Contact with God

I really love Anthony De Mellos wit. Most of his wit and short stories are collected in the following four books:

• One minute wisdom
• One minute nonsense
• Prayer of the frog
• Song of the bird

I strongly recommend all of these four books. All four of them contain one page short stories that are filled with great wisdom and sharp wit.

Inspired by these books, I read another of his book titled 'Contact with God - Retreat Conferences'. I couldnt stand it. I found it to be exceedingly boring except for the second half of a chapter titled 'The dangers of Repentance'. Ill have to say I liked this chapter. In here, he talks about the neurotic fear of God that many christians have (he talks about christians only because this book is a transcript of a retreat he organized for christian priests). He talks about how people imagine God to be demanding and how God seems to be a kill-joy.

He has an interesting quote from a jesuit priest who was perpetually under fear until he recognized something. I am reproducing here what he thought,

"God, I really hate you. You are a kill-joy. I just cannot enjoy life while you are around. You won't allow me. You wont let me free"

Anything that binds us, anything that wont let us free is a hindrance!