“Our hands imbibe like roots, so I place them on what is beautiful in this world. And I fold them in prayer, and they draw from the heaven’s light.”
St Francis of Assisi
“God is not remote from us. He is at the point of my pen, my pick, my sewing needle, and my heart and my thoughts.“
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“Let me seek, then, the gift of silence, and poverty, and solitude, where everything I touch is turned into prayer: where the sky is my prayer, the birds are my prayer, the wind in the trees is my prayer, for God is in all.”
Thomas Merton
“We may ignore, but we can no-where evade the presence of God.”
C.S. Lewis
MY PRAYER today is for openness. A realisation of his presence both within and without. Right now I am listening to my favourite indie musician Fin Miller “Let me see your face, your face is love. Let me hear your voice, your voice is sweet. Won’t you come to me from in the hiding places on the mountainside. Let me see your face, your face is love….” We concur with the theologians who remind us of his nearness, and we register both in His word and our hearts knowledge that God is not remote but is in all, and is within and without us. But sometimes it can seem, as in the words of Fin’s song, that we are calling to God to come to us from his hiding place. Like any relationship there is a pursuing, and a wooing, and a finding, and a keeping. The dance never ends. There must be separation for there to be longing, and there must be intimacy for desire to grow at all. We need him and he needs us. The beauty of this world, in nature, in friendship and partnerships, in art and books and theology feed us and points to the beauty of his nature, but it is Him and his glory that these things reflect. He, who in his glory, resides in us. Let’s remember this next time we look up and pine for the moon, or feel the warmth of the sun. A reflection only of the light that pours from our hearts.
These are drawn from daily prayers and reflections I write for my Chaplaincy colleagues.
Living Tree Poetry 