We live in changing times, especially with the ongoing spread of the COVID-19 virus. It is easy to experience a sense of 'disenchantment' to everything that is occurring at the moment. And to lose touch of a sense of wonder and gratefulness which allows me to encounter what Gerard Manely Hopkins called the 'dearest freshness' that exists in all things.
However, I know I also have a choice. I can only experience an attitude of gratefulness by staying in the present moment. I may feel gratitude for past events (when we lived in a time before the virus arrived, for example). Or live with anticipation and hope for the future (when a safe, proven and affordable vaccine is readily available for all people) for example. The challenge is, how do I live with an attitude of gratefulnesses 'now' amidst all that is occurring? This is where I find my spiritual practice is essential because it helps me to stay in the present moment.
The Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson once said that the deepest act of love is not helping or service, but this immediate attentive presence. This is one reason why living mindfully in the present moment is the goal of every spiritual practice. Staying present opens the door to discover all of life is holy because the miraculous presence of God flows through all things – as challenging as that may be to accept.
A way I have found helpful was suggested by Denise Levertov in her poem, The Conversion of Brother Lawrence. Her poem refers to a 17th-century monk who made a choice to seek to always live in the present moment. With an open attitude of gratefulness despite all that was happening around him. Her poem includes these lines:
the light which bathed and warmed,
the Presence your being had opened to.
Where it shone, there life was, and abundantly;
it touched your dullest task, and the task was easy.
Joyful, absorbed, you 'practiced the presence of God' as a musician
practices hour after hour their art:
'A stone before the carver',
you 'entered into yourself'.
I
find practising being open to God's presence is an ongoing conscious
choice. The more I do this the more I discover the
'dearest freshness that exists in all things', however
challenging or stressful the current situation may be.
Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.
Phil
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Levertov, D, Conversion of Brother Lawrence, Seamus Sweeney, https://seamussweeney.net/2018/05/18/denise-levertov-conversion-of-brother-lawrence/
Steindl-Rast, D osb, Deeper than Words – Living the Apostle's Creed, Doubleday, 2010
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