August Reflection

Calling in the kin(g)dom of love

There are times in life where we are plunged into an experience that defies description.  Sometimes these are peak experiences when we are overwhelmed by beauty or a visceral experience of belonging or connection. Sometimes these are experiences of deep grief or tragedy where words pale in the face of loss. When we encounter these times, it is enough to take our breath away and the thing that can most effectively meet the moment might be tangible, hand in hand or sinking onto the sure holding of the ground.  In that moment, something speaks in the silence in a more powerful way than thought or words can.

When we enter a practice of contemplative prayer, we seek out this base of silent aliveness that seems to live right before all the thinking, feeling, noise and distraction. Spiritual directors are known to quip that God’s first language is silence and there is a movement of spirit that is hard to detect unless we have visited the silence and started to learn its communication.

On Saturday August 1st, about 150 of us came together for retreat, to explore contemplative prayer and to dip in and out of the silence, the mystery, the wonder that opens when we pray together.

My retreat co-leader Christina Leaño (see: https://www.christinaleano.net/about ) introduced us to three movements of contemplation: intention, attention and reception. She used Mary, Jesus’ mother as the model of contemplation in the scriptures because she is known to meet the moment with pondering. Just like Mary who said yes to the mystery of God as it worked through her life and the life of her son, we too are asked to make space for God to work through us. We too are called to open to life as it comes and to ponder.  Intention on a practical level is making time to pray, to be quiet, to wonder and to listen. Intention is praying on purpose as a way of engaging with the world. We practiced sitting and walking, opening and emptying.

We emphasized the qualities of curiosity and non-judgment.  When we head into the open field of silence and get really curious about everything we think we know, we can find new truth and God’s presence in unexpected forms. Part of the deep end of spirituality is finding the space big enough to hold paradox in a kind of unified belonging and to find God somehow present in and through it all. We practiced welcoming and resting in mystery.

Through it all we invited reception, a deep listening and a chance to invite God over and over into the deepest parts of us.  We listen and wonder to let God soak into all parts of our sacred bodies, temples of God’s presence. We listen to hear God in one another and especially through nature where presence is many times most easily experienced. We notice with gentle compassion the places in us that are too loud, too uncomfortable, too insistent to listen or settle and we include that in our wondering and our prayer.  We practiced listening to one another, to teaching, to quiet.

Overall, it was a nourishing day that left me calm and connected. What a wonderful way to kick off our practice year and to begin 5 more years of partnership and prayer with all of you.

What intention acts of quiet prayer are you drawn to?  Are you making room to practice them? When you practice, what is the effect on your way of living in the world?  

We don’t engage in this kind of prayer with the goal of kneeling indefinitely in the pews or to cultivate peace so that we feel better about the world’s pain. We pray this way to bolster a robust enough connection to God, that when we rise, we pray the prayer of discipleship, bringing our depth of connection into our work, our relationships, our service and our rest. Effective prayer strengthens us and brings forth fruits of peace, flourishing, joy and purpose for us and for those we share our lives with. We see this in tangible ways as our discipleship prayer makes the space for more love to move in us and the world.

I am excited to explore and pray with you in this year to come, as we live into our call to bring in the kin(g)dom of love; to pray on purpose kneeling or working, to pray with the kind of unconditional love that sees this moment with curiosity and moves within it towards love, that we apprentice ourselves to surrender to Love/Truth/God/Life so that our action is the action of God’s love always received in us and spilled out in compassion for the world. This is contemplative discipleship.

Posted 7.15.26