Lamott: Prayer

Lamott: Prayer

“So prayer is our sometimes real selves trying to communicate with the Real, with Truth, with the Light. It is us reaching out to be heard, hoping to be found by a light and warmth in the world, instead of darkness and cold. Even mushrooms respond to light—I suppose they blink their mushroomy eyes, like the rest of us.”—Anne Lamott in Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers (Hodder & Stoughton, 2001).

When spiritual friends have difficulty praying, we talk about our present prayer life and what kind of prayer discipline has helped in the past. We discuss the multitude of ways to pray: walking and praying, praying in silence, using prayer books, Ignatian prayers, Centering Prayer, prayer with beads, praying in color, and praying the monastic hours.

Anne Lamott’s book, Help, Thanks, Wow, is a realistic, humorous, short, down-to-earth discourse on praying with three subject lines: giving thanks, asking for help, and praising. The book is filled to the brim with simple “one-liners” to remember and guide us through the day. One of my favorites is, “If one person is praying for you, buckle up. Things can happen.” Another is, “The difference between you and God is that God never thinks he is you.” Finally, she reminds us that gratitude is not lifting our arms and waving our hands as we see on television, but rather picking up trash, doing what is required, and reaching out to others in need. When we breathe in gratitude, we breathe it out.

Lamott’s section on “Wow” likens that kind of prayer to a child seeing the ocean for the first time. I still remember standing just inside the National Cathedral as a group of fifth-graders walked in. I will not forget one small boy who looked up at the high, vaulted gray stone ceilings and exclaimed: “WOW!” These are uppercase wows. There are also lower-case wows, such as getting into bed between clean sheets. Lamott suggests poetry is “the official palace language of Wow.” She also reminds us of C. S. Lewis’s view of prayer, that we pray not to change God, but to change ourselves.

My experience is that Lamott constantly stimulates us into new faith practices or reminds us about those we have forgotten. This can bring welcome renewal to our everyday lives.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

 

 

 

 

Walking in Someone Else's Shoes

 Walking in Someone Else’s Shoes, seeing God in each other

“Within the best of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us, there is some good. The person who hates you most has some good in him; even the nation who hates you most has some good in it; even the race that hates you most has some good in it. And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every person and see deep down within what religion calls ‘the image of God,’ you begin to love in spite of. No matter what the person does, you see God’s image there.”—Martin Luther King, Jr., in “Loving Your Enemies,” sermon at Dexter Ave. Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, 1957.

I once worked with another physician, whom I thought was incompetent. I felt her decisions did not make sense and were not helpful. She often talked almost in riddles, trying to look at many sides of a question—while I already thought there was an obvious answer that, beyond question, was right. Moreover, she was amazingly slow to make any changes.

Then one weekend, I had to do her job when she was on vacation. Overnight I realized why she behaved as she did, the magnitude of her responsibility, and the endless number of real and imagined problems presented to her. I walked in her shoes, and it made all the difference.

Putting myself in her place led me to see God’s image in her and so many others I had difficulty understanding.

A story also circulates that someone asked Mother Teresa the question, “How do you stand it when you have to serve some truly despicable person?” With a sigh, she replies, “I look deeply into their eyes and say to myself, ‘My Jesus, what an interesting disguise you are wearing today.”’–Deborah Sokolove, Seekers Church, “Weekly Gospel Reflection,” Inward/Outward.com, Church of the Saviour.

Recognizing God

Recognizing God

“He who recognizes a king in disguise treats him differently from he who sees before him only the figure of an ordinary man and treats him accordingly. Likewise, souls who can recognize God in the most trivial, the most grievous and most mortifying things that happen to them, honour everything equally with delight and welcome with open arms what others dread and avoid.”—Jean-Pierre de Caussade in The Sacrament of the Present Moment (HarperOne, 1966).

seeing Christ in each other

I know people like this who seem to treat everyone equally. One person is no more important than another. All are human and divine simultaneously. They seem to see the Holy Spirit, the God, the Christ in each person they meet. They do not look merely at the outer appearances, political stature, wealth, or power a person represents. Christ indeed modeled this approach for us.

My experience teaches me that we cannot see Christ in our neighbor, because we cannot see Christ in ourselves. Consequently, we project onto others our unchristlike behavior that we do not realize is really within us.

How do we change? Along the way, someone comes into our life who treats us as if we do contain a divine spark, the holy within us—that is, they react to us with love. It is as though a spark becomes lighted. A light, a lightbulb, goes on inside of us. We begin to believe we are loved.

So, our mission as spiritual friends is to seek the light, the Christ, in each other.

I remember talking to a spiritual friend about a family member I struggled with. She helped me by asking me, “Tell me something good about her. Something she does well.”

My experience is also that I cannot see Christ in someone else when I live in fear. I realized this recently when attending a meeting at which I was uncomfortable. I wanted to look good. However, I did not know precisely what they expected of me. I was fearful that I might make a mistake. As an introvert, I did not interact with anyone I did not know. I only had concerns about what people might think about me. Was I making a good impression?

At our next meeting, I hope to relate better to others. My plan is, just before the meeting, to pray for each person who will be there, asking that we will see Christ within each other. I will let you know how it goes.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

 

seeing Christ in each other