Prayer: Awakening to Beauty
“We believe the presence of God is everywhere…” (RB 19:1) This amazing and
surprising first line of Chapter 19 of the Rule of St Benedict calls me daily and hourly
to awaken to the life within and the life around me - shot through with the presence
of God. It is an invitation to awaken to the miracle of God’s presence as the creative
life gift which is nowhere absent because it is the very essence of life. Monastic life
in particular, with its daily rhythm of prayer, holy reading and work provides an ideal
setting in which the awakening to this ‘everywhere’ presence of God is known more
and more from the core of my being – and is known experientially. Of course it is not
necessary to become a monk in order to experience this. Rather it is a path available to
every Christian who becomes open to the presence of God through the practice of
prayer.
It is a simple way. It is not new. Most of the great mystics and many of the great
Church theologians have taught of this. Artists and poets and musicians and lovers
know this. It is the stuff of Holy Scripture and of the Benedictine practice of Lectio
Divina or holy reading. What then is this aspect of prayer? It is simply coming into
the present moment, this moment. Letting go of past moments and of future moments.
Breathing the breath of God in this moment. It is coming to stillness in the presence of
God within and awakening to the reality that God is indeed present everywhere.
Most people have had some experience of awakening to beauty, and of feeling an
upsurge of response from deep within of thanksgiving or praise, of wonder or of joy.
The glorious miracle of a sunset or sunrise seen as if for the first time, can take the
breath away. The miracle of a new born child or the deep lined craggy eyes that shine
with life lived wisdom and compassion somehow reminding us that both at the
beginning and at the end of our life we are very close to the God from whom we have
come, to whom we will return and in each and every moment between – in whom we
live and move and have our being. In prayer we can practice returning to those breath
taking moments when we are alive to the presence of God in the beauty and in the
mystery of the life in and around us. In this kind of prayer we are enabled to awaken
to the unique beauty of each moment, of each encounter, of each thing, of each person
- gracefully and gratefully accepting the miracle of the presence of God implanted
deep within its heart. We grow in the life of Christ within, by experiencing the Christ
within as Andre Louf says in Teach us to Pray: It is no longer we who pray, but the
prayer prays itself in us. The divine life of the risen Christ ripples softly in our
heart…For the veil has fallen from our heart, and with unveiled faces we reflect like
mirrors the glory and brightness of Jesus, as we ourselves are being recreated in His
image’1.
1
Andre Louf
Teach us to Pray. (Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd:London)