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
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(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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