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Prayer
Spirit of Grace, I open my mind to learn whatever you want me to learn this day, and I open my heart to receive all the love I have the capacity to receive from you. Amen.
Comments
A fond memory from growing up on a farm is of the cow standing still when giving suck to the calf. In this memory I hold the truth of nature and of human essence: gentle giving and glad receiving. Nature is sustained through reciprocity. This means that all life is to be received with gratitude, for all is gift.
This image of the cow giving suck and the calf receiving relates to spirituality. Rabbi Isaac, a great Kabbalist of the 12th century, said, "As much as the calf wants to suck, the cow wants to give suck."
Healthy spirituality proceeds from an assumption that God longs to give. God’s nature is Giving. God wants to give to us more than we long to receive from God. All creation is the pleroma, or the Outpouring of the Divine. Creation shows us, as does our own desire to give and receive, the lavish Grace of the Universal Christ.
Mindy Ribner, leader of the Jewish Meditation Circle, notes, in "Keeping God Before Me Always," that "God responds to the intentions of our heart." This leads us to an important concept in Jewish thought—kavvanah.
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Kavvanah is intention. Intention is something that we harness for lofty goals. Our intention provides an imaged result that pulls us onward and encourages consistency in discipline.
Our spiritual evolution will not happen by the Grace of God apart from our intention: this is why Christian Scripture refuses to resolve the tension between grace and works. Our spiritual growth is the fruition of the intentional meeting of God's desire to give and receive and our longing to do likewise in response to God. In this God is godlike, and we are godlike, too.
Scripture Meditation
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
—Psalm 34.1, ESV
How might your life be enriched by remembering daily and nightly God’s longing to give you blessing? Do you have a daily ritual to begin the day opening yourself to receive all God has for you? If so, wonderful. If not, begin a daily prayer of calling the blessings of God to you as you begin your day.
*First edition, September 19, 2001; Second and Expanded edition, August 5, 2006
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