, BVM: As incarnations of that in-spiriting Mystery at the heart of being . . . each one of us is most deeply and spiritually a unique narrative form unfolding within the common narrative of Mystery’s life and being.

Philip Clayton: Theories of the divine agent (theologies) have strongly influenced how human persons were conceived (the imago dei argument). But just as clearly, ideas about what humankind is . . . have provided models for how God is to be conceived. In an age of absolute monarchy and male dominance, God was naturally conceived as the King of Kings; in an age of deterministic physics, God was known as the divine watchmaker, the ground of order and lawfulness; and in an age of dualism, God became pure spirit, pure mind (nous noetikos), independent of all things physical. In an age of emergence, how should the divine be conceived?

For reflection: 

What thoughts above resonated with you?

How did you think of God when you were a child? How do you think of God now? If your understanding and images changed, how did/does that change you?

What effect does your present relationship with the divine mystery have on your relationships with people and the entire planet?

How do you feel about “unfolding within the common narrative of Mystery’s life and being”?