I think some kind of experience of God is necessary for mental and emotional health. You basically don’t belong in the universe until you are connected to its center, and one word for that center (and everything else by implication) is “God.” When you live in the false self you are “eccentric” or off center. You’re trying to make something—yourself—the Center that is not the center. It will never work in the long run, because it is not true. A part can never pretend to be the Whole …
… If you do not have some experience of your True-Self-in-God, by which to relativize and limit your false self, it has to pose as the real thing—and tries to get away with it. But it cannot work. It is not true. An edge can never pretend to be the Center.
– Adapted from Gospel Call to Compassionate Action and Contemplative Prayer (CD, DVD, MP3) by Richard Rohr — http://www.cacradicalgrace.org
