Changing Unceasing Thoughts to Unceasing Prayers

 Changing Unceasing Thoughts to Unceasing Prayers

Henri Nouwen

“Our minds are always active. Do we have to become victims of our unceasing thought? No, we can convert our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer by making our inner monologue into a continuing dialogue with our God, who is the source of all love.”—Henri Nouwen in Bread for the Journey (HarperSanFrancisco, 1997).

The first book to understand unceasing prayer is Practicing the Presence of God. It is a small collection of the teachings and experiences of Brother Lawrence, a French Carmelite monk who served as the cook for his community in Paris during the 17th century. Father Joseph Beaufort compiled the book from letters and four conversations with Brother Lawrence, as the latter described his walk with God, not from the head but from the heart.

 Brother Lawrence saw God in every aspect, every second of his life, as he washed pots and pans, purchased wine, or cooked meals—continually conversing with God. He never became weary of doing insignificant things for the love of God, believing that intervals of prayer should not differ from other times. Lawrence saw God as a friend he would not want to be estranged from, feeling God’s presence more acutely in sickness than in good health.

My favorite fictional role model for continually being in conversation with God is Tevye in the 1971 American dramatic musical Fiddler on the Roof.

I try to watch the movie several times a year and attend the play whenever it comes to Little Rock. It is long, but worth journeying with Tevye in his ongoing conversations with God through a journey of love and many trials. 

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Spiritual Compass

Spiritual Compass

“Within each one of us, there is a spiritual compass. It always points toward the good, toward what is holy. The compass is made of our values, what we believe and hold sacred. Over the years, our experience makes the compass within us even more accurate, refining our ability to seek the right direction in life, making us even more sensitive to the pull of compassion and common sense.

Therefore, we do not have to be afraid that we will get lost, wandering the wilderness of this age. We only have to follow where our heart leads, and our reason points the way.”—Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook post.

Cynthia Bourgeault would likely agree with Steven Charleston on the importance of a spiritual compass. She calls it an inward GPS (Global Positioning System), similar to the one we use in our car to get us to the correct location. We need to know where we are—and then the address of where we want to go—and the GPS will get us there.

Sometimes, we are unsure about where we are, but we have a clear idea of where we want to go. Our primary goal, above all, is to maintain our connection to God. I love it when our ideal location is not yet on the map, and the GPS takes us as close as possible. This may also be true regarding our spiritual life.

Bourgeault calls our heart a “God Positioning System.” When it is attuned and turned on, it allows us to achieve balance in a completely different way: by perceiving things as separate and differentiating them from one another, perceiving the whole, and discerning our place within it. For Bourgeault, attuning to this spiritual GPS occurs through the contemplative practice of Centering Prayer. My own GPS is writing. We are each called to find which spiritual practice best connects us to God. Also, please note that the details may change from time to time.

Cynthia Bourgeault, The Shape of God: Deepening the Mystery of the Trinity (CAC, 2004), disc 4.

 Cynthia Bourgeault, “How Change Happens” in Transgression (CAC, 2014), Vol. 2 No. 1, p. 86.

Joanna Seibert  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Buechner: Memory, Eucharist, Jesus

Buechner: Memory, Eucharist, Jesus

“There are two ways of remembering. One way is to make an excursion from the living present back into the dead past. The other way is to summon the dead past back into the living present. The young widow remembers her husband, and he is there beside her. When Jesus said, ‘Do this in remembrance of me,’ he was not prescribing a periodic slug of nostalgia.”
—Frederick Buechner in Wishful Thinking (Harper & Row, 1973).

Buechner gives us two ways to remember: going back and bringing memories forward. Returning to past memories can allow us to relive a scene from our lives. Anthony de Mello writes that perhaps that scene was too powerful to experience the first time. As we relive it, we can participate in it again and again, each time gaining a greater sense of its meaning.

Bringing memories forward is like doing active imagination with a living friend or someone you deeply loved who has died. You imagine the person’s presence with you. My experience is that sometimes we feel that presence even without trying to imagine it.

Buechner believes that when Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24b), He was calling us to bring Him back into our presence—to know and feel His love, so we might go out and bring others in to share in this love. 

Some believe Jesus is present in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. Others believe that bread and wine are messengers or symbols that remind us of Jesus’ presence and love in our lives. Either way, the God of love is present.

Receiving the Eucharist is one of the most significant liturgical sacraments that many people missed during the pandemic’s isolation period. Jesus is still beside us and within us, but we are learning that the symbol of this presence is more powerful and more needed than we recognized. Perhaps, in our remembering, we can return to previous times or bring Jesus forward, letting him know that we believe with all our hearts that he is very present within and beside us.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/