Prayer

Today’s Word: Rain

Steve · September 8, 2013 · 2 Comments

Today’s word is rain because, well, it’s raining. I’m up early this morning after a late night out with my band, and I’m sitting in my favorite chair next to an open door. The early morning breeze is cool and a gentle rain has been falling for the past hour or so. Off in the distance thunder rumbles. This rain, hitting off the deck outside the door and splashing noiselessly into the thirsty earth, today speaks to me of prayer and the presence of God.

St. Ignatius once described our interaction with the Spirit as “lightly and gently, like a drop of water that enters into a sponge.” Think of the gentleness of that; it’s barely noticeable until we are filled. Without the Spirit, we are an empty shell of being, dry and useless, just taking up space. But when we open ourselves to the Spirit, when we set ourselves out in the rain, so to speak, we can be filled, inundated, inebriated even by the gentle yet powerful presence of God. Then we become more that we could ever become on our own, filled with joy and purpose and ready to serve others.

Ask yourself in silence: Do I make time to “set myself out in the rain?” Am I willing to empty myself of my own desires in order to be filled by the Spirit of God?

Today’s Word: Barefootin’

Steve · August 30, 2013 · Leave a Comment

feet — Barefootin' on Captiva. SJG photo

One of the things I like best about beach vacations is the ability to spend huge swaths of my day barefooted. When I allow myself to think about retirement and the possibility of months at a time without shoes, a big grin spreads across my face and I must look goofy to anyone around me. Oh, well, a big part of paradise for me is no shoes. I think it has something to do with having a more direct connection with the earth. My feet on soft grass or, better yet, with sand between my toes, the waves gently washing over my feet as I walk along the beach. It’s the connection, unencumbered by leather and rubber soles.

It’s an attitude of linking and bonding that has something to teach us about our approach to God, I think. For when we try to approach God encumbered with the stuff of life, the going can be a little tough. It can be hard to find God with our iPhone attached to our ear or the stock market ticker running through our heads. God help us all if the much-ballyhooed computer screen eyeglasses ever become popular. When that happens, some people will never unplug themselves again. And that’s exactly what we need to do. We need to take time to unplug from the stimuli of our lives, to take off our shoes and approach God as if the very ground we walk upon is holy.

Gifts from the sea. SJG photo.

Ask yourself in silence: What are the “shoes” in my life that keep me from making a direct and full connection with God?

Today’s Word: Irresistible

Steve · July 13, 2013 · 17 Comments

Starting something new: With today’s post I’m trying out a new idea. Knowing how pressed we all are for time — and equally aware of how much “stuff” comes into all of our mailboxes each day asking to be read — today during prayer I asked a simple question of God: What do I have to give or say to you that could possibly rise above the noise of our everyday lives? The answer I sensed perhaps should have been obvious to me: Give them less and invite them into silence.

As I have written before, silence is perhaps one of the best tools we have to draw closer to God and continue to make some sense of our lives. So while I may still post the occasional longer entry about something on my mind or something I have read, I’m going to try to write more often and shorter (about the length of one of my Living Faith devotions), all the while inviting you to spend some time in silence, where the God of all of our wants and desires dwells and waits for us. We can find God there, in the midst of family crises, illness, work problems or loneliness, if we only enter in and reach out for the One who created us. “Reaching out for God is reaching God,” as Mark Thibodeaux, SJ, has written so eloquently.

So I’m going to be living and praying each day, searching for one word upon which I can briefly reflect, a word that will also beckon you to spend some time in silence, searching for that word’s unique meaning for you in your journey of faith.

Today’s Word: Irresistible

dragonfly — Dragonfly on my finger. SJG Photo.

I heard this word today somewhere — irresistible. Now there are lots of senseless things that can sometimes be irresistible to us, such as television, eating too much of the wrong things or other such vices. That perhaps is a subject for another time. But the immediate sense of this word that I felt today is a comforting and peaceful notion: We are irresistible to God. God cannot get enough of us.

But we have a hard time believing this, don’t we? Why, we ask, would God want to spend time with us? Why would God care one way or another if we turn toward Him and say, “here I am?” But we also know the answer if we care to take the time to think about it. We are irresistible to God because God made us, and He made us to be in relationship with Him. The beauty and grace of all this is that when we don’t respond, when we forget to turn toward God, God is still there, waiting for us. God never grows weary of waiting because we are precious and perfect creatures of His own imagination and love. God waits because He cannot possibly resist the urge to do so. So believe it: You are irresistible.

Ask yourself in silence: Am I willing to believe this? If so, how do I respond? How does it change my life?

A call for guest bloggers: Writing as a true spiritual discipline

Steve · May 11, 2013 · 3 Comments

“When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place...SJG photo.

“Writing,” Henri Nouwen wrote, “can be a true spiritual discipline. Writing can help us to concentrate, to get in touch with the deeper stirrings of our hearts, to clarify our minds, to process confusing emotions, to reflect on our experiences, to give artistic expression to what we are living, and to store significant events in our memories. Writing can also be good for others who might read what we write.”

So…I’m embarrassed to see that I’ve not posted anything here since December 29. Ach! I have no real excuses, other than a busy work schedule, a couple of graduate classes (I’m completing a graduate certificate in Spiritual Direction at Aquinas Institute of Theology here in St. Louis…) and, oh yeah, I’m about to become a grandpa for the first time! (Although, admittedly, I had very little to do with that last one and I can’t blame him or her for my blog-crastination. Watch for a photo soon!

I’m planning a regular (hopefully weekly) summer series of short blogs, the theme of which I’m still considering and mulling over. In the meantime, I thought I’d give some of you a chance to share your writing on this site. (And I know from hearing from some of you that there are some very good writers out there among my subscribers).
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Seeing a Clear Reflection of Ourselves

Steve · October 24, 2012 · 1 Comment

mirror1 — Mirror Lake State Park, Wisconsin. SJG photo

Sue and I are up in Wisconsin this week near the Dells, the state’s version of Disneyland or, perhaps, my own state’s Branson. Like golf, which Mark Twain and others have called “A good walk spoiled,” the Dells (and Branson) are “a beautiful view spoiled.” Anyway, I digress.

It’s mostly closed down for the season here and, in any case, we came to this area not for the cheesy (pun intended) tourist spots or the Midwest’s largest indoor waterpark, but rather to just get away and spend time alone (together). We’re staying just far enough away from the tourist hub that we can imagine what this all looked like before the advent of all-you-can-eat buffets, waterski shows, 81-hole mini golf courses and Las Vegas-like themed hotels.