Prayer is not telling God what to do, but becoming aware of just how intimately and immediately present God is to our world, to the ones we pray for and to ourselves.
Practising resurrection: an invitation
Practising resurrection: an invitation to enter into a way of life that leads to life. It is not about trying harder: it is not about achievement or success. These precepts are practical and practised ways of living in a grounded and real way, and they include the following ground-rules:
Is, not should: reminding us how deadening the “should” and “oughts” in our lives can be
Drawn, not driven: hinting at the authentic and gentle movement of the Spirit of God, rescuing us from the tyranny of our addictions and compulsions
Now, not then: moving us away from the grip of regret about the past and anxiety about the future
What, not why: helping us focus on the reality or the facts of life rather than being lost in the endlessness of the often futile question “why?”
Me, not you: allowing us to move away from competitiveness and defensiveness into the grace-filled responsibility of learning to live out of our truth.
…in everyday life
it is the plain facts and natural happenings
that conceal God and reveal him to us
little by little under the mind’s toolings
R. S. Thomas
STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! Go for a slow walk. Enjoy the world around you. Use your senses – one at a time. “Cleanse the doors of perception” as William Blake would say, and learn to see and hear everything as it really is.
Look at something with your undivided attention- and let it look at you, engage you, and speak to you.
“The harder you look at something the harder it looks at you”
Gerard Manley Hopkins
(Each day) attend to your inner world
your everyday reactions and responses
your thoughts and your feelings –
without judging or putting yourself down.
And ask yourself – does this particular feeling, attitude etc. –
lead to life and freedom, or away from it?
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click on the link below.
