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Spotted Joe-Pye Weed
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay, ME
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She asked, "What is most important to remember for a life of prayer?" The Sage said, "Learn to be quiet, silencing your will to pray." "Why that? It sounds like you're advising me not to pray," she said. "Too often," replied the Sage, "praying hinders prayer. Learn to trust your heart more. It knows much better how to pray than you do."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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A hospice team member asked me to pray, one of the chaplains, for her friend. She had gone into our chapel and written a note of request, placing it on the altar before the stained glass window.
At the end of the day, recalling her request, I stopped by the chapel before leaving for home. I stood before the altar and read the heartfelt prayer request. I bowed my head and rested quietly, not saying anything vocally or mentally.
Prayer silently arose; prayer happened. Silence presented itself, but more than the absence of sound. A living silence hovered, like breath breathing all around.
I, in the truest sense, had not prayed. Prayer had arisen in the quietness. All I needed to do was welcome it to manifest itself, to present itself through a deeply-felt sense of presence.
Have you had moments when prayer arose without your sensing a need to say something? How can we welcome such prayer to arise spontaneously?
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*©Brian K. Wilcox, 2022.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and notation of title and place of the photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
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