Rohr: Nature

“If you scale chronological history down to the span of one year, with the Big Bang on January 1, then our species, Homo sapiens, doesn’t appear until 11:59 p. m. on December 31. That means our written Bible and the church appeared in the last nanosecond of December 31. I can’t believe that God had nothing to say until the last nanosecond—Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, Center for Action and Contemplation.

We are staying at a favorite hotel by the Mississippi River. We watch the sun give its last hurrah of pink and orange as it sets over the rapidly moving water, racing to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. We follow a rare treat of the migration of a super full moon that is brighter and larger, appearing to be closer to the earth than usual. It finally sets over the north shore of the Mississippi River and quickly disappears into a cloudbank at early dawn.

There is a gentle breeze blowing the last of the leaves from their trees near the water’s edge. The cottonwood leaves seem to be the last holdouts. As the wind blows their palm shapes, they appear to be clapping, praising their Creator— in awe of the spectacle we have seen just before their own last flight.

Nature is telling us something. There is still amazing beauty in the world. Something greater than we can ever imagine fashioned it all. All of nature seems to be giving thanks and honoring its Creator. Dare we consider joining the dance and doing the same?

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

De Mello: Intercessory Prayer

“It is extremely important that you become aware of Jesus and get in touch with him at the beginning of your intercessory prayer. Otherwise your intercession is in danger of becoming not prayer, but an exercise of remembering people. The danger is that your attention will be focused only on the people you are praying for and not on God.” —Anthony de Mello in Sadhana: A Way to God (Image Books), p. 126.

De Mello’s book has had a major impact on my spiritual practices. The awareness exercises of my surroundings, my body, my senses have been the most practical avenues of learning how to experience God’s presence. I knew of these exercises before, and tried them without success; but for some reason they now have become an important spiritual practice to me.

One more lesson to remember: Spiritual practices that were not meaningful in the past can become important later on.

De Mello suggests that rather than trying to envision the face or clothes of Jesus, we might seek a sense of Jesus in the shadows, calling him by as many names as we are led to. He recommends imagining Jesus in our prayers in an empty chair beside us. This can be one of the most consistent ways of experiencing the presence of Christ.

These exercises for intercessory prayer can change the way we pray and talk about prayer to others, as we remember Jesus as the great intercessor; imagine Jesus’ presence directly beside us; and visualize those we are praying for with Jesus, laying hands on them.

The book’s last prayers deal with turning desires and prayers over to God one at a time—praising God at all times for everything, good and bad. This also can change our prayer practice and how we live our lives.

De Mello invites us to live and pray intimately, becoming a part of the great mystery of God’s love for us and all creation in the present moment. He believes that this precious now, the present moment, is where God meets us.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Schmidt: Ignatius, Examen

Guest Writer Frederick W. Schmidt

“The Examen builds on the insight that it’s easier to see God in retrospect rather than in the moment.” —James Martin in The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life (HarperOne, 2010), p. 97.

“Rummaging for God” in our lives.

One of the central practices in Jesuit devotion—the one that Ignatius of Loyola considered indispensable—was the prayer of Examen. Ignatius felt that the key to spiritual growth was to cultivate an awareness of when and where God had been present for us in the course of the day. It was so important, in fact, that he urged his followers to do the Examen even if it cost them the little time that they might have for prayer.

One writer calls this “rummaging for God” in our lives. Rummaging is a wonderful, commonplace activity we have all often resorted to when we have lost something: car keys, phones, and umbrellas being among my personal favorites over the years.

The Examen is a practice that tells us something important about the spiritual life: Spiritual practice is preeminently about cultivating a sense of God’s presence. It isn’t about devotional piety or about the number of hours we spend in overtly religious activity. It isn’t an anxious, endless effort to earn the love of God. The spiritual life is about cultivating an habitual awareness of God’s presence that shapes and informs our lives.

Ignatius recommends two questions:

One: What were the events in your life today—the moments, conversations, and choices—that drew you closer to God and to others in love?

Two: What were the events in your life today—the moments, conversations, and choices—that drove you away from God and others?

The answers to those simple questions invite us to evaluate our lives from a spiritual center. They are not about what feels good and what doesn’t feel good. Some things—such as addiction—feel good at first, but they invariably isolate us from God and others; and, by contrast, some things that don’t feel good, like asking for forgiveness, can actually draw us closer to God and to those around us.

Instead these questions raise our awareness of the ways in which patterns, habits, and choices shape our lives and how, armed with that knowledge, we can learn to be more readily available both to God and to others.

Rummaging around in our lives for God can be the source of inspiration, encouragement, strength, gratitude, and a renewed sense of spiritual purpose. That’s not a bad result for an activity that usually leads to the discovery of dust bunnies and lost umbrellas.

—The Rev’d Dr. Frederick W. Schmidt.