How We Respond to God's Beckoning

Last Sunday, Father Brent preached on prayer, and as he reviewed the prayer practices most meaningful to his life I began to think back on my own journey. As I thought about the prayer practices that had made the biggest impact and influence on my relationship with God I recalled my teen years when I kept a journal. The journal was my “direct line” to God, where I felt I could freely talk and express myself, and where I heard God’s response in return.

During the St. Louis Urban Adventure, a few weeks ago, with the Cathedral Youth we practiced the discipline of journaling as we reflected each evening on where we lived out our Baptismal Covenant during the day. This practice only took a brief moment, five minutes, where the youth used the silence of the evening to process all that had taken place that day, and how it had impacted their journey as baptized persons. At the end of the week one of the youth commented on how meaningful this practice had been to her, and her hopes to continue it at home.

Prayer practices are just that, practices, that take our time and energy to reveal true fruit. One of this week’s words from the Society of Saint John the Evangel, in their daily email “Brother Give Me a Word,” was “beckoning”. As Br. David Vryhof reflected on the act of God beckoning us to prayer he recalled a classmate's daily call to passer by’s in the student lounge, “talk to me.” Prayer is God’s call to us to “talk”, to engage, and to participate in the most meaningful relationship we will ever have, with our creator. It is not a demand, but an invitation from the one who simply desires to be a part of our lives.

As I reflect on the meaningful practice I kept during my teen years I am reminded that our prayer practices change and grow as we move throughout life. They take time to develop and bear real fruit. And, they are always available to us to return to wherever we are. Br. Vryhof was intentional to point out that God does not call us to prayer with a finger wagging in disapproval, but with arms outstretched beckoning. It is an invitation to communion and relationship, and it is our to decide how we respond.

"The path around our home is also the ground of awakening." Thich Nhat Hanh

Coming home from a pilgrimage to a foreign place is unlike any other coming home that I have ever experienced.  Bernie and I stumbled home late Friday night from roughly 24 hours of travel.  We had just walked the Portugese route of the Camino de Santiago or the Way of St. James.  I can see that it will be a long time before I am able to make sense of it all.

There was so much walking and fatigue in those few blessed days away that I could not catch my breath or begin to ponder what was happening inside of me.  Every day we rose early, were given a hearty breakfast and then headed out on the path.  Some days were hotter than others, some were hillier and dustier than others.  Some days held more encounters that caused one to pause.  Every day however the walking continued for all of us.  Walking continued to stir together every scent, landscape, memory, person, song and ache that arose.  There was no time to wonder what kind of mixture was being created.  We just kept walking.

T.S. Elliot wrote that pilgrimage often reorients one's life.  Now as I sit at home in Lexington, Kentucky, I begin to look over the map of my life from those days on the Way.  How am I being asked to change by things encountered both inside and out along the way?  Why in this particular summer did my pilgrimage in life call me away to a distant land?

One memory that stands out is depicted in the picture above.  On Monday, July 4th as we made our way from Caldas de Reis to Padron I was stopped in my tracks by what I would normally consider a very ordinary and unexciting scene.  What looked like twinkling lights peeked through some wilderness brush, lighting up a shaded path.  I had to stop and just stare.  Bernie must have wondered why I was stopped by this tangled mess.  It was different though - just for a moment in time I was able to see the more.  It was a burning bush moment.

I believe that these scenes are everywhere around us - in our own back yard.  We don't have to travel thousands of miles away in order to wake up to the beauty in life.  Most often in the day to day grind however, we are blinded to God's wonder.  I encourage you to take a short walk - see yourself put on glasses which allow you to see deeper into things.  As you intentionally walk with these new glasses,  pay attention.  What do you see that you had not seen?  Maybe you see something different in another or in yourself.  Or maybe you will catch a glimpse in nature.  Walking helps us to unwind as it frees the mind of its chatter.  

Perhaps the biggest gift of the pilgrimage is the realization that I can wear these glasses every day.  It is my choice.  Do I choose to get caught up in chaos or do I choose to wear these glasses which enable me to embrace this pilgrimage that we call life?  This is available for all of us every day...