Integrity---The State of Being Whole and Undivided

 This year I have been following the compassion beads created by Dr. James Doty. Compassion, Dignity, Equanimity, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Humility, Integrity, Justice, Kindness and ending with Love. This articles focuses on Integrity.

Recently I went on retreat into the high desert of New Mexico and in the journey I came upon adobe churches. Each year the worshiping community comes together to re-surface the church by hand and trowel using mud, straw and water. What moved me is the adobe mud, a straw mixture, so impermanent, being used to create a semi-permanent structure, a chapel. We too are semi-permanent chapels and in need of reshaping by the holy spirit, leaving everything in search of knowing Jesus Christ and making the Gospels absolutely integral to our daily life. Practicing integrity of character takes unrelenting courage. It requires your whole being to remain in the state of constant humility that comes from knowing that you are loved by God. It is living in a state of gentleness and patience towards other disciples and also visitors who come seeking an understanding of the essence of spiritual life. Most of all integrity is seeking and experiencing union with God in the silence of your heart.
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Reflect and Journal:

• What do you value enough that you would use your limited resources (time, energy, materials available) to create a visual, concrete expression: a chapel, a house of prayer, family, etc.)?
• What does God value enough that God would use God’s providence to create an incarnate expression, a living sanctuary?
• What do you live for? 
• What prevents you from living fully for the thing you really want to live for?”

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