We Share One Life, We Are One Life
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Prayer, Hiukkhi, Flickr
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The first thing I want to tell you is this: the very fact that you want to know God's presence means you're already sensing something. ... My hunch is you are already sensing something of God's presence, or you wouldn't care.
*Frederica Matthewes-Green. The Jesus Prayer: The Ancient Desert Prayer that Tunes the Heart to God.
Scripture
7Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
8If I ascend to heaven [the sky], you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol [world of the dead], you are there.
*Psalm 139, NRSV (Anglicized)
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I will share an analogy to help with this thought of the Presence stimulating the desire for the Presence. This is offered by Matthewes-Green:
Picture yourself walking around a shopping mall, looking at the people and the window displays. Suddenly, you get a whiff of cinnamon. You weren't even hungry, but now you really crave a cinnamon roll. This craving isn't something you made up. There you were, minding your own business, when some drifting molecules of sugar, butter, and spice collided with a susceptible patch inside your nose. You had a real encounter with cinnamon – not a mental delusion, not an emotional projection, but the real thing.
One purpose of ritual of all forms is the inspiration of this sense of Presence. Ritual inspires, we could say stimulates, a sense of Divine Presence.
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I offer an example of ritual from the Orthodox Church. Ritual kissing can be a powerful expression of devotion. When worshipers enter the church, they kiss icons – often Jesus on the feet, saints on the hands. Some persons kiss the chalice. Some kiss the edge of the vestment of the priest as he walks by. Acolytes kiss his hand when giving him the censer. All attendees line up to kiss the cross at the conclusion of the service. By venerating something, usually the Orthodox Church means doing the sign of the cross and kissing it. Finally, before communion, attendees kiss each other – the number of times based on the culture, but from one to three kisses.
Prayer is a form of ritual. Prayer disposes the person, mind and heart, and body, to sense and enjoy the presence of Presence. Prayer is doing our part, is our showing up again and again, and again. Over time, we are marinated by the unseen Presence, and we grow into a more palpable and consistent living of a sense of Divine Closeness.
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In our de-mystified, pragmatic, and materialistic culture, if you want to live with a sense of the Presence, you can. But you will only by intentionally engaging practices that help in this. Likewise, your living space having reminders of the Sacred will be helpful – as in, objects, books, pictures, … that evoke a sense of Grace.
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We are each a lovely, pure Rose, in the Garden of Grace.
*White Rose, Pyogenes..., Flickr
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*You can contact Brian at briankwilcox@yahoo.com. Please keep in mind, when reading from this site, that teachings cover an extended period of years and, therefore, reflect changes over that time.
