Category: Sister Judy (Page 224 of 279)

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

In prayer we bring the mind and the heart to God in openness.  Mary, the mother of Jesus did this when she was told by the angel she was going to bear the Christ child. She received the news with her heart at first and then with her head she began to think through the implications for the message. Both her troubled mind and heart were prayer because they were shared in openness and trust to God. We also can share everything with God, who wants us to share our experience with Him and enjoy the communion that is prayer. Our imagination also has an important part to play in pondering prayer. When we ignore our imagination it is at the expense of a rich prayer life. One way we can bring our imagination into prayer is to enter a scene in a passage from the gospels with our imagination.  We can be there with the participants and hear the sounds and smells that are present, and be present to Jesus. Some have found it beneficial to meditate on Christian Art as Henry Nouwen did before the picture of The Prodigal.  In pondering prayer we can bring all that we have on our minds and hearts to Him and just share for He is already present

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

Often we think of prayer only as talking to God. But “ Pondering prayer is talking with God about our thoughts, our wonderings, and our reflections on life experiences or challenges.”  When we ponder something we hold it lightly and give it space. We ruminate on it and think about it slowly and repeatedly. We don’t try to solve our questions or demand God for answers but just offer up our wonderings as a prayer to God. This can be in words or unworded.  Even listening to a sermon can be pondering prayer if our minds are open to God. Other ways are to meditate on scripture, ponder the words of the creeds, journaling, reflection, prayer walks etc. “Trusting openness of our self to God is what makes any moment a time of prayer.”  Let us think of what has been weighing on our minds or we have been carrying in our hearts and share it with God, asking Him to be part of the rumination process.

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

“We can only truly see the things of God through the eyes of faith, and the eyes of faith are the eyes of God.”  The author gives 4 suggestions for cultivating prayerful attentiveness. I know I so often pray that I will be more attentive to God and not miss what He is doing and saying.
1. Make time in each day for pauses in stillness, using these moments for attentive prayer. We might want to say a brief prayer each time we find ourselves looking at our watch or sending an e-mail.

2. Watch for traces of Him in daily life. One way is to prayerfully review our day of how God was present with us.

3. Watch for traces of God in other people. As we look through Spirit-filled eyes and watch for the presence of God in others it will change the way we relate to them.

4. Consider taking a periodic spiritual retreat as a way of nurturing a life of prayer. We need times of stillness and solitude to shut out the many outer distractions and retreat to the secret place.

Let us receive the gift of attentiveness with openness to Him.

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

Attention is the best preparation for prayer. This is not the same as concentration but of prayerful openness. We need to pay attention to that which is within us and beyond us in the present moment. That means being open and receptive to the sacred. As we are awake, we move beyond our self- preoccupations to the things beyond ourselves. Paying attention demands that we be present to our selves in the present moment. We can’t pay attention to something that is past or in the future, but only that which is present now.  Our senses were also a gift to help us encounter God and to enrich our lives. They may be used to invite us to pause and turn to God. If we were to walk through a garden filled with the scent of flowers it may cause our spirit to soar and open up to God. When we were on retreat at a monastery the bells would ring at specific times to call us to prayer and to turn our hearts to God. Let us allow our senses to turn our attention to God. We will find He will help us to see through God’s eyes and hear through God’s ears.  Paying attention is a response to grace!

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

“We do not pray so we can get God’s attention. We pray so that God will get our attention.”  How important it is to be attentive to God so that His love will be a reality in our lives. Sometimes we may feel like God is absent but really it is we who are absent from Him. The author uses the illustration of a light bulb and how we know that when we turn a switch on that we have light because of the electric current. But that doesn’t mean that the power was around only when we turned on the switch. Behind and beneath everything and every moment is God. David had a great awareness of God and writes in Ps. 5 “To you I pray, Yahweh. At daybreak you hear my voice; at daybreak I lay my case before you and fix my eyes on you.”  David trusts that God is already listening for his voice and watching for him. Prayer starts with God who leans towards us and invites us to respond with openness. Let us pay attention to Him. For our spiritual lives will be no deeper than our capacity to pay attention.

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

Simply said Lectio Divina is 4 movements that involve reading and listening to a short passage of scripture several times. It begins with the first reading which is opening ourselves  to hear the words but also to listen particularly for the word or phrase that stands out for us.  We might notice a memory triggered or an experience that comes to our consciousness. But we sit in stillness to allow God’s word to form within us. After silence we go on to the second reading and this time we allow time to ponder it and hear it with both our head and heart. The third time we allow ourselves to respond to what has touched us. This response can be worded or unworded but it is a prayer if it is offered in openness to the Lord. The final reading is to simply allow ourselves to be with God in stillness. Just Rest in God and be with Him who has spoken to us through His word. I know I need to slow down as I read too quickly and too much at a time. I need to listen more intently and let the Word read me!

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

We probably have all struggled like the author who read the Scriptures but felt like they were not speaking to where he was at or giving him life. But he discovered an ancient way, Lectio Divina, which was a gift from God to him. It means divine reading or spiritual reading and is an approach to scripture for the purpose of finding a personal message from God.  . IT is not that we seek Information or motivation but communion with God. It is more than truths or information. It is a way of opening ourselves to God and to listening to His living word to us. Reading scriptures this way is reading with the heart and spirit open. We read slowly and reverentially, savoring what we hear and listening for His voice to our hearts. Our preparation is to be still and silent and to offer a prayer for the Spirit to help us receive the word. It is exciting to wake up each day and find a personal word from God for us.

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

As we open our hearts to God more and more we need to meet God on His terms not ours. He arranges the encounters!  Sometimes God seems hidden or silent,  and we feel like we are in a desert and very dry. This is not the result of sin but part of His plan. It is in such times of spiritual dryness that we learn there is nothing we can do to control God or produce His blessings. What ever blessings we do receive is gift of His grace to us.  As we wait in the dry places in simple faith, God increases our spiritual hunger and enlarges our soul to receive His love. Then we can see Him not just as a container of our projections and disordered desires but as God. We discover that faith is no longer dependent on our senses and we learn to trust His love in deeper ways.  Let us allow God to lead us by desire and work within us His grace.

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

Honesty is so important in trusting God and being open to Him. God is real and He wants us to meet him in the midst of our realities of life and our experiences. “Prayer is the encounter of the true self with the true God.”  Honest prayer can transform us since God has access to the truths of our lives. But so often we bring Him our lying, false self that we have constructed out of our defensiveness. But when we are honest we will discover our true identity as we bring our full self to God. “Genuine prayer is turning to God in the midst of the mess that is the reality of our inner world.”  We can say anything to God as long as we are honest. As Al always says, God loves us in our stink! Isn’t it great we can stand before him in our nakedness and be changed and healed and made whole?

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

Jesus gives us an invitation to come to Him just as we, without pretense. But openness to God demands our trust. Most of us are guarded and have pretense but He wants us to come in faith which is expressed in vulnerability and self-honesty. “Faith in God is leaning with confidence into God.”  It is trusting in His goodness. Trust and faith should frame our whole prayer experience. Prayer involves surrender, submitting to something God does in us.. If we trust and let go, God will give us a gift of prayer communion with Him.  Too often we focus on how we are doing or what we are getting out of prayer, and then we have taken our eyes off God and put them on our selves. Our job is just to make space to run to Him in openness and faith.  God does the rest.