"Stay awake with me," is one of Jesus' final teachings to his disciples and to us. He is asking us to always stay watchful. And he is teaching us to always be aware.

If we can become more aware of ourselves and those around us, then we will be able to create deeper friendships, more harmonious families, and more peaceful communities. If we can become politically, socially, and environmentally aware, we can participate consciously and purposefully in creating the future of our shared world.

The more that we become aware of the world, the more that we discover it is filled with wonder, enchantment, and hidden meaning. In a recent radio interview the Catholic philosopher and social worker Jean Vanier said, “For me, the most important thing is to love reality. Not to live in what could have been or what should have been. But to love reality. And then to discover, in reality, that God is present.”

The greatest awareness is awareness of self. The more you become aware of your own thoughts and feelings, the more you will find worlds inside of you that are even larger than the world outside of you.

And somewhere within you will find the secret of your own divinity. A mystic once described his search for God, "All this time I have been knocking on God's door, until I realized that I was knocking from the inside."