Seeing God in the Mirror of our Lives

In my last blog, I mentioned several strategies to help us become more aware of God's presence within us and around us. Today, I was interested to read, St Francis of Assisi recommend if we wished to grow in our spiritual life, we should “look into the mirror of our life and learn every perfection” (1).

I like that thought! It is so easy to criticize ourselves. And Christianity's fixation on us being 'unworthy' and sinful, as presented by many Christian writers and Churches, doesn't help! In contrast, to 'look into the mirror of our life' and see the reflection of the Divine Presence; of us being a God-carrier; a person of Divine Grace, created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27; James 3:9) with an innate ability to mirror God's divinity and become co-creators with God (2) – that, to my way of thinking and believing, is liberating GOOD NEWS!

I know my own quest to live with this realisation continues, and so does my reading and reflection. During the past week, I came across an article by Tom Schwanda. Tom is the Associate Professor of Christian Formation and Ministry at Wheaton College. He mentioned a similar struggle experience to mine – and perhaps to yours – in his article 'Cultivating Attentiveness to God's Presence' (3). He suggests we need to be mindful of the activities or practices during our day that help or hinder us from paying attention to God's presence in our life. He mentions Br Lawrence of the Community of the Resurrection (1614-1691), who discovered a similar way of developing a continuous awareness of God's presence in all that he did. Br Lawrence would “look into the mirror of his life” and identify AND experience, the continuous closeness and presence of God in all the events and activities that filled his day.

I have recently begun to try and do something similar. To ask myself during the ordinary activities that fill my day, 'Where do I sense God's presence at this moment? Where do I catch a glimpse of the Divine? It may be reflected in the beauty of a flower in someone's garden, or in the rays of sunlight piercing the evening cloud. Perhaps shining in the light of a person's eyes; in a bird in flight, or in the embrace by someone I love. This awareness transforms all these special moments into 'Wow moments'.

However, to see the Divine when things start fulling apart takes a different way of seeing and knowing, one suited to the times darkened by disappointment, pain or stress. In all these times, the Christian mystic, Nicolas of Cusa, once said, 'You need the night-eyes of an owl'. God is still there, with and within us. We know that because Psalm 139 plainly promises, for example, God is always with us wherever we go, no matter what happens to us. Or as Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 – c. 1328 ) once discovered, even“in the darkness, God is giving birth, and we are being born there too”.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey

Phil

_______

(1) Thomas Celano, First Life of St Francis, para 90.

(2) Imago Dei ("image of God"), https://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/theogloss/imago-body.html

(3) https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/Cultivating_Attentiveness_to_Gods_Presence

Tom Schwanda, PhD is Associate Professor of Christian Formation & Ministry, Wheaton College.

(4) Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

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Entering the Silence

Wouldn't it be wonderful
to be able to become so quiet, so still, so silent,
that we could hear the sacred presence

Surya Das (1)

In my last blog, I reflected on the 'Gift of Silence'. The silence I refer to is not simply the absence of talking or outside noise, although that helps. We need to learn to cultivate an inner stillness of heart, mind and soul if we wish to experience the presence of God. While this wisdom is common to all faith traditions, we need to find our own doorway into the inner silence of our souls. As St Mother of Teresa of Calcutta once said:

We need to find God, and (God) cannot be found in noise and restlessness.
God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, and grass – grow in silence;
see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence.

Fortunately, we are not the only person who may struggle to silence our constant internal chatter. For example:

St Francis de Sales suggested sitting in silence with a relaxed and open attitude to the Divine Presence within you and in your surroundings. Easier said than done. I find my busy mind soon runs off in all directions!

The Curé d'Ars, St Jean-Marie Vianney, gave his mind something to focus on. He would spend hours sitting quietly in Church doing nothing other than gazing at a symbol of God's Presence (eg a Cross or Icon or the Reserved Sacrament). As a result, he began to see everything in a different light as he became an open channel of Divine love and light to others. Isn't that something we all would wish to be – I know I do. But do I have the will and discipline to give my spiritual practice the time and focused energy it requires?

Thomas Keating, and many others, have used the breath as a tool to experience God's presence within. They allowed the stillness to soak into their being, as they would “fall into the arms of God, focusing on the presence of the eternal” who is “Closer...than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet”(3). While the method sounds simple, from my experience, it is not that simple!.

Kim Boykin refers to 'my' struggle in his book Zen for Christians. (4). He suggests a more structured way of using our breath in meditation. We start by silently counting our in-breaths and the out-breaths. Our first in-breath is '1'; our first out-breath is '2', and so on until we get to 10, then we start back at 1 again. When we realise our attention has wandered off (as it will), we take note of the thought or mental conversation that had captured our attention, before continuing to count our breathing again, starting at 1. (3)

What Kim is suggesting is that there are no shortcuts. While the Bible suggests we “live and move and have our being” in God (Acts 17:28). The One who is “over all and through all and in all” (Eph.4:6). In the end, there is nothing we need to do – but 'be', and 'be aware'– and 'be open' to the Divine Presence. Who is always within us and around us as promised by the Prophet Isaiah:

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength...

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
and will rise up to show mercy to you.

Blessed are all those who wait on God.(Is.30:15,18)

 

May you find blessing in your 'returning' each day to your spiritual practice. In your learning to 'rest' and 'trust' in the stillness, and in your learning to 'wait' on the One who is closer to you than you are to yourself.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey

Phil

_______

(1) Dass, Surya , Awakening to the Sacred: Creating a Personal Spiritual Life, Random House Books, 2007.p. 364.

(2)Thomas Keating, OCSO: For a World Re-Centered in Prayer https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/francisclooney/blog/thomas-keating-ocso-and-saving-grace-prayer

(3)Bob Holmes https://contemplativemonk.com/breath-prayer/

(4) Boykin, Kim, Zen for Christians: A Beginner's Guide. Available at Amazon.

The Gift of Silence

When I attended Mass this morning, I thought of my last Blog, 'The Time for Words is Over'.

Before Mass, we usually sit in silence, waiting for the service to begin. I find the silence almost tangible as it wraps itself around me, providing a helpful space as I prepare for the liturgy that is about to gather us into its timeless action. However, some people seem unable to cope with the stillness. They have a compulsive need to talk! Recently, a person, irritated by the intrusion of chatter, dared to say in a loud voice, “Silence Please!”. The building almost sighed with relief.

There are no doubt many reasons why people feel uncomfortable with silence. We live in a noisy world. The sound of TV, radio, music app, or phone, and even the neighbour's lawnmower, continually surround us. We have forgotten or perhaps have never learnt, to appreciate the gift of silence.

An old Quaker saying is "Do not speak unless you can improve upon the silence."  Quakers are a group of people who have learnt the power of silence. One Quaker, Brent Bill, describes his awakening to the gift of silence in his book 'Holy Silence'. The moment occurred during one of their Sunday meetings. There was the usual chatter as people arrived and settled down as the meeting began. Slowly, as the exterior sounds dropped away, Brent was left with his internal chatter. All the random images and words that so readily fill our minds when the events of everyday life no longer demand our attention. Gradually, this too settled, and he was dropped into a well of holy silence that guided him into the deep waters of his soul. That was when he became aware of the Divine presence deep inside him. This awareness changed his hour of silence. (2)

The Catholic Priest and Franciscan, Richard Rohr, once said:

We cannot attain the Divine Presence

because we are already totally in the Divine Presence.

What's absent is awareness. (3)

When this happens, the American priest, Barbara Brown Taylor suggests, we will feel 'grasped by beauty, gratitude, awe, wonder, love, hope, joy and a sense of peace'.(4) Isn't that something we all long to experience?

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga 

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey

Phil

1. https://www.elitedaily.com/p/why-silence-is-so-uncomfortable-heres-how-to-get-more-comfortable-with-quiet-moments-8762651

2. Brent Bill, J, Holy Silence – The Gift of Quaker Spirituality, Paraclete, 2005.

3. Rohr, R, Loving the Presence in the Present, https://cac.org/loving-the-presence-in-the-present-2015-12-29/

4. Taylor, Barbara Brown, An Altar of the World., A Geography of Faith, Harper One, 2010.