Jn 7: 37-38 says If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me; whoever believes in me, let him drink. Streams of living water shall flow out from within...
We can see that our spirituality is not for us alone. If properly attended to, it will flow out from within where it has been nurtured and fed, to spill out for others around us.
It is this concept that gave early monastics their confidence that their lives of prayer were powerful and fruitful for the world. Living in silence and solitude, they offered little to the world of activity. Yet, their lives were considered active because their prayer included the whole world.
Today, it is harder to convince others of the power of a life of prayer. Today, action and works dominate our culture, so much so that monastic life is seen as introspective and selfish. The attitude is, if we are not DOING something, than what use is our lives?
Yet, from Jesus words, we see that power does not come from works, but from willing abandonment to his will and his words.
I was told a long time ago that the only person I had control over, the only person I could change, was myself. What we forget is how changing ourselves doesn't affect just us. It spreads out and touches others, it inspires and encourages, it becomes a living stream that refreshes. To see someone change reminds me that I too can change.
Remember too that becoming deeply spiritual, and communicating with God through a real relationship has a power for your own life. You travel into that special place with Someone neither tangible or containable. In effect, even as you change, you find the presence of God, or better put, the more acute awareness of the presence of God transforms your whole being.
Never underestimate the good you have the power to do just by living your life of prayer and meditation. And though monastics have the medium for such a life of prayer, they do not hold exclusive rights to contemplation. If you take the time to pursue a spiritual life, you have the power to let living waters flow from you into the world around you.
We can see that our spirituality is not for us alone. If properly attended to, it will flow out from within where it has been nurtured and fed, to spill out for others around us.
It is this concept that gave early monastics their confidence that their lives of prayer were powerful and fruitful for the world. Living in silence and solitude, they offered little to the world of activity. Yet, their lives were considered active because their prayer included the whole world.
Today, it is harder to convince others of the power of a life of prayer. Today, action and works dominate our culture, so much so that monastic life is seen as introspective and selfish. The attitude is, if we are not DOING something, than what use is our lives?
Yet, from Jesus words, we see that power does not come from works, but from willing abandonment to his will and his words.
I was told a long time ago that the only person I had control over, the only person I could change, was myself. What we forget is how changing ourselves doesn't affect just us. It spreads out and touches others, it inspires and encourages, it becomes a living stream that refreshes. To see someone change reminds me that I too can change.
Remember too that becoming deeply spiritual, and communicating with God through a real relationship has a power for your own life. You travel into that special place with Someone neither tangible or containable. In effect, even as you change, you find the presence of God, or better put, the more acute awareness of the presence of God transforms your whole being.
Never underestimate the good you have the power to do just by living your life of prayer and meditation. And though monastics have the medium for such a life of prayer, they do not hold exclusive rights to contemplation. If you take the time to pursue a spiritual life, you have the power to let living waters flow from you into the world around you.
Again you bless me, thank you! I do too often judge myself by what I am doing and forget that without the becoming there isn't any fruitful doing! God defines action differently than we do, sometimes the best thing is to pray and wait and see God do what no flurry of human activity could ever accomplish. And yes God may use us then in an interactive way, but we will have been prepared for the moment because He has empowered us through that time of prayer and waiting before Him.
ReplyDeleteI love your thoughts! Thank you for sharing. It is true...prayer can be a time of preparation.
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