Practicing The Presence

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Practicing the Presence- Lessons from Brother Lawrence

Sunday

To live in the present is finally what we mean by presence itself! God is hidden in plain sight. —Richard Rohr

Monday

Brother Lawrence began to practice a simple method of prayer that helped him return to an awareness of Divine presence. He called it the practice of the presence of God, and described it as “the most sacred, the most robust, the easiest, and the most effective form of prayer.” —CAC’s We Conspire

Tuesday

The most sacred, most ordinary, and most necessary practice in the spiritual life is the presence of God. When we practice the presence, we enjoy and become familiar with God’s divine company.

—Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

Wednesday

If we can stay with the present moment, as hard as that may be, and take care of this present moment, then the next moment is a continuation of this moment, so we can also take care of that moment. —Kaira Jewel Lingo

Thursday

Love knows what we can do. Let’s begin. Perhaps God is only waiting for our kind intention.

—Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

Friday

I will close my eyes and say it: Here. Here I am. Here I am with you. Here is all of me. And here we are. Here. Inside this blinding presence. Here. A constant call in a moving world. Here. All of it. Here. Here. Humbly listening towards home.

—Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Week Thirty-Six Practice

Practicing the Presence at a Stoplight

Father Richard describes a moment of spiritual awakening that led to a regular practice of presence in his daily life:

The Center for Action and Contemplation is located in the South Valley of Albuquerque on a street called Five Points Road.

For many years I made it my job to take care of the mail. People around the center and at the post office used to tease me by calling me the mailman. I would pick up and deliver the mail for my own little hermitage, the local Franciscans, and the Center.

I just felt so useful, bringing mail back and forth. It was an obsession, really, and every day I would sit at the five-way light at the end of our road. To my Type A personality, it always seemed like an interminably long light, but one day, it seemed even longer than usual, and I clearly heard God saying to me, “Richard, are you really going to be any happier on the other side of Bridge Avenue?”

I had to wonder, “If you’re not happy on this side of Bridge Avenue, you’re not going to be happy on that side of Bridge Avenue. So why not just be happy now?”

It’s that simple and that hard. It became a place for my little daily meditation. Every time I stopped at that red light, I thought, “Okay, here I get to practice it again. Everything is right here, right now. If I can’t experience God and love and myself and everything that matters on this side of Bridge Avenue, I probably won’t experience it over there.” I hope you can find your own examples.

That’s what we mean by the practice of the present moment. I cannot think of any spiritual practice which will transform our lives into love and into God more than simply trying to live in the naked now, in the sacrament of the present moment.

There’s nothing to “figure out” about this practice, so don’t even try. Figuring it out isn’t really helpful. When we are an alert presence, placing one foot in front of the other, there is no separation anymore between the secular and the sacred, between ourselves and God.