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The Divine Is Larger Than Our Expectations

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We live in a world that loves definition. We name, categorize, and measure everything—from galaxies to emotions. Even our spiritual lives often follow this pattern: we imagine the Divine as something we can understand, predict, or contain. Yet the truth is far more humbling. The Divine is larger than our expectations—larger than our theology, our imagination, and our capacity to comprehend. 1. The Limits of Expectation Expectation is a human reflex. We build it from experience, culture, and desire. We expect God to act in ways that make sense to us—to reward goodness, to punish evil, to answer prayer in recognizable form. But the Divine does not operate within our logic. It moves through paradox, silence, and surprise. When we expect the sacred to appear only in holy places, we miss its presence in ordinary ones. When we expect revelation to sound like thunder, we overlook the whisper. When we expect love to look like comfort, we fail to see it in challenge. Expectation narrows the ape...

Author in the News: Julia Aziz recently presented a podcast on "Integrating Ritual and Sacred Time into Clinical Practice"

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  Julia Aziz, author of  Lessons of Labor , recently presented a podcast on Integrating Ritual and Sacred Time into Clinical Practice . Here is more information:  Women’s Group Program . For more posts by and about Julia and her book, click  HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter (recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, author advice, and more -- stay up to date)   Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC?  We help writers become award-winning published authors. One writer at a time. We are a family, not a factory. Do you have a future with us? Turned away by other publishers because you are a first-time author and/or do not have a strong platform yet? If you have a strong manuscript, San Juan Books, our hybrid publishing division, may be able to help. Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Planning on sel...

Daily Excerpt: An Afternoon's Dictation (Greenebaum) - Part One, Call to Interfaith, Chapter Four

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  Today's book excerpt comes from  An Afternoon's Dictation  by  Steven Greenebaum . This book has been in the Amazon top 100 among interfaith and ecumenical books on many occasions. PART ONE: THE CALL TO INTERFAITH CHAPTER FOUR   The call of Interfaith in no way rejects religion. It is a call to realize that our spiritual traditions are living, breathing entities that change over time, as does all of life. Still, “Seek truth in the commonality of religions, which are but the languages of speaking to Me. Worship not the grammar” took some living with. I began to imagine a sacred mountain for humanity. At the mountaintop dwelt the call of the sacred, the commonality that would hold the truths to living a meaningful life to which all of our sacred traditions seek to point us. Our differing spiritual traditions would be diverse paths up this sacred mountain that our differing eras and cultures had found helpful. The “grammar,” then, is the particular ritual and...