God as Mother and Father

WHY RELATE TO GOD AS MOTHER?

By William Cooper 5-10-2019

The Infinite Spirit (the third person of the Trinity) creates and maintains the physical cosmos and all its creatures. And it is the Infinite Spirit who portrays the aspects of God that I identify as God the Mother.

This feminine expression of God is special to women. The traditional image of God as masculine has resulted in many women feeling left out or devalued. I can recognize and respect that. Of course, God must be both masculine and feminine. That pattern is used all over the universe. So, women are overjoyed to discover that one of the expressions of God in the trinity is overwhelmingly like a mother. This validates a lot of the things that make women somewhat different from men. So, the motherly nature of God is very attractive to women.

What about men? What do they derive from special attention to the motherly qualities of God? They gain respect for the co-equality of the feminine expressed in God and in female humans. Ponder this respect for the feminine. It alters men’s attitudes a lot. Recognizing and valuing God as mother also gives men the reassurance that we are all looked after with the love and attention of an adoring mother. She blesses us continuously and is constantly with us and is already known by us. She is the generosity of God. She is the spiritual assistance we sometimes seek. She is God up close. She loves us even if we are undeserving. Mothers just love that way.

We are encouraged to worship the Father, pray to the Son for spiritual progress, and work out the details of our daily life with the descendants of the Infinite Spirit. Consciously working out the details of daily life with the descendants of the Infinite Spirit is a new arena of spiritual life opening up on our planet. It leads to living our religion of following the leading of the spirit. Working out the details of daily life with descendants of the Infinite Spirit will proceed more smoothly if we love and know them and cooperate with them.

It is a great comfort and joy to know God as our adoring Mother as well as our loving, understanding and forgiving Father. Why relate to God as Mother? Because it brings me closer to God and causes me to want to cooperate with this loving, gentle and trustworthy being.

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Experiencing the Holy Spirit

Kaye and Bill Cooper 6-9-20

The Infinite Mother Spirit is the perfect expression of the nurturing character of God. She is superbly endowed with the attributes of empathy, compassion, patience, mercy, and love. These qualities are exquisitely revealed in her spiritual ministry. She ministers love and overshadows justice with mercy. She possesses supernal kindness and merciful affection. (Adapted from UB 9:1.8.)he presence of the Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity, we may know even during our mortal lives, for material creatures can actually experience her beneficence (her active goodness, big-hearted generosity, and kindheartedness), because she is in elaborate contact with each of us and everything material, mindal or spiritual.  (Adapted from UB 9:2.5.)

We are promised that we can “actually experience” the beneficence of the Holy Spirit—her gracious generosity. Why bother to seek this experience? Because it is important to know about God. On this planet we don’t know much at all about a very significant aspect of God—the Infinite Spirit. The Infinite Mother Spirit functions as the Mother Spirit of each local universe. But knowing as a fact that she is here is only a first step. It is much more important to move beyond knowledge, to increasingly grow in the ability to feel the presense of God. (see UB 155:6.12.) So what we are going to do today is to open ourselves to experience the presence of God as expressed in the Holy Spirit. We are going to do that by focusing on particular values which are characteristic of our Mother.  Here is the process we would like to use:  

1. We will relax together into contact with spirit and maintain that connection throughout our time together.  Feel free to write in your journal at any time during this activity if you wish.
2. We will lead you through a worshipful group exploration of each of the five values on the list we give you in a moment. You are invited to focus with appreciation and gratitude on each of the five qualities on the list as an avenue to experience the Holy Spirit who is constantly with us.  You will be invited to share aloud at various times during this part of the activity.
3. Then we will have a quiet time of individual meditation and imagination.
4. Last, each of us will share whatever we want with the group and continue with comments and reflections.

We especially suggest that you approach these values with a combination of thinking and feeling.  Think with the highest spirit levels of the mind our Mother has given you.  And feel each value with your soul.  Feel your thoughts.  Think about your feelings.  Flow back and forth between thought and feeling, between meaning and value.  Allow them to flow and intermingle within you like a beautiful melody.

Do you have any questions about these concepts or about what we are going to do?

Holy Spirit Values:

Active Goodness

Gracious Generosity

Steadfast Patience

Unfailing Kindheartedness

Merciful Affection

1. Let’s start by relaxing. Get comfortable and balanced where you are sitting. Close your eyes if you wish. Breathe deeply and relax more…and again. Breathe fully but comfortably.  Begin by thinking of someone you love and appreciate.  Imagine being with them, safe in each other’s presence.  Think of how much you appreciate that person, how thankful you are for their being in your life.  Imagine the gratitude you feel.  Let gratitude bloom inside your heart and grow stronger…deeper…richer.  Allow this wonderful feeling of gratitude to fill your body with spirit.  Now spirit fills the space around you…the room in which you sit.  Enjoy being absorbed in appreciation and thanksgiving.  Maintain this attitude as we move into our worshipful group exploration of the characteristics of our Holy Spirit.
2. Exploring the Spirit’s characteristics.
   1. We begin with the first characteristic:  Active Goodness.  Recall the goodness with which we are blessed: friendships, challenges, surprises, empathy, compassion, sincerity, purpose.  Our lives are filled with beautiful spiritual values nurtured by the Holy Spirit.  Enjoy reflecting on these values for a moment.  Share aloud the values that come to your attention.

      [Wait 1 min.]

   2. Next contemplate the second characteristic: The Gracious Generosity of the Holy Spirit.  All things physical and intellectual are provided by our Mother Spirit.  She provides our very existence and consciousness.  Day-by-day the Spirit works incessantly to improve us individually…and to improve our civilization.  She touches all areas—health, government, education, industry, reversion, and, of course, family and religion.  Reflect in gratitude for these gifts of the Spirit.  I invite you to express aloud your appreciation to the gracious generosity of our Mother Spirit and her Spirit presence.

      [Wait 1 min.]

   3. Let’s turn our attention to the third Motherly value:  Steadfast Patience.  Like a human mother, the Holy Spirit of our Mother needs to have lots of patience.  We children must try her daily with our self-centered thinking and our ease-seeking, and spiritual task avoidance.  But she works loyally to provide us with opportunities to grow.  Her guardian seraphim manage our lives moment-to-moment.  Sometimes the lessons of life are hard…but they always bring us far more than we expect.  Other seraphim teach us the truths of life:  spiritual wisdom, racial justice, optimism, compassion, integrity, loyalty, and so much more.  Consider something you have learned and allow your gratitude to pour silently outward to the seraphim, the patient Mother-ministers of our daily lives.

      [Wait 1 min.]

   4. Fourth, our Mother is not only patient, she is Unfailingly Kindhearted.  Her kindness is described as ‘supernal’—far beyond any kindness we can imagine.  What magnificent safety there is in being taught, guided, protected, and encouraged by a parent who has never felt or expressed frustration, disappointment, irritation, or any number of other self-centered human emotions!  She is the original pattern for kindness—and the ultimate example, as well.  Imagine her hands patting your shoulders, her lips kissing the top of your head fondly.  Share aloud how she makes you feel.

      [Wait 1 min.]

   5. She moves face-to-face with each of us. Recognize the way she feels about us—her Merciful Affection for each of us—the fifth characteristic of our Mother.  She has not one ounce of blame in her.  She forgives us as a matter of course because she knows our spiritual longings and purposes.  Imagine her smile, her glowing motherly face, the joy in her eyes. She loves each one of us as if we were the only child she has!  Feel her affection.

      [Wait 1 min.]

3. Move into your own private time with the Holy Spirit of our Mother.  Open yourself to her wisdom and loving ministry.  Enjoy her as a person—your spiritual mother. She is real. She is close with us.

   I will give you ten minutes of silence with the presence of our Mother. I will let you know when time is up.

   Allow 10 minutes.

4. Sharing and Discussion. Now it is time to return our attention to our group.  Bring our Mother back with you.  You are invited to share whatever you want from this experience.  Choosing to share provides the opportunity that your experience may bless others in the group as much or more than it blessed you!  Always respect that each person’s experience is unique and valid for them.  

Our spiritual destiny is conditioned only by our spiritual longings and purposes. (see UB156:5.9)

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