From the Camino: I’m not entirely sure when it happened. It certainly wasn’t immediate. It took some time to really sink into God’s holy presence.
While at the start of my Northern Camino, I was so very grateful to be able to spend that time, and I was deeply, wonderfully happy, my own remembrance was that at that early point in my pilgrimage, I had a shallow sense of God’s presence. By this, I mean that it was a positive awareness that came and went. It was there for me when I chose to focus on it. I often didn’t, though, as I was so excited by the newness of the experience. When I didn’t focus on it…it seemed to disappear. I’m not saying God wasn’t present, just that I wasn’t conscious of the Divine for lengthy stretches.
Every time I would enter a wayside chapel, or sit outside a locked church to pray for my parishioners’ special intentions, I would be drawn back into an awareness of God, in prayer. The conversations were driven by the needs of my people’s family members, their jobs, their hopes and often their fears. The prayers were very beautiful at times, sometimes simply needing, often extraordinary in their generous concern for others.
The more attentive to God’s presence and the companionship of Jesus I became, the longer the awareness stretched into the surrounding moment, the times in between conscious prayer. The lovely sense of God’s hovering presence moved right into the mundane and quotidian.
Tobit 13:1, 3-4, 6, 18b: 1 Then Tobit spoke and composed a song of joyful praise; he said: Blessed be God who lives forever, because his kingship lasts for all ages…3 Give thanks to him, you Israelites, in the presence of the nations, for though he has scattered you among them, 4 even there recount his greatness. Exalt him before every living being, because he is your Lord, and he is your God, our Father and God forever and ever!…6 When you turn back to him with all your heart, and with all your soul do what is right before him, Then he will turn to you, and will hide his face from you no longer. Now consider what he has done for you, and give thanks with full voice. Bless the Lord of righteousness, and exalt the King of the ages…18 The gates of Jerusalem will sing hymns of gladness, and all its houses will cry out, Hallelujah! Blessed be the God of Israel for all ages! For in you the blessed will bless the holy name forever and ever.”
For reflection: Prayer takes on many forms. Some prayer follows patterns and rituals, while at other times, it is more conversational. It can be a monologue of our concerns and thoughts, or a reflection on God’s word in Scriptures. It can be a mantric repetition, as in the Jesus prayer or the Rosary. Alternatively, prayer can be absolutely formless, expressing no words, and maybe no feelings either, expressed simply in a mutual awareness between us and God. In these cases, it is, in fact, all good.
Some suggestions: We can profit from allowing our hearts to lead in prayer. The mind is a powerful tool, but so is the heart, especially when we are seeking to be in relationship with God. Our minds are often preoccupied with the necessary and the practical. The heart, though, can communicate with the Divine with wordless, Spirit-driven intuition and passion, if we let it. Both the mind and the heart can serve us. We can use them both.
We can remain open to new experiences in prayer. As long as old patterns of prayer work we can certainly stick with them…but why deny ourselves new experiences that could accompany and nourish our familiar prayer models or, perhaps, even replace them with something richer?
While we might find it intuitive to draw into prayerful connection with the Divine encountering the spectacular, the beautiful and the holy, we can also do so when involved in the ordinary, plain and secular. We may make distinctions about what, when and where it is appropriate to be aware of God…but I’m quite sure that God doesn’t find any element of our lives too awkward or uncomfortable.
Jesus is ready for the journey with us. God waits.
