This is the first piece of yours I have read. Thank you for sharing.

The appellation of "heretic/excommunicant" applies to me, as well. For my part, I have never rejected the reality of God or the divinity of Christ, but nearly everything else is open to question. My reason for not rejecting God or Jesus has to do with an experience I had in a Catholic Church in the early 1980s -- an experience that I cannot explain in any other way than as a testament to the existence of God and the viability of Catholicism as a legitimate path to the divine. That is not an endorsement of Catholic dogma or doctrine! For I believe that the divine will work within whatever prison is built around it, if we are open to it in itself.

It was my trust that it is the Reality of God, and not simply this or that idea of God, that we must come to know, that led me to explore alternatives to the Christian framework and eventually to Sri Tripura Sundari. Perhaps "led" isn't exactly accurate, because She popped up without notice when I wasn't looking for Her. Or thought I wasn't.

I have struggled at times, sometimes greatly, trying to reconcile the truth of Jesus with the truth of Devi; but I have lately realized that the reconciliation is non-rational. It lies in the heart; and, the more time I spend "listening," with the heart and not the head, the closer I come to being able to live with two seemingly contradictory propositions at the same time.

I rejoice with you on your path. I would love to travel to India and have considered trying to retire there; but I think my destiny lies along a different path.

Jai Ma