Just As You Are: Opening Your Life to the Infinite Love of God Book

Contents

        Introduction: A Note to the Reader    ix

Part 1: Seduced by God
    1.    God—an Experience    3
    2.    Involution and Evolution    8
    3.    Are You in Love—or Is It an Infatuation?    11
    4.    Stories of Being Seduced by God    16
           Jeremiah, the Brokenhearted Prophet
           Adam and Eve, the First Seduction
           Abraham, the Settled One Uprooted
           Moses, the Curious One
           Mary, the Blessed One Who Believed
    5.    You Need a Burning Desire    30
    6.    A Sincere Decision Is Better Than the Right Decision    34
    7.    Obstacles to Love: Sin    40
    8.    Through Our Root Sin to Our Root Grace    45
    9.    Another Obstacle to Love: Attachment    49
    10.    Two Misunderstood Spiritual Tools    52
    11.    What’s Your Focus—Your Rock or Your Garden?    56
    12.    Pain Is a Fact of Life, Misery Is a State of Mind    63
    13.    Reinforcing a Divine Experience to Nurture It    68

Part 2: Romancing God

    14.    The Desert Experience    77
    15.    Are You Finding God in Life—or Are You Encountering God in Your Life?    82
    16.    Prayer: The Language of Divine Romance    87
              What Happens When God Finds You
              Deepening the Divine Romance
    17.    Three Paradigms of Prayer    93
             The First Paradigm: From Talking to Silence
             The Second Paradigm: Stages of a Love Relationship
             The Third Paradigm: Mind, Heart, and Consciousness
    18.    Finding Your Identity, Encountering God    107
    19.    Getting Better and Better, Doing the Same Thing    110
    20.    No Law above the Law of Love    115
    21.    Love, and Do What You Want    120
    22.    Loving God, a Way of Life    123

Part 3: Being in Love with God

    23.    Being in Love with the Divine    129
    24.    Letting Go    134
    25.    Make Gratitude Your Personal Attitude    138
    26.    When You’re in Love, You Need Not Know  the Purpose of Your Life    142
    27.    The Goal of Life Is Not to Be a Good Person    145
    28.    How Do You Know When You Have Fallen  in Love with God?    149
    29.    Lost in the Being and Essence of the Divine    153

        Conclusion: The Infinite Possibilities rom Being in Love with the Divine    156

        About the Author    161