Reflections for 7/27/10

"The life of prayer is the primary school of the Spirit. What we're doing in prayer is not creating successes, we're waiting upon the Lord. We're tuning into the stream of life and waiting to let that stream unburden itself of distractions and baggage. If you don't keep jumping on those ships that cross our minds during prayer, if you don't over identify with the flotsam bobbing down the stream, they stop returning.
Try it. If you've identified all your life with your feelings and your opinions, that flotsam will keep coming by and expect you to jump on it. Stop doing that for awhile. It'll come by a second time and say, 'Maybe you didn't see me the first time. Here I am. I am the relationship you always get angry about. I want you to get angry again so you can waste the rest of your morning.' And this time you look at it and say, 'I don't need you. Float on by.'"(R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 261)

One of the habits of prayer that I try to reinforce is the need to set aside time for it. There isn't a specific time during the day when prayer is better or worse. All religious traditions have set moments for prayer, and if you can't find your own, they're usually a good place to start. In our harried over-scheduled lives, prayer time has to be worked at.

Often I find that when I have a break in the business, is a good time. However, I also find that it can be pushed aside by those other feelings and opinions that I think are important. Fr. Rohr's image speaks to me. That notion of past injustices that suck up so much time and mental energy and can just mess up the rest of the day need to be confronted and told to move on.

And it may be that when we begin to try and get into a prayer routine that at first a good part of it will be spent dealing with the baggage that weighs us down. When it finally stops controlling us, it is then that we may really hear the voice of God, telling us who we are, and where we really need to be.

Blessings,
Ed