I was in my early twenties when I experienced God.
In what is termed supernatural gifts of prayer.
Elated, I shared it with the mother prioress.
She was very skeptical and did not believe me.
From the fruit, you know the trees, she told me.
You do not bear the fruit showing your spiritual progress.
You are very vain.
That I was.
I could not stand to see the shaved head of a nun,
showing through her headgear or toque.
I made sure my shaved head would never show.
Going to the extreme on that.
I responded, "You saw how I am with the young nuns.
Once they are nice to me, I not only forgive them but am as nice to them."
"Oh that," she responded, "It is part of your nature."
Through the years her words stayed with me.
It was not until last year I understood what she meant.
When a person reaches a certain level of spirituality,
They are just things they are no longer capable of doing,
It is a state of being.
For instance, they are no longer capable of hate.
Of deliberately setting out to hurt someone.
They might not be perfect, with personality flaws.
Even hurting others unintentionally.
But they would never deliberately set out to hurt another.
From that I saw, at each level of spirituality, there are markers.
These fruits or actions are like markers.
From the fruits, you know the trees.
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