"The coming and going of our moments of awakening begin to graze our hearts with longing."
James Finley, Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation for 2/22/2017
James Finley is describing meditation as a form of prayer and, during this week of exploring it, I find it resonates with what goes on during silent retreats for me. Finley describes meditation as moments of awareness which transcend what we are actually prayerfully observing. He shares that Jesus taught us that we are "drenched through and through with God's love." Meditation can give us glimpses of that and leave us longing for more...a kind of homesickness for heaven. And this is exactly why I'm trying to wiggle several silent retreats into my calendar this year! I can sit on the porch of St. Helen's hermitage at Marymount and just gaze at the draw and ridge in front of me and it just shouts of God's glory. I can observe all the little critters and creatures there and it seems like I'm looking into God's own eyes. These moments of awakening leave me wanting more and more of them, because they affirm God's presence and glory all around me. I feel very tiny under the immense star-studded sky, but I also feel important enough that God wants to show it to me, personally. And, just recently, I've learned I don't have to go too far away to experience the awakening that comes with just sitting in silence, with God. I sat on my own front porch last fall and looked at my very own bushes and noticed these tiny little orange berries on them. I marveled at them and recognized what I had missed even though they are in my own front garden. We just need to take the time to sit in silence and prayerfully observe the many gifts of God all around us. The more we do that, the easier to see God all around us! Love, heidi
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